Big boats in the harbour

On Tuesday 20/2/07 the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth 2 passed each other in Sydney Harbour.

Rosie had the great idea to turn our annual St Barnabas Terraces Senior residents and Concil dinner into a Harbour Cruise to see the two fine ladies.

The QE2 is in the top picture she was pretty big but not as big as her sister the QM2 below.



It was a major event on the Harbour, there were boats everywhere and people lined up along the shorelines just to see these two cruise ships! I hadn't expected it to be such a big thing for the people of Sydney.

As it got dark there were even fireworks - I have never been so close to fireworks in my life, we were right underneath them and the noise was incredible!

It was a really fun night!

Koliva and bread

Koliva and bread are two very important ingredients in a Greek Orthodox Memorial Service. There are a number of services that can be attended after someone dies in the GO church, a couple of weeks ago I attended the 40th day service for my Grandma. According to Phylis Mensel Onest, the 40th day service is a tradition going back to the Old Testament Joseph ourned is father for 40 days, and the Israelites did the same for Moses.

Being an Evangelical Protestant Christian the world of Orthodoxy is slightly strange to me, it continues to amaze me how many different ways our brothers and sisters of different Christian denominations find to express their love for Jesus.

The service we went to is a regualr Saturday affair at the GO Chapel in Rookwood, I was suprised at how many people were there. There were people like us who had lost loved ones recently but also others remembering the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 10th Anniversary of their loved ones death. The Chapel was packed and there was a large crowd of people waiting outside. Occasionaly someone would push past the crowd and force their way inside to light a candle and watch what was happening... Being timid Australians Stu and I (albeit with Greek descent) waited outside looking lost.

Eventually we found Peter who as he has told me my attendance was compulsary so I could write this decided I needed to be inside the Chapel. So he weaved his way around many small old Greek women dressed in black with me following behind hoping I didn't step on anyone.

We ended up in the balcony seats and so had a pretty good view of the front of the room. There were two tables piled high with Koliva - a sweet wheat mixture decorated with nuts and sugar that represents John 12:24 "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit." Phylis Mensel Onest, says Jesus is talking about His death and resurrection here but on reading the whole chapter I'm not sure if he's talking about Himself or His followers as the next sentence seems to be talking about others. (Note to self - do inductive bible study on John 12 sometime).

Beind the tables was a Priest reading names of all those whose family were present one by one, this took a long time and members of the congregation started to get restless, at one point he stopped and told them to shut up or go outside! (in Greek of course)

We missed the beginning of the service which included communion so it seemed over very quickly. When the names were all read out it was time to dish out Kolivia and bread to everyone in attendance, again the Priest reminded everyone why they were there and asked them to do things in an orderly fashion but I'm not sure anyone was listening. A torrent of small Greek ladies pushed their way to the front of the church where they proceeded to take their dish of Koliva it was amazing how quickly it disappeared. Especially as I didn't think it tasted all that nice anyway...

I'm not sure what I think of the whole thing, it's good to remember those who have gone before us but that's hard to do in an unfamiliar environment. I think I struggle with the fact that in all the GO services I've been to there seems to be no opportunity for the congregation member to interact with others or with God, the Priest does it all for you. This is very different to what I've grown up with and what I experience every Sunday.

Well Peter, not sure if this is what you were expecting I'd write about but it's done :-) Thanks for making me go and thanks for lunch in the park too.

Why I need to learn how to drive and have my own car... Part Two

Read Part 1 first...

So I got up early and head out on the train to Lidcombe, it was rather a pleasant journey and not too long but then... After getting off the train I discovered that regular streets don't really look like the streets on whereis.com, it looked like I would have to walk down a long stretch of busy road beside the graveyard with no footpath to be seen anywhere. I phoned Stuart who looked at a map and confirmed that I was heading in the right direction.

Half an hour later, hot and sweaty and still recovering from a nervous dash across the busy road without the aid of a pedestrian crossing I arrived at the repair place. I handed my laptop over and was told it would be ready to pick up in 3-5days (nb. the words "pick up" are very important to the rest of the story).

Just in case I asked Mr Acer-repair-man if Lidcombe was in fact the closest train station, to my dismay it turned out it was not, Flemington was much closer... It was also a much nicer walk, there were footpaths and pedestrian crossings and everything!

6 days later, I phoned to find out if my laptop was ready yet, it had been 3-5days and I had heard nothing. The lady on the other end of the phone assured me "yes, it had been finished yesterday" "so," I said, "I can go and pick it up?" again I was assured, yes.

The next day I once again began a trek to the Acer repair place, this time getting off at Flemington station and walking . It was I knew going to ake 2-3hours out of my day and although I had many things to do before staff retreat the next day it would be worth it to have my laptop back.

The nice man behind the desk looked up my laptop on his computer "oh", he said, "it was couriered on Monday" he didn't seem like such a nice man after that. After more investigation it turned out it had not infact been couriered on Monday (3days ago) but in fact had left the warehouse just 20mins before I arrived. It would be delivered to my work sometime between 3-5pm.

I headed back to the train station feeling more than a little bit grumpy...

At the office I waited... 2pm...3pm...4pm... At 5.05pm I phoned Acer, who could phone the courier company but they would be closed right now, I could try and call them if I wanted. I did want so I got the necessary numbers and phoned. Someone answered the phone so I assume they were open... It turns out my computer was stil in the couriers warehouse, there was something wrong with the package and they would send it back to Acer in the morning! I asked if instead it could be sent to me, she said she'd try so I gave her my details and hoped for the best.

It did indeed arrive the next day and now the whole drama doesn't seem like such a big deal after all...

Why I need to learn how to drive and have my own car...

Yes it's true, I'm 28 (almost 29) and I still don't have a drivers licence. Last year I sat for my L's and passed so now I have my third Learners Permit, although the last one I had expired in 1999. Learning to drive is just something I haven't really gotten round to doing yet.

I also have a lovely little Acer Aspire 3620 Laptop, not the most sophisticated piece of technology but it does all I need it to do and recently I've discovered it's kind of hard to do my job without it.

How are these two things related? I hear you ask. Well, Ihave had my laptop for about 8 months and for most of that time it has had a small gray splodge on the screen (aka an abnormal block of colours), it's speakers also made a high pitched buzzing noise whenever there was nothing playing through them. As I have a 12 month warranty policy I decided I should ring the Acer support people and see if they would be kind enough to fix my computer. They said they would, however...

The Acer repair place is located in Flemington, opening hours 9am to 5pm, and it was my task to get my computer to them. This is where the whole drivers licence plus car thing would be helpful, my usual chauffer (aka Stuart, aka husband) was unable to asisst me as he has other regular commitments between 9-5 on weekdays (aka full time employment).

My only option then was... Public Transport!

On the map it looked like the place I was going to was very close to Lidcombe station, convieniently located on the Inner West Line, as is Stanmore where I live. I packed all I would need for such a long intense journey and set out.

What will happen next? Will Bec survive her trek to Lidcombe? Wil her computer be repaired? Stay tuned to find out more...