Family and Coffee: Two of my Favourite Things

This is what our family looks like in holiday mode. Lily especially has the hang of it :)


We've done a fair bit of not-much recently. Plenty of hangin' around home. Kate's noticed that I actually take up space in the house, so having me around makes the place feel smaller... so far I'm still welcome, though ;)

We've done some little outings: the zoo, DFO, the pool, Petersham (ah! the Portuguese custard tarts and butchers!), BBQ with friends.

The other day I went to a course run by these guys:


It was a birthday present, which I only got around to taking up rather belatedly!

The course was great. It was their introductory level course, so I'd heard much of it before. But I think I walked out with three great things:

1. The fire in my belly for coffee was fanned into flames.
2. It was fun to use commercial machines; even that little bit of experience was cool.
3. I now know how to make a long black. (I guess I just never learned how).
   

I guess you could also add: (4) Absolutely wired from having so much coffee. Anyway, thanks very much to those who gave me that little course (all those months ago!).


Happy days drinking coffee.

Low Key Times

Things have been pretty low-key since the end of the college year. Nevertheless a string of little events has punctuated the beginning of holidays rather nicely.

I enjoyed the pinnacle of my tomato-year this afternoon as the first of our crop was declared ready for picking. Delish! For ages now I've been telling Noah that we have to wait for the tomato to turn from green to yellow and yellow to red, finally we could pluck it from the vine :)


There are many more on the way...


I'm fighting off caterpillars on the tomatoes; slugs on the beans; snails on the gardenia; and some other burrowing bug has nearly killed my coriander. I kinda like the challenge, actually. Keeping them all alive and healthy is a very satisfying adventure. Thank God for plants!

I feel I should briefly report back on how the rest of my exams went... They went well. Both Old Testament papers could have been much harder than they were. Church History, likewise, fell my way pretty nicely. I'll devote another post to sharing some of the joys/reminders/discoveries of my exam prep. But for now, thank God for the completion of second year. It really was a tough one and we feel the need for a good rest. As usual, my mates have been a great help and the college community out here (at the But) has really supported our family at some key points. Just fantastic.

Very briefly... My mate Tungy (a Chinese guy) took a bunch of us out to a Chinese restaurant (Fisherman's Wharf Seafood, at the Fish Markets) just after exams. It was spectacularly good. The Peking Duck was exceptional. Ahh! What a great finish to the college year!

Here Lies NT 2

So fourth term is all finished and we're in the thick of exams at the moment. On the Monday-Tuesday just gone, I sat the two New Testament papers.


The second exam was the one with all the Greek (the other one was the 'theology' paper). Providentially, of all the possible Greek texts that could have come up (and that's quite a lot), the paper had three passages on which I'd read the relevant sections of the commentaries that morning - so it was very fresh to my mind! Praise the Lord!

On a random note, here's my new Bible. It's light, and it sits flat on a lecturn while I preach. Hurrah!


Exam prep isn't all bad (actually much of it is really great learning and encouraging stuff). But sometimes you need to take a break. So here's 'the Bro' (Aidan) and Nelson (Suds' dog) at the Dairy Bell Icecream factory outlet. The Bro is one of my study crew 'The Brains Trust' - I love those guys. They are one of the biggest blessings in my college life, I reckon (personally, as much as academically).


While Kaylene was here, Kate and I made it down the road for dinner at the new Lebanese joint called Shishabar. Service was very smooth. Kate's pasta was average. My Shisha Platter was fantastic - the skewer of spiced lamb was delish. (Rubbish photo, I know).


Ok, so on the horizon from here are my two Old Testament exams. The second of those is especially terrifying (translate and comment on Hebrew). Then there's our (Reformation) Church History exam next Thursday. Please pray that I study the right stuff and can recall it at the right time. Though, it's a privilege, this kind of high-pressure study is pretty exhausting - pray that I can leave 'work' at my desk and not import all that stress into family-time, too.

Weather Widgets to Improve your Life

Well, sort of.

My family is pretty keen on knowing the weather. Either to plan washing for tomorrow, or to avoid getting drenched in the next 45mins on my bike, there's nothing like a rain radar and a seven day forecast.

