Another very fun weekend. Every weekend is a long weekend for me so that was no different but it is good when everyone else has a long weekend too so I can hang out with them.

Started on Friday. Took the afternoon off to go and hang with Jemma. We drank tea, ate food, sat in the park, bought undies and talked and talked. It is so wonderful to have her home again even if she is going to be living in Merrylands. In the evening we hung out in Enmore. We had Anna Thai with Tom, David, Matt, Cara and Martin and then went for ice cream. Jem wanted to be in Newtown so we sat outside Newtown Mission and ate our ice creams. There were some buskers playing so Martin made us all do some dancing. This quickly turned into charades and then bum charades. It was one of the funniest things I have done in a long time. It was also quite community-ish. Other peoeple would join in for a round and try and guess and then Martin’s work friends who were on their way home joined in too. You’ll all be very suprised to hear me say that I love community.

Saturday was Australia Day. Like others I often feel a bit awkward on Australia. On one hand I like Australia and think that there is often good will expressed on these kind of days as people gather together and feel grateful. On the other hand there is a lot I don’t like about Australia and we have seen the more nasty expressions of patriotism (I almost find myself shudder everytime I see someone wearing an Aussie flag). Not to mention there is the uncomfort around us celebrating a day which for indigenous Australians is usually not a time of celebration rather mourning. So on Saturday I, with Cara, Martin and Jemma went along to the Botantic Gardens to watch a smoking cermony put on by the local indigenous community. It was early in the morning so I was a bit chuffed I managed to get up and it was worth it. There was much song and dance and smoking. It felt like the sort of thing I wanted to do on Australia Day. In the afternoon I went to Gowies Roadworker BBQ. It was a nice, quiet celebration there and much fun was had.

From the Gowies Martin and I headed to Gerroa. Gerroa is about 10 mins South of Kiama. It was a long drive but so worth it. It is such an amazingly, beautiful place. We went there as Kat and Tom from church invited us to spend the weekend with them. Kat’s parens live there so we were staying in their home. Thankfully not much was done there really either. Just sitting around looking over the water, going for swims and walks, eating, talking and playing music. It was best at night as I lay in bed and listened to the waves crashing on the shore. It is one of my favourite sounds. We also got to see some Aussie Day fireworks. They were simple but nice. I liked them.

I also went to visit Jess in Wollongong and went to her church. It was good to catch up and get some more girl time. Now that my life is quite boyey I always enjoy that. Not a bad service either. The complete opposite to St Johns and not really my quiet meditative style but I think it is good to do things sometimes that aren’t our style as to explore all ways to communicate and worship God. I found myself enjoying others enjoyment of God.

So praise God for a great weekend.