Munchkins

To all the little munchkins from Derby District High School who are reading my blog, happy reading!

The Tiger

Creator & Creation - Part Two

The Gift of Growth

Lately I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Creation and thus the reason for having chosen this topic in forum. I obsessive over Creation because it makes both my mind and my imagination run wild. What a breathtaking event! The creation of the cosmos! I can’t even begin to imagine the perfection and beauty that surrounded and engulfed this magnificent occasion. Therefore it hurts to look upon His Creation and see the contrast between what I’ve read and imagined, and what I actually see before me, and that is, the reality of what His Creation has become. But even in this chaotic existence the Creator is giving His Creation a great gift and that is the ability to grow/learn. It is through this gift that the Creator is able to teach, and in so doing, bring His Creation back into the knowledge/understanding that they possessed before the fall, in other words, to know the Creator as He intended. The reason for this is that in the fall the Creator didn’t change but the Creation perception of their Creator did and now the Creator must grow that understanding about who He is back into His creation, the ultimate revelation being Jesus Christ.

All this is said in order to understand why I’m surprised when people let me down or when I let them down. The great gift of growth can only be measured, at least the way I understand it, by looking back at the last year and questioning where or not I’m still making the same mistakes I made earlier this year. Therefore as I continue to grow I start to live differently. The work of Christ in continually growing His people creates within me not an ignorance that I still live in a chaotic Creation but a hope that I can in someway help create in the world today that which I see when I close my eyes and imagine the time after the resurrection of the entire Cosmos. I’m aware that I may at times come very close to crossing the boundary line between Christianity and Humanism but I simply cannot sit here and say that I expect people to let me down or that I am not surprised when they do. If the Creator has given His Creation the ability to grow and learn, and in turn, become more like Him, then I am surprised when people let me down. I’m not ignorant I just refuse to hide behind the copout that teaches us that until the resurrection of the entire Cosmos we are bound to let others down and we should expect the same, especially when the Creator has given us the ability to grow.

TimothyTiger

Creator & Creation - Part One

The Heart of all Things

I was taught to understand God as the foundation and the sustainer of all things. This lead me to believe in a God whose very founding and sustaining presence/power could be found in all areas of creation, including the Church. Therefore it can be very easy to question Gods power when the Church or any other areas of life seem to fail. But God also exists outside of His creation and before His creation. In others words God is not bound to the failures of His creation, and that is, He chooses/wills to participate in the transformation of His creation but the Creator cannot be judge by the failures of His creation, on the other hand, the Creator can be judge but His willingness to participate in the reconciliation of His creation. Nevertheless if God is at the heart of all things how easy is it to feel let down by God when the people that are sustained by His very power fail you? In the end God always was and always will be the founder, sustainer and redeemer of His creation regardless of how chaotic it may appear. I reckon that’s at awesome thought and that enables me to not only cut the Church some slack but the Creator as well!

TimothyTiger

Work With Me Women

Why can't I understand women? Why do they have to be so difficult? Why do women play mental and emotional games and why can’t I ever seem to win at these games? I’d love women to be straight with me and that means that they need to tell me how they feel and why they feel that way. They don’t need to prepare a lecture but I’d like to know the truth. That’s all I want is the truth and I can handle the truth! If I had one wish it would be to possess the ability to both understand and know what women want!

TimothyTiger

The Journey - Part Three

The Challenge: To drive from Melbourne to Perth in my 1988 Rover Vitesse without any sleep or power naps. Challenge Accepted.

Part Three

BorderTown to Perth


Beautiful Women

The drive from Bordertown to Balladonia was demoralizing! I was confronted with long stretches of straight road that existed in flat plains with little plant life in existence. What made matters worse was the fact that I’d been driving for about twenty seven hours straight, and without any turns in the road or exciting scenery to keep my mind awake and my eyes open I found my mind drifting off into a place where soft beds, sheets washed in fabric softener, pure wool quilts and pillows, and beautiful ladies who offered back massages reigned supreme. It was a wonderful place and after I’ve finished this historical recording I may return there and live out my days in complete satisfaction and contentment. When I returned to reality I knew I had a fight on my hands and it was at this time that the Lord Almighty decided to test my resolve, my commitment to the challenge, and like a true Salvationist I passed. I arrived at Balladonia and decided to have some breakfast.

Sandwich or Hot Chips

I released a coat hanger from my right hand and watched it soar through the air and disappear over the boxes, and it was only when I heard Dane yell out in anger that I knew the coat hanger had accomplished its mission! Unfortunately what I didn’t know was that the coat hanger had hit him in the face and that meant the end of the game for today. It was now ten thirty in the morning and Dane and I had been at work for over two hours and therefore we thought it necessary to take our third break.

