I'm currently at home, in the lounge terminal. On a stopover between Soul Survivor Conference and Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival. In 30 minutes my train leaves to take me to the airport.

Soul was awesome. Two kids in my youth group became Christians! Woot!

More later (if you're lucky).

Blues and Roots promises to be fun but probably with less Jesus.

Last year I went on Sailing Camp and if you believe the revisionist history I'm currently revisionising, I became an expert sailor.

This year I went to speak on the same camp again. And despite my brilliant skills of sailing, I didn't manage to sail once. Which seems a little like going to Africa and not going on safari, which I also did. I did want to go sailing, but things got in the way. Like on the first day I canoed because there wasn't enough room on the boats. The second day I was doing canoeing again, but then a kid cut his finger on an oyster. I was tasked with ambulance driving, so another leader and I spent 4 hours in Wyong hospital with him. In the end he didn't even get a stitch, it was a little disappointing. We did get to eat McDonalds though, so we'll call it even.

The next day I took a girl to the medical centre to get a tetanus shot after she was also attacked by an oyster, which meant I didn't sail that day either. On the last two days of sailing, I stayed on land because they needed extra leaders there. So the lack of sailing was a little sad, I enjoy sitting out on those boats. Especially on the hot days.

Despite the lack of nautical adventures, I did have a pretty good camp. There were almost 70 kids on the camp which made it almost at capacity. I had trouble getting to meet all the kids. Still they all met me. One of the things about being speaker is that everyone feels like they know you better than you feel like you know them and it's probably true. So hopefully people felt like I had interacted with them even if I hadn't got to do it much face to face.

Best of all about the camp was that there were 12 kids who put up their hands to say they became Christians after the talks. I'm pretty sure it was a worthwhile camp.

Next year though, if I'm there, "I'm on a boat!"

The last that you all heard, I was on my way down to Melbourne to watch U2. I was going because I'm on camp in a week which is when U2 is in Sydney and I love U2 so much I didn't want to miss them.

It was also an excellent opportunity to hang out with David and Andreana. I was especially looking forward to hanging out with Andreana because I feel like I don't know her very well. And seeing as she's marrying one of my oldest friends, I reckon like I should at least know a little of who she is. I learnt that she works in a uni and quite likes rain coats, so I feel it was a successful fact finding mission.

I was worried it would be rainy, and Melbourne did its best to meet expectations. I arrived in wet Melbourne after a reasonably normal plane flight. I did sit next to a girl on the plane and I thought "Maybe we will have a conversation and fall in love", but then I found out she lived in Melbourne and wasn't that keen on U2 - two strikes, she's out.

I met David once I hopped off the airport bus, we checked the line at Etihad Stadium and decided it'd be too hard to sneak Andreana in, plus we'd get wet and miserable, so we left to watch a movie. We watched Due Date which was funny, but not amazing. It won't change your life.

Soon it was time to get Andreana from her work that the cathedral of learnings, so we bought some creepy $9 raincoats and went and found her.

We lined up at the stadium for about 45 minutes I reckon, and then we were let in. It was pretty easy. Once in, we got ourselves a spot about 10 meters from the stage's second catwalk. Not bad for turning up at 4:30pm. I reckon it was around then the rain let up, and we were dry for the rest of the night.



Bored at U2 in our dooby $9 raincoats

Inside the stadium there was just a lot more waiting to be done. Eventually we were given a countdown till Jay-Z, the support act. That was a nice touch. Everyone loves an over sized clock.

Jay-Z was superb. I've never been a big fan, but I always knew he had talent. Watching him and his band was pretty awesome. His band were tight, and brought the funk, and he knew how to engage the crowd. He was massively better than Kanye supporting U2 in '06. I reckon I might even get an album. If you're going to see U2 in Sydney, get his best of before you go, you'll thank yourself.

Once he was done it was back to more waiting.



Counting down

Finally the second countdown clock we were shown dramatically fell apart, Bowie got piped though the stadium and U2 arrived on stage to masses of sound and lights. The stage is huge. They call it the claw. It is quite impressive. It's looking a little tired, like it's been around the world, which it has. But they utilise the space well, every part of it plays a function throughout the show. Lights, smoke, tv, everywhere. Special.



The band were in good form. Although, I am such a fan, I'd probably always think they played well. They did many of the classics you'd expect from a U2 concert. Until the End of the World was fantastic, with it's usual sense of theatrics, which also made me wonder about whether or not U2 think Judas was saved. They did a fantastic rearrangement of I'll go Crazy if I don't go Crazy Tonight. Plenty of drums and bass. Jay-z was brought out for Sunday Bloody Sunday, who added a nice rap interlude, but meant that we couldn't pump out fists and shout "No more!". Bono did talk to us about AIDS and Burma but the show was pretty light on for politics, compared to say, the Vertigo tour.



I think my favourite moment of the night was I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. People have often said going to a U2 concert is a spiritual experience, and it is. In this song I had one of the most significant musical worship moments I've had this year, certainly the most significant I've ever had at a concert. I was there, arm outstretched, eyes closed, singing loud. It feels a little odd singing a gospel song with thousands of others knowing that most people are not singing to Jesus, but it still feels good. I was quite happily then more in awe of Jesus than I was of any rock band, even if I was watching the greatest rock band in the world.

It certainly was a concert worth going to. And going to Melbourne and hanging out with David and Andreana was a trip worth doing. Hooray for being rich and being able to enjoy these many undeserved blessings.



I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds and you
Loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Of my shame
You know I believed it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I'm about to get on a plane to go to Melbourne to see U2. Who goes to an outdoor concert in Melbourne? Seriously. I'm gonna be wet as.

Still, who goes to an outdoor concert in Sydney this December? All I've seen of it is rain so far.

