Well...
Time seems to get away from us quickly doesn't it!

I got a good piece of writing to begin the blog with:

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD.Psalm 37:23
An unknown author once described his journey of giving God control of his life as a tandem bike ride with Christ in the front. He said, "When I had control, I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long trails up mountains, and through rocky places at breakneck speeds; it was all I could do to hang on!! Even though it looked like madness, He said, "Pedal!" I was worried and anxious and asked, "Where are You taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to learn to trust. And I'm beginning to enjoy the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Christ. And when I'm sure I just can't do anymore, He just smiles and says..."Pedal."
Though we may fear and doubt where God is taking us, when we give Him control, our life will never be the same. We'll begin to find adventure in the midst of adversity, and peace during times of pain. All we have to do is let Him steer our life while we simply pedal.
Give your life to God; He can do more with it than you can!Dwight L. Moody

Some amazing things have been happening recently, and lotsa stuff!!

Since the 5th of March. Let me see...

There have been a few year 7 programs here and there along with 1 year 6 program and lots of Marshmead expo's. Kim and I celebrated our 1st year wedding anniversary. Gee that came around quickly. We did a quick trip to Armidale to visit Matt and Sal over Easter, then brought them back with us to Eildon, with Mum, Dad and Thea for a few days on the houseboat.
(on the way back down we found a lady that had slid off the road into some trees, as there was a lot of water on the road. We thought we should help her out. Amazing how her car had spun a 180 and slid straight back without hitting anything. It stopped between some trees and with some pushing we were able to get it out. Good bit of excitement to break up the long trip it was) The best holiday! It was soo good seeing mum and dad have a few ski sessions. They still remember how and its been more than 13 years. Gee dad can ski!! Mums not too shaby either! And Thea, what a gun, first time wakeboarding and she did a great job skiing, with some persistance and persaverance. I'm very proud of my family and love spending time with them all. Missed Dave on that particular holiday, he'll have to join us for the next one!! So after that Kim and I went at work pretty hard, had about 6 weeks on with 5 days off scattered through it.
We've just come out the other side and now have 2 weeks off. yay!!
So yea, loving work, wife and life.
Still trying to get used to this type of lifestyle, it definately has its pros and cons.
The camp is starting up again in Canada, it seems like not long ago we were over there, but it was a year ago now! Other news, Kim and I bought a house in Bairnsdale. Trying to make the most of this first home buyers grant, while it is still there. We wont be living in there (other than the 6 months required to get the grant) but will be renting it out asap. Will see how we go. Still trying to work out and finalise all the paperwork, loans, grants and all that jazz. Its a bit of a painful process, ready for it all to be over already. I guess its part of the fun...
Anywho, not heaps more to report on at this stage.
Planning a trip to NZ in sep. 9 of us going, which will be a blast. Can't wait to get on the snow again, its been a long time.
Love to all. Loving the Bible at the mo, the most interesting book in history. Has all the answers, if we study it enough. Would love to find an easy way to tell everyone I came accross that Jesus loves them and has died for their sins. I'll keep on it.
Peace, joy, love, hope. Love is the no. 1!
Bam
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 6/01/2009 09:59:00 PM 1 comments

 
Ok!
Well sorry for the massive delay!
A lot has happened, yet again since I last blogged.
So the plans changed a little before Christmas.
Unfortunately, Kims Grandad - Ed became quite ill 2 weeks before Christmas.
So we stayed with him when we could. Then he ended up being admitted to hospital on about the 16th of December. His heart rate and blood pressure was very unstable. He passes away on the 21st of December. Fortunately the family were able to stay by his side for the week leading up to it. We were all able to say our good bye which was very sad obviously, but maybe better than a shock passing away.
It was a very tiring week leading up as we were doing shifts to say by his side. The funeral was on the 24th, Christmas eve. We then spent Christmas day with Kims family before heading over to SA to spend a week with my family. This meant that we missed the CTG new years eve show which apparently was a hoot. We then came across to Eildon and had a week on the houseboat with Craig, Kathryn, Jezza, Flik and Baz. Kims brother, sister in-law and nephew were also around. We had a great week with some good weather, great food, great company and some fun times on the water. The boys were learning to wakeboard, which was great for some entertainment. After our week on the water Kim and I went our separate ways for a week – her on the somers camp and me on the esa camp. We both had a great time. (Unfortunately, from the recent fires, the ESA camp in Marysville is no longer)
After that we were back in Melbourne to begin at MLC as permanent teachers. Was a time of meetings, speakers, groups sessions, etc for a few days in Kew. We then went across to Robe for the annual 4WD trip over the Australia day long weekend. Was a great trip – fairly un-eventful. We then journeyed back and moved in to our new home, on the Banksia Peninsula. A lovely little cottage / house which looks out over Lake Victoria. Since then we have been working away as Education Outdoors Teachers with MLC. We have had 1 Marshmead trip and are about to go on our second this weekend. We have an unusual roster, not your average Monday to Friday job with weekends. There are some periods where we are 20 days on without a break then a week off. We have a few chunks of time off, but very few weekends. There hasn’t been too much happening since we started work here.
Other than a SAIL away camp that Kim and I went to to help out. We ended up cooking for about 160 for the weekend, which was good fun. It was a refugees camp which was great. Of course there were the fires that caused for some very anxious times. Black Saturday was a terrible day for so many. We were very fortunate as were Kims family at the Black Spur Hotel. The fire got very close to them on three different occasions. The closest actually burnt to their back fence. The CFA crews happened to be there at the time and were able to fight the fire for them!
The BSI became the new Narbethong community, turning into an emergency relief centre, cooking for up to 150 a day and housing many. Plus the government organisations set up shop (centrelink etc) at the hotel as did the donated good store for those in need. We went to the hotel as soon as we could in our first week off work. We spent 5 days helping out where we could, doing whatever was needed.
So that is about a wrap for the last couple months, still brief I know, but better than nothing hey?!
Hope all is well in your camp.
Will try to update again a little sooner than three months away.
Love to all
Bam xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 3/05/2009 08:00:00 PM 1 comments

 
Well, Ho Ho Ho, happy birthday Jesus! After all, its what Christmas is ALL about!!!
And merry Christmas to you all.
We are in the festive season again and Christmas marketing is full steam ahead. I really struggle to get into it all and the ‘season’ really isn’t for me. The reason is so much better and more meaningful. It makes me sad to know that so many people really don’t understand or care about what Christmas is and the difference between Christmas and Easter. The ‘holiday’ for Christmas – similar to the kid who was taught that the great wall of China was build to keep the rabbits out and that Australia day was so we could have a day off to watch the cricket (and the tennis)! What would his meaning of Christmas be – presents and food. Most people would know that it has something to do with a baby born a long time ago called Jesus, but for most it is where the buck stops. Unfortunately for those, who don’t understand that it wasn’t ‘just’ a baby born a long time ago, but it is The baby, baby Jesus, who on His return to Earth will bring judgment to Earth, which would mean an eternity spent in a hot unpleasant fiery place for those who don’t believe.
In the Christmas season, it may be the perfect opportunity to share the Good News with non-believers, almost with desperation, especially to those close to us.
This doesn’t have to be done with ‘dragging’ them to church, which can be un-cool to many, but simply sharing the significance of Christmas and everything that we do in the season.
The Christmas tree – everlasting
The star at the top – the star over Bethlehem
The candy canes – There is lots of significance in the original candy cane.
The giving of gifts – Jesus is God’s gift to us that we can accept. It’s a free gift for us what we choose to accept or not. The same as how we give presents to each other. We don’t have to accept them, but if we don’t, we can be missing out on something good. In the case of Jesus Christ as a gift to us to die for our sins, if we don’t accept that, then we’ll miss out on eternity in heaven. It’s as simple or as complicated as that. So please never leave the Christ out of Christmas (xmas) it just so wrong and its missing the most important thing, basically in the world!!

I could go on and on about Christmas and what it should mean and be for people. But I think I’ve written about this most years. It’s something that hasn’t and probably won’t change in my mind. I should really just update on the happenings and plans in the wonderful life of Brett and Kim!

We have had a great term at Marshmead and would love to return there to teach one day. Luckily we get to go there twice a term for a week each time to help with the expeditions as part of our job next year. The rest of our job is on the Banksia peninsula near Bairnsdale – south central Victoria. We have ongoing teaching positions as Education Outdoors Teachers with MLC. We are both very much looking forward to the new era with the challenges and amazing experiences that awaits.

We have planned a pretty good holiday period with a week in SA, a couple days with the CTG crew for new years and then a couple weeks between the hotel and the houseboat. Then Kim and I are both doing our camps in January followed by a couple more days on the houseboat before starting work. We’ll be in Melbourne for the first week then we think we’ll be doing the Robe trip 4Wdriving again, then back to work down at Banksia!

We have our wedding album!!! Picked it up yesterday!! Exciting stuff. So yea, things are great. Nearly finished Christmas shopping, poor Kim, having to shop with me! Looking forward to catching up with lots of great special people!
Love to all!!!!
B an K
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 12/12/2008 11:35:00 AM 3 comments

 
Well hello!
It is about time isn’t it!
Kim and I thought we would fill in a bit of a travel log in Canada so we remember what we did and where we went. We have way too many photos from the trip.
So, what better place to put our travel log… so you can read it too. I may even try and upload some photos a little later on too!
So here we go:

We arrived in Canada on the 19th of May. We caught a bus then a ferry to Vancouver Island where we were picked up and taken to Camp Qwanoes. We spent the next couple months working at camp which was an amazing experience filled with fun, challenge, joy, tiredness, friendships, adrenalin, hot, cold etc… We left camp on the1st of September and this is what went down:

(Wes, the food services coordinator from camp asked us to drive his car from camp to Edmonton (Alberta) as a favor, he really did us the favor though in lending us his car to see some of Canada in)

Monday September 1st:
Drove from Camp to Victoria and shopped at MEC. Took Ryan with us and went to Justin and Sandra Kohlman’s for dinner, which was great. Hadn’t seen them for a couple years! Then stayed at Ryans in Victoria. Was great to catch up with Ryan too.

Tuesday:
Caught the 2pm ferry to Vancouver and went to Graeme’s (Cracker) home. Then went with Wes and Graeme to a flash Chinese restaurant. (Wes’s plan was to show us all the hot spots to eat in Vancouver while we were there. Problem was, most of them were all you can eat!! We kinda stuffed ourselves silly on a number of occasions, gee the food was great!) We stayed at Graems’s for 2 nights.

Wednesday:
Did a tour of small part of Vancouver with Graeme’s dad and sister, while Graeme was at uni. Then picked up Ryan from the ferry and had all you can eat Sushi at Richmond! Amazing all you can eat! Then went with Ryan to John Butler Trio concert in Stanley park. Great setting for an amazing concert. Amazingly talented muzo’s. Then went to amazing gelato place – 180 flavours in 1 shop!

Thursday:
Left Vancouver and traveled to Harrison hot springs with some stops along the way. Bought some camping stuff and set up camp. Saw some amazing sandcastles at the world championship sand castle competition!

Friday:
Went from Harrison hot springs to Osoyoos via Hope, Princeton, Keremeos. (manning park) Cool town on a lake. Lots of great ski boats around. The Hope landslide was pretty huge and interesting. Camped at Tamri camp site on the side of the lake.
Saturday:
Traveled from Osoyoos to Kalamalka Lake. WOW what a place, and the color of the lake had Kim and I a bit gob smacked. Travelling through the Okanargon area, spectacular lakes, great fruit and beautiful weather. Camped at the provincial park on the side of the lake. Lots of amazing potential tent sites on great looking green grass, but restricted to putting tents on designated gravel sites!! Not happy jan! Canadians don’t generally tent we discovered. ‘Camping’ generally means in a RV. The bigger the better for them. Majority of them were mansion caravans! You can imagine the trucks (ute’s) that were pulling them. F350’s etc.

Sunday:
Kalamalka lake to Mara lake, BEAUTIFUL! Stayed at Revelstoke Williamson lake park. Swam in lake, which was a little cold, but the sun was great. Grassy tent site! (the only one for the entire trip)

Monday 8th September:
Revelstoke to Golden via Kinbasket Lake, Rogers Pass, but missed ‘Donald’. Must have blinked! Stoped at Canyon hot springs (rather a public swimming pool that uses water from the spring). Stayed at Golden, whispering spruce campground.

Tuesday:
Golden to Radium Hot Springs. Swam, in hot springs, which was lovely! About 40 deg. And a hot tub fed direct from the springs at 44 deg cel. Hot stuff!
It was raining while we were in the springs pool which made it feel even hotter. Too wet to camp in Radium so stayed in a simple but nice B& B hostel. Higher Ground Coffee house - great little business.

Wednesday:
Radium Hot Springs to Banff via Marble Canyon. Amazing country-side. Banff – tourist mecca. Lots of tourist buses. Weather lots better. Camped at Two Jacks Lake. Epic mission! Set up then told the site was booked, so had to move tent on car. Kinda fun, but kinda annoying. Amazing backdrop for campsite though! Dinner at famous Tony Roma’s Ribs. Was great tucker!

Thursday:
Banff. Visited Lake Minne-Wanka and walked around Johnson Lake. Spectacular.
Did a horse trail ride which was kind of relaxing. Walked up Sulphar Mountain then caught the gondola down. Great views from the top of Sulphar. Worth the 6km hike.

Friday:
Banff to Lake Louise via Johnson Canyon, Bow Valley Parkway. Wow. Amazing scenery. Still tourist mecca. Moraine lake, pretty amazing place. Very cold and wet but still camped at Lake Louise campground and braved the cold.

Saturday:
Lake Louise. Very cold night, below 0. Snowed on mountains surrounding Lake Louise. Toured Takakkaw falls, Natural Bridge, Emerald Lake and Lake Louise. Hiked to Lake Agnes tea-house. A treat for our eyes, we saw so much beauty from our amazing Creator!

Sunday:
Lake Louise to Jasper via Columbia Icefields. Toured the Athabasca Glacier on the ice bus! Pretty spectacular. Camped at Whistlers campground.

Monday 15th September:
Amazing day in Jasper. Weather was spectacular. Checked out the mountain Tram car. Visited Lake Patricia, and walked in Pyramid Lake then played cards in the sun for hours!

Tuesday:
Jasper to Edmonton. Amazing colors in the trees, turning yellow and orange. Stayed with Wes’s family in Edmonton which was great. Ate some more great food! Checked out a bit of Edmonton.

Wednesday went to West Edmonton Mall – biggest mall in the world! Spent 4 hours in the water park. Wave pool, massive water slides. Lots of fun.

Thursday:
Flew to Vancouver and stayed in nice hotel.

Friday:
Caught up with Richard for dinner at great pasta place. Had to line up for a table. Was worth the wait though. Couldn’t finish the meals. SO big!

Saturday:
Flew from Vancouver to Beijing.

Sunday:
Arrived and stayed at funky modern Hotel in Beijing. Was so humid!

Monday 22nd September:
Flew Beijing to Melbourne

Tuesday:
Arrived in Melbourne!!!! Home at last.

Was a great time away for Kim and I. We were truly blessed in the people we met, the friends we made, the things we did and the places we saw. We loved the Canadian people and countryside. I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t stay for the winter season or some of it, as the snow would have been amazing. Plus, we missed what I heard was an amazing snow season in Oz but, we have a job with MLC! Ya!!! We are teaching for term 4 at Marshmead which is really exciting! Definitely worth coming home early for.
So we enter the next stage of our life together. The journey so far in our marriage has been incredible. Kim is an amazing wife. We were just discussing 2008 and how incredible it has been already!
With ESA/Slush camps, Bus driving, CRT work, graduation, the wedding, Thialand, Camp Qwanoes, Canada and now Teaching!! Wow!
Incredible! I feel blessed with the opportunities we’ve had this year.
Must be off. Things to plan. Places to be and people to catch up with.
Love to all!
BAM and KEM
- posted by Brett @ 9/25/2008 12:37:00 PM 0 comments

 
Quick photos update for those with slow email...

Over the couple staff ski's we've had - I have really enjoyed a good slalom...



This is the sight that would sometimes greet us as we got down for an early morning ski.
Well worth getting up for, and the water hasn't been unbearable. Just a little fresh.




I've been trying 360's this week - eaten it hard on many occasions!
Hope all is grand!
Kim and I are looking forward to our 3 days off next week.
These photos are all taken before 7am - the only time we can get a ski - 2 mornings a week.
Then its working till at least 8pm. At least we can play hey!

Kim has been having some fun too.
Love to all xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 7/26/2008 04:09:00 PM 2 comments

 
Well hello!

This is where we clean and clean and clean. That's an F250 with a 7.5L V8! Lotsa pulling power!

And thats me cleaning my boat - a '08 Z1 Tige

- posted by Brett @ 7/19/2008 05:56:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hey there all!
Just a quick update!
Kim, my wonderful wife, and I have finally arrived at camp on Vancouver Island, Canada.
It was an epic trip that felt like it went forever so it was great to get here.
The camp is amazing, beautiful setting and the people are so nice.
Kim and I are staying in the guest house at the moment until our room is ready.
(they just had the may long-weekend family camp in so all the rooms were used)
Kim and I are both happy and well.
We begin tomorrow and the first summer camp is about a month away.
There is a lot to do before then though.
I will update in a little more detail at some stage and try and add some photos.
Will see how we go.
Love to all
BanK
- posted by Brett @ 5/20/2008 02:41:00 PM 1 comments

 
Just one photo will have to do for now from the wedding. It only took 10 miniutes to upload this one. I should try one from the honeymoon...

This took nearly as long. The is Kim and I on the ATV tour in the Jungle near Chiang Mai. My bike went sideways nearly as well as it did forwards!

Blogya soon!

xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 5/12/2008 08:42:00 AM 0 comments

 
Well, its about time isn't it!

Here it is then, the honeymoon diary. It is only very brief but gives a basic overview of our time in Thailand, which was amazing!

The Honeymoon!

Monday 7th April
It began. Brett K picked us up from Doncaster and dropped us at the airport. We caught a Jetstar plane at 10:30am and arrived in Phuket at 9pm.
Got picked up from the airport by a new Toyata bus and taken back to Karon Beach (Horizon Beach Resort and Spa).

8/4
Walked down Karon beach, bought hats each, had lunch in the resort pool bar, wandered down the street had tea at white restaurant. Walked down to Kata beach after dark.

9/4
Hired a scooter and checked out some more hotels. Booked 5 nights at Kata Centara.
Explored southern Phuket to Cobra Point. Swim at Karon Beach, massage on beach. Swim at resort pool, tea at Italian restaurant on Karon Beach. Bought 2 dvd’s watched 27 dresses.

10/4
Moved to Centara Kata resort and Spa. Booked day trip to Phi Phi Islands. Toured north of Patong to go-carting and off-road buggy. Back to Kata resort, had Thai massage and waffle icecream. Swim in spa pool – beach tennis in pool. Waterslide pool, then After Beach restaurant. 7eleven shop then returned scooter and walked back to Kata.

11/4
Phi Phi Island tour. Picked up from resort lobby at 8am. Chalong Pier for briefing in orange group! In boat to Maya Bay for snorkel. Rest on beach then through to Phi Phi Don and Monkey Bay. Lunch at Khai Nok Island. Back to Chalong Pier and back to Kata on bus. Tea at Kata Restaurant. Yum! Hour foot massage. Shop at 7eleven – cheap ice-creams!

12/4
Shopped in Kata town and travel agent. Booked flight to Bangkok. Emailed and swam at resort pools. Went to Fanta Sea Phuket – INCREDIBLE tea and show! Buffet tea etc..

13/4
Slept in. Booked Chiang Mai acc. Went to beach – got drenched on the way – Songkran Festival. Hired a jet ski for half hour. Swam at beach. Songkran festival buffet tea at Resort with Thai dance and music. Watched step up movie.

14/4
Hired scooter into Patong and shopped. Had lunch at JungCeylon shopping centre bakery – soup in a bread roll., Yum. Drove to Phuket town and around the place. Went to dry waterfall then went to cable park – wakeboarding. After Beach for tea – sunset. Watched the bucket list movie.

15/4
Returned scooter, packed and had pizza for lunch. Taxi to Phuket airport and flew to Bangkok. Walked to train station and got white pasted – Songkran festival. Had tea at train station and on train. Played rummy on train with staff member. Slept on train.

16/4
Arrived in Chiang Mai – 8am. Took taxi from train station to Centara Resort. Booked in and had massive breaky. Explored hotel and surrounding block. Booked day tour. Complimentary food all day. Had tea down the road, swam and crashed pretty heavy for the night.

17/4
Got picked up from resort lobby in mini-van. Went to butterfly and flower farm – battery went dead on camera :-( then to long neck Karen village then to early buffet lunch at elephant farm. Had elephant ride through the jungle then went in mini-van up the river and swam in rapid. Helped a drowning girl. Went in van again to white water rafting drop off point. White water rubber raft then bamboo raft. (lots of local families holidaying on river – lots of kids splashing!) Back to Hotel – tea at market and shopped. Booked Bangkok flight and accommodation.

18/4
Toured Chiang Mai on tuk-tuk taxi trike. Went to temples, jem stores. Booked night safari and cooking day lesson. Did puzzles in dynasty club lounge. Left for night Safari with travel agent – 6:30 – 10pm with musical sound and light show. (water fountains)
Back to Night Bazar and fried rice for tea. Less than $1 each.

19/4
Pickup at 9am for Thai cooking class and toured market. Learnt to cook Thai style – awesome food. Still have eyebrows… dropped back at hotel and swim. Watch movie 8 Below. Shop for presents, tea in Centara restaurant.

20/4
ATV tour out of Chiang Mai jungle. Pick up at 8 – 1pm. Movie – predator. Nap 1 hour massage around corner of resort. Played cards, shopped for tea and gifts. (WFO pizza, Yum) More cards and tv.

21/4
Packed up room, last visit to Dynasty Club. Resort van to airport. Fly to Bangkok and taxi to new hotel. Shopping down local street and 7eleven. Bought tea from stall. Sore back. Bath and tiger balm.

22/4
Slept in – tiger balm massage. Breaky – Coco crunch. Taxi to Fashion Island window shopping. KFC lunch. Taxi to Siam – shopping central Bangkok. Travel agent. Tea at bakery. Caught sky train to random place and caught taxi back to hotel. 9pm(took 4 taxis before they knew where we wanted to go – even with map and hotel business card)

23/4
Taxi to Siam water park and theme park. Spent day in water and going down slides. Back to hotel at 5pm, massage, watched CSI. Walked down to shops. Tea from stall – noodles and pizza thing folded. 3 mangoes for 60cents. Yum

24/4
Packed up hotel and had noodles for lunch. Went down street and got another sweet pizza or 2… taxi to airport and tea at airport before catching flight back to Melbourne.

25/4
Arrived back in Melbourne and picked up by B1, Dylan and Erika. (After waiting over and hour for Kim’s luggage) Returned to Doncaster, unpacked. Packed car and left for Adelaide!


And maybe backtracking just a little. The wedding - went amazing!
We both had such a great day, everything fell into place perfectly.
All the hard work paid off and it was a booming success.
I will try and upload a few photos in the next post.
See how we go, it may be a very slow process.
We leave for Canada in 5 days!!! Wohoo!
Will blab on some more shortly.
Love to all and hugs of course.
Bam
- posted by Brett @ 5/12/2008 08:27:00 AM 0 comments

 
Well, to those of you who care, I apologise profusely for the length of time since my last update. There has been lot happen since the 19th of Jan!!! It was a long time ago!
After the ESA camp, things went pretty quick!
We had the annual 4WD trip to Robe for the long weekend, which was a heap of fun, as always. Mum, Dad, Camo and Thea were also able to come for a day which was great.
Poor Thea got bitten on the beach by something and had a swollen foot for a while, but she is a tough Maxwell, (as they all are!) and coped pretty well with it. Thea camped with us which was a pleasure – she is great to have around! The best sister anyone could ever want! After Robe, I made a phone call to Crown coach lines to enquire about a job. They asked me to come in for an interview and driving test and before I knew it I was driving a bus for Crown coachlines. (not the casino) They offered me work for all of term 1 which is a blessing. The original idea of relief teaching was a good one, but term 1 especially isn’t usually a great term for CRT teachers, especially being a 7 week term, as teachers are generally reasonably fresh from the break. Crown were guaranteeing work every day, so it was favorable. So it was a challenging job, but I really enjoyed it overall. I now feel confident in driving big busses through little gaps. Quite often I would have an inch on each side of the bus driving down streets between parked cars. A little scary, but no incidents, so I’m happy. I requested to finish a week early, as MLC asked me to work form them at Banksia for the week, which was great! Just got back from that.
So there have been some pretty dramatic changes. I moved to Melbourne, into the shed at Doncaster – where all my stuff now is. I have sold my motorbike :-( and Rina (the Subaru) is on the market :-( But things are looking very exciting – as our wedding is 2 weeks away!!!! Then we go to Thailand for 2 and a half weeks, then we come back and go to Chris’s wedding!!! Then we are home for 3 weeks, then we leave for Canada on the 17th of May!!! Kim and I have both been offered jobs on the waterfront of a summer camp on Vancouver island called camp Qwanoes. Kim is the head ski / wakeboard instructor and I am head boat driver. It is basically a volunteer job at a Christian camp, which in a way is difficult, but is a great opportunity to be a part of furthering the Kingdom of God in an exciting setting!
So in the last 7 weeks or so – Kim has spent a week or two away and I have spent a week or two away and every spare minute in-between we have used in planning the wedding. It is going to be a great wedding, we are both so excited and not stressed, its great!
We had the privilege of attending Craig and Kathryn’s engagement party and Kim has had her dress fittings and bridesmaid fittings and all sorts of other fun non boy wedding stuff. Her hens day was great from what I heard, apart from it being really hot.
Kim and I also had the privilege of being part of the very special kids camp down at somers as part of lord somers powerhouse camp. We were leaders on the camp were families with ill children come to rest and have a heap of fun with all of their kids. It was a great weekend with many toughing moments. So many incredible kids with unfortunate illnesses. Was a great weekend!
We also had a big birthday lunch for Kims Grandad at a cool Chinese restaurant that I hadn’t been to before. Was a pretty cool lunch with all sorts of stuff I have never tasted.
The desert – a mango cream pancake wrap – yum!
I’ve had a few catch-up dinners with mates I met from ESA this year and last year also, Kalem the crazy cat, Joelski and a few others. Kalem and I are aiming to read the bible in a year, we both have the same connect 1 year bible. It has been great so far.
So yea, been very busy. The hours at crown have been from about 6am-10am. Then 2-6 ish or there abouts, depending on the traffic and if I get any extra charter work during the day. I’ve done a few 12-14 hour days which have been great because it means more $ for the wedding but very tiring. I envisaged coming home in the break, sleeping for an hour or two, getting up at 5:15 knocked me around a bit, especially because I couldn’t go to bed any earlier, because I couldn’t get to sleep and that was when Kim and I had to get a lot of wedding stuff done. The time in the middle of the day ended up being mostly emails, phone calls and running around the place for all sorts of things – as business hours are pretty useful hours to be free when planning a wedding, honeymoon and further travel and job searching.
So anyway, the next big thing: GRADUATION. It kind of snuck up on us unawares and we thought we should pop down for it. Gee I’m glad we did. It was pretty fun and a great opportunity to catch up with all the uni mates, many of whom we may not see again :-(
So now I have two Bachelor Degrees!!! Woohooo! I can’t believe its done!
It is such a relief to be finished uni and not have the lingering on my shoulders. Freedom!
The night before graduation we had a special meal with Kim’s parents and my parents. Kim cooked an awesome roast lamb, with some assistance from me. It was divine!!!
Saturday night we went out to Lucy’s 21st which was a hoot. Glad we made the effort, as we were pretty tired from all the graduation fiasco and travel. Plus Mum Dad and Thea were staying over. Was great to catch-up with more buddies and help Lucy celebrate a special occasion.
All the wedding invites have gone out and the rsvps have returned. We have an official number of 111 which is more than we originally hoped, but we wanted more than 200 people to come. It really is hard working out who to invite and who not too. I guess we are so fortunate and blessed to have so many amazing people in our lives. It just makes it difficult for things like weddings! Shouldn’t be complaining now. We are guessing to have between 200 and 300 people at the ceremony and afternoon tea, which will be great.
So yea. That’s nearly a wrap for the last couple months, although very brief and with minimal detail. Kim just got a new book from MLC for her farewell after 6 years working for them – it’s the 2nd Ken Duncan book. Very nice, has a heap of great quotes in it. I should include a couple:
(these ones stood out to me as I read through the book. The pictures are incredible, but so are the words)

If you’re heading in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns. (Anon)

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the things you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. (Mark Twain)

The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue. (Aerosmith)

Remember when you see a man at the top of a mountain, he didn’t fall there. (Unknown)

Man’s heart away from nature becomes hard. (Chief Standing Bear)

Faith or fear – it’s your choice. (Ken Duncan)

Smooth seas do not make skilful sailors. (African Proverb)

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans. (Woody Allen)

We are not the light, but by reflecting the light we may bring hope and joy to others. (Ken Duncan)

Every now and again take a good look at something not made with hands – a mountain, a star, a turn of a stream. There will come to you wisdom and patience and solace and, above all, the assurance that you are not alone in the world. (Sidney Lovett)

Don’t despise small beginnings. (Anon)

A boat that makes no ripples, is a boat that is going nowhere. (Ken Duncan)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

So there we are then.

Easter… a very important and special time. It marks the celebration in the life of Christ, for the pain He suffered for us, for our sin, all in the act of love, underserved completely.
How truly thankful we all should be for the perfect sacrifice. A viewing of Passion of the Christ can remind or give a small idea of some of the suffering Jesus suffered for our sin.
Please remember to reason for Easter. The egg – symbolizes new life or a hollow egg can symbolize the empty tomb found where Jesus had lay prior to the resurrection.

Kim and I get married in two weeks tomorrow!!! 15 days!!!!!! We are both extremely excited!! I Love her dearly and am very excited about spending the rest of our lives together. Our life as we know it is definitely coming to an end – with the end of uni, jobs, relationship status and so on. The life of Brett and Kim and the adventures are about to begin as we are getting ready to embark on an adventure together – firstly the honeymoon to Thailand then to Canada. There are so many unknowns, so many possibilities, and God has blessed us with this opportunity. What an exciting way to start our married life together. Sure it is not the normal way, but who said normal is best? Looking at some of the quotes that I put in above from good old Ken ratifies the mindset for adventures to follow. Stay tuned for the next update on the adventure of Brett and Kim.

With love hugs and kisses
Bam
xoxoxo

I would post some photos but it is taking too long with this connection. I love dial up :-)
Next time
- posted by Brett @ 3/21/2008 04:12:00 PM 1 comments

 
Well Well Well
I should start by saying again, sorry (apologising mostly to my memory as it is hard for my head to remember that happenings of my life since I last blogged!)
I don’t remember the last time I was this slack in keeping my blog updated.
I have just returned from an incredible camp on which God did amazing things and moved many people. I was challenged and inspired as were many others to live life to the fullest for Christ.

I might spend a bit of time jotting down some things I have been thinking about and studying over the last 24 hours or son.
I watched a short movie last night in which I jotted down some good points.

Bob “I believe in God”
Bill “ so does the devil. The issue is not weather you believe in God, its weather Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life”

Another illustration:
(for those whose choose to make Jesus Lord of their life)
“When you die you will stand before God. God may say ‘I see a life of sin standing in front of you. The penalty of sin is death, who is going to pay for it?’ Jesus then stands up and says ‘Father, I paid the price for him.’
God no longer sees my sin but He sees Jesus righteousness instead. Then you will go into the kingdom of Heaven.
If you were standing in front of the creator of the universe what would you say to him without Jesus? He may be saying to you – Depart from Me.

And some bible versus that have been food for thought:
Matthew 3:10
Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire…

Proverbs 1:18
These people set an ambush for themselves, they are trying to get themselves killed. Such is the fate of all who are greed for money; it robs them of life.

Matthew 5:10
In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Matthew 6:25
Do not worry about your life…what you eat of drink…or wear…
27 – who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?


A little acronym that can be used to develop faith is GROWTH

Go to God in prayer daily – John 15:7
Read Gods word daily – Acts 17:11
Obey God moment by moment – John 14:21
Witness for Christ by your life and words – Matt 4:19, John 15:8
Trust God for every detail of your life – 1 Peter 5:7
Holy Spirit – Allow Him to Control and power your daily life and witness – 1 Galatians 5:16-17 and Acts 1:8

Pretty cool hey.

The camp I have just returned from is the 2008 summer teen camp in Marysville. It was awesome. As good as last year definitely. Missed a few of the leaders from last year that weren’t able to make it this year, but there were some new ones who did pretty well.
Some goals I have made from the camp studies, quiet time and prayer are:

Use the tools for the Adventure of Life with God.
PRAYER
Spend quiet time with God each day
Pray with THANKFULNESS, SINCERITY and FAITH
Create and use a prayer diary – things to pray for

WORD
Spend time reading EVERY DAY – finish the 1 year bible this year. Document notes from readings to create a good food diary.

WORSHIP
Channel music choice to be worship songs and learn to praise God at all times. Play the Trom when the opportunities arise. Sing with a joyful heart of praise always. Live life AS AN ACT OF WORSHIP – as an example to others. Continue running the race FOR AND WITH GOD. Tell people about Jesus, plant seeds – Have faith.

So that’s my little wrap of my thoughts of late. I’m looking forward to seeing where God takes us in life. It will be an exciting journey. Hope we can keep up!!

Well back to the original blog, with the happenings of life, prior to going to camp, Kim and I spent 5 days back in SA with My family, which was great, it was over way too quick. I love the property and find it very relaxing and refreshing, (apart from the early wake up calls from the try hard roosters! Poor Thea, all of her Chickens are having overnight sex changes it seems.) I really enjoyed jogging with Camo in the sunny afternoons in the fresh SA air. Mum, as always kept us very well fed, and we managed to do a round of 90% of the shops of the Mount, as Kim had to acquire some things for her camp. (She was on her Slush camp while I was at ESA)

Before the Mt trip was the big new years eve show at the pig pen for Crossing The Gap. One of the funnest nights ever!!! It was a jam packed night of action and thrills and spills. The Datsun got her yearly run, and did herself proud, winning the head to head battles and being one of the only cars still running at the end of the show. I ended up pushing the other cars off the track.
My Kawasaki did an awesome job and kept me hanging on just, flapping off the back for the racing action, and action it was. So either side of new years eve was the set up, practicing, pack up etc. Dave and a few Canadian pals from Capernwray managed to rock up for the show and stay the night which was awesome!
Boxing day was spent helping Jim put the new duckboard on the houseboat as it has been out of the water for a while. It was a long day – 7-7 basically of pretty full on labour. But the work paid off – the new duckboard is now the feature of the boat. I earnt my keep that day. I am yet to see it in the water though and it may be a while until I see it again.

