Then there was St Ali

Jen and I had a mad day of Melbourne-ness. Some highlights…

Crepes for breaky. I had the mushrooms. Jen had lemon and sugar.


Brother Baba Budan for the chairs… and the coffee.


Basement Discs for Miles.


The Narrows for John Warwicker's roses.

Seven Seeds for Helen… and the coffee.


Metropolis for books.

Quist to see La Victoria Arduino #22 of 100 in the world; but it was in for a service :(


Then there was St Ali. I loved St Ali. Everything was right. Syphon Kenyan. Double rist on the Slayer. But BW wasn't happy with it, so he made one on the Synesso; it was better. St Ali was really the only cafe of the day to properly nail the syrupy double rist the way I like it (and the way my fave Sydney cafes do it every time).

To Melbourne

The drive was pretty epic. About 900kms. Praise God, we made it in one piece. The car didn't even hiccup. I was very thankful to have Jen for company, and air con for happiness.

Some things:
Nelson wished us well at about 6:45am.


Caffeine break at Yass. (I'll always be drawn to Yass, Chris.)


Lunch at the Green Zebra, Albury.


There were two tense traffic-moments on the road, one in the wet in Sydney, one at 100km/h on a freeway in Melbourne. Yuck.

But we made it. Happy days.

One Last Dance with Sydney

My last days in Sydney were filled with friends and faves. Here are a few that I loved:

A double rist from Mecca


Egg & Bacon Roll from Urban Bites


IPA from Red Oak


Kebab from Rowda Ya-Habibi


A Farewell from Barry Webb,

"God bless you guys. Send some more up."

The Newtown I've grown to love.

Some Sad Farewells

Over the last week or so there have been lots of goodbyes. Different people say their goodbyes differently. Some cry, some try to slink away quietly. I think I'm a "celebrate, say nice things, then don't look back" kinda guy.

I've felt really loved and supported by so many friends up here as we've undertaken our move home. Suds devoted an afternoon to hanging with me yesterday. A raft of people shared breakfast with me this morning. The Wrights have said "Yes" to every single favour we've asked of them and more. I think Sparky probably holds the most-hugged award, although Pete's a close second. The boys at Shenkin were their usual exuberant selves as they wished us well.



So many good memories.

These Didn't Make It

It turns out I was pretty optimistic in estimating how much our little car can hold.

These guys didn't make the grade.


I kinda consider it a victory that only so few things have to be left behind. The process of packing the car was like a massive game of tetris; and once I was confident that I could fit all of the important stuff, it even became pretty fun. Laugh out loud fun, in fact. Or maybe I'm just tired and silly.

Please pray that our heavily laden little vehicle makes it all the way to Hobart without a fight. Jen arrives tomorrow night. The journey begins early on Wednesday morning.

The Last Box

Here's the last, lonely box. And now it, along with all it's friends, have departed our little house forever.


I think I felt a greater sense of relief and finality as the removalists' truck drove away than when I finished my last exam. How odd. I suppose even as I finished exams I knew the grueling task of packing-up our things was ever present.

Not any more. Now we're pretty tired. We're cleaning. And saying a last few goodbyes before Hobart life resumes.

Finished.

At 5:15pm today I finished all the academic requirements for my BTh.

Woohoo!

(For no particular reason, here's a picture of Robert Doyle, one of the members of faculty. Spot the smiling Masters in the background).


There was a dinner for all exiting students afterwards.

I'm going to bed now.

Doctrine Awaits

Just one more... the end is nigh. (Doctrine on Thursday)

This afternoon we sat the New Testament exegesis exam. Nick commented, just before we started, that there had been more laughing around the college today. I wondered if it was because people felt more confident. Nick said, no, people are just increasingly tired, and with tiredness comes silliness, in spades.

Nick was right.