Woot for U2 though!



It did just occur to me that we're going to see U2 on World AIDS Day. I can't see Bono letting us get out of that too easily.

I seem to have found myself in Canberra, on holiday with my parents, older sister, her husband and his family. I wasn't planning on coming to Canberra but I found out last week that my painting boss is on holidays for the next two weeks, so I have forced leave. But you won't hear me complaining. A year of minimal employment has taught me the many skills necessary for enjoying free time. And I really enjoy free time.

Before we came on the holiday we had Jo and Victor's (Sister and Brother-in-Law's) Happy Party (that is the wedding that wasn't a wedding but just looked like a wedding). It was a very happy party. Hannah, my little sister, who named the Happy Party, was very happy. She loved being surrounded by so many people. And when it came time to dance to the killer play list that Victor and I made, she was conga lining all over the place with any one who took her fancy.

Of course, the Happy Party wasn't really for Hannah. It was for all the Australians who didn't make it to Guatemala for the two ceremonies there. It was a highly chaotic event with the ceremony once again moved indoors due to masses of rain. Although the rain was only the icing on the cake for an event that seemed destined to be delayed and diverted and every opportunity. Still these hiccups didn't really seem like problems, they just made the day all the more amusing and endearing.

I was happy to be there. In some ways I found the ceremony more meaningful six months in to the marriage. Perhaps because you know they know what marriage is now. Marriage vows can sometimes seem like simple idealism when you hear them from two people who have never been married before (as they will probably sound from me if I ever say them). But when you hear them from two people who know what it means to be married to each other, even just 6 months in, it seems to mean more. They've become a more practical reality and need to be a commitment made out of, and in the face of, experience. Perhaps we should have Happy Parties more regularly for experienced couples who now know what their vows mean in practice not just in theory.

I didn't have much of a role in this ceremony. I did, however get asked to pray. In continuation of my slide down the slippery slope of unbidden expressions of emotion, I felt choked up the whole prayer. The people I asked said they didn't notice, but I did. I knew that I was on the verge of having my voice crack at any time, that getting the words out without a quiver in my speech was hard going. The problem was that I love Jo and Victor, I love marriage, and I love Jesus, and I was praying about all three, it was a convergence to make a perfect storm of sentiment to turn me into a blubbering mass of love and emotion. But I held strong and resisted all urges to shed tears. I think my well honed image of insensitivity has been kept intact for just a little longer.

When the ceremony was done, it was a night of speeches, polite portions of food, and large helpings of dancing. It was a very enjoyable night even if I do like to avoid being in large crowds of people I may have to make small talk with.

In the morning we all gathered for a breakfast with the friends and family who had stayed in the area. It was a like a post-wedding gathering of the relationally elite. I was happy to have been invited.

From there my family (minus Hannah) and the Guatemalans all piled into the specially hired chicken bus, and headed off for Canberra. We stopped at a genuine Australian farm where we were treated to some genuine Australian drought, a genuine Australian tractor ride, and some genuine Australian annoyance at wild Kangaroos. However the Guatemalans were very happy to see kangaroos ("kan-gooo-roos") in the wild as was I. I'm not a farmer, therefore I like kangaroos, especially when they're alive.

Since being in Canberra (we've been here a day now) we've been to dinner, a tourist centre, the National Museum and the National Botanic Gardens. Tonight we filled up on Middle Eastern food, had a serendipitous rendezvous with Jess and her Mum, and went up Black Mountain to see the view (of which there was very little).

It's a good life.

I'm home from the camp of sailing goodness.

I'm not really much of sailor. I went sailing once as a young lad* and remember there was a bed on board the boat. And that's my entire sailing experience.

As you also know I was a little ill equipped for sailing adventures before leaving having no hat that attached to my clothes, no woollen jumper and no rashie. However Valentina did kindly offer me this hat, and I visited K-Mart before leaving for camp and bought myself a rashie which I intend on using approximately zero more times in my life.

I was also a little perplexed how I was going to get to camp as I had a wedding to go to on Saturday morning (which was lovely thank-you-very-much, but I missed lunch, damn it) meaning that I would miss the first few hours of camp, and all the lifts to camp.

But Ryan kindly drove me to camp so we could bond as the kilometres drifted past as we lazily made our way an hour up the Central Coast. Then he drove home alone. He's a good friend Ryan. As is Lesley who lent out her car again for the trip.

So I arrived at camp feeling happy to have solved a few of my issues and a little apprehensive as to what camp with a bunch of unknowns would be like and what my lack of sailing skills would do to my camp enjoyment.

But as it happens both turned out fine. The people on the camp were lovely, campers and leaders, and I didn't die while sailing once.

Admittedly I only sailed twice, and both were on the most stable boat of the fleet. I spent another day on the rescue boat filming for the camp video guy. It was a windy day so I just spent most of the time filming capsized boats and injured campers.

The second time I went sailing all the boats had a race around the lake. My boat was chock full with 11 people, competing with other boats who had around 5 or less people (except one which was the same as ours with 12 people although they were almost entirely year 7 kids who we all know about are about a 3rd of the bulk of a normal sized human). On my boat, Noah's Ark, there was Tom (the captain), Tom (the speaker) and 9 of the girls. It was like sailing with people smugglers. In an attempt to lighten our boat for the race we devised a cunning scheme, to throw the children overboard, and the speaker too, and then send our boat off to race with a lightweight crew off five.

So just before the race began, we slipped quietly into the water like Navy SEALs. Sadly the other people smuggler boat noticed and threw many of their children overboard too. Soon there were more bodies in the water than boats.