Christmas day was spent with the Kennedy family at the BSI – the first time away from my family, which was sad, but this is part of being a couple. Was still a good day of family, friends and feasting. The week before Christmas, Kim and I with Jezza and Flik and Amy went to the Prom for a few nights. What a great couple days it was. We chilled out, went for strolls along the beach, cooked some good tucka and took a couple photos. Was a great time of resting.

Prior to that, it was finishing up at FCCC and trying to keep cool in the hot weather. I spent quite a bit of time on my birthday present (’04 KX125) that I bought for myself. (I love it when you buy yourself a birthday, cause it is always exactly what you want!)
Getting pretty confident on it now, but am not going to hit the big ramps before the wedding. It was a condition of buying the bike – so I don’t have to don a plaster for the wedding. Probably a good thing.

I would have to look at a calendar to find out what I did before that, it seems like its been a blur, its gone that quick! I don't have one with me know though, so it will have to be later.

Also a massive congratulations to Craig and Kathryn who have just become engaged! Wohoo! Stoked.

Ok, annoying! I just lost about half hour work, as I lost the internet connection while uploading photos and a vid. :-(
It feels like bed time so i'm too tired to try and do it again.
I will try put some photos and vids up later, and get a calender to get up to date properly.
I will try and remember what else I wrote and lost before.
Hugs and love to all!
God bless
- posted by Brett @ 1/19/2008 10:26:00 PM 1 comments

 
Hi all!!
So so sorry! I have been very slack
I will organise a time to update everything that has happened since october later on in Jan.
I am being booted off the public computer now, my time is up!
You may even get some photos!
Merry Christmas, Happy new year and all of that.
Apologies again!
Hugs to all.
Bam
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 1/09/2008 12:01:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hello hello!
Just thought I would quickly drop a line as a procrastination break from my assignment for a second or 2. I have to get an assignment done tonight, to take it down to 6 assignments in the next 2 weeks. Very do-able. Then that’s it! Done! Finished! Providing I pass each subject this term, I will be a qualified teacher. (along with Kim too!) We are in the labs at uni working away. Life is good at the moment, looking positively at it all. Although we have a lot to get done, the Good Lord is taking good care of us. Kim has a bit of a cold at the moment but other than that, all smiles. Some exciting news, we had a wedding planning day on Friday and bought me a orange pinstripe wedding suit! Now, don’t worry conservative people, its now a bright stand out suit, just smart and just noticeably orange striped. We also went and picked up my ring which we designed and had made in the CBD of Melbourne. (I hate the city – we don’t have a good record with parking in the city – got a $110 fine last week for stopping in a loading zone! Not like it wasn’t an expensive enough day already!!!)
Well, been at the BSI to help out last night, worked from 5:30 – 3am! A long shift. Gee its tiring work, I don’t know how they do it every day!
I was lucky enough to have a quick encounter with mum dad and Thea yesterday on their way home from Sydney. ‘Helped’ dad look at the car that he decided to buy. He’s bought an old Mercedes diesel and wants to run it on vegetable oil, apparently quite a clever and cost effective way of fuelling a car. Hopefully it all goes well for him.
Ok, I need to get back to the assignment so I can sleep.
I have yet another presentation to do tomorrow as uni, (3rd in 2 weeks) so it’s going to be an early start as well!!! Yipee!
BtW, Kim and my wedding is on the 5th of April next year. Everyone is welcome to attend! :-)
Its nearly about time we had some philosophic stuff on my blog again. Maybe once I’ve finished uni I might sit down and write something creative for y’all!
Until then, Hug and smile lots! Peace to all creatures great and small (except nasty cats that leave footprints on Rina). Love to you all who bother to read this. I have enjoyed randomly skimming back over this stuff to see what I have been up to, a great memory assist tool!
xo
Bam
- posted by Brett @ 10/07/2007 11:47:00 PM 4 comments

 

The big air. These jumps are fun!

Then the NT trip with FCCC. This is the kids and I at the big rock!

And the Crocs up near Darwin, they were huge! Probably wont be skiing on this river!

There are thousands more. Maybe some from the Hotham uni trip:


No lights on the slopes!



Just testing out my jacket:-)

Baz, Me and Craig, the Boarding Boys.

That will have to do for now.

Peace out.

Bam

- posted by Brett @ 10/02/2007 02:12:00 PM 0 comments

 
Wow.
I can't belive it is 3 months nearly since i last posted. Sorry about my slackness, I have been too busy to be blogging recently, and really shouldn't be taking the time to do it now.
So I might do a really brief update, then once uni is over, i will sit down and fill in the gaps!
Yea things are all happenin!
I've just got back from being away for 5 weeks.
Did 2 weeks of sea kayaking on the gippsland lakes, working for MLC,
Took a group of kids from gippsland grammer to Hotham for a weekend
Did a 10 day tour with crossing the gap in south Oz
Then did a 14 day trip through central oz with Flinders college.
All of these trips basically backed onto each other with no time for resting in between.
Absolute crazyness - missed a heap of uni. Missed heaps of sleep. Saw and experienced a lot!
I've got 3 weeks left of uni to do about 9 weeks worth of work :(
Things are all good. Kim is good also.
That is about all that i have time for. I have 7 pretty big assignments to do! :-(
I will be back probably at the end of Oct to fill in all the exciting stuff that has been happening.
Hope everyone is awesome!
Take care all.
Hugs to all and God bless!
- posted by Brett @ 9/29/2007 11:50:00 AM 0 comments

 
This month has flown by too, which lots of interesting stuff going on.
The month of June as we know it is no longer until next year! Crazy!
Well, I spent a week at Banksia which was awesome, then had State Youth Games, which were pretty disappointing. Didn’t really get into it as much as last year. The organizing was not really up to speed with the ministry opportunities.
Then another week of FCCC which was a full on week. Then off to Banksia for another week. This was the first lot of flooding that occurred, the minor one. We had about 100m in less than 24 hours, making for a change in plans for the expo. Was still a great week though. Went up to the BSI and had a sorta family tea for kim’s bday then headed back to Melbourne to study for the weekend in preparation for our exam. Happy birthday to my gorgeous fiancé. She’s as old as me know, at least til October.
Had our exam which went ok, I guess, will tell more when results come out on the 13th of July. Worked tue wed at FCCC then went up to melb to take Kim to the ballet for her bday. Moved out of Yinnar south, so know have nothing out there. Have moved into a mates spare room in Churchill for now. Then Thursday Kim had all 4 of her wisdom teeth pulled out. I’ve been playing nurse since then, poor thing, the swelling has gone down and she is looking and feeling a lot better. Still recovering though. Have put my bike up for sale on ebay L It seems that it may be getting sold in 9 days L
Anyway, we’ll get another toy again one day. So have been chillin out relaxin with Kim for a couple days, watching a couple movies, playing a bit of colin mcrae rally and going for jogs in the park, getting washing done, sorting through stuff. We have 2 weeks holidays now, which is great. Will hopefully get home for a while and we have an engagement party in Mornington next Saturday.
Ok, so there is my quick update and a bit, so we will fill you in when I hopefully have a bit more to say and maybe something to enlighten you with.
Peace out and God bless.
Love to all.
- posted by Brett @ 7/01/2007 03:49:00 PM 2 comments

 
Hmm. Busy. Busy. Busy!

What a month it has been. Probably one of the busiest, most hectic, sporadic months of my life. (Well, maybe a slight over exaggeration.)
The first two weeks of the month weren’t too bad, just busy with the normal stuff that goes on. We played our last game of netball for the season, and I filled in for a couple games of basketball which was pretty cool. Had quite a few lucky shots which was great. Kim went on camp for a couple days which gave me some time to make a start on some assignments and do some odd jobs here and there. I then picked up Kim from her camp and we drove to Mt G first thing Saturday to surprise mum and Thea for mothers day. And they were definitely surprised. We spent the weekend at home which was great, and left on Sunday arvo back to Melbourne. Another crazy busy week with a trip to Melbourne included with Kim. Then, while she was at work, I set to work visiting photographers. Then Kim and I went and saw one Thursday night, then I went and saw some more on Friday then we saw some more on Friday night and Saturday. Overall we met with 10 photographers or around about. We have decided on one and have booked with romantic events. We also visited a car place while we were in the area and had a look at a pretty cool car. We also went to Church with Jez and Flik at Lilydale Baptist, then went to lunch at Fliks. Then Jez, Kim and I went for a drive (Flik had dancing) to look for potential wedding photos spots. Found a few beauties!
We had tea with Nat and lunch with Taryn. The list of bridesmaids has been asked now, which is a hard task done.
The following week saw a professional uni presentation which we got through ok, and a chiro appointment which was well and truly needed. Only problem was the Friday morning I woke up and couldn’t get out of bed. My lower back had spat the dummy and I couldn’t bend at the hips without being in agony. Finally rolled out of bed and took a while getting dressed and called the chiro to say there was something wrong. So got ready for work and drove straight to the chiro. He spend some more time on my back, iced it and gave me a chiro support belt. I put it on, sucked it up and went to work. I had a pretty interesting day feeling like a complete spaz, having to be so rigin and still. I have decided that back pain is so so not cool and I don’t want to have it ever again:-)
So anyway, got to the boarding house for a weekend of work, and it was all good. Because I couldn’t move much, it gave me a reason to sit at my computer and get into a couple assignments. Everything was cool for the weekend. I got a phone call on Sunday from my beautiful fiancé asking if I could work at Marshmead for the week. I would need to fly down Monday and finish on Friday. I had to work the following weekend a the boarding house, and I had 3 assignments due in the next week. I couldn’t turn down that sort of offer and opportunity so took it. Put the pressure on myself to get the work done, and tripped off to Melbourne as soon as I was done. Grabbed a cab (my first taxi ride in Australia) to the airport and flew down to Merimbula. Had a great week – tue – thu night was on expo (Expedition) in Ben Boyd National Park – an incredible place. We had awesome weather too which was good, and I was partnered with an old mate from uni – and we get along like a house on fire. The girls were great – a tight nit group. They had already heard that I was engaged to a member of staff and had heard about my proposal, and asked as if they didn’t know – but asked all the right questions, so I cottoned on pretty quick. Was a fun week.
Rather than fly back, I ended up driving back with the Banksia team, helped them clean up, then borrowed one of their Prado’s to drive to Sale to work for the weekend (and finish my assignments). My wonderful wife to be came and visited on Saturday with my cover sheets to be signed. (As the plan was to email my assignments to Kim, so she could print them off and hand them in for me). Sunday I drove back to Banksia and the group arrived at lunch time. So have been at Banksia all week. Was out on expo for since yesterday morning and got back tonight, a pretty cool trip – less strenuous as it was a year 7 program. Great time though. I’m heading back with the group on the bus to Melbourne tomorrow, then staying in Melbourne tomorrow night and sleeping – finally! Then this weekend is State Youth Games – In Warragul.
It actually starts tomorrow night – but by the time I get back to Melbourne at about tea time – the last thing I am going to feel like doing is going straight to tent city in the freezing cold. Plus I have no more clean clothes to wear! So SYG goes til Monday an I’m supposed to be in soccer, basketball aquathon, swimming, mountain biking and maybe other sports. We’ll see how we go.
Then on Tuesday we are meeting with our photographer and arranging our videographer, then I’m working back in Traralgon for the rest of the week. Then Kim and I are returning to Banksia for another week of placement.
I’m getting pretty tired right now so should go to bed. I really need some sleep. Sorry, but I think I filled in enough for now. I will include photos at a later date. Thanks to the persons responsible for the comment or two here and there.
Love to all
Bam
Xxxooo

Marsupials French alpaca monkey monopoly Manhattan toast raisin phone pimple ring tooth marshmallow tweezers oysters.
What is the common theme in the above words? Find out in my next blog :-)
- posted by Brett @ 6/07/2007 10:32:00 PM 1 comments

 
The bright new orange tyres - to go with the pretty orange plastics! What do you think?
And a new entry into another of the races with this mean machine thanks to the Kennedy's, to Rustys and Kims handy help with the paint and with Benny B's welding in of a roll bar:


Just after the paint job - getting ready to be put on the track. And on the track it performed beautifully! I won both races! Joy! (it wasn't really about the winning though - it was about providing some entertainment for the crowd, and we definately did that!)

It was an awesome night with some great outreach opportunites. The well needed rain started falling during the show - (after we had watered the track all day to keep the dust down) but it made the track really slippery and fun for the cars and bikes. Craig and I found ourselves commentating which was a bit of fun and a bit of a laugh. Jezza did a top job when we were riding or driving.

Hmm..... What else have i been up to since i last post. I think i better check my calander...

Where we were was where the fires had been through at the start of this year. It was an incredible thing to see, with the contrast in the colours and the regrowth and stuff. Twas awesome!

Kim and I during one of the food break on the 4wd trip. Heaps of fun. I may have put a tiny dent in the pathfinder door from a stick that flicked up. Ooops!!!

Jim's convoy for his trip - the highplains course for SafeTrek 4WDrive training.

Another exciting happening was that Kim was accepted into the golden keys society - which is basically a union of high achievers of uni students around the world. People that get accepted are generally in the top 15%. So its basically an award to say how well Kim has been doing at uni - which is really really well. The night was a little slow - as Jim would tell you, but she finally got her certificate and we were able to go get some tea - which was some awesome japanese!

Well thats probably enough of the photos for now. Other than all of the above - uni is still flying along with assignments being done left right and centre. Tyring to keep up and just doing so. Flinders is also going well with the Active After School Program going well. Bible study on Wednesday nights is going well - we are hosting it this week.
Church is great - when we can get there. ( I wish i could get there more - but have been all over the state in the last couple weeks!)
We've been throwing in a bit of wedding organising here and there and planning weekends to go ring shopping and suit looking and all that sort of stuff.
GGrammer is still all good - going to work this weekend, which should be good.
I should be off now, and should keep working on my research project. I should be studying procrastination - because i have become soo good at it!
Love, hugs and pokes to all!
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 5/01/2007 03:42:00 PM 2 comments

 

Benny Flying High doing really well as always.

Sorry but no more photos...Not liking the uploading for some reason.

Peace out!

ps it is usually at about this time that i will come up with some sort of a deep spill about Easter or something, but I'm going to leave it for now and do it another time.

Love to all!

- posted by Brett @ 4/05/2007 05:00:00 PM 1 comments

 

Kim and I on my Crossing the Gap Fast Fifty

This car is cool and very quick 0-100 in 2.5 sec.
One of many of the crazy cars at the motor show.

- posted by Brett @ 3/09/2007 09:43:00 AM 0 comments

 
Crazy Crazy!
Well what another crazy month it has been!!! I checked up to see how long it had been since my last post, and gee a lot has happened since the last blog!
Kim and I had our engagement party at the BSI – which was a booming success. Everyone loved it and Kim and I had a great night. It was great to mingle and I loved my family being there- finally meeting a lot the mates that they hadn’t previously met. They also met more of Kim’s family which was cool.
We got some great presents, which we are both really thankful for. Thanks to all who helped make it a special day and night. Thanks also to those who celebrated with us and shared our joy and happiness. We are so blessed to have so many special friends. We love you all!
Some exciting news: After a long, hard, tiring and stressful period – Kim and I have finally set the date of our wedding – in CONCRETE. We ARE to be married on the 5th of April 2008! Yipee!
We are having the ceremony at Heathmont Baptist Church and the reception at Sky High, Mt Dandenong. The plans, are underway.
Now, a fill in on all the stuff that’s going on in my life:
The AASC program that I’m coordinating is going really well, 3 nights a week and with about 70 students participating. A great program at no cost to the school or the students. (I have never seen such a large platter of fruit be eaten so quick by such a small group of small kids!) The kids are loving it, the parents are loving it – so its all great. The swimming carnival that I organised with Carin ran beautifully – we even turned on the hot weather. We did have an unfortunate event after the carnival which involved the police, but its all sorted and case closed, so no problems there. We also had our first Gippsland independent school sports days – a round robin. I coached a 7/8 basketball team to nearly victory in a day long tournament. They did really well, but lost the last game placing them second behind this undefeated team.
We also had Kim’s Grandfathers 80th birthday celebration at the BSI, which was cool. Got to spend some more time with some of Kims cousins that I get along with really well.
Uni has started again for the final year! It is a bit of a mess at the moment, but hopefully in the next week or so it should be all clear. Not really ready for the uni stuff again, but I don’t really have a choice, and its for the last year, so I should complain. Flinders is still going well. I have done some pretty long weeks there already, a few more than 20 hours a week, as there has been a lot of work to do!
I have done another weekend at the boarding house too, which was pretty cool. I drove a busload of boarders to Melbourne for the day – we went to Imax to see Night at the Museum and then to the International Motor Show in the Expedition centre. That was awesome, nearly all of the kids loved it and had a ball. There were some incredible cars there. Wouldn’t mind a few of them in my garage – actually I wouldn’t mind my own garage too!
Tonight I’m playing in a semi final for our indoor mixed netas. We have done really well so far – undefeated. If we win tonight – we play in the grand final next week, however, I wont be able to play! I am leading on a BSOR trip for the week. There are going to be quite a few clashes this year, but I gotta stay really organised in advance – to try and minimise the chance of this happening. The bus driving is going well – with my next outing being tomorrow, driving a busload of students to our GIS swimming day in Melbourne. Should be a great day.
I apologise for the lack of photos, but they will come at a later stage – probably all at once, but they will come.
I hope all is well with all the special people that may happen to stumble upon this blog and I pass on my best wishes to you.
Take care
God bless.
- posted by Brett @ 3/09/2007 09:41:00 AM 0 comments

 
Well, welcome back!
Its busy as has been the forecast, but life is great and God is incredible, Awesome, amazing, God is so good.
It has been a pretty immense week or two or three, whenever it was that I posted last. I am writing on my new laptop – an upgrade from last year, which is a blessing, and I have just watched a sermon in the hearts ablaze series. Students started back today at school, so it was a pretty hectic day today – with lunch being a good old farmers union ice coffee at the end of the day (at about 5:30!)
The weekend has been pretty full on as I finished work at school Friday arvo and drove straight to Sale, and have been working at my new job as boarding house supervisor (more on that in a sec) til this morning – when I raced back to Traralgon for work at school.
The boarding house supervisor is a pretty cool role to have – as I basically look after a bunch of guys for a weekend, trying to keep them busy so they don’t play up. Year 7-12, about 20 of them depending on who stays or goes home for the weekend. I’ll be doing 3 weekends a term-ish. The challenge of the weekend can also depend on the people that stay. There are girl boarders, but I’m not as responsible for them, as there is a female supervisor as well. So the weekend was a busy one. I took a bus load of boys to the pool for a swim, as it was pretty hot, while the girls stayed and watched dvd’s or studied. Saturday night, I took a group out to play tennis, Sunday we went to a cool swimming hole about an hour away where we spent the day swimming, jumping of rocks etc. everyone had to come on that trip which was good. They were all pretty tired Sunday night, which made it easier to get them to bed. I have pretty strict guidelines to follow, which aren’t always as easy as they look. (try telling an arrogant year 9 on ADHD to go to bed at 9:30!!!) Nah, its pretty good. The boys seem to respect me, I try to keep it fun for them, which I think is the key, as well as showing them that I care for their wellbeing and so on, trying to show a bit of God’s love. Its going to be a mission, reducing their swearing, lack of respect etc to other staff and boarders, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and feel that God really has put me in this place for his work.
Kim and I are great, and eagerly awaiting our engagement party and the wedding. I really believe God has an unimaginably great future in store for us. This is not to say there won’t be great challenges, as I believe there will be, but I also truly believe that He will give us the strength, commitment, love and passion to get through whatever may come in our walk of life together. There are times when I really long for Kim. I’m not embarrassed to admit it, she is a real blessing to me and I feel I owe God all my thanks for his provision.
The next couple weeks are filling up pretty quick. My diary seems now to be online with outlook express, a great tool I am finding it to be.

I should leave you with an email that an old pal emailed to me which I found to be pretty cool and useful. Hopefully you may also get something from it.
Take care in all you do, God bless and smile

Live well, Laugh often, & Love with all of your heart!

I AM THANKFUL:
FOR THE WIFE
WHO SAYS IT'S HOT DOGS TONIGHT,
BECAUSE SHE IS HOME WITH ME,
AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE.

FOR THE HUSBAND
WHO IS ON THE SOFA
BEING A COUCH POTATO,
BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITH ME
AND NOT OUT AT THE BARS.

FOR THE TEENAGER
WHO IS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES
BECAUSE IT MEANS SHE IS AT HOME,
NOT ON THE STREETS.

FOR THE TAXES I PAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I AM EMPLOYED.

FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE
BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS.

FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.

FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE

FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING,
WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING,
AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME.

FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING
I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT
BECAUSE IT MEANS
WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH..

FOR THE PARKING SPOT
I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING
AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION.

FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I AM WARM.

FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH
WHO SINGS OFF KEY BECAUSE IT MEANS
I CAN HEAR.

FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR.

FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES
AT THE END OF THE DAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN
CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD.

FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF
IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE.

I'll include some photos at a later date!

Love to all!
Bamxxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 2/06/2007 12:07:00 PM 1 comments

 
Well well well!!! Merry Christmas, Merry Boxing Day and Happy New Year!!!!!!
I trust everyone has welcomed 2007 and are enjoying themselves so far in the new year. This will be one of those largish blogs to fill in on whats been happening since the 19th of December. There won’t be much ‘special’ writing sorry, maybe next time. Well, Dan flew into Melb a bit after midnight Wednesday and Kim and I picked him up and took him back to Doncaster. The next day we took off for Mt Gambier, via the Great Ocean Road. I think that’s the last time I do that though, it was such a long trip! Plus it was about 40 degress, so way too hot. Dan enjoyed it though, I think! We spent a couple days in Mt G chilling and doing stuff and things. Kim had to fly back to melb on Christmas Eve to be with her family for Christmas. Christmas day we unwrapped some pressies then drove up to Mannum to catch up with the relies. We had tea at the Maxwells and lunch the next day at the Gobbetts. It was the first time in about 6 years that all the Gobbetts side of the family could be together, a great time of catch up, eating and playing! We were lucky to get down to the murray for a quick ski before the Adelaide Gobbetts got there on boxing day. We all had a bit of a knee board which was great fun, 3 behind the boat. Thea was awesome! First time knee boarding and she rocked! Dan too, but Camo and Matt made sure he got especially wet, giving him the longer rope and constantly spraying him, the poor guy, they were way too mean! Anyway

Camo, Dan and Matt ready to get wet on the murray in Mannum

We also were lucky enough to do a quick trip into adelaide to drop dave at the airport and drop camo home. So, Dan was enjoying the travelling. We took a look at the Adelaide beaches!:

Camo Dan and I were soaking up the sun on an adelaide beach, for about 5 mins, in a slight hurry tourist trip.

We made our way back to Mt G (well Glencoe actually, as that is where our Home is now) and spent a couple more days just chilling. Dan and I then made our way back to Melb, where we picked Kim up and made our way down to Gippsland to prepare for the new years eve show for Crossing the Gap. We had a practice ride day Saturday, and Dan had his first ever ride on a motor bike, a good job and a funny couple stacks. No hurties though!


Practicing the table top at the pig pen arena.

Dan on his first motor bike ride.

Then the practice went all day Sunday, (well arvo – after church and lunch) followed by the show Sunday night. It went off, it was soo cool. It ended up pouring for a while in the arvo, the the track went from being dusty and rough to very very slippery. It made for a great spectacle of a show with big bike freestyle, fast fifty racing (what I was doing) speedway cars ( the highlight of the night with lots of thrills and spills!) and some big bike racing. CTG now has some cool beanies and hats too!




Since then, time has absolutely flown by, we’ve been having way too much fun! Dan, Kim and I spent another week down in Mt G, with my uncle and auntie and 3 cousins visiting, and we had 2 fast fifties to ride around on which was great. Camo had the mother of all stacks, involving a sandy bit of track at about 60km/h, no injuries though, he just bounced and rolled for about 8 metres, I was lucky enough to see it all! Very spectacular, if only I had a helmet camera on!

We had a lot of fun and laugher at home with the family. Dan definatelu helped to the humour of the holidays so far!

We also spent 2 days up at Eildon on the houseboat, during the really hot couple days. It was great being up there, even though we didn’t have a speedboat (as it is in for repairs – well a new engine actually!) I was quite ill for one of the days, which was pretty awful!

We had an incredible meal of bbq'd rainbow trout and gourmet bbq'd wedges!Yummy!

Dan then went up to Capernwray to help Dave out, instead of coming with me to lead on the ESA teen summer camp. He had a ride organised and caught a lift with a real Aussie in his old holden ute, very fitting, but a long trip! The ESA camp went off! It was soo soo good, such a blessing to have been part of it. We had a great young group of leaders and the campers rocked. We had some awesome fun, great studies, incredible worship sessions, great concert, and the activities were incredible! One in particular was a guys day out. All the blokes spent an arvo and evening without any female contact. We went out into the bush and played a giant game of capture the flag – which was a very violent game involving ripping tape off the arm of opponents to sent them to jail. It was so rough, but so much fun. We played in a great area with a river and streams, and some blackberry bushes everywhere which cut up all our legs! There weren’t many shirts left in one piece at the end of the game – that’s how rough it was!
Anyway, I’ve made some contacts on the camp which I want to hang onto. I got on with some of the leaders really well.
So, camp finished yesterday and I popped back into melb, unloaded and put some washing on, read my warm fuzzies (notes from campers and leaders) and went to pick up Dan from the airport. So today we are chilling out and looking outside at the rain absolutely pouring down. Dan flys back to the UK miday tomorrow. Then Monday I’ll be heading to Newbourough for my heavy rigid licence. I finish that wed, then first thing Thursday Kim and I will be going with the 4WD convoy to Robe for the annual 4WD sand trip with Jim’s Safetrek 4WD services.
Then I need to be in Tyabb first thing Monday, then back into it, full steam ahead!

And some photos from of late:

Getting ready for take of on the proposal day, and the day that Kim and I got engaged! (2nd Dec)

Me on one knee :-)

And the happy newly engaged couple!

Very happy!
- posted by Brett @ 1/19/2007 11:50:00 AM 0 comments

 
Well, Hello!! I must say that it has been one of the longest absences of blogging in quite some time. Nearly 2 months is not really acceptable! I have been busy, but it should not be an excuse. I have been all over the place since the 25th of Oct! We have had some more round robins at school organized and run by yours truly, and they are lots of fun for the kids. I raced up to Melbourne to go with the Kennedy’s to B1’s graduation down in Geelong. Was a great night. After seeing Brett walk across the stage with his degree took a quick tour of Geelong, then we went out to a lovely restaurant in Melbourne as a celebration called Tipenyaukee (not sure on the spelling of that) It was one of the most incredible restaurants I’ve been to. Unbelievable food, cooked in front of you. It was an amazing experience. From memory (which I can assure you isn’t great) we had a pretty cruisy day. That night we went out to tea with a heap of mates, to another Tipenyakee restaurant, but a different one. It was different but still really really cool. The chefs have such skill and precision, and its great to see them do it all in front of you. The food taste soo good too! I can’t remember what we did on the Sunday, I think I may have gone back to Traralgon for a youth service practice and church, but I can’t really remember.
That week went pretty quick, as they all have this year, absolutely flown by! I mostly worked at FCCC, played some netas tue night, which is always an absolute blast, YABS on Wednesday and another LG shift. Another youth service practice followed by the service on Sunday, which should have been a study day! I had my only exam for the semester on Monday the 6th of Nov. It was for diversity of Learners and I walked out of the exam pretty happy with how it had gone. We then flew off to Melbourne (after packing and transporting a heap of Kim and my stuff out to Yinnar South – which is where most of our stuff is now) to go to Taryn’s house warming bbq party thing. It was really cool to catch up with a heap of people we hadn’t seen for a while, and I met a guy that I went to ESA camps with many years ago! Small world! We then went to the Black Spur Inn to help Kim’s parents out with a Melbourne cup function which they had on. Kim and I both did pretty well on the Sweeps that we run at the BSI, which was handy!
I then worked the rest of the week at FCCC and another LG shift. I then spent the Friday (10th) packing up my room, attending LG meetings and lunches, calling people and moving! I had a room inspection to make sure I hadn’t trashed the place and then Kim arrived from Melb and we packed our bags for a trip to the high country. We had a bogong walk with the 1st year BSOR students, we were assistant leaders in different groups. The trip was awesome! We had a great mix of weather with sunshine, rain, horizontal hail and massive thunderstorms and to top it off about 10cm of snow overnight on our last night! It was really cool to wake up to! We got back from our trip Wednesday night and went our separate ways. Kim back to work at MLC and me at FCCC. Friday we went to Andrea’s 21st which was out in the sticks, but awesome all the same. It was great to help her celebrate and meet some of her family and friends. We then worked at the BSI, I think. Kim and I run the place for the Sunday arvo and night, if I remember correctly. I had an elev8 meeting Monday in Frankston followed by another pretty flat out work week at FCCC, with the normal netas and YABS and LG – ing. (my last shift for the year) Friday night we packed up the new Crossing the Gap bus (the Bowen Bus) full of all our gear and 6 motorbikes and took off for Kyabrum. We had a big show on the Saturday that we went up for – a big youth convention or something. I’m not jumping at the moment so was given the job with Craig as commentators, which was pretty cool, lots of fun and something different. We camped right next to the down ramp both nights, went to the church service Sunday morning, and then traveled home. It was a great weekend, hot, but good. We all went for a swim Saturday arvo in the pastors’ pool, which was really really handy and refreshing! We got back late Sunday night. I then went to Sale Monday with Baz, dropped him off at Vic roads (he was picking up a car that had been donated to CTG some time ago by a lady in Sale) while I went to an interview as boarding house supervisor at Gippsland Grammar in 2007. The interview went really well, and I got the job. I will be working 3 weekends a term next year as the male supervisor of the boarding house, which should be an interesting, challenging experience.
I then went back to Flynn Creek, and Baz and I went for a bit of a ride on our Motos. We went and got Craig and took some of the CTG cars for a run in the bush to charge them up, as we have a show coming up with the cars involved. That was a fun drive.
The rest of the week was a little less exciting up until Friday. Had netas and YABS but no more life guarding!!!
Friday – I got up too early – it was still very dark, and drove up to Euroa – which is up about 2 hours north of Melbourne – a pretty big drive from gippy! I then spent 4 hours pegging 50 meters of orange material into the ground with 150 tent pegs. I wrote MARRY ME KIM in letters that where each about 4 meters high and 4 meters wide! I then raced back to Melbourne so I could take Kim to her appointment with her wrist. It is all better. The specialist was convinced after a few small movements of her hand! We then went to Clare’s 21st which was a stack of fun, as she had a jumping castle. We got to catch up with Jodie and Ben and Casey and co which was really cool! Saturday was a pretty big and exciting day. We got up and had left by 7:30, much to Kim’s disgust. I had told her for about a month that we were going Christmas shopping for her on this day, and we had to travel for a fitting. That’s all she knew, so she had absolutely no idea what was going on. She had quite a few questions but obviously had no idea what was going on!
We drove into the Euroa parachute school a couple hours later, which was out in the sticks. Kim demanded to know what was going on. I said, sweetie, I’m taking you skydiving for Christmas. She said ok, but are you coming too. Heck yes!
We went and had our training which didn’t last long, suited up and climbed aboard the plane. We circled our way up to 10000 feet, then I left the plane, followed by Kim soon after. The guy that took me was an old Hungarian bloke that didn’t speak much English and was very small. When we left the plane we somersaulted 6 or 7 times before we straightened up, then it was a shaky back and forth rocking until he pulled the parachute. Then I felt like throwing up, I felt really sea sick! But I felt a bit better when I could see my art work. There on the ground I could read MARRY ME KIM very loud and clear in orange letters. I got to the ground and Kim had seen the writing and was very excited. I then went over and pulled a ring out of my pocket and got down on one knee! She said yes! We have a DVD of the jump and lots of photos. Make sure you ask to see it next time we catch up. There is some great footage. Kim enjoyed her jump a lot. We then went and unpegged my wonderful artwork and then found a lovely country gourmet deli type place where we had a lunch of awesome pies. We then went and sat by the river that run by the town and enjoyed the shade of some trees! We then went back into the Yarra Valley and bought a special bottle of wine – which we plan to open on our 10th wedding anniversary.
We then went to the BSI to share the news with Kim’s family.
Sunday was James’ birthday (Kim’s lil bro) so we had a birthday tea for him. Kim and I then drove back first thing Monday to Melbourne, where I then drove to FCCC for a full week of work, with netas, an elev8 information evening that I organized. Thursday I went for a ride with Baz, which was a stacka fun. We built a bit of a ski jump on one of the flats at the bottom of Dan and Julz’ property. Friday I went and picked Kim up from Leongatha, as she had been on a camp to the Prom with a melb school for 3 days. We then went to a staff bbq at Susan’s which was great, as Kim got to meet all the people that I work with, and they got to meet Kim and check out her hand!
Saturday we had a pretty cruisy day I think, back to Melbourne, then caught up with Taryn about doing some invites for us. We were trying to also work out some possible dates for the wedding and for the engagement party.
On the Monday, Bazza and I did our motorbike licence in Kilsyth – Honda Aust Rider Training. We both passed with flying colours. We then went to his G’mas place to get changed then went to the FCCC presentation night which was back in gippy.
I then worked for the rest of the week at FCCC, with a big Kris Kringal lunch on Tuesday which was really cool and a massive FCCC Christmas lunch in Pakenham on Friday. For the rest of the week we were mostly planning for next year and cleaning up the place. The normal Netas and YABS, which was cool. With a ride with Baz on the Wednesday before YABS.
Kim came down with Kathryn on Friday night for the CTG bbq and then we went to the big V6 skate and music festival to perform on Saturday. The riders did pretty well, as it was really hot and uncomfortable. Craig and I were commentators again, and Kim marshaled the jumping. It was a pretty eventful day, with Baz having quite a decent stack, managing to break his wrist, and Alex also stacking out, putting him out for the rest of the day. They both looked like they hurt quite a bit! Also, Deano managed to wreck his bike after over-doing a stopee (stopping on your front wheel) and flipping his bike upside down. He then went to start it straight away, blowing the engine casing from the compression of the oil in the wrong place! So there were only 2 riders left for the afternoon. It was still an awesome day, with lots of people enjoying the entertainment. Kim and I took off to Melb and saw the new Bond movie Saturday night, which was pretty cool, a bit different to what I was expecting, a movie with lots of twists requiring lots of concentration to keep up.
Sunday I did my Lifeguard update at the Windy Hill Fitness Centre – the Essendon FC home training ground. It was a long day, but left passing everything, which is handy.
Sunday night we had a bbq at Taryn’s for her 22nd b’day! That was really cool too. Met some cool people and enjoyed the relaxed night. Monday (yesterday) Kim and I went reception place shopping and also called into the church where we plan to be wed.
We are pretty sure that we have it all sorted now. We haven’t booked everything yet, so will wait until it is finalized until I give dates and places. We also did a bit of Christmas shopping which is hard work and came home feeling pretty tired. Kim cooked an awesome meal, then we spent about 3 hours cleaning up the unit. Today, Kim had to go to work for the last day this year, while I have been doing odd jobs here and there. I gave Rina a complete clean out as we are picking up Kim’s grandparents from the airport tonight and need a clean car for that! I have done some more cleaning and organizing for the next couple weeks and have completed some Christmas shopping and sent some stuff and things away. Tonight we will be going to the BSI and spending tomorrow there, then Wednesday night we will be going to the airport again – quite late, to pick up Dan from the UK. We will then be staying in melb then going home to Mt Gambier via the great ocean road. We will then chill and have an engagement party bbq at the lakes on Friday night, everyone is welcome! Sunday arvo Kim will fly back to Melbourne to spend Christmas with her family. Dan and I will hang around for a while then go back to gippy for a while and help with the CTG event over New Years Eve. The next 2 weeks is a little in the air, which will be good. Then Dan and I will hopefully be leading on an ESA summer Teen camp in Marysville and Kim will be on her Somers camp for a week. I then do my Heavy Rigid License before going back to FCCC on the 29th of Jan.
So with the update done, I have nothing more to say other than to YOU – have a great, safe, joyful, relaxed Christmas and new year filled with love and happiness. Please don’t forget the true meaning or CHRISTmas and give joyfully. I will hopefully update with some photos if I get onto a quick internet connection in the next week or two. Until then, peace out!!! Love to all!
Bam
xxxooo

Ps I do apologise for the length of this post! At least its there and my memor doesn't have to store it anymore! Hugs gallore - as hugs are great!
- posted by Brett @ 12/19/2006 03:35:00 PM 1 comments

 
Silly….I haven’t done a great job at writing much lately. Sorry about that. I have had a pretty good run I suppose you could say. All the assignments have been finished for the year (providing I passed them all) and I only have 1 exam to attend on the 6th of Nov. My shoulder is still a bit not right after that silly stack, but hopefully it’ll come good. I did go to the physio and get it checked, and it should be all good, just a time thing to get it better. Crossing The Gap is flying along well, with part of the team leaving for Adelaide early Friday morning for Adelaide – SA Youth Alive. The first show on bitumen. I wont be attending this time, unfortunately. I have a bit much on the calendar.


