St Marks Fitzroy

Alright! I love going for the Chorale concerts at the St. Marks Fitzroy, a beautiful Gothic bluestone church building. Yesterday was no exception. they sang from mainly sacred music songs from the 16th - 18th century. The singing was extraordinary. Sweet, divine, melodic, angelic, holistic, soulful, harmony in perfection, extraordinary. I can't get enough of this kind of singing. its like candy for the ears.

In contrast, the singing and music at my pentecostal church in Surrey Hills was ... loud and noisy in comparison imho.

Which makes it a little bit sad. The loud, noisy kind of music- full of clashing cymbals- is popular. The young people - people of my generation and younger- simply don't care for the older Sacred music. Don't care or even... detest. This to me- plus the rise of (80% of) Modern Art- is a damn good sign that the world is coming to an end- that people have abandoned the good and cling to the bad and ugly.

I usually ask a few pple from my church and fellowship to attend the St Marks concert. But hardly anyone comes.

Its sad. The singers were singing mainly to an empty church. Tragic.

Meanwhile, my Surrey Hills church is planning to purchase a warehouse site to build a multimillion dollar building.

I wish they would consider purchasing or using the buildings used by older traditional churches. They are beautiful with their stain glass, gothic designs, and teak flooring. Most of these churches are also dying out as their congregation gets older. Its very sad. Its my prayer that the newer (pentocostal churches) would try and cooperate and help out in these older churches. There's still much to learn from them. It might also temper the more radical loose cannons that we have in the new churches.

But spending money is easier than cooperating.

Australia post and ebay

Just received a handmade vintage chess (50+ years old) set from England, over a 1000 miles away. I was amazed at the speed of the delivery. I bought it on 17th Feb. It took less than 10 days to get here by surface mail! Woah!!! And the delivery cost was about AUD$5.50 (B$2.30). Compare that to a book I bought from Frankston, Victoria, 2 hours drive from my place (also from ebay) which cost me $9! Australia Post is really strange.

First Post

Hi and welcome to my blog. I'll try and be as candid as possible here. But first up - something about me. To give me something to write about occasionally- I'll try and ration things out.

I like running listening to Linkin Park. I'd put on my CD player. Put in a burnt copy of "running music" which includes the movie soundtrack to Last of the Mohicans, Rent Lola, Gattaca, and Linkin Park. Running is a terribly boring event- from one point of view. What's the purpose anyhow? You're just running to get fit. But you're also running nowhere. In the past, you had to run- to deliver stuff- messages, food, medicine etc.. Now you're just running.

Listening to running music helps me - enter into that zone. What or where is "that zone" Its a bit like praying or meditation. Your body metabolism starts to kick in- your brain starts pumping endorphins. And you are just in an amazing place.

The question is how to get there? Waking up at 6 in the morning, gritting your teeth in bold determination- doesn't quite help. I get my hifi player to schedule a song from Last of the Mohicans- I think its called the Deer Hunt. It starts off with a dull slow drum beat. That's the first thing i hear in the morning. Then I put on my running gear, put on my CD walkman, and out the door I go. No fuss. No need for car keys. Just Go!

I run to a park close to my home- Ruffey's Park. Its about 3km there. The walk/run circuit in Ruffey's Park is about 4 km. Then its another 3km run back home. Ordinarily, I'd only be able to run 5 km. But by pushing myself that much farther and stepping off. You push yourself to run that much extra. Somehow the run back home - flies by. I distract myself by thinking of taking a hot shower, hot breakfast, hot coffee. mmm.

A walk in the park in May

Spent the day walking at Labrador Park with a female friend. I think she likes me, I doubt if any chick sees a sign which says "WW2 Gun Emplacements and war ruins" will say "Wow! Lets check it out." But she did.

Labrador Park is a tranquil, secluded, and forgotten part of this island where there is still a lot of tropical rainforest trees and old disused military forts and bunkers.

Few tourist know of this area and seldom come here. There is no fee to get in the park. And to be fair there is not much to do - except enjoy nature - its not Disneyland thank God.

But if you like nature walking and just a cool chill out zone - far away from the maddening crowd- Labrador Park is for you. There are also some beautiful butterflies in the area- a black/white butterfly and the extremely gorgeous "Jezebel" butterfly.

Its also next to the sea- and you can do some fishing if you want.

After a few hours of walking we stopped off at the main bar which is overlooking the area and had some drinks.

I was quietly enjoying the sheer beauty of the area and the moment when my female friend got a bit upset that I was "zoning out". I wasn't closing my eyes. I was just taking it all in... sometimes (I feel) pple don't have to cloud the airspace with blabber and mindless chitchat. Why can't they just sitback and enjoy the moment?

Doesn't seem to appeal to my friend though. She said- why don't you just read a book or something? I told her I wasn't ignoring her but that didn't seem to please her.

At dinner she gave me this long story about whilst I zoned out - she was thinking about how her female work colleagues' stories - they told her that marriage was totally overrated, men are all pigs, and that having kids was hell - which inspired her to say "I'm 30+ but I'm so glad I'm not married."

Err... I wanted to say something. But it would have been too acidic, so I said nothing.

I don't want to lead her on, but can't we just be friends?