Still the plan seemed to be working. Noah's Ark was in second place for the first lap. Soon race officials turned up though and told us that we'd have to join our boat as it came around for the second and final lap due to safety requirements. When Noah's Ark came around all 6 of us who were in the water hauled ourselves back into the boat in less than a minute, Noah's Ark kept going and we managed to maintain second place. It was a magnificent piece of seamanship, a rapid boarding of which even Somalian pirates would be proud.

We ended up coming in second but being disqualified because we had dumped our crew. I'm told that in official racing rules a boat must finish a race with the same number of crew that it crosses the start line with. We finished with an extra six. Had the race officials not told us to join our boat I think we could have mounted a good argument for holding on to second place. But The Man doesn't like innovation and so we were kicked out because we broke convention.

If all sailing races involved jumping overboard on a 36°C day and just hanging around in the water, I reckon I could do the sailing gig. But sadly, I think most racing teams aren't looking for people to join their crew just to jump overboard at the start line.

Perhaps my favourite activity was helping people get out of the water into the rescue boat and Noah's Ark. I think I liked it because it was a role that made you feel a little like you were rescuing people. You'd either pull them up by monkey grip or by gabbing them by the strap on the back of their life jacket and hauling them into the boat. The latter option was the most preferable because it felt more like rescue work probably due to the utilitarian nature of the boat entry and it's reliance entirely on my hauling power. Seeing as I spent the rest of the time sitting on the boat being rather useless it was good to be needed a little bit.

Apart from all my aquatic adventures, the camp was still good fun. The campers were friendly and well behaved as were the leaders. My talks seemed to go well. References to my talks regularly popped up during other parts of the camp, so I at least knew that people were paying attention. One popular line was "I'm angry enough to die", though my particular favourite were the multiple references to my "lady friends", perhaps only because I feel it's important to propagate the myth that I'm a player.

Aside from that there were a number of people who indicated they wanted to become Christians, so you can't complain about that. (Well I'm sure many people could, but no good Evangelical can, and that's what I am.)

I did notice once again that relationship building in free time on camps is not in my skill set. Free time tends to mean that I go and read my book or have a sleep. I think it's the introvert in me coming out. Being faced with unstructured hanging out where you need to go and just relate to people you don't know all that well, kinda scares me. Books and sleeping on the other hand are personal favourites of mine.

All up, I did have a good camp. I used to dream about being a camp speaker, back in the old days. I used to think camp speaking was like the pinnacle of preaching, because you were good enough to get asked to do five talks in a row and you were a little bit of a celebrity to 50 young people for a week. Having achieved this particular, low-end dream, it's not really like that. But it is certainly a privilege, very enjoyable, and I love the chance to hang out with a whole bunch of excellent young people. Plus I love getting free food for a week.

I reckon I'll keep doing camps as long as I keep getting asked though I'm not sure if I'll sail again any time soon, though I'll practice my hauling skills just in case.

*I need to stop using the phrase "young lad" around teenagers because they think I'm talking about when I was younger and I had a rat's tail, a bum bag, short shorts, and Nike cap put badly on my head.

Photo by: Januz Leszczynski

I spent this weekend in Tumbarumba with Soul in the Bush.

Soul in the Bush (I think technically it's meant to be SoulintheBush, but that's not that easy to read) is a ministry of Soul Survivor NSW/ACT where they send teams out to various country towns around NSW to serve the church there in whatever way the church wants.

So I was invited to join Beth, Tanya and James on a trip out to Tumbarumba to serve the church there. On Friday night we met 4 of the members of the Anglican church who were hosting us. They were most friendly and very happy to have us there.

On Saturday morning I was off to do some gardening pulling out weeds for an old lady with MS, then it was lunch with one of the families from Church. In the afternoon we helped run a kids afternoon, which was followed by a barbie for dinner and a youth night that night.

Sunday we ran half the church service, doing music, a testimony and giving the sermon. Then we drove home.

When I left home I had $14 in my bank account and $3 in my wallet so I wasn't entirely sure how it was all going work. When I got home I'd gotten to eat three meals a day, had all my accommodation paid for, and the petrol to get me there, and I only ended up scabbing one Coke off a team member during the whole trip. God's provision was generous and so were his people.

I did enjoy spending a few days with Beth, Tanya and James. We all stayed in a cabin together in the caravan park, so I feel like I got to have plenty of fun together. I enjoyed hanging out in the boys end of the cabin with James (the girls took the bedroom and because we're good Christians us boys didn't go in once). He was quite happy partake in poo jokes so I knew I had a good mission companion.

I also loved seeing the country folk and meeting a bunch of people who love God and love serving him in their community. They were so thankful to us for being there, I felt so blessed to be able to be a blessing.

When we ran the youth night we had some of the local hooligans turn up. They didn't feel like playing my wide game, they just wanted to look tough and throw water bombs. Then the local drug dealer turned up and they just wanted to impress him. Happily though, the hooligans and the drug dealer, and all the other youth, heard that God lavishes his love on them and thinks their valuable, so it was certainly worth having them along.

I prayed for a few guys who may never have been prayed for out loud before. They said I could do it and then giggled when I did but I still felt privileged to get to do it.

Running half the church service yesterday for Tumba Anglican meant that it became one of the longest church services in the world outside of Africa. We had a children's story, a testimony, communion, new music, old music, announcements and a sermon. It took us and hour and fifty minutes to get through the whole service. I did the sermon on Colossians 1:15-23, it was a rehash of an old one. While I love preaching new stuff, I also enjoy doing old stuff because you can pick your best sermons and do them better. And it takes about an hour or two to prepare rather than 15-20 hours. Still if I had to pick between old ones rehashed or new ones, I'd pick new ones.

Finally I did quite enjoy the road tripping. 'Cause road tripping is almost always fun, and it was fun this time.

I had a good weekend.

