The Stars Align

Sometimes things all come together at the one time to create challenges and opportunities. It's been a bit like that the last couple of days.

I got an unexpected phone call today from Josh, my successor at Carine, with some potentially bad news about the Cool School Race Camp I run each year. Politics has reared it's head and the future participation of Carine is in doubt. Considering they usually have 80+ kids on the camp that's a significant issue!
At the same time I've been dealing with phone calls from a colleague who's experiencing some trouble in her job, seeking my support via WASSCA, the Chaplains Association.
Rolf emailed this week to start the ball rolling for the Executive for Augusta Beach Mission, suggesting we meet sometime in June.
And, on a greater or lesser level of importance, it's time for the mid-season draft in the Fantasy Footy League!

What all that means is that next Friday I'm going up to Perth for 4 meetings! I always try and maximise my time when I go up there so this is a pretty efficient way to deal with all the things going on at the moment, and it just happens to be a pupil-free day at school, even better.

Paul cam round tonight and we finally got down to work on teaching me how to update and manage the new website he's created for the Volleyball Association.
This is the first time I've been directly involved in the workings of a proper website, as opposed to a blog. Blogs are generally pretty user-friendly and simple.
The website, with it's html and myriad other technical elements is going to be far more challenging!
However, I did manage to make some progress tonight and have up-loaded some info, results, and info, and at about the 4th attempt, managed toi get it from my computer to the server and thus onto the web!
I hope it will become a really useful tool and conduit for all the people and teams who play volleyball in Busso. It's nothing special at this stage but it's a start. Feel free to cruise over for a look at the appropriately named www.busseltonvolleyball.net

The European Champions League Final is about to start and as a quasi pom when it come to soccer, Im barracking for Liverpool against AC Milan, with the game being played in Athens.

PS. Thanks to those who gave feedback about the two versions of the Blue Dog picture.
I'm also excited to report that one of my faithful readers, 2Peter, is coming to Busselton for a visit and we'll be able to meet face-to-face, my first encounter with someone met in cyberspace! Looking forward to it.

Sunday

Church was good this morning, the speaker was a 23 year old surfie who has a heart to reach muslims in Indonesia and is well on the way to establishing a surf based mission there.
After church we cruised a couple of garage sales. I bought a painting table for $20. I don’t know how practical it will be but it may get me off the kitchen bench some of the time. Sport Boy invited Jack over for the afternoon and after lunch we went round to drop the art exhibition form off to Ron, and Carolyn found a few things she wanted to buy, a cane bed head and a set of shelves. I got a box of brass door knobs and key plates, more artistic ideas to work on.

The boys loved the Billy cart and tried to convince Ron to sell it but now he’s keen to put it in the exhibition he’s going to finish it off, and keep it.

We took the boys down to see the Grand Final of the Beach Volleyball competition being played in Busselton this weekend as part of the state series. The level of play was superb, especially in the windy conditions. It made our 4-a-side games on Wed. nights look pretty bad!

Some kids at the beach were teasing the seagulls by throwing them chips they had put inside a coke bottle, it was very funny watching this flock of scavengers all fighting over the unattainable prize, they kept pecking at the chips and not understanding why they could see them but not reach them.

I had a headache when we got home so I snoozed in the recliner while Carolyn took the boys to Meelup for the church gathering. Once I’d recovered I pottered around working on some projects, I’ve taken to hanging things around the back patio, mobiles, propellers, driftwood etc. Today I tried to create a marble way out of pvc pipe which a strung together with fishing line. It sort of works but not as well as I’d hoped.

I completed two paintings today, one I’m undecided about, I’ve changed the colours once already and I suspect I’ll be doing so again because they don’t match the frame very well. The second is a big one, based on another painting I did a while back which a friend likes. She was looking for something larger so I decided to oblige, and tried out using rollers instead of brushes. It worked fairly well but I need to keep practising to get a consistent application and appearance.

I was listening to England beat Australia in the cricket, a huge upset. After the absolute shellacking in the Ashes no-one forsaw this outcome. I’ve been wanting some closer contests all Summer but this tested my feelings about competition V winning.

Sport Boy on Duty

I took Sport Boy down to the Monday night beach volleyball so he could put himself up for hire as a ballboy in the 2-a-side comp. He did two games and got a booking for Wednesday night as well! He even got a write-up in the local paper this week describing his exploits as ball boy. He liked it but said to me, "The writer made it more dramatic than it really was, do writers do that a lot?"
Welcome to the real world kid, Truth in Journalism 101!

Something unusual happened this evening, the beach returned! Every week for the last several months the spot where Sport Boy uis standing has been practically the edge of the water line. (Busselton has lost a huge amount of beach front over the last few years, I'm sure it's the result of global warming!) But tonight the water was nearly 10 metres further out, and it can't be the tide because we play at the same time each week. I don't know the explanation but it was nice to have more beach than normal. While SB earned money I sat at a bench and started work on a painting. At the bench next to me a lady was eating Chinese takeaway and we struck up a conversation.Harriet is out here on a month's holiday from England, the town of Northampton in fact. We talked about my picture and the problems I was having with it, and her trip and family and she told me about her 43 year old daughter who died of breast cancer 12 months ago. Then Sport Boy arrived, hungry, and Harriet shared some of her chicken with him and he told her about the blog and his love of sport. I gave her my card and invited them round for a cuppa or for dinner tomorrow night if they feel like it. She was interested to hear about what The Heir is doing in England and had even heard of Haddenham and Wheatley, the villages where he is working and studying.

I'm about to sit down and watch the edited telecast of the SuperBowl, having studiously avaoided all mention of it throughoput the day in order to watch it without knowing the result.
One of my pet hates is watching a game when I already know who's won.

The Kids Have Returned

While I've been back at work for a couple of days, the real start of school was today, with 1000 odd students arriving at Busso High School to begin the new school year. That's not fair really, they're not all odd, just the year 9's mainly. I'm really hoping that the particular group of girls who buzz back and past my office every recess and lunchtime acting out their own version of Home and Away will grow up soon and leave the gossipy/bitchy soap opera behaviour behind! Mind you, by recess today the signs were not good!
More prayer required!
I continued the cleaning up/sorting out/decorating process today in my office, hanging a few paintings and photos, sorting out toys and puzzles, disposing of rubbish and creating a useable space. The new air con is sensational, worth every cent.

Tonight was beach volleyball with Carolyn making her comeback after returning from Melbourne. She did well but we still lost to the boys from The Goose who are all ex-school kids who played volleyball at Country Week and won the A Grade! Sport Boy seemed to be stuck in 2nd gear tonight in his ball boy duties and didn't even hang around for the third game to maximise his earnings, the first day back at school must have tired him out!

I went to see Deja Vu tonight.

I went to see Deja Vu tonight.

Sorry, I couldn't resist that; you could probably see it coming!

It was OK except for a dodgy ending which didn't remain true to the plot line in my opinion, Jordan disagreed when I told him what I thought later, trying to convince me with the sort of argument that might cut it with a 15 year old boy but was not good enough for me.

I also hung a stained glass window in the patio that we bought at a garage sale on the weekend, it looks good and will catch the afternoon sun nicely. I also repaired and hung a mobile wind chime I made out of old silver forks a while back. I'm not much use in the garden but I can add a few artistic touches to the decor!