My fake tooth is sticking further out of my mouth think it used to. I think my other teeth are kicking it out. Perhaps I'll have to take anti-rejection drugs.

Plus my other big, front tooth seems to be dying, so perhaps my teeth have engaged in some kind of suicide pact, one of us goes, we all go. I wish they'd include me in these descions.

I was at work at 6am because I was preaching today and I needed to finish the sermon. I worked on it most of yesterday but I didn't get it finished.

Last night I went to Helen and Jon's engagement party and went home with Stephen to stay at his place so I didn't have to go all the way back home. He didn't have a computer which meant I could finish my sermon writing. So I got up at 5am and walked to church to finish the work.

Sadly I didn't sleep well last night. I kept waking up thinking I should be getting up. Then telling myself I should go back to sleep. Plus the pillows were too big. Oh well.

The sermon went well. I'll upload it at the blog soon.

It's too early to be at work.

Rebel

Tommy Lee (Motley Crew), Jason Newsted (Metallica) and Gilby Clarke (Guns N' Roses) are teaming up to form a super metal band called Supernova. But they need a singer. To find one they're going to do a series of "Rock Star" the reality TV show that found INXS' new front man.

Tommy Lee said: "We're going to pull out all the stops to find the most charismatic and musically talented lead singer to front Supernova. I love breaking the rules."

I fail to see how doing doing a reality TV show to find a lead singer is breaking the rules. I think I'd call it selling out. Unless he's means he's going to find a musically talented lead singer and that's breaking the rules. Sounds more plausable to me.

David Leaves Again



David's gone now.

We all went to the Airport way early to see him off. It wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be. 6am didn't feel like 6am. It was fun. It's much easier saying good bye a second time. He'll be back. And he'll stay in touch.

But it's still sad. David's pretty special.

I went to college after the airport. Today's discussion topics were prophesy, tongues, and women in church. All the controversial ones and I fell asleep many times.

Then it was off to work which mainly consisted of writing a Bible Study.

I have to preach on Sunday and my preparation is much further behind than I had planned. Oh well. I'll get there.

Good Bye

We had our last Commie Dinner with David before he goes to India. Everyone loves David. Everyone said nice things about him. He deserved them all.

Getting On

I just read an article where a Youth Minister was moaning about being old and at the bottom it said he was a six year youth ministry veteran. Gosh, it must be sad if you're a veteran after 6 years. Youth Ministers don't really stick around much. If you count my years in voluntary Youth Ministry I'm a 7 year veteran. But I'll be around for a bit longer.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Unless, of course he's a vegetarian, then he won't care, ungrateful bastard."

I love my Tool kit

I just fixed the roller door to our bathroom. It came of it's rail this morning. I have grease on my fingers.

I have a new screwdriver too that cost me $2.50 from the hardware store up the road. It's a pretty crappy screwdriver. Sometime screwdrivers will shread the screw head, but on this one the screw head shreaded the screw driver.

Anyway, it's fixed now, till it breaks again. But I'm happy for the moment.

This is my first blog from my computer at my new home.

Today I was a it tired but we had one of the best drama groups at church that we've had in a long time. We worked on scripts and the young people just seemed to get it. They did really good little pieces with their scripts. I was impressed.

I went to David's farewell thing at Manly today. That was quiet, but nice. I got a good park which pleased me to no end.

For youth group we went to the retirement village which is usually rather difficult. But today the residents had been waiting for us to arrive (they had been given the wrong time) and were very excited to see us. We didn't have much music but we all played a game with them and they liked that. It was really good to see that they do value having us around and we could all get something out of being with each other.

It's too late to be at work

It's so close to being midnight. I'm still at the office.

We had our Youth Group celebration night tonight. They're always a lot of work. But they're fun too. They have a wierd vibe that you only get when you have at these nights. It's probably because the church is decorated and the lights aren't as bright. Plus everyone is dressed up, and I'm not very relaxed.

We had a good speaker tonight.

Tonight I noticed how much Helen and I worked as a team on this stuff. There are some parts of ministry that I just chugged along at alone, and others that we did together. This was always an event we did together. Actually, she always did more work on these events so I did notice we were missing Helen a bit. She is good value.

Today we had my Aunty, Great Aunty, Step Grandmother and my Mother over to our house for lunch. It was fun but my room was messy.

I think I should go home.

I'll be back here in 9 hours.