I'm back.

It's nice to be home. The jet lag seems to be pretty well taken care of, which is nice. The flight home was pretty easy. I was in a seat near the back of the plane with one empty seat next to me when I arrived. Then I looked up and there was a hot American girl who was sitting next to me. Suddenly the pressure of all those daydreams where you find yourself sitting next to a hot girl who also turns out to be the love of your life came tumbling down on me. I started to stress about if I should be pulling out all my suave plane traveller moves. But I needn't have worried because the girl sat down, put on headphones, eye mask, and went to sleep. She didn't take off her headphones the whole trip. Even after she woke up, and when we were diverted to Brisbane to refuel, she was stubbornly listening to Qantas radio. So there was no opportunity to dazzle her. I suspect she may have kept the headphones on as she saw the anxiety on my face when I saw her and realised I might have just stumbled into a romantic comedy. She wanted to make sure there was no romance and no comedy to be had in row 72 of that flight.

Since being in Sydney, I've just mooched around. Watched (and slept through) some DVDs, visited the parents, been barred by Oscar. I did see Helen and Jon and Helen, Mike and Hannah in Westfield yesterday when I was buying my fruity bodywash. That was serendipitous seeing as 4 out of the 6 of us had, until very recently been on other sides of the globe.

Today I'm working. I managed to turn up for work 2 hours early so I got a hair cut. The hair dresser made me look a little trendy, which caused me a fair bit of distress till I rectified it in the toilets.

And that is life back in the greatest city in the entire universe (except maybe Wellington)!

Yesterday was very expensive and very worth it.

At the beginning of the day we went on the Warner Bros. Deluxe VIP Studio Tour. That's 5 hours of touring the back lots and sound stages of Warner Bros. studios in Burbank. It's $150 more expensive than the 2 hour version, but it's oh so fun.

I love back lots and sound stages. In fact if you said to me, where would you like to spend the rest of your life, I reckon a working film studio would be top of my list. I spent much of my childhood looking at books full of pictures of studios. And then yesterday I got to spend 5 hours at one. I was so happy.

We arrived to find our parking lot just down the road from the famous Warner Bros. Water Tower. I kinda geeked out at that stage.

We got our tickets an hour before our tour started so we sat out the front reading books. I kept looking up at the sign that said "Warner Bros. Studios" and getting excited that I was actually at them.

When it was time for the tour we were shown a short film (because every tour you do here in the States has at least one film you have to watch) and then we met our guide and group. Seeing as the tour is the expensive deluxe tour I was hoping we would have die hard film fans, not rich people who just did it because it was better. I think we got a mix.

When the tour started our group looked like it was going be a bit of a problem. There was a woman and her family who was angry at the tour guide because he made them sit three people on the seat in the cart, which she found too squashy. There was a rich mother and daughter from just outside Chicago who came because they watch a lot of TV. And there was a mother and daughter from Norway. The daughter was a huge Friends fan and came just to see stuff from the show. So she got very upset when our guide told her that due to the fact that Friends is no longer filming all the sets have been archived and are no longer set up.

Still, I was very happy. And Lesley wasn't angry about anything.

The guide first took us too the back lot and showed us the fake New York streets, Chicago Streets, the New England town, the suburban street, the jungle and more. We got to walk around them and go in some of the buildings. We saw the jungle were Leo was stuck in Vietnam in "The West Wing". We saw the shop where Mog Wai was bought in Gremlins, we saw where Annie sang Tomorrow in Annie and we saw where Spiderman kissed Mary-Jane upside down in Spider Man, to name just a few.

We learnt that every building on the Warners Lot is built to look generic so it can double as something else. Some of their offices look like a motel. Some look like the entrance to a hospital, some look like a high school. It's very cool. The whole place is made to act as on big filming location.

We got taken into the sound stage for Two and a Half Men and we got to walk on the set of Chuck's apartment complex in Chuck (I've never seen the show, but I love sets). Oh it was all so fun. I love sets and lights, and set dressing.

We got taken to the work shops, and into the ADR (dialogue replacement) and orchestra recording stages.

We got given a very nice meal in the Commissary, where the stars eat, or so we're told.

We were taken to the prop storage, which was really fun, because I love props. We also got taken into a room off the side which our tour guide had deliberately not told us about. It was a room where they had set up the actual set of Central Perk from Friends. The girl from Norway got so excited. I think she might have cried a little bit. It was great to see. She'd been sad all day, and then all her dreams came true. I'm not a big Friends but I did enjoy seeing the set.

At the end of the day we got let loose in a museum full of Warners memorabilia on one floor and Harry Potter memorabilia on the other. That was lots of fun.

Then we had to go home. I can't really express how much fun I had. It was like one of those days when your dreams come true. I wish I could live at a film studio. That would just make my life.

The evening we spent at Medieval Times, which was exciting in a whole different way. I was inspired by Dicker's Mum and The Cable Guy. It's a themed restaurant set in medieval times where you dinner and watch a show of knights riding around on horses and pretending to kill each other. It was pretty tacky, and very fun. We cheered for our knights, ate meat with our hands of pewter plates, and were served by wenches. If you get the chance, you should go. The world needs more tacky themed restaurants.

I even got to go back to Medieval Times today because I left my camera there last night. But it's back safe with me now.

Today Lesley went to the Getty Centre, while I drive across LA and back getting my camera. I think it's good I didn't go to the Getty Centre too, because while it's a cool building, what I did see of it didn't really interest me much.

And now we're at the Airport, waiting in the good old ReLAX lounge ready to go home. I'll be fun.

America has been good to me. I do like this country. I'm coming back.

