Busselton

We stayed in Busselton, Western Australia, the other weekend. Busselton is on beautiful Geographe bay.

While we were there we went to have a look at the Busselton Jetty.

The jetty is 1841 metres long - the longest structure in the southern hemisphere.



The jetty was originally only 130 metres long, and as time progressed they extended it bit by bit.

The last portion of the jetty has been destroyed by fire.  They have built an underwater observatory at the end of the intact part of the jetty.  You can descend 8 metres below water and through the observation windows look at the fish.

The tour guide said that the fish are just as curious about us as we are about them.  I was amazed at the variety of fish living around the observatory.  On the pylons there were  lots of colorful growths - the guide said that they were all animals: no plants.  An incredible view.

The English Language

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will
be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which
was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British
Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement
and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as
"Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will
make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in
favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have
one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the
troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like
fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expected
to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have
always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the language
is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th"
with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords containing
"ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer
vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu
understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze
forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

Intelligence Test

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too . Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

From the daughter of a Soldier

I received this in an email the other day:

From the daughter of a Soldier

Last week I was in Melbourne attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their uniforms, as they began heading to their gate everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering. When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red blooded Australian who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families. Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work, and enjoy our home without fear or reprisal.

Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He knelt down and said "hi," the little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her. The young soldier didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy. Suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek. The mother of the little girl, who said her daughters name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Corporal and had been in Afghanistan for 5 months now. As the mum was explaining how much her daughter, Courtney, missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.

When this temporarily single mum was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it. After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, "I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you." He then hugged this little girl that he had
just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying "Your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon." The mum at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet he saluted Courtney and her mum.

I was standing no more than 6 feet away as this entire event unfolded. As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of moment turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an Australian.

RED FRIDAYS
Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday.
The reason?
Australian's who support our troops used to be called the "silent majority". We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for Country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not organised, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions.

Many Australian's, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of Australia supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that every Australian who supports our men and women afar will wear something red. By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make Australia on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football team. If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family, it will not be long before Australia is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once "silent" majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on. The first thing a soldier says when asked "What can we do to make things better for you?"
is..."We need your support and your prayers". Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.

IF YOU AGREE -- THEN SEND THIS ON

IF YOU COULD NOT CARE LESS THEN HIT THE DELETE BUTTON.

IT IS YOUR CHOICE.

THEIR BLOOD RUNS RED---- SO WEAR RED!
LEST WE FORGET

A quick Google search reveals the following on Snopes.com

Origins: This story about a heartwarming encounter in an airport between a little girl and a troop of soldiers first began to circulate on the Internet in late June 2006. By late July 2006, it was also traveling about in a Canadianized form (see second example above), and by mid-August an Australianized version was on the move as well (third example above). Each of the three versions was often the first segment of an e-mail exhorting recipients to wear red on Fridays to show support for the troops.

Notice how the three versions - each presented as a true account of events the writer himself witnessed - differ from one another:

American

• Takes place in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Courtney's father is a Marine who has been serving in Iraq for 11 months.

Canadian

• Takes place in Trenton, Ontario.
• Courtney's father is a corporal who has been serving in Afghanistan for 11 months.

Australian

• Takes place in Melbourne, Australia.
• Courtney's father is a corporal who has been serving in Afghanistan for 5 months.

The Australian version also changes most references to Courtney's mother from "mom" to "mum." We don't know if the original (which we have reason to believe is the American version) is an account of an actual event or is a work of fiction. What we do know is that the Canadian version has twice appeared in newspapers in Canada, once very clearly identified as having been gleaned from an anonymous e-mail circulating online, and once presented as something the author had himself witnessed.

Last updated: 22 August 2006

While I sympathise with the sentiment here, I believe we shouldn't be propagating fiction dressed up as fact. Please check these things out before forwarding them onto others.

A word of encouragement

I was talking to a friend last night, telling him about my business, and some of the struggles that I've been facing. He has run a small business for the last 20 years, so he's been where I'm at. He said he could relate to what I was telling him. He said

I want to encourage you ... but nope, I've got nothing.

I thought it was funny.

Prayer

I love Adrian Plass. He is a very funny guy. He came to Perth for a one night only performance. During the performance, he was talking about prayer, and how sometimes we totally miss the point. He was telling us about someone who prayed something like this:

Lord we pray for your holy fire. Lord we pray for that fire to come. Lord it will come and it will be a hot fire. Lord it will be a fire that burns, it will not be that cold fire. Lord it will be a burning hot fire, and it will consume that which was previously unconsumed. There will be a mighty conflagration, and we pray for your holy fire to come right now.

And Lord we pray for your holy rain. We pray that that rain will come. It will come Lord, and it will be a wet rain. Lord, it will be a wet rain that falls. It will be a falling wet rain, Lord. Lord it will not be that rising dry rain, but a rain that will fall, it will be wet, Lord, it will come, and it will make wet that which was dry. Lord there will be a moistening, of the unmoistened, when that falling wet rain comes, and Lord we pray for that holy rain to come apon us now.

And finally Lord, we pray for your holy wind. we pray for that holy wind, lord, we pray it will come, and it will be a real moving of the air. Lord, it will be a moving of the air, it will not be that wind of still air, that does not move, but it will move, and it will be a holy moving wind that will removes that which was unremoved.

Actually, as you were, lord, I think we got the order a bit wrong here, because, thinking about it, if your holy rain comes immediately after your holy fire, it will make a terrible mass, and your holy wind won't have a hope of shifting a great lumps of soggy ash, so perhaps thinking about it - if it's all right with you - we'll have your holy fire, followed by holy wind - not too quickly, or it will fan your holy fire to life just when we want it to go out - followed by holy rain just to freshen everything up, amen.

I'm glad God has a sense of humour.

Celebrate Recovery

A good friend of mine is championing the cause of Celebrate Recovery in Australia, in her new blog which can be found here. For those who don't know, Celebrate Recovery was born out of Saddleback Church. CR is based on a twelve-step program to help people recover from destructive behaviours, restore relationships and build new lives. In their own words,

"It was designed as a program to help those struggling with hurts, habits and hang-ups by showing them the loving power of Jesus Christ through a recovery process"

Other programs to come out of Saddleback include the Purpose Driven Life.

Check it out!