Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
I’m flying back to New Zealand tomorrow for a high school and family reunion. Central Southland College in Winton, Southland is celebrating 40 years of education. The last reunion was the 25th anniversary in 1990. Back I was one of three CSC alumni who led the Sunday morning worship service. This time I don’t have to worry about such responsibility. In fact I only decided to go a week or so ago when my family offered to help out with airfares.
I’m looking forward to catching up with family, including my seven brothers and sisters. I’m not looking forward to the temperatures. Basic rule of thumb when working out the temperature from Queensland is take the minimum temperature here then subtracting up to five degrees to find the maximum temperature in Invercargill. Apparently tomorrow the maximum in Dunedin will be 11 and the minimum 4.
I’ll be flying with budget airline, Freedom Air. Which means take your own food or buy it onboard. The 3.5 hours flight leaves at 8.10 am and arrives in Dunedin at 2.35 pm. Coming back I leave Dunedin at 3.50 pm and arrive back in Brisbane at 4.50 pm. Funny what time zones can do.
Tags: airlines, Family, New Zealand
Posted in NZ | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
I had the privilege of accompanying my son, Lachlan, in his performance in the Year 12 Music Extension class on Monday night, at Robina Community Centre. When I say ‘privilege’ it was with a certain amount of concern that I practiced for two days to get up to scratch for the concert. We didn’t have the money to pay for a professional. And I didn’t really have enough time to put into getting to a professional standard, with a weekend workshop on the agenda just before the concert.
Still… we turned up and performed “Music of the Night” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera“, “Giants in the Sky”, from Stephen Sondheim’s musical, “Into the Woods“, not to mention a 30-second piece of vocalese. Lachlan did well.
Tags: Family, Music, Opera
Posted in Home Front, Music | 1 Comment »
Thursday, September 15th, 2005
Today is September 15 - the day back in 1992 when our daughter Kristen died, aged 18 months. She would have been 14 now.
I’m reminded of Kristen whenever I hear Eric Clapton’s song, “Tears in Heaven” which played at her funeral.
Or when I see daffodils. I was on my way to pick up the family to go to the church daffodil festival when she walked onto the road and was hit by a car.
Or when I cook frozen peas. She loved them.
Or when I see an 18 month old blonde learning to walk with confidence.
We’ve adjusted our lives to the terrible gap she left behind. And mostly left behind the horror of having her life snatched away. I remember the look in the driver’s face as he told me that his own daughter was the splitting image of Kristen. I remember the support of a multicultural community who came to grieve with us. The sobs of a friend on the phone as he expressed the grief of God.
Tags: Family, grief
Posted in Home Front | 1 Comment »
