A bit far east for everyone

I find the amount of coincidence amazing. There are so many Western Australians who have popped up on the radar, particularly in the last year or so. For a start, there's my Old Testament lecturer, who made a big difference to my experience of bible college last semester in a good way. There's my youth pastor, Mark, who checks in here now and then (Hi Mark). Then there's Jas and Paul from WA, who have been staying with me for the bookends of their annual pilgrimmage to mecca hillsong conference. Anyway, the highlight of their visit for me was most definitely yesterday.

We had arranged to head out to Ringwood to meet with someone who is interested in some of the things we're doing with Gush. I didn't feel like driving, so we decided to head out on public transport. For those who aren't familiar with the Melbourne public transport system, basically there are three zones which extend out radially from the city. The further out you go, the higher zone number you need. Anyway, assuming you live in Zone 1 like I do and you want to go to Zone 3 (ie. Ringwood) you would buy a Zone 1+2+3 ticket. Since Jas is either too stubborn or lazy to use cash instead of his credit card to buy things, we ended up buying our tickets from the local milkbar... but they didn't have enough 1+2+3s in stock. Jas bought one... and I got my student concession one but Paul missed out. We decided to jump on a tram to the city. Paul used his Zone 1 ticket from earlier in the week to get to Flinders St station.

We arrive at Flinders St station (in Zone 1) and Paul ventures up to the ticket vending machine and asks it for a Zone 2+3 ticket, insisting that he'd already purchased a Zone 1 ticket and need not buy another. The machine, of course, having been programmed by someone who he is probably quite alike, promptly refused his request. At this point, I observed that he might have more luck purchasing the ticket from a real person at the ticket window but that it probably wasn't worth the effort for the sake of a few bucks. He was, however, determined... and despite their reluctance, he managed to talk the person on the window into breaking the rules and letting him have a Zone 2+3 ticket (which wouldn't have been valid but he didn't seem to mind that).

"Finally!", I think to myself as he finishes at the window and hands me one of his purchases. He had generously bought a ticket for me as well... that I didn't need. The look of horror on his face at the thought of having wasted the full price of a second ticket to save a couple of bucks was quite amusing. Feeling slightly sorry for him, I said that they'd probably give him a refund. Anyway, after a much more heated discussion with the obliging salesperson, he obtained his money back on one of the tickets. Assured that the refund was in progress, Jas and I validated our tickets and entered the station, assuming Paul wasn't far behind. At this point, the express train to Ringwood was sitting on the platform ready to go.

I would have been really annoyed that we ended up missing it... but what came next was one of the funniest examples of poetic justice that I've seen for some time. Jas and I turned around to watch as Paul put his ticket into the validator/barrier. We laughed quite unashamedly when he got stuck on the outside. It had rejected his "wrong zone" ticket for Zone 2+3. By the time he'd fumbled his original Zone 1 ticket out of his wallet to successfully get in, our train was well on the way towards Ringwood, leaving us standing on Platform 2 for a nice leisurely 18 minute wait.

The second highlight of my day was returning once again to Bec's loungeroom and enjoying the hospitality of Bec, Laura, Hannah, and Em (with the company of Samantha and Reinhard). I haven't enjoyed that kind of light-hearted community atmosphere for a while.