You would think that having 11 days off would mean lots of blogs but it was not so. It has though been one of the best holidays ever….

I decided that I was not going to make any plans at all. I was just going to hang around my home and read and go to the beach and see movies and talk to my friends and get to know my area and most importantly relax. I think that I have done splendidly and it has been great. Managed to finish two books and I am about half way through U2 on U2. Tom has finished but that’s okay. I have also done heaps of walking. In fact I must have walked almost the whole of the city at least twice including a couple of trips up King Street and Glebe Point Road for coffees and movies. I saw Babel and Volver and I think both were very good films. I also walked to Darling Harbour for some timezone action, which was fun, I am starting to improve on the dancing machines although Ryan still kicked my arse. We also walked through the Botanic Gardens for a picnic and across the Harbour Bridge to Luna Park for ice cream and a ferry ride back. On New Years Eve Martin and I walked from Darlinghurst to Observatory Hill for the fireworks which as always were lovely and great to be my wonderful friends again and then back to Central for a bus. Finally there was the walk from Bronte to Coogee. Not to mention I did the Bay Run once and Martin and I ran to Sydeny uni this morning. We also went Putt Putt golfing with the house and the Gowies. I guess it is not strenuous activity but got to better than sitting at home. Wow I am not only feeling very relaxed but incredibly fit. I think the highlight has been all the time with the community and the spontaneity. As mentioned all happened with no plans.

I am feeling good about 2007. I think it is importnat to start the year refreshed and I am certainly that. So happy new year frriends. I hope that you are all feeling hopeful as well. If not I am very happy for you to borrow some of mine.

I scored four out of seven on the “this is your lifestyle” test which tests my impact on the environment. This means I suck a bit. I guess it could be worse but it certainly could be better.

Global warming makes me feel so anxious. Someone quoted David Suzuki to me the other day who says that we are in a bus hurling towards a brick wall at two hundred kilomertres an hour but no one is doing anything about it. I want to do something about it and I am having shorter showers, turning off lights, mostly buying second hand clothes and I am a vegetarian so that gets me points but it all feels so futile.

I think I may make my new years resolution to get up earlier so that I can catch the train to work when I don’t need to use during work hours. And maybe my next letter to the politicians should be about global warming. I guess that is related to global poverty becasue as with everything it will be the poor who will be most disadvataged by global warming. I think I should stop saying will and say are. Global warming is definitely present and not future.

I need people to keep me accountable to that.

Martin came and had lunch with me today and we went and had a picnic in the park down the road. It is quite a nice park with perfectly mowed grass and flowers and a fountain in the middle but I never see anyone in it. I think it must be that it is in quite a random spot. Anyway today we were in it. We layed on our picnic rug in the shade and ate lunch in our picnic bowls. It was lovely. I felt kind of like a teenager in love.

I have had some really nice community moments in the last week. It has made me feel good about living in Newtown. I had been feeling a bit unsure about where I wanted to be but the last week has me thinking that maybe I am in the right place for me right now.

Firstly, on Sunday Martin and I went to church at St John’s Glebe. It may be too soon to say this as we have only been once but I think that we may try to make it our church. The people were so open and welcoming and I had some really interesting conversations. It seemed like a diverse group of people young and old with different cultural backgrounds and when I asked one of the ladies I chatted to why she liked it so much she said that it was because of the diversity of rich and poor. She also said that she as a single mother never felt judged there at all and I think that is very important. There was also good liturgy and Geoff is the minister so I am pretty sure that I will be comfortable with the teaching but that it will also challenge me.

On Monday we had our community dinner which was great. I was very anxious that there wasn’t going to be enough food but in the end there was and it was delicious. It was another diverse group of people from the local area and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Yesterday when I got home from work I went and delivered pamphlets for the Greens. A whole bunch got left on our door for someone who used to live there to deliver and I thought it would be a shame for them not to get delivered as I am a bit of a fan of the Greens so I did it. It was good exercise and it made me feel communityish. There is nothing like walking around your neighbourhood and really looking at it that makes you feel part of it.

Later on Jo, Martin and I actually remembered to pray for the community together which I found helpful and then even later on our next door neighbour Amber popped around with some of their very good wine and shortbread in a cute red tin. She stayed for a little while and chatted which was nice. She is very different to us but funny and open and I guess community is about relating to people who are different and don’t necessarily share the same views as you.

I have just spent the morning reading the paper. I have to say it was the first time in a long time that it has not left me feeling very depressed. And with some yummy fair trade coffee from Latin America and pancakes it was an hour well spent.

I was a little unsure yesterday but today I am feeling very sure that Kevin and Julia are going to be good, in fact I reckon I can say awesome. I am going to write him a letter saying congratulations on his win and remind him that he must take a stand against global poverty. I urge everyone to do the same. I was also very excited to see that Hillary Clinton is almost definitely going to run for president of the US and that Hugo Chavez was reelected as the president of Venezuala. I am excited by the prospect of living in a world with Hilary the President of the US, Kevin the Primeminister of Australia and Hugo Chavez the leader of socialist revolution in Latin America. My count shows that Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba all have very socialist leaders and Chile, Argentina and Brazil have almost socialist leaders so it is looking good for some big changes to take place there. It could all go bad but it could also go really well and I chose to be hopeful.

