Packing up, shoving off.

That's us.

I didn't sleep much last night. I'm not complaining. I drifted off at around 3:30am, to be awoken by my very unsympathetic dad at 5:30am. I stayed in bed for awhile, and he came back.
"If you do this tomorrow," he said, "we're going without you."
"Good."

The morning is beautiful, I have to admit it. The sun is gorgeous, the sky is beautiful, the trees are amazing......I'm sure that if my brain was actually on at that time, I would appreciate it even more.

So we attempted to set up a tarp - but confusion ensued. So did a small-scale (read quite heated) argument. How hard can it be to set up a tarp? you may ask. Well, when you have an engineer for a dad who's designed the framework (yes, I did say framework) and a mother and daughter who need more detail than the diagram provided.....you can guess that it's not the most simple of tasks.

Meanwhile, it's going to work really well when it goes up. This year it will stay up. This year there will not be sections of tarp sagging with rain below the level of my younger brother's height.

So we all gave up on the tarp and just folded it. Apologies and solutions followed.

I'm in charge of the camping gear. That means if someone doesn't have an air mattress or a tent, it's my fault. Unfortunately, I'm rather fuzzy-brained today :-s That means I'll be in the middle of one task and suddenly BING! the light goes on and I'll think of six other things that have to be packed. So I leave that task to get those things. Then I go back to it. In this way I always have half a dozen tasks on the go - which, when you have my personality, isn't such a bad thing - it may create a little confusion, but it certainly prevents boredom.

I just have to make sure all that boredom-prevention includes camping gear ending up where it should.

Lisa came over! Yay! :-D That was the highlight of my morning - probably my day. Wait no, that was one of the highlights of the morning/day. The other one was that Santa came one day early to our household. So I now own a fair few more books. And guess what? When Lisa came over, she brought me a present! And guess what it was? A book! :-D I am one very happy camper....literally :-) Thanks, Lisa!

It's very hot now. And I'm quite sleepy.....but I have to stick at it, if only to have a really good night's sleep tonight before our 5am start tomorrow.

Pretty much all that's left to do is physically put everything in the camper trailer/on the camper trailer roof rack. A lot of that is packed, thanks to Mum. (Yes, we did work as well!) But there's still a fair bit to go. So maybe when it cools off a bit we'll do some more.

Well, I think that's it. Don't drink caffeine. Don't get worked up before bedtime. Then you'll be able to sleep ;-)

Merry Christmas!

A quote from 'Knowing God' by J.I. Packer:

It [the difficulty of the gospel] lies not in the Good Friday message of atonement, nor in the Easter message of resurrection, but in the Christmas message of incarnation. The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man - that the second person of the Godhead became the 'second man' (1 Cor. 15:47), determining human destiny, the second representative head of the race, and that He took humanity without loss of deity, so that Jesus of Nazareth was as truly and fully divine as He was human....

And there was no illusion or deception in this; the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets.

Jesus was God. And He was human. It's as simple - or as difficult - as that.

You should read this book, but here's another quote:

The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity - hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory - because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.

"Hang on a second," interrupts some part of my brain. "How is Jesus on the cross a wonderful message?"

Good question, brain.

When Jesus was on the cross, He took all my sin, and everyone else's, onto Himself. The Bible tells us that the punishment for sin is death. And so Jesus died. In my place. That means I don't have to die for my sin anymore - if I accept His forgiveness, and His payment for my sin, then I can go and have eternal life and a relationship with God. Go here to see it explained further.

There is hope for a ruined humanity.
That means there is hope for you.
And me. :-)

If I don't see you before Christmas, then enjoy it :-) Party hard! Celebrate the hope you have. Celebrate the reason for the hope you have.

The first time
That You opened Your eyes
Did You realise
That You would be my Saviour?
And the first breath
That left Your lips,
Did You know that it would change this world forever?
And I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day
Pray for You to save my life...... ~Relient K, 'Celebrate the Day'

Coffee!

