Yeah Yeah Yeah

I’m sure this isn’t a new phenomena, but I noticed it when I was in Asia a few weeks ago.  Conversation can be a little difficult over there, with me, and most other tourists, speaking virtually no Vietnamese/Lao/Thai, and the Asians limited english.  So when you are talking with somebody and the other party “gets” what you’re saying, I noticed that a single “yeah” wasn’t good enough!  To indicate that somebody understood what the other party said, a stream of “yeahs” would follow!  Most of the time it would be two or three “yeah’s” accompanied of course with excited gestures.  Because I hadn’t noticed it before, I assumed it was obviously just something we (tourists) did over there.  But on arriving home, I noticed it everywhere!  Probably because now my attention has been drawn to it, I’m listening for it too.

I’ve just been on a three day training course and I noticed the instructor was a fan of the “yeahs”!  He extended it though, so he’d be saying “yeah yeah yeah yeah”.

Perhaps it’s a return to the Biblical days when in ancient Hebrew if you wanted to say something really really important, you’d repeat it 3 times.  Hence when they say “Holy Holy Holy” in the Bible, they are really emphasising their point, it is extremely important.

So… yeah yeah yeah…  Have a listen for it!

Up!

Got back from my trip last Sunday.  Not really enjoying being back, but I guess you get that.  I’m wondering if there’s someway I can actually travel permanently.  I’d need some source of income, but give me a copule of months and I’ll see whether it’s doable.

Anyway, I thought I’d pay my sister and Gary a visit today, so I headed down to see them.  We ended up going to see Up.  That’s a great movie.  This may contain spoilers, so if you’re reading this and you’re one of those who hates spoilers or hints of spoilers, read on at your own risk!

We pick up the story of Carl, the main character when he is young.  Through picture, we follow the story of his life – the dreams he and his wife Ellie have through to the present.  Ellie made a book that had their lifelong dream in it – to move their house to Paradise falls in South America, then a page stating that there were more adventures to come – with blank pages following that.

After Ellie dies, with the dream of going to Paradise Falls unfilled, Carl decides to go – and floats away.

Carl is determined to get there.  To him the adventures along the way are just a distraction.  He is fixed on the goal of getting their house to Paradise Falls.  When he gets there, he sets his house up and sits back to read the book Ellie made.  Carl has never read past the page saying that there is more adventures to come.  As he turns the page, he finds Ellie has filled it in with stories of their life together.

With the dream of getting his house there fulfilled and the fact dawning on him that the fun with Ellie has been their journey together and arriving at the destination or final goal not that important, Carl decides to go and help Russell.  He leaves behind most of the contents of his house, including some precious memories of his time with Ellie.

This begins a new series of adventures for Carl.  He allows himself to have a new lease of life and to live again.

So what’s the moral of this?  It’s being bold enough to chase your dreams, but smart enough to realise that life isn’t about the destination.  It’s about the journey, the people you meet along the way, the unwelcome detours that bring fantastic experiences.  It’s chasing your dream with everything you’ve got, not sitting back wishing and wondering about what could have been.  And sometimes you have to leave behind the past to go forward into new adventures.

So… follow your dreams.  Die doing what you want to do, don’t die dreaming about what could have been.

The old FJ

Dad has an old FJ.  It’s his pride and joy.  Read the story here.

Up up and away

Am heading off again soon for a well earned holiday!  Ok, well I think it is well earned anyway!

Will be heading off next Friday evening, flying out to Hanoi, via KL.  I’ll be in Hanoi a few days, heading over to Laos then into Thailand.  I’ll have a week free in Thailand, may head across in to Myanmar for a few days maybe.  We’ll see what happens.

Check out the tour here

Dripping Tap

There’s been a drip happening around my house now for about the past 3 weeks – since the last big rain. It’s been driving me nuts, but I knew it wasn’t any of my taps inside, so just figured it was somewhere outside and probably something to do with all the rain we’ve been having. Tonight I investigated – the neighbours have a 44 gallon drum collecting water from their downpipe. It has been dripping into there. They are away, so it’s not going to be bothering them.  Not quite sure what to do about it though… Ah, the joys of neighbours.

