Tag: England

Being there


Cover of "Being There (Deluxe Edition)"
Being There

I had a meeting last Friday arvo from 3pm and when I got back to my desk at 4pm, I couldn’t believe what I saw on the screen – England had crumbled and had lost something like 6 wickets for 9 runs. After checking I had no urgent calls or emails to respond to, I quickly went to the tea room and joined a few other blokes who have been watching the game.

The day ended with Australia well on top so the unpleasant scenes of Australia’s first innings were well and truly erased.

As usual, I was very tired on Friday night and when we met up for dinner at the Enrik café with Jason and Mel, I was just happy to be in a busy but pleasant restaurant so close to home with Tress and some very dear friends. Dinner was very good and we just stayed on and chatted for a bit before leaving.

It was raining on Sat – the weekend forecast had been a wet one – so I couldn’t work on the garden. After the usual dry cleaning run, I said to Tress the wet morning would mean less congestion at the new fruit and veg market on Canterbury Road at Forest Hill (Strawberry Point) so we quickly went over and got our green grocery for the week, and then we drove to Mount Waverley and met Simon, Tress’ hairdresser. A hair cut had been long overdue for me and much as I was sure Simon had barely woken up when he worked on my mop top, I was glad I had it done.

After lunch (at Madam Kwong’s Kitchen of course) and a quick visit to a property auction, we (or I) spent the rest of the arvo just vegging out in front of the telly, watching the cricket. My right Achilles had caused me grief anyway so it was a perfect excuse to just spend a cool and wet Sat arvo doing nothing except watch Michael Clarke and David Warner chalk up satisfying tons.

The rain continued pouring on Sunday. There was an AGM after the service and Tress and I decided to stay for that meeting, to get a soak in of some of the issues the church had faced in the past year. It ended close to 2pm. We went to Madam Kwong’s Kitchen again after that and since it continued to pour, we just decided to go to a shopping place and walked around.

The service was a thanksgiving one and numerous people publicly gave thanks for a whole range of matters. A familiar pattern emerged very quickly – that of life’s many challenges. Often, these challenges require solutions. A way forward to resolve the matter at hand would always bring relief and pave a way towards a brighter future.

What’s become crystal clear however is that other than solution or a way forward, often those facing life’s challenges just need someone at their side. This person need not have any answers – just being there to provide support and perhaps add strength, clarity of mind to deal with the issues or challengers and the assurance that no matter what happens, there is someone who would be there for them. That someone would certainly help countervail any tendency to over-internalise the challenges one faces.

Facing challenges is probably another one of life’s certainty. In recent weeks, we have seen a cancer patient succeeding, heard about another patient failing, seen a young man battling depression, been with a couple who lost their first born infant child, and been touched by other departures of others who have spent considerably more years.

In all of these experiences, the presence of another as they navigate their paths in dealing with the challenges, has always been what’s deeply treasured. Being there for someone matters. Praying for someone is often a throwaway line used in such circumstances and prayers may or may not happen. The Lord may or may not intervene. But as members of the community we find ourselves in, being there for one who is faced with these challenges, is often what we can and ought to do. Sometimes, like Peter Sellers, “Being there” is what matters. I need to think about responding to this more meaningfully.

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Scruffy!


I often call him “Oi”. Sometimes he’s “little buddy”. When Kiddo and I talk about him, he’s “Little Black Jedi“, or LBJ. Scruffy has become a little man about the house. He certainly spends more time in the house than any one of us. He’s got 2-3 spots in the house which are his favourites, and have become sort of his spots.

He likes both corners of our old couch in front of the TV, right on top of the headrest. He is often perched up there in either of the spots, sleeping in the groove between the back board and the back cushion. Lately, he has also taken up a spot on the leather couch in the lounge, overlooking the main windows into the park across the street where we take him when it’s not raining. Tress thinks he is pining for the park visits when he does that, especially when he sees other dogs there.

At night, he wont go to the room to sleep as long as one of us are in the lounge or TV area. He’d sleep on the old couch, but sprawled across one of the seats. When the last of us (usually me) gets up to go to bed, he’d wake up and trot off to one of our rooms. Currently he appears to be avoiding kiddo’s room. We think it’s the VCE mess he’s avoiding.

Once in the room – or at least with Tress and I – he’d wait on the floor for a few minutes before hopping onto the bed. He wants to settle down right next to us but we usually make him sleep just at the end of the bed, near our feet. He’d settle for that more than in his own bed on the floor. Experts tell us Schnoodles are like that. They just want to be near their humans, as much (and as near) as possible. Sometimes when all 3 of us are watching TV, he’d curl up next to one of us on the couch, usually on the long end of the chaise. He’s become an honorary fourth member of the family.

Nick Clegg and Britain Today


Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrat in the UK,  is the Deputy Prime Minister.  When he was 16, he wandered into a greenhouse and after playing with some matches to burn some cacti, set the whole place alight. The greenhouse belonged to a professor of botany who had collected cacti from all over the world. That greenhouse housed that professor’s lifetime work. Nick Clegg said he had drunk too much and admitted he was irresponsible. His punishment was to do community work. That he could go on to hold high office and potentially be the most important man in UK politics – due to a possibility of a hung parliament – speaks a lot about our current attitude towards wrongdoing and its consequences.

While it is fantastic that someone who was so irresponsible and culpable of such reckless conduct can go on to such great achievements, it is also a reflection of the British (and western? contemporary?) society’s attitude and tolerance for bad behaviour. There is now less fear for consequences of doing bad things.

It is a difficult issue. While one shouldn’t be punished permanently for past mistakes, what we mete out as punishment (can we even use this word anymore, as opposed to “consequences”, say) should also have that deterrent element. Somehow the message we are sending to the younger generation is not just that we will forgive past mistakes, but that these mistakes don’t matter in that we will in the end, forgive and all will be well. This message tends to remove any fear that what we do will have consequences and sometimes far reaching and irreversible consequences.

I wonder what the UK and other parts of western civilisation now thinks, after the recent riots in London and elsewhere in England.

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London Town


My wife and I have been pouring over information on schools and apartments in London. SW6 is now the centre of our attention. Not exactly my idea of fun. In fact I dont really want this scenario. I just want to continue on in KL, preferably in a different company/employment situation, and wait to move down under. This London thing is turning everything on its head. Yet if this is where God is leading, I can do little else. My dearest wife, who is ever so supportive, is my one comfort now.

“So, I commend the enjoyment of life.” (From the Bible – really. Eccl 8:15)