You Were Acting Like it Was the End of the World

It's funny, I'm not hugely upset about U2 postponing. I was excited, but it was feeling too good to be true. And I've been waiting 8 years to see U2, I can wait another few months. What I well be upset about is if they come while I'm in Europe in July. That would make me most upset. Then it really will be the end of the world.

Anyway, the nerves are back as we await tour dates again.

I do hope the family member gets better.

This reminds me a bit of the Counting Crows kafuffle.

Thanks Anmol for the heads up.

I went to the Dentist this arvo. It cost $363 for a 1 hour visit where they took x-rays, photos and moulds. Pow! No wonder everyone says you should ask dentists to invest in the film industry.

I guess I should fill in the rest of what happened on the weekend. Just so you're not all in suspense.

I got woken up on at around 9am on Saturday morning by Jo and Jem poking their head into my room. They were on the phone to my concerned mother. I'm sure she wanted them to check up on me, make sure I wasn't dead or anything. I wasn't.

I got up and said "Hello" to my house and explained my new looks to those who were about. I had a conversation with my mother on the phone. That day we were going to my cousin's wedding and Mum offered to bring my clothes over to my house that I had been planning to pick up the night before. After that I got to sit down for a pancake breakfast. I liked the pancakes.

In between pancakes I looked for emergency dentist people. I tried one with an ugly ad that was close by, but they were booked out. I think I was a bit relieved about that. I found one in Chatswood that would have me as soon as I go there. So Jo (who had gone out to get a green slip) came and got me and we "raced" off to Chatswood.

On the way to Chatswood I called Mum to tell her we were no longer at our house. She had just got to our house. Oops. Sorry Mum.

In the Dentist they made me fill out a form. When the dentist saw me he said "S**t, we had better fix that!" So it was straight into the chair for me, more anesthetic, and lots of glue. In the end I got my front teeth splinted together because they'd all been knocked loose and a new false tooth glued in. It's only temporary, but it does the job. It was cool. He had a box full of false teeth and he just pulled one out. How exciting.

It was off to Grandpa and Valentina's place for lunch and getting ready for the wedding. By that staged I was feeling pretty whacked. I had a new experience at lunch. I got some food stuck in my gum. Not just on my gum, or between my teeth, but under my new false tooth and up on the large excavation left by my old tooth. It was a rather interesting experience digging that out with a tooth pick.

After lunch and a shower it was off to the wedding. By the time I got to the wedding I didn't feel like talking to anyone. I was so tired. I didn't really get all that excited about the service and I fell asleep in the sermon. Everytime I woke up the minister was looking at me so I felt bad. I think my tiredness was cause by the fact that I hadn't slept much, I had only eaten two pancakes and a little salmon roll since the night before, and I had probably burned up heaps of energy going into shock and being full of adrenaline for most of the night before. But I could just be a pansy too.

I had a Boost Juice (Banana Buzz) and a sleep between the wedding and the reception and I felt a lot better for that.

The reception was in the Harbour Watch room in Pier One. It was a pretty spectacular location. I was put on the young, single counsins table, so I was sitting next to my 20 year old cousin on one side and a year 10 guy and his year 7 sister on the other. I think they were cousins of my cousins. I had trouble talking to those two. I had to remind myself that it's my job to talk to people their age because I could have any kind of interesting conversation with them.

I went home from the reception early.

Sunday was just a normal Sunday. Except I had lots of people coming up to me and asking me how I was. I told the story of my demise often. But that's ok, I was prepared for that. It's rather draining having to accept so much sympathy. But we have a lovely community.

These days things are nice. I get to take my stitches out myself tomorrow. My lip is healing well. It's rather annoying because it hurts for most of the day, but it's nothing to worry about. My teeth ache a bit, especially when I bite them. And tomorrow I'm off to the dentist to get myself checked out for my new permanent tooth. How exciting.

And that, my friends, is the exciting adventures of Tom and his Friday Night Skating.

This is in the car on the way to the hospital.


Life gets hard waiting for the Triage


While in the waiting room I decided to pass the time by getting some shots done for my new modeling portfolio.


Once I made it to be examined I tragically slipped into a coma.


My swanky hospital room


The Operation


We're going home (Sorry Matt)

I was planning on buying shower curtain rings all day today. Actually I've been planning to buy them for the past two weeks. But I didn't manage it today as I didn't manage it all the other days. Today movies, beer, hot chips and Coke got in the way. Certainly things I'd say that should take precedence, just don't tell the people I live with that.

Tomorrow I am off to head office for an interview for candidacy to become a deacon. I was going to wear shorts and a t-shirt till I realised some people might regard this as a big deal.

