Cooking

One of the fun parts about living overseas is that you tend to cook often (to save $$$ for traveling around). Breakfasts aside, I've had to cook 2 meals thus far. Why don't breakfasts count? I could cook them with my eyes closed =P. Breakfast is one of those things men should naturally be able to do. Can't be that hard to fry an egg - well actually wait...


So on my first night, I pan-fried some salmon, and stir-fried long beans and garlic (along with some rice). The cooking was going fine, until i reached for some salt to cook the salmon with.






Then I realised that the plastic covering over the salt shaker (it was brand new) was quite tight. Unfortunately, the pan was getting too hot, and I was in a hurry (some other stuff was starting to burn). Rather than taking my time and getting a knife, I tried to rip it off... and successfully got a sea of sea salt over the kitchen.



Other than that though, tasted alright (aside from the soggy rice). I learnt some valuable lessons:

• To pan-fry salmon successfully, it needs to be well lubricated with olive oil and the pan must be flamin' hot.
  
• To get the skin crispy, coat it with salt (hence my accident) prior to frying (stole that idea from Chinese roast pork).
• Most importantly - I should never multitask.

So that was the first night. Tonight I felt more adventurous and attempted dad's signature pork dish: pork belly with sweet ginger and garlic sauce. Basically involves a nice long simmer of the sliced pork belly with sugar, kicap hitam and the rest of the ingredients. Easy - but takes time and you have to make sure the pork's cooked. Came out good (if I say so myself).


So while it was simmering, I figured I'd make a beef stew. Let's hope it turns out alright - it's still cooking away now. Note to self: add some flour tomorrow to thicken. Also, buy some herbs.

3 September - nearly a flight from hell.

After getting sent off by my parents and Yong and Michie, the flight from Perth to Glasgow started at 3:50pm Perth time, and culminated at 9:10am Glasgow time. I was bedraggled after the flight. Despite my pre-departure prayer.

Having lost an argument to Mum, I carried two pieces of hand carry luggage. Simple yes? Nevertheless, the increase in global terrorism means increased airport security. For me, it meant that at all 3 transit stops (Perth, Singapore, and Amsterdam), I had to remove my jacket, ipod, wallet, laptop, and drain my water. Was a tad embarrassing given it meant I held up the line for a good 10 minutes each time. It culminated at Schiphol (pronounced "schop-pel") Airport where, having nearly completely undressed, my boots set off the metal detector. Ever tried taking off boots quickly?

Oh and Changi airport was for some reason absent of air-cond - meant I reeked like a salted fish throughout the 13 hour flight to Amsterdam. I'd dressed thinking I was moving from winter (Perth) to autumn (Glasgow). Btw, the weather now's pretty similar to Perth.

Nevertheless, it wasn't all bad. Lest i sound like i'm complaining, most of the above events actually made me laugh quite a bit (after I'd arrived at my accomodation and taken a bath). Also, on the flight to Amsterdam (the 13 hour leg), I managed to get to know 2 of the guys sitting next to me - Derek P and Mark F, the former being a true blue Scotsman. Both were Aussie truckies in real life. They were hilarious. We had some hilarious discussions (Scottish words italicised)

me: I heard Glasgow's a pretty good place and the people are friendly.
D [looks quizzical]: No. [long pause] Wait... do yer drink?
me: Yeah
D: then yairss =)

And aside from the multitude of pubs in Glasgow, another thing I'll have to contend with is the accent.

me: D, could you teach me some slang?

D: Nae... even if i sporke to you all the way to Glasgow, I couldn't even start
me: Ahh... so how do i deal with it?
D [serious expression]: Don't say yes. Not until you're sure what you're hearing.

mind you, at times i struggled to make out what he was saying. Nevertheless, they were nice guys. They bought me a coffee (obviously it's quite easy to get on my good side).

Anyways... this is turning out to be a long post. Let's just say the journey from the airport to my accomodation wasn't straightforward either, owing to

1. A road block
2. A blur secretary running the Accommodation office
   
3. My failure to get a proper address for where I was staying
   
4. A very blur secretary

But on the other hand... at least the taxi driver got me there.