But I did jump a trailor not that long ago. A bit of fun, and you can just see the 5star accomodation in the background, that I had to build a roof over so it doesn't leak! (for the boys - or anyone else game enough to use when we come home - while the house is being built)

We had the BSOR (Bachelor Of Sport and Outdoor Recreation) Ball Wednesday night which went off with a hoot. Some of it was a bit disappointing, with some drunk disrespectful people interrupting and talking over speeches, but overall, it wasn’t a bad night. Got to catch up with a heap of people which is always good. I did think though that $35 for finger food was a bit steep, so we ate as much as we could! Thankfully, I had enough time throughout the week to get the three assignments that were due on my birthday done, so I didn’t have to worry about them on my bday. Had a morning breaky meeting Friday for RA stuff, then went to FCCC all day. Then went out for tea with Kim. I knew from early on though that there was something going on. For a long story short- as I’m getting old now :p We rocked into a restaurant for tea to find a table full of some mates. Had to change places though, as they were closing. So went down the road and ate there, then went to go go-carting, but they were just closing up too. So, went to the hospital to visit craig, (who has just had a knee op.) but they wouldn’t let us in to visit, so we ended up at Laura’s for hot drinks and a bit of a movie. It was pretty late though, so that kinda finished a too. Saturday was a ride day which was cool. Had a good ride, but decided I’m not jumping yet. I had a good chat to Jezza, and we decided we should wait to we can use the foam pit, so there is less chance of axing ourselves, which we both agree just isn’t fun! Saturday night Kim and I had a quiet night in, with a very tasty pizza and the movie – benchwarmers, which was good for a laugh. Being Napolian Dynamite fans, we enjoyed it. Sunday morning was a big assignment work slot, followed by a YS practice then church, followed by tea. We had a visit to the church from salt shakers who are a Christian organisation with a massive mission, getting into politics and all sorts of other stuff. Sunday night – came home and did a bit more work.

Random: a photo taken at Casey's 21st down mornington way. A mask party... I need a mask! Casey is the pretty blonde in the green dress. Kim and I love her, a great mate from uni. (and Tan and Fishe as well!)

Monday I handed up 2 more assignments on the way to work and organised the round robin tournaments for the week. That night we went to a dinner to support the prevention of child prostitution in Africa. Was a great night, involving dares and donating money to a great course. 100% of money that goes to this company is used overseas where it is needed most. Coolness! Had the 1st term 4 round robin which went well in 30 degree heat, got a little toasted in the sun, and made the kids drink lots of water all day. Had Lacrosse, Hockey and Netball. Was a great day, all seemed to have a good time, with some good competition between houses. Went for a bit of a ride tue night with the boys at Flynn creek. No jumping for me still, just practicing wheelies and drag stands (feet dragging while doing a wheelie, for extra balance, kinda like training wheels for a wheelie)
One good bit came from my sore shoulder; not a bad photo :)

Today has been cold, windy and wet, the opposite of yesterday! Had to teach a double period to year 9’s – hockey. Went pretty well. Then fanged out to Craig’s and took him to get a pizza and then to YABS. He’s getting a bit bored, not being able to do much. A guy pretty similar to me in the ability to sit still. (hes just had a knee op)YABS was pretty good, although low in numbers, as a few are sick etc. Had a good look into John 3. Got quite a bit out of it which was great, it is so cool being able to chill out and dive into the Word with some top Christian dudes and dudets. And taking the time to pray as a group is really cool too.
I got another round robin to run tomorrow for the year 7’s which should be buckets of fun again, and then LG-ing tom night. Working Friday, then the weekend is a little up in the air at this present time. Only thing that seems to be set is tea in Melbourne with a stack of people! We’ll see what else come about.Should go to bed nowish. Beauty sleep is muchly needed as can be seen from my lovelyish type writing skills. Gosh, I don’t have any skills, numchuck skills, bowstaff skills. Peacock, spider leopard. What?!! Never mind. Good night!
Love to all and all to love.
Bam xxxooo

One more photo, my awesome group at BOEC


The week was a lot of fun, I think i've already wrote about it. Ok, enough photos for now. I'm going to bed!!

- posted by Brett @ 10/25/2006 11:55:00 PM 0 comments

 
Silly Stack on Motovert

This is a silly stack, off balance. Silly. Need I say more?
I still have a dead arm from this....Hopefully will be inproving so I can perfect the jump on saturday!
- posted by Brett @ 10/16/2006 08:51:00 PM 0 comments

 


Well, Hello.
Yes its been a while...quite a while!!!
The sixth of September was a long time ago, more than a month ago! Sorry about the massive delay. I must have been pretty busy I spose! What have I been up to...
I have organised and run a couple round robins at school (term 3) and had an assignment presentation or two at uni for some silly subjects. I have done a few LG shifts at CLC and had a lot of good times. I have had a big boys night out a while ago which was some go carting and bowling and a movie. Plus a couple days of riding on the fast fifty! I've been on a 4wd day with Kim and her dads instructor days. I've spent quite a few hours at FCCC doing lots of admin work. I've been to a few YABS sessions and had a lot of uni classes. I've been to Sharons 40th, Klieve's going away party and spent a week in the mount of G with Kim and my fam, which was awesome. I played a day of netas in Geelong for the Vic teachers games, and stayed at Jo and Gus's house, which was cool to catch. I've been to TFF a few times and led a childrens church with Jezza which was cool, including Half a million bucks and a really heavy bag and joining Jesus in the Kingdom. I have had a few tuesday night dinners at the cafe, played some tuesday night netas and driven 1000's of K's, in not my Subaru. I have just got my Rina back last Friday, she seems to be all better. Fingers crossed she stays that way. I've had a few stacks off the bike and hurt a few limbs. I've farewelled a mate to the States and a College Head to Canada. I've seen a movie or two and Eaten lots. I've been for a swim here and there and spent a week up at Bogong Outdoor Education Centre and a student leader, which was incredible. I've played the Trom on a few occasions and Shot a rifle at a tree. I've completed some uni assignments but have a lot to finish before this Friday. I have 1 exam later on and some hours to catch up on at FCCC. I turn a super old 23 on Friday and have a really cool present idea for Kim this Christmas. I've dished out some birthday presents which were pretty cool - CTG and causal backflip merchandise and bought some cheese. I've procrastinated and slept as much as possible but still falling short of what I probably should be getting. I've spent some time on the phone and talked a bit to a massive range of people. I have a lot to be thankful for and a lot to look forward to.
I do apologise as I am in quite a blah, random mood, and I have a lot of work to do, so i have kept it reasonably brief and undetailed. I'm sure i'd be happy to give some more detail on request of specific issues. Don't be scared to ask.
Okidoki!
I should be doing some work about now.
Hope all is well.
I will include a silly clip, it should be uploaded soon.
I'll hopefully blog properly next time and fill in some better details.
Love to all
God bless
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 10/16/2006 08:24:00 PM 0 comments

 
Crossing The Gap at Rod Laver

And just quickly - a video from saturday's event...
- posted by Brett @ 9/06/2006 04:38:00 PM 0 comments

 
Ok, some photos from Saturday:

As was the mad riding! No stacks at all! Go Dean, John & Benny!

The new portable down ramp worked a treat. The boys have done an awesome job, with Benny leading the way!

What a team. A great outreach - Crossing the Gap! It is getting exciting. Lots of potential in the future.

To finish, i'll include the message that Benny has on the back of his bike:

If you can't read that, it says:
Jesus is like a helmet:
You don't put it on because if feels good.
You put it on because one day YOU CRASH
Warning, Eternity!

Ok, that should probably just about do for now.
I'm in desperate need of some sleep. Someone is sleeping on my bed. Hmm. BARRY WAKE UP!
Why is Barry always so tired after a massive night sleep. I concur!

Casey, Kim and I have a group assignment tomorrow.
We're having a movie night (2 language and literacy movies, YAY, NOT!) over tea and have to have it ready for tomorrowy. Yay (again NOT!)
Have a great night.
Love to everyone, after all, this is the love generation!

Bamboo!
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 9/04/2006 06:04:00 PM 2 comments

 

Looking back, the 31^st of July is the last time I sat and actually wrote about what I’ve been up to. Other than all pictures and clips that tell a bit of a story, I guess you probably don’t know too much.
My memory doesn’t do me too well from 5 weeks ago, but I’ll get my diary out and see how we go. From memory, that week was pretty cool, with only a bit of stress from an assignment due on the Friday. Bistro dinners Tuesday nights have been awesome. A massive happy 21^st birthday to Alex our little princess of uni. We went to his 21^st on Saturday night, after I drove a mini bus around uni all day for the open day tours. Not a bad way to pass a day. Met a lot of people and was happy being a tour guide. ( I did have a really dirty bus, but its all good!) The 21^st was pretty cool. Caught up with lotsa people, which is kinda what happens at 21^sts. Stayed at Casey’s place (Who’s 21^st is also fast approaching – this weekend!) chilled out Sunday, then came back to play the bone in the youth service in Traralgon. Great service, great music, lotsa fun and awesome worship.

The following week – much of the same – FCCC, uni, bistro tea, bible study, CLC, and then the weekend…. An awesome weekend, down at Lake Tyres – near lakes enterance. We had the TFF (Traralgon Family Fellowship) church camp. We had a ball. I picked up deano’s boat and Flik, Kim and Jezza and convoyed with Baz (who was ridiculously tired!) to the camp. The camp was nuts, bible studies, worships, a big water ski session sat arvo (awesome fun, awesome stacks), walks on the beach, skating down the big road down the side of the park, playing on the water wheel (BAZZA NICE WORK – top quality entertainment!), eating and stuffing around. The bbq before we left was awesome too – Ankulz came to say g’day which was cool too!

Then back to the real world! A crazy week with a whole lot of not much sleep – lots of uni work, meetings, 1^st aid updates – asthma, bistro dinner, YABS. I had 4 nights in which I only had 2 hours sleep, and I’m still recovering. The weekend was another crazy nuts one. I took a 12 seater full of people up to Hotham for the weekend, with Kim helping out. We left Saturday morning at 3:30. An interesting weekend to say the least. We found a little bit of black ice on the way up the mountain, but were ok. Teaching Kim to snowboard was going really well – until the second run. She was picking it up really quick, being a great wakeboarder. On the second run, about half way down, I stopped to talk to Brian. Kim said she’d keep practicing and I’d catch up. 30 seconds later, I went after Kim to find her sitting on the snow holding her wrist. I raced over to find her in a pretty bad way, with a broken wrist. We walked to the med centre where we spent the next 3 hours ish! I had a quick nap on her bed while she waited for the nurse to find a sling! I was, as you remember, very sleep deprived. We stayed in bright Saturday night, which was beautiful. From this point on, I’ve been playing nurse for Kim, who can hardly use her arm, and has to keep it still. She’s stayed pretty clean and not smelly, well fed and her hair has been looking pretty cool. (I should be a hair design gouroo!) Sunday was a great day. Brian and I spent most of it on the boarder cross track – and Kim came and took some photos, which you have already seen some of. Good trip back to uni – (doner kebab in Bairnsdale was sweet!!! Although it was hard to eat with one hand – Kim :-(
Last week wasn’t too bad, apart from a few misshaps. I hit a wombat on the way home from netball and smashed the front of my car in. Apparently it should be ready in a couple weeks – currently at an accident repair centre :-( We were very lucky though, thanks Alex too for your help and taxi run!

Yabs was a no- go as we had too much to do and not much time to do it. First time we’d missed it and am a bit disappointed that we did – as I hear I probably should have been there. Was supposed to be a staff retreat thu and fri but took Kim to Melb to get her wrist re-aligned and casted. Had a great day Saturday – as kim recovered very quickly. We wend shopping and out for lunch. Spent a great day and night together. Something to go down in the history book. Kim stayed awake for an entire movie – Napoleon Dynamite. Gee it must have been good. I had seen it a couple times, so didn’t mind falling asleep for most of it – as I still do have a lot of sleep to catch up on. Sunday I came back down to uni, borrowed a car and trailor of the champion deano and family and headed out to Flynn creek. Rode all afternoon – with one pretty nuts stack. We got it on film, so I’ll have to get hold of it soon. A big jump gone wrong – again. Landed on my head – again. Front flip – again! It’s all-good though. I stopped then – cause I can’t look after Kim if I need looking after more so!!

Ash (mate from uni) came and rode with us which was cool as – he’s a top rider – hit the jumps without too much hassle.

This week is again pretty full on with all sorts of stuff happening left right and centre!

This weekend is the big Crossing The Gap performance at Youth Alive at Rod Laver Arena. That goes on Saturday arvo, with only a few of our riders riding. I’m not ready to ride, and Baz doesn’t have his bike yet.

Saturday night is Casey’s 21^st, which will be a hoot and then fathers day. Still working out whats going on – on Sunday.
That’s about all for now. I’ll try and update a little more regularly, as this has been another mammoth effort.
I hope all is well and things are flying on the tops of mountains for everyone. If its not, I hope you can find some wings. God helps me find my wings – or rather pulls me out of valleys and sits me back on mountains – each time I fall off. I love and thank God for His grace and the blessings He has provided me with – all of which I do not deserve. Hopefully you can see this too and can Thank God also!

Love to all!

Ok, I haven’t posted this yet, so will add the weekends events. The weekend was awesome. Everything was soo smooth. The CTG event went awesome. Lots of publicity now, and we’ve had lots of requests to ride at future events. Casey’s birthday was great. Late nights helping Kim (me typing) with her assignments. Crazy weekend. Lots of awesome food yesterday at the Black Spur Inn. Ok. I have to get back to work. Lots to do!

I’ll include some CTG photos from the weekend later on.

xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 9/04/2006 09:20:00 AM 2 comments

 
Hi there all you fantastical peoples. I just thought I should post a few photos, to keep the page colourful. I will do a proper job word post with all my comings and goings. Been a busy boy lately, so yea. I will get around to it.

Here is one of my favourite photos of Thea, our little princess!


Me learning to ski with Uncle Trev.

My very first bike jump - a little one - quite similar to the one on Napoleon Dynamite, on the sledgehammer! Yes that is an orange stackhat!! I must get my hands on that!

I found a photo from last years efforts too at Hotham. Wasn't posting photos then, so thought I'd include it. This photo was taken a little early, but its all good!



This photo is for those who laugh at how I look now. I agree, i laugh at me now too, but I used to be good looking once upon a time!


Ok, i'm off, plenty of work to do and lots of sleep to be caught up on.

I will post some more photos (mostly nice ones of other people!) and stuff and things later on when I get some more procrastination time.

Love, Joy, Peace and Hope to all of you!!!
Bam
xxxooo

Ps - Unfortunately, Rina is off the road for a couple weeks, after having a meeting with a wombat. The meeting was a very quick one (at 100km/h) and the outcome of the meeting was less than desirable for both Rina (my suby) and the wombat. The wombat - dead. My suby - smahed in the front end. Lots of $ worth of damage. Due to the fact that this wombat doesn't have insurance - i am the 'at fault driver' so have to pay full excess :-(
It could have been much worse though, God was definately looking after us. (we didn't end up in a tree or in the car that was coming the other way. Also, it was the biggest wombat I have ever seen!) Alex, the champ came and picked Kim and I up and helped me push the road kill off the road, (with a very long branch) as we dry-reached and nearly threw up. But it had to be done, to stop another accident occuring - it was in a bad spot for oncoming traffic. And there were blood and guts - Yuk. (sorry for the softly stomached people!)

pps - the Crossing the Gap team will be at Youth Alive at Rod Laver Arena this weekend.
I wont be riding, as i'm not ready, (after yet another stack yesterday- dont stress mum, i'm ok) but we'll have some riders keeping the crowds entertained! More on that later!
More on that later.
- posted by Brett @ 8/28/2006 10:31:00 PM 1 comments

 
How to stuff a shoulder

My shoulder was out of action for a while after this. Still a bit not right!
- posted by Brett @ 8/21/2006 07:10:00 PM 0 comments

 
Face plant

Barefooting on a day too rough. Face plant. This hurt my eye sockets!
- posted by Brett @ 8/21/2006 07:09:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hotham

more borderX, sorry its hard to see!
- posted by Brett @ 8/21/2006 04:14:00 PM 0 comments

 
Ok, time to vid it up, hope it all works good
Carving at Hotham

The borderX track at Hotham is fun!
- posted by Brett @ 8/21/2006 04:13:00 PM 0 comments

 
Ok, this has to be quick, as I may have to make a quick trip to melb.
Kim has broken her writst snowboarding, i'll explain soon, and may need surgury tonight.
I may need to go be the nurse, just waiting on a phone call.


And time for some photos!


Brian and I ready to carve, dancing on snowboards!

Brian and I spent most of Sunday on the BorderX track, it was awesome fun!!

Such a pretty place!!!! About time I got some photos!

This is Dan (in the helmet), Brian and Julz on the road runner lift!

Me, with my make-do sunnies!

And some quick vid clips will soon be on their way!
- posted by Brett @ 8/21/2006 03:52:00 PM 1 comments

 
Hey just quickly
I have read an article in a newsletter that I thought I would type up to add to this insanely massively huge blog. (I need a break from reading silly stuff about language and literacy, and other crazy complex stuff that I need to somehow try and get my head around. Gee I would be crap without God in my life!) I think the piece of writing originally comes from The Father Heart of God by Floyd McClung. Enjoy:

People will remember our attitudes and actions, how we say things, far longer than the actual words that we speak. Those attitudes and our underlying philosophy of life…create an atmosphere everywhere we go.

We can create an atmosphere for spiritual growth by our love and trust towards others.
We can create an atmosphere of friendship by our availability to others.
We can create an atmosphere of belonging by including others in important decisions.
We can create an atmosphere of responsibility by trusting others.
We can create an atmosphere of compassion by our courtesy and kindness to others.
We can create an atmosphere of godliness and spiritual reality by meditating regularly on God’s word and by being a personal worshipper of God.
We can create an atmosphere of faith and vision by seeing needs and discerning God’s response to the need.
We can create an atmosphere of righteousness by acknowledging God’s enablement in every situation.
We can create an atmosphere of human value and worth by having time to listen to others.
We can create an atmosphere of God’s nearness by total openness to the person of the Holy Spirit.
We can create an atmosphere of comfort by caring when others are hurt.
We can create an atmosphere of team and unity by sincerely desiring to release others into their ministry in God’s timing; we sincerely pray that their works will be greater than ours.
We can create an atmosphere of joy and peace by constantly expressing our thankfulness and gratefulness to God in every situation.
We can create an atmosphere of security by seeing the good and the potential in others.
We can create an atmosphere of faith by being impressed with the greatness of God.
We can create an atmosphere of honesty by being transparent, and admitting our own faults and weakness and asking for forgiveness when we have wronged those around us.

Have a great week!
‘loves, hugs, jazz, stuff and things’ !!!xxxooo
Finally, some luck with Photos!

I must apologise, we hardly took any photos at hotham. This is outside the Scnaps bar just before we left the mountain. Craig and I spent a bit of time on the rail and box park!


Lunches were definately a great part of the trip, anyguesses for whats inside:??

Aren't these two a lovely couple- Craig and Kathryn!

The incredible room 3, we were the room mates that was! Hmm. A great group of cool mates!

Ok, its time for some lunch!!(more photos later, hopefully) Then back into study. YES!!!! (with a clenched fist, eyes closing and head looking down) You know what i mean?
- posted by Brett @ 8/01/2006 12:45:00 PM 1 comments

 
Well, it must be about that time again, as it has been more than a week. I probably should try to keep updating fairly regularly so its not a mammoth effort each time and so I don’t forget heaps of stuff and things. Kinda like shaving…the more you do it, the less time it takes! Hmm..
Anyway, news is this. I am sitting in the Traralgon Uniting church, listening to Nomes and Baz practice (for Nomes’s estiford which is fast approaching) writing away as I wait for time to pass, as we have a youth service practice at 8pm, which kinda sucks, as I really need an early night. What made me so tired you ask? Well… It all self inflicted, I guarantee it! Last week was a nuts week. We left Churchill at 9 on a coach and arrived to Hotham later on that day. It was a cool trip, with some great subway on the run in Barinsdale and an awesome choc chip cookie in Omeo. Poor Bec, her ears always get chewed off whenever she’s around me. When we got to Hotham, we unpacked all our gear into our lodge – Vagabond. It is a cool as lodge, multi level with massive kitchen, lounge room, pool table, spa and sauna. I was in a room with my mates that had come along for the trip. We had 8 in the room with 2 people on mattresses on the floor. Best room to be in! We then had a big Lasagne that Katherine had cooked up. We had awesome meals – Chicken Teriyaki stir-fry, chicken and bacon risotto, and a tuna pasta. It was pretty cheap cooking in a group of 8. Anyways, after tea on Sunday night, we had a board prep session, with some scraping, waxing and scraping. We were getting pretty pumped to hit the slopes! Sunday night was pretty sleep-less, with some snoring going on and a bit of anxiousness and anticipation in hitting the slopes. Monday we were into it, all guns blazing. I decided to take it pretty easy, as my cracked rib didn’t like (and still doesn’t) like any sort of jarring or pressure. I strapped it best I could and made do with that. I didn’t have any stacks til after lunch, and after that, I decided I didn’t want to stack anymore. I decided to just stick to carving and less trick stuff. The slopes were pretty packed as there wasn’t much snow, so only a few runs were open, meaning that there were all levels of skiers and snowboarders on the one slope. CARNAGE! There were a lot of stacks and take-outs! In my four days of boarding, I managed to take out 2 beginner skiers, who basically cut into me, and a ski instructor who also cut in front of me suddenly, while on a cat track. By Tuesday arvo, I was getting a bit sick of just carving and dodging traffic so thought I would start experimenting a bit more, pulling off some 180 ollies and doing some switch riding. Craig (who has a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his knee) and I (who has a cracked rib) decided that the rail park looked cool and kind of jokingly suggested that we give the double box a shot. Sure enough, we were there and both had a crack. We both stacked pretty hard and after laying in the snow moaning we both decided that we didn’t do it very well and thought that a second attempt would be better. Gosh! We’re both such freakin idiots! We both ate it again and decided that we had both had enough axing for the hour and just raced. We also decieded that it was safer to hook (go fast) rather than go slow, as going fast, you only had to worry about people down from the mountain and pick a line between the people scattered everywhere, where-as if you go slow, you have to watch out for people from all corners of you, much harder, much more dangerous. So, we made sure that we were going much faster than anyone around us. Patrol skiers and boarders didn’t like us hooking and we got a talking to every now and then. The mornings were pretty cool, as the runs had been groomed, which meant no bumps and icy. This means FAST! The first couple runs each morning were extremely fun and pumping! Then as the day warmed up and more people came out on the slopes and the moguls formed, the carnage increased! All my stacks were not too bad and I only had two which really shook me up. One of them was coming of the box- a dude had stacked off the box and had got up and was moving, so I went. He fell over as soon as I was on my way and it was too late to pull out. I had nowhere to land so for some stupid reason tried to get on my heel edge before leaving the box, so, my board flew out from under me and I landed on the back of my head in the snow! The helmet just paid for itself, as it was more like ice! The second stack, I was doing ollie-180 to switch on a cat track, and landed doing a manual, then slipped out and landed on my left side. My rib didn’t like this at all and couldn’t breath for a while. Took it easy for the rest of the day. The highlight of the week would have had to been the race on the final day of boarding!!!!!
Ok, I’m back home now, part 2 of my blog update!The race….
It had kinda been talked up from earlier in the week and there had already been some bids and odds put on. I was to represent the boarders and Jess was to be representing the skiers. 100% of people had their money on jess, as skiers are generally faster. The plan was to head out first thing thu morning to get an empty, flat and icy fast run. Best out of 3 with one practice run. The practice run was ok, we both had small stacks as it was very icy. Then race 1! We got to the top and I strapped in. Go! Jess was off, skating and polling down the hill, I jumped and was off to a pretty slow start (as I couldn’t skate and didn’t have poles) Jess had a pretty big lead going into the first cat track, but I had good speed coming into it so gained a little. Coming onto the last big hill before the final cat track to the finish line I was about 20 metres behind Jess. I had been gaining slowly. I hooked down this final section and caught her pretty quickly as I straight lined as best I could. Very scary, but soo fast! There is a down hill turn around a hut onto the last cat track and I overtook Jess with quite a bit more speed than her 50m before this turn. I was confident that I would beat her, especially after taking the corner without loosing any speed and hooking down the cat track. As I got near to the bottom, I looked back to see that Jess was no where to be seen. After about 3 mins of being at the bottom, I began to think that Jess could be in trouble, she had had the mother of all stacks! I caught the lift up and saw her skiing down as I started going up. She did have a big stack cornering onto the last cat track, but knew I had it won. I kinda won by default then as she couldn’t do anymore, her knee was kinda axed! Anyways!Thursday arvo we packed up and made our way back down the mountain. Had a massive Doner Kebab Bairnsdale and continued on. Baz stayed as we got back pretty late and Friday ended up being a sleep in then a cooked breaky or brunch up at Churchill café with Nat and Baz. Then had a heap of odd jobs to do and a quick ride on the bike, just to make sure it still worked. I wont be riding it around campus anymore though, as I found out its not allowed!
Friday arvo I left for Narbathong and had quite a fun drive. (apart from being stuck behind slow vehicles on fun windy roads!- although very impressed with how fast a new Hilux was towing a ski boat through the spur- real pulling power!)
I spent the weekend at the Black Spur Inn, helping out where I could, enjoying the chefs awesome meals (it felt like we were eating out at every meal! I got a bit of uni work done Saturday night but not heaps. Then Sunday arvo I hooked back to Traralgon for church by 4. It was a special church, with a presentation from this dude on the facts of Noah’s ark. It was pretty cool, and very interesting. A fascinating real story, with a lot to think about! I could get deep here, but time is not permitting!
Last night we had a rocking youth service practice which was a lot of fun, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to play as I have a cold :-( but it turned out ok and I had lotsa fun and it was good worshiping on the bone with the band.
I worked today, FCCC then RA meeting tonight. Lotsa fun! Busy week this week, as I’m 2 weeks behind uni and have a big assignment due Friday! Yay! I have a cracked rib and should be resting it totally, so it can heal. I have 1 month to be ready and practiced to jump in the show at Rod laver arena. Hopefully I’m good enough to jump!! No pressure though!
Ok, I’m going to go get a bowl of fruit salad, yoghurt and muesli and get stuck into some uni work. What a good boy!! (if only you knew the truths!) Take care and hugs to all!!!!xxxooo
ps for some reason, blogger is not letting me upload photos. You'll have to wait for them. sorry!
- posted by Brett @ 7/31/2006 09:26:00 PM 2 comments

 
Hey!
Just thought I'd add a few things quickly

The saying of the moment is "GOSH I FEEL LIKE SUCH AN IDIOT!!"

And the word for the moment is "IRONIC!"

My first thoughts when I woke up thismorning. {[thought bubble]} "gee, its 10 o'clock. I had 10 hours sleep. I shouldnt be sleeping that much. Gosh I feel like such an idiot. Why do I need so much sleep lately. I dont have time for that much, my diary is way too full, I have too much to do!!" (I would continue, but these thoughts went through my head in a matter of seconds, and my thoughts are continuously firing through at a ridiculas rate. Trying to get them all out would take the rest of my life!! Quite frankly, i have better things to be doing with my time!)

And for some sarcasm "GEE, I LOVE UNI!!!"

I'm heading off to Hotham tomorrow for a week, the snow report not looking too good, but we'll have fun regardless. I'm pretty excited about the fact that we have 7 pretty hardcore Christians on a uni trip and am looking forward to the impact we might have on the group as a whole. My new helmet and new board will be put to the test. (hopefully the board more so and the helmet much less tested!!!)

I should also add that I survived my first ever freestyle motor cross experience last saturday(having stepped up from the mountain bike to my new fast 50.) I had some pretty crazy stacks (stacked 4 out of 6 jumps) and walked away with a corky from a handle bar and a suspected cracked rib also from the handle bar. I have ordered all my safety gear and will no longer be borrowing gear. Thanks to these cool as people for lending me gear. Thanks a kazillion! The riding conditions were pretty crazy- extremely wet, slipperey and greasy, so I really shouldn't have jumped, but you gotta start somewhere, sometime, and i figure I can only get better from here. Hopefully i'll have some footage of stacking pretty soon. It is pretty funny to watch!!!!

Hope everyone has a great week.
Take care and dont do anything I wouldn't. (and if your thinking of doing anything that I do, padding and protective clothing are so not overated- wear it!)

Something my lil bro and I do very well. This was after a massive meal thanks to our wonderful mum!!!

Good bye house. It has been awesome to have you to keep us warm and dry for so many years. Our house has been sold :-( But its ok, because its just a house. And its love that makes a house a home. It opens a new era to our lives too with the pretty exciting happenings out at the block!

I'm trying to upload some more photos, but for some reason, blogger isn't liking them.
Maybe later.

On with the uni work i spose!

Later!
Love to all
Take care and God bless
Bam xxxooo
btw- how cool is music!!!!! What will music be like in 30 years time!!!

- posted by Brett @ 7/22/2006 11:17:00 AM 1 comments

 
Okay then
It may be time for one of those Bruce almighty massive blogs… I have planned for a bit of spare time, so hopefully, if I’m not interrupted, there will be some writing to follow…
Netball last week rocked! We won, and had lots of fun, there was no sun and we’re still number one! Hmm. Anyway. It was great to be back at Flinders and to see everyone again. Bible study was also good, I kinda went a bit early, took a pizza and had some tea with Cathlyn and Rich, champions of a young (wedded) couple! Thursday was cool. I left work a bit early and went for a swim, something I hadn’t done for quite a while (Since SYG) and gee I felt it. Unfit to the max! I LG’d thu night which was a bit slow, but $. Friday was all good, I think, I went up to melb and Kim and I went out to Tender trap a cool restaurant we went to about 18 months ago, which I bragged about how good the lamb rack was, so I was determined to have another. It wasn’t quite as good as I remembered, but it was really tasty still. Kim had a seafood risotto which was really tasty, but not quite my cuppaT. Saturday ended up being a bit of a later runner. First, I finally went and got Kim’s bday pressie which arrived 6 weeks after I ordered it. Originally from NZ but they had none left, so they hunted til they found one in Sydney. One of the last one left available. It was a nice warm jacket for winter! Then we went and met up with Baz for a maccas lunch then went Dom’s garage / shop and picked up my bike, then went down to a factory type place to pick up a stand and left a bit later than we had hoped for the Black Spur Inn.