The format of today's NT3 exam was novel, and I kinda like the changes. In the third section we were given a pair of sentences (in Greek, with no verse numbering or reference), each taken from different parts of 1 Corinthians (or Luke-Acts, if that's your thing). We then had to talk about the significance of those two sentences for the theology of the whole book.

One to go, people.

Tumbleweed in the Study

Akos had his Social Ethics exam yesterday. It was his last. He's finished.

*sniff*

It's lonely in my study this morning.

Two More

'When one catches the power of Paul's vision of the human plight... one can hardly imagine that it was eclipsed by the Jew-Gentile relationship'
How does an understanding of Paul's anthropology affect one's assessment of the so-called new Perspective on Paul?

That was one of the three questions that I knew how to answer, did answer, and did a fairly mediocre job of answering in this afternoon's New Testament Theology exam. Ah well.

The exam was pretty good in terms of the questions that were available. And, thankfully, I was feeling fine--my cold has all but gone, now. Praise the Lord! I was even able to get some study done over the course of the weekend, despite feeling rather headachey and yuck :(

Tomorrow we'll complete the New Testament pair, with Exegesis (i.e. translation and commenting on the meaning of short passages). And then there's just doctrine, on Thursday.

I can almost see the end of it all!

Over the Hump, but...

... I have a mild fever, and feel pretty rubbish. I blame Nick, even though we've only spent a few minutes together recently ;)

But, on the bright side, I'm now more than half-way through exams. Three subjects down (4 exams), two subjects to go (3 exams).

Ethics was three hours long and involved writing five essays. The compulsory question was about bringing biblical ethics and pastoral sensitivity to a rather messy divorce/remarriage kinda scenario.

Monday/Tuesday is New Testament, and they've changed the exam for this year so that translation (from Greek) is worth very little in the scheme of things; I actually have to have intelligent things to say, rather than just memorising the NIV.

Please pray I get better and learn some intelligent-sounding things :)

Worth a Listen: Ethics

A bunch of my friends went to the New College Lectures this year. I didn't go. I had other things on that week.

But I've now listened to all three of the lectures and I recommend you do, too. Pithy, thoughtful, very listenable, even moving at times. And not just for total nerds, either.

Check 'em out here. They're entitled, Bioethics And Future Hope, by Prof. John Wyatt.

The Rest of my Hebrew Days - Day One

I just did the first Hebrew vocab training of the rest of my life. No tests to study for. No set texts to master. Just for the value of it.

I got 4 words wrong (of 111).

I've yet to figure out what a reasonable target is for vocabulary learning (over the long term) in Hebrew. I'll try to increase my vocab to some fixed number of uses in the OT (e.g. learn all words used 50 times or more in the OT). And then I reckon I'll try to have some passages/books that I've mastered down to the hapax (single occurence of a word).

Any advice?

Counting in Subjects Makes me Feel Better

My mate Pete pointed out to me that if I count-down to the finish, in subjects, rather than actual exams, it makes the end feel closer. So,

Two Subjects Down, Three to Go.

The end feels closer already :)

Today was the second exam for Old Testament, and I think it went remarkably well. The uncertainty was all about which passages we'd have to comment on. Basically, passages I liked came up.

Here's one of them now: It's Ezekiel 36:16-32.


Ethics is Thursday.

I Sat the OT3 Theology Exam, and I Survived

It's true. I'm alive.

Immediately before every Old Testament exam I am absolutely convinced that--if I were the one setting the questions--I could set an exam that is fair, but which I couldn't even pass.

The questions weren't as horrible as I feared. In fact, I think I did fine. (And thankfully, I'll probably never set exams.)

Here's one of the questions, which might interest you next time you're watching a Sunday night doco:

To what extent has the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls challenged the assumption that the Masoretic Text* should form the basis of modern Old Testament editions?

My answer was basically:

• The Dead Sea Scrolls sorta complicated the picture a bit (by giving us a whole lot more to work from in terms of different textual traditions).
• But mostly they strongly reinforced our view of how awesome the Masoretic Text is... they showed it was almost perfectly preserved for nigh-on a millenia.

