From Jandals to Flip-Flops to Thongs...

This journey of life is a fascinating one. Certainly if someone had asked me five years ago what I wanted out of the next five years I’d probably have given a guarded response. “Maybe I’d like to get married, and then do some travelling.” A fairly non committal answer I guess, but then, I guess that’s actually a fair synopsis of the last, well three years at least – and looks set to continue for another couple of years at least.

Lots can happen in a few years. A little over three years ago, I was a single man, impatiently awaiting a wedding day that seemed (at the time) to be dawdling painfully slowly towards me. But since then, time has flown by somewhat quickly. Amazing too what a difference even a few weeks makes in the scheme of a lifetime. Just a few weeks ago Mez and I were celebrating our third wedding anniversary, appropriately perhaps, in a restaurant called ‘World Service’ in Nottingham. Three Wedding Anniversaries. Three different countries. France, Italy, England. I figure that between Australia and New Zealand we should be able to keep that roll on for at least the next two years. But then, we’ve learned that travel gets a little more challenging when there’s a noisy one in the back seat. Might keep us a little more settled maybe? Not likely though.

So we’ve moved from a place of jandals & Dairy’s to a land of flip-flops & Newsagents (I was almost going to say Tesco local – There’s almost one on every neighborhood corner!) and now we find ourselves in the land of Thongs and the local Deli. Fantastic. Great progression of weather. Our last week in Nottingham it snowed, we left on about 5 degrees, got to London at 8 degrees, then arrived to a typically blustery day in wellington, 18 degrees. Managed to hit about 25 degrees while we were home on a couple of beaut days, but temps mostly hung in the low 20’s till we got to Australia and landed in 28 degrees. Gladstone has been true to promise in that regard. 28 degrees every day except one last week, which was 29! Clearly tiring weather as you can see from the pics!

Kinda strange to find ourselves again in a place where we know no one, with no car, no possessions beside our trusty computer and the bits and pieces we managed to carry all the way from the UK to NZ and then onwards to Oz. Abbey fulfilled her childish obligations and was a saint on all flights. Clearly that was all our many prayers covered cos she pretty well let rip once we got here. All settled again though now and she's acclimatized to the constant heat and is into everything all over the house now. We have fun wee games of chase on all fours all around the house, since she’s well and truly mastered crawling. In fact, human nature being what it is (or maybe this is just an inherited trait from her folks) she’s no longer content just to crawl, she wants to stand up, using whatever she can get her hands on to pull herself up there, a notable favourite seems to be my leg hairs at the moment.

So what’s Gladstone like? In my perception it’s a fairly quiet little town (they call it a city but I’m not so sure). Mez says it might be a little too small for her, which I guess makes it lucky that my job went from being full-time-for-a-long-time to full-time-for-just-three-months. Such is life, so we now need to find me another job and another place to call home, at least we’ve got three months to do that! In fact I’ve already started applying for a couple that look interestingish! Our home comes complete with two pets: 'Green' the frog who croaks love songs to us 'of an evening' and his fat little reptilian friends the gecko's (who incidentally, as i've discovered/learned from Mez, make a rather big noise like the chirp of a cicada!) We've managed to squeeze in a couple of adventures already - up to Rockhampton which is about 100km North (to buy Abbey's stunning new cot, change table and highchair), and down to the town of 1770 in the south which is about 130km away - that's supposedly where that famous Brit Cpt Cook first sighted Australia on the 24th May 1770. (Monument to mark it on R!) Gladstone is a nice town though, with everything that a small family needs and more. We went for a walk to a shopping centre yesterday to get me some more shorts for work (yes shorts at work – very casual!) and Mez some flip flops. Abbey came along for the ride too – a five hour walk/round trip in the blazing sun. Of course with a couple of stopovers at parks to feed the ducks, ravens and turtles, and to dream at car sales yards along the way!!

Buying a car is an interesting thing – I’ve always gone for whatever car was available and cheap… but now we’re trying to look at what is going to be most ideal functionally for us for the next couple of years, trying to look down the track a little and contemplate the possibility of another child maybe in there too. We were all keen on the idea of a hybrid, but unfortunately the only one I could find second hand here was $35k which we don’t even nearly have. And even if we did, we wouldn’t be spending it on a car! Cars are definitely much cheaper in NZ!

In all likelihood we’ll probably head down to Brisbane in another 3 months, but I’m still needing to get prospectus’ from the two universities down there to look at their masters programmes for 2009 which is high on my agenda of things to do!

So lots of changes for us anyway, and lots more coming up in the next year or so, and not entirely sure how to fit it all in. Good news is, that at least we will have family not too far away when we do it all! My little sister is looking to move to Brisbane with her partner which would be cool – then we’d at least have family in the same city (if we also move down there). Have also been considering a move further north to Cairns where another sister is with her husband, but realistically Mez thinks it will be beyond her comfort zone in terms of heat, so it’s probably not the ideal place for us.

I came across a quote today in a book I’ve been reading entitled ‘The message of Creation’. Entirely excellent quote (in my humble opinion):

“The world God has made provides for the everyday needs of human beings, but is also aesthetically amazing in its beauty and diversity. Furthermore it is a place of moral growth and challenge. At the centre of the garden are two trees.”

This certainly fits with our experience of the last few years, God has provided all sorts of things for us, from the money to flit about the world and see this aesthetically amazing world in some of its beauty and diversity (from the Mountains and lakes of NZ to the rolling hills of the British Isles in all seasons. From the friendly stray dog in the dusty, craggy mountains of Medjugorge, Bosnia to the Alligators in Okeefenokee Swamp in Georgia, USA. From the coral cays and clown fish of Fiji’s outer islands, to the plunging cliffs and sparkling seas of Croatia. From the Azure blue of Capri’s Grotto to the pillars of Rome, the canals of Venice and the fortified walls of Alghero and Dubrovnik, to the sculptures of the Eden project, to Ireland’s cliffs of Moher, to the deep snowfalls we experienced in Newcastle, to the clear blue sky and dragonflies buzzing around our washing hanging outside in Gladstone – there’s plenty of diversity). We’ve also been provided with friends, family even (at times), a community to exist in, jobs, etc etc. I’m sure there has been moral growth too… the times we’ve been tempted just to take instead of gratefully offering back to God what is rightfully his, the times we’ve been tempted to do things we knew weren’t for us, rather than eat from the tree that gives life. And without going on (too much), with that I’ll close – there are challenges ahead for sure, but it’s within a context of incredible beauty and diversity which is what makes make life so entirely good.

Hope you’re at peace wherever in the world you are. Kia kaha, R