Common Work Day

Today we cancelled lunch and had a Common Work Day, to do a whole heap of maintenance work around Credo. Previously we've just had afternoons for Common Work, but we've been finding that we haven't been able to get much done. So now we're going to be having a day each month where we just do Common Work.
In the morning me and Nathan cleaned the laneway, and then Chris, Woodsy, Tim and Jo helped us repaint the walls light blue. For lunch we had a barbecue on the roof. After lunch me and Ali did a bit of decorating in the newly painted laneway. I made a pigeon stencil and used it to paint a whole heap of pigeons on the wall, going into Credo, and Ali wrote a whole heap of stuff, which I reckon will probably get defaced. But that's okay.

Bangkok blog

Adam and the rest of the team are blogging here about what's going on while they're in Bangkok.

Goodbye Adam

We've just been to see my brother Adam off at the airport. He's going to be spending a week an a half in Bangkok with Urban Neighbours of Hope, teaching English to kids who live in a slum.

Dad pretended to cry:

Urban Seed ♥ North Korea

Andrew Bolt was slagging us last week, saying we want Australia to be like North Korea. I'll just quote Nate-Dawg:

andrew bolt wrote the most bizar article last friday that drew parallels between north korea and u/seed :S

marcus (he'll be taking the jevermoreny walk this fri) then wrote a response on his own blog

they're a bit of a read, especially the response, but I found them well worth while, if only to reaffirm with Marcus's response why I do what I do :P

and, if you're keen, here's one I found in my online travels, an interesting article contrasting Christian right and left, using Kevin Rudd and Bolt's articles (in response to Rudd) as a basis

I have a vision!

I've got all my TVs going now:

My tomato plant is starting to flower.

This evening I started reading Paul's letter to the Philippians. This bit particularly stood out to me:

Brethren, together follow my example and observe those who live after the pattern we have set for you.
For there are many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, who walk (live) as enemies of the cross of Christ (the Anointed One).
They are doomed and their fate is eternal misery (perdition); their god is their stomach (their appetites, their sensuality) and they glory in their shame, siding with earthly things and being of their party.
(Philippians 3:17-19)

Was thinking about how easy it is for us to live simply to consume (whether it's food or music or drugs or whatever), particularly in a culture that values sensation so much, and where all that matters is the surface.

Hard rubbishing

There's currently a hard rubbish collection going on near where Ben lives, so last night he took Ray, Ali and I out there, and we got a whole heap of people's unwanted stuff.

So now I have seven TVs. That's more than Elvis had.

Now I have to see if I can get them all going.

Screaming

Haven't blogged in over a week. What has happened?

On Monday afternoon I was washing the dishes, and heard a woman screaming, 'NOOOOOOOOOO!' So I rushed out onto the fire escape, to see what was going on in the laneway. I couldn't see anyone down there, so I ran back inside to look out the window, into the other end of the laneway. Couldn't see anyone from the window either, so I ran down the stairs to the laneway and had a look around the laneway, but still couldn't find anyone. Heard the scream again: 'NOOOOOOOO!'
It turned out that in the other laneway, which goes from Collins Street, alongside the church building, there was a film crew shooting, and one of the actors had to scream a lot.

On Thursday after lunch, I went with Alfred to a certain fast food restaurant, becuase he hadn't wanted to eat what we had for lunch that day. There were two girls sitting near us, probably about 14, and they'd finished their meal, so one of the staff came to get their tray. One of the girls screamed at him, 'Don't take my f***ing cup!' and threw her cup at him, so he picked it up and threw it back at her. At this point both the girls stood up and started screaming at him, and he quickly went back behind the counter. The two girls stood at the counter screaming at the staff for about ten minutes, and then stormed out, yelling, 'F***ing city bums!' The police turned up just after they left.

Gardening on the fire escape

This morning I went up Brunswick Street and checked out a couple of nurseries, trying to find some plants to grow on the fire escape. Ended up getting a tomato plant, a capsicum plant, two pots, and sixty litres of organic potting mix. Got them back into the city on the tram. When I got of the tram this lady who was on her lunch break carried the pots and the plants for me, which was nice.
During lunch Emma asked me if I could look after her son Jack for a little while in the afternoon, so we potted the plants and watered them.

A deformed model, a barbecue and an artist colony

Was sitting in Bourke Street Mall today and saw one of the fashion icons being taken down. The huge sheet of vinyl was flapping all over the place in the wind, making the image of the model look all distorted and weird...

For lunch today we had a barbecue in the laneway.

After lunch some of us headed out to the Montsalvat, an artist colony in Eltham, to help Mark set up for the World Vision Australia staff prayer day, which he's running tomorrow.

Yoga with the elephants

At lunch on Friday, Maureen had a whole heap of free tickets to The Melbourne Zoo which she'd been given, and she gave me two. They had to be used today, and there was going to be 'yoga with the elphants' in the morning.
So this morning me and Ray caught the train out to The Zoo, and indeed there was a yoga class, and they brought an elephant out to take part in the exercises. Was a bit strange. I don't know much about yoga at all, but I don't see why you would get an animal to take part in a spiritual exercise that it probably doesn't understand.
After that, spent a few hours wandering around watching the animals, and trying to avoid all the noisy kids and their noisy parents.


I don't think I'd been to The Zoo since about 1998, and I saw it fairly differently today. I didn't like seeing the bigger animals like the lions and tigers and seals in their little enclosures. Seemed like they'd be pretty bored spending their whole time there, and not even getting to hunt their food like they would in the wild. Was talking to Maureen about it, and she reckons it's okay because we and the animals are all one. She thinks the animals choose to live in The Zoo, because they're becoming extinct, and they want to stir people's consciousness.