Tonight I went to coffee with 'the gang'. Actually, it wasn't the usual gang (if there is such a thing) - it was a mix of old crowd, missionary, new person and middle crowd (not quite old crowd - Hann, Ness and me).

So we're talking about work. Katie from Griffith said she didn't want to work (although she's just been employed as a lawyer).
"I don't want to work either," I agreed.
"But you'll have a fun job!" said Hann.
"I guess. But I still don't want to work."
"If you don't work," she said, "you'll have the biggest blog in Queensland."
"I already do!"
"It'll be like this: Hi everyone. Today I went to the toilet at 10:30am. I ate some cereal. Right now I'm sitting here thinking about what to say next. Nothing's happened since my last post five minutes ago."
*cue laughter from me*
"Seriously Nic. If it's a choice between work and blog, choose work."
"Ok, ok."

Later we went to Cold Rock. Don't you love the jukeboxes? :-D Pete comes up as I'm trying to find the song I always play on that jukebox (Good Charlotte, Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous). "Just pick something at random," he says, and punches in a few numbers.
We look it up.
"Black Sabbath......nice choice, Pete!" ;-)

Gotta love coffee nights.

Noof FM 2

Here's tonight's topic guys:

Which is worse - false hope or false fear?

Looking forward to hearing.........

Christmas

It came early at our place, since we're going camping on Christmas Day.

And I got Relient K's new EP! Called 'Apathetic'. It's good :-)

Also a Ken Davis DVD. Watch it - but don't have too much to drink beforehand, or else you might be in for a bit of trouble, on account of you'll be laughing so hard.

Nic

When I was little, my dad didn't like it when we shortened our names. "Your name is Nicola," he would always say. So I went through primary school being called Nicola - only my closest friends called me Nic, and that was only after we'd been friends for a couple of years.

High school, a few more people started calling me Nic. Now a heap of people do. It's pretty much interchangeable. Mind you, if you don't know me that well, Nicola is preferable. Until you get upgraded. Lol - that's a bit mean, isn't it. Oh well. Call me Nicola for awhile, and then try Nic one day and see what my reaction is.

Meanwhile, all this time my Dad has only called me Nicola. So imagine my shock when tonight he says, "Nic."

What the?!

Reflecting on 2005

You too can do this. I'm just doing it a bit early, since I'll be away for New Year's.


1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before?: Leadership team for schoolies
2. Did you keep your new years resolutions, and will you make more for next year?: Can't remember what mine were for last year. But this year I made a vision at schoolies, and I am already working on it!
3. What countries did you visit?: Can't really call Longreach another country, can you ;-) I didn't leave Australia, but I went to Boonah (for Sonfest), Longreach and Toowoomba.
4. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?: a greater sense of God's love, and a greater sense of security.
5. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory?: 23 January, 14 February, 2 May, 16 June, 18 November.
6. What was your biggest achievement of the year? : academically - I got a 7 in first semester!
7. What was your biggest failure?: I feel like I messed up a couple of things pretty badly - I wish I could have those moments over again - but what is frustrating is that although I know I'd like to do things differently, I don't know how I would. So let's not call it 'failure', although it feels like it - let's call it 'still learning'.
8. Who got on your nerves most? : Ah, that's a mean question! Besides, various people annoy you at different times - thankfully it's not one person consistently.
9. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Same as above question - no one was that bad.
10. Where did most of your money go?: Food, bus fare.
11. What did you get really, really, really excited about?: Sonfest :-)
12. Compared to this time last year, are you:
***Happier or sadder? About the same
***Richer or poorer? Probably poorer - I've just done Christmas shopping.
13. What do you wish you'd done less of?: wishing! :-p
14. Which song will always remind you of 2005? : 'Stars' by Switchfoot
15. What was your favorite TV program?: Frasier
16. What was the best book you read?: oh, Bible ;-) don't think I read anything good in semester one :-s lots of good books lately :-)
17. What did you want and got?: Lots of little prayers (and even a couple of fairly big ones) got answered.
18. What did you want and not get?: a million answers to a million questions!
19. What was your favorite film of the year? Not really a film...but I love the Goodies.
20. Who was the best new person you met?: I met a lot of great new people this year. :-)
21. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?: Peace!
22. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?: Er...fashion concept?
23. What kept you sane?: God, Janelle, Lisa, Mum.
24. Which celebrity/public figure did you admire the most? don't know. spent more time on my blog than watching TV!
25. What political issue stirred you the most? : not sure
26. Who did you miss?: once again, not sure
27. Did you fall in love in 2005?: Hmm...well, I certainly learned a bit more about it.
28. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005: Find someone to pray with and talk to about the painful stuff. Take the time to think about it and work through it. God is not horrible - He is nice. And "sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth" ~relient k, 'The Truth'