The newest toy


We were in time to do a bit of work though, which was good. Kim and I both want to help out as much as we can, as there is a lot to do. Had an insane roast cooked courtesy of Di, without the use of an oven!!! Then crashed pretty heavily, after everyone had finished watching the footy and stuff, as I slept on the new lounge room floor. Sunday, worked up until bout 3 then flew back to Doncaster where we madly cleaned up, changed and rushed off to church. Kim’s friend; Kim had invited us to the planet shakers church which was cool. Very concert-y and again, not really my cuppaT. Good to go to every now and then but not something I would do often. Came home, slept, got up early and drove back to Gippy, while Kim went to work. Rode with Baz on my new expert bike all day. Had a great day, the bike’s all good. Had tea at the Aitkens, which was cool as, Jez, Baz and I.
Tuesday- Flinders, then netball. We won again, but it was a slightly sloppy game. It’ll get better again. (I still really enjoyed it though. Also, a big thankyou note to the Conabere family, with the random coolness, the random chicken sandwich, drumstick, snag, date scones (all the random yummy food) singing, laughter and all round good times, I really appreciate you all, ur friendships, care and generosity. You rock!)
After Netas and tea, I came back to CH, cleaned up then went and picked up Justin’s Monash car and drove to melb. I was on a mission to pick up a study abroad student from Canada wed morning. I stayed at Kims tue night then went to the airport wed morning to await the arrival of Lia. Stood there with a sign, felt very official and all!!
Drove her back to gippy, had a good chat, kept each other awake. Then showed her around uni and her room, then left her to sleep. (she was a tiny bit jet lagged. Or my interpretation is body clock outta wack, sleep deprivation and over-tiredness from the sleep deprivation.) Then tripped into Tgon again to organise the bball for the night. The first game ever for a Latrobe City Flinders basketball team, hopefully with many more to come. There have been some silly circumstances which have meant that they are playing out of their division, so have some challenging matches, but hopefully they’ll still learn a lot and have a lot of fun.
Then off to bible study (YABS) with a chicken sandwich in hand (thanks Kerryn) and Baz and Noz in the car (new name!!!whatduya think??) Another good bible study, up to Romans 11. A great chapter, lots of good diving in and stuff. I was a bit tired though and found it a bit hard concentrating, as I also had a lot on my mind…hmm. We had a lot of fun and laughter though mostly from me saying dumb things etc. On the way back, bazzas knee cracked and he was in excruciating pain. (8 out of 10, quote unquote) We had to stop so he could straighten it up. Got back to Conabere’s for an inspection of the knee and upon inspection, decided that both his knees are pretty axed and he needs to buy some serious knee protection. Hopefully it comes good so he can keep riding. “if its good enough to ride, its good enough for me” (from the man himself- when referring to his knee.)
Thursday slept in a bit (oops, too tired, too many late nights. Time to start getting more sleep again before my world falls apart from being left behind without enough sleep – as everything seems a lot worse when really tired. I know U’s can relate to that, maybe??!) Went to work sorted some stuff out. Finished my work, went and tried on some protective motox gear and got a quote. Its about and arm and a leg to protect myself properly. I’m still looking into how much of it I really need and where I can get the best price.
Then went and did some more LG ing which was not a bad shift as there were people to talk to and stuff, so the shift went fairly quick, which is good. Water levels is playing up a bit, but should be all good soon. Came home, had some cool grilled cheese, chilli sauce toast things, which went down pretty good followed by my new invention or substitute for a muesli bar: a massive mouth full of muesli followed by a table spoon of Milo! Then chew and chew, gee it taste good – you should try it. (toasted muesli for best results…) Chatted on msn for a bit which is something I don’t do much (to my 2 pals, who I was gonna speak to anyway, so kinda saved us all phone calls)
Today I decided I needed a rest day, a day at home to re-fuel, recuperate, rest and stuff and things. (two of my favourite words- stuff and things!)
I went for a 20 min burn on my bike up into the mountains, which was really cool. I checked out a hill that I thought’d be cool, which it was, probably funner going up than down though. I look forward to getting Bazza with his bike so we can go cutting up into the mountains, find some cool tracks and hills. I don’t mind riding alone, but have to take it pretty easy. I really should ride with someone else, just in case anything does happen. Tonight Kim might be coming down and spend the day tomz with us, which’ll be cool. We have been planning for a ride tomorrow with the boys, which I’m sure she’ll enjoy, watching, photographing, and I reckon if I put a heap of protective gear on her, she’ll go for a burn on the bike. She’ll be going up to the BSI (Black Spur Inn) tomorrow night while I’ll be going with Baz to Nomes’ ultimate voice final. Nomes is a pretty incredible singer (just quietly- we don’t want any big heads- they are hard to fit into helmets!) Sunday is church then a YS (youth service) practice for next month. I’m sure there’ll be fun and games b4 and after.
We’ll that’s what I’ve been up to. I have had a lot on my mind lately so should dive into a more philosophical frame of mind and writing to try and let u in (just a little bit) to my thoughts.
I have been thinking a bit lately about the idea of spending money and why and when one should or should not spend money. As u may well be aware, if you have been keeping up to date with my blogs, (which shouldn’t be too hard, as I haven’t been writing too often) I have spent a bit lately, mostly on what one may call simply ‘toys’. Yes, I have worked and saved hard, and no I don’t need these things. Yes, I have thought about what I should and shouldn’t buy and have obviously decided to buy certain things for certain purposes. I have come to certain conclusions about the stage in my life that I’m at and the direction that I’m going in life. (this could be getting deep) Actually, I have just had a thought. Lets try and work through a ‘stages of life guideline’ for me.
Stage 1 may be the being born and those important couple of years growing up into school, learning GMS (gross motor skills) basic maths, science, general life things and stuff.
Stage 2 may be learning about myself, the type of things I enjoy and the fields of things I may wish to pursue and may begin the experimental stage of the idea of travel, different types of jobs etc.
Stage 3 may be the experimental type stage of life where I kind of look around, try some different things, learn some more, become further educated in a more specific area of interest and try and narrow down a bit more my interests, goals, pursuits, and where I may fit into Gods will and the purpose He has for my life. It is in this stage in my life, lets say for example, where my goal isn’t as such to save a stack of money, as I’m not maybe earning heaps, but to be able to buy stuff that I’m keen in. (for example 5 grand now is a lot harder to save than I anticipate it being when I’m working full time, therefore, saving then would be a lot more productive or positive)
Stage 4 of my life may be the start of what you may call settling down a bit – as in having a FT job, married and buying a house. Maybe a little bit of travel here and there, but mainly trying to save – buying the house, work for a bit of financial security ready to support a family.
Stage 5 may be when the family starts to grow, as they, I prefer would take up most of the time as FT work would probably still continue to support the fam.
This is a pretty rough kind of stab at stages in life, in general. Stereotypically or in the Worlds eyes, I should probably be looking at getting into stage 4 pretty soon, as I am pretty old now!!! I don’t think I’m quite ready for that though. I’m still a spring chicken inside and feel I have quite a bit more exploring to do yet. I don’t mean exploring as in travel exploring necessarily but other stuff and things. (hehe, I like those words) In discovering Gods will and my purpose for being here and feeling my role is to help to lead others to the Lord any way that I can. I feel that is the most important job in my life, as what better news is there other than that Jesus has saved our sins so we may live eternally with Him in Heaven!!!!! Who wouldn’t want that! The only problem that there are so many people that are oblivious to this, which sucks. Because I care for everyone I meet, I want them to have this same freedom and incredible feeling of being loved by God and the comfort, care and peace that comes from accepting Gods love. Also the joy and promise in eternal life. Too many people think that they are pretty well behaved and that will be enough to get them in through the pearly gates, but it doesn’t work like that! No good deed we can do makes us deserving. Only through the sacrifice of Jesus are we made clean.
“For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” Romans 10:9-11. ( I love YABS and everyone involved)

I cant really remember where I was going with all the stage of life thing, I don’t really think I got across what I was trying to say, doesn’t matter too much, just don’t read into what I have written to heavily. Could be dangerous!
I should really look at bloggin this now, putting some photos and making it a little better to look at rather than just writing on a page.
I’ll try and write some more thoughtful stuff later on.
Before I go though, I envisage the next couple weeks to be pretty busy, as uni kicks off again next week. (oh by the way, uni results –66, 67 ((2 credits)) PGO ((pass grade only)) and one with held, as there is still an assignment being marked- fingers crossed its all right). Next Sunday I’ll be going to Hotham, with the uni trip- hope there’s enough snow. We’ve got some pretty big CTG (crossing the gap – visit link below) events coming up which prayer would be much appreciated for. So there will be lots of prep for that. Flinders will still be all go, as will LG and the residential advisor with meetings and everything. The YABS and netball and fuel and church and Youth services and social and stuff and things will still be all go, so prayer for energy, enthusiasm, enough rest, safety and productivity would all be muchly appreciated, as just quietly, I think I got my work cut out. God gives me strength which I am truly thankful for and know that I can do all things through Christ. Ok, I must be off.
Thanks for caring.
Thanks also to the cool as (sorry fantasmagorical) people that I have been getting to know lately and the friendships, support, care, love, things and stuff that has developed. I love all u guys lots and thank God everyday for the blessing of having you in my life. This is all the CTG team, the YABS dudes and dudets, the Flinders buds, the church peoples, the leisure staff and customers, netas people, music people, (the list goes on, basically all the buds from every part of my life)!!!! Love and hugs to all.
Take care and God bless
Brett

http://www.crossingthegap.com.au

& some photos to finish with:

At the CTG dinner night, some 'fans' of the team.

A bud from Church and other stuff - Lozza, she once had hair as short as me!!!

Nomes proudly wearing her new shirt!!! omac is a champ!!!

This is my awesome lil sis dancing beautifully! She's got some proud parents and brothers!!!

Re-united and playing with a new phone, Thea is all up with the new technology!!!

The beautiful Kim, and the view from above Darren's house. On a clear day, is awes!!

The newest Maxwell, well Ranuci

The Maxwell fam. I am soo blessed to have such a lovely family. And the extended family (dads side):

I love my little bro, and my other ones too!

And Thea and mum and dad!!!!

Must be off!!

Hope u enjoyed the mini photo album. There is plenty more where that came from, but should be off. ("Gosh, what ever I feel like doing") If you want a good look, feel free to arrange a sit-in slideshow, i'll happily show you more!
Til next time, smile and hug lots.
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 7/14/2006 06:55:00 PM 2 comments

 
Hi to all you cool people. Apparantly cool was kinda overused in the last post. sorryz. Maybe i'll replace cool / coolies / cool as with fantasmagorical.
These are a couple little saying thingys that i found in a Vulnerability book not that long ago:

I cannot give you the formula for success. But I can give you the formula for failure - which is: try to please everybody!

And...
What is a relationship?
Its about two people having tremendous weaknesses and vulnerabilities like we all do, and one person being able to strengthen the other in their times of vulnerability . And vice versa. You need each other. You completre each other. Passion and romance asside.

Anyways, fantasmagorical.
I'm playing netas tonight for Chokljat, which is now a tuesday happeniong for a while - indoor in Traralgon. Yayz. I am lucky enough to be playing with Nomes and Kerryn, the 2 main stars of Chokljat. Fantasmagorical.
I'll be bloggin again later on, and'll fill u in on some more stuff that'll be very fantasmagorical.
later dudes and dudets.
Bam
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 7/04/2006 05:44:00 PM 2 comments

 
Well hello there
Its been a while, I apologise for that!!!
Looking back through my diary, I have realised that a stack load of stuff has happened since the start of June.
I don’t have much time cause I’m meeting with Bazza to go for a ride. I’ll do a quite dot point type goings on… if you know what I mean. Ok then….
I have bought a snow board of a mate of a mate, with boots and bindings.
I went on the yr 7 camp with Flinders, had a ball and then rushed back for my exam which was in the middle of the camp, for nutrition, fitness and conditioning, I think I went alright, then I flew back to camp (Well - drove) Got back from camp fri night, then went to Warragul for State Youth Games, which went off!! It was soo awesome, massively cool and so much fun. I played soccer, basketball, touch football, swam and mountain biking. There were so many people and a lot of fun was had… The rallies at night were pretty cool, with some cool aerobics, some good speakers and cool music. Sunday night, Kim and I went for a walk and decided that we’ll give your relationship another go, which is cool. Got back from SYG pretty late Monday, finished another assignment, handed that up, worked all week at Flinders, the YABS Wednesday night was coolies as always. Had my head shaved at flinders on Friday for cancer thing and underlying reasons. IT was cool really really cool. My head got soo cold. But I got a few beanies from kind people, so my head has stayed pretty warm. I even slept with a beanie on for the first couple nights.
Then went on a shopping trip to melb with the boys, for a snowboarding helmet. It was quite a mission. To cut a long story short, 3 of us walked away with awesome helmts at an ok price. I figured I only get one head so should fork out to look after it. Then I flew (drove quick) back to Mt Gambier just in time to see Theas callisthenics concert, which was soo cool. She has grown up so quick and is such a great little dancer. She had a solo piece which she did a fantastic job it. I am a very proud big brother. I spent that week at home, which was a cool as week. I came back for Kims birthday which was on the thu, and we went climbing in Nudawading, with a heap of mates. It was cool as. Then had a b’day tea and stuff. I then had a phone call from a lecturer to tell me I had missed out a chunk of an assignment, so I had to do that on fri! Yay! Saturdy I went with Kim to Darrens pad, which was cool as and has an awesome view. We had a cuppa and a chat which was cool, I don’t get to do it enough, then went to meet with Baz to check out this cool as motor bike. ( a motovert, which I have placed an order, will be picking up next weekend!! Clap clap clap…)
Saturday night was Fliks 18th which went off, she has a cool family and they did skits and stuff which was pretty entertaining.
Sunday I came back to gippy for church n stuff. Was supposed to be going to hotham for the week with bec pato and co, but there wasn’t enough snow. So ended up riding bazzas and benny motor bikes on a few occasions, which was coolies, went to melb to pick up CTG’s newest member, an 1983 datsun bluebird wagon, courtesy of the Kennedy’s, thanks a million! Had a cool as CTG function thing Wednesday night at the Australian Italian club in Morwell. Baz, Benny, Deano and I went and spoke at this dinner function and showed a bit of a dvd which was really cool. Thu night was the CTG meeting which also rocked, had a lot of stuff to go through. Fri I high tailed it to the black spur inn where I laboured with the Kennedy’s in restoring the pub which they have bought. It is really taking shape, its cool as! Left Saturday arvo to meet Baz again to talk business about the motoverts and put in the deal. Then flew (drove) back to gippy for Scott and Deb’s engagement party, which was really cool. Church Sunday was cool, benny gave a bit of a testimony in his speaking.. it was really cool. Great bloke. Then I flew to Somers, checked out kimmys camp (down Mornington peninsula) then had lunch there and drove Kimmy back to Doncaster. Then flew back to Traralgon for the Youth service, pulled the Trom out and jammed away with baz and the band. It was a good service, Cathlyn spoke on tongues and speaking, also cool as! This week is busy busy, riding this arvo with baz, meeting tonight for the next youth service, flinders all week, netas tue night, YABS wed night, work Thu night, then to melb to get a bike!!!!
This is my last month overview in 15 mins! Sorry!I have to go, baz will be waiting… sorry
Catch, peace out and God bless you all! God rocks.
There more I am learning, the more I realise I cant do anything to make me good for God, it is only through Jesus that I can be made clean! I am helpless, extremely sinful, gross and worthless on my own accord, but with Jesus as my Lord, saviour, mate, companion, I am something else! This is soo cool and something which has been speaking to me lots…more on that laterz.
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo
I will include some photos and stuff soon When i have some more spare time up my sleeve.....later.
- posted by Brett @ 7/03/2006 11:43:00 AM 3 comments

 
Hi there to the spontanious reader who may have stumbled or intentionally found my site...
(just covering all grounds!)
I am just writing quickly to explain that I really don't have time to be writing all my thoughts and stuff down at the moment, but will do so when the time comes. There has been a lot going on and things are cool, but I'll go into all the nitty gritty laterz, and include some more photos, vids and other stuff to amuse and fill you (and my memory) in.
Respect, peace, love and joy to you always!!
Bam
xxxooo
PS- God is really WOW and really AWESOME
PPS- I'm getting my head shaved (skin head) next week to raise money for Gippsland Cancer Support, at Flinders. I was a nominated staff member, for a great cause, i couldn't say no!!!
- posted by Brett @ 6/06/2006 09:30:00 PM 2 comments

 
Ok, I have found a way of posting videos. Something that I definately should not be doing at this hour, but anyway!!!!
(i have been studying ;p)

This was my big stack last week:


- posted by Brett @ 6/05/2006 01:29:00 AM 1 comments

 

Hi all.
Should just say how good God has been and how blessed we were saturday for the big Crossing the Gap show. In total we raised about $2500 for Life FM. Yeehaa!!! It was an awesome night. I will give more details and I'll post more movies laterz!! Take care all.

- posted by Brett @ 6/05/2006 12:44:00 AM 2 comments

 

- posted by Brett @ 6/02/2006 11:48:00 PM 1 comments

 
Check this crazy stuff out!!!
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.The Phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm.. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
Crazy stuff!!!!
- posted by Brett @ 5/29/2006 11:09:00 AM 2 comments

 
Hi thereI’ll just be quick, I’m working on an assignment, so should get back to it. I just wanted to praise God for his safe keeping over the last 24 hours. I am very lucky to be walking around today. I kinda had a bit of a stack yesterday at the CTG (crossing the gap) practice. The ramp was set at about 35ft or so. for those who don’t know- I have been getting towed into the ramps, as there is not enough room to get enough speed peddling. What normally happens, is I have the tie strap (seen in a photo bellow- yellow) going under my head stem then onto my handle bar grip- where I hold onto it. Before I get to the ramp, I let go with that hand and the strap flicks out, as Ben- towing on his motor bike continues away. What happened last night was I let go of the handle bar so the strap could go free, but Ben had started braking, so the strap didn’t flick out like normal. ( I didn’t notice- it was happening pretty quick!) I held back on and took the jump. As I left the lip of the jump- my bike was yanked from under me (as the strap pulled the handle bars away- still attached to Ben. I was left- without a bike, flying through the air- literally, I was flying. Somehow I landed a long way down the down ramp and bounced and rolled. I got up quickly and ran around to the side. I thought I was fine. Then my hip- ouch, and my head, ouch. I had to sit down, wasn’t feeling too good. After a minute or so, I was all good. My hip was and still is pretty sore but my headache has gone now. My helmet- broken, it looked after my head. The arm guards I was wearing copped a beating- left some burns on my arms and some dirt shoved into my skin from the quick friction. I exfoliated the dirt out last night though- OUCH! Raw.
The only footage we got of it was on a phone with a video camera. I have it as a computer file which I can email to anyone- on their request. It is pretty spectacular, and the reaction from the crowd is pretty funny to listen to. We have all watched it over 50 times and it seems to get funnier and funnier each time! Hmm- interesting!!!
I better fill in what I’ve been up since the 15th.
I did an open shift at CLC, it was hard getting up! Then uni class and work then the op-shop night, I wore these ridicules red jeans and a MRS vest, pretty funny. Thursday we had the ropes course again, this time 80 year 9-10’s. I was a floater- floating around making sure everything was flowing and safe. I went to church 3 times over the weekend, it was awesome. At each service too- we gave CTG a plug and showed a promotional 30sec dvd, which was pretty cool. On Saturday we had a CTG working bee- where we built a big fence and made a big bonfire pile. The motox track was being re-done and its all looking really professional. This last week has been a pretty normal week at uni and at FCCC. Worked thu night til 10:30, (volleyball finals take a long time)a long day; I started at FCCC at 8-4:30 then CLC 5-10:30. I slept pretty well thu night- when I finally got to bed! Friday we had a CTG get together at the Aitkens place. It was awesome Sue and Rob cooked a roast for over 30 people! I stayed the night there then took off to melb in the morning to see Kim’s Panto play- rumple. It was really funny. Kim played a clown type role, she did an awesome job. I flew straight back to Gormandale after that and got straight into some jumping. It was a bit rushed really, probably why I came unstuck, I definitely learnt my lesson about being careful and taking my time! After that I flew back to Churchill, cleaned up and limped up to becs for a progressive tea, which Justin’s group had put on, it was awesome- an 8 course meal! Then I had to rush off from that to get to Traralgon for a church service / information session about an African orphanage appeal, with Baz and Jezza. Was pretty eye opening. Then we went (flew)back to Jezza’s, played some pool and stuffed around for a bit. Then I came home and crashed, hoping that I would be able to walk when I woke up this morning. I could – its all good. Yay!

I should leave it at that and be off. I have a music rehearsal this arvo at 3 for next weeks youth service, then I’m going to church at 4. Should be all good.
Next Saturday is the big Crossing the Gap show. There is a lot that I need to do before then though… Lots…Peace, love, joy, hope, care and smiles to everyone!!!! and all that Jazz :d Brettxxxooo
I'll leave you with a photo:
This is Nisha and I at the Culture night 2 weeks ago!

- posted by Brett @ 5/28/2006 01:43:00 PM 1 comments

 
The ring.....

I wear the ring on my right ring finger, as a symbol to remind me that God gets the best of my life, as i am a slave of Jesus. The ring is a sterling silver shinner, with a thorn type pattern on the front. This is to remind me (and others) of the pain and hardship that Jesus went through for me and everyone and that when things get tough for me, I owe it to Him to do my best and get through it all. Also, I owe my life to God, and this ring reminds me of that, with the ring never ending. My future wife will (hopefully) give me a ring to symbolise that I belong to her and that our relationship and committment to each other is, like the ring, forever. Hope it makes sense. I could go on, and dive deeper into explanation, but should leave it at that for the moment.

God bless
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 5/15/2006 07:17:00 PM 1 comments

 
Here is a little bit of funny, non- serious stuff that I hope you enjoy, at least a little bit.

I OWE MY MOTHER!!1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE."If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finishedcleaning."2. My mother taught me RELIGION."You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL."If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middleof next week!"4. My mother taught me LOGIC." Because I said so, that's why."5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC."If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not goingto the store with me."6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT."Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."7. My mother taught me IRONY."Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."
8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS."Shut your mouth and eat your supper."9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM."Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"10. My mother taught me about STAMINA."You'll sit there until all that spinach is>>gone."11. My mother taught me about WEATHER."This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."12 My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY."If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don'texaggerate!"
13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE."I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."
14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION."Stop acting like your father!"
15. My mother taught me about ENVY."There are millions of less fortunate children in this world whodon't have wonderful parents like you do."
16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION."Just wait until we get home."
17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING."You are going to get it when you get home!"
18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE."If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze thatway."
19. My mother taught me ESP."Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"
20. My mother taught me HUMOUR."When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT."If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."22. My mother taught me GENETICS."You're just like your father."23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS."Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"24. My mother taught me WISDOM."When you get to be my age, you'll understand."25. And my favourite: My mother taught me about JUSTICE."One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you."

Seriously though, I really do owe my mother, for the incredible upbringing, support, nurturing, commitment, sacrifice, patience, care, love, time, etc etc. (don’t worry dad, you fit into all those categories too!)
- posted by Brett @ 5/15/2006 12:52:00 PM 1 comments

 
Ok!
I just have to talk about my weekend, it has been insane, nuts, awesome, even, wait for it- WOW!
Friday night i caught up with a few guys in Traralgon at a mates place and kicked back, watched a couple dvd's. Then, sat I did some assignment for about 5 hours. (The down side of the weekend.) Then went for a bit of a swim with brian then a ride around a little track, practicing some jumps. Saturday night, we had some tea from the bbq chicken shop, baz and craig came down which was cool, then we went ten pin bowling, 4 blokes, the funnest and funniest game i've ever played. The first game was semi serious, with reasonable scores. The second game, none of even got close to 100 and we had the bumpers up. Each bowl we made up a way that we had to bowl, from backwards to through your legs.... and so on. Gee it was funny. We provided some entertainment to those around us. After that we ripped out to Jezza's, as he was doing an assignment and played this zapping reflex game- the last one to touch their button gets zapped!
This morning, Brian and I went to church, a small community church in Traralgon where Jezza, Deano and a few other people I know go to. It was really cool. We then went to a mexican resturant for a mothers day lunch with the Aitken family, which was really cool. (sorry I couldn't be home mum, will be home soon, xxxooo)
Then we tore out to the pig pen arena and started doing some jumping......

The fun began!!!


It was really really muddy



The biggest jump of the day - nearly 40foot. (way over 10m)



Really really muddy!

Gee it was fun though

The ET shot

This was nearly as scary as on my own on the mountain bike!- Thats me on the back!!

A very successful, un hurty, nothing broken day, God was definately looking after us today. Took me 3 hours to clean up the bike, and the car!!!

Ok, i'm outta here. Have a great, safe week.

Take care all
Love to all
Oh, and by the way, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all you incredible mothers. Hope your day has been grand. I have something to add for mothers day, but I will do it another time. I gotta be up in only a few hours to do an open shift at work, Yay!!!!!
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 5/14/2006 10:38:00 PM 1 comments

 
Hi All

Bout time I updated again, I’ve decided its easier to do it more frequently than less, remembering more than a week or 2 is hard enough let alone a month at a time.
I should take off where I left off……
29th of April…So I’d borrowed Deano’s boat and had organised some people to come out for the arvo. I spent all morning doing some uni work, as we did have 2 pretty big assignments due at the end of that week. Anyway, did some work, had lunch then went and put the boat in. It was all good. Had a great arvo, with Sarah, Dom, Beth, Shane, Alex, Zoe, Kim, Tanya, Jude, Brian, Nisha and Dan. They all had a pretty good time with no real bad injuries. I have them all a pretty good run in the tubes, and we had a few wakeboards and skurfs (surfing behind the boat) too. I flipped Kim out of the biscuit and felt bad, she was ok though, a tough one, luckily. We pulled the boat out as it was getting dark and I spent Saturday night cleaning up all the gear and the boat, then had some dins, and did some more study. Sunday… Umm. I can’t remember. Oh, that’s right, more study. Then we went and returned the boat, had dinner with Dan and Julz in Traralgon then went to the uniting church. T’was a good service, a bit old, but ok.
Week 9 of uni was pretty full on. The norm, classes mon, tue & wed. I went to the chiro wed arvo and got lined up again, I should be all good to go, which reminds me:
While wakeboarding on Saturday, I pulled my shoulder a bit out of place (my right one, which I stuffed in January wakeboarding) and it seemed to click. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but Sunday, I thought it was fixed, it felt back to normal, with no pain when my arm was above my head. I haven’t been able to swim or anything properly since I did it. Anyways, I went for a swim Wednesday thinking it was all good and fixed but discovered after a lap that it wasn’t fixed at all and it may have been even worse. I’m at the stage now where I don’t know what to do, I just want it to be better again. Maybe its time for a physio…
Wednesday night we had YABS again (Young Adults Bible Study) which was really really good. It is really really good to be able to spend some time with some other likeminded Christians. The group is really really supportive and we have a really really good time together. (really really)
Thursday was a crazy day. I was at the shed (outdoor equipment shed) at 7:30 and took a cruiser down and set up the low ropes course. I then had to return the cruiser and get to Traralgon to teach the first 2 lessons, which I did, and it went really really well!! I took classes in sense of place for part of my Outdoor Education placement days. The classes loved what I did with them (or seemed to anyway). I organised and run a lunch time sport session for secondary kids, then took a class to tabletennis for the remainder of the day. Then rushed home, got changed and went to the CLC for my other work. Finished there at about 9:15 then rode to Sarahs for tea.
Friday, there were 2 pretty major assignments due. I spent the morning working on them, then went ti Flinders to set up and run the Cross country. This also went really really well. (it was our second attempt and the rain only just held out). The blue team won by 12 points!
Friday night, I went for a swim, trying to get my shoulder to work, to no success though. Bianca came up from Lakes entrance and a few of us went bowling. This did not help my shoulder. It was a really fun night though. The second game was pretty close, and Brian the Spin master showed us some tricky stuff, while Nisha on her second time ever tenpin bowling showed us some incredible natural talent. Bianca, Angela and me just plodded along trying to knock down the pins!!!
Saturday morning I picked up a uni car and we tripped off to phillip Island. (Bianca, Angela, Mel, Brian and me) We had a uni booked through the study abroad program. It was the same group that we used when we went down as an RA group a couple weekends ago. Before we got there I told everyone not to expect too much the houses are pretty dodgee, old a smelly. We rocked up, I pushed a button and the garage opened and I drove into this awesome modern 3 bedroom unit. Their chins were on the ground, the looks on their faces as we walked into the house was priceless. It is such a nice house. We unpacked and played around the house for a bit, then went into town to get some lunch. We then went out to the nobblies where the seal colony is then to the penguin place and had a look around. Then I took them to A maze ‘n things. We were there for probably 3 hours, it was just as fun second time round.

Mel, Biance, me, Brian and Angela


Something different



A-maze-n!

Brian, angela and I were stuffing around on our hands. I tried to hold a 1 hand handstand for a little too long!!

We then went shopping and bough a heap of food to cook up for dinner and breaky the next day. Angela cooked up a storm Saturday night which we devoured happily. We did do a lot of great eating over the weekend. Saturday night we stuffed around, watched a movie and slept. Sunday we cooked up a big breaky, then went for a walk on the beach (which was bout 5 mins walk away) Then we went into town again and did some more shopping. I bought myself a ring, which is something I’d been wanting to do for a couple years now. I'll talk about the ring later.


Just something while i think of it. I have realised that I really haven’t been putting God first in all I do and really really want to be doing that again. As a result Kim and I are having a bit of trouble and taking some time to work stuff out. We have been together for well over 2 years so as you can probably imagine, things don’t feel too good at the moment, with things being a bit shaky and all, especially with the busyness and stresses that our every day lives are throwing at us. I really don’t know whats going to happen. Time will tell. I’m sure God will look after us both and show us whats right in the future.

Anyway, back to where I was….
We went back to the unit, where Brian and I cooked up the best lunch ever. (using leftovers from the night before) We then cleaned up, packed up and Justin arrived. We then left back for sunny Gippsland. (it absolutely poured the whole way back.)
I dropped everyone off, then dropped the car off, back in Rina and drove to Church. It was the youth service, which was really cool. Caught up with my buddies which was cool. I got called Mr orange and citris boy, as I had an orange shirt on, my orange down jacket and my orange beanie. (It was absolutely freezing) I didn’t think of it when I grabbed my jacket as I was leaving, oh well.
We filled out the State youth games forms and then went to hungries for dinner. I ended up staying there and chatting til bout 10:30. Then I went to safeway to get some supplies for the night!!!
I got home at about 11:30 and started my assignment at about 12. I finished it just at 8:50am (thanks to lotsa nibblies, energy drinks and I think God held my eyes open for me all night) and handed it in just in time to get Friday’s stamp. (it was due on Friday) This was the first time I’ve done an all nighter. I don’t really want to do it again any time soon. I’m still paying for it.
I then went straight to class at 9 where I fell asleep twice. Yes, a little embarrassing.
Had a meeting at lunch, then I went home and slept, I couldn’t sit though another 3 hour class, so I didn’t, I slept for 3 hours instead! Had a RA meeting at 5 then played netball at 7. Then again at 8:20. I went for a big ride in between. I was up doing work til bout 12, then crashed pretty heavily. Tue I had to go into Morwell with alex and the girls (my house mate girls) and pick up a couch for our house from the opshop. It’s a cool 3 piece L shape couch. Fits nicely in our lounge. I then tried to do work for most of the rest of the day amongst meeting to arrange our ropes course day and other stuff.
I then went and we had one of the area dinners. After that I went into Traralgon again, to fill in for Nomes’ netball. Nomes or Naomi is a mate from church, who I’m just starting to get to know. She’s a fellow blogger, and a good one at that. She writes some cool stuff. Anyways, so that game started at 9:15! A late one, but awesome, it was the first time I’d played indoor, it rocked. We kicked butt.
Got home pretty late after that, went straight to bed.
Wednesday I had the open shift at CLC starting at 5:45, YAY. It was so so easy getting out of bed, as I’m sure you can imagine!! NOT!!!
Went straight to class til 1, yep, I fell asleep again for about 5 seconds. Oops!!
Rushed off from class to pick up some lunch, then had to be at flinders by 1:30, it was quite a quick trip. I’m getting to know the road from Churchill to Traralgon pretty well. More table tennis, then I finally got my hair cut. (all of it!)
We had YABS again last night which was awesome. 2 other guys there had just broken up with their girl’s, and are having a rough time, so we all had a pretty good chat. God is so so good and really really blessed us with the opportunity to all meet last night. After bible study, I tried to tell ½ of my life story to Nomes in about 15 minutes which was difficult. Then went home and got stuff organised and went to bed. Angela Dropped off some awesome home made cookies for me and said goodbye, she’s off for a uni trip.
Today has been pretty full on. I couldn’t get out of bed this morning. I did finally but still got to Flinders in time. I taught lessons 1 and 2 then did some admin, then took the primary lunch time sport then did more admin after lunch. I then drove home and have been doing bits and pieces then started writing my blog. So here I am…
Farrrout!!! Mel (another RA) just scared the bagees out of me. I’ve got my music playing pretty load and I haven’t shut my curtains yet. Its dark outside and I’m sitting next to the window. She banged on my window and she sent me jumping off my chair. I was really concentrating I spose.
Tonight I’m not working at CLC, the first thu in awhile. The ISA culture night is on tonight, so I’m dressing as a Aussie surfie and going to that. (all the RA’s are cordially invited to go)
Tomorrow I have 4 lessons of table tennis. Then the YABS group are having a DVD night at Riches, which should be good. Might be going out to the pig pen arena to do some jumping on Saturday but I’ll see how we go.
I should go!!
Take care all and God bless y’all (American talk!!)
Love to all
Brettxxxooo

Renne and I at her Reception. I'm still waiting for some more shots to be sent to me. I'll post them when they arive. Don't forget 90% of all my photos are found online at:

http://photos.yahoo.com/jazzbamfish

- posted by Brett @ 5/11/2006 05:54:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hello again to all you wonderful vegemites!
Hope you’ve had an incredibly awesome week with lotsa fun and laughter. What a week… (or two, from where I left off 2 weeks ago.)
For the rest of the uni break (1 week for Easter) I was at placement and work. I had a few more table tennis groups to take and lots of other stuff to do. Wednesday night we had our first young adults bible study down at Traralgon sth. It was great fellowship. Great to get together with some like-minded same-aged dudes to discuss and organise a bible study group. We plan to meet every Wednesday night, which will be awesome. There will also hopefully be some social stuffing around activities that will be organised for the not too distant future.
Another full day Thursday, ended up finishing up around 9:30, so was a bit tired. I don’t think there has been a night since I’ve been at uni where I got to bed before 12! Nuts! The cross country that I had organised was scheduled for the Friday, but was cancelled due to the inclement weather :-( After work I went and caught up and had tea with Ryan, twas about time we caught up for a chat, to try and organise some events and stuff for res. We then went off to Phillip Island for the weekend with all bar 1 of the RA’s, had a great weekend. We went to this ‘amazing’ place where there was all this weird stuff to look at and play with. We ended up being there for over 4 hours. It was cool. There was this massive maze there, over 2km’s of it!! Took us a while to get around.
A couple birthdays, while I think of it:
Jim Kennedy, for Saturday A big happy birthday!
Cara for Saturday, A big happy birthday!
Alistair, for Sunday, (yep you guessed it) A big happy birthday!
Also for anyone else who has had a birthday recently or is thinking about having one soon, A big happy birthday!!!!!
I trust that you enjoyed or that you will enjoy your day. A few quotes to think about, (if you are worried about getting old):

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. - Lucille ball
Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. - Jack Benny
Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.- Unknown
You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime. - John P. Grier

This last week has been pretty good, and busy.
Monday and Tuesday were study days, with all sorts of bits and pieces (Tuesday being Anzac day) Wednesday was the norm- uni then flinders, (more table tennis) then the YA bible study again, which was cool. We spent some time in Romans 3, which talks about salvation and all sorts of cool stuff.
“For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. …. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing His life for us…” (Romans 3:23-25)
How cool is that. WOW!!! He makes us right with Himself only if we believe, through faith. That is the most awesome thing!!!!
Thursday we took 2 different 1st year uni student groups on the ropes course. One group in the morning, one in the arvo. We were pretty lucky, had awesome groups. We did some low ropes then the leap of faith. The groups really enjoyed it all. I had a fun day. Then we packed up and I went to the leisure centre to do my weekly duty manager shift. Then the weekly tea at Sarah’s which occurs most Thursday nights, it’s the only time we can really catch up. Today was a full day at flinders, with some more table tennis and other bits and pieces.
Hmm, where was I. Kim just arrived from Melbourne, she’s come down early the spend the weekend here, which is nice. I’ve borrowed Deano’s boat for the weekend. (top bloke who I’ve met through ESA camps, and from church) I plan to go out tomorrow arvo and take some friends for a ride, wakeboard, ski, tube, and whatever else takes our fancy.