We sat down on some boxes and began to talk about life. I’d known Dane for about two years but we’d only been working together for about six months and over this time I got to know Dane really well and we’d become good friends. I told him that I was to return to Perth in the next few weeks and as a result he told me about one of his friends who had driven over from Melbourne to Perth. He told me this story so that I could avoid the mistake his friend had made and as it turned out his advice proved priceless, if only I’d listened.

I put the car into park and lean back against the head rest and yawned, I was tired, really tired. I got out of the car and stretched. I then went inside to order some breakfast. I look up the menu and was amazed by the variety that was offered by the owners in such a desolate place. I brought a sandwich and sat down to devour it! After only a few bites I realized that this sandwich was not made today, or even yesterday, the sandwich must be close to a week old! It was horrible and my stomach refused its admittance. So backup it came and it wasn’t pretty. I knew that attempting to eat healthy in the middle of nowhere wouldn’t pay off so I decided to order a large bucket of hot chips.

Dane had finished his story and I nodded in agreement. I sat there and thought through what he had said and I knew that if nothing else I had to order the hot chips over the sandwich. The reason for this is that I knew that the chips where at least to some extent fresh but the sandwich could have been there for days. Maybe next time I’ll learn to order the hot chips over of the sandwich.

Road Works

I left Balladonia and was headed for Norseman which was about two hundred kilometers up the road. I was really tired and decided that Hillsong United needed some court time. One way Jesus, you’re the only one that I could live for, one way Jesus. It seems that whenever I try and build my relationship with Jesus life gets complicated. This leg should have taken a maximum of two hours but who could guess I would come across road works in the middle of nowhere. Jesus really does have a sense of humor! Massive trucks, cranes and much more! I couldn’t help but think that this must be costing the federal government millions! My heart sank because it was about forty degrees and I didn’t have air conditioning. I’d managed to survive the heat by winding my windows down and at high speeds which would allow the breeze to cool me down but when I was told to slow down to forty kilometers an hour and had to wind up all the windows to avoid the dust from entering my car it just didn’t seem fair! Nevertheless I managed to navigate through the road works and it only added on about thirty minutes to my travel time. I arrived at Norseman and stopped only to fill up the petrol tank and then I was off on the final leg of the journey!

Race Time

In a matter of minutes I was on the road again hugging the turns and powering past the road trains that tried to block my path. I watched as the minefields were but a blur as I sped past them. I suddenly became aware of each second that past and eagerly awaited the distance markers telling me the end was near. I shot through Coolgardie and headed for the shire of Southern Cross my heart was pounding I was getting close and I knew it. The Rover had also started to feel the strain as she struggle to keep up with the constant stream of torrent I was inflicting upon her but never did she falter. I was forty kilometers outside of Northam when the sun began to disappear over the horizon and it was at this point that my mind couldn’t take it anymore. So in the darkness of night after thirty-seven hours of constant driving the enemy began his final assault against my defenses.

The Battle Begins

Its not really there its just an illusion I told myself your mind is playing tricks on you. I believed this the first I saw it but when I saw it a second time I couldn’t so easily shrug it off. I looked in my revision mirror and I couldn’t see any car behind or in front of me I was all alone and for the first time I felt afraid. I looked in my revision mirror once more and I saw it again and I was scared. What I saw was a black figure that looked like a demon/wraith. It had no legs and long sharp fingers and it looked at me with its red eyes at when it did I felt afraid, I felt like death was coming for me. After it did this it would open its mouth to scream something and in doing so reveal rows of teeth that could devour a lion. Slowly it came closer and closer to the car and suddenly it would disappear. I looked forward only to see the trees move and on occasions come together to block the road. Numerous times I swerved to miss the blockade only to drive off the road into the darkness.

I started to feel the need to pull over and rest but then I saw the image of the demon/wraith approach from behind again and the idea of stopping quickly eluded my mind. I was nothing short of a mental breakdown when I had a brilliant idea, I would use my phone to call someone, as this would keep my mind occupied. I got out my phone and disaster struck the battery was dead. I started to panic because I knew I couldn’t take much more of this and as if things weren’t bad enough the enemy seemed intent of punishing me for trying to elude his mental torment because faces began to appeared on the tree trunks and they snarled at me in anger. They began to use their branches as arms and began to try and crush the Rover. With my mind pushing the limits of insanity I passed through Northam although I can’t remember this at all.