More photos from schoolies!

PM says something good!

Check this out:

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17601946%255E910,00.html

photos! (so random)

For Gloria

Completely random photos from schoolies. I am selecting these from the CD without looking at them - we'll see what we get. :-)

Merry Christmas

Well, Christmas will be here in 11 days.

As always, I recommend some Relient K.

Their Christmas CD "Deck the Hall - Bruise Your Hand" (I think it's supposed to be a play on words) is available, like, everywhere :-p Just go to www.relientk.com

For those who love a traditional Christmas carol:

Probably the 'Silent Night/Away in a Manger' medley is as close as you'll get.

For those who love a traditional Christmas carol in a NEW STYLE: (and I don't mean they syncopated it, added some synth and called it 'new')

Angels We Have Heard on High
Handel's Messiah (Hallelujah Chorus) - come on, I bet you've never heard it with electric guitar.


For the broken-hearted:

I Hate Christmas Parties (can't find the correct lyrics anywhere........ok, go here: www.noof2.blogspot.com) It used to be on purevolume, but isn't anymore - sorry guys.

For those who want to hear a new Christmas song:

I Celebrate the Day (http://www.houseoflyrics.com/d/artists/relient_k/songs/i_celebrate_the_day.html)

or
Santa Clause is Thumbing to Town

:-D

Noof FM

Having a blog is sort of like having a radio show - except you get less people commenting, and more time to think.

Wouldn't mind having a radio show.

"Welcome, listeners, to the really late/extremely early show! Tonight's topic is trust - who do you trust? Who don't you trust? Why?

Looks like we have a caller on the line. Go ahead, caller............."

*that's where you come in ;-) *

Can you translate this?

Grattis med 15 ars dagen ! Ma du kose deg masse i dag. Vi er kjempe glad i deg. Klem Nathalie og tante Mirjam.

Just a random text message a friend of mine received. Let me know if you've got anything. Or even if you know what language it's in.

Survivor

Another series of Survivor is over. I started watching that when I was....14? 15? And it's still going, 5 years later :-s

I was looking at the application form. Love this question!

What is your swimming ability?
Excellent
Medium
I can take lessons

schoolies 05 - the photos

Training day!







My goodness we're a rowdy bunch









When we're on the streets, it's all hands on deck - no competition here! (Although I think Rob is winning in the race for the doughnuts!)




Well there's always one, isn't there.






Sometimes two.







Even three or four, in our case.

What the?!

A poem I wrote when I was tired....or on drugs...or something.....

Spreading rumours
Spreading judgement
Is like spreading poison
Bait laid out.
The rodents come running to eat it
Then die convulsing.
There's a moral in there somewhere.

The episode of Strut-Boy

Last night I was at a wedding reception (Kat and Nut's - yes, they got married and it was absolutely beautiful! :-)

There was a waiter at this place whom my friends and I were referring to as 'Strut-Boy'. This is because he was quite good-looking ;-) and would strut in and out, without seeming to do anything except add a bit of charm. (Hee hee hee)

So anyway, one of the girls was talking about him as I was eating my food. It was a fair way into the reception - I'd had 3 drinks (lemon, lime and bitters, nothing any stronger - promise) and I was feeling pretty full from all this food and drink.

