Gypsies and Birthdays

Woo! Here are some pics from Jazz in the Domain (17/01/09). It was an awesome night of gypsy jazz music. I totally loved it. I love the thick brass sound and rhythmic energy. Check out www.myspace.com/dochgypsydance and www.myspace.com/fanfareciocarlia for a sample of what gypsy jazz is.






Yesterday was mum's birthday. So last night we had a party with people from her Bible study group. It was a heaps fun time. We ate lots of food and talked. Those ladies are so funny (and a bit cheeky at times). They got me to read out these jokes about senior citizens which were hilarious.






Today I decided to get back into the music culture thing... so I did some score reading of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Awesome piece of music. I'm into opera at the moment. I'm still a little sad I wont be able to go to Opera in the Domain.

From Car-O-Line

My Titanic Moment

I love Dee Why beach. I went there yesterday and last Sunday. The water there is so blue and clear. And you can walk in 3 metres and the water is up to your shoulders already. A great beach for swimming. The waves are also a decent size and you can ride them. I rode a few waves and it's such an awesome feeling. You feel like you're flying on a cloud of whitewash water. It was a bit like a Titanic moment LOL.

A few music teacher jobs have recently popped up so I've been applying for them. One of them is for a private school and one is for a new government school. I'm still all for public education so hopefully I'll hear something soon.

I just finished reading the book of Zechariah using The Daily Reading Bible. Zechariah can be quite confusing at times. There is a lot of unusual imagery and lots of "he said: "thus he said..."" But I got through it. I think one of the overriding messages of Zechariah is that God is bringing his Kingdom and he wants you to draw near to him. One thing cool about reading Zechariah in light of the New Testament is that we see that Jesus brings about the Kingdom. So there is cause for much rejoicing. Heaps of Zechariah is quoted in the Gospels. In Zechariah you see God as loving, merciful, jealous, wrathful... it's jam packed and you should read it!!!

From Car-O-Line

P.S.: I have photos from Jazz in the Domain which was awesome! I'll blog about it next time.

photos for the week

Today is an extremely hot day. I didn't open any curtains or windows at all in attempt to keep the heat on the outside... but it's still hot. I went for a swim this morning... did 1km. The pool was busy. Heaps of people escaping the heat (yet it is an indoor heated pool ).

Photo time:

Scared Jet with the flash... he's still doing good

My desk!!! Can you tell that I cleaned it?

My new laptop stand... need to get a keyboard to plug into it.

All my folders with units of works and resources... I just need a shelf that will fit them all now.

About a month ago I bought material to make a dress known as the infinity dress. The pattern looked so easy and the dress looked nice... so I bought material in haste. Yet I only ended up making it today. It was very very quick to make! Probably only 2 hours. There were a few fiddley bits... so next time I'll know what to do for an even better product. But I'm still pretty happy with it.



Same dress... different ways to wear it :O It's cool!!!

From Car-O-Line

buying, fishing, relaxing, reading, writing...

I have spent a lot of money post-Christmas. I think I have a slight obsession with receiving packages in the mail/deliveries. I bought this awesome cake pan and a laptop stand off ebay. I've also bought clothes. And I bought a whole stack of folders and stationary to organise all my music resources. I'll post pictures sometime.

Update on Jettison... he's doing fine and swims around happily in his bowl. I've been spending a lot of time on the internet researching Betta Splendens. I've worked out a way of easily cleaning Jet's bowl whilst not disturbing him too much which is good. I'm hoping to video him (it'll be easier than taking a still photo) and then I'll upload it for you guys to see.

So far in my holidays... I've been to Muswellbrook to visit family with my parents and Rob for two days which was nice and relaxing. Had quite a bit of chill time at home. Spent a week away at Naomi's new place near Coffs Harbour - went to the beach and other general relaxing.

Two of my friends had engagement parties last weekend. They were fun and it was especially nice to catch up with high school friends.

I read the first two books in the Twilight series. I'm hooked. I wanna read more!!! I saw the movie too and I liked it (though the book was heaps better). I also saw High School Musical 3 and was surprisedly surprised at how good it was. It was awesome in fact!!!

I am currently reading through Zechariah and it's been a little tough and hard to understand... but where I'm up to now... it's a little clearer. Some of the visions in the earlier chapters of the book are just plain confusing! But as a whole... the book has a lot to say about Jesus... so that has been cool.

I'm also reading Prayer and the Voice of God. It is a very easy book to read and quite succinct. If you are having difficulties with prayer... I recommend this book. It has given me a new-found love for prayer and motivation to pray more.