Tomorrow is the Old Testament Exegesis exam. i.e. a whole lot of translating, and some commenting on short passages in Hebrew.

* The Masoretic Text is basically the most important source for our Old Testament Bibles.

Six to Go, and Counting

My Philosophy exam was today. Here's one of the questions:

'Evil is tragic, awful, painful, and personal, and it should be acknowledged as such. If a theodicy urges us to forget or ignore that fact, it loses its relevance for addressing the relentless pain of the world'.

In what sense can you agree with this statement as the compassionate response to the 'problem of evil'?

A pretty cool question, I reckon.

I think I did fine in today's exam. What's got me concerned is the Monday/Tuesday Old Testament onslaught. Monday is the theology exam, Tuesday the exegesis (i.e. translating and commenting on specific passages). Pray that I fill my head with the right stuff! It's seriously frightening.

Seven

Exams kick-off tomorrow arvo and conclude on the 19th. I will sit seven exams.

Please pray for us (me, my family, and my classmates). It's always a pretty stressful and draining time. Writing the exams is only part of the experience, of course; there's all the study in between, the fear of falling sick, trying to remain a normal human being in the home rather than acting like a study-cyborg.

Old Testament is (for me) the most frightening of the papers because the examinable material is just so vast. The others will be hard, I'm sure, but don't pose an obvious threat to life itself :)

Emotions, Angst, and Worldview-Change

I'm studying for my philosophy exam at the moment, and in particular I'm looking at worldviews - how we come to them, how our thinking relates to our experience, that sort of thing. I just read this little bit and wanted to share it with you:

Healthy emotional life which knows and expresses appropriately the full range of emotions is crucial in worldview formation. [...] Unresolved issues in personal or communal life can cause an enormous split between what is in fact done and what is confessed in faith. When such a split becomes a way of life, incongruities become increasingly difficult to live with and pressure builds up for resolution. The painful pressure and turmoil can lead to delusions and schizophrenia; more commonly, release occurs through a modification or adjustment of the vision of life. Through rationalization and other defensive postures we adjust our view of life in an effort to restore peace and unity. When our vision of life is contaminated, both faith and praxis are threatened.

Olthuis, James H. 'On Worldviews' Christian Scholar's Review. 14/2 1985, 153-164.

When we think about informing and shaping our (or someone else's) worldview with the gospel, it's easy to think of it as an information exchange, pure and simple.

It ain't necessarily so.

My Last Class is Coming

Tomorrow is the last day of classes for my degree! Wow.

I think because I've seen exams as 'the end', I've kinda let tomorrow sneak up on me unawares. But in many ways all the things that I associate most with college come to an end tomorrow, not in three weeks time with exams. Sitting in class with friends, the broader networks of relationships, learning from lecturers, the lunch time routines, the little eccentricities and college traditions, ping pong, prayer group, and my beloved study group: 'The Brains Trust'.

The daily grind, which has been such a joy, has but one last wind of the crank left in it. This place has shaped me in all sorts of ways: my thinking, my personality, my view of the broader world and Christian history, my love for Tassie and Sydney, the way I work. Praise God for it. I've more to be thankful for than I can possibly list, and more than I'm even able to articulate.

One last day.

Gomez @ The Metro

Pete and I were in the front row. So, so good. Really tight. Fun. So varied.


They played lots of oldies... more than we expected for a new album tour.

Home Espresso Tips: #5

Last one.

Chances are your espresso machine came with a tamper. Plastic, flimsy, not actually flat.


Recently I bought a $30 tamper. The big gain has been consistency. It fits (almost) right, I can get good, even pressure on it. The shots are just more consistent.

My closing thought: Laugh-off the bad times. Striving to get better coffee is pretentious and the pursuit of a perfectionist, which should probably render it impossible to enjoy. Take joy in the good times; be humble enough to ask advice and learn; realise you will never attain perfection in a coffee cup in this life. Drink coffee with friends.