Suddenly I hear a voice next to my ear. "Would you like another drink?" My stomach drops, and I freeze.
Slowly I turn to my right. Strut-Boy is standing next to me, his dark eyes staring into mine (okay, I'm making that bit up). There is food in my mouth. I feel like a complete dork. My mind is blank. This is what I said:
"Yes."
He continues to stare.
Okay, now you have to say a drink prompts my brain.
Once again, this is what came out of my mouth:
"Lemon, lime and bitters please."
He smiles slightly, nods and leaves.

By now the rest of my friends are silent, staring at me. I look at them.
"I didn't even WANT another drink!" I exclaimed. They dissolved into giggles.

Must have been my great personality, hey Hann? ;-) (Or my red dress :-p )

Going to the chapel and we're gonna get married....

In just 14 hours, Kat and Nut will be pronounced 'husband and wife'.

Imagine how they must be feeling right now!!!!!!!!

If it was me, I would totally be losing the plot. Fortunately I think they are made of tougher stuff than I.

Congrats, and all the best, guys!

When you say you love me
The world goes still
So still inside and
When you say you love me
For a moment
There's no-one else alive

Schoolies 05 part 2

THE STREETS

Probably the craziest part of the whole time we were there.

I can't recount every single second of every night, so I'll give you the main stories.

20 November - Marika met a guy wearing a Shihad shirt. I had no idea who they were, but she managed to start a conversation with this dude. We met up with him later that night, and had a pretty good conversation with him. We wanted to meet again, but no luck. Never mind.

24 November - I met a girl called Hope and I knew that she was ready to hear about the gospel, so in the end I gave her a KGP and promised to write her a letter. Yay! :-)

25 November - 2 guys, with a lot of ideas and opinions (some very messed up) about Christianity. One was a pain and just wanted to argue - I was seriously annoyed by the end of the conversation. Aargh. *However, every conversation I had after that - even with hostile people - was a breeze compared to that one* But the other guy, although he had a lot of arguments, actually had far more questions and was really searching. He got a KGP too, along with some advice to "go home, get quiet and listen for God".

26 November - met 2 guys who worked for the wilderness society. Had a good chat. Met them again later in the week (1 and 2 December) - they'd run into the 'Jesus Loves You' people.

27 November - no D&M's (deep and meaningfuls), but I did get a kiss on the cheek - twice - by the same guy - who was a little bit....off the planet on E (or something)

28 November - chased some seagulls on the beach.

29 November - met a guy called Jamie. He was wearing a funny Scottish hat on this night. Had a bit of a spiritual conversation, but he wasn't particularly interested in Christianity. Met him again on 1 and 2 December - just wanted to chat. :-)

I was in a team with Carla, Jon and Trev G. While we were talking to 4 guys, a girl runs up and says, "Our friend's on the beach and he can't breathe." So we all start powering for the beach, these 4 guys in tow. Carla and Jon get there - this guy (his name was Jonathon) was lying on the sand coughing, slipping in and out of consciousness (no, he hadn't taken any drugs and he hadn't had anything to drink). Carla and Jon knelt down next to him and tried to keep him awake. Trev and I went and waited with 2 of his friends for the ambulance.

Jonathon, when he saw Carla, said, "Who are you?"
"I'm Carla."
"Are you a Christian?"
"Yes."
"Will you pray for me?"
So in front of his 10 friends Carla prayed for him (he turned out to be a Christian).

There was one point where apparently everyone was getting distressed, and Carla said she just looked up and looked at God and felt an incredible peace and at the same moment everyone calmed down.

The ambulance arrived and we had to go. But Carla met him again a few days later - he was totally fine and couldn't remember asking her to pray for him. But he said his friends' faith had been strengthened by the whole experience. Yeah, God!

1 December - wet and cold and cold and wet night. No real spiritual conversations. BUT Trev G (who is so much taller than anyone else in the crowd) saw this flame go up down the street and goes "There's a fire." So off my team goes. Some pizza shop's fuse box was on fire. Beth busts in, going, "Your fuse box is on fire!" The owner looked at her crankily. "I know!"
The crowd frowned at her. "We know!"
Then why on EARTH aren't you doing anything?!
We moved out to watch. The fire brigade were called. 5 minutes later the owner comes out with a woosy fire extinguisher and gives it a squirt. The fire goes out.