We went to church this morning because it's Sunday and both of us were craving Church. We went to the Presbyterian church just up the road from our hostel. They had a big sign out the front telling us "It's ok to come in sandals, he did". So I felt pretty comfortable not dressing up. Unfortunately I was the only guy there not in a collared shirt. Everyone was looking shmick in their Sunday best.

The service was pretty unimpressive. It was a special Independence day service. The kid's talk was an explanation of what the American flag stands for, and throughout the service there was no sermon or Bible, just a bunch of pre-organised people talking about why they're proud to be American. No one really mentioned Jesus in any meaningful fashion. The only time the gospel was mentioned was in the songs we sang. They band were pretty good thought.

It upset me. I go to church to celebrate Jesus. We should spend our time talking about the one who is greater than any nation. The one who gives true freedom. The one superpower who rules with true justice, mercy and compassion. I'm all for celebrating national holidays in church. I'm not for making church about your nation.

But, like I said, the band was good.

We went to Hollywood today. I wanted to see the Graumann's Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood sign. I saw both.

Hollywood is strange. Especially Hollywood Boulevard. It's a whole street full of tacky shops, bad museums, and over sized cinemas. The street is filled with people doing bad impressions of characters from movies. The whole thing was just kind of tacky. I love movies, but I can't say what I saw of Hollywood impressed me. We saw the Kodak theatre where they have the Oscars. It turns out the red carpet for the Oscars runs right through a shopping mall.

What a strange place.

We went and saw The Taking of Pelham 123 in the Chinese theatre. It's an impressive theatre. I liked it a lot. The film was fun, especially as it's all set in New York, so we got to see all the places we were at last week. I was happy we went there.

Then it was off to find the Hollywood sign. We wound our way through the Hollywood hills till we got to a really good spot to see it. I loved seeing the sign. I've seen it so many times in Australia on TV, in books, on film. And I got to see it in real life. That was cool.

Still if I ever become a famous movie star, I think I'll live in New York.

Tonight we headed off to go to Church at the Crystal Cathedral because I wanted to go to a mega-church, but by the time we had driven to the other side of LA we had to buy petrol, were running too late to get to church on time, so we just drove back to the Hostel. It was a shame. But maybe tonight's church wouldn't have been any better than this morning's.

Now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow we get a VIP tour of Warner Bros studios. That I am very excited about. Plus we're off to Medieval Times for dinner. What a wonderful way to end a holiday!

Today was Independance Day and it was good.

We'd decided to have a slow day. So it was breakfast late, followed by a movie (The Hangover - inappropriate and rather funny), followed by reading and snoozing. It was a good day.

Tonight we went to the fireworks a Culver City High School. It was exciting to go to something local, seeing what locals do. The event was on the high school football field. We sat in the bleechers surrounded by families while their 5 year olds agreesivly launched beach balls at us. The whole fied was surrounded by American flags and bunting. There was a stage at the front with a band playing classic rock songs. It was good fun. We even did Mexican waves in honour of America's illegal immigrants.

We wanted to eat hot dogs but they sold out.

The fireworks themsleves were more impressive than any school in Sydney would put on, but still small. But we weren't there for the fireworks. The fireworks were to a soundtrack of patriotic songs. I didn't know there were so many songs about American out there. I was thinking about it, in Australia we don't have any. At least none like these, God Bless America, Freedom Reigns, God Bless the USA, etc. We have Land Down Under, which is about vegemite and people vomiting, Waltzing Matilda, about a guy who kidnaps a sheep then suicides and I Still Call Australia Home, which, well that's alright. But none of them sound like praise and worship for Australia. I think I like that, because some of the American songs a little embarrassing.

Still I appreciate their love of their country. They don't play down their pride. And they love their freedom. The fireworks were the Freedom Fireworks. The songs were about freedom. And as I mentioned before every war as been fought in the name of freedom. I'm not even sure what Australia is all about. Mateship? Fair Go? Being girt by sea? I don't know. I love being Australian but buggered if I know what it actually means to be Australian.

Freedom is pretty good. It's better than conformist totalitarianism. I think perhaps I feel a little bit uncomfortable with the impression I get from here that America is the world leader in freedom. Like they invented it and export it to the rest of the world. But certainly if there is anything for a democratic society to get excited about freedom is good. Love might be better. Freedom, while positive, seems to feed into idividualism and self-interest, while love leads to community and selflessness.

But if there was a country that was all about love they'd totally get payed out by all the other countries. Their delegate to the UN would get picked on by every other UN delegates, even the African one who don't get to pick on anyone. When it comes to national values, love is for pansies. And if you dedicated your war memorials to those who "Fought and died in the cause of love" the irony would probably be a little to obvious. So freedom is better.

But like I said it's not as if Australia stands for love either. We do like to be good at swimming though. Swimming is pretty good too. Like freedom I guess.

Happy Fourth.

We've made it to the last stop on the North American World Tour: Los Angeles. We flew in this afternoon on Virgin America. Virgin American have the funnest planes I've ever been on. Which isn't really hard because most planes don't aim to be "fun". But this plane was all lit inside in purple and blue. It was kinda like being inside a flying neon sign.

Other than that it was a pretty good flight. Except that it stuffed up both our ears a bit.

We picked up our hire car at the airport, expecting it to be a Corolla they gave us a PT Cruiser. That was pretty fun, because I've always thought they'd be interesting to drive. Like the new beetle only less cool.

I didn't really get the chance to think about that, because driving was a little stressful today. It was my first time driving in LA and my first time driving on the right side of the road in a left-hand drive car. I told Lesley she had to just keep telling me to keep right, and that seemed to do the trick. Although being in a left-hand drive car I tend to drift right in my lane too, and I don't think I should keep that right.

