Hers and mine

Hers and mine
A place in time
Nothing ventured nothing gained

I strained my ear to hear you
I heard the whisper
Clear, then naked, then gone

Exposed and then lost
Felt and then gone
Before I had a grip to lose
I watched you walk away

Kindness

Thousands of greedy vultures
Ready to abuse your kindness
Remember the reason for your kindness
Lest through hurt you abuse others
Or worse - cease to be kind

leaving - only to return

i have just wasted 20 minutes of my day looking for a new background to my google search screen.

i used to have a guy playing the violin, and he was nice cos he looked caught up in the moment and i liked that.

but i went in search for something better than what i already knew was good.

i tried about 6 different new backgrounds before reverting back to the guy playing the violin.

and then i wondered how often we do that - give away something that which we can never have back to seek something slightly better than that which is already the best:

only we don’t know it as such, so we seek elsewhere for an alternative

only to return back home again

Makes cents

Are these numbers making any sense today?
Are your lives making some more cents today?

A million people dying
A thousand children are crying
What do we do?
What do we say?

We say I need some more
Interest on my money
Diamonds for my honey
Some more things to keep me happy in this life...

When we aren't living here
And we aren't dying either

You tell me what's wrong wrong with the world...
The problem is me.

When did it change?

My first cellphone was a nokia 5110. That's the one with the aerial that could impale your inner thigh were you not careful enough. I remember being a very excited 17 year old who became quite absorbed with the way that words could be sent through the air, and boy did I make the words fly out of that nokia. More than anything I remember the thrill of waking up with messages on your phone - or the thrill of hearing your phone beep knowing that there are words waiting that were sent just for you. Sometimes I wouldn't read a message for about 10 minutes, because the anticipation was as exciting as the message.

So perhaps I am being slightly dramatic, but it's strange to remember those days and to think about how it has all changed. Today I got home from the shops and my phone had no envelope, and I smiled, put on the kettle for some tea, and was so relieved by the burden of not having to respond to anything or to anyone.

Words that used to fly now seem to strangle me.

USA - Day 2

We have been on board the Oasis of the seas for less than 24 hours - even as a write that I can barely believe it. This ship is absolutely incredible and if I try to describe it to you I dont think I will do it justice. I will upload some pics to facebook when I get the chance.

Another unfortunate thing is that I do not have internet access - the boat has Wi-Fi, but this is ridiculously expensive, so I am not sure when you will read this. We are going to be on the sea all day today to make it to Labidee tomorrow morning. Everyday there are numerous shows to attend, activities to do. It has actually been quite a tough assignment to understand the best ways to structure your days.

There are certain things that happened yesterday that will happen everyday: A daily game of table tennis and a putt-putt matchplay tournament. Lounging for hours in a jacuzzi, trying new beers, reading my novel, meeting very interesting people from all over the world, dancing in the nightclub, watching some live performances at the theatre... all of these things have happened in the last 16 hours and will be on repeat for a few days. I think that the moment I start to feel a less overwhelmed with the magnitude of the ship (i still have not seen so much of it) we will be docking and I will have a whole new country to find out about. By the end of the trip I will have 5 different currencies in my waller. I quite enjoy the thought of that!

Tonight is our official Gala Dinner function. I have rented some extras to go with my suit - i think it is going to be extremely formal so I wanted to look my best. Even Darryl is wearing a tux :)

That’s all for now....

USA - DAY 1 - cont

So it is 8 am and i am laying in my bed at our Miami hotel - recovering from the long flight and also the late night last night. We were so tired but we decided that we would be in Miami probably only once in our lives with time to kill so we got walking to an awesome little irish pub to watch some ice hockey (am i the only one who cant see the puck?) and make some friends. So we only got in after 1 - but im up, and already one coffee down :)

The trip so far has been just amazing - since we last shared it feels as though so so so much has happened which is a great feeling cos we are less than 10% of the way through the trip. There are going to be so many memories and stories at the end of all of this....

We thankfully had the correct time for our connecting flight and landed in Miami at about 3pm. Caught a bus that took us into Miami Beach and had a very knowledgeable tour guide keeping us quite interested in a lot of factual information. I was amazed at the money in the place - there really is just so much of it, and the buildings are quite incredible! I tried to take a few photos but it is tough from the inside of a bus!




After arriving, we checking into our rooms and had a long overdue shower and grabbed some grub at a very awesome little eating spot right on the water of the harbour.

At this point my camera battery died - so the rest we have no proof about :)

AS exhausted as we were we decided to walk a little while to an irish pub we had seen from the tour bus - darryl was convinced it was only a 10 minute walk - it was more like 25. But well worth it to try some new beers and meet some very friendly people.



We made it home in the end for some well deserved rest. Darryl has just woken up next to me and he says he managed to make it downtown with a few other people from the bar downstairs. Good for him!! That was our plan before we found out that a cab would cost $20 each way... now it is time for breakfast. Today is the day im really excited about - i think the ship is going to be really incredible.

‘Till tomorrow.....

USA - DAY 1

So we are sitting here in Atlanta airport - picking up some free wi-fi but I only have 45 mins of battery on my mac and i have yet to figure out what plug I will need to buy to convert the voltages. Maybe I will do that next.

Travelling with my brother is a lot of fun - he likes to take a few crazy photos every now and then - like the one where we took the pillow slips off the delta airline pillows and put them over our heads and pretended to be members of the KKK.

The flight was good - the on board entertainment was super good and when I got bored of that, I had my PS3 to keep my thumbs busy. I did have an elderly lady on my right who managed to literally shoot all of her salad dressing onto my jeans only 2 hours after taking off. I did recommend that she eat her salad off my lap - it would have had more flavour i reckon.

The customs people arent the friendliest, but lets face it, what country has friendly airport staff?

Travelling with my brother also has other interesting moments - like when he tells you to find him at a gate far far away cos he needs a smoke. Thankfully en route to fetch the smoke sucking long distance walker I picked up a call card and had good fun working out how to phone my folks and miss browning on her cell phone. it is good to be in the same time zone as her! unfortunately my mother didnt pick up - she’s on night duty and Im sure was fast asleep when I tried to call.

So we fly out at 1 (i really hope this is the case as we have lost the rest of our travel group!) and then we should be in miami at 3:30pm - sleeping at the Hyatt Regency hotel tonight - hopefully there will be some internet and I will be able to upload some pics...

peace :)

USA - DAY 0

First things first - I have not been writing much. I have been trying to sell insurance and it was this effort that has won me and my brother a trip to go for a 2 week holiday in the States. Well we land in Atlanta and then head off to Miami to board the biggest cruise ship in the word - the Oasis of the Seas which will take us to Haiti, Jamaica and Mexico before dropping us back off in America so we can visit Disney (not sure if it is the land or the world, but it the Disney in Orlando). Yes, probably a once in a lifetime trip. All expenses will be paid and all we have to do is to try and have a good time.... sounds easy enough.

The trip seems like a good reason to get my blog up and running a bit. I will be trying to post photos and tell stories, but things might get busy. We might have to lay by the pool, or learn how to linedance, or something.

Thanks to all who have been interested in hearing news and wanting photos - I have recently bought a new camera and will be taking lots and lots of photos.

As we sit here, after killing a very long ‘to-do’ list over the last few days, it finally feels like i can think about the trip and get excited for it....

Sometimes joy doubles when you share it - cant wait for the news two weeks with my bro.

the word agenda

God’s word has no agenda other than to be truthful. And that is something that I find terribly exciting. In a world where every author of every book and article, blog or tweet is trying to convince me through their words to see things the way that they do, the Bible only tries to convince me of the way things are.