Dead N@gg@r Storage

So one of my Uni friends, SO, calls me up - and says he has a friend who has some chairs and a table that she's looking to store somewhere blah blah. After 5 mins, I say... yeah, sure I got a store room and can hold the stuff. SO goes- "Whoa Nelly. I didn't ask u. But is that ok?" (Duh, then why did u just talk about it for 5 mins)

I go- ya, sure no problem. Besides I don't have a working TV. Yeah, we're that shit poor now thanks to mum's brilliant investment decisions.

His friend, a member of his Bible Study, calls me up the next day and says- she has a TV and a table and some chairs that she wants to keep at my place. And how long can she keep it there... Ah... 6 months? I say. No, she asks- longer? I say, 8 months? Done she says. Umm... I didn't know we were bargaining. I'm not getting any cash out of this so why the 3rd degree??

Later I see this truck come wheedling into my place.

WTF??? Its NOT just one table set- there are several pub tables and a dozen high stool chairs and a dozen empty wine crates- and to top it off a huge ugly monster TV. Not one of the nifty plasma or LCD ones - but one of the fucking monstrousity TVs from the late 1980s that uses a pathetic projector inside. The fracking thing weighs a ton. Hell no, 10 tons!!!! I don't think it even works. To be precise, 200kg+ (400lb?). Then she drops the clanger- put it upstairs and looks at me in a curious "get going" way.

This isn't someone's house furniture! Its the shit from a Karaoke bar.

I don't often get angry. But this really takes the cake. This total stranger comes waltzing out of nowhere and expects me to take her furniture, obviously from a bar, for 8 months or more and she's treating me like an idiot.

Not to mention the fact that it was bloody dangerous trying to haul up the dinosaur TV up the flight of stairs into my apartment. I live near the top floor and its like 12 flights of stairs.

The house movers she hired were also not impressed that she failed to tell them that there was no service lift.

I looked in stupefied horror - but she instead that "I had promised to store her furniture" and demanded that I hold to my end of the bargain.

We actually gave it a try but the fracking TV was so heavy we couldn't even get it pass three steps.

When she got pissed and demanded that we try harder. I think the mover or me told her - "You do it". And she tried and failed to even move it one mm.

I called SO about it - and he apologized for getting me involved.

I lugged up the stuff- but the crazy b1tch and her friend promptly started shoving the junk in bedroom. I locked the door and looked her straight in the eye. Please move the stuff in the STOREROOM. Does she even know the difference between a storeroom and a bedroom? Is she dumb or just an ahole. Maybe she's both.

She gave me an apologetic look and complied. Maybe she's just dumb.

She also doesn't know how to stack stuff properly and half of the stuff fell over in the storeroom. I grimaced and went in and packed them properly inside. After 20 minutes, everything was nicely packed in and I felt quite pleased with myself.

(Frankly, she ought to have sold all the junk at a garage sale- it would have fetched her $400. But dearie wanted to save some cash. So he hired a removal truck ($200) to dump it at my place whilst she works out a plan to sell it.) I've got a feeling she doesn't really realize that the POS tv is just junk and noone in their right mind will want to buy it. She may have bought it for $10,000 back in 1988 but its worth about $200 now at best.)

At 9pm when I went out for dinner I saw her friend standing beside the dinosaur TV waiting for her people to help move it. The original movers had taken the money and gotten out of Dodge. I don't blame them.

Sometimes Chinese people can be so thickheaded.

Lord of the Rings

Just rewatched the extended version of Fellowship of the Rings- the first part of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

Its still amazing to watch. The film, script, the plot, the music soundtrack, and the special efforts were totally first rate. 

The extended version also shows Boromir in a better perspective. Won't give away any spoilers. But I liked how he encouraged Frodo after they were in Lothorien.

"Your burden is heavy. Don't make it heavier by carrying the memory of the dead." Or something to that effect.

But my favourite line in the film is Gandalf's encouragement to Frodo. Paraphased - like so

"Its not up to men to decide the fate that befalls them. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that was given to us."

(Just an add-on, the Lord of the Ring book written by Tolkien done in the 1950s was great too and worth a read. Tolkien is excellent in his imagery and created the classic Middle Earth world out of his own imagination. I was sadden that Jackson did not include Tolkien's Gollum's "poignant regret" scene in Return of the King. It was a very powerfully sad scene which would imho have been easily translated over to the big scene.)

Seasons

Went out to the beach with a female companion today. I figured there was nothing to help the negotiation process with the house. I tried contacting my mom for some idea on what price she wanted to sell the place for- but she was very evasive and didn't want to answer my questions. Except to say that the offers were too low.

I'd say the offers are reasonable - given the market situation. Of course I'd like to hold onto the properties and sell them for a mega sum but mum totally screwed up all the finances and we got a fucking big debt. Of course, somehow its my fault. Ya go figure.

I decided to cool off and take a break. I met with my friend and told her the problem and she was very sympathetic and told me to pray about it. And take a step back, will ya?

I said ok. Its really out of my hands. I can't convince the old woman to change her mind. She's as stubborn as a brick.

Anyhow, whilst I'm suntanning. the phone rings and the agents says his buyer has raised the bid by an extra 5%. Hmm and I didn't even say anything. Then some other agent calls up and says his buyer heard about the sale and wants to offer a higher price. Says a Govt Minister likes the security of the place and wants to get it. 

Geez, where did all these people come from all of a sudden??

Anyhow, its good news. and getting better. Maybe, by next week like Lazarus- we're out of the red and back into the black.