Burn Baby Burn

Most of you already know but on Saturday 29th October the training college (place where people study and train to be Salvo ministers/officers) held their annual Gala Day.

It was bigger and better than it ever has been. They even had a showbags stand, like the proper Easter Show showbag stands. They even had their own mini car yard, like, what the???

Anyway, it was a nice HOT day and the SUN was shining and little miss TINK over here forgot to wear any sunblock because she thought she was too cool for school to wear any, obviously too resistant for the sun. WRONG. The next person that says, 'Are you a bit sunburnt?' i will hurt....hahaha.....nah, but i will seriously have to contain my sarcasm that's for sure.

However, that night at the youth church that is held once a month, you could pick out quite easily the people that had been at Gala Day just by looking at the colour of their faces. So i wasn't the only one who neglected the sunblock.....but i certainly was one of them!!!

Below i have included a declaration of my appearance as i stand at present. Please read it and don't ask me again if i'm a bit sunburnt because I AM!!!!

Dear world,

I, A***** B*******, am sunburnt and yes, i do in fact have white sunglasses marks from where my sunglasses were. I realise i bear a slight resemblance to rudolph but rest assured I AM NOT. My lips are swollen slightly and yes they are blistered. Let me assure you that it DOES hurt if you try and slap me in the forehead (aaron) so please refrain, there is no need to attempt this now that you know. I am advising you, the world, of this because there is no need to giggle, chuckle, chortle or laugh at me the next time you see me.

Gratefully yours

Signed
A***** B*******
(Tink xoxo)

'To be or not to be...'

I was mulling over life with a friend the other day and it made me think of a career path i could've taken but didn't and i thought i'd let you in on the secret.

I auditioned for a private, Christian university called Wesley Institute. It's a University that specialises in the performing arts such as acting, music and the arts. I auditioned for acting, being the drama queen that i seem to labelled as. I had auditioned for acting at two other uni's (excluding NIDA, i wouldn't study there if ya paid me!) and had got knocked back both times so when i auditioned for Wesley it was a dream come true and not something i was quite expecting when i received the letter of acceptance to study at the university.

Unfortunately for me though, the fees were huge and HECS wasn't an option because it was a private University and so i declined the offer and trudged my way through life to where i am today.

Had i have studied there and graduated, this year 2005 would've been my first year as a drama teacher in high schools as 2004 would've been my graduating year. It is a scary thought teaching high schoolers what i learnt myself.

But it's not the path i walked down and i am not a teacher. But the path God is leading me down now, no matter how opposite it is to where i thought i would end up, is where God wants me to be and his purpose for my life will in fact be much more impacting and have much more of a fulfilling purpose then i ever imagined, one which i will try continuously to pursue no matter how many times i stumble and fall.

Tink xoxo

Driving around in my excel honey...

Well as you can see from the title of this blog, this is about driving.

I've been driving for as long as i can remember, well actually probly not that long but quite a long time nonetheless.

It was my utmost, amazing pleasure and privilege to give my first few lessons to a learner on the weekend (Jodi, ya mum loves ya!). Whilst i'm probly not the best instructor in history, i'm keen to do it again and become even better because it was a really good experience. Apart from the occasional pole we almost hit (hahaha), the one where i thought my life was almost over (hahahahah), I actually wouldn't mind taking it up professionally, that'd be pretty cool!!!

I now understand why my dad would always tell me to brake 5 km's before the intersection. Gentle braking, gentle accelerating and braking always way before the markings on the road are a good thing to take in. Something that made me roll my eyes when i'd drive with my dad!!!!

Anyway, what i wanna say is, teaching a learner driver how to drive and become a pro made me realise just how much i take for granted the skill of driving. I know i take having a car and easy transport for granted but the actual skill that driving requires never really occured to me. It never dawned on me how confident i have become over the years. In fact i never think about how much progress i make when i drive, but the fact is, every time i get into a car, i am continuously learning how to drive, it just seems like i know it all when in fact it's not really true. It made me stop and remember that i too used to be one of those learner people and drive timidly as though the earth was going to cave in underneath the wheels. Driving has become so second nature to me that sometimes i don't even think twice about what i'm doing. This is coming from someone who use to drive so close to the steering wheel i almost put my nose through the windscreen. Even to this day i still occasionally have to remind myself to sit back in the sit and not to hunch forward over the wheel.