Today, I went out with some other overseas students - Markus L (Ger), Hannes K (Ger) and Vilde A (Nor). It was educational, as I learnt a new word at a place called Committee Room 9:

Tanqueray - pronounced "tan-ker-ri" with the last 2 syllables rushed.
"Tanqueray & tonic" is synonymous with another famous beverage that also goes with tonic. Was cheap too, at 2pounds a hit.

But rest assured, I'm not becoming an alcoholic. I'm just trying to keep Guinness in business.

Last day

Flying off to Glasgow tomorrow evening, and today's turning out to be more rushed than I anticipated. Still have to clear my room, sort out the IC posters, and pack last minute... breathe...

Caught up with A last night - good to catch up with her before I fly off. One of the things discussed was the fact that things would in general be different when I come back. Situations change anyways, but often you don't realise it because you're living through it. But going away and coming back means you're often going to be confronted with different things as you return. All good... I'm quite excited about going =)

Am absolutely going to miss my friends here though. You know who you are. Everyone's been really special. Rae made me an absolutely fabulous cake - and it came with a pot =P. Oh and thanks for the shirt, you J-lifers

Mike Guglielmucci is a fake and a fraud - but what about you

Nic's note: I found this blog while surfing the net today - makes you think eh?

Okay. So Twitter and blog-world are exploding today with news that the latest church worship celebrity, Mike Guglielmucci of “Healer” fame, has been a total liar, fake and fraud when it comes to his claim of beating life-threatening cancer. His story and the song which is supposedly inspired have been the talk of the worship world for the last month or so - especially with the news that Hillsong had recorded it and were including the song (along with the powerful live video) in their latest release, “This Is Our God.”

Here’s a quick recap of Mike’s story -

• Diagnosed with cancer
• Comes home, sits at the piano and begins singing
• The melody and words of “Healer” pour out in this incredible time of worship

The song was then recorded by Planetshakers on their latest album and apparently caught the ear of the Hillsong folks who decided it would be great for their album. Once the promotion for that record started, Mike’s story was front and centre - including a promotional video that was released with Mike telling the world his story interspersed with shots of him singing the song at the live recording, oxygen tank, nose tubes and all.

So word breaks this morning that none of Mike’s story can be verified. Here are some links -

• Adelaide Now
  “Michael has confirmed that he is not suffering with a terminal illness and is seeking professional help in Adelaide with the support of his family.

  “We are asking our church to pray for the Guglielmucci family during this difficult time.”

• The Australian
  It appears Mr Guglielmucci, who was a pastor with one of Australia’s biggest youth churches, Planetshakers, may even have deceived his own family.

  “This news has come as a great shock to everyone including, it seems, his own wife and family,” Hillsong general manager George Aghajanian said in an email to his congregation yesterday.

Crazy. Idiotic. Foolish. How can someone even DREAM of something like this?? What kind of sick, deranged person lies in their bed at night trying to think of ways to gain fame, notoriety and recognition while perhaps lining their pockets with some extra coin based on sales of a song that might be inspired by such a tragedy?? This is a total disgrace and another black eye on the modern evangelical church.

So. How do we respond? Some say stone him! Some say blacklist him! Some say he just needs a swift kick in the ass! How about you? What do you say?

What do I say?

I don’t know.

Part of me is so tired of this. I’m so tired of trusting people and their stories of God doing amazing things only to be once again disappointed. I’m so tired of having to defend a church that wants to hold these people up based on their lies and deceit. I’m so tired of having to explain to friends why I would even associate myself with an institution that allows people like this to get famous. Nevermind the fact that I’m so tired of an institution that is making these people famous in the first place!

Part of me wants to stand on the rooftops and shout “I AM NOT ONE OF THEM!! I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE LYING, CHEATING JERKS WHO IS SELLING YOU A FALSE GOSPEL!!” I want so bad to distance myself from these idiots and their garbage lies and their cheating ways. I would scratch their name from history and have them never heard from again if it was up to me.

And then I wonder.. What does God say?? What does He think of all of this?

..

Ugh.

Why wouldn’t He turn His back on the whole lot of us and just let us all go down in flames? Why wouldn’t He just give this world a little nudge and send it spinning off in to the darkness of the universe? Why wouldn’t He just hit the cosmic reset button and start this whole damned thing over again?

