jane_gray_lookingatyourself.jpgI discourteously did Onno Knuvers the dishonor of not linking to his website (Due to my use of an image of his in the previous post). So I must do that now.

He is – from my reading – a Dutchy (a very good start!) turned New Zealander. And by a further glance he has some very cute and clever little illustrations. Not meaning to suck-up to nullify my ‘crime’, but I did really rather appreciate this one. (And I can hear Geoff saying in my head, ‘No you’re not sucking up at all!’, in his amused/sarcastic way – scary that!)

So there’s the first New Zealander – at my online front door.

The second lot are at my actual front door. In fact they’ve been living in our rather minute lounge room the past two nights. My lovely housemate’s doing (Who, quite realistically and honestly is a much nicer person than I am). Our lounge room, as tight as it is, is a fraction more comfortable than this couple’s car.

Isobelle (housemate) met them at the free meal my church puts on a couple of weeks in a row. Very nice couple. They’ve fairly recently moved across and yesterday fantastically both managed to score full-time jobs which was fairly important. They are now living in a tent in our front-yard.

Why am I sharing this some what more personal-to-them thing? A couple of reasons.

a) So I can ridiculously claim I’ve got New Zealanders at both my online and offline front doors and that collates into a nice easy blog title.

but more seriously,

b) So that I can remind myself of the crap that’s been sifting through my head and some less than perfect attitudes I have towards these kinds of things.

Conversations of late at: Vocare, Young Adults and with those around me etc. have been quite centered around money. This situation in it’s own way has allowed it to hit home.

I have so much freaking stuff.

image by Jane Gray

Blogging Church Design Life Out of Home Social Justice

desk.jpgFor the second-time I am participating in the ProBlogger writing project, for the last round I – and many others shared our Reviews and Predictions, this time it is our Top 5.

I was contemplating sharing my top 5 as a rant about university, due to the fact my creativity is being sucked dry into assignments instead of blog posts, however my life extends beyond that. Infact at the moment my life is driven by more things than I can count.

I could share highlights of recent times, early wedding tips, design happy’s, all the blogs I’ve starred for interest sake, why I haven’t been all that social lately, what meals I cook when I’m by myself, the who’s who in my world, the heroes I don’t normally name (might have to make some up), my top books, my top movies, my top five… It’s difficult to decide.

So here are the Top Five Things that Dictate my Time (at least at the moment).

  • Being a (Communication Design) University Student
  • What’s good: The ability to score a two day uni-week, a small course where faces are familiar and names are relatively well known, occasional discounts on the lifeblood-coffee, interesting conversations, creativity, lectures that are amusing despite being boring, cheap printing, free internet access, one building.
  • What’s bad: Endless homework, persistent ongoing folio work, whopping huge loads of class preparation, one hour train trips, 8:30am starts, no lunch break on Tuesdays, frustrating tutors.
  • Being recently Engaged
  • What’s good: Knowing I get to marry the best guy ever – and be married until one of us dies (how else do I put it?), a nice sparkly ring, no guilt in looking at anything wedding related, people’s greater acceptance of public affection, fun wedding planning, scoring good on a bargain buy of a wedding dress, being able to use the word fiance!
  • What’s bad: Organising a wedding when Point 1 is getting in the way. Other fiddly things around descision making that affects more than just you and your fiance.

Read about my engagement here and here.

  • Being a Youth Group Leader
  • What’s good: Hanging out with some fantastic kids and getting to talk about God and life with them. Fun nights.
  • What’s bad: No free Friday nights and that being my standard ‘crash time moment’ of the week.
  • Living out of Home
  • What’s good: Freedom from ‘set’ be at home by xyz times, and other such household restrictions, more space, more supposed responsibility, the niceness of having a good housemate.
  • What’s bad: Having to get home and cook when you’re tired, waiting to get a full load’s worth of clothes before you can do your washing, paying rent, paying for groceries.
  • Work
  • What’s good: Nice bosses, nice colleagues, getting paid, work conferences to Tasmania, feeling like I’m at a better place to be working there, feeling useful, free lunch, good coffee, the street atmosphere of Albert Park, the orange door, my own business card, salary sacrifice mobile phone bills, steady shifts, holiday pay, sick leave and no one breathing fire down my neck.
  • What’s bad: The hour and half to get there, the longish day, the Friday afternoon knowledge that I have to spend my Saturday doing homework, the trip home (see point 5), the occasional left hanging as to what I could best be doing.

And that’s that! I really have very little spare time at all at the moment, pick or choose which of the above is eating it. My favourite clearly belongs with anything wedding related, my least favourite is the excessive homework.

Large apologies to all those people I’ve said I’ll catch up with, but haven’t had time for. In three weeks I have uni holidays. I will then have a spare 9 weeks (!!!!) up my sleeve to do everything else I wish would be on that list and avoid most of the things I’d rather not have there.

Blogging Life Ministry On The Train Out of Home Uni Wedding

growing up

It’s just under two weeks that I’ll be moving out and I’ve begun to think half vaguely about packing. Why so early? Lets just say that at the moment my room is an utter mess and all of next weekend is consumed with a youth camp, then there’s the whole starting job, starting uni thing.

I have moved more times than I can count so it’s not a new experience. My current house is probably the longest I’ve ever been in one place (4-5 years) and I’m getting itchy feet. I quite like my room, I like my free internet, I like easy access to any book I can think of, I like my family – but it’s time for out.

Where work stands at the moment is that they’ll be ready for me in a few weeks. I’m hoping sooner rather than later or the money situation is going to get awkward. I also need to investigate all those other dollars things – Centrelink and the like.

It’s all good fun. Now I just need to go and find some boxes.

Life Out of Home