I felt trapped in my own mind. I felt like I would never escape this place that I found myself in. I was lost in my own insanity. I was terrified because I knew I had a home but now I felt like I would never reach it. To be honest I think the way I felt that night was closest I’ll ever come to understanding what hell must be like. With each second that passed I became more and more delusional. I found that my speed was increasing, as I desperately wanted to get home. Flying up and down hills at high speeds did cover the kilometers faster but it was also incredibly dangerous. And then it happened my mind finally gave way, as it could no longer take the punishment. My mind told me I was traveling straight ahead but the sounds of tires rolling over lose rocks told me otherwise. It was only through those noises that I found out that I’d crossed over the road and driving off the road on the other side of the road. One minute everything was fine but when I heard noises I blinked and when I opened my eyes things where not as they had first appeared.

I could feel hundreds of voices cry out for me to pull over and rest but I simply couldn’t not when I was this close. I was no more then twenty kilometers from my goal and I didn’t care about the cost anymore nobody was taking this from me. I arrived in Midland and found myself lost in my home city. I asked somebody at the lights for directions and she asked me if I was all right because she said I looked terrible and recommended that stop and rest for a minute. I became impatience with her lack of directions and drove off only to find that I driven straight through a red light. I was so determined to complete my quest that I think I crossed into the realm of insanity. For ages I drove around Midland and the surrounding suburbs turning to find my way home. I was lost and with each minute that passed I found myself on verge of madness. I drove faster and faster in desperate pea to find something that would help me gain a grasp on where I was. The car started to over heat and I was running out of fuel. The very fabrics that worked to keep my sanity intact were on the verge of being destroyed as my mind tired to devour them. I began to feel irritated by anything that occurred around me, from the noise that the indicator made to the time I had had to wait at the lights. Suddenly the car began to small and I couldn’t seem to fit inside it anymore, I needed more room and I started to feel claustrophobic. I wanted I get out, I pleaded with the Savior for this to be over, all I wanted was to find my home amid this prevailing darkness.

Home

It was when all hope had faded and everything seemed lost that I suddenly realized I knew how to get home. It was right in front me while I sat at the lights, it was a sign leading to the airport and I knew how to get home from the airport. With this revelation I found a new resolution, a new strength grew within as I drove towards the airport. When I arrived I smiled because I knew my way home from there. I drove for about ten minutes and when I arrived at my home I felt the greatest sense of accomplished mixed in with complete and uttered stupidity. It was nine thirty pm when I opened the car door and after I’d got out I gave the Rover a smile that said twice with done this lets pray we never have to do it again. As I walked towards the front door of my home I laughed as all the memories of this year seemed to run through my mind and for the first time since the sun went down my mind seemed to embrace the reality of the situation. I’d miss my friends more then I think they’ll ever know but this was the choice I’d made and the choice I must stick with. I stood before the door to my home and I put the key into the keyhole and slowly turned the handle, and as I saw the door open in front of me in my mind I saw a door close behind me.

TimothyTiger

The Journey - Part Two

The Challenge: To drive from Melbourne to Perth in my 1988 Rover Vitesse without any sleep or power naps. Challenge Accepted.

Part Two

Adelaide to Bordertown

Aussie Burger

With a smile I said goodbye to Adelaide and headed for Port Augusta. The distance between Adelaide and Port Augusta is about three hundred kilometres and I was determined to make up sometime on this leg. I was in the zone and I managed to make up about half an hour and even though I was still an hour and a half behind I knew this was a good start. The sunset was amazing and couldn’t help but take my eyes of the road at times to admire it. I arrived in Port Augusta at eight thirty and this was the first time since Horsham that I stopped to eat, and this time I spoiled myself by ordering an Aussie add mayo. It was nine o’clock when I’d finished eating and I prepared for the longest and most eventful leg of the journey, and that is, from Port Augusta to Norseman. It’s long, it’s boring, and it’s hot.

The Revelation

I left Port Augusta in high spirits and hoped to arrive at Kyancutta at eleven thirty pm. I’d been driving for about forty minutes when I started to feel that something was amiss. This feeling began when I remember something that had taken place when I drove over earlier this year, and that was, the National Freeway does not enter into Port Augusta directly there is a turnoff. As this memory became clearer and clearer so did the revelation that I hadn’t taking part in any turnoff since I left Port Augusta. Panic. I pulled over to look at my map and it was then that I realised I’d driven fifty kilometres in the wrong direction. Anger. The fact that the only remedy for the situation was to turn around and travel back to the turnoff was incredibly frustrating! This was the second time in twenty hours that I’d had to turn around and fix a problem I’d created. By the time I’d arrived at the turnoff I lost about one hour in time, rookie mistake. I did manage to makeup fifteen minutes and arrived at Kyancutta at twelve fifteen am.