WOW - well i guess this blog doesn't really mean much to you, the reader, but it was such a weird feeling to be able to sit in the passenger seat and reflect upon my very own driving skills.

Tink xoxo

(Jodi, your driving skills are awesome!!! Keep up the good work...i feel like a teacher marking someone's english paper!)

Blast from the past

Well today I got the shock of my life.....

I got a telephone call from one of my best mates from year 11 and 12. His name is Tony (if you're reading this Tony it's about time!!!!!!) and we used to do soooo much stuff together at school. My surname begins with B and his begins with A so naturally we were in the same roll call class. We did drama together as well - oh fun times - we hung out at lunch and at recess and just everything about our friendship was cool so you can imagine my excitement when after 6 or so years and not seeing or talking to him, he rings me!!!!! Mind you i did scab his number off my other best mate so it was only because of my msgs that he called me - punk?!

The thing is, everyone around me seems to be changing, growing up and becoming different people. Why do i still feel like the same person as i was when i was in high school? Why haven't things seemed to have changed for me? Why am i not growing up? Peter Pan flippin' syndrome?!

Anyway i guess all i really wanted to say was that i had the most awesome friends in high school and if you're one of them, make sure you email me at ringostarr4me@hotmail.com and even now i still seem to have the maddest friends.

God keeps blessing me with friends and most of the time I don't deserve them.

I no doubt deserved my enemies but i don't believe i deserve my
friends!

If you have more than one friend you have more than your share?!

Sometimes God is totally beyond me and i think that's a great thing because something i realised only a couple of years ago was that if i understood God completely and knew all there was to know about him, i'd get bored and i'd want to know beyond God and i'd continually be looking for something greater, something more powerful and that's why he's so phenomenal because he's uncomprehendable, there is nothing more powerful or greater than God. mmmmm.....just one of my blowed away moments....ahhhh....

Anyway back to my sweet as phone call....it was so good to be able to talk to someone i used to talk to everyday for two years, weird, but good. The sad thing is maybe he's not the same person and maybe i'll never know him the way i used to because he's gotten to grown up (boooo) but stuff it, i'm not going to stop trying to get to know him like that again without a fight!!!! So i say bring on the good old days!!!!!!

Gus (my other bestie), you're one of a kind and I'll love ya til infinity and beyond!!!!!!!!!! And to all my other friends who are in my life on a regular basis - you guys rock my world - i love ya's til infinity and beyond as well!!! Perhaps i should create a blog with just the names of every friend i've ever had - wow that'd be cool, i'll definately have to make a draft of that......

Tink xoxo

In the flesh

I want to blog about something that has been a thought in my mind long before blogging became a popular form of entertainment....if that's what you'd call it.

I have a weakness. Jesus being heavenly and not earthly. Hopefully by the end of what i want to say, you'll understand what i mean if not the comment box is available for your use - leave your email address!

I often envy Jesus disciples.....i know it's not good to envy and i know it's not good to be jealous but sometimes there is little i can do about it especially when it's something i hold so closley to my heart and crave 90% of the time.

The reason i envy them is because they saw his face every day. They saw what he looked like when he'd just woken up in the morning. They saw the emotion on his face when he contemplated different things, although not fully knowing the true depth of what he was feeling in any given situation. They knew what it was like to embrace him. They heard his laugh. They laughed with him, they cried with him. They may possibly have bared their souls to him and could possibly have received advice not truly knowing the surrealism that entailed. They learnt from him. They watched him. They sat in the presence of God perhaps without even knowing exactly what that really meant!

PHWOAH................i am jealous and envious of them to the max!!!! How incredible it is to look in hindsight at what they had!

There are times in my life when i know we have a greater comfort through the Holy Spirit which they didn't have until later in their lives but there are so many times when i feel completely alone and desolate.