Our hostel is in Santa Monica and we made it there without one crash. Santa Monica is tourist land to the max. It's full of buskers, beggars and people looking like they're on holidays. It's pretty fun, but I reckon I'd get sick of it pretty quick.

I'm wearing my brown Jesus t-shirt from Mexico today that Jem bought me. I was walking into a food court and a black guy stopped me and asked me where I got my shirt. I told him a friend got it from Mexico for me and he was very upset. Then when I was on the Boardwalk a Latino Breakdancer saw me and said "I like your shirt man!" and I said "Thank you". I've been feeling pretty good about myself since then; I'm a fashionsable white guy, yeah!

Tonight we went and saw Public Enemies which was pretty cool. Good writing, good acting, lots of gangsters. Michael Mann makes good films. I like him a lot.

Oh and we went up the Empire State Building last night (That's in New York). It was tall and good and not raining.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July so we're gonna eat a hot dog, maybe watch some fireworks and definitely insult the British.

We caught the ferry to Statton Island today. It's free. It takes you past the Statue of Liberty. It doesn't make taking photos very good if you have a little camera. Still we did get to see her, and she's famous and all that.

On Statton Island we wandered into a cafe to find some Coke and got sucked in by the friendly waitress who asked us if we wanted breakfast. Seeing as we hadn't eaten breakfast since Monday, we stayed. Once we'd sat down we discovered it was some clandestine, hippy, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, chick-pea cafe. I felt very ripped off. I don't go places like that when I'm on holidays. Unless I'm on holidays with the majority of my friends and then sometimes I have to.

Still they did do stuff for real people too, so I ate some french toast. It wasn't that good but at least it had gluten in it.

Once we escaped the den of health and ethics, we got back on the ferry for our free trip back. Then it was off to the Rockefeller Centre to see the New York from up high. We managed to be up there about 5 minutes before the rain set in. The approaching rain made for some good photos, but the rain itself just made us wet. So we sheltered in a room with light up squares on the roof and walls. It was like a giant, inverted Dance Dance Revolution. I'm sure those of Asian decent with us felt very at home.

Eventually the rain eased and we made it outside. We were very high up, New York is full of tall buildings. In the worlds of Mick Harvey "Whenever I see New York, New York USA...every time I see it I get high, oh so high." Actually it wasn't quite like that but as the song names every tall building in the city, I sang it to myself as I looked at each other buildings in his song.

When we descended from those art deco heights of steel and over priced gift shops, we ate a hot dog from someone who sells them on the street. I was eating mine as we crossed the road, over a grate with steam coming out of it. It was that moment that I truly felt like I was in New York.

I visited the NBC store which had very little West Wing merchandise in it. Travesty. Seeing as Lesley had left by that stage to go look at art, I took myself on the NBC Studio tour. We got to see the Saturday Night Live studio and the Late Show with Jimmy Kimmel studio. That was fun. But that was about the whole tour. I reckon if I wasn't a production geek, I would have felt ripped off by the tour. But I did appreciate getting in the studios. And I got to see the inside the broadcast suite for a precious 10 seconds. I would have loved to have stared for an hour or two but I got the feeling from the security guards that they weren't that keen on us dallying about.

I caught the subway home, feeling impressed with myself that I hadn't got confused, which was just about the time that I got confused. But I made it back here to the hostel.

Tonight we do the night tour, and go up the Empire State building. And then it's good bye New York.

Day two in New York and I spent most of it on an Aircraft Carrier. I love my life.

We went to the Intrepid Sea, Air, Space and America Rocks Museum which is on the aircraft carrier Intrepid. It's appropriately full of cool planes and propaganda. I had such a good time, looking at helicopters, planes, guns and boats. There was a little bit of space stuff but it wasn't much, and it was nothing compared to the Smithsonian collection. But what was cool is that on the flight deck you can get right up close to a bunch of cool planes and choppers. F-14, F-16, Blackbird, Harrier, Huey, Cobra, MIGs and more. It was major happiness. And it was all aboard an aircraft carrier that served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. It was great.

We also got to watch a movie about how the ship had served the cause of freedom over the years. There were interviews with the sailors and airmen for the ship who talked about how during the cold war they were practicing nuclear bombing raids for the cause of peace and how during Vietnam America was fighting to stop the communists take over the world. It didn't seem to phase the guy who mentioned it that America lost that war and communism didn't take over the world, he just mentioned that the war didn't turn out as they'd hoped.

What I have found interesting is that any mention of war here emphasises how people fighting for America are fighting for freedom. "Freedom is not free" is a popular slogan here. There is little ambiguity about war. The Intrepid was just a celebration of America's ability to blow up enemies. The video we watched proudly gave us the statistics of how many planes the ship had shot down and how many boats it had sunk. It didn't mention how many lives it had taken in the process.

I do love planes because they go fast. And I do love bombs and guns because they go bang. But I can't celebrate war. I wish guns and bombs were only used as plot devices in movies. And I can't easily swallow that every war America has fought has been about freedom.

Anyway, I had a good time even with my conflicting excitement. I got to walk through a British Airways Concord. That never bombed anyone.

We had planned to spend the afternoon seeing the Statue of Liberty and going up various tall buildings. But when we made it back to Times Square to get on a bus we noticed that Alison Janney from The West Wing is in the Broadway Musical version of that Dolly Parton classic movie 9 to 5. Of course the musical had no appeal at all until we saw that CJ was in it, and then Lesley and I couldn't resist. We love The West Wing. So we bought tickets for tonight's show then caught the Hop-On-Hop off bus around Manhattan, saw the sights slowly, then ate some overpriced, Italian and watched the show. Oh and I bought some jeans because I felt underdressed going to the theatre in shorts.