Road Rage

Its seems that when life gets tough the ones you love the most are always the first to suffer because the Rover got punished when I travelled from Kyancutta to Ceduna. It was during this leg that the challenge first started to takes it toil on me. It was the earlier hours of the morning and I’d be driving for about eighteen hours straight and my eyelids felt like they were made out of reinforced concrete. It was at this time that I forgot on one occasion to turnoff my high beams when I passed a road train. In return the truck driver decided to unleash his lights full potential. I tried to speed up but he kept coming at me and the lights were blinding, and if you’ve never experienced a road trains high beams at hundred meters behind you, just imagined the MCG lights right up your backside while your driving incredibly tired. The safest option was to go faster and faster until I was out of his range but driving at high speeds while I was half asleep wasn’t safe either but I judge it to be the best option.

If you ever drive across Australia you’ll soon realise that some truck drivers are champions and the rest are pretty ordinary. For example, if you are struggling to pass a road train the champions will use their right side indicator to tell you its safe to pass, on the other hand, the cruel truck drivers will force you to overtake at night without any assistance. Another example, I make it my personal goal to wave to every vehicle that I pass on the road, and some truckies return the wave and even offer a smile, which I would humbly accept, and the others completely ignore my simple gesture of mateship. Although it’s give my great pleasure to state that most truckies are good blokes!

Road Kill

I was stuck behind a truck about forty kilometres outside of Ceduna when it happened. I was about to overtake the road train when I saw a wombat suddenly appear from underneath the rear of the truck. The truck didn’t injure the wombat because the body of the truck was high enough off the ground to miss it completely; I on the other hand was not so luckily. Honestly, the wombat didn’t have chance, and neither did I because I simply didn’t have the time to react in a way that would’ve spared his/her life. If I’d swerved to miss the wombat there was a chance that my wheel would connect with the animal and at speeds of a hundred and ten kilometres an hour there is fair chance that the car would roll. When the wombat raised his/her head to move, I removed it, the end result, road kill. I felt terrible, and the noise it made when it’s skull connected with my chassis was bone chilling because I knew that had to hurt. Poor little bugger never stood a chance, cut down in his prime. Although in saying that the Rover didn’t leave the incident without her fair share of bruises. The wombat did some danger to her front chassis. All in all though the car came through quite well. Rover one, wombat zero.

Truckies Advice

I arrived in Ceduna at three am on Wednesday morning. I turned into a Petrol Station and after I’d inspected the damage the wombat had inflicted on the Rover I went inside to pay for petrol. As I walked back to my car I reached inside my pockets to take out my car keys only to realise that they weren’t in my pocket, and what made matters worse was that as I searched through my other pockets I couldn’t for the life of me remember taking them out of the ignition, and sure enough I looked through the window and there were my keys still in the ignition. Why? Why did I have to lock my keys in my car in the middle of nowhere? And so, I walked back inside, and as I did I hoped that one of the truckies would know how to break into a car. When inside one of the truck drivers said he could break into my car for me but I couldn’t blame him for the damage he inflicted upon the car while he did it. Damage? He said he’d smash the window for me. Bugger. I declined the offer and went over to ask the shop assistant for a coat hanger in order to jimmy open the car. After I’d acquired a coat hanger from the gentlemen behind the counter I went outside to stand before the Rover. It was as I stood there that I realised I’ve no idea how to jimmy open a car door! Then I realised the seriousness of the situation and the idea of being stranded in the middle of nowhere seemed to generate confident within me. After about ten minutes and goodness knows how much damage inflicted upon the Rover I somehow manage to open the side door. It was with great hast that I jumped into the drivers seat and drove away, far, far, away.

Turn and Face the Change

I drove throughout the night and I was about fifty kilometres short of Bordertown when the sun rose over the ocean to the east. The road upon which I travelled ran parallel to the Great Australian Bight and so I decided to turn down a gravel road and watch the sun rise across the Great Australian Bight. Even though the cliff face was only a hundred metres off the main road it turned out to be a bumpy drive. I turned the engine off and approached the cliff face, and as I looked down at the waves smashing into the cliff face below I had sudden urge to jump! Maybe it’s just me but I love diving and the thought of soaring through the air really makes me feel alive, I’d love to be able to fly! Nevertheless I sat down on the cliff face and watched the sunrise. People think I’m crazy because I decided to drive back over to Perth but to those people I’ve always said that there is nothing better then being alone in the middle of nowhere with no body or building to be seen and watching the sunrise over the Great Australian Bight while your feet dangle over a cliff face. It’s so beautiful. I’m amazed that even though isolated I never felt alone. The wind in your hair and the sun of your face, the sound of the waves crashing below, the smell of the ocean and feeling of freshness that each morning brings. I love it and I wouldn’t trade it for all the money in the world and I also wouldn’t expect people to understand unless they’ve experienced it for themselves.