And all I’m left with as an answer is “grace.” Because of grace. The only reason we are still living and breathing and spending a single moment on this planet is because of grace. God has every right to squash every last one of us and laugh at our stupidity - thinking that we have anything more to offer than Mike or Todd or whoever the next one will be. God has every right to stand on the rooftop and yell “Don’t listen to them!! I am not like them!! I don’t do things the way he says I do them!!” while pointing directly at.. me.

Cause that’s the truth, right?? We’re all Mike. We’re all Todd. We’re all messed up, screwed up, broken, deceitful, lying, sinful people. Now we may not be as devious or as scheming as those who are exposed and exploited but does that make us any better or any worse? Not at all. At the end of the day we are broken, sinful people in need of grace. Only God’s grace. And I need just as much of it as Mike does.

Could you imagine if all of your crap was exposed for the world to see? What if your Twitter account really detailed everything you were doing? everything you were thinking? Uh oh. We wave the “authentic” flag as though people are getting to know the real us if we post a little of our family struggles or about our issues with this sin or that, imagining that if people are given a littel glimpse in to a bit of the hard side of my life they might give me a little pat on the back for being so honest. And really it’s just misdirection - let’s give them a bit of what’s behind Door #2 so they don’t want to look behind Door #3, cause if that door was opened it’s game over.

Right?

I don’t know. I’m not suggesting that we all have stories like Mike’s. I’m not suggesting that we’ve all cooked up schemes like his. But if it was YOUR song that Hillsong was releasing and YOUR name being used to promote it and someone uncovered ALL of YOUR baggage and garbage, don’t you think it would be the talk of the town? Yeah. Sure it would.

I have nothing to say about whether or not you should play the song. Some will say that the song is born in the heart of the writer and there is no way to use the song to lead people in worship. Some will say that the song - not the writer - is anointed and if God can speak through a donkey he can certainly speak through a deceiving, lying songwriter. Some will say that the song is worthless and not very good and shouldn’t be used in congregational worship anyways. So take your pick

So there you go. You’ve heard my thoughts. I’ve read lots of yours. I’m sure this will be talked about for a while. What’s next? Where do we go from here? What do we do with the famous ones in our church culture? Lets hear you

pre-emptive homesickness

After some haphazard preparations... I'm flying off to Glasgow on the 3rd of September. I can't believe it's just a month away.

I feel ambivalent about leaving. It's going to be a GREAT experience, but on the other hand, I'm going to miss absolutely everyone here (that's right, including those annoying people who nevertheless still give me something to talk about). Is this what its like to be an overseas student?

I decided not to preface this post with "its been a while since i last blogged" - after all, i'm not ashamed of blogging infrequently. Also, it gets boring =)

Led worship for the first time last Sunday. I've never been so nervous before. I couldn't sleep the night before to be honest, and after practice on that morning, my nerves were shot. The fact that I had to make a 15 minute detour to Wilson also didn't help. Nor did driving 30km/h over the limit just to get to church 10 minutes late.

However, in this i'm pretty grateful for Joseph, who inspired us all with a brief pep talk at 9:59am. Ultimately it comes down to this - you can let the circumstances dictate your attitude to God, or you can worship in spite of the circumstances. All I wanted to do was just worship. The band backed me up, and I really believe our hearts for God just shone through the service.

I've also realised that I'm a really lucky person. A man is lucky if he can go through life and have 2-3 good friends throughout. I have people who will (and have) stick (stuck) by me through the thick and thin and I'm extremely grateful for that. You know who you are.

Anyways, till the next time I blog, I'll leave u with this picture:

Sitting in the kitchen, Mum and I heard a nature documentary on the TV, and thought dad was engrossed in it (he was sitting on the couch). Highly surprising, given the aforesaid program did not contain much fight scenes, gunfire or sport.*

Anyways, our hopes were slightly crushed as we walked into the lounge. Turns out my camera interrupted his nap** =)

Love you Dad

* Believe me, I have a high respect for my dad. However, this is a man who can't stand movies with dialog scenes > 10 minutes. He likes Bruce Willis - need I say more?

** The pink object is my sister's stuffed rabbit, nothing more.