Today

Started at 3am. Very early after a crappy sleep.

I drove out to the airport listening to Bruce Springsteen. I'd picked that mini-disk in Wellington I think. Days of planning had gone into that.

I drove through the deserted streets of Auckland. Was very cool. There was one stage where there was one other car on the road with me and I was driving a long the motorway through the city, under and over bridges and past buildings, everything deserted. It was like I was driving in a racing game on PS2 or something. I enjoyed that.

I arrived at the airport after just one wrong turn. I parked the car in this funny little carpark and left the keys under the mat, then left the car unlocked and walked to the International terminal, getting water in my holly shoes. I had to call the car rental people after that to confirm the drop off. I felt like a drug dealer.

At the check-in counter I noticed a sign saying "$25 Departure Tax may be paid at the Bank of New Zealand". This was a worry. I had never heard of this departure tax. I wasn't prepared. I had no money on me. Just $A30 to get me home from the Airport in Sydney. I wandered around for a bit wondering if perhaps I had already paid this fee. But it wasn't to be. I had to go to the bank and hope they would take my Aussie money. Luckily they did and I got $7 change. Not enough to get me home. Bugger.

That was at 4:47am. I decided to call home and get Dad to pick me up, (he had offered the night before, but I refused hoping to sleep on the train on the way home). So at 2:27am Sydney time Mum and Dad got a call from a lovely Telstra woman who asked them if they'd accept a reverse charges call from their dear, long, lost son. To my relief they still love me enough to hear my pleas. Dad said he'd meet me at the airport. Ahh, sorted.

I caught an Airbus A340 home. It was LanChile. Very cool. They had TV screens in the back of every seat and I had lots of movies and TV shows to chose from. If I hadn't be dog tired I would have indulged. As it was I just slept. I only dribbled and woke myself up once.

During breakfast I listened to Fallen the album by Evanescence which was one of my inflight listening options.

That was good because I've been thinking about buying that album. It was good, but perhaps not buyable. Good music, but the lyrics are very Year 9. Not very subtle really. A bit gothic and dull. Amy Lee can sing a bit though. So I enjoyed the music and singing and the sausage and Coke for breakfast. Just not the words. They didn't go down too well.

In Sydney I met Dad and we drove to St Leonard's where he went to work and I drove home.

I slept at home for an hour and a half. That was very nice. When I arrived in Sydney I didn't really feel like being back. I didn't want to be back in Australia where I have too much stuff to worry about. Overseas was so nice, no problems. But once I got into my bed, then I knew was happy to be home. If only for my bed.

Work today was good. My office is a mess as usual. Although not my fault this time. Jamie told me he had had some girls in there while I was away. I think they were doing Soul Survivor stuff, but it's more fun to think there was a wild party. It would be fun if someone had a wild party in my office while I was away. There was an empty coffee mug and some half eaten biscuits so I'd say that points to a massive, wild, party.

Maybe someone used the photocopier for you know, photocopier at a party stuff.

Helen and I had lunch together and had important talks about youth ministry. We do lots of important youth ministry talks.

I spent my $7 change from my departure tax on a chicken burger and Coke combo. It really is good to be home.

Matt and I caught up. That was good. Good to talk.

Youth group went good tonight. We played a silly game with Wing's music that illustrated the talk. The kids enjoyed that. They danced to Wing.

At the end of the night one of our kids disappeared. He's an autistic boy who comes and at the end of night he decided to wander off. We searched and called our for him but couldn't find him. His father turned up, then drove off in search of his son. Some people got stressed. I stood around feeling like I should have been stressed that I'd lost a kid, but I wasn't. I wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing. I was pretty certain he'd turn up. He tends to be a wanderer this kid, although, he's never wandered off from youth group before.

He did turn up in the end. He wandered off to visit his Mum at tennis.

I came home, and blogged.

I got to see Mum and catch her up on the news.

And Hannah got up and needed to be put back to bed. I got to do that. I really liked doing that. Putting Hannah to bed, carrying her upstairs and putting her blanket over her, that's another reason I'm happy to be home.