The only Commodore I ever owned

I only ever owned one Commodore. It was a VB model Station Wagon. I bought the car from some people who went to the church I was pastor of (always a risky move) They told me they were reluctant to sell the car as they had had continual trouble with it. On the positive side, they said they had replaced everything on it you could possibly replace, and so therefore we should get a better run out of it than they did. That's where they were wrong. We had constant trouble with the car and even put a new motor in it. We finished up keeping the car for only nine months before changing it over for something else. We did get one trip to north Queensland towing a caravan with it however. Dad and Mum and Ben came along for the ride. It was just before David was born, and so we had no kids of our own to tag along. We traveled from Brisbane right up to Cairns and came back through Winton - right in the middle of the Queensland. The car made that trip OK, so I should be thankful for that at least.



I remember when the Commodores first rolled off the assembly line. I worked for General Motors at the time and recall all the fanfare that the General made about the new car. Sally's Dad, Graham Weatherhead always referred to them as 'Crummydores'. I don't know if he ever finished up buying one - He had Fords as long as I can remember.

I've never had another Commodore. I just seem to end up with Falcons. This latest one is not bad at all.

Old Holdens

In 1963 when I was just seven years old Dad and Mum decided to update their old Vanguard with a late model Holden. This car didn't make Dad's blog page yet, but I remember it well. I recall dad often complaining about this car though and if my memory serves me well, he bought it from Richie Gunston. It was a classic model the old FB. We did at least one trip up to Sydney in that old car - possibly more. We'd go to visit Uncle Murray in Bankstown. I think there is a story somewhere of Dad having to get a new alternator for that car at Benalla on our way up to Sydney. I recall a lengthy delay and Dad being a bit upset about the whole deal. I don't know if it was the delay that upset him or the price of a new alternator having to be deducted from his holiday budget.



I don't know if Dad was influenced by his older brother Uncle Bill or not, but Uncle Bill had an FB Holden as well. His was read and white. I always remember looking at Uncle Bills car and thinking, I'd love to have a car like that one day. Uncle Bill always had great looking cars. Later he owned a nice turquoise HR Holden sedan. One day whilst staying with the Uncle Bill he actually gave me my first drive. It was across a paddock on his farm in the new HR Holden. I was wrapped!



As it turns out I did eventually get to own a number of Holden cars. The first one is in the story below and I think I only owned it for six months. My next car was another Holden that served me well. It was about a 1970 model Holden sedan and bright red in colour. I owned this car when I set off to go to college in Queensland and the old red Holden made many trips up and down the highway between Melbourne and Brisbane. It was a real work horse. I recall making one trip to Queensland on my own in old red Holden. I was towing a loaded trailer and traveling in the middle of summer with a pretty average radiator. The motor kept getting hot, and so every town I cam to I would park under a shady tree outside the local swimming pool. I would cool off in the pool and the car would cool down under the tree.

Talking about cars

Dad has been busy writing about cars in his family on his blog page. Whilst looking through some old photos recently I found this one. It was my second car. I had my brother Simon in the car with me driving from Melbourne to Canberra when I fell asleep and hit a tree. The car was a write off and Simon and I were both knocked around a bit, but lived to tell the story. Simon broke his arm I think and I had some concussion. The amazing thing was that Simon had his feet up on the seat leaning against the door at the time of impact. The floor section where his legs would normally have been was totally crushed in.

Come to think of it Simon is the only person who has sustained injuries as result of being a passenger whilst I was driving.

And yes, that is Ben in front of the car.

Invitation

If you can't read the small print, just click on the picture for a larger view!

Battle of the bands

Tonight Simon and a few of his friends played in 'Battle of the bands'. Unfortuntately they didn't win but had a lot of fun in the process. The day started with an extended practice downstairs at our place followed by make up and hair colouring sessions.





The nervous wait for the judges decision.

The new car arrives

After we got back from Bruny this morning our Kia Carnival was covered in dirt. (Lots of dirt roads on Bruny) It was straight to the car wash as we had a call from the local Ford dealer to let us know that our new Falcon was ready to pick up. I thought we ordered a yellow one, but I guess it's fairly close to yellow! The new deal is we keep this one for two years.

Back to Bruny

This morning Jo and somewhat reluctantly packed up our things after a wonderful three days on our own at Bruny Island. We were back at Rudie's place and had plenty of room with just the two us! It was kind of like our Easter break, seeing we missed out on any time off back then.

Saturday workshop

Today we enjoyed a great day with John and Jane Morse doing a workshop on mentoring with a group pf people mostly from our church. John is principal of Tabor College in Hobart. He and Jane are as wonderful couple who both have a refreshing zest for life and a passionate commitment to mentoring. It was a day well spent.

A night with the Holts

Tonight we enjoyed a meal out at a restaurant with some of the Holt family. Graham and Brenda invited us over to coincide with a visit from Russ & Lois. Matthew and Esther came along as well, and so we had dinner for eight. It was a delightful evening with plenty of stories and some good food.





We had an extremely talkative waiter by the name of 'Simon' who invited Matthew to play the paino to entertain his guests!

The Davinci Code

Whilst I was in Melbourne last week I picked up a copy of Dan Brown's novel, 'The Davinci Code'. Most people will be aware that the film version is being released in just one weeks time, so the present interest in this book can only increase. I found the book very readable and it had all the elements of a good mystery story. It does hold your interest through to the end, but I did find it somewhat repetitious. At times it seemed like it was just puzzle after puzzle.

Some Christians will no doubt be very concerned and want to do all they can stop people seeing the movie and reading the book. I guess the value of the book is that it generates discussion about our faith and gets people thinking about some of the fundamentals we believe in. Even in our own family the book has generated a lot of discussion around the tea table each night.

After I finished the book I made an attempt at listing some of the major issues raised in the book. I listed them:

Jesus was only a great man.
There was no mention of Him being divine until the council of Nicea where his divinity was determined by a very close vote.
Jesus got married to Mary Magdalene and had a daughter by the name of Sarah.
There were about 80 gospels suppressed by the Church
Mary Magdalene is the 'Holy Grail'
Christianity has done away with the concept of 'goddess' and as a result been unjust in its attitude towards women. (The book makes a great deal of 'the sacred feminine')
Leonardo Davinci was desperate to reveal these secrets with hidden messages in his paintings

I'm sure there are many other issues as well that you might add. These are some of the obvious ones. Of course the evidence for all these contentions is hidden somewhere and the book ends without the evidence ever being presented. I guess you can do that in novels.

I am planning a series of three messages looking at some of the issues above. It will be a challenge for me as I have rarely if ever preached apologetic sermons. I have quite a bit of reading to do in preparation. Next week Jo and I are taking some time out for four days at Bruny Island together. Maybe I'll take some of my reading over there.

Mark & Val's new home

Well, I've just got back from Melbourne last night. It was a pretty quick visit this time, but I was able to attend the Vic tas conference for Churches of Christ as well as catch up with most of my family. I actually got to see all my brothers except Greg and Sally - next time!

A highlight of my trip was getting a sneak preview of Mark and Val's brand new home. The were handed the keys to their new apartment in South Melbourne yesterday and I got to have look through. WOW! Very impressive, and such a fantastic spot. They can walk to the city. They have the Botanical gardens, the Shrine and the beach all right on their doorstep.