We stand around a bit longer. Suddenly BOOM!!! The fuse box begins to spark. Then it's quiet. And does it again. And again. Then the fire brigade turns up. So it's all good.

2 December - Tim M was in my group. "Dear Lord," he prayed, "Please give us a challenge tonight."
Suddenly I felt scared. "Tim!" I said. "What did you pray that for?! Now we'll GET one!"
"Okay," he said. "Dear Lord, please don't give us a challenge. Make us stagnant in our faith."
"That's not what I meant!"

That night, there was one point where we had talked to EVERYONE on the beach and no-one was particularly interested in conversing. The challenge was to keep positive and keep initiating conversation while feeling like a bit of a dill. That was a bit rough, but Lisa said later that it's not about us, it's about what God wants to do and it's about the schoolies - it's about meeting them where they're at. So that was helpful.

3 December - I prayed that morning that someone would come to have a relationship with Jesus. And guess what?! Someone did! :-) Carla was the one who was found by a girl who'd chatted to a hotel chaplain earlier in the week and was ready.

I had a good conversation with a Buddhist guy and watched him go from quite defensive to "oh, I get it. I know what you believe and why now." That was cool.

So that was the streets!


SPEAKING JAPANESE
Oh yeah, and on the 3 December Drew and I also tried to start a conversation with 2 people - who turned out to be Japanese tourists. While Drew was standing there stunned going "What are we going to do God?" I said something like "konbanwa! Watashi no namae wa Nikora desu!" (translation: Good evening! My name is Nicola) and he went "Thank you!" So we had a great time teaching each other Japanese, English and Spanish.

Drew wrote down how to count in Spanish:
Cuarenta - 40
Cincuenta - 50
Sesenta (? - can't read the writing) - 60
Sesienta - 70
ochente - 80
noventa? (his question mark) - 90

Also we learned 'tensai' - Japanese for 'genius'.

GRANDPARENTS
Mine live in Southport. They called a few times. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! :-)

SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS
Mattresses mostly. Unless you're Tim Muller, then it's a 'cot' which gets moved to unusual places i.e. the ceiling - or unless you're Trev G at AGMF, in which case it's a swag that wasn't made for your six-foot-plus frame.

Guys - Southport Baptist.
Girls - Labrador Uniting.

OTHER SONGS WE COMPOSED

At church the second Sunday we were there (27 November), Jim did a great talk about trusting God. When he got up there and said what it would be about, Lisa and I looked at each other and just burst out laughing - I think the night before (or a few nights before) we'd done that 4.30am chat thing - some of it about trusting God. And after that there was a song about rejoicing the in the Lord. Going from that theme, I began singing 'Rejoice in the Lord' over and over. For a long time. So that was my little song I composed.

SLANG
Most of these are Marika-isms.

"Hot" - read 'cool'. As in "he was so hot" - it means he was really cool, not that she actually thought he was hot. Although he may have been that too, but she meant cool.

"Slash" - Marika and Carla-ism. "I'm so tired...slash...I need some more sleep." "That was so annoying...slash...stupid." (That was so annoying/stupid.)

"Retarded" - bad, stupid or undesirable. "We need the Holy Spirit to help us stop doing those retarded things, cos the Holy Spirit doesn't want us to be retarded!"

"Hey!" - general greeting

"Violated!" - said when one is upset, offended, hurt or generally ticked off.

AGE ISSUES

Trev A looked at me seriously on our last day and said he couldn't believe I was only 19.
"Well," I said, "I'm actually 67, but I look good for my age."

Schoolies 05

I've got my glass of milk (hooray...back to trim!!!! No more full cream ;-) and iTunes playing my favourite....um...tunes. Anyway.

Between my journal, my schoolies folder and my memory, I will begin to tell you the story of schoolies 2005. Later in the week (or next week, depending) you may get to see some photos.

For now I'll just tell you some random bits and pieces, rather than try to recount things day by day.