These are the best two weather widgets I've seen:


The first is TheBom Weather Widget. The second is BOMRadar.Au

Enjoy :)

Noah and the Beanstalk

The beans that we planted with Granny and Grandpa have been rocketing up! I'm kindof hoping that one day Noah will come home with gold, a hen, and a harp... perhaps I'd better leave an axe in the backyard ;)

Slugs are our biggest trouble with the beans. I think this is the first practical example of trying to teach Noah about our place in the created order (i.e. helping him to understand why I'll squash slugs, but care for worms and lizards).


It may be blurry, but this is our first tomato. Kate thinks our tomato plant is taking over, and she's sortof right - it's huge! With the onset of spring our herbs, especially, have really taken off. Our lettuce are big enought to harvest, too. Yippee!


In other news, all my written assessments have been handed in now. So it's just the count-down to exams. That means lots and lots of work to do, but lots of learning in the midst of it. For example, I came across this gem while reading Martin Luther's Freedom of a Christian:

'He [the Christian] does not distinguish between friends and enemies or anticipate their thankfulness or unthankfulness, but he most freely and most willingly spends himself and all that he has, whether he wastes all on the thankless or whether he gains a reward. As his Father does, distributing all things to all men richly and freely.'

Gold stuff. Makes me really see the amount of work the gospel still has to do on my own motives and attitudes.

PS. Yesterday I got my hands on a book that I'm rather excited about reading (during Summer!). It's called Intellectuals. It was recommended by Phillip Jensen in one of his machine-gun book reviews. Looking at characters like Rousseau, Marx, Bertrand Russell, Sartre, etc., it 'examines whether intellectuals are morally fit to give advice to humanity' (from the back cover).

Thanatophobia

At the risk of sounding rather morbid...

I just read this book review in the NY Times. Looks like it might be an interesting read.

On a similar topic, I just finished Camus' The Plague. It deals quite a bit with love, hope, and the experience of suffering.

Thanatophobia... cf. 1 Cor 15:55-58.

3,292

This last week has involved a massive effort to get my Old Testament essay finished ahead of my folks arriving in town yesterday. I just managed to scrape it through in time: 3,292 words of essay in the end.

I had a little help, though...


The essay question was a little less scary than my last one. Here it is:

Critically examine the text of 1 Samuel 12:19-25, and explore the way in which it contributes to the theology of kingship.

The passage is the tail-end of the prophet Samuel's final speech to Israel as their leader. He basically promised to continue on as prophet, praying for and instructing the people in God's word, and calls on Israel to follow the Lord, only, looking to Him for rescue and security. It was quite an enjoyable essay to write.

Having said all that, gosh it's great to be finished. That's the last major assessment for the year before exams, and it's a massive milestone to have passed. Term 4 awaits. Baby, and exams! But for now... *sigh of relief*... holidays.

PS. For those interested, John Woodhouse's new commentary on 1 Samuel is excellent; it's a real preacher's commentary. And David Tsumura's NICOT commentary is great for a more technical (Hebrewy) one.

Greek Geeks

This afternoon was our Greek 2 exam. I think it went pretty well.

So that's the end of Greek. No more. We've learned all that we're going to. Well, in an isolated subject anyway. Although we'll continue to use Greek in our New Testament subjects, we won't have it as a separate subject from here on.

Oh yeah, and that's the end of Term 3, too. This year is flying!

Preaching OT Narrative

In a few weeks I'll be preaching on 2 Kings 16-17. Preaching narrative sections of the Old Testament is something that Dave Thurston, the minister at our church, is really keen for us to learn to do well. Heaps of the Bible is narrative, after all. As a part of that, Dave's been encouraging us (his student ministers) to work at being good story-tellers.

When I was in Tassie last, David Jones recommended this book to me in connection with preaching the Old Testament:

The Word Became Fresh: How to Preach from Old Testament Narrative Texts

I finished it last night. It's a little pearler of a book simply because Dale Ralph Davis (a veteran preacher) takes you under his wing as he thinks about Old Testament narrative. It's not exhaustive, it's not deep and complex. It's just sitting with a guy who loves narrative and loves reading the story of God's work in history. He's a sensitive reader (i.e. he notices stuff that I might pass over), and he's a good writer.

There's only one bit that I think is a bit shonky, and that's his little section on the relationship between Jesus and the Old Testament. My quibble is only small, though, in the scheme of things.

