..........

a tribute to sam duthie

2007-02-13T14:58:00.000+13:00

hi all,

some of you made have heard that our good friend/brotha from anotha motha - sam duthie is leaving the fine place of auckland, to return closer to his roots in the rural metropolis of 'Gore'.

I had heard rumblings of this news for a while, but was still pretty gutted when it became official. i mean, i'm happy for him, cause he has got a plan and something to sink his teeth into, but gutted for me. Sam duthie has been a brotha to me and we have been almost inseperable in the previous 3 years.
ours is an interesting relationship, being good as friends now, after quite an omminous beginning where we both thought the other was a bit weird?
obviously first impressions didn't last this time, and i look forward to staying friends with him for many years to come. although it will be much harder now!
so thanks sam, thanks for looking out for me, and putting up with me, and you're always welcome in my house!

due to that first paragraph - in other news, i need a new home.
any ideas?

the year has started off busy but great, with trips to parachute and rotorua already completed. both were awesome and really enjoyable. can i say 'i love my life right now' in a non-boastful way? cause i do!

and to top that all off - my atlanta hawks have just won 5 straight road games. now they've just got to figure out how to win at home. Go team!

catch you guys later. peace

fan jan

2007-01-23T12:27:00.000+13:00

getting up at 5.30 on saturday mornings: rrrgghh...

2 free pairs of new balance cross trainers: yea-uh!

finishing work at 11.00am on a cloudless day: priceless!

(everybody should be a postie.)

word.

007

2007-01-09T21:54:00.000+13:00

shaken, not sturred!

well, we just lost another year people. what happened to 2006?

a quick recap. 6 months postie, 4-5 months unemployed?, 1 month holiday.
8 weddings(not mine), 2 funerals(really not mine), 3 babies(not mine either), 10 days in hospital. 1 25th birthday.

suprisingly, 1 car has lasted me right through, go diesel!
two thousand and six was definately a difficult year by alot of standards, but thanks to God's grace i made it through, thanks for all the friendships, goodtimes, dinners, handshakes, hugs and smiles. i appreciate them all.
looking back, life really is too short to get up on a high horse and be all self inflicting, so if you see me riding, take aim and knock me off, kindly? i think more then any other year, i discovered life is about people! not all the other stuff that jams up your waking minutes, and drags you kicking and screaming into frivolous dis-satisfaction.
so hopefully i can pursue that inclination throughout 007. i'll try to be more hospitable, welcoming, loving, giving, and kind.

not much other news, its nice to be a postie in january, long may it continue.
had a jolly nice time at christmas and muriwai for ybc. thanks to all who made it so.
not much blogging from my fellow bloggstigators, not sure how long i can continue. but keep checking just in case.

God bless you all.

no mo' mo.

2006-11-30T14:25:00.000+13:00

hi team,

as you are all very aware, today is thursday the 30th, the last day of movember :(
females will be rejoicing everywhere!

this is some of my growth, i'm not sure how much longer it will be around, so if you want to see it in real life, come round for a visit, quick!

In other news: 'by unamimous decision, the postie of the month award goes to carl.' -yea-uh!
So if you are keen for a movie at berkeley cinema, i've got a double pass to share between now and this time next year. sadly no prizes were recieved for having the best mo'stache in the branch, but maybe next time.

p.s. i'm gonna have a beach party on the 17th dec, for my b'day, watch this space. chur

early christmas

2006-11-08T15:41:00.000+13:00

i know, i know,
people are getting into marketing christmas a bit early once again, but my story is a little different:

i got a new bike today! brand spanking new! 5 speed, new tryes, new wheels, new grips, new seat, new paniers! new nametag! all brand spanking new!

so now i have no excude for going slow. heh grrrr.
i must be the class favourite? nah. anyway it should do me just fine thru the christmas rush.
hope all of your days were as exceptional as mine.

peace.

delivery boy

2006-11-07T14:30:00.000+13:00

whilst on my bike this morning i was quite interested by the cover of the 'new scientist' magazine. it said the following:

'we sleep less, smoke less, take more pills, and live at a steady 21'C.
why modern living is making us fat'
sounds to me like a good attention grabbing headline.

so i went online and found the article here. nothing too new, but thats how we roll these days.

in other news, my new favourite team, the atlanta hawks have got off to a great start with two sound victories and are currently leading the southeastern division of the nba. you better get on the bandwagon before it's too late. word.

the magic number

2006-10-25T18:50:00.000+13:00

hi team.

i've been meaning to post for a while - but my real life has been keeping me real busy!
after 3 and a bit months of posting and swimming, bball and the like, my body still seemed the same to me, but alas no!
using the kennedy's scales last sunday, i weighed in at a whopping 64kgs!
followed by a whopping 65kgs on the macphersons scales on tuesday, so yeah, don't be confused, the 'weeman' is actually quite 'wee'. its down from the 69 i was carrying at the beginning of the year, so all good. - just not a good build for playing league, but oh well.

in other news, my mullet is trimmed, i have the meanest tan lines on my feet, and am contemplating growing a dirty mo' for movember

also keep encouraging your friends, cause i practically lived off one complement i got given for nearly two whole weeks, and it should be easy to build up our brothers, but i find it quite hard. so encourage me to encourage others, and lets change the world!

awesome team. keep up the good work.
ka kite anu.

pre-love

2006-09-27T19:42:00.000+12:00

hi team,

have been thoroughly enjoying a delightful visit from our 'australia campaigner', and have been reminded of the joys of op-shopping.

i managed to score a 'rules' football jersey, a XL T, and a official mexican swimwear jacket for a grand total of $28, all of which are coming to a location near you soon.
my mother also hooked me up with some brown curtains (pronounced currrrrtins!) for my room from the Balcutha sally army shop, so i'm pretty down mith my pre-loved stuff at this stage. would like to set up a house like that, but that may have to wait a while.

so i commend you to not waste your hard earned green on designer fashion and the like, when you can have designer fashion and the like, that has been pre-loved for a 1/4 of the price!

i'm also on the look out for a tv (little & brown), microwave (big with knobs), and small portable radio (postie size), so if you or any of your friends can hook us up, that'd be appreciated.

peace out cousies!

word.

witness the fitness

2006-09-20T13:08:00.000+12:00

(3.5 + 15 + 3.5) x 6 + (3 x1) = 135

Hopefully, my math-maar-tics is all clever!