I was however very disappointed that the article that was written on Julia Gillard spent the first five paragraphs talking about her hair and her boyfriend. In fact he got quoted before she did. Why is that whenever a woman gets a high profile position in governement we all have to hear about her hair or shoes or partner before we hear about her policies and what she has to offer. It makes me angry. I think we have become complacent in the face of sexism. Women have made many gains and I don’t want to take away from that. The fact that we have a woman deputy is great but if we still want to read about her hair before profile what does that say? People say that sexism doesn’t exist but I think that this speaks for itself:

“Julia Gillard, one of Labor’s arch headkickers has emerged as deputy leader groomed for the office by her partner, a former hairdresser Tim Mathieson. Until recently Ms Gillard appeared to be less fussy about her hallmark crop of red hair. Yesterday she made her first appearnce as deputy with Mr Mathison at her side sporting a slick hairdo. It was thanks to Mr Mathieson, her boyfriend of six months, who has shaped her hair for the big occasion recently. She had a little French flick last week, but this is more of a sophisticated coif. Mr Mathieson, who has a daughter from a previous marriage and does not live with Ms Gillard, prposed the more styled look…

Looks like Kevin Rudd is the new leader of the Labor Party. I think that I am pleased. I don’t know all that much but to be honest Kim Beazley never really impressed me. In on almost everything that I believe in (except maybe the IR laws and global warming) he had the same attitude as John Howard. I am not sure that, that will change as the Herald said yesterday it was really a choice between “right and righter” but he does seem like a genuinely good man and some what interested in social justice and many people that I respect think so too so here’s hoping.

It would be soooooo good if Labor won the next election. I am very tired of John and would really like a leader that I respected. A leader who I trusted so even if s/he made a decision I didn’t necessarily agree with I could feel okay about that as I believed that they were capable and really trying to work for the best interests of the majority of Australians including the poor not just the rich. And most of all I would really like a leader who I felt actually listened to the people. Again I don’t know if Kevin Rudd is that person but I think there is more chance of it than Kim Beazley. However you have to feel sorry for him. He has been the leader for so many years but never been the prime minister and on the same day who loses the leadership his brother dies. That has to suck.

So anyway go Kevin and go Julia. And go Labor. I do hope that under this leadership they will get the party together to win teh next election.

We are going walking in the Blue Mountains this weekend. I am not entirely sure the plans but basically we will be driving to the Blue Mountains tonight and then tomorrow we will be walking and then camping and then walking again. I believe there will be rivers to cross and scroggin to eat and some good views but hopefully not fires.

Anyway it appears that we are down a tent so Tom if you read this before you get my phone message could we please borrow your tent?

They are doing renovations at work so that has meant for me lots of noise with concrete cutters and hammers and other renovation tools that make lots of noise. It is a little anoying but it will be good once it is done. It also means that we don’t have a kitchen right now so the table and fridge and watever else have all been set up in the space right outside my office.

This has been good in that I have gotton to know some of the really lovely and kind people who give up their time to work in the shops but unfortunatlely today it has proved to be quite distressing. It seems that a small group of our volunteers are complete racists. Today I heard about the “stupid people who don’t speak English” and “the mean, nasty muslims who are the cause of the world’s problems” not to mention “the dole bludgers who take advantage of the society” and questions about how we are going to ensure that poeple don’t get more than one hamper. It made me so angy. I just can’t believe that attitude and especially not here where the motto we follow is “be kind and love for love is your first gift to the poor”. Here where we are told “do not blame the poor”. And here where it is Jesus Christ that we follow.

Of course by the time I had formulated a response in my head and had calmed myself down enough not to be nasty as well the conversation had finished and I had lost my opportunity to say something. Not that I would probably have the guts to anyway but these kind of attitudes upset me so and I feel I must say say something beacuse it is probably not nastiness that leads to these kind of attitudes but ignorance.

I am feeling so overwhelmed by work right now and so inadequate. Really not a very nice feeling.

God, please help me to be better.

I have enjoyed reading everyone’s blogs so much today that I thought I better write something. Tom’s blog about U2 was so descriptive, while I was reading I relived the moment and it was great. Steve’s post about U2 was also so cool. Great to hear what was going on for others and there is no way you could beat Chris’s photo of Bono. That was awesome. Apart from U2 though Lesley’s post left me thinking and I was so excited to hear that David will soon be arriving in Nagaland. Also Happy Birthday Sam. Blogs work better than those Birthday reminders. We will do everything we can to be there on Saturday night. Not to mention I have seen Howie and Jenny’s wedding photos and caught up on much of Australian politics without having to read the newspaper.

So keep blogging people I am enjoying every moment of it.