The show was totally adequate. It was funny and the music wasn't bad. But really the excitement was just seeing Alison Janney in the flesh. We were in the 6th row, so we were pretty close. I think I might have spent most of the show just remembering all my favourite CJ moments. It was pretty fun.

We caught the subway home and no one mugged us. I think the day was quite a success.

Today was walk to Times Square and back day. That's almost all we did.

However before we set off I walked into our dorm and the Russian girl who is sharing with us was standing there half naked. Having mixed dorms with half-naked Russian girls in them seems like it should be every young man's dream come true, I found it kinda awkward. I quickly turned away and started fiddling with the key to the locker trying to work out what the etiquette was in a situation like that. I wasn't sure if I should just pretend that nudity is the most normal thing in the world and go about my business, because she was standing there in the room she shares with 7 other people, half of them guys, maybe she's fine with it and it'd be rude if I ran away like a prude. Or should I leave because she was caught during a private moment she had in the dorm. In the end I pretended I had only walked into the room to fiddle with the key to my locker for a second and then I walked out again. I'm pretty sure that was the best compromise and no one lost face.

Eventually when I thought it was safe I went back to my room. I passed the girl in the hallway and gave her an awkward smile. Back in my room I got ready to leave.

Times Square is a long way away from our hostel, so it was pretty exciting to see New York. All the New York like buildings and shop fronts, and food places. We ate brunch at a place called Jackson Hole in honour of the King of Pop. On my burger I ate seven pounds of beef and didn't think of Will Smith once.

I can't say we saw anything too remarkable but everything was cool. Everybody who drives in New York seems to drive smaller cars than the people drive in the rest of this country. While 75% of cars in the rest of what I've seen in the US seem to be SUVs and over grown sedans, here cars seems a bit more normal sized. It could just be that half the cars are taxis and yellow is a very slimming colour.

Times Square is pretty amazing. Neon and video everywhere. Everything is advertising. It didn't even occur to me while I was there, but we trekked for two hours through New York to see a bunch of advertisements. That's a little sad. Still I like advertising when it's ten stories high and lit up. In fact I liked it so much as soon as I left Times Square I bought myself a Coke and a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. I also almost bought a Samsung TV, GMC Truck, Timex watch, got a loan with the Bank of American and started lining up for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince but I held myself back.

After this celebration of consumerism, we wandered back through Central Park. It was full of people sun baking and playing softball, none of it was advertising. The contrast was amazing. I fantasised about lying in the grass and reading my book but I had an appointment to keep.

The appointment was to go see my distant, rich, relative who lives in an apartment on 5th Ave. We went back to hostel, I got changed and left Lesley there, then hopped in a cab only 6 blocks from the Hostel. I haven't yet got the knack of waving down a taxi yet. When we made it to the 5th Ave Apartment block the doorman came over and opened the taxi door for me. I felt wealthy.

In the apartment block there is a man named Nathan whose whole job it is is to press the buttons in the elevator. He was very good at his job.

My distant relative is the cousin of my Great-Grandfather. He was very friendly and welcoming. He told me stories about his time in the Hungarian Army in WWII and about his children and grand children. He gave me ginger ale to drink. He was very kind.

He also has a view out of his window right over Central Park. It was quite impressive.

At the end of the visit we went back down to the lobby with Nathan the Elevator Button Presser, and I hopped straight in my waiting taxi and went back to the Hostel.

Tonight we had Chinese for dinner from across the road. Lesley is reading and I'm blogging. I'll go read soon too. Tomorrow we're going to catch a bus.

Sunday was preaching day. I unpacked my best jeans and least offensive t-shirt and put some product in my hair. It's important to look your best as you begin your preaching offensive on a new continent. That's what all the books on televangelism say. Tom French Power Ministries was about to break the US market!

Grace cooked us another good breakfast, and dropped us at the church early. I had my quiet time in the foyer. I hadn't had it at home and I figure if people in the congregation find the preacher praying and reading his bible in the foyer they'll know he's really, really holy.

At the church I found that on the front of the bulletin was a dumb photo of me super-imposed over a kangaroo. I think I appreciate a church that makes fun of it's visiting preachers. Mockery is the best form of compliment (except perhaps when you actually get a compliment). Nathan also showed the worship band my air guitar video. I'm glad they saw my best side.

Church was a rather quick affair. We sang some songs (with one Hillsong song as a nod the Aussies), took an offering, had some announcements then I preached. Once I preached we sang a little more and then we were done. The longest thing in the service was my preaching. I did preach for a while. I was pretty happy with how I preached, and people seemed responsive so that was good. I hope people got something out of it.

We got to meet a lot of people after church. There are a lot of lovely people at Crossway. I really enjoyed meeting some more real Americans. I did meet someone from the church who told me that Obama was the Antichrist. I think it was because of his policies on abortion. I didn't tell them how I felt about Obama. I thought it was best to keep my mouth shut.

After church the Hyde's, Carolyn's parents and Grace took us out to lunch at the Outback Steakhouse. It's all rather fake Australian. I was hoping it'd be a really bad misrepresentation of Australia, but it was just kind of like an overdone tourist place. Still I did enjoy being somewhere that celebrated Australia.

We followed up our meal with a trip to Assateague Island. It's an island that was created in a hurricane in 1933 when the hurricane separated it from Ocean City. The main attraction of this island seems to be that there are wild ponies there. We saw some. And we spent a while standing on the beach looking at the Atlantic.

After all that excitement we all went home. Lesley and I read books then retired to our rooms early.

Monday was leaving day. After getting a photo of myself with the church sign with my name on it, we farewelled the Hyde's and gave them our presents full of Australiana. It felt a little silly giving these small gifts after the huge amounts of generous hosting we got. But it's not like they were looking for payment, so I'll just take it as grace.