A few quotes to lighten up your day (maybe)
(I’m not sure why quotes, but, anyway, why not!?)

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect. (true story)

What's another word for Thesaurus?

There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.

I installed a skylight in my apartment.... The people who live above me are furious!

I replaced the headlights in my car with strobe lights, so it looks like I'm the only one moving.

If you feel like doing something for a bit of fun:

Call the psychic hotline and just say, "Guess who"

When the money comes out of the ATM, scream "I Won!", "I Won!" "3rd time this week!!!"

When leaving the Zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling "Run for your lives, they're loose!"

I really should go, sleep is calling.

Take care all, remember that our greatest battles are ones with our own minds.
For those who have seen these before, sorry, for those who hadn’t, hope you enjoyed it.
Have a great weekend / week / until I blog next. I’ll bloggya later!
- posted by Brett @ 4/29/2006 01:00:00 AM 1 comments

 

The Awesome Foursome

Warming up! It was sunny, but cold

The entry

The first Rapid.

I thought I should include a few funny bit of writing that my biggest Brother (Dave, who by the way is ENGAGED!!!! Yay, congratulations, awesome news, to Maree. I assure you that we are all absolutely stoked for you!!)
Don’t feel like you have to read them, but they may be amusing to some of you. Feel free…….


Typical Lawyer?
A very successful lawyer parked his brand new Lexus in front of the office, ready to show it off to his colleagues. As he got out, a truck came along, too close to the curb, and completely tore off the driver's door of the Lexus.The counselor immediately grabbed his cell phone, dialed 911, and it wasn't more than 5 minutes before a policeman pulled up.Before the cop had a chance to ask any questions, the lawyer started screaming hysterically.His Lexus, which he had just picked up the day before, was now completely ruined and would never be the same, no matter how the body shop tried to make it new again.After the lawyer finally wound down from his rant, the cop shook his head in disgust and disbelief. "I can't believe how materialistic you lawyers are," he said. "You are so focused on your possessions that you neglect the most important things in life.""How can you say such a thing?" asked the lawyer.The cop replied, "My God, don't you even realize that your left arm is missing? It got ripped off when the truck hit you!!!""My God!" screamed the lawyer."Where's my Rolex?"

Dorms
On the first day of college, the Dean addressed the students, pointing out some of the rules: "The female dormitory will be out-of-bounds for all male students, and the male dormitory to the female students. Anybody caught breaking this rule will be fined $20 the first time. Anybody caught breaking this rule the second time will be fined $60. Being caught a third time will cost you $180. Are there any questions?" One student piped up: "How much for a season pass?"

Airport Security?
I was checking my bags at the airport when the baggage agent asked me, "Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?" I said, "If someone has put something in my baggage without my knowledge, how would I know about it?" He smiled and nodded knowingly, and said, "That's why we ask."

Watch out for that Deer!
I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the township office to request the removal of the deer crossing sign on our road. The reason: Too many deer were being hit by cars, so he no longer wanted them to cross there.

Who's the sissy?
One summer evening during a violent thunderstorm a mother was tucking her son into bed. She was about to turn off the light when he asked with a tremor in his voice, "Mommy, will you sleep with me tonight?" The mother smiled and gave him a reassuring hug. "I can't dear," she said. "I have to sleep in Daddy's room."A long silence was broken at last by his shaky little voice: "The big sissy."

Get your wish????
A man walking along a California beach was deep in prayer. All of a sudden, he said out loud, Lord grant me one wish."Suddenly the sky clouded above his head and in a booming voice the Lord said, "Because you have TRIED to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish."The man said, "Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can drive over anytime I want."The Lord said, "Your request is very materialistic. Think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking. The supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific! The concrete and steel it would take! I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of another wish, a wish you think would honor and glorify me."The man thought about it for a long time. Finally he said, "Lord, I wish that I could understand women. I want to know how they feel inside, what they are thinking when they give me the silent treatment, why they cry, what they mean when they say 'nothing', and how I can make a woman truly happy."The Lord replied, "You want two lanes or four lanes on that bridge?"

Hope you enjoyed that at least a little.

Have an absolutely awesome week. Smile, hug, Laugh, love, respect.

Love to all

Brett xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 4/18/2006 11:25:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hi all!
Bout time I blogged again (so Kim tells me)
Well, after the Prom trip, it was school holidays for two weeks, which gave me some time to catch up on a bit of uni work, finally. Apart from house meetings, leisure centre work, uni classes, sleep, eating and 2 study days, It ended up being a really busy week. Kim came down early for the weekend to suprise me. We had a chilled out day on Saturday, then I took her out to dinner then we went go-karting, then watched a movie, it was a fun night.
We had the start of netball which was good fun and the normal uni stuff. Wednesday night we went into Melbourne for the athletics in the commonwealth games. It was awesome. Great experience, great atmosphere. Definately worth the trip. Dan and Julz came and I caught a ride back with them, while Kim went home in Doncaster, as she had to work.

This was our view from our seats at the Commonwealth Games, the events were great. We saw the finals of the Mens long jump, high jump, 400m, the female shotput, steeple chase, and heats and semis of 200m, 800m and others.

I spent the next 2 days finishing my first big assignment which I handed up on Friday. Saturday I took a busload of Res students into Traralgon for the monthly farmers market, which was cool. Did lots of cheese, fudge, fruit and meat tasting, but managed to leave with nothing!

Saturday arvo I went out to the pig pen arena to help setup for the crossing the gap event. Kim then drove a bus out for uni students wanting to go, we didnt quite fill the bus though! The night was awesome though. A great turnout. There were lots of differnt parts to the show, I was in the program about half way through, for something completely different. In the afternoon we had practiced towing me into the jumps behind a motorbike. I had a tie down strap that I tied around John and i looped it over and around my mountain bike handlebars. I just let go of it and I was free. In the daylight, I was getting soo much air, probably nearly 10m(about 33ft) On the night though, it was harder judging the speed, so I wasn't getting as big air, it was still fun though. The crowd seemed to enjoy it too. Other parts of the night was the car racing, which was popular and spectacular, with a few thrills and spills. Ben, in the big air session jumped over 100ft and Craig had the worst stack I have ever seen attempting his second back flip for the night. He was injured so shouldn't really have been doing it, but I have a feeling he was feeling pressure to try it as a lot of his ol'mates where there. He didn't rotate enough and endup landing on his head with the bike on top of him, not pretty. He knocked himself out for a while. Scary stuff, we took him to hospital. He still has a headach and can't really remember the night.

Bit of a blurry photo, but gives you a bit of and idea about the jumping. There weren't any photos of me yet, they were just filming. Maybe in the next show.

This last week has been back to the crazy rush, with school being back as well as uni and everything else. Wednesday night all the RA's went out for dinner and cake and coffee, which was a great bonding session, something we should try and do as often as possible.

Today was the district primary aths day, which I helped with. It was really cold today, a lot colder than anyone expected. The wind was freezing, we really aren't used to it!

Next week is busy busy, with 3 days of ropes course training, as well as 2 days of class, school and then next weekend travelling to Mt Gambier for Brad and Renee's wedding, which I'm really looking forward to.

I've got 2 big assignments due next week, which I HAVE to devote the weekend to doing. I really should go and get myself organised to that.

Just quickly though, happy birthday to a few people:

Nez, on the 20th, hope you had an awesome day and your enjoying life!!

Slogger, on the 21st, Who's an absolute champion!

Sarah on the 28th, who I don't see enough of, but who rocks!Living in different states doesn't help much!

Chris for yesterday, who I definately dont see enough of anymore. (different states things again)

And to anyone else who had a birthday!

I hope everyone is in good health, is enjoying the small things (and big) in life and taking care of yourself and each other! Remember, this is the Love generation (according to some)

A little bit of Love can go a long, long way!

Love to all!!

Brett

xxxooo

A photo to leave you with, from the Ballist palace BBQ. Believe it or not, i Landed on it and floated around for a while!
Have a great weekend and a great next week!

- posted by Brett @ 3/31/2006 03:22:00 PM 0 comments

 

The Prom crew: Angela(USA), Brian (USA), Mel(Singapore), Me and Beth (RA's)

The weather was great. the water was soo clear too!

We had a lot of fun!!!

Take care all!!
Have a great week.
Love to allBrett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 3/12/2006 11:46:00 PM 0 comments

 
Alllrighty then!

I think I’ve set it to myself that I must blog at least once a month, it seems like that’s all I can do at the moment.
Now, where did we leave off…
We went into Clayton for the MRS training, which turned out be ok. The Gippsland group (us) dressed up as school students for the first day and for the second day we worse stupid hats, just for a bit of fun. The sessions were pretty good, a few seemed to drag on a bit too long, but overall, a pretty good session. Thursday night most people went to the pub, I really wasn’t feeling up to it, so Kim came down for a visit, as our time together had been very limited. I ended up staying in Melbourne Friday arvo and catching the bus to Kim’s house, which was a new experience, I’m new to this bus transport, I suppose its very similar to the train…
Saturday we went with Nat and Paul up to Eildon and had a bit of a wakeboard, which was a bit of fun. There were a lot of boats out, but it was a beautiful day. We got back pretty late Saturday night, then left Sunday morning for uni. Kim dropped me at uni on the way down to Banksia, as she was working there for a couple days.
The new students started rocking up, so I spent the arvo driving them to res, helping people move in, showing people around etc etc…
O week was pretty full on, as I was working at FCCC as well. (mon arvo, tue morn, all day wed, thu arvo) ((I also worked at CLC tue morn and sat and sun))
Monday we had a pyjama breaky which we woke everyone up banging pots and pans all around res.
There was then an intro to the new students and we were formally introduced. Then we took our groups on a big campus tour.
That night we had a pizza dinner then everyone headed to the pub. We have a pretty good bunch of first years this year. I’m very happy with my new house mates.
Wednesday night was the flag raising ceremony, which I popped out of quickly to see Kim quickly as she was on her way back through to Melbourne. That night got interrupted and ended abruptly by a fire alarm, so we all had to clear out of the union and head elsewhere.
Thursday they had a head start program which was apparently great. We weren’t required there though. After work I drove up to Melbourne for Kim’s Granddad’s birthday dinner. It was at a school’s hospitality restaurant which was actually really good. Michael (Kim’s cousin) is a student there and on that particular night he was the director of the dirty dish engineering. (they change roles each night)
I headed back to uni early Fri morning (not early enough though!) I sat in pretty heavy traffic, (which you should know I love!) for about an hour. Very frustrating, but I just got to uni on time to take a bus load of first years to the weir, we had a pretty disappointing turn out though as many had gone home early for the weekend and some had a big hangover from the night before, we still had a great day, though, the people that didn’t come missed out big time!

We had a tarzan rope to play with all day, made for some good fun!

I thought this was a pretty cool photo. Good photography, nice one Wayne!!

Friday night I went out to Dan and Julz’s place for tea. They have an awesome property out near Yinnar sth. It was really cool.
I worked Saturday morning then helped Kim move into her new house in Churchill with Alan, Myra and Alex. I also met the Kennedy’s new dog, Bella. Cute little fluffy thing. (I’m told has doubled in size since I last saw it)
Sunday I worked (CLC) then got all my stuff together for the week. I went for a ride with Dan on an insane downhill track, 3.5kms of all downhill with lots of jumps, and stuff, its nuts! Dans mate spent a lot of time building bits and pieces on it, and he does shuttle runs. So we load up his trailer down the bottom, and he drives us up the top, so there is no uphill riding required! It’s a pretty cool setup.
Monday was week 1 at uni. This week was the busiest week of my life! (or one of the.) Uni all day Monday, meetings Monday night til bout 8, tue morning worked tue arvo uni, Wednesday morning uni, Wednesday arvo worked til Thursday morning!! Thursday was aths day, which I had been working hard at organising. The day went extremely well considering the amount of time I had to organise it. (I am allocated 20 hours a week, this week I worked nearly 40!) Made my week extremely busy. Friday I worked all day, inputing results and organising the completion of aths day. Saturday I had some time off. I did some washing cleaned up my room and went windsurfing, which was a bit of a fizzer! Had the board set up wrong and the board is not a good beginning board. Something to work on I suppose.
Sunday I went riding again with the boys on the downhill track, pretty gnarly, I had a stack stuffing around before we headed up and took some skin off, ouch. I came home dressed wounds and took off again. I had one run down then came back as Kim was coming down. Dan broke his collarbone on the next run, which I found out later, when Julz called me from the hospital!
Sunday night Kim dropped me at church for the rehearsal for the service, I played in the band again which was good fun. I realise how much I missed playing.
This last week was pretty busy also, but not as bad as the first week. Uni all day Monday, Tuesday was Kim and my 2yr anniversary. I worked FCCC in the morning then uni all arvo. That night I tried setting up a romantic dinner down in the bush in a patio thing. It worked ok, it was just a bit windy for the candles, but we still enjoyed it. I prepared some food, which I got a mate to deliver to us, it went down a treat!
(entre- melted cheese crepes with Pumpkin soup. Main- meat pies!! Yum something different. Dessert, mixed berried and double (or clotted) cream. Yummy! It was a good night.
Wednesday we had uni all morning, which was good, in the arvo I had to go and get some needle for hep B, tetanus and meningococcal, as I was due for all the shots. I was there for about an hour with all the paper work and stuff, then 3 needles in the same arm in the matter of a minute, ouch. I can still feel the tetanus one in my arm. It hurts!
I then had house meetings Wednesday night. Thursday I worked al morning FCCC then had house meetings followed by work at CLC til 9. I then went to visit Sarah D in her new house for a pizza tea, as her house mate works at a pizza shop and has an endless supply! It’s a cool new little unit that they are in!
Friday I worked all day at FCCC then played some Bball with Tan for a while which was some good exercise, after we knocked each other around for a while!
Friday night I took a mate with me out to Craig’s pig pen arena (their moto x jumps) and had a bit of a play around out there. I took my mountain bike out and ended up kitting up in all the moto x safety gear, and hitting the big jump I jumped about 5 metres 6 out of 6 times. I didn’t hurt myself or the bike which was a double bonus. I just need to find a bit more speed to be happy about clearing the big gap. I’ll get some photos next time. We were out there til bout 12 as he’s got some big flood lights so we can ride at night.
Today, (Saturday) I’ve got a bit of a job list to get through, (including study, which doesn’t look like happening at this stage) after a good sleep in, my first in weeks. This arvo we have a swim and BBQ at the Ballis Palace, which is at Harry’s who is second in charge at Monash Gippsland. Tomorrow will HAVE to be a study day then into week 3 of uni, already!!!
I’ve got a lot of work to do!!!
I’ll hopefully get some photos of this mad jumping next time I go out.
I must be off and I really should start working through my job list. My blog job is now done though so I can tick that off.
Until next time;

Take special care of yourself
If your going to do anything slightly or extremely dangerous with risk involved, pray to the Lord for safety first, it worked for me last night. We prayed before we started, I felt a lot better and a lot more confident riding into these massive up-ramps.
God is real and God does protect us. (first hand knowledge, and I have non-believer witnesses.)
Remember the special things in live (love, tasting, hearing, feeling, seeing, spending time with loved ones, caring, appreciating life and the pleasures within, health and wellbeing. The list goes on. I thank God for the special days he gives me day after day. I feel truly blessed.)

The RA group down on our day off at the Prom. I would love to spend more time down there! Such a wonderful part of Gods creation.

God bless
Peace out.
Brettxxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 3/11/2006 12:21:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey all you blog readers!

Well I thought it’s about time I updated, seeing it was nearly a month ago since I blogged last. What a great couple weeks its been.
I worked a few long Life guard shifts over Friday Saturday and Sunday, then spent the next couple days packing and getting myself organised.
Thursday (26th) I drove across and met the Safetrek crew in Robe. (the Kennedy’s 4WD company) I spent the next couple days 4Wdriving through the beautiful sand hills, having lots of fun and practicing some cool driving.
Sunday arvo I drove back with the convoy towards Melbourne, but headed south to Mornington for the night, to stay at Casey’s. I had to start work in Tyabb at 9am so wanted as little driving to do as possible Monday morning. It was a introduction day with all the staff from all three campuses attending. We did a lot of networking and I got to know a lot of PE staff.
I stayed at Mornington again Monday night and had a relaxed night with Casey and Luke. I then got up early Tuesday and drove to Traralgon to start by 8:30. As you can imagine I was extremely tired at this point. I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then went down to Lakes Entrance on Thursday to spend some time with Bianca and Nick, as Bianca won’t be coming back to uni this year, she’s deferring.
Nick and I did some running and bits and pieces while Bianca worked. We did some wakeboarding and skiing which was awesome. Absolute glass, on salt water, I hadn’t skied on anything so glassy since being on the Murray up near Echuca over a year ago. I did a goofy heel side 180 (which is normally pretty easy) but I cleared the wake while doing so, which I hadn’t done before goofy. It felt really good.
Sunday we took nick into sale where he competed in a triathlon which he won. It was an interesting one with a strange order: Run, Ride, Swim, Ride, Swim, Run, Swim, Ride, Run. All over short distances, lots of transitions. He did really well.
I then dropped Nick and Bianca at the train station and headed back to uni.
Sunday night I went to a music rehearsal to play in the youth service band. It was great to play again, my lips didn’t last too long though, I had to save them for the service. (for those who had forgotten, I play the Trombone, I just hadn’t played if for a while!)
I went back to Flinders Monday morning and worked all day, I then worked at the leisure centre 6-9 then drove to melb to surprise Kim, and surprised she was, it was great. Tuesday I took Kim to work and then went and bought a mountain bike, I thought it was about time I got one. I then went and did a few bits and pieces, then went and had lunch with Kim. I then went back to Doncaster and did some work, which was good, I also did some car washing, Sue, and Kim’s Mazda, which still does not yet have a name!! I took Kim to the docs Wednesday morning to get something for her cough. Walked out an hour later with some antibiotics. I then went with her to work, picked up my bike, (as the shop is near her work) then rode back to Doncaster, where I packed the car (Jam packed as I got the rest of my gear from Scotties) and headed back to uni.
I worked back at Flinders all day Thursday, then began the RA training Thursday night. We started with a social meal at the pub, which was great to catch up with my pals, whom I hadn’t seen since last year, and begin discussing the exciting year.
Friday and Saturday we did the level 2 first aid course through ambulance vic, which was good, although I did the same course less than 6 months ago and it was my 4th CPR in less than 6 months also! I have no excuses to get any of it wrong!! Today we headed off in the uni minibus down to Wilson’s Prom where we spend the day body boarding, swimming, playing games and walking from beach to beach. It was such a beautiful day, everyone had a splendid day!!! We had some fish and chips on the way home and then retired for the night, all happy and tired. I drove the minibus which I was happy about, as I’m always a happier driver than I am passenger.. long story.
I came and did some washing, (I had quite a bit to get through) and thought I’d jump on and type while I had some spare time before mid night comes round.
We’ve got a full week of training this week, but we’re being fed most of the week which is great. We head to Clayton thu and fri for the combined MRS training.
Saturday we get off, then 1st year students move on campus on Sunday. Then its busy busy busy!!!
I hope you all have a fantastic week and are happy and in good health.
Take care all and God Bless
Love to all
Brett
- posted by Brett @ 2/13/2006 02:48:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hello Hello!!
Happy new year to everyone!
I trust everyone had a safe and merry Christmas and a happy new years.
I sure did, I feel truely blessed and very lucky.
I spent Christmas in the Mount with my lovely family and boxing day also.
We all went to watch Nania on boxing day, took up a whole row if cinema 1!
On the 27th I drove accross to Eildon and spent the next 15 days or so there. The Kennedy speed boat is a little bit sick at the moment, so it was only fit enough to wakeboard behind. We made the most of it though, and had 2 good wakeboards each day. I'm happy to say that I am slowly improving. Scotty cooked some awesome meals, as did Brett, (B1) Erika and Di.
New years eve was cool, we didn't finish eating dinner til a bit after 11. Kim and I had to stop doing the dishes at 11:55pm so we didn't go into the new year doing dishes. We saw the new year in laying on sunbaking chairs on the roof of the houseboat gazing at the stars. Very relaxing.
Kim and I came back to the mount for a few days and the weekend, I had a swimming get-to-gether that Heather had organised as her annual 'do' for her championship swimmers. She took us out to a rally circuit and we got a few hot laps in the passanger seats of some quick rally cars. It was a great experience, a great adrenaline rush!! I would love to drive in a rally some day.
We then had to get back to Eildon, as Kim's parents, Di and Jim bought us all a spot on a wakeboarding clinic run by Chris O'Shea, who is a pro wakeboarder. We went out on the clinic on Wednesday, the only day since we'd been there that it was raining. It was cold and wet, but the water was the calmest I had ever seen it. There were no boats out either, which made for some great conditions if you could look past the weather. It was a great day, we all learnt a lot and all had some big stacks. It was the first time i'd been behind a malibu wake setter with a high rope. It was awesome, i was getting huge air.
Thursday morning Micheal (Kim's cousin) Kim and I went for one last wakeboard. Michael and I had a pac that we'd both try 360's until we landed one. On my 3rd attempt i rotated upside down and landed on my head. I stuffed my shoulder. Oh dear.
I drove accross to Mannum which was a long trip, i didn't get there til about 11pm. I then stayed the night and relaxed for a day. I then went up to renmark to meet up with the rest of the swimming team. It was SA Country Swimming Champs time.
I had been entered in 8 events and was in 4 relays. This means about 24 swims, with heats and finals. I had stuffed my shoulder though, so had to pull out of all the back and fly events, Heather and Rocco were not impressed!!
I still just managed to qualify for the 100 fs (just-8th fastest) and i pulled out a 59.10 in the final and got 3rd!
My shoulder got worse and weaker with each stroke that I did.
In the 50fs i pulled out a heat swim of 26.66, ranking me 1st fastest for the final.
The final swim though, I swam a 26.67 and got 3rd. I was unsuccessful in defending my tital. 3 in a row will have to do!
We got a couple silver and a couple bronze in the relays, which were all good fun. Blue Lake came 2nd overall, lucky to beat Gawler.
It was a great weekend, i caught up with a lot of good mates that I hadn't seen for a year. I then drove back to Mannum and had a couple relaxing days with pa, Grandma and Thea.
I saw a Bowen specialist and he fixed my shoulder and my leg. (By the way, I stuffed my leg falling off a jet ski. I bruised my hip and thigh and damaged my hamstring) There was a tendon blocking my rotator joint in my shoulder. After a minute of rediculas pain, he had moved the tendon and my shoulder was back to full movement. It still feels like I have a dead arm though, apparantly it will be all good in another day or two.
So, now I plan to work at the pool over the weekend, while it's hot, and spend another week relaxing as much as possible before I head back to uni and get back into the swing of things.
I must be off.
all the best to everyone in the new year, I pray that you achive all that you set out to do.
Take care &
God Bless
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 1/19/2006 11:25:00 AM 0 comments

 

Rina

I worked all week at the pool, thanks Pete, and then went to Melbourne Friday. Saturday (17th dec) was Taryn’s 21st Brunch, which was great. It was race day attire, we had a blast. It was at a lovely venue which looked out over Melbourne. I think it was called skyhigh. Kim had a 1st aid course on the fri, sat, sun, mon. She had to head back to it asap after the brunch. So after lunch we went separate ways.
I went down towards Mornington, and stopped along the way to try and do some Christmas shopping. I wandered around shopping centres for 3 hours and walked away with absolutely nothing!!!! Very frustrating.
I can happily say now though, that I have nearly finished my shopping! Yay.
I went down to Mornington to stay with Casey and her lovely family. I had a great weekend with lots of laughing and carrying on. We had a spa every night and played quite a bit of table tennis. Casey’s family is pretty cool, we had lotsa fun. Monday we went bowling and swimming which was a blast.
Monday night I left after tea, to pick Kim up from Warragul, as she had got a ride back with Bec after the 1st aid course had finished. After a tour of Bec’s lovely house, we went back to Kim’s and slept, both very tired. (we didn’t get to bed til at least 2:30 though)
We were woken at about 7:30 as there was an open house. We packed up, cleaned up and left for the better state. On the way we thought we should stop and the new DFO shopping complex. (Direct Factory Outlets) We had a look around for an hour or so, and again, came away with nothing. There was a lot of good gear there though. You could spend a lot and save a lot!
We got to Mt Gambier at about 4 and spent the next couple days chilling, playing with thea, shopping and doing odd bits and pieces. We took Kim to the airport last night were she caught a plane back to Melbourne. We’ll be speding Christmas with our famililes, then I’ll be heading across to Eildon for a week of skiing! Yay!
I think then Kim and I are heading down the Mornington to spend some time with Casey and Luke. I’m sure I’ll write about it all later!!!

At this point I should finish and wish everyone a very very happy and merry Christmas. Take care in all you do, safe travels and happy family times.
Take care all, and remember the true reason we celebrate CHRISTmas.
Love to all
Brett
Xxxooo

To finish with I should leave you with this:
(a piece of writing my wonderful mother found)

The Seven Wonders of the World
A group of students were asked to list what they thought were the present “Seven Wonders of the World.” Though there were some disagreements, the following received the most votes:
Egypt’s Great Pyramids
Taj Mahal
Grand Canyon
Panama Canal
Empire State Building
St Peter’s Cathedral
China’s Great Wall

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student had not finished her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with list. The girl replied, “yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there were so many.” The teacher said. “well, tell us what you have, maybe we can help you.” The girl hesitated, the read: “I think the Seven Wonders of the World are:
To see…
To hear…
To touch…
To Taste…
To feel…
To Laugh…
And to love.”

The room was so quiet you could hardly have heard a pin drop. The things we overlook as simple and ordinary and that we take for granted are truly wondrous.
A gentle reminder: That the most precious things in life cannot be built by hand or bought by man.

Have a great Christmas.

- posted by Brett @ 12/24/2005 12:37:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hi Guys

Just a quick update.

I am now the proud owner of a subaru!! Yay
I may include a photo later on.

I completed the adventure race!! Yay.
Here's some proof.
I hope all is well.
I will update fully in the next week or 2.
Love to all
Take care
Bam
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 12/12/2005 04:25:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hi all
We are back from Kozi, safe sound and happy. We had the best trip, awesome weather, awesome views, a fantastic group, great food and good sleeps. I'm putting the photos onto my photo site as i'm writing now. For a preview, here is me on the highest point on Australia!:


I will fill you in properly when I get the chance. At the moment though I have a lot to do...
Feel free to have a look at the photos.

Take care
Love to all
Bam
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 11/27/2005 10:37:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hello!!!
Okay, I think we have to call this a monthly blog now, i'm lucky to get one a month!
A lot has happened since the 26th of oct!!
There has been a lot of assigment work going on, lots of exam revision and preperation. I had 2 exams which were on the 31st and 2nd. The first one was pretty bad, hard and I ran out of time. (3hours wasn't enough) The second exam wasn't as bad, which was good.
Kim and I went on a climbing camp near Bendigo, with ESA. It was a great weekend, good climbing and we met some lovely people.
The Echuca trip was called off due to my mates work commitments :-(
I tried to organise a trip to Glenmaggie for a couple days, but that got called off as well, due to bad weather.
Between car shopping, swimming, running, riding, i've also moved out of my room at uni. (and cleaned up the mess that my housemates left for me in the kitchen. Not a pleasant, 4hour job.) I have put most of my gear in Scotties garage for the time being. I have not been feeling 100% for a while now. My energy levels have been constantly low. Its felt like a mile chronic fatigue or something.
We had a farewell BBQ for our mates going to America. Not many people showed from uni which was disapointing. My legs got eaten alive by something living in the grass, but the bites didn't come up til the next day. They are still there, i'm not sure what it was.
I went to a car auction with Kim last week. I am so over my bad luck with car shopping. I have had a crack at 4 cars now, and have been unlucky with them all, being sold just before i ring, a deal not going through, a deposit being put on the car as I was going to go look at it, and at the auction, the only car i was interested in, wasn't in the right lot number, and they had no record of it or didn't know where it was supposed to be!! i obviously just haven't found the right car yet.
Also, due to the fact that Kim has a big car, my plan was to just get a small car. Now though, Kim has just got a new car. Her parents bought her aunties car for her, and they are going to swop cars. So now Kim has a nice small car, and i'm not sure what i'm going to get. I would have bought that car, but it didn't happen. I'll keep looking, we'll get there eventually.
I've got a good hunter up in NSW too, who has been handy!
I'm down at uni at the moment.
We are leaving for our 8 day leadership walk to Mt Koscuisoko tomorrow morning.
Today i'm sorting my gear and doing all the food shopping. I have to pick up a sea kayak and mountain bike, which i'm sending back to melb with Kim on her way past as she has been working at Banksia yesterday and today. I also have to teach swimming as well. I've been asked to fill in, seeing how i'm down.
I must be off, lots to do.
I will complete this after my trip with photos and hopefully some good stories from the trip.
Take care all.
God bless
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 11/18/2005 10:07:00 AM 1 comments

 





- posted by Brett @ 10/26/2005 03:12:00 PM 0 comments

 

This is Bec, Me and Kim at the BSOR ball last week.

- posted by Brett @ 10/26/2005 02:48:00 PM 0 comments

 

- posted by Brett @ 9/27/2005 03:26:00 PM 0 comments

 

Hi there all

Just a quick one, i have found a great little piece of writing...


Charles Swindoll Writes:

The longer I live the more I realise the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…The remarkable thing is that we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannon change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes…
What do you think about that then ay??...

Hope everyone is having a great day.
Peace!!
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo

ps, the photo is me at Mt St Gwinear a couple weeks ago.

- posted by Brett @ 9/01/2005 11:28:00 AM 0 comments

 

Hey there!

Guess what I can do now.....
Here is me running in Benella and the Australian Duathlon Championships.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Love to all

Brett xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 8/28/2005 03:41:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hi!