3.5 is the ride out to my run
15 is my delivery run
3.5 is the ride back
6 is the number of days i deliver
3 is in the pool

so all in all, my body drives me a minimum of 135kms a week.
that is pretty sweet.
now i just gotta work on 5+aday and i'll be all good.

catch you guys next time.

anniversary

2006-09-14T21:05:00.000+12:00

hows it going,

long time, no blogging. but i thought today seemed like a opportune time for an update.
as you may well be aware, much like 9/11 and americans, 14/9 has special significance for me.
so yeah, this time, this day one whole year ago, i was struggling for breath and straining my chest. thanks to colliding with a dirty great power pole on alfriston road, in the 'maroon 5'.

so i guess, you'll all be happy to know that i survived that accident, thanks to God's tremendous grace, and my further hernia. helpful hint. don't ring my mum late at night with 'news about her son', i think she's had enough of those ones already! ha.

but yeah, its kind of weird to look back and think of all the stuff thats gone down in my life in the last 12 months. i'd like to think i live my life with more purpose, but its kinda hard when you get back into the swing of things. i wish i could just bottle all the feelings, thoughts, memories, and just open it up when i need a quick reminder.
but just a word of warning - you don't know when your life will be taken from you, so get right with God.
thanks for coming. peace and love. carl

hot days and feminine clothing

2006-07-29T20:17:00.000+12:00

hmmm, well, its been a while since my last post.
but i had an interesting momnet, whilst ordering my uniform last week.
ok, singlets - small, shirts, medium, shorts - small, pants - medium, socks?
ladies 6-8, mens 9-11, mens 12-14

yeah, you guessed it, i had to order me some ladies socks! maybe its a good thing i don't get embarrased too easily. but my team leader was nice enough to inform me they were no different to the mens ones. just felt a bit weird ticking the (ladies) box.
but they arrived last week, and they're comfortable as. so no regrets.

keep it real, wherever you may be.

carl.

flexibility

2006-07-10T21:29:00.000+12:00

hmmm.
not sure if anyone is still blogging.
my internet access as been very poor of late.
but for those of you that don't know, i now have fulltime work as a postie, and it is lovable!
so my schedule goes something like this.

wakeup. clean, eat. drive. work. eat. work. drive. eat. sleep. eat. evening activity (fill in the blank). clean. sleep.
(repeat for five more days). schedule changes abruptly on sundays.

so thats what i do. hope to see you all sometime soon.

carl.

birthday

2006-06-18T19:08:00.000+12:00

hi people, My church turned 5 today, so as a form of celebration i wrote a song, featuring some of the events of the first 5 years, i hope you enjoy. chur

First was Great South Road, No. 181, which had big as stairs which made life fun,
It was really, a pretty sweet deal, but on the wrong side of town, just to keep it real,
The Dance Studio was further away, but it had a little bit more room to play,
But you had to watch your step, watch your steppity step, cause there’s kaka on the ground and you might be next, The kaka came from the dogs who barked all day long, Inside you could stare at your reflection, But once again it was time to grow, so we moved on from the dance studio,
Next was the jockey club, which was so full of stuff, But don’t forget it was also full of us, before they took it away on a big as truck, Shucks, it was cramped in there, did anybody have a spare chair? I’m sure there used to be a building there, when you drive past now, the ground’s all bare, That’s not, that’s not all, we moved back to Manurewa to Tadmour Hall,
It had a big roof, and some big as walls, but a church is not a building, a church is us all,
Thanks to friends for letting us stay, it will be remembered as a good as place,
Remember that we’re not too far away, now we got Takanini School as our base,
So that’s where we are, and that’s how it is, finally got some room for the kids,
Hope they haven’t been drinking too much fiz, so we can get on and take care of biz,

Trinity Church is 5 today,
Man, its good to be alive today,
Trinity Church is 5 today,
That’s why we’re having a party,

So thanks must go out to the universe’s King, the almighty creator of everything,
To whom angels bow down and they sing, and in our lives is sanctifying,
We thank you God, that you know eternity, We thank you God that you made Trinity,
We know you’ve there, when it hasn’t been pretty, We thank you God that you called us to Takanini, Gotta give credit where credit is due, and Lord we couldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for you, You’ve been there when it was rough and when it was smooth, when times where tough you made us turn back to you, We thank you Lord for the stuff that we’ve done, We thank you Lord for the friends and the fun, We even thank you for the persecution, but mostly we thank you for giving us your Son, So I just wanna speed it on up, to slow it on down, We gotta shout out some thanks before we leave this ground, So if you’re feeling these guys just holla on out, they really deserve it, for sure, there’s no doubt, We better start off with the leadership team, why don’t you give a holla for the macpherson family, Then another guy that came to trinity, we thank you God for Mike Bailey, I think I’m gonna run out of time before I run out of names, so if you please don’t mind we’ll change this game, You know who you are, and you know what you do, so if you don’t get mentioned we still love you,
We thank you for the ladies who teach bible in Schools, We thank you for the ladies study group,
We thank you Lord for the Boys and the Girls, they are just so outta this world,
We thank you Lord for the Evangelism Team, we thank you Lord for the people who clean,
We thank you Lord for the guys up the front, and the rest of the music team, you hear me Mark Young? Thanks God for the children’s church Leaders, and after the service, the people who feed us, We thank you God for the men’s study group, Bacon and eggs are my sort of food,
We thank you God for the rest home service, and the youth leaders who get a little nervous,
We thank you God for Mr Brown who drives the van, and anybody else who picks up our fam.

Trinity Church is 5 today,
Man, its good to be alive today,
Trinity Church is 5 today,
That’s why we’re having a party

prayer

2006-06-13T12:52:00.000+12:00

hey team,

in the last couple of weeks, i have really been encouraged by prayer. specifically prayer meetings at trinity, but also at covenant, and with the cambodia team. so i want to encourage you all to keep praying. as someone quoted me the other day, 'why worry, when you can pray?'.

But specifically, i would just like to thank everybody that has been praying for me, over the last year or so, with my car crash, going to cambodia, my hernia, and my times of unemployment.

It is with great pleasure that i now annouce that Go has provided me with a job. A job that meets all my needs and allows me time to serve Him through serving the church. yea-uh!

i don't know too many details, and won't until i sign the contract, but i'll keep you posted (no pun intended!)

thats about all i have to say, from your favourite apprentice cycle postie.

word out.

love

2006-06-06T16:30:00.000+12:00

not sure about your long weekend? but i couldn't think of a better way to spend mine then munching on rice, chicken and porkbones with boilup, and watching DivX.

chur Paoo's.

in other news i am still not employed, but hopefully by the next time you read this i will be.
(either that or the next post will be a long time in coming?)

a'ight.

making friends and maori tv

2006-05-18T09:55:00.000+12:00

hey fam!

hope all is well in your part of the world.
so to survive the repetition of the job hunt yesterday, i rocked up to the manukau skate park for a jam, and to my suprise saw some people filming in the bowl. so i just watched for about 10 minutes, found out it was maori tv from one of the locals, and when i registered that they weren't using the whole thing, went for a skate down the other end.

then this young fulla, (i later found out his name was alex), rocking a 'maori' t-shirt rocked up and started asking me all about the whole scene, so i just explained what was going down, and encouraged him to get his t-shirt on tv, but he wasn't real keen, and we spent the next 30-45mins running away from the camera, but they might have caught us, so if you're watching maori tv in august tune in, and you might see me?

do they show white boys on maori tv?
but the good thing was, that by watching the other guys skating i picked up a few tricks, and can now grind, do ollies up the quarter pipe and a few other nifties, as well as drop in on demand.

yea-uh! thanks maori tv.
sweet!

i'm back

2006-05-10T16:52:00.000+12:00

hey kids,

well, as the above title indicates, i have returned from the deep south to my lil' ghetto up north.

notes:
it sure is nice to not have to wear 4 layers of clothing to stay warm

although i could do without rain every half hour?

the south island is niiicce.

i think if my mum took on your mum in a homemade muesli making contest, mine would win. (but i could be slightly biased).

petrol is cheaper up here. (scary huh?)