IMPORTANT THING THAT STUCK WITH ME THROUGHOUT SCHOOLIES:

On the first day Lindsay was running a prayer session and gave us some verses to read. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 stuck with me:

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

Just reminded me that it's not about how well I explain it - it's the Spirit working through me that will bring people to Christ. So that was good :-)

TOILETS

I may as well tell my toilet stories here, since I have one written down for the first night. In the headquarters (which is where we sign in as schoolies volunteers for the first week - also where they give us free juice, Red Bull and doughnuts!), we found 'gender-confused' toilets. The men's room had a sign that said 'ladies' on it and the ladies had a 'men's' sign on it. What the ?!?! This was because the men's room had 2 cubicles and the ladies (apparently) only had one. But it was a bit worrying on the first night - which toilet am I supposed to go into?!

Once again, the spaceport toilets were there. This time I couldn't revert to the Random Button Press method, since there was only one button to press. So it was easier. Maximum use time was once again 10 minutes, but I discovered that the song they played was "What the World Needs Now".

TIM MULLER

He needs his own section. (Tim was one of the guys on our team - he sometimes comes to my church and is the cousin of one of the dudes in our music team - but anyway.....)

Tim visited the spaceport toilets and came out absolutely stunned.
"They're crazy!" he exclaimed. He then proceeded to imitate the toilet. "Welcome to Doing A Poo. Please enjoy your experience. You have ten minutes."

This little speech made me laugh. Lisa and I composed a song based on his speech and it goes like this:

Welcome to doing a poo-oo-oo
We really hope that you-oo-oo
Enjoy your stay
Please don't go away
And remove the toilet paper from your shoe-oo-oo

*That reminds me - Carla wrote a poem once about going to the toilet. You should ask her for it - it was funny! :-)*

Okay, toilet comments over now. Back to Tim.

He has a Peugeot. (Is that how you spell it?) And the horn is crazy! It's this high-pitched, woosy 'beep!' Anyway, I went to Australia Fair (shopping centre near where we were staying) with Tim, Rob, Krystle and Marika (other street chaplains) in Tim's car. Rob couldn't resist beeping everyone in our path! And if Tim wasn't screaming at Rob to cut it out, he was beeping people who cut in on him. (Gold Coast drivers cut in a lot) I laughed all the way there and all the way home.

And when we got back, Krystle's phone rang and he was holding it, so he picked it up and said, "Hello, Krystle speaking." The guy on the other end hung up!

One day he left his car doors open in the carpark of the church we were staying at (probably to air it out). Hee hee - then I went crazy with the horn!!! Until he came running out to get me....and then Lisa went for it! Yeah Lisa!

LISA

Was on the leadership team with me :-) I'm so glad she was there :-) She stayed up till about 4.30am one morning cos I needed to talk. She drove us everywhere. She let me borrow her CD's.

She had an accident in the surf during our beach day where she hurt her nose and had to go to hospital :-( That was sad. But she took it really well and didn't let it get her down. The only time I heard her talk about it after that was when some schoolie said to her, "Your eyes are black and your nose is swollen!" and began POKING HER IN THE FACE :-s Hello?!

She also gave us all our own pet rocks! (it was part of the talk she did about how we need to treat people) My rock is known as Ishi the Second - 'ishi' meaning 'stone' in Japanese, and the second because I once had a pet rock called Ishi, but lost him. :-s He probably starved to death.

We also had a prank planned. Actually we've had it planned for ages. It might happen one day. And she had a second one planned....she brought confetti and we were going to put it in the boys' beds......but we never got time. Oh well, next year maybe?


PRANKS

Damien brought a toy dog called Rufus. When we meet a schoolie and get their details we have to put their details on a form so we can follow them up. Luke threatened to chop up Rufus if we didn't put enough follow-up forms in. Then Rufus was kidnapped!!!! (No, it wasn't Luke)
And THEN someone staged his death!!!! There was a death threat in Damien's encourageogram box (more on that later) and bits of a stuffed toy on a chair. We had to put police tape (i.e. masking tape with 'Crime Scene. Police. Do not cross' written on it) around the area.
And someone (no names mentioned) wrote this huge code in order to figure out where Rufus was. But guess what? By the time they found the last clue to get him, someone had already got there first and taken him again! So the people who played the first prank (kidnapping Rufus) got pranked! Aargh! It was crazy!

