where has all the music gone...

today will be quick.
the other week something went wrong with my ipod. oh oh. i was worried, but not, as it was still under warranty. anyway, we went to the apple shop and waited forever, though the service, when we finally got it, was really good. unfortunately, it looked like my ipod needed to be rebooted, so be it, i thought. thinking of the 894 songs that i would lose. anywyay, the genius fixed it within seconds and it looked good to go and when he handed it back to me, it seemed to still have all my songs in place.
so i got excited.
i charged it.
thinking about what i would listen to first.
then it was done, and i started playing with it, to find it was in perfect working order, but alas, all my songs are gone.
so sad.
sadder because i don't have any of my songs here in canada, in fact i got the majority off jayne's itunes anyway.
i will stay strong.
here's to new beginnings...

back in the city

so we are back in toronto now. and when i say back things are city crazy. as the girls training is still on, i am doing lots of things, all at once. we have also had three shootings in the area since we arrived back on friday. we actually couldn't leave church for a little bit last night because a shooting occured just outside the building and the cops didn't want us to leave.

i am feeling a little tired.

anyway, i am off to get some groceries to cook dinner tonight for the girls and a few others, including cath's dad, frank, who greg is trying to find at the airport as we speak, let's hope he finds him...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM

today it is wee agnes' birthday. i was going to tell you how old she is, but that's not very lady like. let's just say she's in her 50's. there. that's a nice thing to say. anyway, we all know how much i love my mum and that she is one of my heroes (the other one being my dad - ha ha). so i am not going to rant and rave about her today. i just want to tell her i love her and that i hope she has a great day. so the picture is taking forever to load...we might have to go without it!

NANA

Nana and Darren - March 2006

it would have been nana's 85th birthday today. i still think of her often and can't believe it's been 5 months since she left us (see mon 24th april). i was reminded by my uncle the other day of how nana would always be so proud of us, even to the point of our embarressment. but, nana would never stop telling us, or others for that matter(if you knew chrissie, you knew all of her children and grandchildrens life stories too) how much she loved us and how proud she was of us. not for even a second did i ever doubt my nana's love for me. i am thankful that she taught me this. to actully tell the ones you love, that you love them.

life can come and go very quickly. if you love someone, tell them. if you appreciate someone, tell them. life is the moments we live now, not something that will come to us in the future.

thanks for the love, lessons and memories nana. i love you.

craig mottram

so i wasn't going to blog today, till i was just reading the aussie newspaper (online of course) and discovered the following about my current favourite aussie track star. craig mottram. we all remember that heart breaking night at the commonwealth games. we were there. i nearly cried. when he was ahead and lapping others in the race when that stupid dude tripped him (if you weren't aware of this, check my archives for my blogs in march 2006 and you'll find it!).
but today he became the first aussie to defend a world cup title with 'a stunning victory over Ethiopian great Kenenisa Bekele in the 3000 metres in Athens' Olympic stadium'. Go craig go. He did a pb and a championship record of 7 mins 32.19secs, demolishing the previous meet record of 7:41.37 (which he set in Madrid in 2002).

the paper said 'Mottram broke away from Bekele, the 5000m world record holder, with about 200m to go and kept increasing his advantage over the Africa team representative, who finished second in 7:36.25. Driss Maazouzi of France was third in 7:47.80.'

You got to love him. seriously. just wait for the olympics.

sacrifice

this life is an experience. you only get to live it once. most of us have enough time to get some things right and to stuff some things up. i am hoping to get more right than i stuff up. trying.
i have learnt (and am still and probably awalys will) to continue to learn what the word sacrifice means. until you experience it in different ways, that word can have a vastly different meaning. i remember when i was about 7ish and i wanted a ring (i think) and mum and dad wouldn't buy it for me, when we got home, i ran away. ok, so i was 7 and it was winter in scotland, the house we lived in had double front doors, and so i made it to between the double front doors. i sacrificed watching the muppets that night to prove my point of how unfairly i had been treated that day. now that i am much older and wiser, ha ha, i have realised that most likely no one else in the family really cared that i missed the muppets that night and my sacrifice, or stubornness didn't really was pretty pathetic. i mean, if i was really serious about being mistrated, i could have at least gone and hidden in the bushes somewhere around the house and at least got them worried as to my whereabouts. my sacrifice was pathetic. but at the time...
the more i have wanted to serve God, the more i have learnt about sacrifice. i remember once facing the idea that not having my family around was a sacrifice. it was and it is. then i faced the idea of giving up my 'home', family, good job, good car, etc for a short time, and thought that was a sacrifice. it was and it is. and i could go on, but the more i learn about sacrifice, the more i learn and appreciate (though i don't think that word describes it properly) the sacrifice that Jesus made for me.
tonight we went to a salvo church next to where we are staying. they sang lots of old hymns. not my favourite one. but i want to leave you tonight with the words to my favourite. verse 3 is my favourite.