2006 might be the year of weddings, but there are heaps of my mates having babies right about now. shot hamish & anita, dan & michelle, nathan & sarah, and harrington & roi. (haha they might be taking the 'go forth and make disciples command a little literally?)

sweet as.

carl

blacker

2006-05-01T22:18:00.000+12:00

oops i did it again / i offended a friend
hurt someone i love / with words that were rough
so now i've lost their trust / i think i've had enough

look at all this drama i've caused / i've tried to express remorse
of course i'm sorry, i said, of course / the pain wrenches at me with brute force

O Lord can't you just press rewind? / back to a time when i was kind
just 1 minute, that'd be fine / back before i started this rhyme
cause right now i've lost your light / lost in a nasty fight
dark like shadows in the night / like what a man sees with no sight.

sometimes i feel
black like the sky when jesus died
black like the nightmares i've survivied
black like the heart of you and i
right now i really need your light

how come Lord when faced with choices tonight?
choices between No.2 wrong and No.1 right
guess in which choice i delight?
yeah the wrong one, yeah that's right

why O Lord, can you tell me why?
in my saviour do i deny?
please Lord would you hear my cry?
i want you to consume my life
have mercy on my soul
fix your truth upon my eyes

so theres a battle going on with my heart and my head
why can't i just have peace instead?
my head wants what's good, but my desire wants fed
like a roving beast looking for its next meal
i guess what i'm trying to say, is what i just said

sometimes i feel
black like the sky when jesus died
black like the nightmares i've survived
black like the heart of you and i
right now i really need your light

flood

2006-04-28T10:53:00.000+12:00

hmmm. seems like my life does nothing but chop and change in the last year. but this time it was just the weather.

after having 12 days of splendid autumn weather, bright cloudless days and nothing foul to speak of, the weather finally packed in and just got plain ole' nasty!
my mum tried to leave on wednesday morning in the car but the waves from the estuary were coming over the road!, and flooding all the lower lying terrain.
which meant we basically kept inside the homestead and didn't venture to far. no real damage, except the wind blew in our sliding door for the porch and shattered the glass, no trees fell down this time, just some branches around the place. so yeah, all good in the hood.

just hoping it dries up a bit so i can fit in my round of golf with big steve. (theirs my selfishness popping up again.), and mid next week, i venture up to chch, to hang out with tubby, and other chch peeps, before returning to the big dirty on the 8th of may.
keep it real wherever you are, kids!

peace out.

rather

2006-04-20T14:30:00.000+12:00

hmm, well a lot of stuff has been happening since my last post.

I am now based at the lovely mother and father's luscious green farm down in the mightiest depths of the south island enjoying ravishing sun filled days and clean (very crisp) southern air.
almost makes me want to stay!

its been a great week so far, last wednesday we got to celebrate tim and (now) debbie landreth's wedding in wyndham, followed by the reception in invercargill. so show how super these landreth's really are, they sang acapella whilst the bridesmaid's were walking in, (how's that for some pre-wedding jitters?), with faithful best man, dan - supporting the more musically inclined landreth lads doing their serenading. although not one to be out done, dan later rocked the party, with a bestman's speech that nearly tore down the building, including some rapping, a few mighty pun's, and more hilarity then you could bottle. heh

so, then on to another wondrous southern occasion, 'easter camp!'.
it was an entirely enjoyable affair, with lots of new faces and plenty of old school routines, one downer, was i couldn't charge on all cylinders, but i am rejoicing in the opportunity that i had to go.
my highlight of that first week, wasn't even at easter camp, but after debbie and tim's wedding, whilst talking to an old school mate, who has since broken his back in a mountain biking incident, describing how he made it through - ' i just took a teaspoon of cement and had to harden up!'
classic southern dry humour!
anyway, i'm still at home now, helping dad with a few things on the farm, watching the hawks end the regular season, and loving youtube.com
it does make it easier that mum and dad have got broadband - but there are some really nice videos about riding big waves, skating and hiphop. so yeah, check it out.

otherwise take care people.

peace out. carl

21

2006-04-04T15:49:00.000+12:00

my lil' bro is having a party. holla at him if you're in chch on the 6th of May and he'll hook your up. cheers people.

peace out.

so fresh and so clean

2006-03-31T14:17:00.000+12:00

hey all,

been out and about and down to everybodie's favourite rotovegas for the last couple of days, got to chill with the grandparents and a multitude of cousins and auntys and uncles, so it was pretty rad.

also did quite alot of cruising round and noticed not a lot of graffiti, so obviously the council is working hard down there to correct it or it has not reached the state that it is up here in sth akld.
although it was quite funny driving past the skatepark and seeing big painted rectangles in greyish/blue shade, obviously covering up something?

i got quite bored on the way down, so i was hoping for some hitch-hiker action on the way home, and yes indeed - not 1 but 2.

i picked a taiwanese boy - siem on the outskirts of rotorua and dropped him in hamilton, and picked up an older customer - tim just before mercer and dropped him in pukekohe.
both good natured chaps, although tim was a little rough round the edges.
but therein lies the dilemna of hitchhiking - do you not pick people up cause they look shady/rough/dodgy in that split second decision you make at 100km/h?

my policy is to always pick them up as long as i have enough room, but i will admit that some guys don't do themselves any favours and i have continued to drive past on the odd occasion, but for the majority of strangers i see, i pick them up.

just wondering what your fullas policy was on this matter?

chur,

2 down, more to come.

2006-03-02T14:09:00.000+13:00

well, peeps.
i've made it. i survived my two weeks of bed rest without a hitch, and can now start working my way back to full shape.
it ain't easy, and definately don't envy anybody in slow recovery mode, but it also takes discipline and thankfully the Lord has been able to strengthen me in that regard. so where to now?

that's an unbelievely good question. firstly i gotta sort out my ACC. apparently 'hernias' aren't always workplace incidents, (how many 24 year olds do you know that have had one?), so i'm kinda battling them thru this whole process, but hopefully i'll know where i stand next week?

and then i guess, its get back to full fitness, don't do anything stupid, and find a less labourious job.
i'm also going down south to hang out with the whanau and rest up down there, which i'm really looking forward to. quality time to be had.
this week, i've been working on the easter camp forms, (hopefully coming to a town near you shortly), i think they look hot. but of course i'm gonna be biased, let me know what you reckon, when you see them.
i don't really have any other news at the moment, but i have been reading lots of good books, which is one benefit of having lots of down time! so i encourage all of you to do some quality reading! it's been very beneficial to me.
i'm also thinking about doing some serious swimming in a week or so, to regain fitness and lung capacity, if anybody wants to come along, you're very welcome. get me some swim buddies, heh!