On another note, how about 'Ralph' for a middle name??! I guess it wouldn't go so well for a girl... ;)

Stuff to Eat. Stuff to Buy.

Last Saturday was the College Winter Carnival. As well as Sing Star, Story Telling, and a cool Magic Show, there was a baking comp. We (well, Kate) entered a chocolate and pear tart, which is probably yummier than the yummiest thing you've ever seen ;)


Second Prize was the result. (Congrats to Kate, of course). A travesty of justice if you ask me... How could anything possibly be better than pear and chocolate? How? ;)

In other news... if you're partial to a technical commentary then you need to get yourself to Koorong and grab some of the Baker Exegetical series. My mate Jai tipped me off to the sale: they're three for the price of two, at the moment. I already own the John commentary (by Köstenberger); and I've heard very good things about the ones pictured here. The other book in the pile is Berkhof's systematics. It's running out at the bargain price of $16.95. Outrageous.


(For those of you who aren't familiar with the lingo, commentaries are the books that get down to the real nuts and bolts of the books of the Bible to figure out, very precisely, what they are, and are not, saying. Technical ones like these work from the original language.)

Noah reckons my new books are good for driving trains on.


I'm still feeling pretty pooped from last week, and my greek exam is now just ten days or so away. Kate's increasingly feeling very 'pregnant' with all the exhaustion and awkwardness that that entails. Ahhh. Sleep is just the best stuff in the world... when we can get it!

"...The Hebrew Eagle has Landed..."

Whew. What a week!

The time for our Hebrew exam finally arrived today. For some reason or other, it was at 3pm, so we'd all spent most of the day cramming our heads full of as much detail as possible, and only then could we sit the exam. I'm very much a 9am exam kind of person. Get it out of the way. Give me the rest of the day off. Oh well, it wasn't to be this time.

So how was it? Well, it was ok. It really wasn't quite what I was expecting (some surprising content, and some things that I had studied weren't there). But I think I did fine.

One of the translations was taken from this bit of the Bible (Genesis 31:22-25):

(Left hand page, first few lines - all about Laban pursuing Jacob, and God speaking to Laban in a dream. Go on. Click on the picture and get the close-up. Just remember, every single one of those dots is there for a reason!).

So that probably gives you some idea of where our Hebrew is up to. We were told the meaning of a few words in there that we didn't know, but otherwise, we just had to hack through on our own. It's quite a kick to discover that you can read God's word in the original language, even if the result, at this stage, is a pretty clunky translation :)

Straight after the exam we headed to Unca Bruce's for Nana's 80th Birthday Celebrations. Happy Birthday Nana!

Bruce cooked a truly wonderful roast for us all. And Neil's in town for the occasion, too. It was great to catch up with family after a taxing week.

In the Belly of the Beast

Well, welcome to the week of second year dubbed 'The Week of Death'. Why 'Death'? Well, today I handed in my Doctrine essay - a real monster of an assessment, and worth heaps of our mark. And I now have until Friday to cram Hebrew into my head.


Just to get you into the feel of my week, here's the question I chose for my Doctrine essay:

'Discuss the doctrine of original sin in the light of this observation: "The heart of the modern matter is the doctrine of autonomy, which broadly speaking teaches that anything that is not in its entirety the undetermined act of the agent is, to the extent that it is not, a denial of the agent's integrity" (C. Gunton)'

Exactly.

Anyway, it was hard. But in reality I learned heaps. Essays are excellent for that. I reckon the doctrine of Original Sin is one of the trickier little suckers, and yet it's so practical in that it's just talking about our common plight as humans before God. As for autonomy, well, everyone likes to think they're calling the shots, don't they.

Perhaps one highlight of my research was discovering that Kant's Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, and Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism really are pretty readable. Oh yeah, the other highlight was Calvin... that guy is amazing. I think the thing that he really reminded me of is our desperate need for God's kindness to enable us to please Him. Far out.

Back to Hebrew for me. I'll leave you with the picture that was emblazoned upon Noah's party bags (Yes, there were party bags!) last weekend. Rrroooaarr!!

The Last of Kung Fu... for a while ;)

Ok, so the SBS Shaw Bros special has finished now. I think my mates at college will appreciate me talking about something (anything!) other than Kung Fu again.

