Virtually Paul

Even Easter

I think it’s been a while between posts. I’m currently sitting with the Gush admin team in a loungeroom somewhere near Sale. I’m spending the Easter weekend catching up with the guys in Gippsland. It seemed to be an appropriate time to do it, given that this is even east-er than Ringwood. Tee hee.

We spent this afternoon doing a bit of sightseeing around country Victoria, including stops at Tyers Lookout (pictured), the takeaway shop in Rawson and the Thompson Dam.

Apparently I have to get back to the ‘admin team meeting’ now.

East again

I’ve found a house!  I move into a new share house on Monday, not all that far away from the one I used to share with Geoff.

It has all happened reasonably quickly so it feels a bit surreal.  It’s a nice place though and I get the sense I’m really going to enjoy the coming months.  I’ll be living extremely close to work, I’ll have my own space, and for the first time since high school I’m not studying anything this semester.  Not to mention that EastLink opens sooner or later, which will make it nice and easy to visit the family home from my new bachelor pad.

Certifiably Graduated

I got my summer semester results today.  I now have a Graduate Certificate in Chartered Accounting Foundations in spite of Deakin University.  That means I’m now qualified to start the Chartered Accountants Progam at some point in the future.

I have an extremely low opinion of the delivery of the Grad Cert course (so if you’re considering doing it… look into it thoroughly first and see if you think you can stomach what’s on offer).  However, I got through with a distinction average.  Yay for that.

Unexpected Surprises

I was at an engagement party on Saturday night and ran into a friend from camps/bible college who I hadn’t caught up with in ages. After the party he was heading up to his family’s house in Buxton for the night. I’d spent the week at work full-time, so not being able to bear the idea of a weekend opportunity going to waste, I invited myself along. My sister had given me a lift to the party, so with nothing but my phone, wallet and keys in my pockets… we headed off. It’d been a while between conversations, so we spent a while just playing with different theological ideas we’d been thinking about. It was good. It was especially good when we got the chance to unpick a few of our respective ideas a bit further, where normally we might sit on the fence a bit more for the sake of political correctness.

On Sunday morning, we rolled up at his church so that he could meet his commitment to play keyboard for a small church, with maybe 25 people, all probably over 60. It was whilst I was sitting on a pew by myself, waiting for the service to start, that I met Ada. Ada strolled in the door with the assistance of her walking frame. She’d been in the door less than 20 seconds before she looked straight at me and called out the warmest “Hello there!”. Within a minute, I hadn’t moved and Ada and her walking frame had come to sit next to me. We had a great little conversation as she told me all about where she’d lived throughout her life and the things she’d done. Within 5 minutes we’d worked out that Ada grew up at Moonee Ponds Baptist Church with my grandfather and that my great-grandmother (who I never got to meet) had played the organ in her wedding. Ada was even more surprised and delighted than I was, calling her husband over in excitement.
“Guess who’s grandson this is!”

I felt special.

Life of Paul update

It’s Sunday night and I’d have to say I feel quite good about my preparation, to date, for the two exams I will be sitting in the coming week. The first one is tomorrow afternoon and the second on Wednesday morning, after which I will (touch wood) have completed my Graduate Certificate in Chartered Accounting Foundations. I won’t sidetrack the post with a rant on my less than flattering opinion of the course but you can email me if you’re interested.

Completing the Grad Cert makes life extremely more interesting, given that I’m not enrolled in anything else. That will make the coming semester the first time that I haven’t been studying something, since leaving high school at the end of 2001. I cannot wait. I will be moving up to full time work in the coming weeks, outside of which I will have absolutely no ongoing commitments or expectations being placed upon my time.  It’s going to be good.

I moved back over to the north-west of Melbourne in mid-January, the day before my former housemate got back from his honeymoon. With the exams pending, my parents were gracious enough to allow me to return to the family home, so that I could devote sufficient attention to studying and not be rushed into finding new accommodation.

It’s been nice being back home, even though it involves almost an hour’s drive to get to work.  The work thing will probably take its toll eventually but so far I’ve survived.  It’s been good having a chance to just spend time with my family and hear about things that are going on day-to-day.  I’ve also spent a bit more time at my family’s church in Essendon than I had been whilst living out east.  I really like the familiarity sometimes.  The sermon this morning was excellent too.  Dan preached on interacting with the community and reminded us of how ineffective it is to have separatist habits, where we just stick to being friends with ‘churchy’ people.

It has gotten to the point where I’m almost going to have to choose between two very viable options for the remainder of the year.  I could choose to live in either the east or the north-west of Melbourne, without either being a terrible option.  Finishing the Grad Cert also has me asking bigger questions of career choice and life direction.  I think I’m actually going to find it challenging to just sit still for a little while, without necessarily knowing where I’m “based” or “where I’m headed” but I’m hoping that’s a good thing because it leaves room for lots of pleasant surprises.

Reflective Ramblings

Do you ever sometimes look back on a particular situation - a particular scene in your life - where you were interacting with another person, or group of people, and you did or said something that you wish you hadn’t? I’m not talking about wetting the bed on school camp kind of moments here. I’m talking about relational stuff. Do you ever replay those moments in your head where you said something to someone that you wished you could clarify? Ever wanted to say:

“Hey, you know in that situation when I <did/said something>, well I think I gave you <this> impression, and well, what I really meant to convey was <this other thing>.”