See, I'm a people person. I enjoy being with people. There are times when i can't get enough of my own free space and peacefulness but most of the time i enjoy hanging out with friends, going out to dinner or to the movies or travelling with someone or doing something with someone. As much as i say i detest these things, a hug or a touch can often mean the world to me. Encouragement and advice are all things i enjoy and value from the people closest to me. To be able to see, hear, touch, smell and hear is undescribable and i'd find it extremely difficult to go without any of these senses.

Yet from the one person i crave these things from, i am continually being challenged daily with. God strengthens my faith with the physical absence of Jesus and for me i find that really difficult some days. There are aspects of the doubting Thomas that i can identify with. Not that i don't believe he has died and risen for my sake but that his physical presence is something i wish i could feel.

There is something about a hug or a smile or a smooth brush of the hand that the heavenly, spiritual realm is not satisfying for me and until Jesus return it is something i continue to live without daily.

To be held in Jesus physical arms or to be accompanied by Jesus physical presence, even just to sit with him in a warm breeze and chat or to mutally laugh at something which probably isn't even funny or to have my tears physically wiped off my face or to have him phsyically by my side is something my whole inner being desperately craves to have. To have physically my very greatest, my very bestest friend next to me and to support me 100% would be my greatest joy on this earth.

I get this pang inside me when it wells up and i have this urgent desire to clutch to something physically knowing that he is a spiritual being only.

Perhaps you're not understanding this blog at all, maybe it's too girly for you (you'll never hear me say that again) maybe this is just a feminine feeling. But for me, it's something i wanted to get off my chest and to share here. There is that much of a longing within me that i wish i could not only have the spiritual Jesus (the Holy Spirit) but the physical Jesus as well!

So Jesus, if you're reading any of this....well you already know what i mean....but you teach me so much by not physically being here, it's just that most of the time, i wish i could quite literally reach out and just feel the texture of your skin, the warmth of an embrace, the depth of your voice, the aroma of your being. But you know all that it's just so frustrating you being there and me being here, having no physical contact...so if you just keep reassuring me, i guess i'll be fine.

I guess as the saying goes......"You can't have your cake and eat it too!"

Tink xoxo

Cuts & All Things Jovial

I haven't blogged over the past however many days it's been because, well quite frankly, nothing exciting has been happening that is worth blogging about.

But today a new excitement has come to pass. MY BUDDIES ARE BACK!!!!

Over the last two weeks alot of my friends from church have been away at either Senior or Junior Music Camp. Now, as much as I don't see them during the week in any normal circumstance, I missed them immensely! I'm convinced that this is an abnormal mental state of mind as i don't usually see them but nevertheless i missed every single one of them. It was so good to have them back at church on Sunday and to spend time with some of them. Until there is an absence of a person, you don't realise how much time you see them or spend with them and how much you really care about that person. So if any of you are reading this, and you know who you are, i missed you soooooooooo much and it's soooooooooo good to have you all back!!!!! Ode to the campers?!

Anyway, their concerts were just fine and some of the junior ones were just too over joyous, Kieran Bedwell and Jordan Carey to name a couple - what did they feed you for lunch?!! But to see them having a ball and to see their joy overflowing so to speak was evidence of the very cool things God had done in each of their lives during the week they were at camp - i just pray that they continue to seek God for the rest of their lives and that it doesn't just stop now that camp's finished!!!!

Anyway, that was one part of the story.....

The next part of my happenings happened to me. I had all my thick hair cut off again. It's short as a sausage dog's legs - hey Katie, remember that dog?! But i like it, i'm excited but nervous about washing it, it's a good feeling to wash short hair but i'm worried that it's gonna just go awol when it's dry!!! Hopefully not though!

Everybody keeps telling me it looks good but you know, you can't believe EVERYTHING you hear?!

The best comment i've had so far was from Rohan, next time you're speaking with him, ask him to tell you the story - I LOVED IT!!! Thanks, Ro, you're the bomb, what's the date of the wedding??? It almost beats the comments i overheard him saying at Foster - you KNOW the one Rohan?!

Anyway, whatever happens and if worse comes to worse and someone says it's outright hideous, it'll grow back, no sweat?!

Well today that's all i've got to say, i'll post a pic up of it if i get the chance!

This message today is dedicated to all those people who are suffering from tiredness because they failed to get away from supper early enough last night!

Tink xoxo