In conclusion, here's one sentence on each of the five films (in the order SBS screened them):

1. The Blood Brothers (1973, 2 stars) - kinda slow with a drawn-out ending... not for the kung-fu first timer.
   
2. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978, 5 stars) - exceptional in almost every respect!
   
3. Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1983, 2.5 stars) - a film of two halves: started like Monkey Magic outtakes, finished with some stunning fighting and a cool (if cheesy) twist.
   
4. Come Drink with Me (1966?, 3 stars) - consistently cool, but kinda weird in that there are two 'heroes', each with their own fairly isolated little storyline, and neither of them resolve in a major climax... weird!
   
5. The Magic Blade (1976, 4 stars) - a neat story with quirky bad-guys and good variety in the fighting. (Also has a large dose of surreal stunts and special effects)

I'll stop for a while now :)

36th Chamber

SBS's Shaw Bros. film festival thing has been a real treat. In fact, I think I have a new favourite Kung Fu film: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1977)... I think my old favourite was Enter the Dragon.

NB. Make sure you don't mistake this film with Enter the 36th Chamber (which is reportedly rubbish) or Return to the 36th Chamber (which Sheppo says is brilliant).

Next week is Come Drink with Me. But tonight is Eight Diagram Pole Fighter. SBS are seriously turning it on Kung Fu style!

Old Jamie, New Top Gear, Yellow Jersey, Blackheath

With the 'Term of Death' just around the corner we took a little retreat this week to Blackheath (in the Blue Mountains, past Katoomba).

The place we stayed in was both cheap and brilliant. Blackheath is a bit touristy, but it's quiet. Apart from cool things like a gas heater, electric blankets, etc., it also had Austar. Now, let's be clear, ordinarily I wouldn't really care about Austar. However, daily doses of old Naked Chef episodes were just fantastic.

What else did we get up to? We took a short bush walk (about all that Kate could handle these days!).

We read a bit... well, Kate read quite a bit. For the first time in ages she was able to polish off an entire (rather fat) novel in just a few of days! Hoorah for holidays :)


German beer. A few delicately made choclates...


And quite a lot of Le Tour (for me, anyway). I've definitely seen much more of this years Tour than I have of any previous years. If nothing else it has got me really pumped to come back to Tassie and do more riding. (It's hard to get excited about riding around in Sydney. The prospect of riding up and down Mt. Wellington, on- and off-road, is much more enticing).

Kung Fu for You

Over the course of this year, here at the But, I've earned myself various reputations. I'm always the guy taking a plate of kebabs, instead of snags, to the communal barbies. I'm one of the 'bmx-bandits'. I never make Friday arvo tea...

...and I'm the kung fu movie guy. Thankfully, SBS are helping me out. They're putting on no-less-than five (!) Shaw Bros. masterpieces in the lead up to the Olympics. Here's the press release. These, surely, will be the tonic to get me through this term ;)

So here's your chance to get a dose of kung fu in the wee small hours (or to brush up on the finer points of your VCR manual).

Happy viewing :)

PS. Starts this Sunday night (Monday morning) at 12:20am.

Edit: Make that Monday night (Tuesday morning) at 12:20am. The original post on the SBS website was mistaken!

Back on Tasmanian Shores

Two weeks back in Tassie was about the right amount for us, I think. We definitely started to unwind and enjoy things. There was enough time to catch up with a few people, reacquaint ourselves with some our favourite places and experiences. But we avoided getting too reattached; I think much longer and we'd have wanted to stay!

The big highlights were the people. So if we spent time with you, then you were a highlight :)

But there were other cool things too. Take Ben's Buck's thing at Lake St Claire for example. I went straight from the plane (and Newtown, and bustling Sydney Airport) to this...


Narcissus hut. A dozen blokes. Cheese. Chocolate. Mates. A pot-belly fire. It was magnificent. It snowed on us for a little while and looked like settling, but then it ran out of puff.

For some prettier pictures, Mike Jolly is your man. (By the way, the wedding was great, too.)

Babycinos and piccolo lattés from almost all of my favourite cafes, that's another thing we enjoyed. The experience of coming in from the freezing cold, removing jackets and scarves, and then getting down to a cup o' joe: that's what cafes in Hobart are all about, I reckon.