I really should tell you about the weekend that has just passed...
Friday night, i caught the train to Kim's (well to Melb, Kim picked me up:)
Saturday we spent in the shops, shopping for presents.
Sat night we dressed up and drove down to mornigton for Jodie and Ben's engagement.
It was really cool. We had to leave early though to get back to Catch's 21st, which was back in Doncaster!!! It was good to get back to though.
We didn't end up getting to bed til around 2.
Sun we were up at about 5:30 to leave for Benella, for the Aust Duathlon Champs.
We met up with nick at lilydale, and went the rest of the way with him.
The race started at about 10:30. ( i was doing the 10km run leg, tim did the 40km ride and 5km run)
I felt really good for the first lap (5km) and was only a couple minutes behind nick. I probably ran about a 17min for the first 5km. Then my stomach cramped up and i could hardly run for about 3km, i struggled through in agony. With about 1.5km to go, the pain left and i was able to run pretty hard to the line.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, Tim rode and run really well and we ended up wining the teams event, so we both got a small trophy! So, technically we are the Australian Team Duathlon Champions!
Nick won his category in fine style, under 2 hours, what was an awesome effort!
We arived back in doncaster at about 6, then had a quick bite, then went to church at Heathmont.
It was a pretty cool service, we ended up staying til late, talking with some young people there. I got to know a few lads around my age, and it was all pretty cool.
Then we got home and crashed.
Mon- back to uni and another hectic week.
Monday nights mixed netball comp is going pretty well. The RA team are undefeated, we are too strong. Nick plays GA, me in the centre and simon or Al in the defence. Casey, Lisa, Jo, Tanya, Avril and mel play in each too, we have a lot of fun and are pretty competative, us blokes especially!
Tue night, Kim and i did the RSA (responsible service of alcohol) for justin (just-in-case) for when her parents open the hotel in Narbathong. (spell check)
I've got one more of 4 shifts at work this week.
I might be going for a water ski with Benny H in the morning, then i'm catching the train to melb
Kim's getting a mole removed, so i thought i should go and look after her, then we're going ice skating!!
Sat i have to come back to work at 12
Sat night crossing the gap is on, a moto cross free style event run by a few mates from the churches from down here.
I am organising at least a busload of people to go from uni, It should be cool.
They basically have a bonfire, a band on the back of a semi, and some massive jumps and stunts.
This is the second time they are running it. Should be awesome!! A great outreach.
My wisdom teeth are really hurting at the mo. I've tried to bring my app. forward from the 30th of nov. See how we go.
I should be off.
I will try and start posting with a photo each time now, seeing how i found i could do it!!
Catch you all soon.
Take care
God bless
Love Brett
xxxooo


http://photos.yahoo.com/jazzbamfish

To view photos click the above link
- posted by Brett @ 8/25/2005 08:14:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hi there!!
Sorry i haven't posted in over a month, slack I know, but i've been pretty busy.
Just a quick fill in.
Uni is hectic at the moment, trying to catch up on everything.
I worked a 35 hour week at the leisure centre last week as there were alot of people away.
I wont be working as much now, thank goodness, it'll give me time to do whats needed!
Last night was the SRA (student Res) Ball. It was awesome. I wore my orange tie, but i missed my girl, Kim. She had to be in melbourne for placement and work.
The photos are now uploading to my photo site which i'm sure you've all looked at...
I will fill you in properly asap.
Also, i'm running in a team at the Australian Duathlon champs this weekend, should be an experience for me, im doing the 1st 10km leg. I'll let you know how that goes.
We've got an engagement party (Jodie and Ben) and a 21st( cath's) on saturday night, so were going to be busy busy.
I must be off, but i promise I will fill in properly soon.
Love to all
Hope everyone is great!!!
Bam
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 8/19/2005 12:49:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hello there!
So much has happened since the 28th of June. I have been so slack, it makes it hard to remember. I'll do my best.
Well, Bruce is officially sold, gone, history. All that i have left is the number plates. I have been looking for another car, but the right one hasn’t seemed to have popped up yet. I am not quite sure what sort of car to get now.
Well, Kim’s 21st pressie from me was a trip to Queensland for a week. We left on wed night (29th.) I had told her to pack for camping with a few extras here and there. I had told her that we were going down the great ocean road camping. She believed this up until wed arvo. Nothing went to plan for the week leading up to the trip. Bruce was supposed to have been sold and gone by Tuesday. However I had to get a few things done to it. Jim (Kim’s dad) helped me out stacks and organised new tires, new windscreen and then helped me change the exhaust manifold. We were still working on the car wed arvo at about 2pm. So I had to arrange for Kim to go home and pick up our gear. I told her to just pick up the bags in the middle of her room and leave. But she did open her wardrobe and see her hiking gear put back in there and our pillows and a few other things. This got her thinking. She then drove to where we were and realised there was definitely something up when her dad got in her car and drove us off. She realised that we were probably going somewhere to be dropped off. We got to the airport and went and sat down for a snack. I then told Kim what the plans were. She seemed pretty happy. A lot happier than a camping trip down the great ocean road in the middle of winter! Our flight times changed around a few time, but we finally took off and arrived in Coolangatta. Kim’s Grandparents picked us up and took us to their home. We stayed the night there, then Scotty came up the following morning. It had been raining for the past week, it was pretty much flooded. The morning Scotty came, lots of roads were closed off from the flooding. 2 people had died from the floods. We had left Melbourne with blue skies and sunny (slightly cool) and arrived in Queensland with it absolutely pelting down with rain. Anyway. We headed back up the coast with Scotty on Thursday to Alexandra Headlands. We checked out the bar that Scotty was managing, which was really cool. We stayed at Scotties thu and fri night. Friday, we went to underwater world. Kim thought that we were just going there for lunch. Scotty though, had bought her a ticket to swim with the sharks for her birthday. We went and did that, it was one hell of an experience for both Kim and me. I hate the idea of sharks, I hate the idea of someone I love swimming with sharks. They were huge sharks too, up to 4m at least. We watched though and took plenty of photos. Kim was as stiff as a board in the shark tank, as were the other divers. Saturday we borrowed Scotties 4WD and headed up to Noosa. We spent the day looking around the Noosa area. We then stayed in Noosaville over night. Sunday we headed up the coast to a massive beach. We caught a ferry onto the beach and headed north. The beach was like a highway, 4wd’s every where. We snatched out a Honda CRV, whose driver had driven off a small sand cliff, very inexperienced. Pretty funny though. We realised that Queenslanders have no respect for their 4wd’s on the beach, they drive in the water!! Rust galore. We took it very easy and kept out of the water. We found the exit point, and had a lovely picnic lunch in a grassy spot. Then headed back down to Scotts, washed the car and went to Scott’s bar. Monday we went to Dreamworld. IT was pretty cool, apart from all the waiting in lines. We were there for about 7 hours and got on about 7 rides. Gee they were good though. Got the stomach moving. Monday night we went back to Coolangatta and had tea at the RSL with the Gparents. The RSL is the biggest in Oz, or close to!!! It was absolutely huge, very impressive too.
We flew home early Tuesday morning, on the cheaper flight (of course) We went to go ice skating tue arvo after a few jobs Kimmy had to do. We got to the rink and looked in the door. It was absolutely jammed packed. School holidays, and only one rink in Melb! Went out to lunch instead and scored a free pizza at LaPorchetta!
I came back to uni Wed and worked at the pool, as well as doing other bits and pieces here and there. I caught the train back to melb fri night and went back to Kims, and waited for the family to arrive. They all got to melb safe and sound. Saturday we all went to the Queen Vic market, apart from dad who had a relaxing day reading. I got my bday pressie in advance for the year, a warm pair of ugboots. The moxies have seen better days!! Saturday night was Kim’s 21st birthday party at Yarra Valley Country Club. Gee did it go off. It was so flash and really nice. The night was perfect. Heaps of my friends finally got to meet my much talked about family, and my family finally got to meet many of my much talked about friends. Sunday was rest day. Kim started feeling unwell. She went to bed, I went to church Sun night. It was great Tarryn prayed with me which was great. I caught a train back to melb (just making it, the station is a mess and we left it pretty thin, I ran all the way and got on a the train with about 30secs to spare. One more red light would have done it!!) And have worked all week, about 25 hours all up. I’ve also had other bits and pieces to do, tax ect. I played bball on Friday with sarah then went into traralgon. I stayed at Brisso and Jimmy’s new house fri night. (Sarah has moved in with them, they are mates from last year at uni) Saturday, sarah and me had to open at the pool. I worked all day sat, and today. Tonight Lucy took me to Moe to play inline hockey. I went to training thu night and had a play around, and they asked me to play on sun. I thought I should at least give it a go to see if I like it or not. Tonight was pretty frustrating, they sub the entire team off every 2 minutes or less!! I felt like I was just getting some momentum up, then would get pulled off. It sucked. There are only 4 on at a time. It was fun though. I’m not sure if i’m going to play again or not. Time will tell. I’ve got snowboarding to concentrate on at the mo.
So there we are then, I think we have caught up quite a lot.
Tomorrow starts the new semester and 4 new subjects. I passed last semester with flying colours. 3 credits and a high distinction. I was pleasantly surprised. Kim also did very well.
I must be off.
I’ll blog again soon I hope, to save me the brain strain of remembering the last month!!!
Take Care
Love to all
Bam
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 7/17/2005 08:58:00 PM 0 comments

 
Well hello there!!

another 20 days has flown by since i last blogged. Hmmm what has happened...
Well, i did a heap of cooking and our area dinner went really well. The intial response was 'gee that looks grose' but after trying it, they all came back for seconds and then took some home with them for lunch the following day, it was a fantastic batch, tasted awesome. They got stuck into the food colouring too, which made it look even more interesting. I should have some photos on my web thing soon.
Then i had my 1 and only exam, which i think went ok. I wrote 15 pages in 3 hours, and gee my arm was sore. Then Saturday i went and picked Kim up and we went back to Mt Gambier.
We had Josh's 21st sat night which was cool, catching up with people was great. Then I spent the week taking Thea places, scanning photos for Kim's 21st party, shopping, catching up with people, i went to a swimming training with my club, and went to a band practice, where they put me on euphonium, as there were 4 trombones already. I hadn't played the eupho for about 10 years, but it was like i played it yesterday. I had a dentist app. and discovered i definately need to get my wisdom teeth out soon.
I headed back on Friday night and stayed at Kim's. Saturday night we drove down to uni and did our 3 day wilderness first aid certificate. Monday night Kim and I went out to tea with Kelly and Jarod in Trarlgon, to catch up. It was really cool. I hadn't seen them since the placement camp to Melb, and Kim got to meet them, which I think she enjoyed. Tuesday night we drove back to Melbourne and it was Kims 21st Birthday on Wednesday!! I woke her up with a kiss, had breaky with her and then watched her leave for work before 8am. Then waited all day for her to get home! Wednesday night we went out to a flash resturant which was silver service. We had our own room and our own waiter. We had a 4 course meal which was 'splendid!' It was very fancy, i had to wear a suit!
I came back to uni Thursday and had to work thursday morning and thursday night on pool deck. Then i was Duty Manager on sat morning. Then i drove back to Melb saturday arvo for Nat's 21st. On the way back, at a major intersection I stopped at a red light. (This was about 20 mins from Kim's house) I then watched the other traffic and saw Kim turn in front of me. I caught up to her and followed her home, but quite a coincidence! Nat's 21st was a black and which theme, and Nat wore a bright red dress, it was really cool, a great night.
Sunday was a stressful day for me. Someone had rung up to ask to come and have a look at my car. We had organised for 12pm. So i went and washed the car, then came home for 12. He rang and said he wouldn't be there til 1pm, so i waited and waited. He showed at 3. This meant that i didn't get to go with Kim to watch Nat play hockey, which I really wanted to do.
Anyway, the process is still in the making with the car, so i will fill you in what happens there later.
Sunday night Kim and I went to church and I decided that i would stay the night in Melb rather than drive back after church, i was too tired. I came back down to uni Early monday morning to work, i opened at 5:30am, so left melboure at about 3:15. work was ok.
After work i organised some stuff, slept a bit and watched swat, which was a cool movie.
Then had an early night.
I worked thismorning and have to pack up my gear today.
Then i'm driving back to melb this arvo and then kim and me are going away later on this week for a holiday. We just going to spend some time together, which i'm really looking forward to.
As yet, Kim doesn't know what we're doing, but I'll fill you in on it all next week.
Wish me luck!
Love to all.
Peach out.
Take care.
God Bless.
- posted by Brett @ 6/28/2005 09:50:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hey there all

Sorry i haven't blogged for quite some time.
So much has happened since the 23rd of may!!
There was the Hawaiian beach party which was awesome. We filled the saloon with sand and partied away, dancing on the sand. Was great fun. The RA's ran the event and it was a huge succes.
Kim had her pantomime, which was fantastic. Gee she can act, it was kinda scary, i hardly recognised her, she was completely different on stage!! She really enjoyed it!!
I've finished all of my assignment for this semester, and if i pass them all then i've passed the semester!!! YAY. (better not get my hopes up yet though!!!
My one and only exam is on friday afternoon, i should be ready by then.
I'm cooking my area dinner with Jo for tomorrow night, we're cooking monster mash for about 40 people. Hopefully we cook enough food.
I've been working about 4 shifts a week which has been just enough, not too much, not too little.
Work is great aftet a busy stressful day, i don't have anything to worry about and just watch the swimming.
I'm going home to Mt Gambier on saturday for Josh's 21st and by the way, happy birthday Josh for the 6th of June!!
Kim's coming home with me but has to be back in melbourne tuesday morning. I'll be staying til friday, which should be great. I'm really looking forward to spending time with loved ones and spoiling Thea.
I must be off, i have lots of study and cooking to do!!
Take care all.
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 6/08/2005 10:40:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hey there

Just a quick 5 minute blog before class.
God is so good!!!
I have been pretty good lately with lots of exciting news.
I am looking at the possibility of spending summer over in USA working on at a ski resort and boarding in metres of powder!!!
I went wakeboarding and skiing yeterday with the monash crew.
Hopefully down the track we can keep the boat down here over winter and take it out ourselves.
It would mean though that a few of us need to be trained up to drive the boat. We need more than just a liscence.
I have 3 more assignments to do and 1 exam, then the semester is over. I can't wait.
The holidays are looking pretty busy but fun.
I have class now, then i'm going to pick up the uni minibus, then us Ra's are going to play street hockey.
Then we have our mixed netball final, semi and if we win that grand. Should be a great night.
I gotta run.
Take care
God bless
Bam
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 5/23/2005 02:49:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there.

I suppose I should write about what I’ve been up to lately.
The year 8 camp was great. It was totally different from any camp that I’ve ever been on, as instead of moving away from civilisation, we went into the city. We stayed in a backpackers in Melbourne. We did a lot of cool stuff; the kids were exhausted by the end of the week. We went to the AFL hall of fame, which was very impressive. We went to the Rod laver arena, had a tour and a 1 hour coaching session. We went to the queen vic markets, and roamed. We went to a Italian restaurant for tea one night and an Indonesian café the next night. Indonesian is the language they learn at school, so the teacher organised some other Indonesian teachers to come along for tea, which was a great idea. We had some great pancake sandwich things that night for desert. They were incredibly delicious.
A few of us went for a run to the Kangaroos (nth melb) home ground for a kick and a jog. We went to the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre where the kids participated in a wipeout program, which involved doing a heap of stuff all through the pool complex. (slides, obstacle course etc.)
I went and played Bball with the teacher (Jarrod) and a few of the kids that didn’t want to swim. Then I went for a few laps.
We caught the trams around and walked a lot. Friday night we went to the MCG for the footy, Melb vs Adelaide. It was pretty cool. Kim came to the game to catch up, which was really nice of her.
The Paddling trip was pretty cool. We went down to the Gippsland lakes, near Loch Sport. We broke off into our groups, packed our kayaks and set off. It was a leadership camp, so we were in charge of everything that went on, unless we needed help or didn’t know something, then the leader would step in. We spent 3 days and 2 nights out on the lakes. We set up camp in a spot which backed onto 90 mile beach, and spent a little bit of time on the beach, which was pretty cool. We had awesome weather which was great. I took a few photos, which are on my yahoo photo site. It would have been good to get more actually on the water, but I don’t have a waterproof case for my camera yet.
Last weekend, I had to do level 2 first aid, so I can keep life guarding. It went all weekend in Traralgon, and I found it quite boring, as it was nothing new. It passed fairly quickly though, which was good. Kim and I went to the movies sat night and saw In Good Company, which was a reasonable movie. Not as funny as I was expecting.
This week has been pretty busy. I had a group presentation today which counts for 50% of my grade for one subject!! It went pretty well. I have a 5000 wd essay due Friday, which I haven’t really done much on yet.
I worked tonight, and have 3 more shifts this week.
I am going to play canoe water polo in the morning which starts at 6. So I really should get to bed.

I’ll bloggya later!
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 5/17/2005 10:46:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey all

Just a quick one

I have been flat out and still will be for the next couple weeks, as we only have 3 weeks left before exams, and many assignments to do!

Last week we had a 3 day coastal paddling trip which was fantastic, and i will right about later.

The week before I had a 4 day city trip with year 8's from the school I am doing placement at.
I will let you know more about that too, in the not too distant future.

Other than that, i've been working at the Leisure Centre, doing assignments, going to uni, eating and sleeping.
I must be off, i have to prepare a presentation for tomorrow, then begin a 5000 wd essay due Friday!!!
AAHHH

Love to all
Take care
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 5/16/2005 09:07:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hey there all

Just a quick note, please notice on the right hand side of this page a new link which is
http://photos.yahoo.com/jazzbamfish

This will allow you to view some photos!
I am still in the process of uploading my photos, but feel free to have a browse of whats there.

I hope all is well!

I will blog soon.
God bless
Love to all
Bam
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 4/28/2005 04:06:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there all

I trust that you are all happy and in good health.
This is a long one, sorry!

I’m sorry that I again haven’t written for so long. I have been busy, as per usual. So much has happened since I last blogged. I have probably had one of the busiest months of my life, believe it or not. I can’t remember back much past Easter, so I’ll start from there. Even then, I’m struggling to remember what has happened. I spend Easter Saturday with Kim and her family up on the houseboat. We had a bit of a ski and a wakeboard, and lots of great food. Brett Kennedy’s Fiancé’s (now wife) father and Aunt where over from America, they really enjoyed the houseboat. Sunday was a fairly cruisey day I think. I can’t remember too much. That week was crazy! I worked Wednesday night, Thursday morning, Thursday night, Friday morning and I had placement on Thursday and Friday. Thursday was the district aths day, so I went and helped out there. I ran the shot put for the entire day, which was pretty cool. I then drove to Melbourne Friday night. In the last fortnight, I have worked about 25 hours at the leisure centre. I have also had full time uni, as well as Brett and Erika’s wedding. (Kim’s bro) which I helped out for on Saturday morning and then went to Saturday arvo and night. It was a fantastic wedding. Everything went perfectly. Sunday morning, Kim and I were supposed to pick up Brett and Erika from their hotel at 7:45, to take them for their airport. I slept next to Kim’s bed and I woke up and looked across at the clock, it was 8:20. The alarm hadn’t woken us up properly, after all we did get to bed at about 3ish. We were out of the house within a minute. Kim didn’t even get to change her top! Imaging Kim walking around the Melbourne airport with a PJ top on! She did manage to slip some jeans on though. We got to the hotel to get the newly weds. They were fine, as they are so used to being late, it didn’t seem to bother them. We ended up getting them to the airport on time with time to spare, which was great. We saw them off, and then returned to Kim’s. We then went out to lunch and then I took Kim to her rehearsal for her play this year for Powerhouse, which is Dracula. Kim is one of Dracula’s brides. Should be an interesting play. I had a nap in the car, and then we went to Heathmont Baptist Church, which is a great little church. We then went back and slept. We had to be back in Churchill by 10 though as I had to work, so it meant another early start. The week (April 4 onwards) was full of meetings, lectures, tutorials, and work. Thursday after work I caught the train to Melbourne, as Kim had taken bruce back on Wednesday. Kim picked me up from the train station, then we drove to Adelaide. Only took us about 9 hours! We got to Matt and Sals at about 1:30am. Had a small chat then slept. Saturday we caught up with Mum, Dad, Thea, Camo, Matt and Sal. It was hot!!! Saturday night was Chris’s 21st at flinders uni ball hall. It was a 70’s disco theme. Saturday arvo we had to sort out what we were wearing. Dad had some old flares that I squeezed into, and I wore a stripy green massive collared shirt. There were some great outfits, and it was a fantastic night. Definitely worth making the trip for. It was great to catch up with mates and family. I think Kim enjoyed meeting people too. Kim had to be back in Melbourne by 2pm for her Dracula rehersal, so we got up at 5, after getting to bet at 3 and drove back to Melbourne. We didn’t get to Kim’s rehersal until 3:30, as we had to make a few more stop-revive-survive’s. We also stopped to help a burning car. A new magna rental car had hit a piece of steel piping on the road which had piereced something, setting it alight. They were muso’s from Adelaide, who had been to Melbourne to play a gig. They pulled all their gear out of the boot pretty quick, but the car stopped burning pretty quickly which was lucky. We kept going, because there wasn’t much we could do. They had phones and were fine.
Anyway, after the rehersal, we went back to Kim’s and had a fantastic tea of Chicken and salad which we picked up on the way home. Then we went to church. ( at heathmont again) I really love the church. This week has started pretty busy again, actually it’s half over! Already. (this myth that life gets quicker when you get older is so true. Time is flying by!!) I’ve had 2 shifts this week and do my first real Duty manager shift on Thursday. Straight after work on Thursday I’m catching a train to Melbourne again, as there is more on this weekend. Saturday is Erin’s 21st, which we are going to in the afternoon. Saturday night, we are going to Heathmont’s youth function which is The amazing race (off the TV show) around Melbourne. It should be a great opportunity to meet some new people.

The next couple weeks are full on, but pretty normal. I have about 4 shifts a week at the leisure centre, I have assignments due each week, and 2 more camps coming up. One for placement, a city trip with year 8’s and a coastal paddling trip for uni. I also have a few more placement days at school, where I will start taking sessions in class, as well as PE activities.

Yep, I suppose you could say I’ve been a bit busy.
I have felt under the pump at times, and have had the occasional night where everything feels pretty miserable. This is mostly due to the lack of sleep I think. I feel that I have changed a bit since I moved to uni. I have seemed to stop doing things that I used to do in my spare time. I just don’t seem to have had any spare time lately. This has been upsetting, as I really do want to continue my much loved hobbies. I am currently trying to plan a schedule, so that I can make sure I don’t miss or forget anything and just as a new strategy in managing my time, as the last strategy didn’t seem to work.
At uni, I have felt kind of isolated from other Christians, which has been a lot harder than I had expected. I’ve found it particularly hard, especially during busy, stressful times. It is hard being away from my family so much, as we are a pretty close nit family. My brothers, sister, mum and dad mean so much to me. I really miss them.
Kim has been so supportive and influential and has really made a difference in my life. Without her last year and this year, I probably would have gone insane. She helped me on so many occasions to look at things logically and sensibly, keeping focused and positive. I owe a lot to Kim. She has done a lot more for me than she could ever know. I feel that Christian contact and support is so important to staying strong. Kim has been my main Christian contact. She is this as well as my best mate, my encourager, my supporter and my girlfriend. This may help to explain why she means so much to me and why I love her so much. I don’t think anyone can really understand what she has done for me. I feel extremely blessed to have met Kim and to have her as part of my life.
Finally, a small group of Christians have immerged at uni, but only about 10 of us, which is a lot better than what I found last year, (about 2) But, we are meeting when I had class. I was going to try and start an official Christian club, but had to wait til time was permitting. Another girl decided she would take charge and has gone ahead with it, which is fair enough as it was going to take me a week to do it, and she had nothing else she needed to do. I really wanted to get it rolling though, as it was something I feel to be important; other Christian contact. I sometimes get sick of being so busy and not being able to do what I want. (with commitments that are tied- uni, work, placement etc.)

I really have fallen behind with uni readings. The assignments are ok, I am just keeping up, but I really want to do better in the readings. My first step to catching up is to catch up on sleep first, as I have not had enough, or even close to enough lately.
On that note, I must be off; I really need an early night. So I’m going to have one. I had planned to do some readings, but was in a writing mood, and thought is was about time I blogged.

I have found a website where I may be able to post my photos, so stay tuned for that.
Take care all
God bless
Love to all
Bamxxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 4/14/2005 09:22:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
I’m back at uni now, it’s Monday night!
I’m feeling much better. Kim gave me a fantastic massage the other day, my cold has gone, I’ve caught up on lost sleep and things just seem to be going better.
I still feel busy, but I feel a bit more relaxed as there is a week break next week, so I’ll be able to catch up then.
I wrote a few more pieces of writing on my solo that I may add later. We’ll see. One was on what love is! A bit deep.

The date with Kim went really well. I cooked up a 3 course meal, got it all ready, turned my little bedroom into a romantic candle lit one table restaurant and went to pick Kim up. Kim was thinking at this stage that we were going out to a restaurant or something. She had been on a wine tour a couple weeks ago, on her brothers wife to be’s hens weekend. (where she will bridesmaid in the wedding on the 2nd of April) So I took Kim to the bottle shop and got her to pick a wine that she would like. I then had her close her eyes and I drove her around Churchill for about 5 mins then back to uni. I led her to my room where it was all set up. I lit all the candles, and then got her to open her eyes. I think she liked it. I had arranged for Ryan to be a waiter for us. So he dressed up and served us the meal. It was pretty cool.

I’m trying to think what else I’ve been up to which may be of interest. I’ve began my placement this year at a great little Christian college in Traralgon. I have spent one day there already and have 13 more to go. My supervising teacher is a great guy, I had actually met him and his wife in church last time, but didn’t realise it was him until I rocked up at the collage. He’s the PE coordinator amongst other things, so it should be great working with him.

Work at the leisure centre has been great. I’ve been easing into it, just life-guarding, and filling in occasionally to teach. I am also going to be manning the front desk too soon, which should be something a bit different but cool at the same time.

This weekend, being Easter, I’ll probably be heading into melb with Kim to spend it with her and her family. If the weather is good, we may head up to Eildon. Next week, I’m going to try and knock off a heap of assignments and catch up on readings that I’ve missed. Should be a productive week.

I’ve decided to put Bruce on the market before I rack up too many more K’s. So if you know anyone that wants a loved ’94 camry, let us know!

Next weekend, (the weekend after Easter) is Kim’s brothers’ wedding. Brett and Erica are to be wed on the 2nd of April. Kim is a bridesmaid. I’m really looking forward to it, it should be lots of fun.

The RA position has been good so far. I have been conducting house meetings which have been going well, so far.

I think that’s about it for the time being, sorry about the briefness and lack of detail!!

Before I go can I just stress the importance of Easter and what it really means. Many people don’t know the meaning and many forget it, so please tell everyone what it is!!

I must be off!!

Take care all and God bless
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 3/21/2005 06:44:00 PM 0 comments

 
(from my solo notebook)
I'm sitting on the beach, somewhere near cape conran. I'm on solo for the afternoon and evening (8hours) as part of our adventure education camp. So far this week, we have done snorkelling, flat water Kayaking, Sea Kayaking and surf kayaking, group presentations, (mine was on flora and fauna) and a coastal walk. We only have one day to go which will be camp games and activities. I have been in a group of 10 all week and there are 3 other groups of 10. We have just rotated around activities.
The solo is aimed at getting us to spend some time alone to reflect and evaluate. There are 2 groups on solo at the moment. We are spread along the beach in 100m intervals. To my left is Kim and my right is Avril. I can’t see Avril, but I can see Kim. She’s been playing around in the sand for a while. It’s kinda a distraction being able to see Kim, cause I can’t stop thinking about her. To be honest, I’m not the happiest camper at the moment. I wasn’t really ready for a solo, I’m not really in the mood for being alone. My back has been sore and I have felt constantly tired and still trying to get rid of this cold. Not meaning to complain, I’ve just been better. I’m always trying to solve problems all the time. An afternoon of thinking probably wont do me any good at the moment.
We have been asked to set 2 goals. My 1st would be
To strengthen, develop and commit more time to God.
My 2nd; to succeed in all I do by putting in 100% and not settling for anything but my best.
(the end of what was in my solo journal.)
- posted by Brett @ 3/21/2005 06:33:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey!
I am beginning to think that I am kinda busy at the moment. I must apologise for not blogging. Honestly, i just haven't got around to it. Between lectures, meetings, games of squash, swimming, working, study, sleeping, running, eating, church, organising the year one week and one day at a time and all the other events that are going on, some of which i am helping to run, i don't seem to have all that much spare time. I can't stay long now either, as i have to attend to a meeting in 10min.
One thing, Elisa's chocolate cake, although it tasted great, it would have been better if it wasn't cut in half! (personal joke)
I will update with all the going on's etc asap. Things are good though.
Happy Birthday to my darling little sis, Thea, who turns 9 today. I am so so sorry that I can't be there Thea.
I miss You lots and lots.
Also, just quickly, it's Kim and my 1 year anniversary tonight, which we are kinda excited about. We have a date set for tomorrow night, which Kim knows nothing about. It should be interesting and lotsa fun.
I must be off.
Take care all.
Love to all.
Bam
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 3/07/2005 12:10:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
Just a quick blog to let you know what I'm up to.
I'm back at uni and have been here since last friday.
I am taking part in a training program for the residantial advisor position I'm in at uni.
There are 11 other RA's who have been awesome to work with. Although it looks to be a very challenging year, it also looks to be a great, fun and rewarding one. The team of RA's has come a long way in 4 days and We all get along really well and are having great fun.
Tomorrow we have a day off but we all have a lot of stuff to do.
Thu and Fri we head into melb. for a continuation of the training.
I must go, but will fill in totally all the gaps when the time is there. It might be a while though!

Before I go, I want to wish my girl- Kim a happy valentines day. She's wow!!!
I'm amazed at how perfect Kim is for me. I love her to bits!!

Take care all and i will write again in more detail soon.
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 2/15/2005 07:36:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey There!

Well, i've had an awesome week.
Friday we travelled up to the river land. I went with Josh, Celia and Alice. We stayed in Renmark, which is about a 20 minute drive to loxton. I really did suprise myself. I ended up winning the event that i really wanted to win.
My medal tally was not as hot as the last couple years but it was much better that what i expected.
2 Bronze (100f/s & 4x100medley relay)
3 Silver (4x50f/s relay, 4x100f/s relay & 4x50medley relay)
1 Gold (50freestyle!!) This is my 3rd year in a row, which is what I was aiming for!! Yipee!
The club finished 2nd over all behind onkaparinga.
It was a great weekend with lots of great swimming, awesome weather and lots of fun.
We tragvelled home monday afternoon, then tuesday morning I drove accross to meet up with the 4WD convoy. There were 8 vehicles in the course and I went along with Kim. Kim let me drive more than i expected, it was great fun! Found some awesome dunes and learnt the safe and sensible way to go about tacking them and driving in the dunes.

Now I've got a few days to chill out with Thea and co and do some car stuff and organise my things for uni.
Take care all and I'll blog ya later!
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 1/27/2005 11:44:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
I haven’t blogged for quite some time now, which I apologise for. I just haven’t been at a computer for a while now and not that I’m home again, I can sit down and write about what’s been going on. I arrived back in Mt Gambier Sunday morning after traveling back from Melbourne. I have spent the last 2 weeks with Kim and members of her family up at Eildon on their houseboat. We did bits and pieces of waterskiing, jetskiing and swimming. The water was lovely and warm. We had pretty mixed sort of weather. Some days were hot and still, others were windy and cold. On the nice days, there were a lot of boats out making for pretty rough skiing, but we got bits and pieces in when we could. I have really started to get the hang of slalom skiing and wakeboarding. I only had one crack at bare footing while I was there, as there was only one time we went out that was smooth enough. It was getting dark though so we couldn’t stay out for long.
There hasn’t been much else news I don’t think. I have to race next weekend at the country champs which is in Loxton, in the riverland. I have 5 days to prepare. Kim left for her lord sommers slush camp on Saturday which runs for 8 days. I’m missin her already. The Tuesday after country champs I am meeting her and her family in Robe, as her dad is running a 4WD course for a few days. That goes til the Thursday, which should be good fun. Then I have to get ready and head back to uni for the 11th of February.
I can’t really think of much else that has gone on. I went out with Kim and her Bro’s for her oldest brother’s birthday. We went to a pretty flash restaurant, and I had one of the nicest meals ever. I had a rack of lamb, it was awesome. I helped Kim shop around for a couple days, as she needed lots of bits and pieces for the camp that she’s on at the moment, as she is a leader.
I gotta run!
I’ll blog again later.
Take care
Love to all
Bam
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 1/18/2005 11:33:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hello all!
Hope all is well in this festive season, and the Christmas shopping isn’t stressing you out!
Our pastor made a comment at church thismorning that as he was watching people rushing around Christmas shopping, he realised that although Christmas is a time of joy as it is celebrating Jesus’s birth, most people didn’t seem too joyous. The stress of shopping was getting to them, trying to beat the rush.
Anyway, just a reminder not to forget the real meaning of Christmas and thank the Lord for giving us His son. Eternal life!! Yipee!
I’ve been pretty busy, I suppose you could say. I’m still looking forward to a holiday. Pa’s 70th was a great weekend, a great family time. Kim met one half of the family and survived the weekend pretty well. She still has to meet the other half though!!!!
I went into Adelaide to bring Chris and dad home. Dad had been over in Sydney for Camo’s running, (he ran in the national all school champs and did pretty well) Dad was supposed to fly into Adelaide a bit after 5. To cut a long story short, I got about 6 messages between 4 and 8 saying the flight had been delayed due to storms. They had some pretty big hailstorms that damaged 9 planes, so ended up cancelling the flight til the next day. So I ended up staying at Chris’s and we played risk. What a game!
Tue We picked dad up from the airport and drove home. Wednesday was a day of sorting stuff out and trying to get all my stuff together, and gee there’s a lot. I went down to swimming wed night and put my entries in for country swimming champs. I’ve since decided to pull out of the 200fs that I had entered for, after swimming the other morning, I decided that 200m is too far, for an old unfit boy like me!
I got up early Thursday morning to train!!! Crazy, but a nice swim. I also got up early Friday morning for a surf. The water was beautiful, as was the weather, but the surf wasn’t as good as we had hoped. I was a little paranoid as well, as the shark attack in Adelaide only happened a couple days ago. I ended up working Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the pool, as a lifeguard. It got to 42 degrees on Saturday. I jumped in about 6 times to cool off.
Thismorning I went to church with the family and reunited with all the church folk, which was great. Then we came home to a roast pork lunch! Yum! Then dave camo and me went to the nets for a hit of cricket for a couple hours. Thea had a friend over and Thea had bought some fake nails, so I spent a while shaping and glueing them onto the girls fingernails. I don’t think I’ll become a beautician, although the nails look great. Speaking of great, my great little bro did a great job with his year 12. He got a TER (Tertiary entrance rank) of 99.7. The highest you can get is 99.95. So he has done exceptionally well. He topped the school and town! We’re all very proud of the boy!!!!
The plan is for the next week to work when it’s hot and surf when the surf’s up!
On Christmas eve, dave and me will drive up to meet with the rest of the family in Mannum, who will be driving up a bit earlier. Then on the 27th, dave and me will be coming home to work (someone has to pay the bills) while the rest of the fam head to Adelaide, as camo is running at the Bay Sheffield. He’s running quite well at the moment, but hasn’t been improving as much as he had hoped. Kim’s planning to fly down to the Mt late December to spend new years with us. Then we’ll head up to Eildon with her family for a week or 2 on the houseboat. I’ll hopefully be able to put the bare footing ski’s that Kim got me for my birthday to good use!!
Over the last week I have had a few moments where I had something to write, you know, those thoughtful things that I haven’t written for a while, but I never seemed to get to the computer in time to write it down, and my memory being like it is, I can’t remember what I was thinking about.
One thing I will mention is that I now know of two people that have read my entire blog. (there may be more people, but I am yet to hear about it, if you have I would be happy to know about it, so do let me know) Elisa, my buddy from uni who I wrote of earlier, the champ, and the other champ is…. mum! Of course!!!
At this stage I really should apologise again for my poor grammar, spelling, use of language or wording etc but at the same time I would like to remind you that you are reading my blog rather than a published novel. And for those that know me and my attitude, she’ll be right! :-) Nah, its all good! Good as gold!
I should be off. Time’s ‘a’ tickin. And apparently, time is money. (well for some anyway!)
Just in case I don’t blog again before Christmas and/or new year, (as judging on my past form it isn’t too likely) :
I would like to wish you all a very happy, joyful and merry CHRISTmas. (I have come to the conclusion that ‘mas’ must mean ‘the birth of’ in another language??)
I would like to wish you the very best on the road and in catching up with loved ones. I hope you see in the new year with happy and rewarding everlasting memories of the year that was 2004.
Take care, happily holidaying and God bless ya’all
Love to all
Brettxxxooo



- posted by Brett @ 12/19/2004 08:26:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there all
I suppose its about time for a blog update.
At the moment I’m in Melbourne at Kim’s place. I’ll be here til Friday then Kim and me are heading across to Adelaide then victor harbour for Pa’s 70th. Kim has to be at work on Monday so she’ll fly back from Adelaide on Sunday night. I’ll be staying in Adelaide for a day or two, then going home to the mount! Finally!!!
When we got back from Eastern Victoria, we had a day to chill out which was great. On Thursday I washed Kim’s (it) and my car (bruce) and did a heap of sorting of all my gear. On Thursday night we all went to an art exhibition where alex, (who is Kim’s brother; Scott’s partner) had a couple of her pieces as she is finishing her course at RMIT. It was really posh, really arty but pretty cool at the same time. Alex had made a leather chair which won the award for the night. It was awesome. Then Kim’s bro, Brett, his fiancé, Erica, Kim and I all went out to tea. Then on the Friday, I went into work with Kim and we had a meeting with her boss to chat about what went on. Friday night, Kim had to leave for a weekend camp, and it was James’ (Kim’s younger bro) 18th birthday. We had a big tea, which was great. Saturday I went and did a heap of Christmas shopping and came home with not much. Saturday arvo I went down to Myra’s to stay the night. We chilled out and went to bed. She had to work Sunday, and I went to a massive church in Mt Evelyn call careforce. It was an awesome church. I then went and did some more Christmas shopping, and finally managed to buy a few pressies. Sunday night I went with Kim to her church, Heathmont Baptist. It is a lovely church, a great feel and lots of youth. Then Kim and me went and had a wood fire oven pizza, yum!
Monday, I went into work with Kim again, to help with a document for an orientation program for new staff. Monday arvo was the break up for a group of staff. Luckily I was allowed to go. We went down to a yacht club south of Melbourne and climbed aboard a 55foot yacht, it was an awesome looking boat. There was a group of about 12 people on board. It was only worth about three quarters of a mill. We went out on a cruise out to sea, then put the sails up and sailed along for a while. It was pretty calm on the way up. We went into the harbour and up the yarra river. Under the west gate bridge and bolte bridge. Past the Telstra dome and just around the place. On the way out, one of the staff got hoisted up the 70ft mast to take some photos, I was so jealous. There was a storm picking up as we went back out to sea, so we put up the sails, turned the engine off and took off, about 10knots into a 20knot wind. It was great fun, the boat was leaning right over into the water. It was awesome.
We got back just in time, as we got in the cars it started raining. We got driven back to Kew. Then I drove Kim and me home. On the way home it absolutely pelted down. At one stage it was hailing so big and heavy, I was worried about the windscreen and dents on bruce, so I drove into a servo to try and get undercover, but everyone had the same idea, so I had to keep going. You should have seen the water on the road, it was massive. There was one road, as I went down it, I could see the water down the bottom of the hill. There were cars from both directions doing u turns cause it was too deep. 4Wdrives were heading across the road river slowly. Bruce would have drowned, so we turned around and headed home another way. Today was the 1st of 3 days for my lifeguard course that I’m doing in Box hill. Today seemed to go forever, with lots of overheads and info to take in. We did all the CPR and EAR stuff and using Oxygen. Then I went for a quick swim afterwards, then home. It took about 10 minutes to get there thismorning and about 30 minutes on the way home, the traffic was shocking. Had tea, now I’m here blogging!!
I must be off. I trust all is well and every one is as happy as Larry,
(assuming Larry is a totally happy chappy!)
Take care and God bless
Love to all
Bam
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 12/07/2004 08:02:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
Just quickly
I'm out at methodist ladies college marshmeed campus near mallacoota.
Kim and me came down on sunday and will return to melbourne at the end of Nov.
I've just got back from a 3 day bushwalk which went really well.
For the rest of the time here, i'll be working as a residance assistant, as will Kim.
There is no mobile phone service so I apologise for not calling anyone.
I'll call around when i get back to melb.
Should be a great couple weeks.
hope all is well and the weather is as good where you are as it is here.
Take care and God bless
Love to all
Bam
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 11/17/2004 05:45:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
Just thought I would update quickly seeing i have a few minutes of spare time!
Things are going really well, and hot! It's really hot at the moment, must nearly be summer.
We've just been inline skating/rollerblading in Moe! It was awesome fun, but really hot.
I had a chance to play around with an inline hockey stick for a while, gee its fun!
This morning, Kim and I went to the Trarlgon baptist church. It was good, instead of a sermon, a lady from America did a monologue as if she was Queen Esther. She did it really well, and related it to todays world.
Then we went skating with Alan and Hillary. We had a blast!
Tonight we're going to the AOG in Morwell that i didn't know existed until i met Elisa! Its a small world, i tell ya what!! She happens to be a friend of a friend of mine and i can happily say now my friend as well. It's a long story how we met, i wont go into it now, but i will another time.
I gotta go, help with tea and then go to church.
I'll blog ya later!
Take care
God bless.
Love to all.
Bam
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 10/31/2004 05:27:00 PM 1 comments

 
Hey all!
I must apologise for my last blog, what a downer!
I am feeling a lot better than that now, have had a week of great sleep and only have 2 exams left. I had my first this morning, a 3 hour exercise physiology (Biophysical foundations of human movement B) exam, which was well, umm, long, um and quite hard. I found myself guessing a lot more than what I would have felt comfortable doing. I hope that I pass and will have my fingers crossed until the 1st of Dec.