ok kids, take care eh.

peace out.

carl

late nights and heavy breathing

2006-02-20T17:43:00.000+13:00

sorry bout the late notice, but in terms of suprises i think i really have outdone myself?
so first things first, i'm outta hospital, resting and feeling pretty good, but just have to take it easy for the next little while. so i guess ya'll wanna know what happened?
this is what went down.
i had surgery to repair a ''diaphragmatic hernia', now don't ask me how that happened, but the consensus seems to be that it was related to my car accident or falling off the roof before christmas. but anyway, if it had been in there for that long i certainly didn't notice and had been going about my daily business with no problems relating to my car accident.

so i was working last thursday, and had just stopped for lunch when i got sharp abdomenal pains with lasted about 20mins and then vanished as fast as they had came, so i knocked off early, and was driving round my boys from boys group, delivering rosters for the first term when the pains came back and throughout the afternoon moved progressively higher through my chest unto they reached my shoulder. it wasn't to bad when i stood up straight 'as anyone who talked to me would bear witness', but soon became painful to sit in my car, so once i had finished that i headed to macphersons, and they decided i needed to head to middlemoore, as i might have had a relapse. by this time, i was finding it quite difficult to breathe, and really getting a bit anxious, so it wasn't very pleasant at all.
i had more relief being in the care of middlemoore, but my pain was increasing and my breathing wasn't much better. i must have been in some state, cause morphine didn't do much to dilute the pain on the first instances, my memories getting a little shaky about those events, but it was easily the most pain i can remember experiencing.
i learned of the need for surgery, sometime early friday morning, which again was a welcome relief that the problem was diagnosed and a solution reached.
so late sat/early sun i had laparoscopic mesh repair surgery, and have been healing rapidly ever since.

Thanks be to God who gave me the strenght to make it through, and especially to andrew and helen for staying with me on thursday night. and everybody else who came in to visit and encourage. thank you!
so yeah, i'm all good and will be working my way back to full fitness somewhere near you shortly.

take care,

carl.

shucks

2006-02-08T20:47:00.000+13:00

its been a long time, but i've finally come back to reality and the lure of the interweb.
but its been so good for so long without it.

ummmm, yeah, life has kinda changed up a bit in here lately, i've moved back to 83 with sam 'danger' duthie, back rooofing for a bit, and taking charge of the trinity boys group.
so all in all, life is still moving far to rapidly for my liking, but i'm trying to immerse my self anyway.
fun times were had in the south island with my 2 homeboys, holla out to jimbo and shananon. yea-uh! many moments of hilarity were encountered on a 4500km tour of the dirth south and lower north island. shout outs also to the faithful who attended ybc, and to mark and gina, and johny and michelle who got married in the break. word.
highlight of the trip was probably those midnight swims in the taranaki, followed closely by cam's hilarity at ybc, and a brotherly mocking of jimbo (sorry, that's one of those 'i guess you had to be there ones').

cool. well i also have to give a fine shout out to the 'vanrij' hospitality, good times, thanks for opening your home to a vast horde of hungry youth, and producing a encouraging and profitable environment to find solace in. cheers. i hope we were a blessing to you as you were to us.

and finally, in case you missed it, the atlanta hawks have won 15 games, (better then last years win total already, and just defeated the east. conf. champion pistons. yea-uh!). there won't be room on the bandwagon for long!

ok, take care all, i hope all is well. be righteous. peace.

anticipating.

2005-12-26T17:23:00.000+13:00

hey fulleses.

if you've been browsing my blog lately, and complaining about the lack of up dates?
firstly, my bad, i've been busy lately, but there also is more to life then checking peoples blogs. especially at this time of year, so i hope you've all enjoyed your christmas holiday.

i'm posting this from the lovely vanrij household in christchurch, so after many hours on the road and none too many km's we finally made it to the real dirty south. with 3 other akldrs and a truck load of stuff! shot caleb and ali.

so yeah, ybc starts 2pm tommorrow time, and i'm excited!
always a good way to welcome in the new year. followed by a cyc camp in waihola, and then some owaka time, followed by a young owaka lad marrying a new plymouthian girl in the taranaki, and that about wraps up my holiday.

i guess i'll ctach most of you at ybc, yea-uh! and the rest some time in the near future?

ok kids, take care, i'm out like old socks.

peace.

double trouble

2005-12-07T12:49:00.000+13:00

hey kids,
in anticipation of your bewilderment, i urge you not to worry about my own safety, because the above photo comes all the way from the united states of america, and is the result of my good mate bryan davis being struck by a drunk driver. uurrrrgggghhhhh

so yeah, it happened about two weeks ago, and everybody is ok, although his wife angie has suffered some back pain. please pray for her.
if you like freaky stuff like this you can find more photos here.

in other news, me and my homie jim E went for a tikit tour down to wellingTRON in the weekend, was a very enjoyable time of fellowship with the kids down there, and i managed to buy a new car on the way back up, so i'm rollin' again, although hopefully my new stead will last a lil' longer this time.
in other other news my soul sista arrives home on saturday, wickedies! should be good.

alighty kids, take care eh?
peace.

hmmmm. fa sheezey

2005-11-28T14:35:00.000+13:00

hey team, whatup?

just wanted to let you know that my new favourite team, THE HOTLANTA HAWKS have started to kick some grass, and won back to back games over the celtics and the pacers, which is the first time they've recorded two straight wins in over a year, so after 9 straight losses to start the season, there record is an almost respectable 2-9. checka checka......

so there's still room on the band wagon if you want to hope on?
the afro'd josh childress had 14 points and 13 rebounds, not bad for a soul brotha.
anyway, in other news i finish work on wednesday, and then its party on time, hopefully with some casual labour, and a new ride thrown in there somewhere.

shout out to graham cooper who is currently building a house, which has a pantry bigger then the house me and neil stayed in cambodia. if i was scotty that would deserve a 'raagghhhh'.
hopefully i can subdue the grapples of materialism and commercialisation in my personal life.

ok kids, take care eh,

peace and blessings,
carl

ain't no 'i' in team

2005-11-22T12:11:00.000+13:00

Man i miss these guys, after spending 3 weeks with them, the bonds get pretty strong and it feels like they've been severed since we've been home.

when can we have a reunion?

fo' get ful ness

2005-11-15T15:52:00.000+13:00

yo all.

seeing as no more crazy stuff has happened this week, i've kind of forgotten how to post about 'normal' life. seems so long ago.... oh well.

new things of note.
a new link to my new favourite team - the atlanta hawks, go the big dirrrty!
thanks to three of my favourite players playing for them and the fact their yellow and red road uni's are so striking! They could also possibly be the worst team in the nba, so they need some hard core fans, if you want to hope on the bandwagon now, before it gets too big, feel free.
Go hotlanta!