Some days I think the mercury didn't even make double-figures. I guess it makes warm showers that much nicer (but getting out of them that much worse!). My rule with the cold: it's ok if it's freezing, so long as it snows. And snow it did.
The Mountain. Ah, the mountain. It snowed. We went up. The gates were closed. We came back down (for coffee). We went back. It was blowing a gale. But there was snow. Happy times with snow :)

A Belated Congrats

Back in May my mates Ben Walter and Leigh Rigozzi released their little book, Below Tree Level. I finally got my grubby little hands on a copy while we were in Tassie.


There's something really cool about reading books by friends (or seeing their art publicly or listening to their music). Maybe it's that special level of enjoyment that comes from gleaning new insights into their character; maybe its the opposite: delighting in what you already know of them as you see their personality coming through in their work. I guess its both (and more!). I like it.

And another thing I like: the book itself. I don't really feel like reviewing it. I guess you could say it's a very Tassie flavoured, modern day, surrealish, illustrated short story.

I suggest you buy it ;) - through inscrutablepress.com.

Congrats Ben and Leigh!

Almost Three Months.... ahhh.

This is now quite old news, but I didn't really want to blog about it until it'd all come to a resolution. Well, now it has.

Almost three months ago I was involved in an accident on my push bike. Basically a guy in a car pulled out in front of me, and there was no way I could avoid a smash. I was a bit hurt, but not badly; no lasting injuries. Thank God. It could have been a million times worse.


Anyway, the long and short of it is that the insurance company eventually paid me to replace my bike (the old one was a write-off). And now, finally, I've got my new, shiny, fast pushy. It's proving a really fun bike to ride. Although there have been months of inconvenience I'm really thankful that now, again, I've got a bike that I really enjoy riding.

Riding on Sydney roads... Now there's a topic we could talk about some time ;)

Two Down...

Today finished just smashingly. A nice pleasant walk along 'Stink River' (a not-so-affectionate name!), some time together at home, and the weight of my New Testament 2 essay lifted from my shoulders :)

These last few days have been pretty wall-to-wall wrestling with the role of the law in Romans (the topic of my essay). It's been a great ride: lots of learning, good discussions with mates, I've read some really helpful stuff. But I'm sure glad to have that assessment piece 'in the box'.

Which means these books can go back to the shelf!... or library :)


I also preached at church last Sunday on John 1:1-18. Once again I found myself really humbled by the truth, in that passage, that God has come into this world as a human being. That is a staggering truth whose ramifications are enormous for us muddle-headed, self-obsessed, God-ignoring humans. Anyway... best not to get me started! After all, I have about 30mins of material on the subject ;)

That just leaves a Philosophy exam, next Friday, between me and holidays. Thankfully my study group will be back in full-swing to make sure we all get through! I love those guys.

Teaching Scripture Fun

(Katie post - again!) One the highlights of my week (outside of playing with Noah!) is teaching Scripture at a local primary school. A friend looks after Noah while I and another friend spend just one hour teaching little ones about Jesus - I really love it. The material we are given to teach is mostly really good - I didn't realise there were such good resources, and it makes it so easy to do.
We teach a grade 5 class using the 'connect' teaching manual. We've been teaching them all about God's kingdom (using the parables of Jesus) and more recently about the death and resurrection. The class is pretty hard work to control - they do love to talk. But it's great when they ask questions and seem to think hard about what you're saying.

The other class is kindergarten. They are very cute, and love to raise their hand to answer a question. We've been teaching them about how God created the world, how humanity turned against him, and what God did to fix the problem (Jesus!). It's a really fun class, and I love being able to tell them the truth before they hear too many of the world's lies.
Teaching Scripture is such a huge privilege. We get to tell children (who have to listen to us!) about how they need to trust in Jesus to be friends with God. After doing a couple of classes, I've found it's been probably the easiest ministry I've been involved in - so much easier than teaching your peers in a bible study context, and alot less difficult than trying to share the gospel with a 'grown-up' who might not want to listen.

Something I found surprising about Scripture classes up in Sydney is that there a few different classes which parents can choose for their children to attend. There's catholic, protestant, Greek Orthodox, and I think Islamic. Or you can choose for your child to do none. It probably depends on the area as to which religions are on offer.