I hate dressing up.

On Friday I went Ice Skating with my year 6-8 boys small group. There were only about 5 of them so we fitted very nicely in the van. Once we got to the Ice Rink we ate a bit of dinner then headed off to skate.

We were there right at the beginning of the session, which I've never done before. I think that must be when all the hard core skaters get there because they all seemed to be really good. A lot better then me of my crew.

Skating was fun. I'm not sure why going in a circle on to thin pieces of metal is fun, but it is.

Once we'd been skating for an hour and a bit I got a feeling that something was going to happen to me, like I was going to fall over or something. Listening to my intuition (which sometimes pays off) I hopped off the ice to visit one of the boys who was sitting out because he had blisters from his boots. After a few minutes with him, I didn't feel like anything was going to happen any more, so I hopped back on the ice. I couldn't have gone more than about 5 meters before someone came flying round the corner and ran into me.

They hit me from behind which spun me around. Unfortunately my legs kept their momentum and came up from under me. I landed on the ice face first. I hit my chin, which caused to me to bite into my lip and knocked my front right tooth out of my mouth.

Of course I didn't know all this at the time. I got up saw blood on the ice, felt blood on my face and realised something was wrong. I could feel a hole in my lip so I got off the ice, found my hankie and put it on my lip. I went to find my boys to let them know that I was off to clean myself up. I went looking for the bathroom but by the time I got to the other side of the ring I was feeling a little lost and noticed that there was a lot more blood coming from my face than I could fix with a quick dab of the paper towel. I went to the skate hire man and he saw and gave me this worried look. "Go knock on the office door they'll look after you."

I went over to the office and lined up at the door behind some people wanting to buy cans of Coke (which I subsequently found out are $1.60, rather expensive if you ask me) but when the people in line saw me they gave me a look of horror and stepped to the side. I knocked on the door and the manager man let me into the office and sat me in a chair next to the water cooler. He was the only one in the office, so he seemed to be doing everything at once. He pulled out the first aid box, put on his rubber gloves and cleaned the blood off my arms and face. He threw out my hankie which was soaked in blood. I said "That was my best hankie."

He said "Oh, so you want me to get it back?"

And I said "No, it was a joke"

He got out some gauze to put on my chin, which I didn't even know was hurt. He whacked the gauze on and taped it too my face. At some stage during this I stuck my tongue through the hole where my tooth should have been and felt only lip. After a bit more examination with me tongue, and searching my mouth to make sure what I was feeling was right, I piped up and said "I think I lost my tooth." I can't remember how the man responded to that. He got me an ice pack and a drink of water, and gave some more gauze to dab at my lip to clean up the blood. We had a bit of a conversation about who I'm here with and he filled out a form with my name and address and phone number and stuff on it. I think so that they have my details if I decide to sue them. I won't sue them though, that'd be silly. Skating isn't exactly the sport you do thinking you're going to be completely safe. Plus I don't like the idea of suing people.

I sat in the office trying to figure out what I should be doing. Wondering if I would be able to drive people home, how I would look at the wedding I had to go to the next day with out a tooth, wondering how much blood I was drinking.

Over the course of my time in the office I had a conversation with the man about how I was happy this had happened because I didn't want to have to iron my shirt for my wedding the next day, and I asked what would happen to my tooth. He said no one would find it and it'd get sucked up by the machine. It was all very serious for him. I tried some more light hearted banter about lost teeth and rubbish bins, but he didn't seem too keen to enjoy the moment. I figure it's not every day you get to loose a tooth so why not enjoy it?

I got the guy to summons one of my boys to the office so he could call his Dad and get the Dad to drive us all home. He did this then was sent out of the office again. He and the boys then peeked through the office windows at me. I smiled am poked my tongue through my new tooth hole at them. And they made pained faces at me went "Awwwww!"

At some stage the DJ came into the office. I recognised him as a guy who I went to school with. We had a conversation about the old school days (Him: "What year did you finish?" Me: "2000" Him: "I was the year above you. I don't remember you.") and then he proceeded to tell me that he's never going ice skating if people end up like me but what a fearless skier he is. He was fun. It was good to have someone to make a joke or two with. Although I did like the office man.

When the Dad arrived I took off my skate and left them in the office, then got ready to go. We collected our stuff, I put on my shoes and was stared at by everyone I walked past. Probable because I had blood on my clothes, some gauze taped to my face, a bloody lip and I was holding an ice pack to me chin. Either that or they were admiring my fashion choices.