Shout out to E.lo(we) for rekindling my interest in skating, after nearly 3 years in akld, my thirst had nearly dried up, thanks to a lack of skating mates, so along comes this punk looking dude who shows me the joys of manualing on flatground, and 180' ollieing little ledges. cheers bro.
lets road trip sometime.

p.s. thanks to tanya for turning 16 and having herself a choice pool party. oooh cold water was so nice! after some 27' stuff in cambodia. so yeah, shot tanya. hope you had a good one.
and props to simonandmelissa for getting some engagement. God bless yo.

righto, peace out.

carl.

moto

2005-11-10T08:36:00.000+13:00

hey guys,

a big thank you to phillipa for sending me these photos.
your favourite little homie driving 'moto'.
thankfully none of the 'attached' kids fell off so all was well.
check it out:

in other news thanks for the support for all who have encouraged me this week.
once i figure out what i'm gonna do i'll let you know, i might pop down to chch for a micro break, maybe?

cheers dudes and dudettes.

peace.

crazy in life

2005-11-07T15:43:00.000+13:00

well hello folks.

first post on good ole' nz soil.
lifes been pretty cool since i've been back, but i've also had plenty of moments where i wish i was still in cambodia.
it hasn't been too hard to adjust to being home, but i think i'm gonna try and live a little more simply and seek to serve the Lord more in my own community.

todays 'hope this doesn't happen to you moment'.

walked in to work, and my boss was overly excited about my trip and was asking questions about everything for atleast 40mins, untill he dropped the bomb.

carl - we're afraid you've been made redundant.
nice, it was kind of a combination of factors, the majority of which was that my position is more administration focused then design, which they only just realised and of course my lack of practical experience, or is that 'piratical' nato?
in some ways its cool cause i get replaced by a full timer and a part timer, so i musta been doing a little bit of work?
so yeah, got one week to get stuff up to date and then 3 weeks pay after that.
i mean i'm not too suprised, cause for various reasons i've had 5 weeks off work in my first 3 months there. that's not really a good start in anybody's books.

so yeah, Rejoice in the Lord always!
I guess now i have a little time to figure out what i really want to do with my life.
A missionary life is looking more and more tempting.

in other news - thaks to tanya for taming my mullet last night and for good times with the duthie homie. good to see you again bro. keep rocking in the akl.

and thanks alana for the voice mail - if i had my wits about me i would have recorded you some sounds from the worship at the orphan camp. totally awesome. 'sum sok praya - hallelujah - hey!'

all good in the hood.

take care all - your favourite whit eboy

carl.

halo camp

2005-10-31T23:35:00.000+13:00

well howdy.

sorry about the delay in posting. the internet crashed on my last post, so i've been waiting to get back to the hotel to do something about it.

well highlights since my last post include:

seeing 'some' of the temples at siem reap. including the one where tomb raider was filmed. pretty spectacular. its amazing to think that they were all built about 2000 years ago over a period of about 400 years, scaling a land area similar to modern day new york city! wowsers!

we have also just returned from the 'project halo' youth camp. now 'halo' is a nice acronym but i can't for the life of me remember it. the mission is to surround orphans (due to HIV/aids, landmines, kymer rouge) with a support network to help them through life, one of the ways they do this is through pairing them up with an older christian youth in a big brother, big sister partnership. so we had approx between 120 - 150 kids at camp, and had a great time with them.
some also surrendered their lives to Christ so that was awesome. the times of worship were just amazing, and in a sauna like atmosphere, we spent most of our time dripping, but well worth it for the cause. it was just a joyous occasion really.
very tiring though, due to the heat, the busy schedule, wrestly kids, 8 flights of stairs to get to my room and mornings initiated with running and aerobis exercise.
me thinks i will sleep well tonight.

well say hi to the team for me, and we'll catch up later.

and alana - you have a new teaching job? congratulations.

ok kids, take care eh?

peace out.
carl.

thanks phillipa and jennie

2005-10-26T00:35:00.000+13:00

word.

we made it to siam reap yesterday, (the place were the temples are for the unimformed), one of the tomb raider movies was partially filmed there - which one i'm not sure cause i've seen neither, but it might be something to look into when i get back.

anyway, back to the heading. on our bus trip we stopped for lunch and whilst using the facilities phillipa and jennie saw an opportunity they couldn't refuse, so when i arrived back to the team i had none other then a roast tarantula waiting for me. hmmm. not to let a crowd down i gave it a go. it wasn't a big one, - probably about 10cm in length all up, but still pretty intimidating. although i must confess i didn't eat the whole thing, an abdomen and poison sacks don't really tickle my fancy, so i many just ate the front legs. look out for a video coming near you shortly. was a bit overcooked, but oh well, you get that.
seeing my attempt credit must go out to phillipa and jennie who obliged by eating a couple of legs each. shot girls! sorry if i've offended anyone, but i'm the type of guy that will give most things a go.

anyway, cambodia is corrupt. (if you didn't already know.)
to catch our bus from the centre city on monday morning we hired 3 tuktuks, and split the team between the three. craig told them all exactly where to gom but with a little extra on the side, two drivers took us to another bus station expecting that we would by a ticket and get them some extra coin, (cause they have special deal with the bust companies), but alas we already had our tickets, so we were in the wrong place at the right time. which all added to the stress levels of a few of our team. but God looked after us and we made it too the right place eventually.

the trip it self was quite uneventful. note for future reference - don't get a seat where you can see out the front window. theres all kinds of stuff on the road and buses aren't the most manuoverable. i thought we were going to crash into heaps of stuff, kids, animals, moto's, cars, but our driver proved himself time and time again. what a good dude.

anyway, i could go on but i'll leave it there. hope all our well. the temples are amazing.

take care kids,

carl.

fried snakes

2005-10-22T18:40:00.000+13:00

yeah well. as part of our phenom penh adventure we had to drive round and take photos of a list of 20 things:

one was a follows:
- a kiwi eating a fried snake

so with phillipa and joyce also in my team, i guess i was the chosen one.
tasted pretty good, it had a nice marinade, although it was a tad chewy. might ask for it to be not so well done next time!
our team came an unbelievably close second to the winning team of hamish, alex, and bonza. guess not being able to find that fried cricket really cost us. oh well, maybe next time.

the last few days have been really fulfilling, - donating blood was quite highlight. i don't normally do it in nz, but it seemed the right thing to do over here, and should hopefully prove helpful to somebody. i 'being such a big, burly man' was allowed to donate 400mls, so my good circulation proved its worth, and had me finished quite alot faster then some of the others, phillipa was pretty quick also - must be the southern upbringing. now if only we could fit in an airconditioning system? haha.

i went for a drive with my host father last night, his name is panit, and westerners aren't encouraged to go out alone after dark, because they are an easy target for theives etc, so it was a highlight to have the fresh breeze as we navigated the streets on 'moto' (motorbike). he took me past the royal palace, the independance monument, the british embassy (where he works), the river side - quite lively on a fridasy night, and a few of the other spots. it really is a beatuiful city, with lots of detailed buildings and greenery.