I just realised that I haven’t blogged for a while. Well, it feels like a lot has happened since then. Tuesday night, out to tea for my b’day, we had at least 50 people turn up, it was a great night. Kim had been in touch with mum behind my back, which I found out that night. I knew that Kim had a few photos of me but only recent photos. The first photo in the slide show that Kim and Al had put together was me in reception! I was pretty stunned and shocked. It was a great slide show and went for a lot longer than I was expecting, it was also a bit more embarrassing than I was expecting! Kimmy did a great job.
I got some great presents from some great friends. Kim got me a pretty amazing gift. I’ll show you all soon.
Wed was great also, (my b’day) as I got woken up with a kiss and a pressie.
Then there was a massive breakfast with bacon and eggs, pancakes and a massive fruit plate. We all sat out in the beautiful sunshine it was a great way to start the day. I then spent the next 2 hours a language and learning getting help with my final assignment which is worth 75% of my final grade in that subject. After that I went for a walk with Kim to get some lunch. I had the biggest chicken salad sandwich and a farmers union iced coffee! The best in the world! I think I came home and had a power nap and then we all started getting ready for the BSOR ball. I cut Alex’s hair and styled it into a Mohawk. It looked awesome! I’ve definitely got potential in the outrageous hair design industry!
Kim and me wore all black, Kim looked amazing as always.
As a sport and rec thing, most of us guys wore thongs (for you English people, that’s flip-flops not what your thinking!)
I was not overly impressed with the ball, it seemed way overpriced for a 1 course meal. I wasn’t feeling 100% so we went home quite early, straight after the meal. Most people had a great night, but that was generally due to the excessive amounts of alcohol.
Thursday we got up and drove to Melbourne for the VO2max test. I still wasn’t feeling tops. The test went really well, and a lot longer than expected. I was reasonably happy with it, it definitely tired me out. It did seem to go on a bit longer than expected though.
Friday I had a full day of study, a swim and a great sleep. Saturday, Kim and me went to an outdoor recreation conference which was very useful and informative. Sat night was a bit more study.
Sun was the Nike you’re the run that I want 10km fun run. I went in it with Kim’s bro, Brett. It was a great experience, with 6000ish runners.
Brett and me where quite a way from the start line, it took us nearly 5 minutes to get to the start line after the gun went off. I ran pretty hard, for the lack of running I have been doing, I haven’t run since the start of September. 10km was a long way. The first 6kms seemed fine and I had a pretty good pace. At the 8km mark, my ankle started feeling extremely weak and vulnerable to rolling. But being me, I pushed on and finished alright in just over 40 minutes. Steve Monagetti came 3rd, winning $500. First won $2000.
Get this though, I beat Cathy Freeman in a running race, by nearly 20 minutes. Yay!
It was a great morning for it, perfect weather, a great experience.
Sunday arvo was spent studying and sleeping. Then while Kim was at her bad drivers course, I watched a bit of tv. Then we drove back to uni. Kim has been so tired, she slept most of the way back.
Monday was a full day of study, with a swim half way through. Last night, Kim and me did some last minute learning and then today was the exam. Hmm. We’ll see how we go.
Tomorrow and Thursday will be jam packed with study for the next exam, as it is also a hard one, on Friday. Should be ok though with a bit of luck and a lot of productive, procrastination free study. (Although I believe a little procrastination is extremely important to success at uni!)
I must be off, it’s nearly tea time.
Take care all and smile always!
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo

PS. Happy b'day to Jenni Bailey on the 25th of this wonderful month!
Hope you had an awesome day!!! (19th I think?)

- posted by Brett @ 10/26/2004 06:32:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hi all
I’m sitting here at the computer, in quite a frustrated state of mind.
I have been lying in bed, trying to get to sleep for the last 3 hours. I feel exhausted, but just can’t go to sleep. I’ve tried everything and am sick of it. The more I try, the more annoyed I get. The less I try the more I lay awake thinking. I can’t clear my head, I don’t know what I should be thinking about to make me go to sleep.
If anyone has any great sleep remedies that they know of, I would really appreciate an email letting me know what to do.
I have been having problems for the last couple weeks, and as a result have been tired during the day. I have been nearly falling asleep in some lectures, and finding it very easy to fall asleep at the wrong times. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
I have had a pretty good week. I have only really done uni work on 2 days. Fri and sat. But they were for most of both days. Mon and tue was the norm, at the lectures, wed I went for a surf with a few mates to sandy point. It was ok, the surf wasn’t too good, but we still had fun. Thu I bummed around and did some odd jobs that needed doing. I organised a package that can get me credit points for a subject next year called swimming and water safety. I think I’ve done enough stuff to not have to do that subject and save myself $600! On Friday and Saturday, I pretty much finished my last lot of assignments. I handed up one on Friday and by last night, all I have to do is proof read through my last 3 assignments, which is to be handed up as one major piece next Friday. Fri I went 4WDriving with nat. We found another awesome track, with this one hill, that after about 10 shots we couldn’t get up, so we had to give up, as we had tuned up the mud too much.
I’m looking forward to this week, it should be a blast!
Tomorrow is normal uni, then tomorrow night I’m cooking chicken snitzels for the house (prob about 10 people) Then tue, will be normal uni, then tue night is my birthday tea in Morwell. We’re expecting about 50 people, so it should be a fun night. We’ve found a few embarrassing photos to show, so it has got a bit of a 21st feel. (or should have)
Wed we have a soccer match, BSOR lecturers onto BSOR students, which apparently is great each year. Then Wednesday night we have the BSOR ball. Unfortunately its at the Churchill pub, but it still should be fun.
Then Thursday I go into Melbourne for a VO2max test, which measures the maximum amount of oxygen that my body can take in and use. Then fri will be a chill day for me, while Kim goes to work. Then sat Kim and me have a outdoor rec conference that we’re going to. Then Sunday I’m going in the Nike you’re the run that I want fun run which is a 10km fun run around Melbourne, with Kim’s brother, Brett. Then Sunday night Kim and me come back to uni, to get ready for our first exam which is on the Tuesday. Then our next exam is on the Friday, so Wednesday and Thursday will be spent getting ready for that.
Other than that there isn’t too much to report on. I’m still feeling like I can’t get to sleep, I feel no more dopier than when I first started writing. I should try again to get to sleep.
Hope everyone else is sleeping well!
Keep smiling everyone,
Take care and God bless
Love to all
Brett

- posted by Brett @ 10/18/2004 02:15:00 AM 0 comments

 
Just a quick update!
I'm at uni labs, about to get stuck into an assignment that is due on friday. Today was an awesome day, the weather was beautiful. I spent the morning kayaking in white water play boats, paddling around with a few mates, one of which who is an instructor and was running us through the skills. We tried to get the hang of rolls (flipping upside down in the boat, then trying to roll around and back up. I had one successful roll, the rest i needed some help! Was good fun!
Last week was an awesome week. The suprise for Thea was awesome, she had no idea! The skiing was great, the weather was great, the water was a bit cold, and there were sticks floating around, but other than that we had a great couple of days on the water.
I got back to the mount for a day and a half, Kim had a chance to see a bit of where i've grown up. She met the parents, and they loved her. I knew they would.
Back to melbourne for a weekend of study, but didn't get the amount that i had planned for. But it was still a great weekend.
Back at uni, not long to go know. We have a few assignments to do, and a few exams to study for, but hopefully it will go quickly and it'll be all over before i know it.
My 21st had been arranged. I'm having a tea in Morwell, and have invited about 50 people. Should be a great do! I'm looking forward. The night after that is our BSOR (bacherlor of sport and outdoor recreation) ball which is apparantly an awesome night, so i'm looking forward to that too. Then the next day i have a VO2max test, which i'm also looking forward to.
I must be off, i have to get this assignment done.
Hope all is well.
Take care, God bless
Love to all
Brett xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 10/06/2004 08:46:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
I'm just sittin at uni, chillin, waiting for Kim to come home. Kim went on the rafting trip this week. Thought it would be a good opportunity to update the blog in a little more detail.
Tonight we’re driving into Melbourne, then sleeping! Then we’ll be up early to pick up little bro and sis off the bus. Then we’re heading up to Eildon for a couple days on Kims houseboat. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we’ll be able to do some skiing. Depending on the weather, we’ll probably come back to Melbourne on Tuesday then back to the Mount til Friday. Then we’ll be heading back to uni, ready for 3 weeks of mad assignment writing and exam preparation and then 4 weeks of exams!
It looks like I’ll be heading home at the end of November to work at the aquatic centre again, which should be great. Hopefully it’s a hot summer!
Its my 21st this year, so I am currently trying to organise a small dinner here at uni and then I’ll hopefully have a get together back in SA too. Its too far to travel, either way, to have a big do in the one spot.
One of the highlights on the rafting trip was during one of the rapids. I was in the raft with Ryan, Andrea and an international student. I’d done enough guiding and had handed the job to the international, who had not yet let the raft. While floating down the rapid, she lost control and we went sideways. I was in the front with Andrea, before I knew it, she was on top of me, and we were both headed for a swim, but we just stayed in. I looked back and there was no one in the back of the boat. I could have sworn they were there before we left the top of the rapid! :-)
We spotted them both and managed to pull them in without too much struggle, and we were then able to paddle out of the rapid. Apparently from the top of the rapid, the rest of the group heard Ryan’s yahooing followed by seeing his legs in the air. Must have been a sight!
Another highlight was a wall we came across along the river.
It was a bout 6 metres high, and we stopped around the side of it for a snack. We were allowed to jump off the wall which was good fun. Tested a few people’s nerves!
Mike, our leader dropped off it in his Kayak, not a bad effort at all! Alex and me are kicking ourselves that we didn’t try some flips of it. There will have to be a next time!

I gotta go, but keep smiling!
Take care
love to all
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 9/24/2004 04:27:00 PM 0 comments

 
Alright!!
Hi all!
I am still at a stupidly busy stage of the uni year.
The white water rafting last week was absolutely awesome. I had a great time.
The weather was great, the food was great, the company was great, the river and rafting was great! I'd only wish that I had got into rafting sooner. I'm keen now to also get into a kayak.
I'm at uni at the moment, between tutes.
I have a lot of work to do this week, as we have a holiday week next week, but I won't be working at all. The week after we get back we have a lot of assignment due, (about 7!) so i'm going to try and hit some of them on the head this week if i can.
I have to go, i have plenty to do.
Hopefully i will find time somewhere down the track to write about all the camps in greater detail!
I hope all is well and everyone is smiling!
Love to all
Bam
xxxooo

By the way a big massive congrats on Matt and Sal's (bro and sis inlaw) leather (3rd) wedding anniversary, on the 15th of this month.
The best match up, the best couple, the best yea um, its just the best vibe. Love ya guys!


- posted by Brett @ 9/21/2004 09:13:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hey there!!
Just a very quick update as part of a procrastination break!
I'm back from the tali kargn bushwalk, and all went really well.
It was a great trip with some beatiful weather and some lovely scenery.
Kim had some nasty blisters, but she was tough and got through ok.
We had what seemed like hundreds of river crossings which where actually pretty fun.
They broke up the walking a bit.
This week I am at Primary school all week then next week i'm rafting down the Mitchell River.
I'll try and write some more this week sometime.
Right now though I gotta go, i have stacks to do.
Hope all is well
Take care
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 9/05/2004 05:19:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
Just quickly for those who are kind enough to comment on the blogs, can you please also leave me an email address so I can reply. Or alternatively, just send us an email using the email add. at the top right of the screen. Thanks

A quick update seeing i'm here!
I've just got back from a 3 day ski camp at Mt Baw Baw for a subject field placement. I am now in the process of writing up the relevant assignment which i need to hand up on monday. It was a great trip with a few ups and downs. The weather was pretty good for most of the trip. I got pretty burnt on the nose and face (silly me, didn't wear suncream) i have some cool glasses marks! All is good though.
I'll try and remember to write about the whole trip later on, when i have some spare time.
Try in about 4 weeks!!!
I hope all is well and everyone is in great health and enjoying life as much as me!
Take care and God bless!!
Bam
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 8/27/2004 10:10:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey all!

Just a quick one

The weekend just gone has been awesome.
I've been on a ESA (Evangelical society of Australia) leadership training weekend.
It was awesome, with lots of learning, and worship. I got to know some guys a lot better.
We got up to all sorts of cool stuff. Unfortunately I wont be able to lead on the next camp though. It is in the holidays when i'm heading back to the mount.

At the moment, i'm in the computer labs, stressing over assignments and the next couple weeks.
We have a test next monday, which i am a long way off ready for. To make matters worse, i have no time to study for it either, as i'm on a camp. So, i'm not sure what'll happen then.
I wish I coulda stayed on camp! It's like a whole new world!
I'll explain later
Right now, I'm going to bed!
I'll write soon.
Take care all
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 8/23/2004 11:34:00 PM 1 comments

 
Hey there all
I hope all is well and everyone is enjoying life.
I am currently procrstinating majorly.
I should be studying but have found better things to do.
I thought that I hadn't updated for quite a while and thought it was about time I did.
There isn't really any more news that is overly exciting.
I have a second chance in my subject, I have to re-do an assignment, and if I do it well enough, I should pass.
Last Thursday night we had our Student Res Ball. It was a massive night with over 600 people there. A mate, Kim and me went suit shopping in Melbourne the Friday before and bought a suit. I got a suit for half price. I won't say how much it cost, but it was half price, so I was laughing! Kim looked absolutely amazing, she had this awesome bluey greeny dress and I wore a green tie to match. I'll eventually get some photos online, one day.
This weekend I would love to be attending my bro's 18th, but instead i am going to an ESA leadership training course, which should be extremely beneficial.
Next week I'm going on a 3 day cross country ski camp with a secondary collage as part of a subject placement. The week after I'm going on a 4 day bushwalk at Tali Kahn, the week after that i'm on school placement, the week after I'm go on a 4 day rafting trip on the Mitchell River and the week after that, I'm crashing and getting stuck into all of my assignments! Busy!!!
I must be off, i need to get some work done!
Take care all!
Love to all!
Brett
xxxooo

By the way
If you copy the following link and paste it in the address for a new window:

http://64.4.26.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=088bb853dc9e03c93e4f6722c4b78379&lat=1092790644&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fbeverlys%2enet%2fLJ%2fBuggingYou%2eswf

- posted by Brett @ 8/18/2004 10:44:00 AM 0 comments

 
Just a story going round that I thought I should share

A couple were going out for the evening.
They'd gotten ready, all dolled up, dog put out, etc. The taxi arrives, and as the couple start out, the dog shoots back in the house. They don't want the dog shut in the house, so the wife goes out to the taxi while the husband goes upstairs to chase the dog out.
The wife, not wanting it known that the house will be empty explains to the taxi driver: "He's just going upstairs to say good-bye to my mother." A few minutes later, the husband gets into the cab. "Sorry I took so long" he says.
"Stupid bitch was hiding under the bed and I had to poke her with a coat hanger to get her to come out! Then I had to wrap her in a blanket to keep her from scratching and biting me as I hauled her ass downstairs and tossed her in the back yard! She better not crap in the vegetable garden again!"
The silence in the cab was deafening.

Bam
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 8/05/2004 09:50:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hi everyone out there that has an interest in what I do, and also hello to my memory, hope this jolts ya! (sorry, I know I’m random.)

Well well well. Where do I begin?
I haven’t blogged for quite a while, so there is a lot that has gone on.
Firstly, the snow trip to Hotham was awesome. I had a great time learning the art of snowboarding. I seemed to pick it up quite quickly as it was similar to wakeboarding, surfing and a little bit of skateboarding. As long as you keep an edge, you’re ok. I had a cold for the whole week which made me even more tired. For those who know me, I really push the limits. Monday was our first day on the slopes. By Monday night, when I went to bed, I thought for sure that I would not be able to walk by Friday. I could hardly walk at the time. I thought I had a broken rib, and I could only just touch my hands behind my back. Let’s just say I was extremely sore from some massive stacks and a few high speed impacts. I remember one in particular. I was coming down a section that you need to keep up as much speed as possible to make it over a hump in the hill. Right in the bottom most part, where I had the most speed, I managed to catch an edge. I hit the snow (or ice) and stopped dead. Usually you’ll slide a bit, but not this time. I sort of landed on my arm and side. I just lay there and didn’t want to move, in case something hurt. After a couple minutes I started slowly picking myself up. Everything was alright apart from my rib. It felt pretty sore. But it’s all good.
Tuesday morning we all struggled out of bed and went out again. It was really icy as there had been no snow, but was very cold. So the trails where icy, everything was icy. As we were coming down the trail, my mate Ryan caught an edge and fell on his wrist. He fractured it which sucked. We took him back up top and sent him to the medical centre. Tue afternoon was nice, the snow had softened up and it was a nice day. Then it snowed all night tue and all day wed. Tuesday I took it a bit easier and didn’t have as many falls. (still had a few big stacks.)
Wednesday was the best day by far. There was powder snow everywhere you went, which is the best thing for a snowboarder. I had the best day, as I had really got the hang of the board by then. Also I knew it didn’t hurt as much to fall in powder snow, so I was more confident and pushed a little harder. I went on most of the black runs and tried a few aerials here and there.
Thursday I completed my first double black run in the extreme skiing section of the mountain. It was pretty cool.
Fri we packed up and then skied all day, then packed the bus and came home.
Most people on the trip went out nearly every night to the pubs on the mountain. I only went out once and only for an hour. I was too tired. It was an awesome trip with a great bunch of people. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire trip.
Saturday I umpired near morwell. It was a great game really close the whole match and perfect conditions. Sunny and just warm.
Sunday Kim, Tina and Claire went to church and then to subway. Sunday afternoon was going to be a homework arvo, but the weather was just too good. So Kimmy and me went 4WDriving. It was pretty cool. We found a few tracks and a few bogs to get into. Kim’s a really good driver, she’s been well trained.
Sunday night we went to church, which was a youth service, a great service too. Had a good time. I’m currently looking at attending a leadership training weekend in late August with ESA. It should be good if I can go.
A little news with uni. As it turned out, I’m not allowed to do the oral exam, so have had to hand my assignments in for re-marking. I’ll find out this time next week if I failed socio or not. If I have, then I have to do the subject again :-(

Ok I gotta cruise. I have a house meeting to attend. Then some tea to cook, then some work to do!! There are a few big assignments to do. I’ll write more later, hopefully.
I hope all is well and everyone has sore faces from smiling lots and lots!
Take care and God bless you all
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 8/04/2004 05:16:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
I'm back at uni, and what a thrill to be back.
Right into it today, with 3 long lectures, and a lot to look forward to. Each lecture basically went through what is lined up for the rest of the semester, and I've got some work to do!!
Some news on my last semester results. I had thought that i had failed a human movt. subject, but I hadn't instead I failes a socio subject. Ony by 6% though, so I have a oral exam in a couple weeks in which i just have to prove that i have knowledge in the relevant areas to push my mark up to a pass. So that should be all good.
So I ended up getting 2 credits, a pass and the N, which will be upted to a pass.
The last week of my holidays I went up to mannum for a night, then to adelaide for a couple nights, then came home on the thu, on the bus. Then Fri I drove accross to melbourne, and got to Kims work to visit her more than an hour later than I had planned. The traffic in melbourne was like nothing i had ever seen before. I didn't get out of first gear for at least 45 mins. bumper to bumper the whole way through. I wasn't really even in central melbourne. ( I don't think)
I had a bit of a look at Kims work, which was massive and impressive.
Then we went back to hers and got changed, as she had planned a date!
We went into the city and ate at a lovely resturant which looks out over the yarra. We had a nice meal, then walked down to the crown. It was the first time i'd seen crown, it was impressive.
Saw the big fire stack display which was kinda cool, (or hot) then cruised back. It was a pretty special night.
I gotta go, but I'll continue at a later date!
I can't wait to go snowbarding. We leave midnight sunday night. 5 days on the slopes!
Hope all is well
Take care
Bam
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 7/19/2004 04:43:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hello there!
Well, where do i begin?!!
This week has flown by pretty quickly.
On tuesday morning me, josh and 2 other mates packed the car and left for torquay. The idea was to stay at Torquay and surf at bells and other breaks around that area for the week. We got there a bit after lunch and surfed at Jan Juc's beach, as bells was not working. We had a counter meal for tea, which went down well. Then went back to the tent and eventualluy went to bed. The forcast for the week was looking great for a big bells surf on the wed morning. So we got up real early and got to bells before the sun came up. It must have been close to freezing, it was soo cold. Plus we had no where to dry our wetsuits, as we were staying in a tent. So, we pulled them out dripping wet out of our crate. When it was light enough to see bells, it was a mess, but a big one a that. So Josh and me suited up (very unpleasant experience) and paddled out. IT was some of the biggest surf I had ever seen, but it was messy and all over the place. Josh caught a wave or 2 which where a reasonable size. We both got absolutely pommuled (smashed) by a few massive waves that deciced to break right in front of us. These are the waves that you ditch the board and swim as deep as you can go. The wave somehow still manages to twirl you around and drag you for a while, no matter how deep you get.
Anyway, we enjoyed having bells to ourselves. That afternoon we had a look at the shops then drove down to Lorne. Josh and the other 2 (castle and Doman) went in for surf, but it really wasn't worth it, the surf wasn't too good. Good for a paddle. I sat and enjoyed just being warm and comfortable, watching them try and catch waves. On the way back from Lorne we saw a brand spanking new Porsche carrera that had crashed into a tree, some one trying to hard. Not a pretty site!
We also saw the house on the pole, which features on an add for i think mccains pizza. It looks pretty weird.
That night we went and shopped for tea, a bbq. As I drove into the caravan park, there was a car parked on the road, and I was pointing it out to Josh as the same as Kim's mum's car. As I drove in the drive, i saw the numberplate and realised that it was her car. Kim had driven down to visit me! I got the shock of my life. (but a great shock) She had found out that day that she wouldn't be coming down to the mt next week, as she has to work. It was soo good to see her. I have no idea how she found me, it was a hard park to find and i hadn't told her where we were staying. I have a feeling she had some help from upstairs! She had some friends staying down in anglesea so we went for a drive and had a cuppa with them. Then went to the beach on a lovely winter's night! I'd missed her heaps, and am so glad she came to visit. It sucks being so far away!
But its all good, we'll survive i'm sure.
So, the plan now is in the process of being sorted.
I might be going up to mannum and adelaide next week for a bit, but I'll have to wait and see what gets organised.
I'm dying to know what i got in my assignments, as they get sent to my uni address, so i wont know them until i get back to uni.
I must be off, but sorry to bore you!
I hope all is in good health and smiling
Take care
love to all
Brett


- posted by Brett @ 7/09/2004 12:08:00 PM 0 comments

 
Well hello, and what a wonderful day it is!
I’m back in the Mt for a couple weeks, on uni hols. It is soo good to be home and to be spending some time with the family. Thea has grown so much and she’s as cute as always. Sunday was awesome, just like Sunday’s use to be. Up at about 9 and breaky, then to church. Church was pretty good, the children’s group led most of the service and Thea had a role to play in the running of it. She is a great speaker! Then came home from church and loaded up and went down for a surf at johns. I haven’t surfed at johns reef for ages, gee it was good to be out there. Gee it was cold!!
Then came home and played some top quality games of table tennis with my little bro, then we had some mates come over and had a roast pork meal (courtesy of mum!!) crackling and all.
Then we went off to the AOG church, which was an ok service as well. Then we sat around afterwards in the café and chated to some people for about an hour. Then we went home and had some awesome passionfruit cheesecake thing (also courtesy of mum’s amazing cooking) then went upstairs to play and demonstrate the game of cherries (or code name whoopsies!) Quite a good session too with welts all round! (literally!)
Then we finished up and went to bed. T’was a great day.
Then Monday I went out to the block and continued digging a massive trench from the tank on the hill to the tank at the shed.
I went for a swim Monday night too, which was ok, although I’m feeling pretty sore from digging and I felt quite slow in the water, it must have been thick water!
Things are going well down here, but I’m missing a few people! I’m hopefully getting a visit in a couple weeks which I am really looking forward to. Hopefully Kim can get some time off work and she’ll be down for a bit. Also a few mates plan to tour the great ocean road and visit the mt for a few days.
I am also missing my mates in England and wish they’d all come over for a visit.
I have to go, I have a surf to organise! The wind seems to going the right way, so hopefully we’ll catch some waves.
Take care all and God bless
Love to all
Brett

- posted by Brett @ 6/29/2004 11:14:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
Just quickly!
I did work last week and I umpired on Saturday. I don’t think that I have ever been so cold in my life. The forecast for the day was the coldest this year, max of 12. With rain and the chance of hail. The wind was so cold and so strong! It pelted down with rain for most of the first quarter, then hail for half of the second quarter. Then, as the siren went for half time, the sun shone for a bit, but we couldn’t feel it, the wind chill was too cold. I couldn’t move my hands, let a lone feel them. It was getting harder and harder to run too! The ground was more mud and puddles than grass, which made for interesting running, and an extremely muddy, white (or used to be white) uniform, which is still soaking in a bucket!!
Sat I went out for tea, again, to Flannigans in Traralgon, I had the nicest chicken thing. A lovely tea. Then got up this morning and had bacon and eggs, then went to church. Then had subway then came back and have been studying for my exam ever since.
All is going ok for the exam. I am working my way through the exam papers from the last 3 years. I should be ok, if I get a full day study in tomorrow!
I hope all is well and everyone is in good health and smiling
God bless ya all!
Love to all
Take care
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 6/20/2004 04:57:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
Just a quick post
The exam on thu went ok, i think if i'm lucky, i'll pass. It was pretty hard though, lots of big word terminology and stuff! The lunch in melb was great with Loz. Had a great chat, and you shoulda seen her engagement ring!!wow!
Mornington was wet cold and windy for the weekend, but we had a great time. The party was great, lots of good mates from uni where there, there was great food and great music. It was a good night had by all. We went to a bar for a bit after the party, then went back to where we were staying. For the rest of the weekend, we did some touristy stuff around the peninsula, caught a movie and ate out a lot!
I have just got back to uni today, am working tomorrow and fri and will hopefully umpire on saturday.
I have a few days to study, as i have an exam on the 22nd then i'm coming home on the 23rd, to the mount.
I'll be home for about 3 weeks, so i wanna catch up with everyone!
I gotta go, i need some tea!
Hope all is well
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 6/16/2004 06:17:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there all
Just a quick post as I really should be either going to bed or studying. I have my second out of 3 exams tomorrow morning. My first, which was on Monday went ok I guess, if you call me writing 2 800 word essays in 3 hours ok! For those that know about my hand writing you’ll know that it aint that good writing a sentence, let alone an essay, or 2 for that matter. I rely pretty heavily on computer and typing skills, so my hand writing doesn’t get used much, other than to write my name or signature.
Our exam tomorrow is kinda freakin me out a bit. Its bio (human movement stuff) and it goes into soo much detail. I have had a full day of study today and hopefully have done enough cram study to know enough for tomorrow. (not the most effective form of study, i know!)
As soon as I finish the exam tomorrow I’m heading into Melbourne to have lunch with a mate from high school, who’s been living in America on a tennis scholarship. It’ll be great to catch up, haven’t seen her for over a year at least.
Then this weekend we are heading down to mornington peninsula for a 21st, one of the sport and rec-ers, top gal. We’re hoping to stay down there for the long weekend and catch some waves while we’re there.
I’m trying to think what else is news. Um, not much. Just been doin, you know the norm I guess for this time of the year at uni. Play, eat, exercise, sleep, socialise, assignment work and study. Probably in that order too!!
This term really has been a wake up call for me. It has made me realise that I really need to get my act together. If I’m lucky in my exams I may just scrape through the subjects, but only just. This is not how I like to do things. I wanna pass with flying colours! This means, that next semester I have to prioritise and organise myself a little better. I need to get assignments done a little earlier so I can get help with them by language and learning. Being out of school for a couple hears hasn’t really helped with my academic and literacy skills much, (not that they were good at school to start with anyway!) so I really need to get back into the swing of things with that.
I’ve been swimming still a couple times a week. My ankle is I’m hoping on the up, it still hurts, but I haven’t hurt it badly for a week or 2 now. I umpire my first aussie rules on the 19 ish of this month. So, it has to be good by then or too bad!
Ok, I must be off to bed. My eyes are sore from looking at the computer screen all day. I have been at the computer studying for a total of about 6 hours today. Talk about cramming my mind. I just hope it all stays in there and doesn’t escape while I’m asleep. I better keep the windows open tonight!! :-)
I hope everyone is doing well and smiling!
Love to all and hugs all round.
Brett
xxxooo


- posted by Brett @ 6/09/2004 11:07:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there all
Just a quick post as I really should be either going to bed or studying. I have my second out of 3 exams tomorrow morning. My first, which was on Monday went ok I guess, if you call me writing 2 800 word essays in 3 hours ok! For those that know about my hand writing you’ll know that it aint that good writing a sentence, let alone an essay, or 2 for that matter. I rely pretty heavily on computer and typing skills, so my hand writing doesn’t get used much, other than to write my name or signature.
Our exam tomorrow is kinda freakin me out a bit. Its bio (human movement stuff) and it goes into soo much detail. I have had a full day of study today and hopefully have done enough cram study to know enough for tomorrow. (not the most effective form of study, i know!)
As soon as I finish the exam tomorrow I’m heading into Melbourne to have lunch with a mate from high school, who’s been living in America on a tennis scholarship. It’ll be great to catch up, haven’t seen her for over a year at least.
Then this weekend we are heading down to mornington peninsula for a 21st, one of the sport and rec-ers, top gal. We’re hoping to stay down there for the long weekend and catch some waves while we’re there.
I’m trying to think what else is news. Um, not much. Just been doin, you know the norm I guess for this time of the year at uni. Play, eat, exercise, sleep, socialise, assignment work and study. Probably in that order too!!
This term really has been a wake up call for me. It has made me realise that I really need to get my act together. If I’m lucky in my exams I may just scrape through the subjects, but only just. This is not how I like to do things. I wanna pass with flying colours! This means, that next semester I have to prioritise and organise myself a little better. I need to get assignments done a little earlier so I can get help with them by language and learning. Being out of school for a couple hears hasn’t really helped with my academic and literacy skills much, (not that they were good at school to start with anyway!) so I really need to get back into the swing of things with that.
I’ve been swimming still a couple times a week. My ankle is I’m hoping on the up, it still hurts, but I haven’t hurt it badly for a week or 2 now. I umpire my first aussie rules on the 19 ish of this month. So, it has to be good by then or too bad!
Ok, I must be off to bed. My eyes are sore from looking at the computer screen all day. I have been at the computer studying for a total of about 6 hours today. Talk about cramming my mind. I just hope it all stays in there and doesn’t escape while I’m asleep. I better keep the windows open tonight!! :-)
I hope everyone is doing well and smiling!
Love to all and hugs all round.
Brett
xxxooo


