i wanna sit here, daddy!

I'm emailing this from target shellharbour where zoë has decided to sit in the storage rack underneath her pram!

"The Jamberoo Railway" update

Here we go:
As of today, all the track is painted a 'rust' colour, and the table top has been cleared and vacuumed ready for the back scene to be repainted a lighter shade of blue and the ballast (little rocks) to be applied to the track. This marks the beginning of the scenicking side of the layout building.

Train

While taking the bride to Kiama for a birthday coffee we saw this late-running train.

More pics of the Illawarra Fly

Here they are:

Illawarra Fly

We the Farrells of Jamberoo (not to be confused with the other Farrells of Jamberoo) visited the new attraction just up the hill from us, The Illawarra Fly.

No, it's not an humungous zipper in the pants of the region, but an aerial walkway in the treetops just metres from the cliff face on the Illawarra Escarpment, and just a few kilometres from our place.

The photo is pretty crappy, Zozo wasn't co-operating.

But the view is awesome. Go visit. In the meantime, visit our Picasa web album.

Photos from the big wet

The Big Wet

These photos are from "The Big Wet" of 5 February 2008 (see original post here)

The Great Train Show

The Great Train Show is a podcast "radio show" on the ABC, hosted by former PM Tim Fischer.

A couple of weeks back they asked for humorous train-travel stories, so I sent mine in.

Here is the extract from last week's podcast.

Michelle's new hobby: tennis

I got a pretty good shot, hey? And yes, it was a real game! The ball is not photoshopped or anything.

Imperative Verb + adjective + noun + , + proper noun = basic sentence

The two year old today did something we've not noticed before: she made a sentence all on her own.

Sure, she's been chattering away for ages now... but every sentence etc comes from the copy-cat phrase book. "Whatchya doin'" etc - all copied from what she's heard.

But tonight I was singing badly and she took an imperative verb: "stop", an adjective usually used only to describe her #2 nappies: "yukky", a noun: "song", a comma and a proper noun: "Daddy". The result: "Stop yukky song, Daddy".

Brat.

A Sydney whinge

With the Sydney Moaning Socialist reporting that 1 in 5 Sydneysiders wants out, I'll share my 'grumpy old man' style account of my trip to Sydney yesterday - a reminder that I'm glad to be out of town!

Had to drive to Rockdale to get the mobile phone fixed (another whinge in the making there... 'update your phone via the internet' morphs into major disaster needing a trip to Rockdale... and it's a common problem!). (And an additional whinge about spending a day off in such a boring way!)

P-platers zooming past at well above the speed limit.

Tailgaters in the 50 zone at Heathcote... the very same idiots holding me up in the right hand lane doing 90 in the 110 zone further back...

Then there's the vintage VW ute (you know, the Kombi thing with the fold down sides)... looked great, but if he goes so slow, why did he have to pull out in front of my at the red light at Sylvania, only to be the last vehicle to get going? When I, and the 25 cars behind me, got around him, only then did he move to the left lane for Tom Ugly's Bridge!

How about the nut case in the rubbish truck who nearly wiped Zoe and me out. We were turning right from West Botany St into Marsh St, Kyeemah. There are two lanes; both are right-turn lanes with the left lane also allowing traffic to continue along West Botany St to the Princes Highway at Arncliffe.

Anyway, we're turning right legitimately from the left lane, following a truck, when there is this blast from a horn. Another truck comes from behing, goes around us and continues up West Botany St. The driver stops past the intersection and leans out his window and gesticulates madly. Get this: he is abusing my for making a right turn from a right-turning lane, when he tried to go straight from a right turning lane on the outside of me. What a moron. 10 minutes later I heard on the radio that a truck hit a car on the Princes Highway at Tempe... couldn't help wondering if it was my new friend.

Glad to be back in God's country.

BJ McCracken and itchy eyes

When I married Michelle I inherited an elderly blue Burmese called BJ.

BJ was so named because when Michelle got him she was a little girl (I said he was an elderly cat!) she thought he was black and so called him 'BlackJack" or BJ for short. When it became apparent that he was blue and not black, he simply became BJ.

For some bizarre reason, when we married I decided to call him "BJ McCracken" which became "Mister McCracken". Other times he became simple "Meow Machine" as he is a very talkative cat.

Anyway, BJ is beautiful. He is a lovely, affectionate, talkative, communicative cat. I have always hated cats, but BJ is a lovely exception. The fact that he is so old that he doesn't hunt and kill wildlife probably helps. But after nearly 4 years of co-habitation with him (ie nearly 4 years of marriage!) I have suddenly become allergic to him!

I'm sitting here typing through weepy itchy eyes because he's just been head-butting me (the cat way of saying hello) and it's terrible! How can you be allergic to something you love so much?