*Rufus turned up on the last day*
*And we got a lot of follow up forms in*

ENCOURAGEOGRAMS

Last year we had a thing called 'Happygrams'. This was a similar idea - everyone had a soapbox with their name on it. During the day you could write someone an encouraging note and put it in their box. I read mine last night, they were awesome :-)

THE STREETS

This is going to need a whole post of its own, so that'll be the next post.

But on the streets, we heard lots of.....

PICK UP LINES

"Yellow yellow. Does saying the colour of your shirt turn you on?" (I don't know how this supposed to be funny....or even effective)

Beth walks past someone who is bent over, feeling sick. "Are you alright?"
He looks up. "No. But you are!"

A guy sees my street chaplaincy shirt. "Missing peace? I'm missing you."

"My friend's really shy and doesn't want to ask you. Can I get your number?"

"I'm your missing piece" (while attempting to make himself into the shape of a jigsaw puzzle piece)

"Are you Jamaican? Cos jamaican me crazy."

"Are you tired? Cos you've been running through my head all day."

"There's no stars in the sky tonight cos God took them all and put them in your eyes."

"Are you a volunteer? I'm volunteering to be with you."

"My mum gave me 40 cents for this holiday and I'm going to use it to call her and tell her I'm in love with you."

"You guys give mouth to mouth, hey. I'm going to drop to the floor right now."

TREV G'S PICK UP LINE:

I've eaten koala, but it wasn't as sweet as you.

(Correct me if I've misquoted you Trev)

DAMIEN'S PICK UP LINE:

You're like a good book - I just can't keep away from you.

Good stuff guys, keep practising :-p


DATE NIGHT

Once again I was in the best group ;-) Drew, Lindsay, Darcy and Trev G. They wore these suit jackets over matching blue shirts with jeans and thongs.....hey, they looked pretty classy! And took us to a photo place where they dress you up and make it look like an old-time photo. So we were all dressed as though we'd stepped straight out of Gone with the Wind. (Great book, btw)
Trev was looking particularly Rhett Butler-esque, and Marika would have made a great Scarlett O'Hara. (They're characters from the book - okay, since Gone with the Wind is not the most widely read book at the moment I'll quit talking about it)

Then we went to a park and had a barbeque for tea, which was awesome :-) Good cooking guys. There was also a storm (which the guys said they'd organised by having a word to the Big Man Upstairs). We went to a park for dessert, and some of us went for a walk on the beach. Hee hee - coming back I decided to walk backwards so I could still watch the storm. Trev kind of tried to trip me up a bit - unfortunately I was too unco to avoid it and fell over in front of everyone! That was funny :-)

PERSONALITIES

We spent time trying to figure out each other's personalities. Marika and I discovered we've got a similar personality. Actually so do Lisa and I for that matter. Drew and I discovered we're almost the exact opposite of each other (well, according to the Myers-Briggs personality test, which he explained really well). There's the DISC (DISK?) model -and I can't remember what any of it stands for - but you're either introverted & people oriented, extroverted & people oriented, introverted & task oriented or extroverted & task oriented.

No real personality clashes - everyone got on quite well for the most part. And if we needed space, I think we all took it. (I know I did!)

SPACE

We should have warned everyone before we left, but I think that at some point everyone cries on schoolies. I'm not sure about the guys - they probably come close, if they don't - but I know that most of us girls cried at some point, whether we just had tears streaming down our cheeks in front of everyone, or whether we went somewhere and hid out for awhile.

Time for a new post or this one will get too long to read!

G'day

I'm back from schoolies.

Big fat post or seven coming your way soon regarding schoolies and all that went on there.

I've got to get off the internet and do something else now. Sleep.