anyway. i better going. our involvment is picking up abit in some of the groups, so please pray that we can communicate effectively, and that we would love like jesus did.
hope things are rocking where you are.

take care all.
carl.

post two

2005-10-18T23:10:00.000+13:00

hmmm well.
yeah, these updates don't seem to be working quite as well as anticipated. oh well. its hard to compress all the stuff, emotions, experiences, highlights in a small text fromat to convey all thats going on over here, but some stuff thats gone down follows:

last night we had the mean thunderstorm, i don't think you appreciate the full power of torrential rain until you sleep under a corragated iron roof with no insulation, ceiling, or anything. gets quite loud, and with thunder booming away in the background it formed quite a symphony.
quite a humbling experience.

whilst waiting to lead devotions at the prayer meeting this morning, me neil and hamish were hanging with the locals, apparently we found out later, they thought we we're pretty handsome, (it musta been early in the moring before we got a good sweat up, yea-uh!)

this afternoon - we also had the opportunity to go to the genocide muesum. wow. its very crazy, to imagine what went on there. its all still like it was at the time of the kymer rouge, with the cells, barbed wire, quite a dispicable place. in its former life it was a school, then the turned it into a prisoner camp. i'll leave you with one disturbing statistic - of 20,000 people that went in, only 7 came out alive.

on a lighter note, me and neil are slowly communicating more with our host family. we managed 'delicious' in kymer - chng ung after last nights meal and found out all the ages of the family. its pretty cool. i'm really enjoying living in the slums, i'm not quite sure why exactly? maybe the sense of community? it would be pretty hard to live there and work fulltime for 4 dollars a day, but the way they have looked after us so far makes for a particulary enjoyable experience. its gonna be sad to leave.

anyway, hope all you fullas are well. keep up the good work at home, and look after my flatmates for me. chur guys,

a lee how a / goodbye
carl.

cambodia

2005-10-15T22:26:00.000+13:00

hey kids,

can't talk long, but just a quick note to say we made it safe.
we've found our host families and it should be a pretty awesome time, have nearly worn myself out playing soccer with the local lads. the people are so warm and friendly, and the climate is also. ha! anyway, just letting you followers know that all is well.

i'll talk more later.

cheers,

carl

three strikes - you're outta here

2005-10-12T17:09:00.000+13:00

well, for those of you that have requested here, here, here it is:

sam duthie's much beloved bmw.
hopefully i won't write off any more cars in the near future.
for full story see below.

in other news: 2 sleeps and i'm in cambodia. yours prayers would be appreciated.

carl.

unbelievable

2005-10-07T17:26:00.000+13:00

ok. we all know my life has been crazy lately. but try this one on for size:

my third car crash in 2 months happened on wednesday night.

YEAH WHAT?
exactly. here goes.
ok, so i went with sam to willie and alex's for tea in his bmw and whilst there my homie brotha tubbs txted to ask what time he should ring me, (cause he'd been trying for the last couple of days) , so i told him 9pm, and approximately 8.45pm me and sam made our way back down mahia road.
we were just turning off onto christmas road, when we heard sirens come from the roundabout, and then nek mintue. the car was shunted forward and i banged my head on my passenger window and sam suffered mild whiplash.
what happened was the cops were chasing this dude, and it turns out he was doing 120kph down mahia with no lights on, (alas why we didn't see him), so he saw us and must of premediated that we were going to carry on down mahia, and he would turn up christmas to escape from the police, but he obviously miscalculated and rammed into our backside, doing pretty much the same damage as to my corona.
but we found our later, that the police had two warrants for his arrest, so as soon as he crashed, he gapped it on foot up christmas road, and eventually the police couldn't find him. so, how crazy is that? i couldn't believe it. i don't really know whats going to happen to sam's car cause the other dude probably won't have insurance and didn't own up to the crash either - and i'm not sure whether the police have a policy for that.
but luckily it was his big bmw, or we coulda been carnage. God provided once again. if it was his corolla i think we both woulda been in intensive care today. far flaming out.

so yeah, its pretty crazy. i'm alright thou. i actually thought i would have hurt my ribs on the seatbelt, but they're not sore at all, so that's all good.

so yeah - i'm not sure what's going on at all. God's obviously trying to get me to rely on Him for strength, which i'm trying to do. but i just can't believe whats happened over the past month.

just goes to prove that we don't have no control over anything that goes on around else.
so make sure you are right with God - thats my advice right there.

ok, keep up the good work kids.

i'm out. peace.

evangelism

2005-09-30T09:16:00.000+12:00

'we' being the boys of 58B have enjoyed some younger company for most of this week, (being the school holidays and all that), and have been frequently visited by some of the local lads.

what follows is a transcript of a conversation between me and the boy i shall refer to as 'tuni'.

tuni: 'you're a gangsta, eh, ow?'

me: 'no'

tuni: 'yeah, i knew you were a gangsta...'

me: 'why's that?'

tuni: 'cause you got lots of marker pens'

alas - my vivid collection gets me in trouble once again. heh.
take it easy kids, and have a nice weekend

my good friend willy

2005-09-27T15:46:00.000+12:00

and it just don't stop.

2005-09-20T13:10:00.000+12:00

flip.

i'm not exactly sure where to start. too much to say, too much to do.

well, i guess i should start at the beginning.
wednesday afternoon, i had a full tank, and a some fresh oil + filter, thanks to my buddy sam.
was visiting the boys group boyz, to get some enrolment details for church camp.
then i went home and had some KFC, and also went to visit some other people from my church, but they weren't exactly willing, so 8.00pm on a wednesday night, whats a young fulla to do? go to maraetai. yea-uh!
now maraetai, for some reason holds a special place in my heart, i've had some good times there, and if you got on a calm night, you can just sit still before God and let your soul be refreshed. but this night i was still somewhat agitated, and after about 10mins, i decided to head back.
I'm gonna have a biased opinion but i don't think i was driving recklessly.
obviously a lot of contributing factors went into the accident, some of which would consist of: my driving, new vehicle, tiredness, God's sovereignty.
But i'm still blank as to why my car left the road?

i did feel the laft rear wheel hit the gravel, which in turn caused the other rear wheel to be dragged into its path, and by this stage my whole vehicle was skidding sideways along the road side at about 90-100kms.

i looked up and saw the powerpole coming about 80metres away, and it was lined up perfectly with the centre of my vehicle, there was no chance of me stopping, or changing my path.
at that stage - the whole world stopped - or at least slowed to a fraction of the speed it was was moving, - just like an action movie.

Two very vivid thoughts entered my mind:

1. ' This is it, i'm going home!'