The Dad took us to the car, prayed for us then droves us home. As we were leaving the boys were talking about my injury. Someone made a joke to which another of them replied "Not funny guys, Tom's just got hurt" I turned around and told the boys to make as many jokes as they wanted, I wouldn't be offended.

As we drove home I rang my boss. He was very concerned about me, I told him the injury was from all the drugs I had taken before small group.

Once back at church I met some concerned mothers and got my photo taken. The Dad waited to drive me to a hospital while I went to my office to collect my gear. In the office I met Matt and Beck who offered to drive me to the Hospital themselves. I figured this was a better idea, as they didn't have kids at home to look after. I took them up on the offer and, thanking him I sent the Dad on his way. He was very good to me. We have good parents at my church.

On the way to hospital Beck took photos for the photo essay that I'll post soon while Matt made haste. It was fun trip. Really it was, I was quite enjoying the novelty of the situation and it had lots of opportunities for jokes. Plus when you're injured people are more likely to laugh out of sympathy.

We made it to the hospital after getting a little lost. We went to Royal Prince Alfred because it's close to my home. Plus I figured we could get on TV if they're still making RPH.

When I was waiting for the Triage I asked the Ambulance Officer sitting next to me if Napisan gets blood out of jeans. She didn't seem to know how you got blood out of clothes which I thought was odd seeing as I figure Ambulance people must get covered in blood regularly.

Once I got to talk the Triage man he told me that he lost his front two teeth three times in his life. He looked fine.

We were sent round to the Emergency Waiting Room where Matt, Beck and I were to spend the next 5 hours of our life. Time went relatively quickly seeing as all we had to do was watch late night TV, read old magazines and do their cross words.

In the waiting room we met a few interesting people. We met some girls in pink togas who brought in a drunk girl who couldn't walk. They were fun. When they were leaving one of them said "I hope your tooth gets better." I told her it probably wouldn't.

I went outside at one stage to send a message to Helen. While I was out the front I saw some people running of the road and shouting "Call triple-0". As they came closer I noticed one of them was holding his head and had blood all over him. He went into the emergency ward. As I went back inside I found him standing in a puddle of his blood being treated by an Ambulance dude and I heard him telling the Triage that just down the street someone had smashed a vodka bottle over his head.

At 3:30am we were taken in to see a doctor. A nurse cleaned me up a bit, then gave me a tetanus shot. The Doctor arrived, gave me some anesthetic and put 5 stitches in my chin. Then we were free to go home.

Matt and Beck drove me home. I did my teeth carefully then went to bed.

Thanks Matt and Beck.

I think I'll have to continue the weekend later. This has been rather long. Oh well. Well done for reading this far.



Just after I arrived back at church. As you can see the missing tooth makes me look that much hotter.

This is my first post from home internet. Thank you David for making it work after it died.

I woke up this morning and bought some tickets to Jamie Cullum. It really is the year of people to watch, U2, Jamie, Coldplay, Mundine vs Danny Green. It's gonna be cool.

Filling in the Blanks

There's an RSL club near my work that Helen, Jon and I discovered the other week. I've been working there for 3 years and only now have we discovered it. It's like an oasis in the desert. It's got all the TVs, pokies, Old Men and gwaudy carpets of an RSL club and it's just down the road. It's fantastic. We've lunched there three times since we discovered it. It's been real exciting. I've had a roast everytime.

Tonight I went out with Priscilla for the night. We thought we'd catch up, so we did. We went to Mama's Kitchen, I've never been there before. Then wandered around the city.

Rick Warren said in The Purpose Driven Life something like "Don't write about what you did each day, no body wants to hear about that". And I'm like, "Hey, don't be so rude". Of course maybe no one does want to read about what I do each day, but don't burst my bubble. But I think the blogging phonomena may have proved him wrong there. But it may just prove that there are lots of people out there who like to write about their days, it doesn't prove that people actually want to read that.

Phew, I'd hate it if Rick Warren was wrong. My whole world would crumble. I'd have no sense of purpose.

Seeing as we're doing 40 Days of Purpose at our church one of the girls in my Bible study group brought her Purpose Driven Life to the group on Monday and said "So do we just bring this book now? Does it replace the Bible?" I reckon it was a valid question. I wouldn't mind replacing the Bible with the Purpose Driven Life, it'd be much easier to read in a year. Although it doesn't have as many good stories.

I am enjoying doing 40DOP though. I think it'll be good for our church. It'll be good for us all to be doing stuff together.