Preach it like Steve

I want someone else to read this book and tell me if there's anything worth gleaning from it for preaching:

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

But I don't want anyone to know that I asked.

(Thanks TUAW)

Home Espresso Tips: #4

A quick one this time. Milk.

Happily, cheap domestic espresso machines can usually turn out pretty good milk (so long as they're well cleaned). My advice is basically practice, practice, practice spinning milk. Watch the videos. Read the tutorials. Ask your favourite barista.

You can't nail latte art unless you nail good milk. And, I reckon, milk textured just right feels and tastes better in the mouth.

Milk.

Home Espresso Tips: #3

So I've got my shots ready. The milk's in the jug. I flick on the steam wand, and... feeble, poor, lame. A mere sigh of hot air. The worst part is I've only got myself to blame.


Cleaning. Yep. Not glam in the least. But my goal is to be familiar enough with cleaning my machine that it's just no big deal - I can do it without thinking.

As for flushing your machine, there's an on-the-cheap method here: http://www.coffeeco.com.au/articles/august2002.html

But when it comes to the steam wand. Hmm. Well, of course you've gotta thoroughly wipe it after every single use. But if yours is like mine, you also need to clear it with a pin nearly as often. If you can figure out how it comes apart, even better (the nozzle unscrews on mine).

So, clean. The fewer things you can blame your machine for, the better :)

Home Espresso Tips: #2

Use a grinder. That's my tip. Grind fresh.

I'm not saying you need an expensive one. I plodded along with this little manual number for a long time, and I loved it. I think people thought it was kinda nerdy or quaint or ridiculously painstaking. I loved it.

As for what type of grinder... well, you're looking for consistency on two fronts. You want it to be the same from cup-to-cup. And you want the grind itself to be even (i.e. not boulders and dust all at once). For me, I'd rather use elbow grease on a conical burr grinder than get frustrated by inconsistent blades.

What's the big deal? Stick your nose in a bag of pre-ground coffee several days after you opened it, and then stick your nose in some freshly-ground beans. That's why.

Home Espresso Tips: #1

There seem to be two ways to get good espresso at home: (a) Pay through the nose for a swish machine, or (b) buy takeaways from a good café.

That said, in my experience you can get reasonable results from an entry level machine. I thought I'd share a couple of tips... and not the ones I usually read on coffee websites, either.

Tip #1: Use the right glasses / cups.


Volume is what I'm talking about: how much the glasses hold. If you use a mug, all you'll be able to taste is warm milk. Try smaller glasses (around 200ml, even a little less). At least then you'll be able to taste the coffee.

The Lappy is Back

All six problems with my laptop are now fixed, thanks to the guys at Mac1, Burwood.

For your info, here's what was wrong:

• Bluetooth intermittently unavailable.
• The white LED on the front panel not working at all.
• Cracks in the top-case (both sides).
• The colour LED on the power cord often didn't work.
• The screen intermittently flashes/flickers, with lighter/garbled bits.
  
• Would not enter sleep mode automatically.

Here's what's still wrong:

• Nothing.
  

Repair, and Trees

Last night I submitted the last essay of my degree.

It was quite a relief. Writing the essay was absolutely worth the effort, and mining the riches of O'Donovan's works was one of the most profitable things I've done at college, I reckon. I looked at the issue of homosexuality as a case-study in applying his ethics... wow. Some of the most pastorally deft stuff I've ever seen, I think.

Anyway, today was the first day of beginning to really refocus onto exams... but it was also a day for repair.

My laptop has accumulated about six separate, niggling little issues over the course of the last year or so. I'm not too bothered about it; that's technology. None of them are mission critical, but each of them is annoying. Today I checked her in to be repaired. Here's hoping!