2. "Oh no, not my car!'

as you can see, i was still very selfish, even in the midst of calamity.
the biggest thing was, that i seriously thought, God was gonna take me home, and as daunting as i know that day will be, it was actually very reassuring at that particular time. I believe that if all of the above had happened and i didn't know jesus, or trust him as my saviour, i would be a very shook man. very very shaken.

but i think having that perspective throughtout the rest of the accident and in the coming days, it granted me a better position to really deal with all the situations around me, i didn't have to stress, because i realised God's plan was to keep me here, and there was obviously nothing i could do to influence that.

now, those that know me, will also note, that i thrive on a bit of adrenalin, so actually hitting the pole, was somewhat enjoyable? (if that makes any sense). i mean, not enjoyable, but it's one of those things that will probably only happen once in your lives, if that, i wanted to be able to experience it. i don't really know if i can communicate really what i want to, so just don't think i'm a sick dude or anything.

obviously after the impact, i couldn't breath, my first impression was that i had given myself the stitch, which i later corrected to be rib injuries.
about 1 minute after it happened, a dude came down the road from his house across the road, took one look at the car and said ' wow, uh, just stay in the car, i'll go and call an ambulance'.
as soon as he ran off, i opened the door of my car and got out. (direct disobedience once again!) i must be inherently sinful or something?
while stumbling for breath, the neighbour on the other side of the road came down and supported me to her letterbox, which i leant on whilst struggling for breath, by now my ribs were starting to get quite painful. I also had to partake in conversation, about lots of weird and wonderful things, although to my benefit, mono syllabic answers and grunts usally surficed.

once the ambulance arrived, i don't recall much of that trip to the hospital, except to be floating on a wave of morphine. the hospital was the same story, i was conscience that people we're looking after me, so i really didn't worry about anything until the next day.

to round it up, kids always wear your safetly belts, drive safe, live your lives as you wouild if you knew God was coming back today, because you don't know when you'll meet him.

I really just wanna praise my Saviour and my Lord, because it's only by His wonderful grace that i'm still amongst you brethren today. He was my strenght, my sustainence, my provider,
I was was looking forward to sharing eternity with Him, and still am, but have to stay here for another while.

i also want to thank all you fullas out there but most notably,
my parents:
thanks for staying strong on the phone, i didn't give you guys anything back, but managed to use your strength to strengthen me, sorry for all the drama i've caused. thanks for bringing me up in the ways of the Lord.

scott and jono:
who needs a wife when you've got flatmates like these? you guys were awesome, from being my first visitors, to taking care of my car, co-ordinating everybody else. if i had a medal, you guys would get it. thanks heaps eh?

brother sam:
this guy man, you could walk into world war 3 and he'd be beside you cracking jokes and pulling your arm. when i needed to smile he made me smile, chur bro. thanks man.

louise:
can't forget my souls sista, even thou she was in japan, she rang me everyday, to see how i was getting on? i was awaiting those phone calls with upmost anticipation. thanks bud.
you encouraged me so much. sorry you couldn't have been here, but thanks for being strong from your side

andrew mac:
the macdaddy, this guy comes in, finds out your level and just chills, it was cool to just spend time hanging with him.

if i write a few things about everyone, i'm gonna be here all day, so don't feel neglected if your name comes in this next list, i valued your support as much as the other fullas, but i really need to got get some painkillas, so here goes:
thanks:
nathan and sarah, for the reading, krizia and sarah for the soul, hamish, for the 'slam', chur bro.
scott(again) and sarah, willie and alex- thanks for cds, election stuff + gromer. the brown family, harrington and roi, the boss, mike thanks for the chocs. jimbo, that audience with a guitar was talked about throughout the ward, chur dude - rock on.
shane, mark tasker - he carried all belongings out of the hosp. chur dude. thanks to everybody who txted, hopefully i responded, and of course everyone who prayed. i can't thank you enough!

i've probably neglected a few people, i'll blame it on the morphine.

so yeah, i better go. i'll end with a mastercard line.

6 fractured ribs = painful
1 punctured lung = painful
1 written off car = pain in the wallet
God being glorified throughout all of the above =priceless.

rideage.

2005-09-14T08:46:00.000+12:00

hey yo's.

got four spare seats in my car for a trip to rotovegas this weekend.

departing 1730 hrs friday 16 Sep, and returning to akld +1600 hrs saturday 17 Sep.

potentially doing some hard labour on saturday morning.

let me know if you want to come, and bring your cds.

cheers,

carl.

when sponsors don't think

2005-09-09T08:34:00.000+12:00

this brief moment of hilarity was pointed out to me in the manukau courier this morning.

Your team in the National Provincial Competition, The Counties Manukau Steelers, now have a major sponsor in Western Bay Finance.
which brings me to the following announcement:

'Ladies and Gentlemen, Proudly show your support for

'The Western Bay Finance Ste(a)lers'

I wonder if thats where all your interest goes on your quick loan? hmmm.

cheers dudes.

carl.

res_cued

2005-09-08T08:33:00.000+12:00

ballpoint on paper 22/07/05

wack rappin'

2005-09-05T11:28:00.000+12:00

harrington, a bassline please?
inspired by nathan's creative literary genius, nas, kayne

Yo, I just wanted to say that there’s more to life than this,
Not trying to sound like will smith with a percussionist.
But there’s something out there you just can’t miss
You gotta ask questions like my man ‘jadakiss’ (why?)

So I know you kids like 50 and his gangsta rappin’
But who really believes that he’s out there packin’
Ice, rim’s, hoes and whatever else goes, but bro, I know,
you know that it’s all a big show.

Yo, young boys, come in here and listen up close,
you want a life that gives you the most.
Something about which to your fam you can boast.
Put it in 5th and go coast to coast.
Well ease off the drink, stay away from the weed.
Yo don’t wanna be my age and can’t even read
School can be hard and teachers even mean,
Its not fun being locked up when you’re seventeen

This one right here, be going out to the girls whose only ten,
Grown looking girls, who follow they friends,
Watching the videos, and do what they see,
Yo kanye, I wanna be a dancer on mtv. Can you help me?
Look after yourself and u can become a star,
Gaining popularity, leaving people in awe.
The next pretty young thing, the updated version,
But whatever you do, don’t hang with the wrong person
Used to be the life of the party, now has the party in a pill.
Re-releasing her album just to pay the bills.
Friends grew tired, family grew cold, had so much potential
Now she’s ugly and old
She still craves the attention, like she’s addicted to meth,
Leans in for hugs, people hold they breath,
Cause she smells of corrosion and death.
All that she had, just got up and left.

Life has so much, but can end up so wrong,
Stranded alone like a lil’ king kong.
That’s why to you I’m singing this song
Cause a time like for ever, for ever ever, for ever ever,
For ever ever, is really quite long.
Theres a fire that burns for all of eternity,
it wants to light you on fire for all of infinity,
sounds like a long time, well yeah most definitely!
I’ll throw in a shamless plug for a place called trinity.

I’m not saying its easy, its always pretty hard.
You always gotta keep yourself on guard.
So bring it before my holy brother Jesus
He’s got the answer you always have needed.
He’s won the battle, got the wounds that have bleeded
Between us and the Father He has forever interceded.

Theres the truth, let it be told, so our youth can grow
They turn to him to survive, to gain control.
Nobody said you had to be gangstas or whores.
Turn to jesus the choice is yours
Ghetto children, like an oyster is the world
Like a lion crouched on all fours.