If you ever get a chance to teach God's word to school kids, do it - what an important job :)

An Excursion to Rozelle

Continuing our tradition of finding fun places to visit on Saturday, we took a trip to the Rozelle Markets today.

It's kinda fun comparing the different markets up here. Glebe is pretty hippy and has a fair range of hand-made stuff; Paddington feels a little more 'proper', there's more 'nice' stuff; and Rozelle is full of second hand stalls. They're all in lovely settings, too. All worth a visit.


We found some cheap kids books, some baby clothes, and some cheap CDs. There is a vast array of second-hand miscellany: the sort of stuff my folks would love, I reckon. We'll have to take you there :)


Just across the road from the markets we stumbled across Belle Fleur Fine Chocolates. This whole 'fine chocolates' obsession seems to be developing into something of a theme for us...


We just grabbed a bar of milk chocolate and kept exploring, but we didn't leave before we noticed this little creation. Or should I say, this monstrous chocolate coffee grinder. It's entirely chocolate, and it's, I dunno, about 400mm high! Huge. It's not for sale, either.

I imagine we'll make it back to Rozelle sooner-or-later. But for me, I think Glebe is still my favourite, not least because the Glebe Markets remind me of Salamanca - but without that South American band ;)

Three from Holidays

My Greek exam went well, by the way...

So what's on between now and holidays? There are three big things that are on my 'work' radar - beyond that is some precious time in the promised land ;)

First, and looming largest, I have an essay to write for New Testament 2. My question is: "What is the role of the law, according to Romans?". The joy in preparing the essay is definitely in getting stuck into God's word in the book of Romans... It's so rich and wonderful and such darn good news!

Second, I'll be preaching at church again on Sunday week. This time on John's prologue (1:1-18). It's gotta be one of the most mind-blowing and life-transforming passages... I'm a little fearful that I'll botch it up, make it boring, make it too 'thinky' (academic).

Third, a Philosophy exam on the last day of term.

Plenty for prayer!

EQUIP

I (Katie -!) went to my 2nd Equip conference on the weekend before last. I get quite a buzz from being surrounded by thousands of women who care about God and the preaching of his word. It's such a well-run conference and I'm really glad I get the chance to be involved while we're up in the big-smoke. To make it even better, my conference buddy was Jan (my wonderful sister-in-law), and we had a lovely day out together.

The preaching at the conference was very good - encouragement from God's word to trust that all things are in God's hands; we should be patient until the end and pray with confidence to the God that has redeemed us.

One thing I've been thinking about with regard to women preaching is what we should expect from a woman in comparison to a man. A couple of friends have commented on women preaching often being weak/wussy and so being not nearly as effective as some male preachers. I think women preachers are often much more aware (and perhaps too aware) of sensitive women in their audiences, or are perhaps quite sensitive themselves. I also think women have a natural tendency to say things gently - which is usually a wonderful quality to have.

I just wonder how much, if any, of these sorts of things should be brushed aside when preaching. I do think women can and should say 'the hard things' and be able to present the Bible as it is without unnecessary disclaimers, but maybe it's not happening enough? How should a sermon from a woman compare to one from a man? Is there/should there be much difference at all?

Any opinions, let me know!

Handmade Chocolate Goodness

One of David Allen's big things about keeping your organisational-life in order is this: if you make something hard for yourself, you'll never do it. Take filing for example: if your filing system is a nightmare, you will resist filing until it hurts. That was my life, until Saturday when I bought this beaut little filing cabinet: at last I can actually get at my files easily. GTD bliss :)

But what does that have to do with 'Handmade Chocolate Goodness'? - I hear you ask. Nothing, except that we bought the cabinet on the same day we paid a visit to this little place...


Adora Handmade Chocolates is over in Earlwood. I guess they're kinda like Blackamoor Confections (which I mentioned recently) - boutique little outfit, lots of tiny morsels of yummy-ness with price-tags to match, a nice vibe to the whole place.
Did I mention how busy the place was? Very. Yes, it was a Saturday arvo; but there really were a lot of people jammed into a small space as we tried to place our order.


We had truffles (a black sesame, and an almond, I think!), a hot chocolate, and a coffee; and I think we'll be back soon.