- posted by Brett @ 6/09/2004 11:07:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there all
Just a quick post as I really should be either going to bed or studying. I have my second out of 3 exams tomorrow morning. My first, which was on Monday went ok I guess, if you call me writing 2 800 word essays in 3 hours ok! For those that know about my hand writing you’ll know that it aint that good writing a sentence, let alone an essay, or 2 for that matter. I rely pretty heavily on computer and typing skills, so my hand writing doesn’t get used much, other than to write my name or signature.
Our exam tomorrow is kinda freakin me out a bit. Its bio (human movement stuff) and it goes into soo much detail. I have had a full day of study today and hopefully have done enough cram study to know enough for tomorrow. (not the most effective form of study, i know!)
As soon as I finish the exam tomorrow I’m heading into Melbourne to have lunch with a mate from high school, who’s been living in America on a tennis scholarship. It’ll be great to catch up, haven’t seen her for over a year at least.
Then this weekend we are heading down to mornington peninsula for a 21st, one of the sport and rec-ers, top gal. We’re hoping to stay down there for the long weekend and catch some waves while we’re there.
I’m trying to think what else is news. Um, not much. Just been doin, you know the norm I guess for this time of the year at uni. Play, eat, exercise, sleep, socialise, assignment work and study. Probably in that order too!!
This term really has been a wake up call for me. It has made me realise that I really need to get my act together. If I’m lucky in my exams I may just scrape through the subjects, but only just. This is not how I like to do things. I wanna pass with flying colours! This means, that next semester I have to prioritise and organise myself a little better. I need to get assignments done a little earlier so I can get help with them by language and learning. Being out of school for a couple hears hasn’t really helped with my academic and literacy skills much, (not that they were good at school to start with anyway!) so I really need to get back into the swing of things with that.
I’ve been swimming still a couple times a week. My ankle is I’m hoping on the up, it still hurts, but I haven’t hurt it badly for a week or 2 now. I umpire my first aussie rules on the 19 ish of this month. So, it has to be good by then or too bad!
Ok, I must be off to bed. My eyes are sore from looking at the computer screen all day. I have been at the computer studying for a total of about 6 hours today. Talk about cramming my mind. I just hope it all stays in there and doesn’t escape while I’m asleep. I better keep the windows open tonight!! :-)
I hope everyone is doing well and smiling!
Love to all and hugs all round.
Brett
xxxooo


- posted by Brett @ 6/09/2004 11:07:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there all
Just a quick post as I really should be either going to bed or studying. I have my second out of 3 exams tomorrow morning. My first, which was on Monday went ok I guess, if you call me writing 2 800 word essays in 3 hours ok! For those that know about my hand writing you’ll know that it aint that good writing a sentence, let alone an essay, or 2 for that matter. I rely pretty heavily on computer and typing skills, so my hand writing doesn’t get used much, other than to write my name or signature.
Our exam tomorrow is kinda freakin me out a bit. Its bio (human movement stuff) and it goes into soo much detail. I have had a full day of study today and hopefully have done enough cram study to know enough for tomorrow. (not the most effective form of study, i know!)
As soon as I finish the exam tomorrow I’m heading into Melbourne to have lunch with a mate from high school, who’s been living in America on a tennis scholarship. It’ll be great to catch up, haven’t seen her for over a year at least.
Then this weekend we are heading down to mornington peninsula for a 21st, one of the sport and rec-ers, top gal. We’re hoping to stay down there for the long weekend and catch some waves while we’re there.
I’m trying to think what else is news. Um, not much. Just been doin, you know the norm I guess for this time of the year at uni. Play, eat, exercise, sleep, socialise, assignment work and study. Probably in that order too!!
This term really has been a wake up call for me. It has made me realise that I really need to get my act together. If I’m lucky in my exams I may just scrape through the subjects, but only just. This is not how I like to do things. I wanna pass with flying colours! This means, that next semester I have to prioritise and organise myself a little better. I need to get assignments done a little earlier so I can get help with them by language and learning. Being out of school for a couple hears hasn’t really helped with my academic and literacy skills much, (not that they were good at school to start with anyway!) so I really need to get back into the swing of things with that.
I’ve been swimming still a couple times a week. My ankle is I’m hoping on the up, it still hurts, but I haven’t hurt it badly for a week or 2 now. I umpire my first aussie rules on the 19 ish of this month. So, it has to be good by then or too bad!
Ok, I must be off to bed. My eyes are sore from looking at the computer screen all day. I have been at the computer studying for a total of about 6 hours today. Talk about cramming my mind. I just hope it all stays in there and doesn’t escape while I’m asleep. I better keep the windows open tonight!! :-)
I hope everyone is doing well and smiling!
Love to all and hugs all round.
Brett
xxxooo


- posted by Brett @ 6/09/2004 11:07:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey all
Just a note to say that I have finished all assignments for semester 1. I have just handed the last 2 in. All i have to worry about now is exams, but should be ok, i think.
Worked yesterday, got the kids playin footy for most of the 2 sessions. Went ok i guess.
On the way home, we went off roading up these insane muddy hills. It had been pelting down with rain all week, so it was wet and slippery. Nat's surf hilux handled it not a worry. I so thought we weren't going to make it up in a few sections, but gee it was fun. We went out where i've been going riding. There are some awesome tracks there.
This weekend I have to study and prepare for my socio exam on monday. We have to write essays and short answers which i am totally not ready for. wish us luck.
(who said year 12 is the hardest year of your life??? Not me!)
I hope all is well.
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 6/04/2004 10:15:00 AM 1 comments

 
Hi there
I recieved a great email which helped me out a bit, as I was trying to work on an assignment that was just not working for me. I thought I should share the email.
This email is called I am God. (sorta like a letter from God)

I am God. Today I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I do not need your help.
If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do
not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours
Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now.
If you find yourself stuck in traffic; Don't despair. There are people in
this world for whom driving is an unheard of privilege.
Should you have a bad day at work; Think of the man who has been out of work for years.
Should you despair over a relationship gone bad; Think of the person who has never known what it's like to love and be loved in return.
Should you grieve the passing of another weekend; Think of the woman in dire straits, working twelve hours a day, seven days a week to feed her children.
Should your car break down, leaving you miles away from assistance; Think of the paraplegic who would love the opportunity to take that walk.
Should you notice a new gray hair in the mirror; Think of the cancer patient in chemo who wishes she had hair to examine.
Should you find yourself at a loss and pondering what is life all about, asking what is my purpose? Be thankful. There are those who didn't live long enough to get the opportunity.

I hope everyone is happy and in Good health.
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo



- posted by Brett @ 6/02/2004 07:10:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hello there!
One more assignment down, 2 more to go. (not to mention the study for the 3 exams) I just finished an assignment yesterday, handed it up and am trying to forget about it. I just hope that it passes, other wise I’m up crap creek without a paddle! I’ll have to rely purely on the exam to pass! I have one assignment due next fri, which is a killer assignment which I have no idea about, and then one due the following Monday, which also happens to be the day of my first exam, happy-happy-joy-joy!!
It should all be good, busy but good. I’ve got the holidays to look forward to! Firstly I’ll be going home to spend some time with the family. I’ll hopefully be taking Kim with me. (the amazing gal that I’ll write about later) I also hope to do a few days of snow skiing and if all goes well, in the same week, some water skiing. It will be good just not having any assignments to worry about. Plus second week back, snowboarding for a week! (gee this uni life… hard work.) (actually it will be, I’ll get a week behind in everything, that can’t be good. Even when I’m up to date, I find it hard)

Today I am going to try and go for a jog. At the moment, my ankle is still not up to scratch. For one of our pracs on Monday, we did some athletic drills. I found that I could sprint without my ankle hurting, but when I jogged, it really hurt. I hope to be able to run soon, so I can umpire some footy, so I can save some money!

I’ve been swimming at least once a week for the last couple weeks, I went Monday, and am going tonight.
I have also been climbing once a week in Melbourne. We went last night, and it was probably the quickest I have ever tired. My arms went week after only 2 climbs. I struggled on though.

Bruce is going really well, haven’t had any problems, he’s been great.

We went for another ski and wakeboard the other day, which was awesome. We went with some awesome wakeboarders, almost pro’s. Back and forward flips, and the amount of air they were getting, unreal. I hurt my ankle again when I stacked, of my first big air for the day. So I tried the wake skate, which is like wakeboarding, with no bindings. It is really cool, a bit like skate boarding! Had a single ski as well, I’m loving that, getting better each time I go.



I received another email today, which I thought I would share.

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbours to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.


Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.

2. Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.

3. Live simply and appreciate what you have.

4. Give more.

5. Expect less



The donkey later came back and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him. The gash from the bite got infected, and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.

MORAL FROM TODAY'S LESSON:

When you do something wrong and try to cover your ass, it always comes back to bite you.


Hope you enjoyed it.
Take care and God bless to all
Love to all
Hugs all round
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 5/27/2004 11:42:00 AM 1 comments

 
Hey there.
Just thought i would add a quote i recieved via email. I'm sure some have seen it before. A great quote, it stopped me worrying!

"do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. After
all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday"

Assignments are going well.
Havn't even thought about exam prep yet though.
We have a few more tough assignments before the exams too!
Don't worry.....Be happy......
I went for a surf this morning. I was desperate. Hadn't been since Easter weekend.
All is good, smiles all round.
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 5/15/2004 07:34:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey!
Ok, i really should not be writing in my blog. I should be working on one of my assignments. One is due today, but i can hand it in early mon morning, the other is due wednesday.(this one i havn't started yet!!)
I just thought i would procrastinate before i start work and tell y'all whats been going on for the last couple weeks.
After the Prom trip, we unpacked, had a couple of normal days at uni, then packed again. A group of about 14 of us went to Mt Arapiles, which is about 7 hours away. We spent 5 days camping and climbing on the beautiful rock and surrpounding rocks. It was so much fun, and the weather was perfect. It got pretty cold at nights and in the morning, but during the day it was awesome. We set up about 6 climbs a day (3 in morning and 3 in arvo) and yea, just climbed away. We were all pretty stuffed by the end of it all. Some of the climbs were great. I impressed myself with my climbing. My ankle isn't yet back to full strength and i experienced a bit of pain here and there. But I still managed to climb every climb that we had set up. I climbed up to a level 22 i think.
I did a level 21 that was awesome. It was a really cool over hang. I loved it.
Anyway, on the morning that we left, we went to the squeeze test, which involves sqeezing through a gap in a big rock which, speaking was experience, was really, really scary. It took me 15 minutes to get through, and i got stuck in the middle. To get myself through, i left bits of my knee, chest and back on bits of the rock and ended up squeezing out the small rabbit size hole at the other end, bleeding. I hadn't been that scared for quite some time. But all is good, i've done it now and don't have to ever do it again!!

Anyway back to uni, and back to reality!!
I've got way to many assignments to do and they all have a pretty heavy weight on the final grade. Not to mention the exam revision that i have to fit in somewhere.

Also i started my job yesterday and today. It wasn't too bad. Very similar to what i was doing at mulga street, taking kids for sport. I will fill you in a bit later.

I must be off, must do some work
Love to all
I hope to be coming home for a couple weeks somwhere in june or july. See how we go.
Hugs all round
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 5/14/2004 08:50:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
Hope all is well.
I feel soo refreshed after a few lovely days in the beautiful wisons prom.
It was amazing, I loved the whole trip. There was some amazing scenery, beautiful weather, great company (we had a great group) lovely swimming spots, some great walks and yea, it was just a great experience in the great outdoors.
I look forward to hopefully many more trips to the prom.
All is going well with uni work, i am gradually getting through the assignments, one by one.
By the way, i got a job, for 10 weeks anyway.
I'll be taking kids for lunch time sport activities at a primary school in Traralgon each thu and fri for 10 weeks.
It'll pay for the ski trip after mid year break.
I gotta go, places to go, people to see.
Love to all and lotsa hugs!
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 5/01/2004 08:24:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey!
Just an extremely quick blog, something i recieved, i thought would be worth adding:

May today there be peace within.
May you trust your highest power that you are exactly where you are meant to be....
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you....
May you be content knowing you are a child of God....
Let this presence settle into our bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 4/26/2004 10:14:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey!
Just a quick update as to what i've been up to.
I've just completed a 37km bike ride somewhere north of melbourne.
Kim's dad had help organise a ride as part as their 4wd club, so i went along for the ride.
It was no too bad, a pretty boring ride though, as there were no hills. The scenery was nice, but i wanted some hills to make it a little more interesting.
There will be a few numb bums tonight. There were quite a few mid-adged couples riding who hadn't ridden for quite a while.
Ryan and I did some nice rides thu and fri morning before field placements. We got up at 5 both mornings and rode up to the top of some of the mountains behind the uni. It was freezing but fun. When we got to the top, we waited for the sum to come up, took some photos, then flew back down the hill. It was great. Good way to start the day. Although, getting up at 5, 2 mornings in a row was a bit much, i must admit!
Back to uni tonight, a mid semester exam for bio (human movement and kinesiology) plus a lab report is due, then a normal week up until wednesday. We leave for a 3 day bush walk in wilsoms prom. Should be good trip. Then wed week, we're going to mt Arapiles. 5 days of camping and climbing, yay!
All is good here.
Hope all is well and everyone is enjoying themselves.
love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 4/25/2004 03:56:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there all!!
talk about Crazy stuff
I have had an awesome couple of weeks.
Last Friday we went into Melbourne for Nat’s birthday and went out for tea at a lovely restaurant. Kim came and met us there (along with Ryan, Aaron, Nat and a few of Nat’s friends)
I went and stayed at Kim’s, then early sat morning Ryan, Aaron, Nat and me left for Sydney. We got to Sydney at about 5-6pm, and visited Ryan’s aunt. Then went into syd, kings cross and I dropped everyone off, then drove up to hardy’s bay, where my uncle, aunt, and cousins live. I spent the next couple days chilling with these guys, getting to know my cousins, gorgeous girls, 3 and 6yrs old. I went for a few surfs with my uncle, and went to their church, where he is senior pastor, it was such a cool church, I loved it. I wish it was all closer to home, I would love to spend more time up there with these cool rellies.
Monday I went and visited my other set of cool rellies for morning tea. It was soo good to catch up with them, I hadn’t seen them for too long.
Then Ryan and co. caught the train to where I was and I took them back to hardy’s bay where we stayed for a bit. Did a bit of swimming and playing around with frizbie and ball on a sand bar in the middle of the bay, and a bit of surfing and enjoying the sunshine and warm water.
Tue night we went into Sydney and stayed at Ryans sister’s place. A lovely little flat. Then wed, went into Sydney and had a very rushed walk in darling harbour, the car parking was very expensive, and very cramped. We got out of the carpark with a minute to spare, a minute longer would have cost us another $15.
We then made our way down the coast and ended up somewhere a couple hours south of Sydney, we ended up staying at a holiday park, right near the beach. There was a lovely pool that we had to test out, and made sure we got our monies worth in the hot showers. We then went and bought some tea, salad, rolls and a white chocolate mud cake. YUM!
Next morning, left by 9 and made our way home. Got home (back to uni, Churchill) around 5 and unpacked. Then I left for Eildon.
Eildon was soo good. I stayed on the house boat with Kim and a few other mates over the weekend. We had some great wake board, and ski sessions, we were pretty lucky with the weather, although it did drizzle quite a bit. I had a shot at bare-footing, and did it, loved it and can’t wait to do it again. More about that later though.
It was just a great weekend almost like a dream.
It was hard to leave, and as normal, when we were packing up to leave, the weather was the best it had been, it was a beautiful day. Sunday afternoon, we went back to Kims, in Melbourne, and had an amazing roast pork. It was soo yummy. I met kims parents and family, they are such a funny family, so cool. I had a great night. Very entertaining. I was spoilt too!!
Back to reality now though. I drove back to uni sun night, got to bed by midnight, and this week we have field placement. I am at a tiny tiny school in country vic. 38 students in the whole school. There are only 3 full time staff here! I’m in with a group of year 2/3’s. It’s pretty good, the teacher is really nice, and so are the kids.
This weekend I am going back to Melbourne to participate in a fundraising 37km bike ride. Should be cool. Then next week, we have a 3 day bush walk in wilsons prom, then the week after that, we have a 5 day climbing and camping trip at mt arapiles, and by the time I get home, there should be a ski boat that we can use down here.
I’ve downloaded a book all about bare-footing, I’m going to read up on it to make sure I do it all right, it is soo fun!!!!
I gotta be off!
Hope all is well.
Life is great!!
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 4/20/2004 10:47:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hey!
Just thought i'd update quickly
In the last 2 days i have started and completed to two assignments that i have due next week! Yay!
This means that in all of my spare time that i put asside for study next week i can concentrate on my journals and readings that i am soo behind on in some subjects.
I have booked in to see a physio to get a professional opinion. I can't afford to have a bung ankle this year!
My next 4 weeks are going to be hectic, but fun:
On saturday 10th, we are driving (bruce) to sydney, staying til thursday, then coming home again. Then the next week (19th) we have field placement, which involves teaching at a primary school for the week, should be good. Then the week after that, i have a 3 day bushwalk in wilsons prom for one of my subjects. Then the week after that, i have a 5 day climbing camp at Mt arapiles. So, as you can see, my ankle needs to be in full working order asap!!!!
(not to mention all the surfing i hope to be doing, and the plans for a boat to be here for wake boarding. I wont mind driving the boat, but i wanna get behind it too!)
I betta go, and make the most of my sat afternoon. When i came into the labs thismorning, the weather was beautiful. I can only hope its still the same when i go out. Might go for a ride or something, i need some exercise!!!
I hope all is well
Love to all
Bam
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 4/03/2004 01:43:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey all!
Just a quick blog!
I'm at Clayton monash, in melbourne, just waitin for a mate to finish an interview.
The reason we are in melbourne was because last night we were on national, live television!!
Narissa, a mate from uni got some free tickets to see rove live. So we went and, being at the front of the line, got a 2nd row seat, behind the vip's. Rove is a lot shorter than you think!
It was a pretty cool night. We did some audience laughter for this weeks skit house tv show, which was ok i guess. It was pretty weird being part of a live audience. Last nights show was cool. They had a satellite interview with drew barrymore, and some guy from the queer eye for a straight guy show. Shaun Paul came on the show, had an interview with rove, right in front of us. I was wearing my light blue champion hat and saw it a couple times during the night. County crows were meant to be playing live, but the had cancelled their tour and had returned to the states, so instead it was betudopa. (incorrect spelling i think!)
I gotta go! nearly time to leave!
Everything else is pretty cool.
My ankle is taking a while to heal, is still pretty sore. I'll need to see a doc or physio this week, i gotta get it sorted!
Hope all is well!
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 3/31/2004 09:48:00 AM 0 comments

 
Ok, I got some good news, and i got some bad news... what do ya want first??
We'll start with the bad.
Monday night, at netball, i was asked to fill in for another team. So i did. Great game, right up until the last 5 minutes. I jumped for an interception, and while returning to the court i managed to land on the edge of someone else's foot, which roled my my ankle off their shoe, and kept rolling it to basically my ankle hit the court. Yep, Ouch. Ouch is an understatement. I went straight down and knew i'd done some damage. I got carried off and iced it up straight away. Gee it hurt. Some mates then drove me to the hospital, which was too kind of them. We waited for about half an hour before we were seen to, (in the emergency ward that is, so lucky i wasn't loosing blood, i would have had none left!)
After another hour of waiting, i finally got some exrays done. I must say that i was not impressed with the doctor at all. He looked at the exrays for maybe 5 seconds, then put them straight in the bag. He didn't even touch my foot, just asked me if i could riggle my toes. He then just said 'rest it, its probably just soft dissue damage.' I could have told him that!! State the bloomin obvious. He then couldn't seem fussed to do anything with it, so he found one of the 10 nurses hanging around, to put a pressure bandage on. But that must have seemed too much trouble, all she could manage was an elastic sock bandage! Poor! Another thing, the hospital didn't give out crutches, so i had to hop to the carpark, which put me in absolute agony. I had to wait til the next morning, 9am for the chemist to open so i could hire some. Lucky i've got some great mates to help me out. I used a chair (as a walking frame) to get around until i got the crutches. 3 days later, my foot has gone purple, it has swelled up too much, on both sides, and has kept me in quite a lot of pain. I did nearly all the right things. I iced it properly for the first 8 hours, but then fell asleep. I've iced it at every chance, problem is, tue is a very busy day at uni for me. I've kept a compression bandage on nearly 24/7, but i havn't managed to get some anti-inflametries. I think it may be too late for them as well. I am soo sore from using the crutches too. It takes me about 20 minutes to get to my lectures, from my house. its hard going!! I weigh too much!!!
Enough complaining!!!
On the brighter side of things, i have my first assignment back, and for environmental science (not my storng point) i recieved a HD(high distinction) I was pleasantly suprised.
There is one good thing about me being slowed down by my ankle, it is that i can sit down and study more thouroughly, without the option of going for a hit of tennis, or a surf, or a ski, or any other type of physical activity. This sucks for me physically and mentally, but academically, may be a good thing. I am soo impatiant, Gee i was annoyed monday night, when i'm realising all the things that i'm missing over the next couple weeks. (just had to keep telling myself, there is nothing i can do about it so stop complaining! I do complain too much!!)

Everything else is ok. Being on crutches has dampened my mood a bit, but i'm getting there.
We had a good night last night, we went out for tea (about 20 of us, to an all u can eat pasta, salad, pizza, desert bar for $5.95!! I got my moneys worth. We went to go bowling after that (i was keen to have a shot on one leg!) but it was club night, all the lanes were full. So we came home to the rec hall, played some pool, table tennis, then watched 2fast2furious! Great movie. The pool was hard though, try playing 6 games of pool on 1 foot. I worked up quite a sweat!!
I gotta go, nature calls!!
I hope all is well and everyone is in good health.
Til next time, ova and out!
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 3/25/2004 10:46:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hey there!
I really should update u all on the happenings of a busy 20year old's start of uni life!!!
Apart from being sleep deprived and busy, i am having a great time! I've been pretty active lately in order to try and get my fitness level back up to adequate. Yesterday was a prime example of this. I went for a 2ish hour mountain bike ride up into the hills, followed by an hour swim, followed by an hour run, followed by a big BBQ followed by a night of walking around the saloon bar playing pool and chatting with many of my new friends. The saloon here is a good way of catching up with mates that are studying different courses, as I hardly see them during the week. Although I do hate going out, the smoke, the noise, its all a bit much!!
Anyway, enough complaining.
I handed up my first assignment on tuesday, for Environmental science. Its only worth 5% of our overall grade so i'm not really stressed, just be interesting to see where i sit in the subject. (this particular subject will stretch me, i am finding it hard to get into it and study and read about all the enviro science)
My 3 other subjects are coming along well. A lot of work to do, i just have to get into the habit of sitting down and getting through a slab of work, rather than procrastination which seems to strike at regular intervals. Although procrastinating has been really lately, with rides, swims, runs, games of pool, hit of tennis, game of basketball, games of gold, game of netball...etc.
Yep... there is stacks of stuff going on at uni, i have seemed to landed in the thick of it all, trying to get involved in as much as possible, but while having time to do my work where necassary.
I'm not sure of what i've blogged and can't be botherd reading back, so i'll say anyway. I am treasurer of the Monash Boardriders Club. A club dedicated to offering its members the opportunities to take regular trips to the surf, the snow, the hills, the ski lake, and whatever else we can find to do. I can't wait to get into it all. I wanted to join the squash and badminton club, but i might leave those for a while. At least while i'm trying to fit everything in as it is. Plus i have to consider the essential socialising time here at uni, keeping up with mates and making sure we have our adventures. After all, uni can't all be hard work. I've been told to make the most of uni life, as it is our prime years of our lives. So i am set on having as much fun as possible, while keeping up with the work, keeping fit, cooking well and yea, just being happy. (thats another thing, finding time to cook and shop. I did a big shop 2day, which i'm hoping will last me for a couple weeks.!!)
I am trying to look ahead at the coming holidays and try and make some plans as to where i might be headed and what i may be doing. At this stage, i might be going to sydney after easter for a week, so i would like to make it back to the mount b4 Easter. see how we go. I'll have to wait and see how the work load is....
I must be off, things to do, work to be done, places to go, people to see!
I hope all is well and everyone is smiling!
lotsa love to all
Take care and God bless
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 3/19/2004 08:10:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey all!
Its been a pretty busy week with lots of study, lectures and tutorials. We are getting there slowly, just keeping up with the work. I have soo much reading to do, and for those who know me well enough, you would know that I am not a big fan of reading at all. I am going to have to get used to it!!!
We found a cool church in Tralalgon on sunday. I will blog later to update on all the happening,
now though, i'll leave u with an interesting bit of writing to ponder over.


I am my own grandpa

Now many many years ago when I was twenty-three
I got married to a widow who was handsome as can be.
This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red;
My father fell in love with her and soon the two were wed.

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life,
For my daughter was my mother 'cause she was my father's wife.
To complicate the matter even though it brought me joy
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy.

My little baby then became a brother-in-law to dad,
And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad;
For if he was my uncle then it also made him brother
Of the widow's grown-up daughter who of course was my step-mother.

My father's wife then had a son who kept 'em on the run;
And he became my grandchild for he was my daughter's son.
My wife is now my mother's mother, and it makes me blue,
Because although she is my wife she's my grandmother, too.

Now if my wife is my grandmother, then I'm her grandchild,
And everytime I think of it, it nearly drives me wild.
For now I have become the strangest case you ever saw;
As husband of my grandmother I am my own grandpa!

Take care all, God bless
love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 3/11/2004 09:34:00 AM 0 comments

 
A great 'gal' sent these helpful little versus.
Hope they are of some use to you!!
love to all!
For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has a positive
answer for it.

You say, "It's impossible."
God says: "All thing are possible". (Luke 18:27)

You say, "I'm too tired."
God says: "I will give you rest". (Matt 11:28-20)

You say, "Nobody really loves me."
God says: "I love you". (John 3:16 - John 13:34)

You say, "I can't go on."
God says: "My grace is sufficient." (II Cor. 12:9 - Psalm 91:15)

You say, "I can't figure things out."
God says: "I will direct your steps." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

You say, "I can't do it."
God says: "You can do all things in Me." (Phil 4:13)

You say, "It's not worth it."
God says: "It will be worth it." (Romans 8:28)

You say, "I can't forgive myself."
God says: "I forgive you." (I John 1:9 - Romans 8:1)

You say, "I can't manage."
God says: "I will supply all your needs." (Phil 4:19)

You say, "I'm afraid."
God says: "I have not given you a spirit of fear." (II Tim. 1:7)

You say, "I'm always worried and frustrated"
God says: "Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)

You say, "I don't have enough faith."
God says: "I've given everyone a measure of faith." (Romans 12:3)

You say, "I'm not smart enough."
God says: "I give you wisdom." (I Cor. 1:30)

You say, "I feel all alone."
God says: "I will never leave you or forsake you." (Heb. 13:5)


Also, a massive Happy 8th Birthday to my coolest, cutest, bestest, most georgous little sister!! Thea Grace! love ya lots and miss ya lots sweetie!! Bam xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 3/07/2004 02:29:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey there!!
Continuing on from sunday....
The swim was great on the beach, the waves where pretty rough, which made it interesting.
Then we got on the bus and headed back to uni. (a bit of sleepin on the bus by all. Everyone was stuffed!)
Friday night a few of us went to Tralalgon (i think thats how its spelt) to go to Flanigans, the irish pub. It was bigger than the mounts! Played a bit of 8 ball, had a bit of a dance, met a lot of the returning monash students, and some other cool people and yes, i was dd (designated driver) so no drinking, which suited me fine!!
Saturday i had a bit of a sleep in, then did the washing. then lunch time, ryan and me went to Morwell, which is about 10 minutes from here where Nth Melbourne was playing Hawthorn, AFL. $5 admission, can't go wrong. Gee it was a great game, such a high standard. Unfortunately we couldn't stay for the full game, as it was pretty hot in the sun, (we had no suncream either) and we were both pretty tired from the late night(s!)
So we headed back to churchill, bought a globe for Bruce's headlight, and then washed him. (my car that is!)
This was the first and probably the last time i'll wash him over here. Cause on Sunday it was just as dirty as b4 i washed it!
Sat night we cooked up a nice pasta bake, then went and watched a couple movies in the rec hall, while playing pool. 9 ball is a great game! I'll explain it later.
Sunday morning i got up and went looking for a church. In morwell i found some but there seemed to be very few attending the services. I went into one church, and well.... lets just say they need some help. I would like to be able to come back and help them out one day. Not yet though. Its a struggling town as far as churches are concerned. I have been told of a good church in Tralagon which i will check out soon.
Sunday arvo, watched another movie, and organised some course stuff. Then we cooked up a bit of a bbq between a few of us. Sunday night we played some basketball for a while, which wasn't a good idea, we didn't wait long enough after tea.
Monday, the lectures started.
I have 4 subjects at the moment. they are: (excuse the spelling!!)
-Bio-funtamentals of human movement A
-Socio-cultural elements of sport and outdoor recreation
-Perspectives on Learning
-environmental science.

In total i have about 13 contact hours a week, including, practicals, lectures and tutorials.
But, each lecturor has stated that about 10 hours of study is required each week to keep up to date with the subject!!
so, i have a lot of work and study ahead!! yay!
Nah, it should be very interesting, I am looking forward to learning about most aspects of the above subjects.

Monday night was 'pub' night, where everyone goes to the pub.
I had to go and meet everyone. I'm trying to meet and remember as many names and people as possible, so far it has been pretty good. It was a great night.
Tuesday, more lectures and a tut (tutorial) then in the afternoon, well, we went wake boarding again!!!
Its just a pitty it takes an hour to get to there. We ran out of sunlight in the end.
At the moment, every single one of my neck muscles is extremely sore.
Lets just say, i didn't hold back when it came to trying new things on the wake board!!!
I am getting used to the idea of using the edges a lot to pull off some big turns, and catching on to the idea of big jumps off the wake. The things i am yet to catch onto are things like landing and umm, trying to fall a bit softer!!
I hit the water extremely hard on more than one occasion. But Gee!! It was fun. Tried another 360 spin, landed it but then ouch! Tried all sorts. I look forward to be able to land some of the big airs! rather than hitting the water, with my face!!!
Today was a pretty full day of study. I had one lect this morning, and a bbq lunch, but other than that, i did lots of reading and writing! I cooked a great tea!!! i did a big mash which consisted of potatoes, pumpkins and carrot. Then i did a tomato, onion, herb sauce for the chicken fillets that i cooked. YUM!!!! I was glad to share my cooking with a few uni mates.
I must be off, it is way past my bedtime, and i have a 9am lecture.
The rest of this week will probably be a lot of study!!
til next time!!!
Take care everyone
God bless
love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 3/03/2004 11:07:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey!!
Just a quick update on whats going down!
At the moment i'm in the computer labs with some mates, we're checking out our timetabling for the week. Us sport and rec-ers have about 13 hours to begin with.
The last couple days have been pretty sweet.
Thursday morning a few of us got up and went for a swim at morwell which about 10 minutes from churchill.
When we got back i went to go to a lecture about reading and note taking. On the way though, i was looking for a mate, to ask what time we were leaving for skiing that afternoon. I ran into him, he'd been looking for me. He asked me if i wanna go for a surf. I had to make an on the spot decision, go for a surf at phillip island, or go to a lecture (that repeats for the next couple weeks)
So off we went to Philip island. took us bout hour and a half. had a surf, it was soo beautiful. lovely water, almost boardie temperature. Then we had fish and potato cakes for lunch, probably the best i've had. YUM!
Then got back to campus, swopped into my car, changed the tows the the gear and took off in the other direction. up to lake glenmaggie. We spent the rest of the afternoon, until the sun went down...... Wake boarding.
It was the first time i've tried it, and i loved it!!! I got up second time, u just seem to pop up out of the water. it was soo cool. Something i would like to get used to. I would love to be able to do it well. The lake was beautiful.
That night, we went out to the local saloon, (bar/pub/club) Had a bit of a dance, it was pretty good fun.
Fri, we went on a bus ride to the lakes entrance, then got on a 2 storey cruise boat and went for a cruise down the entrance, the best weather, lovely stuff.
Then we got dropped off and walked a couple kms down 90 mile beach. Had a swim then..... to be continued!!
(gotta go to bed!!!! big week ahead!)
love to all Bam


- posted by Brett @ 2/29/2004 10:38:00 PM 0 comments

 
Hey all,
just a quick update.
It's orientation at uni and its all pretty confusing and i'm trying to sort out the time table!
My course is looking pretty good so far, (bachelor of sport and out door recreation) we have about 45 in the group, i look forward to meeting them all. I have got to know a few of the other students living on campus. The student union have run some pretty cool activities and get to know you games which has been pretty helpful. Name over load!!! Everyone seems pretty cool, most are here for a great time!!
I must go, i have too much to sort out, i'm pretty confused about it all at the moment, but i'm sure in good time it will start to make sense!!
I hope all!
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo
- posted by Brett @ 2/25/2004 02:13:00 PM 0 comments

 
Alright mate, ows it goin?
I am soo Lucky and Blessed!
Two awesome weekends, and weeks in a row.
Last weekend, some of Camo's friends from Christian Endovor camp came down, so we all stuffed around doing all sorts all weekend, lotsa fun.
Then tue, i took dave in Bruce and we went accross to Gippsland to have a look at my uni.(took a bit over 6 hours to get there) It was all a bit scary, but it'll be all good once i settle in. it seems pretty nice. Anyway i did all the enrolment stuff, the paper work and the paying fee stuff, Yay!!
Then the next day we drove to adelaide, (about a 10ish hour drive, bruce is doin soo well, ive done over 5000km since i bought him 4 weeks ago!) Then on the fri we went into the mall and shopped around with Matt and Sal, (bro and sis inlaw) then we headed off to Goolwa for my Grandma's 70th birthday. All but 3 of the rellies from mums side of the family was there, it was great. We had a holiday site booked out, so we spent all weekend playing tennis, Bball, swimming, surfing, (yep, in Middleton had my first surf since i been home in oz, last surf i had was on the 8thish of dec, in England!!)
It was such a cool weekend, great family time!
Grandma and Pa enjoyed themselves, amazing Grandparents!!! They are both about 70, going on 50! Very fit! If i get to their age, I hope i'm as fit as they are!!
I spoke to a few of my pommy mates on the phone the other night, which was great, i'm missing them all a fair bit.
I go to uni on the 22nd of Feb, so i've got a few weeks to catch up on some sleep, get a little bit fit, get Bruce serviced, tuned and rearin to go, catch up with some mates, surf, eat and yea, just relax a bit before uni starts.
Hope all is well and your smile is Massiv!!!
Love to all
Brett
xxxooo

- posted by Brett @ 2/03/2004 10:44:00 AM 0 comments

 
Hello!
yep, i'm a slack blogger.
Until i get into a routine at uni, i probably will be for a while yet!
All is going well and i should fill in about the last couple weeks.
Country champs when pretty well. Had lots of fun, the weather was ideal, and had a bit of success and luck.
My highlight of the meet was probably the 50 freestyle.
quite an eventful event!!
I swam a pretty ordinary heat swim, just couldn't get speed