HOW GREAT THOU ART
O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power through-out the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee; How great Thou art, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee: How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees; When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in; That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin:

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration, And there proclaim, my God. how great Thou art!

dynamic influencer

today i completed a personality test. not an internet one, one with a little more credibility than that. it's the DISC test. i have done it before. it was good to do it again. it's confirmed it. i am a dynamic influencer (doesn't that sound good). here are some good things about people like me. we are impressive and demanding. we get excited about doing things and looking good. we influence large crowds best. we can be too strong. we have good communication skills and are interested in people. we need to be more patient and sensitive to others feelings.
there were a few other things too. in general, i think the description was pretty good. and i think i am pretty aware of my strengths and weaknesses.
i was also thinking today about the group of people i have spent the last 10 days with and how we are diverse, yet similar. i am glad we aren't all dynamic influencers. the world isn't a big enough place, but thankfully, the hailes family dinner table can hold a few of them!!! (one recent comment of my mum about my nephew was that he looks like a lyons, but acts like a hailes - what a good boy)

akeelah and the bee

tonight we watched akeelah and the bee. i loved it. i think i might have had tears in my eyes just on one or two occassions. maybe. i would recommend it to anyone.
after blogging about fast scrabble yesterday and me thinking, hey, i am not a bad speller and i know a few (and when i say a few, i mean a few) good words, i have been brought down to earth and realised that really, my vocabulary is really not all that special. when we play fast scrabble, we have a new rule that we have to say our favourite word that we made. twice recently my favourite word that i have made has been 'turd'...
anyway, just wanted to let you all know that akeelah the bee is a good movie. go and watch it.

***note to the reader who wanted to make a note to the readers (see the comments on my last blog if you are confused). note to the reader is, well, was a private joke. the other day in class we were reading the bible and there was a bit in the bible that actually had in brackets 'note to reader: be sure to understand what this means' and since then, 'note to reader' has become a favourite phrase. so there you all go, now you know what the 'note to reader' was all about. feel free to use it. it's magic. magic, magic, magic.***

fast scrabble phenonema

have you ever played fast scrabble? my brother taught it to me (he learnt from the hawk family) and i have now passed it on to numerous canadians and their families. matt and i did alter some of the rules, like none of those silly little two letter words that real scrabble allows, and sometimes, if we can't be bothered, we don't score, but whoever finishes first wins (yes, we know this is a little unfair in the case of a person who may get a q, z, j, or x, but life is sometimes unfair, so just deal with it). but it is fun. and i am hooked. i think i have played it nearly everyday for the last week, this means i have also got others hooked too. i mean, you can't play by yourself.
in case you want to try it, i will tell you how we play:
- get out all the letters (throw away the board and those little wooden stand things)
- turn them upside down so you can't see the letters
- each player chooses 7 tiles - still no looking
- then on 'go' everyone turns their letters over and starts trying to makes words that join so they have their own little scrabble board (note to reader: if you place them all on your hand, then you can flip them all at once, this saves precious seconds)
- as soon as one person has used all their letters, they yell 'go' and everyone takes another tile and has to add this new one into their 'board' (note to reader: you can rearrange all your tiles as often as you'd like)
- this keeps happening until someone says go and there aren't any tiles left - or there aren't enough for everyone to get one
-then you take one of two options: the matt and fee way when we play is that the first perosn finished, as long as their words are all valid, wins - the other way is then for everyone to add their word scores as you would a normal scrabble board and if you didn't use all your letters, subtract that from you score, highest score obviously wins
there you go, that's how you play fast scrabble. if you need any rules clarification, just leave a comment. and if there are any discrepancies, dont' forget dictionary.com can save a relationship!

random thoughts

tonight i am tired, so here are just a few quick random thoughts before i take this tired body and head off to bed.
- i miss my friends back home
- daz is going to the UK on friday
- kez and hil and daniel are on a plane to melbourne as i type
- dad is in montana
- where are people reading my blog? 52% are in australia, 18% are in the states, 16% are in canada, 9% are in the UK, the rest are all like 1%'s, but france is at the top of that list. i think soon, the canadians will over take the americans
- why do most humans love to eat way more than what is necessary for us to live???
- matt wrote me a beautiful email today
- apparently the croc hunter left nearly all his money to some good cause???
- i will arrive back in melbourne on December 28 (hey 52% of you reading this blog, get excited)
- i don't know for how long
- the bible is such an intricate book
- we, humans, are intricately designed
- googling peoples names under google images can be hilarious!!!
- i want to run against the speed machine with brad, matt, annie and aaron!!!
- heath ashby fletcher turned one the other day
- i didn't know until the other day that chaf and chaff are different (i mean really, who else knew that....???)