Part of my prep for the ordeal of being separated from my laptop for several days was printing stuff I'd need. I was stunned: I had to print soooo much! People deride the paperless office as a ridiculous myth, but, in all seriousness, the paper-equivalent to the document's I'd access in a few short days runs to something around 70 pages.

As I was printing I could almost smell the exhaust of chainsaws felling old-growth forests by the footy-oval. Speed those repairs!

A Respectable Lust for Power?

O'Donovan makes for uncomfortable reading, at times. (It's a long quote, I know, but worth it)

'Commanding at a distance has long been the sign of power, and the enthusiasm for it is obviously power-oriented. We need at least to be aware of the temptations that accompany such power. When I have entered my credit card number and double-clicked on the "confirm" box, some packer somewhere has to act on my order, some driver struggle through the traffic on the motorway, some postman find my front door. For me, as for the slave-owners of the early modern colonies, it is all too easy to overlook those on whom the gratifying of my desires depends, and to succumb to the illusion that the tips of my fingers on keyboard and mouse have freed them from the constraints of place, too!' (The Ways of Judgment, 260, emphasis original)

Yes, it's out of context and quite provocatively put, but there's something in it, I reckon.

Acceptance.

This was me at 7:14am this morning. And that envelope contains my letter of acceptance of the Assistant Minister position that Crossroads recently offered me for 2010.


Hoorah!

Stumbling toward Ethics

My Ethics essay is taking a whole lot of my time at the moment. The idea--pray that I get there!--is to outline and critically evaluate Oliver O'Donovan's theological ethic, and I've decided to take homosexuality as a case study.

Along the way, I've stumbled across a lecture series (as a book) from 2001, entitled Common Objects of Love. I recommend it. It traverses terrain like: what binds people together in community, how our loves affect our thinking on right and wrong, how Christians should live among and with non-Christians, and more.

It's a seriously good read, and not nearly as dense as his big works.

Post-Apocalyptic Haze

This is what my backyard looks like a bit after 7am on any given foggy day.


This is what it looked like today at 6:45am today. (1 sec exp., so the reality was less vivid.)


And here it is at 7:05am. (1/10 sec exp)


The air tastes like dust. Horrendous.

Chatting with Nick this morning, we talked about how the smelliness and dirtiness of Sydney saddened us when we first moved up here. I imagine there are some poor souls out there who moved to Sydney just yesterday; this is their first morning of Sydney-life. Yikes.

Looking forward to the Tassie air. Hoping our lungs hold out until then ;)

Crossroads' Offer!

I'm very excited to say that today Crossroads, via its emissaries, Dan and Gwyd, offered me a position for next year!

The position is Assistant to the Minister. The role includes some specifics, but it is quite general (involving preaching, evangelism, etc.), rather than being narrowly focused on one bit of ministry. It's part time (5 of 7 days a week). We were interviewed for it when we were in Tassie in July.

I'm actually quite relieved to have it 'in hand'!

Please join us in thanking God for providing this opportunity for us, and ask that He continue to prepare us for the ministry ahead.

bills, Welsh, Greek, rubbish.

Last week Kate and I had the chance to go out to dinner. We decided to go to bills, Surry Hills. It was great. We recommend it.

I've also been on holiday for a week or so (our last while living in Sydney!). Holidays, typically, mean food. This one has been no exception. Jamie's Welsh Rarebit was pretty fun.


Thanks to the Foodies Guide to Sydney we checked out the factory shop at TIM Products, Marrickville. The bloke there lavished Greek sweets upon us.


While in Marrickville we also visited Reverse Garbage. It's basically a suburban tip-shop. I love the idea; but I found almost nothing vaguely interesting. However, if you need a filing cabinet, go there. You should get something reasonable for about $35.

Goodbye Tiger. Hello Snow Leopard.