Cataract Dam Under Construction

Yesterday I posted some pics, one taken yesterday when Cataract Dam was full and the other taken in September 2004 when the dam was only about 60% full.

The above photo is scanned from a book and depicts the dam under construction in on 29 May 1907. Note the 2-foot gauge railway at bottom right. This is now where the lower access road is located. The photo is from Steam on the Illawarra, published by the Illawarra Group of the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum, Burwood, 1979 and the photo credit is the J.L.N. Southern collection.

Droughts and Dams

Above: Cataract Reservoir today. It's 100% full, with water flowing over the spillway and a good amount being released for drinking water.
Below: Cataract Reservoir back on 22/09/2004 when it was very low!

Cat sculpture

This marvellous piece of art was created by our cat, BJ.

It was a shame to have to tidy it away, but it kinda stunk.

Ok, so I'm a nerd!

Here is a picture of my weather station.

So ok, I'm a nerd.

But it's fun!

G.

Hi

Just a quick update... not much to say really!?

I'm reading a book, People in glass houses: An insider's story of a life in & out of Hillsong. The Sydney Morning Herald has made it out to be a big expose of Hillsong... and no I'm not reading it as some sort of Schadenfreude. The sorts of things the Herald 'picked up on' could be alleged by disgruntled Anglicans at, well, me. And I know I'm not guilty of the things that Ms Levin finds fault with at Hillsong. So I'm just saying, just because she alleges it doesn't make it true!

The book is less expose and more a rollicking travel guide by someone who was never a 'true believer' and found the whole experience a bit OTT... ok, so she also was hurt by some of the antics.

Nevertheless, if you put aside the bitterness it's a good insight into another church's workings, a bit like reading The Chosen Ones about Sydney Anglicanism and the ACL, where you can see some truth but also realise that the author perhaps has missed the point altogether and critiques what they do not understand.

Aside from all that, yesterday I was sitting at my laptop in the kitchen eating lunch when I started to cough, having breathed in a crumb by accident. The next thing I was aware of was being woken up on the floor by a somewhat panicked Michelle. It was a bit scary. The doc told me today that I'm allowed this faint, but next time it's in for heart checks etc, etc.

As the fridge magnets say, be alert but not alarmed.

G.

Hallidays Point

Here we are now at Happy Hallidays, visiting Glenn's sisters (yes, plural).

Since Kidzoo we've been to Wee Waa to visit Zoë's godparents then a seven hour drive to here.

Will post photos when we're not paying $1.60 a mb.

Glenn.

What on earth am I doing at Kidzoo in Dubbo?

Well the Farrells are camping at Dubbo--and it seems that we haven't broken the drought despite leaving behind a very wet Jamberoo, Illawarra and Sydney on Monday morning.

We left at 5am. With Zoë being so young it's not good to travel long distances... actually we managed all the way to Echuca last year but she was much, much, younger. So this 15-month thing is suck for her.

Anyway, we only went to Bathurst and set up the camper in 'overnight mode' (pics to follow in the fullness of time). "Overnight mode" means no annexe or awning.

We caught up with Gareth and Robyn--think of that, 291 kms just to see people that live 21kms away!

Tuesday saw us up at 7:40am after Zoë awake for 2 hours during the night! A quick packup (quick is a relative term) saw us at McDonald's for breakfast by 9.15am.

We reached our campsite Dubbo about 1:15pm and set up in 'long stay mode' - annexe and everything... about 2 hours to set up. But a lot of fun, except for Zoe who didn't have fun.

Michelle saw some friends from her childhood, but saw from a distance. They're staying in the same park as us so hopefully we'll catch them again.

That's all for now.

Glenn.

Supporting our ministry

Hi there,

Some friends have asked how they might make donations to support the work of Jamberoo Anglican Church and/or our ministry in particular.

Until the end of December, St Paul's Shellharbour is making up the shortfall to the tune of $1881 a month. This amount per month ($434 a week) extra will need to be raised.

I am confident that we can do it within the parish, but some friends have suggested they might like to support us directly or through the church. My preferred way is through the church. Click here to find out how to give directly to the church. Some have expressed a preference not to give directly to the church but to pass it through us.

Therefore, our details are:
Paypal: glenn AT miche lle andglen nDOT com (allows credit card payments too... remove the spaces and replace the AT with @ and the DOT with . before using paypal! This is an anti spam thing.)
Direct Debit: Members Australia Credit Union,
Mr Glenn Farrell
BSB: 803140
Account: 000820017

For taxation reasons we'll pass the money on marked as a donation for our support.

Thanks,

Glenn.

We're starting in Jamberoo on 8 July

Yep! The institution service will be on Saturday, 8 July, at 2:30pm.

If you don't receive an invitation in the mail (my only known blog reader will :-) ) and if you want to come, the please email for an automated RSVP service.

Ta,

Glenn.