Goodnight.

words from australia and the bible

thanks to stephanie being here (one of the new igniters), i have rediscovered/remembered some aussie words that i should have never let slip from my vocabulary. these (and their translations for the non aussies) include:
- starkers; to be naked
- arvo; afternoon
- bonza; really really good
- good as, sweet as, hot as, flat as, nice as; basically any desribing word with an 'as' on the end like you were going to compare it with something but then not
- ripper; also really really good
- crikey; a word used to describe bewilderment
- pash; to kiss (i hadn't forgotten this one actually)
- sanger; a sandwich
(there are more that have temporarily left my mind, please feel free to leave a comment with as many other aussie words that you can remember to keep my vocabularly in check!)
i have also had the joy of watching 2 people try vegemite for the first time - 1 liked it, the other did not.

speaking of australia, tomorrow, my beloved sister (kez), along with her husband hil and my most gorgeous little nephew, daniel, will be leaving on a jet plane to head to our home of melbourne. i am a little jealous, though i wish them the greatest holiday. all you melbournians, look out for them and give them a block of cadbury black forest to bring home for me!

anyway, we are having a great time at jackson, some great laughs and learning times to. i am loving the discussion that we have been having. last night after dinner one topic that came up was about how Christians often like to 'rank' sins. for example, lying is not nearly as bad as murdering, or gossip is not as bad as adultery. unfortunately(?) for us, the bible says that all sin is sin. it doesn't seem to give any other explanation than 'the wages of sin is death'. not some sins. not just the bad sins. but sin. hmmm. now, what 'death' means, is hell. what is hell....well that's at least another blog, which i will do sometime very soon i promise. i am just thankful that i have a Saviour who has paid the price for all my sin (the 'big' and 'little' ones i have and will commit). i think brad keeps getting into my head and stealing my blog ideas before i get to write about them, his latest included a bit on judgement and how we should be speaking the truth in love - also part of our discussion - we talked about when it is our duty and when it is not our duty to tell others when we can see their sin. many people say that we shouldn't judge, but what the bible really says about that is that if we judge, then be prepared to be judged by the same rules. hmmmm.

thats probably enough for today.

one last comment - special mention to the flush who came up to visit and also was the conversation starter after dinner last night.

jacksons

so i have been up at jackson's point since tuesday. i am up here with the new ignite team and a few others, who come and go to teach and/or participate. since arriving, i have had some positive things happen, like learning more about theology and also some bad things happen, well maybe not very many bad things at all, but i did something i swore i would never do. i tried cheese whiz. and i have vowed that i will never, never, eat that bad stuff again. for the aussies, who are way to smart for Kraft to even try to sell the nasty stuff in our country. cheese whiz is a paste. a bright yellow 'cheese' paste. i know back home we have cheese spreads and i like these. but they ar enothing compared to cheese whiz. i urge you all who have never tried the stuff, by no means, not even out of crazy curiousity or the persuasion of those who are living in darkness and think the stuff is acceptable to eat, DO NOT try it. you body will thank me if you don't. this will be the last time i talk about this horrid experience. cheese whiz is evil.

here's a funny little fact about me and jackson's point. i can't not sing at least once the line 'we're going to jackson(and i add my own 's) from the johnny cash song, every time i drive up here.

one serious thing though. i have appreciated the fact that i am here with a small, yet diverse, group of people with such different backgrounds. yet we are all here for the same reason of wanting to develop our relationships with God. one thing that i never wish to be in my life is close minded. i hope that i will always be open to learning and challenging myself. we have discussed up here, that faith is only alive if it is growing, anone way to ensure that our faith grows is to never stop asking questions. brad's new blog (hope you like the plug freindy) www.bjfreind.blogspot.com just discussed the idea that being a Christian is hard. harder than not being one. but it is so worth it. i wouldn't have it any other way. i wish i had more time to blog about this, but i'll have to save it for another day.

i'll leave you with one thought - 'it's not kentucky'

(for understanding on this comment you will need to watch 'the way home' - ask sherri g about it)

crikey

i woke up this morning to a text telling me that the crocodile hunter was dead. i kind of felt a bit strange. such an aussie icon. mind you, he made it big overseas before he did at home, i remember the first time i heard about him was on a trip to the states and everyone was all 'crocodile hunter, crocodile hunter'. now he's just famous everywhere. and has his own wildlife zoo up in queensland.
a stingray stab to the heart. there have only been 3 recorded deaths in Australia by stingray ever. and less than 20 recorded stingray deaths worldwide. that's a freak accident. all those dangerous things that steve irwin did and this is how he died. however, as one of his best friends wrote, he died doing what he loved.
if you have ever seen steve irwin in action, you would know that he is a passionate passionate (i did write that twice, it's not a mistake) man. he LOVED what he did.
i think what our world lacks is passion. we have become content to sit by and do what we like, when we feel like it, but do we ever really get passionate about things. ok, so there are some examples, like steve irwin, and last night i saw the movie (i forget - invincible?) about Vince Papale's NFL career, he had heart. and of course, there's nothing like a mad footy fan (it's september - go the crows). what makes people great at what they do is passion. i don't think i have ever seen anyone with a passive attitude really do anything amazing.
Jesus talked about passion, he said it was better to be hot or cold (passionately for him or against him) than to be lukewarm (if Jesus had been around today i am sure he would have used the word fence sitter).
i hope that not just at the end of my life, but at any stage during it, i could be described as someone who is passionate. passionate about God, my family, my friends and the way i live my life.
thanks crocodile hunter.