I just spent about 10 minutes replaying one of those moments that happened some months ago. Nothing major. Just an off-the-cuff comment that shot out of my mouth, that was true to what was happening in my heart at the time, but could have easily had a more awkward meaning read into it. The funny thing is that the people who were around when it happened probably don’t remember it. But quite obviously, part of me is still embarrassed. There is something I don’t like about that - the desire to “explain” or “clarify” myself like that. It has an element of weakness to it that I find quite disconcerting.

Do you ever find yourself in a similar headspace?
Why do you think that’s the case?
What does it tell you about yourself in light of the specific situation?

Trendy religion causes mental health issues

From The Australian

According to “a major Queensland study of 21-year olds”:

Young men who held non-traditional religious views were at twice the risk of being more anxious and depressed than those with traditional beliefs.

I wonder whether my “religious views” (*cringe*) are non-traditional?

Bec and Geoff’s wedding

It was a week ago today but feels like longer because I left to lead on a kids camp the following morning and got back yesterday. Suffice it to say that it was a lovely day and one of the nicest weddings I’ve ever been to.

I should probably also point out that Bec’s bridesmaid Jess just asked me to help her format some links for the photos over on All Said and Done. I think I deserve some credit for corrupting Jess into posting the following photo of Bec and Geoff’s wedding night at the bottom of the list:

Photo of Bec and Geoff’s Wedding Night

The House Hunt Begins

Can you believe that it’s nearly the end of November already?
That means I need to find somewhere to live next year!

If you have any leads on places where I could board, rent or share in the eastern suburbs in 2008… I’d be very grateful if you’d leave me a comment.

Allow me to explain…

As well as being the day of the Australian Federal Election and the AFL draft, today we also observe that there are exactly 6 weeks to go until Bec and Geoff’s wedding. Whilst the impending nuptials are most definitely cause for celebration (particularly because I get to be a groomsman), it will also bring to a close their reasonably short era as my housemate-and-a-half. Geoff and I have been sharing a nice little two bedroom townhousey place since August, with a view to my disappearing and Bec moving in after the wedding (quite obviously to move her single bed in to the room that I am vacating, so that she has somewhere to sleep).

As such, I have promised to disappear from the premises before they return from their honeymoon, even if that involves some significant commuting in the short term because I end up returning to my parents’ place on the other side of town. I really, really, really don’t want to do that if it can be at all avoided.  Mum’s cooking is fantastic, so it’s a backup plan that is not without its benefits, but the commuting back and forward to work gets to be a bit much for me.

So, as I said, I’m looking for a place in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne to board, rent or share, commencing in mid-January 2008 (or earlier if necessary). I’d much prefer to move into somewhere that is already set up, rather than trying to establish a share house from scratch - but I may not end up having the choice. I think I’m a good housemate and I come with good references from previous landlords and cohabitants.

Nice ways to kill time

This long anticipated Melbourne Cup weekend came as a much needed rest break from the responsibilities of life.  I knocked over another accounting conversion course exam last week and, in an incredible display of foresight, had booked some leave to allow myself 5 glorious days of R&R.

So, Thursday night I toddled off to dinner at Mum and Dad’s, crashed there for the night before meandering my way into the city on Friday to have lunch with old mate Matt.  Friday night saw me playing mini-golf with the youth group from my housemate’s church.  I had a blob day at home on Saturday before going to a friend’s birthday barbecue, after which I joined a bunch of people heading down to a house (straight out of the 70s) in Rosebud for the weekend.

Through a number of plot twists that I won’t go into, Sunday morning saw me attending the main church-ish meeting at the God’s Squad annual national meet-up.  I don’t think it’s a typical thing for non-members to be doing, so I was quite honoured by the privilege.

Sunday evening saw the gang piling (almost literally, due to space constraints) into the back of a car to take in a couple of movies at the Dromana drive-in.  We saw The Brave One (Jodie Foster) and December Boys (Daniel Radcliffe), both of which were OK.  We capped the night off with a stroll on the pier.

Monday, after a late start and a hearty home-cooked breakfast, we grabbed a quick fish and chip lunch on the beach at Sorrento, before heading off to Point Nepean National Park for the afternoon.  I’d been there earlier this year with my Dad and some mates from church but we hadn’t managed to cover the whole park, so I got to see the rest of it, which was cool - especially Fort Nepean itself, the old military gun emplacement that used to guard the heads to Port Phillip Bay.  One of the gun emplacements there fired the first Australian shot of both World Wars… and the views are pretty impressive as well.

On the way back, we made a detour via the ocean beach in Sorrento and spent some time walking along the rocks and having a sticky beak in the rock pools.  That was a nice part of a the trip.  Easy and uncomplicated.  No priorities or problems, no purposes or pressures, just time to kill.

I arrived back home last night and spent this morning listening to lots of music, just because I could, before driving up to Mount Dandenong for a stroll, whilst I listened to some podcasts that I’ve been meaning to get to for a while.

Relaxing is nice.