Telemarketer

Just had a telemarketer ring me. “Hello, is Mr or Mrs Franko there”. Ah no, that’s not me. “Ok. Well we believe that you may have been overcharged on your phone bill…”
Yeah right, they don’t even know who I am, how on earth do they know whether I’ve been overcharged or not!

Christmas haul…

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything.  In fact I just realised I started this blog in June 2007, 18 months ago, and I’ve really been pretty slack at posting.  Perhaps this coming year it will improve.

Anyway, thought I’d post a few thoughts on Christmas this year…

Presents:  Here is my Christmas haul for this year: a full length mirror, snack maker (toasted sandwhiches), ipod dock/alarm clock (very nice…), letter box, tweezers, cushions (hand made by mum), cake skewer (hand made by Dad), ice cream/soda glasses, soup/spag bol bowls, long handled spoons for the soda glasses, spaghetti forks, wash bag for delicates, two vases, tea towel thingy, rubber gloves, socks, holden calendar that features Dad’s FJ, sauce bottle, serving spoon, egg flipper, hand made rolling pin and a spoon stand (stand/rest your spoons on it when you’re cooking).  I did pretty well.

Inventive present wrapping: Steve and I decided Gary (heather’s boyfriend) needed a bit of a twist to his present.  We wrapped about 38 different presents (mainly chocolate bars).  Each present had a letter attached to it, then was placed in a big box, stuffed with newspaper.  He had to find the presnets, then arrange the presents to make a phrase before he could get the best present – and unwrap the others.  Took him a while, but eventually he spelt out the phrase “Don’t you know chocolate is bad for you” and was able to open his 30-something presents.

Boxing day entertainment: Squash.  Steve, Gary and I played a bit of squash.  I got absolutely creamed, but at least put up a bit of a fight against Gary.  It wasn’t until Steve played left handed that I actually managed to take some points off him and put up a bit of a challenge.  He is good at everything, if you know my brother, you realise that statement is very, very true!

Anyway, was a good couple of days!

Kamikaze Moth

Had a moth flying around in the house the other night.  Started cooking tea.  It was attracted to the flame of the gas stove.  Result:  Toasted moth.  Thankfully it didn’t go in my food.

Not much else happening.  Will be finished my study at the end of November, looking forward to that.

The toilet roll comp and the shower

It’s been a while, so I thought I’d blog some few random things from my house…
Between my sister and her boyfriend and myself, we’re having a toilet roll competition. There’s not really any rules, except we keep every empty toilet roll that we use and are stacking them up. So far I’m up to 5 stories high, but mine are double rowed! Plus I have two toilets, so I have a bit of a stack in both. It may seem strange to visitors, but it makes it a whole lot easier to explain my weirdness when I say my sister and I have a bit of a competition happening…
Thought I’d clean the shower tonight. Decided that I needed to get in it to clean it properly. Decided I needed to rinse it – turned it on. Realised I was in my clothes… jumped out, knocked over the container of water, got water on the floor… All fun and games! But at least I have a clean shower!

In other stuff, guitar is still going ok. Been pretty busy with my studies. Learning and reading about God’s grace at the moment. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to post something about what I’ve been learning and what’s been impacting me, but no promises there.

Folk??

If my readers are still with me, they’ll notice I haven’t blogged in a long time. Sorry guys!
Anyway, I’ve been getting some guitar lessons for the last 4 or 5 weeks. I’ve been practicing fairly regularly since I borrowed the guitar, so I’m doing ok. Anyway, at today’s lesson, we were playing a bit of Oasis, then got onto some discussion about different genres of music. My guitar teacher thinks I’m a “folk music” kind of player. AHHH? WHAT??? FOLK??? I don’t think so! If you’re a folky music kind of person, then that’s cool, I have an Irish folk cd, so I don’t totally hate it. But folk? Me? Uh no. Looks like I’ll have to get a bit more groove or something happening in my playing.

Oh and a cool thing – I finally wrote another song last weekend. I set a goal this year to write a few songs and I got told by Andrew, a visiting minister at church I needed to start writing again. I saw him again last weekend and he checked up on me (at least I’d written half a one!). So I went home and wrote one. Holdin Nothing Back. Not sure whether we’ll ever sing it at church or not, but it doesn’t matter, at least I finally wrote something.

FOLK? LOL!!