Mile stones along life's journey

Life is full of mile stones. We celebrated one yesterday. It was the 26th anniversary of our wedding. There may be many mile stones in life, but I reckon that they need to be celebrated all the same. Celebration is what makes life worth while. Some do it better than others. A life without celebrations would be dull and boring indeed. We celebrated yesterday in a very traditional way. A quiet dinner out for two at a local restaurant. We chose an African restaurant in Hobart and enjoyed a delicious meal as we pondered the significance of 26 years together.

This coming Saturday we celebrate another milestone. Sarah is turning 15. She is looking very grown up these days and we watch and wonder where the years have gone. Happy birthday Sarah.

Jo's garden

Jo has been talking about extending the front garden for some time. Today she made a start.

This was Jo's last project. When she started it was just an overgrown weed bed.

Tourists for a day

A beautiful spring day in Hobart and so Jo and I decided to play tourists for a day and take a lunch time cruise around the Derwent. Whilst we sailed around Hobart we ate a two course dinner and sipped on some nice red wine. We sailed on the Commodore which was the same boat that we all went on in Hobart as a family about 16 years ago.

It's that time of year again

It does seem to come around fast, but today was the annual Christmas Parade in Hobart. That means that for this veteran Roman solider it meant walking the street one more time.

A Day at the Cricket

It is pretty rare that Hobart gets to host a test match. Today it was on. Day one of the second test between Australia and Sri Lanka. I have been to lots of footy matches in my life, but never once to the cricket, so today I took a day off and headed down to Bellerive to watch the cricket. I have photographed lots of flowers and beaches but no sporting events to date. Now I realize that you will get to see some photos in the paper taken by professionals with some heavy duty gear - but here are some of mine.

I have started a flickr page where I am now storing all the photos I take. There are a few sets on already including my cricket pictures - well a few of them anyway. You can find them by clicking here

Simon on Fire

Last night at church Simon led the worship. It was awe inspiring stuff to watch. After leading worship Simon shared his testimony and spoke about God's amazing power to change lives. He shared a story of a friend of his who had her life powerfully changed after an encounter with Jesus. He shared his own understanding of grace and forgiveness as he has experienced it in his own life. Simon has come a long way as a musician, but it is his passion for God that is most amazing of all. (I snapped the picture above with my mobile phone so the quality is not that great.)

Dad and Mum back in Tassie

Taken me a few days to get some pictures up for you, but Dad and Mum made a trip to Hobart last week. The spring is by far the best time of year to be in Tassie and so they timed it well. They were here for six days and we squeezed a lot into that time. We managed a barbeque at Kingston beach, a trip to the butcher to buy some meat, a visit to the Mount Nelson lookout point and a family reunion at Bicheno to top it all off. We set off for an over night trip and stayed at a motel right on beach close to St. Helens. Whilst up north we were able to visit the famous Mount Elephant Pancake house and enjoyed a delicious feast. The following day we met up with the Holt family reunion at Bicheno. This was largely Uncle Bill's family and it was a delight to be invited to take part. We were all given a blue T shirt to wear for the occasion.

Another highlight of Dad and Mum's visit was all going for dinner with our good friends Beth and Rudie. We need a table for ten all up so we took up almost all the space at the Bay Leaf Cafe in Sandy Bay. It was a great night with lots of laughter and stories around the table.

The same day Dad and Mum flew home to Melbourne I flew north to Queensland for three days on the Gold Coast for Team Fest. Team Fest is a gathering of ministry teams from larger Churches of Christ around Australia. It is always an inspirational time of sharing and teaching.

Since returning from Israel we have now been away somewhere every week. The diary now settles down for a bit and our next trip is not planned until February - which of course will be the wedding of Ben and Zoe - and what a celebration that should be.

You may wonder about the picture of the little blue wren. Dad of course is a great bird watcher and we spotted this little fellow out the window of the cafe at Mount Nelson whilst enjoying a cappuccino and taking in the sights.