It's Greek, Ya Know?

What's the value of learning New Testament Greek grammar? Here's an example:

I learned today that NT Greek (almost certainly) does not use the word 'you' in that generic kinda way that we do in English sometimes. For example, we say in English, "How do you become an unbeatable street fighter?" And what we mean is "How would someone become an unbeatable street fighter". We say, 'you'; we mean 'someone'. In Greek, by contrast, when they say 'you', they mean 'you' - the person being spoken to.

Look out for it next time you're reading the Bible and see if it clarifies any ambiguity in the English!

I was just about to head out the door one morning when Noah wanted to wear my back-pack... we found him one of his own so he could be like his daddy :)

Jamie's Rhubarb Crumble with a Twist

I'd hate to give the impression that I actually think about anything other than food ;) So here's another post about yummy little foodie delights!

Jan stayed with us last weekend; it was lovely to catch up with her and hear a bit about the Hobart scene. On Saturday night we had dinner together, so I made the Rhubarb Crumble from Jamie At Home - a great little recipe. But I did it with a twist, and I think it really worked, so I wanted to share it with you other Jamie-philes.

The twist is this: rather than using the juice and zest of an orange, use the juice and zest of one mandarin plus half a lemon. Also add an extra tablespoon of brown sugar (in the simmering stage). The mandarin really works with the rhubarb... just beautiful :)


At the end of this week I have a Greek exam. It's on the particular ways that verbs are used to get across the 'type of action' that the author's driving at. So maybe you're trying to get across the difference between trying to punch someone, beginning to punch them, punching someone once, or punching them a dozen times... well, (New Testament) Greek gets at the difference in it's own special way, and that's what I have to get to the bottom of.

Jamie's cooking and Greek punching... they pretty-much occupy my mind :)

Fruit & Veg while you Sleep

One of the coolest things worth getting up at 5:20am for is our Fruit & Veg co-op.


The Flemington Sydney Markets are a sight to behold at the delightful hour of 6am. The first time I ever went was absolute craziness: super-busy, forklifts driving backwards at break-neck speeds, more forklifts than people, palates of fruit flying around, cars have no right-of-way, packed with people yelling and smoking and pushing rickety wooden trolley-things, and... you get the picture: a huge shed (several sheds, in fact) packed with grocers. (I've now been a bunch of times, and I've realised that the first time I went was uncharacteristically wild: a bit of a trial by fire, I guess).

But it really is fun. Where I live there are about twenty families in a co-op. So we take our turn and use that buying power to get boxes of yummy, yummy fruit and veg. I think today's highlights were probably the delectable little new potatoes and the snow peas.

My favourite ever experience of the markets was (on that first visit) being sold nectarines by an angel - at least that's how I remember it. This middle-aged lady had a couple of palates of white-flesh nectarines; they were some of the best I've ever tasted. And then when I went back to buy some more... she was gone! Vanished. Sold nectarines by an angel ;)

Term 2 and how College Feels at the Mo'

Term 2 kicked off today. In many ways, that means only minor changes: we just pick up some extra Old Testament classes (English classes, in addition to our Hebrew OT classes), and a few of our lecturers pass the baton to other lecturers.

How's college going? Well, let me draw two points of comparison with first year:

1. This year began in earnest right from day one. And it hasn't let up since. It really is assumed that you remember most of the first year stuff (especially in languages). So that makes it more intense and much harder to feel 'on top of'.
2. The material is, if anything, even better. There's heaps to learn in every class. The readings (the ones that I get around to reading!!) are all excellent... So I'm more engaged by the stuff that I'm learning this year, as well. (Which sometime makes it feel more defeating when you get behind!)
   

A couple of things I'm excited about at college right now:

• Barry Webb lecturing us (he began today) in Isaiah and the other latter prophets. Top stuff!
• Our study group is half-way through sharing some reflections on our Church History essay work; there's been some really cool stuff so far. Pete and Nick talked about the biffo between Erasmus and Martin Luther back in the 1520s (stuff that lay at the heart of the Reformation). I think this week we'll hear about Thomas Cranmer (who was eventually killed by Queen Mary), the Anabaptists, and more! Learning from each other about exciting stuff is really brilliant.