How excitement....

This past week has not been the most exciting or eventful on record. I was at home for dinner two nights this week. (Wow, now that I think about it, maybe it's been a bit busier than I thought.)
Monday night was good fun, it was the first Monday of the month, so "The Upper Room Project" was on. Chris and I went along to Shine cafe for the regular event with all the churchies. Cheyne came along too, so that we could talk about what was happening with him as far as sorting out somewhere new to live, and a new job.
Cheyne's last landlord kicked him out, taking pretty much all his stuff, which he claims he will give back after Cheyne pays back the money he owes for a couple weeks rent and some bills. I'm not sure how legal this course of action is, but Cheyne doesn't seem to care! Cheyne is planning to goto Canberra to "sort himself out" because one of his good friends lives there. Chris and I were planning a trip up on the long weekend anyway, so we offered to give him a lift. (I hope it's the right thing to do?)
Anyways, back to the upper room thing... It's an event organized by Age on behalf of the synod, and offers a time for socializing with other Christians outside of church. Usually there is a focus issue that we can talk about, but this month I didn't quite get it (sorry Age). But I did have a good discussion with Hannah about engaging youth in the church. Hannah always has something interesting to say about these issues. Oh, and I caught up with Laura (who was my small group leader at NCYC) she has started a social work placement at a youth outreach centre, so that's great news.
Tuesday night was exceedingly uneventful. Everyone was home for once, so we had a proper "family dinner". Chris J cooked a roast for us, which was great. I have been so spoiled by Chris's cooking lately, because I can get home and he's got the food all cooked and ready to eat. Of course, that usually means I get to wash up, but so long as I am not drying, that's ok.
Wednesday evening was pretty quiet as well, with the only activities being washing the clothes, which we made a special trip over to Michael and Janet's place for. We did three loads of washing, which took about 2 hours! While the washing was going, I explored Google earth, which has some fantastic new features. They have just implemented the street directions function for Australia, which will be very useful for getting around Melbourne.
Thursday was a busy day. Straight after work, we had some farewell drinks for David, our marketing guru. He is leaving Oates to pursue studies in Argentina. He is planning to learn Spanish (I think). I rushed straight from after work drinks to church council, which was ok, except that I was a couple minutes late. I had drive through for dinner (I know how bad that is) lol.
Friday was one of those days where you just couldn't get any work done. David is leaving the company, so we had a special lunch for him, there were also some speeches at morning tea. When we finally returned to work, nobody was interested in working because the long weekend was coming up. So you can see it was a self-perpetuating spiral.
Straight after work on Friday, Chris and Cheyne picked me up from work and we started driving to Canberra. Cheyne was sort of hitching a lift, because he wanted to visit his friend, Amanda, who lives in Canberra. Chris and I were also going up to visit friends, Scott and Anthony. We arrived at the boy's place around 1am, and by this time I was happy to crash into bed.
Saturday morning was spent doing touristy things around the ACT. We went to the top of the mountain to overlook the entire city, and what I found amazing was that you could see over into NSW. We went to the shopping center and checked out what the retail therapy was like in our nation's capital. I was surprised that it was nothing like shopping in Melbourne CBD. The shopping complex felt more like Chadstone or Knox City, and had many of the same shops.
We went to check out the Canberra art gallery and museum, but I was quite disappointed. I expected that they would have some more modern works than they did.
Saturday night, we went out for dinner to celebrate Amber's birthday. We went to dinner at this little place called "Mako". They specialized in seafood, so everything was fish-themed. Following dinner, we all headed out to Cube nightclub, and spent the rest of the night dancing and lounging around on their huge sofas. It was a great night, but we got home really late.
I woke up around noon on Sunday, and didn't feel fantastically rested. Maybe I was dehydrated? Chris and I headed off to investigate parliament house, and spent most of the afternoon just having a sticky beak around. That night was Canberra's 94th birthday, so there was a concert in the park. The Rouge Traders were playing, so we went along to watch. Anthony said he's second cousin's with the lead singer (who is also Izzy from Neighbors). I can sort-of see the resemblance.
On Monday morning we left fairly early, so that we could make it back for 21plus. We made fairly good time, taking about 7 and a half hours to drive. We did take a stupid detour though, which took us through Wagga Wagga.
21 plus was all about "unplugging" our lives, learning to live without a dependence on technology. I thought one of the interesting thoughts was to try and have one day every couple of weeks that was a e-communication free day. So that means no email, no phone and no text messaging. Another interesting thought was to go on a "media diet" for a couple days. This would involve not watching the TV, reading the newspaper, or listening to the radio for a couple days. The idea is that when you get rid of the crap in your life, there is more space for God to speak to you.