Writing checks and breaking necks

I suppose it's time to write another entry. It's been a pretty chill break. Sara (Canada) and Sophi (Mexico) have been spending a good bit of time around the "Atlanta House", which honestly has nice way to balance out the overflow of testosterone. Our meals have been hot and hearty and our sink and counters clean. 

Josh practicing Latin dancing, Stephan DJ-ing, girls cooking, and me in the middle of it.

I'm renowned for my bear-hugs...my mam maw told me so.

Yesterday, we went with Sophi to pick up her new hatch at the Suzuki dealership in the city. It was the first time I had ever drove off the lot in a brand new car, and probably will be the last... Dave Ramsey always said to buy used. Stephan drove home because Sophie's license was expired. There was no close calls and we never missed a turn. It reminded me of the first time I drove our rental around last year in Cairns while waiting for my dad to check the standby list at the airport. Driving on the left side of the road is really as hard as you make it, and Stephan played it cool the entire way.

We didn't go surfing today because once again a lack of a ride. I'm starting to consider selling my board for a longer one, a door or small canoe would help me mount the waves quite nicely methinks. 

Instead, today was a lovely lazy one. Chilled out at the house watched a few movies, ate left overs, and filled out  job applications (I'm trying to get a job at Bunnings, it's like an Australian Home Depot). The past few days have been amazing days Colour Conference recovery, I'm actually ready get back in the regular swing of things. Which is probably a good thing because we start back tomorrow.

Here's a few random stories or things I have learned about different cultures (and my own) talking to all these different people from different nationalities:

-In China,  it's perfectly acceptable to hold your bowl up to your gaping mouth and shovel rice in with a clicking pair of chopsticks. Whereas in Korea, all dishware stays table-side and any noise besides quite conversation is considered extremely rude.

-As part of my job working registers, I had to ask each customer if they were interested in donating five dollars to the Queensland flood relief by buying Hillsong's cover of the "It Is Well With My Soul" hymn. One older lady, while I was giving my spiel, waved her hand to cut me off and said "I have cancer. Do you really think I have time to worry about Queensland?" Before I time to come up with anything to  sympathetic to reply,  she handed her card over the counter to me and asked casually "Credit please."

-NO ONE says " Put another shrimp on the barbie." down here! I swear if one more person from back in the states says that again with an embarrassing attempt at an Aussie accent, I'm gonna lose it. In fact, go ahead and toss "You call that a knife? THIS is a knife." and "Crikey" out the window. However, you can tack on a "Hey?" at the end of a sentence where you want people to agree with you. Example: "It's was hot out, HEY?"  if you want to say you like some thing, you could say you are "Keen on it".

-"So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads." — Dr. Seuss....This is the reason I try to keep my blogs from being too lengthy. I know what it's like to go to a blog and be overwhelmed with a massive chunk of text. So I try to just pack it into a a condensed, read-worthy blast of information.

I stumbled upon this picture, and realized the man in the picture is me 50 years from now. The good news I take from this? I have an awesome spread in the mountains by a lake, still wearing flannels and I have have a beard full of wisdom and stories. This is currently the background for my computer.

Also, as always, I go out with a song that in some sort of way seems to fit the entry or that I'm keen on at the moment. I think this works quite nicely...