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 ;)