Two recent developments in my technological world:


(Warning: some jargon may confuse or bore some readers)

1. This week I got around to upgrading to Snow Leopard (I bypassed Leopard altogether). The upgrade worked... after a couple of small hitches. First, I discovered my DVD drive wasn't working. Why?? Because Noah had posted the business card of my favourite café in there. Nice. Second, the install DVD was a bit faulty (a fairly common problem, I gather); but eventually I managed to install the bare OS, just some of the extra bits remained inaccessible.
2. Thanks to this guide I managed to get Time Machine (backup software) to access an NTFS network share.
   

(End Jargon)

kategoria!

Occasionally, people dump old books in some public spot at college, usually accompanied by a sign that says, 'Free Books', or something similar.

Today I scored the entire back-catalogue of the discontinued kategoria journal.


Score.

Manly with Auntie Amanda

Last weekend Auntie Amanda was in town. We visited some old favourites, and explored some new ones. Unfortunately Noah was pretty crook on Saturday night (he was ok by the morning).

I reckon I'm going to miss the vast diversity of stuff on offer here in Sydney. Ah well, enjoy it while it lasts, I guess :)

Some of the old favourites included:

• Glebe Markets
• Newtown (College and King St.)
  
• Shenkin
• Church

The biggest new thing was taking the ferry to Manly.

Here's the Shakshuka from Shenkin.


Affogato at Campos.


A beautiful day for the ferry ride to Manly.


We found a good coffee joint at Manly called Barefoot.


And we found the beach, too.


In all, it was great having Amanda with us. We look forward to seeing much more of you really soon :)

Jackman on Demands

David Jackman finished-up his series of lecture with What Preaching Demands. He said there are five demands that lie at the heart of fruitful biblical ministry, non-negotiables that a preacher must always be marked by:

1. Constantly feeding on the word of God
   
2. Dependence upon the Holy Spirit
3. Commitment to Hard Work and Progress
4. Love for your Hearers
5. Realism about the Battle

At one point he made this observation (paraphrased):

If you deprive your preaching program of narrative (i.e. the story parts of the Bible), you’ll deprive your congregation of the great bulk of teaching on the doctrine of God from Scripture.

Gold, I reckon.

Jackman on the Heart

All I have to do to have a hard heart, is nothing.

That was David Jackman's comment on Psalm 95 in his lecture, this morning, on Where Preaching Connects.

Reflecting on Psalm 95, he reminded us that: (a) we're seeking a response from our preaching, not just a hearing; and (b) as preachers we've gotta pray for people's hearts.

Jackman on Preaching

Happily, this week David Jackman is loitering around college, speaking each day in chapel on preaching.

Yesterday he spoke on Why Preaching Matters.

(Paraphrased) If you’re not on about proclamation, then don’t put yourself forward as a pastor. Your congregation needs the word proclaimed.

This morning was all about How Preaching Works. He warned against the pitfall (in preaching) of trotting out any one of the various frameworks of thinking that you bring to a given text. He listed heaps; here are the ones I got...

• Systematic theology framework - a topic from systematics swamps the meaning of this text.
  
• Pastoral framework - an immediate pastoral concern governs the shape the sermon.
  
• Legalistic framework - some legalistic concern, specific to our sub-culture, takes over as the issue.
  
• Programmatic framework - whatever your agenda for the time: preaching, evangelism, mission, etc.
  
• A framework governed by our favourite illustrations.

In other news... here's my current desktop wallpaper. I took it from the Manly ferry on Monday.

Time well-spent

One of the constant balancing-acts at college is deciding how much time to pour into reading, and how much to pour into languages. It seems impossible to keep up with both. But, on the bright side, any time poured into either proves to be time well spent.

On two books specifically:

• I can't wait to get into Peterson's Acts commentary.
• I just finished Blocher's Evil and the Cross, which really called into question the way I think of the origin of evil with respect to God's sovereign purposes.

Last night was the Moore Revue. Des did stand-up. Chris fought a drum-battle. Christian read an extremely well-written short story of his own. But if you don't check out this Derek Churchplanter video, by my mate Stephen, you're living a poorer life than you could be.