This week I started writing "units of work" for my future music teaching. I've written units on 'the concepts of music,' 'instruments of the orchestra,' classical period, baroque period, romantic period, jazz and world music (some didn't take long to write though because I had models already for them). So hopefully I'll hear about a job soon. It's pretty annoying just waiting for the department to call me and tell me. I tried to call them the other day but the lines were busy so I had to leave a message. No doubt they are busy busy busy organising stuff before school resumes.

Holidays have been good so far. I better make the most of them. Swimming tomorrow :)

From Car-O-Line

New member to my family

Introducing Jettison (Jet) Finn Barker. My early Christmas present from Cler. It's a Siamese Fighter fish and from my research I think it is a crown-tail breed (or possibly delta). It has beautiful colours and it is very difficult to take a picture of him. But here are my poor attempts anyways:

He's blue and red... and has a sometimes shiny silver colour.

Keep still I'm trying to take a photo!!!

Oooo nice silhouette.

From Car-O-Line

lets go fly a kite

Yesterday on the 20/12 I went to Newport Beach with the young adults from church. We had a fun day of making sand castles, flying kites and swimming. The kite flying was an awesome idea (thanks to me). It's a wonder how something so simple and cheap can give so much enjoyment and fun. And all you do is hold a string and look up into the sky. Anyways... I'm on a photo-taking roll so here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

The sand castle that we made together. I made the awesome footbridge first... then we decided to turn it into a moat... so then it was only natural for us to build the castle in the middle.

Look at the kite!!! I was fortunate enough to get this image with the kite flyer and the kite in the same photo... afterwards the kite was so high that they couldn't fit both flyer and kite in the same picture.

It was a lovely day for kite flying. Lots of wind and a lovely blue sky.

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garlic goodness

Just had to upload another photo. It tastes gooooooooood!


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promised photos

Hooray! Here are the promised photos of my lemon cakes:


And the promised photos of the Christmas cards I made:




Today I made "Garlic Lover's Bread." It was cool roasting the garlic, making the paste, kneading the dough and watching it rise.

This is the start of the second rise

Slowly rising :)

Ready for the oven now!!! :D

Hooray!!! Fresh home cooked bread!!! MMMMMMmmmmmm!!!!

Cooking is fun.

From Car-O-Line

suGAH! :O

Today I made lemon cupcakes with lemon icing and hundreds'o'thousands. They were quite tasty. I made them because some of the arts girls (and their friends) from CBS went to the chaplaincy to hang out, eat and make Christmas cards... I made 5-6 cards I think. It was fun. What am I going to do with them? (Especially considering the last post I wrote). I gave the nicest looking one to my parents and they liked it.

I took photos of the cupcakes and I'll take photos of the cards but at the moment my camera batteries are getting recharged. So the photos will come up in another post.

Last night I was reading back on some of my old posts... and quite a lot I've written something like "I'll write about last week in another post later" and then I never post about that event. How sad for you all. My deepest apologies.

From
Car-O-Line

P.S.: I ate way too much sugary foods today and now my head feels like it's about to explode.

Christmas cards...

What are they for? Who do YOU send them to?

I find that Christmas cards are a waste of paper. In the past I sent Christmas cards to everyone... people I saw everyday. But now I'm starting to think that they are more for sending to people who you don't see often and want to wish them a merry Christmas. So what is the purpose of a Christmas card?

And what do you write on a Christmas card? Do you write a long spiel? Or do you just write a simple greeting. Or do you write a special Christmas letter update from your year with your card? I guess it depends on how many cards you are going to send.

And will you get offended if you don't get a Christmas card? I'm sure there are people who send me Christmas cards because I sent them one last year. Will you be offended if I don't reply with one?

Is there a history to Christmas cards? When was the first Christmas card sent? Why did they send it? What country do Christmas cards originate from?

Do you not send Christmas cards? Why don't you send Christmas cards? How did you decide that you weren't going to send them? Do you do something in place of sending Christmas cards?

What do you do with your Christmas cards after Christmas? Do you recycle them straight away? Do you keep them for a few years before you recycle them? Do you keep them forever and put them in a scrap book?

Is it ok to give a really good friend a Christmas present without a card attached?

Could you give someone a gospel of Luke instead of a Christmas card? Would it be the same as giving a Christmas card?

This year I'm giving hugs and smiles instead of cards... although I'll send some cards. I'm pretty lazy and usually feel compelled to write long messages in cards (yet I'm never sure of what to write) so it's easier to not write cards.

From
Car-O-Line