Grace took us to the bus station and she gave us both a hug and left us there to fend for ourselves.

We caught our Greyhound to a town just up the road, went to change buses for the bus to New York, but were told the bus to New York was full. So we had to get back on our previous bus and go to Baltimore. I was hoping it'd be raining in Baltimore because of the Counting Crows song, but it wasn't. It was very sunny.

We spent 3 hours in the Baltimore Greyhound station waiting for the next bus to New York. We met a young, earnest evangelical called George. He is a plumber who wants to go to Bible college. I liked him a lot. He asked a lot of questions about Australia and the Bible. I gave him my heretical non-literal interpretation of Genesis 1-11 and he was willing to accept it right there in the bus station. He was the easiest person to convince I've ever met. I told him he should go read some more before he just agrees with me. I'm pretty sure my ideas aren't the norm in Evangelical America.

I'm glad we got diverted because I'm glad we got to hang out with George.

The bus to New York was pretty un-remarkable until we saw the buildings of New York arrived on the horizon. It was pretty exciting. Seeing all those famous buildings and that familiar skyline get bigger and bigger in the night sky, and then we went through a tunnel and suddenly we were right in the middle of it all. It was very exciting. I think it was probably a better way to arrive than flying in.

We caught a cab from the bus station to our Hostel. The cab was yellow. It had a little TV in the back. We ate pizza for dinner that night. We were in New York. Oh yeah.

Ocean City was loads of fun! Lesley and I had been talking about how we were really looking forward to going because we'd get to hang out with some real Americans rather than just sharing rooms with sleepy backpackers. We weren't disappointed.

We travelled to Ocean City on Greyhound which Van warned us was "ghetto". I'm not exactly sure what that means. If it means the buildings were dodgy, the service not that good, and their entire workforce being people from minority groups, then yes, it was ghetto. Still I enjoyed the experience. I enjoyed riding with people who can't afford to fly, and I liked seeing the country side.

Greyhound also doesn't have much by the way of food, so we spent the day eating food from vending machines.

On the bus we went over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It's 7km long. It made me happy.

When we made it to Ocean City Nathan was waiting at the bus station to pick us up. I saw him out the window when we arrived, but I pretended not to because then it would have been awkward till we got off the bus. Meeting strange pastors you meet on the internet is an odd business. But happily he didn't kidnap us or turn out to be an 80 year old woman with lots of cats.

Nathan shook our hands and introduced himself. He was friendly, American and sounded just like he does on his podcast. It felt like I was with someone famous.

Nathan took us to the house we stayed at. We were put up by a lovely older lady named Grace. Grace lives in a little cottage by the lake. She has soft grass. It was a pretty nice place and Grace was very welcoming and hospitable. She cooked breakfast for us every morning and slept on the floor in the lounge room so Lesley could sleep in her bed. I was put in the spare room with the freezer. I really liked having a room to myself. I haven't had one of them since I left Sydney.

Once we'd dropped off our stuff at Grace's Nathan took us to his place to meet Carolyn, his wife, and Laura Marie, his 19 day old daughter. Laura Marie was pretty un-responsive to our arrival, but she made up for it by being cute. Carolyn however was very welcoming and friendly, especially seeing as she had just had a kid. In fact the Hydes spent the whole weekend with us, entertaining us, taking us out for dinner, and their baby was less than three weeks old. I was very impressed and felt quite blessed.

They took us to dinner that first night so we could get some crab, it's famous in the Ocean City area. It was nice and tasted nothing like crab sticks, much to my happiness. Crab sticks are disgusting. Crab soup and crab imperials on the other hand are very pleasing to the taste buds.

While we probed each other for cross-cultural information and personal history, the conversation was peppered with regular descriptions of various local delicacies, especially delicacies we could have for dessert. We found that this discussion of food would be a theme of the weekend. I like food, but I didn't know that there was so many opportunities in a day to talk about it until going to Ocean City. My eyes have been opened.

We went for a trip after dinner to the famous Ocean City boardwalk, voted 3rd best boardwalk in the United States. It was pretty impressive. It was kinda like a cross between Surfers Paradise and the Manly Corso if they were stretched out in a long line, stuck right on the edge of the beach, and made to sell only bad t-shirts and unhealthy food. I did enjoy myself.

We spent so much time walking and talking about food that we ran out of time for dessert. I'm sure this is irony or something like that.

Saturday was a lazy day. Grace took us to Wal Mart. It was like K Mart but 50% bigger. I'm pretty sure this was a small Wal Mart though. Then she took us to a fast food place that sells salad and bread. True to local form, Grace had spent all morning talking about the food this place sold.

In the afternoon we went to the Hyde's and watched a DVD (Henry Poole is Here if you're wondering) then went and at dinner at a themed restaurant in an old fire station. It was pretty cool. I like fire stations and stuff. I had a big pork chop and ate it all. I felt like a local. Laura Marie, as usual, slept through the whole thing. Rude.

And now I'm off to bed. I'll finish the Ocean City catch up tomorrow. Now I'm kinda sleepy.

We made it to New York. I like it.

Our room at the hostel we've checked into is full of people who go to bed early again. What's with young people these days! They should be out watching Broadway shows and getting drunk. Bah! Useless.

Now I should go back and write that big long blog post you're all hanging out for. Yeah, you are, you know it.

We've arrived in Ocean City. We got in yesterday on the Greyhound. Everyone is friendly. We seem to talk about food a lot.

So today we saw everything else (Capitol Hill, Old Post Office Museum, Union Station, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial). We did a lot of walking. Saw Obama's motorcade again, I saw Marine One in the sky. And I sat under a tree, read my Bible and prayed. It was a good day. Tomorrow we're off to Ocean City by Greyhound.

There you go. That wasn't long at all.