Ahh Zoolander!

Pleasures and Frustrations

Last Friday arvo saw Des and I head out to Flemington for what was my last fruit & veg bulk buying expedition. I'm still stuck on quinces, so I got a few more to stew. It was also über fun hanging with Des for some purpose other than study. It had been too long!


For those particularly interested, I've caught a snag with my espresso making pleasure. Channeling. I just can't seem to get around it. I'm thinking of getting a better tamper to try to eliminate inconsistency there... but here's my hypothesis for the moment:

Cheaper domestic espresso machines (or at least mine) deliver the water at higher pressure than they ought.

It's just a theory, I can't prove it, either.

Read, Write, Nerd.

The other day, a student making an announcement over lunch had the audacity to preface his announcement with this qualification:

'This announcement isn't just for the nerds, ok?'

Please. It's a Bible College.

Two high points from this last week or so...

• Read. Holiness, by John Webster.
  
• Write. Today I handed in an exegetical paper, which is like writing a bit of commentary on a passage of the Bible (i.e. what's this bit of the Bible on about, in its context). The paper was on Psalm 96. For some reason I didn't really like what I came up with much at all. I'm glad it's finished.

The next major assessment isn't due for ages, but it's a killer: Ethics essay. I'm looking at Oliver O'Donovan.

Something Old, Something New

Something Old... Ages ago I posted about making Jamie's Rhubarb Crumble, and stuffing some mandarin in there for good measure. Last week I had the pleasure of revisiting that land of happiness. It still rocks. Go and buy/borrow Jamie at Home and find out for yourself.


Something New... This one's Donna Hay's work. There's broccoli in there. Bacon. Mint. It could perhaps have been improved by an accompaniment of cold weather.


Continuing the rhyme-theme a little longer: Something Borrowed... The other night I watched Yojimbo. It's seriously good. Vintage Kurosawa. Check it out.

New Crazes, Two of Them

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that I did manage to get my New Testament essay in. Some essays take it out of you; others really get you thinking about life; others stretch your thinking. This one did all three. I felt smashed by it, in the end. And so relieved to submit it.

But this post is about two new crazes in my life.

This week (and it'll happen again in a fortnight) I shopped for our fruit and veg co-op. Man, I love it. I went with Kristan, which was a blast (next time is with Des).

I bought quinces. (Just a few for myself, not for the whole co-op; I wasn't sure they'd be appreciated!). Thankfully, Jen and Funnel were in town to show me the ropes with quince-stewing.


So the second craze is Grand Designs. Jen and Funnel sat us down and showed us an episode (Series 5, the Urban Space Pod). I love that show. It's so good. I can't believe it's existed so long without me getting into it. I want to watch it all... while eating stewed quinces and yoghurt.

Jen & Funnel in Town

This weekend Jen (my eldest sister) and Funnel (her fiancé) were in town.

We basically packed our weekend with awesomeness. Here are some highlights...


...in Newtown:

• College - just a quick tour and some lazing on the grass.
  
• Berkelouw books
• Campos - where else!?
  
• Thai La Ong - $6 Thai lunch.
  
• Goulds Books - the most nuts 2nd hand books store in all the land.
• Hung out with Mick, Fi, their boys, and Soph in the park.

...out and about elsewhere:

• Kinokuniya, City - the best book shop in all the land. Hands down.
  
• Sweet Belem, Petersham - Portuguese Custard tarts.
• Alimento Deli, Summer Hill - for our usual order of blueberry bagels.
  
• New Shanghai, Ashfield - Dumplings. Noah loves dumplings. Funnel loves red bean.
  

Needless to say, we're wrecked. But we loved the time together. Thanks Jen and Funnel :)

There was one added challenge: car capacity. We have just five seats; we had six people. So I was on bike-duty! Ah well, all the better for building an appetite for bagels, tarts, dumplings, and the rest ;)