While I sat and watched the sunrise I smiled as I thought about this year and all that has happened. Yet even as I thought about the year and everything that had come to pass I felt something new stir within me. This stirring did not exist independent of the past but rather amidst that which has already occurred. I felt that I’d grown and that the boy who made this journey seven months ago was gone. I felt that I’d lost my innocence because for the first time in my life I’d stepped out into the unknown and taken a risk. I knew that I was completely responsible for the choices I’d made this year and thus the consequences. The boy had long since departed and I was faced with the reality of being totally responsible for my life, and even though I was returning home to live with my parents I knew things would be different. I had mixed feelings about this revelation because it indicated that I could never go back to way things once were, in short, I’d changed. I smiled at the thought of having complete control over my life and of possessing the power to choose my own path. I slowly rose and walked back to my car and as I stood there about to open my door I laughed as I thought about how difficult the next few months would be and where I’ll be this time next year. I arrived at Bordertown forty-five minutes later and crossed into Western Australia.

The Journey – Part One

The Challenge: To drive from Melbourne to Perth in my 1988 Rover Vitesse without any sleep or power naps. Challenge Accepted.

Part One

Melbourne - Adelaide

Parting Ways

The theme music from Star Wars filled the room and I awoke after an anxious and restless sleep and began to pack my car. When I’d finished I sat down to relax for a minute in order to bring my thought into line because my decision to both move and drive over to Perth had made me nervous. While I wrestled with thoughts of regret, disappointment and anxiety Annie entered the room, and after Brad and Aaron failed to arise at the arranged time I decided that they needed some encouragement. It wasn’t long before everybody was awake and I was saying my goodbyes as the Rover warmed up and before I knew it I had parted ways with my good friends and had begun the three thousand four hundred-kilometer drive from Melbourne to Perth.

Familiar Faces

Everything had gone according to plan, I hadn’t slept in, I had my snacks that Annie had brought for me the night before, legend, and the only thing I forgot to do before I left was fill up the petrol tank. This wasn’t a big problem because I had enough fuel to get across the city and so I decided to fill up in Sunshine. It took me about forty-five minutes to both cross the city and reach Sunshine. When I arrived I found a BP petrol station and pulled in to refuel. It was at this point that I came into the knowledge of a horrible truth. It happened as I reached across to take my wallet out of my green Kathmandu bag that I realized I’d forgotten my bag, it was still on the couch where I’d left it when Annie came into the room this morning. I could’ve cried as a matter of fact I did cry because it was now six forty-five in the morning and I was faced with the prospect of having to cross the city twice in peak hour. This would set me back at least two hours and I knew it, and it hurt. Anybody who knows me knows that I don’t go anywhere without that bag and therefore I just couldn’t believe it. Regardless of what I could believe I was bag-less and it was with tears running down my face that I turned around and headed home.

While I drove back I called Brad and he confirmed that my bag was in deed on the couch in the lounge room. Shortly after that phone call I arrived at Brad’s house and encountered those all too familiar faces that I’d said goodbye to earlier this morning but nevertheless I collected my bag and headed off again. Traffic was worse then I could’ve ever imagined. The Rover and I crawled through both the eastern freeway and the city, and by the time I reached the BP station in Sunshine I’d lost two hours. So frustrated by both my mistake and the time I’d lost due to it I headed towards Horsham.

Street Signs

I’d nearly arrived at Tailem Bend when I sighted an elderly couple trying to change a flat tire. Now before you ask I did the Christian thing, which is, I kept driving and never looked back. I felt terrible and to tell the truth I still feel terrible and I still wonder whether they actually managed to change that tire or if there still stuck out there. Beside that blatant disregard for the elderly the journey from Melbourne to Adelaide was uneventful.

I arrived in Adelaide at about four thirty in the afternoon and once again I got lost trying to cross through this dreadful city. Honestly, how hard is it to put up some street signs? A brief history for those of you who are new to my life’s story, earlier this year I drove from Perth to Melbourne and I got lost in Adelaide so this is the second time. My day just kept getting worse because not only was I still two hours behind but now I was lost in Adelaide at peak hour. Eventually I managed to ask somebody for help while I was stopped at the lights. I followed his directions and I managed to successfully navigate through Adelaide. If I was sad to say goodbye to Melbourne then I was overjoyed to farewell Adelaide!

TimothyTiger