So go on sunshine, do your thing,
Submit your life to your king,
Legions of angels will stop and sing
Unto Him, unto Him, unto Him.

any ideas are welcomed in the comments, peace dudes.

the mark of the beast

2005-09-02T09:58:00.000+12:00

yo peeps, sorry its not a good image, but here's my new wagon.
will try to put another one up shortly. or better yet, just
come round and visit sometime. peace out. holla!

maroon5

2005-08-31T09:29:00.000+12:00

hey team,

big ups today go out to scotty, for letting me borrow snowy for the past while, and jono and dwaine for giving me a lift to get my car yesterday.

Yes, i've bought a new car.

i'll try post some pics tommorrow.
For those who are interested in stuff, its a 1992 nissan avenir station wagon.
maroon, 5sp, 1500cc, with 143,000kms on the clock.

should go well.
now for the next part.
the car formally known as 'big D' was just that, it was loved, it had a nickname.
so i need a nickname for my new car. i know its abit hard, if you haven't seen it, but give me some creative genius.

thoughs so far:

'maroon5'
'medium P'
'lil red riding hood'

go on, see if you can do better.

coming to a hood near you soon.

chur.

tribute

2005-08-24T08:11:00.000+12:00

Toyota Corona 2.0D (1995 - 2005) R.I.P.

328239

A trusty stallion, reliable friend, and long supporting ride.

Yeah, I didn't anticiapte this day coming for a while yet, but alas, the insurance company won't fork out to fix her up, so fairwell sweet D. thanks for the fun times.
I had a moments silence with her last night, and said goodbye to the many things i'll miss, - the missing hubcap, the diesel stains on the boot, the familiar rumble when she kicks into life, the squeaky fan belt, the hill climbing mis-ability.

when I get home tonight she'll be gone forever.

'raises glass in general direction' - take it easy big 'D'.

peace.

impact

2005-08-16T12:37:00.000+12:00

hey kids,

well, i guess big 'D' finally bit off more then he can chew. heh
got rear ended on the way to work today. it was my first 'real' car crash, so i now have to got through the whole insurance process, which should be challenging.
hopefully big d makes it through and lives to ride another day. but we'll see.
its hard to tell, casue the chassis might have been damaged a bit, so we'll just have to wait and see.
i'm good, we'll catch you all later.

take care kids
carl.

schedule

2005-08-11T16:23:00.000+12:00

this post goes out to my flat mates

long time, no see. hope you're doing okay, should be home tonight between the hours of 6 and 7, maybe we should do dinner?

cheers,

carl.

p.s. let me know what you've been up to?

what does a good Samaritan look like?

2005-08-08T15:13:00.000+12:00

hey kids.

had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, and as an added bonus went to the travel doctors and got hooked up with three vaccinations and a blood test. niiiicce! so that was fun, but on our journey back to the car park, me and neal (holla!) saw a couple of aisan ladies in a distressing parkig scenario? they had the real wheel right flush against the kerb nearly scrapping the hubcap, and the front tyre pointing towards the road at rather a large angle.

we walked past, stopped. did the, 'should we? nah, yeah? oh, i spose?'
neal bravely went back and initiated contact.
we tried the old, 'yeah, you've got plenty of room just keep coming forward' but that worked to no avail, so then the old. okay, go the other way back into the kerb, but they weren't really feeling that either, so neal saw an opportunity, one of those unspoken communications, which responded in the driver saying 'do you want to do it?'

once he got used to the dash shift auto whatever transmission he was away laughing and had them out of the their spot of bother in no time. he left the car pointing out to the road with the hazard lights on with plenty of room to manoeuvre.

so we patted ourselves on the back, said, 'thanks, see ya later'. and carried on our merry way.
it wasn't until after we got back to my car and were driving back down the road past them, that our moment of helpfulness was shattered, they were trying to get into a car park, not out of one.

heh, a brief laugh, but it bought forward some deeper issues, especially as we prepare to go to cambodia
if we don't assess the situation accurately, we could easily do more harm then good over there, and think that because its a western way of doing things, it must be the right way. i mean, in the above example all me and neal had to do was ask, 'are you trying to get out?' instead of just presuming and we could have fixed their dilemna.
if we had driven off the other way down the road, we would never have known that we didn't fix the problem and would have been patting ourselves on our backs all the way home.

anyway, just something to ponder.

take care cuzzies.

carl.

postage

2005-08-04T14:34:00.000+12:00

mic check 1, check 1 2.
well, a big truck just pulled up outside with 8 big round bales of hay on the back,
you know, the ones you see when you go for a drive outside akld, stacked up in farmers paddocks and stuff. sometimes with spraypainted smily faces and sometimes wrapped in plastic besides hedges (baledge).

yeah, so what are they doing in the middle of manukau city? your guess is a good as mine.
it brought back lotsa memories of long summer nights, tractors, digging thistles out of thighs and hands. cold swims at the beach.
oh, if everyone could have a nice farming upbringing?

wowsers. enough with the memories already. one day when these other bloggers get their (b) into (g), anita - yes you (Men), jono (sundays), i might bring you a post about the merits of this little great place i know - owakie. no promises thou.

go now and bring peace and love to your families.

customer service

2005-08-02T11:35:00.000+12:00

hows this for a change in attitude?

Petrol stations are bringing back pump attendants in an attempt to stop frustrated motorists driving off without paying for fuel.
hows that for customer service?
you can read more about it here

it would have been funny to listen to the conversation between the guys that made that decision.

- 'hey trev, how are we gonna stop these crazy people stealing our fuel?'

- 'dunno trev, maybe we should have our people put the fuel in their cars?'

- 'didn't we used to do that?'

- 'yeah, i think so, dunno why we stopped?'

it appears the takanini gull has been the hardest hit, so if you want good service, go there!

peace.

crazy

2005-08-01T09:06:00.000+12:00

okay. bear with me.

heres conversation i had with the papkura police last night 10.08pm

me -'yeah g'day, um some dude just chucked something at my car about 10 minutes ago, while i was just coming through southmall.

police - 'did you get his registration no?'

me - 'nah, it was just a dude standing on the side of the road'

police - 'really?'

me - 'yeah, i just saw him pull his arm back out of the corner of my eye, and then next minute, there was a big bang as something broke against my car, i think it was a bottle?'

police - 'well, i'm afraid we can't do much unless you want to come down and file a report'

me 'oh nah, i was just gonna see if you wanted to send a car to check it out or anything?'

police, yeah, well normally we would but we've already had two fatals this evening, so all our cars are taken up'

me - 'oh REAL? oh okay, um yeah well don't worry bout it then..'

police - 'yeah, sorry, but thanks for the call anyway'

so i'm still struggling to come to terms with everything. i mean firstly, my initail reaction was to stop my car and yell at the dude or something, but quickly my brain decided that wasn't a solid option, seeing as i'm quite the 'weeman', and the chances of the dude being drunk or on 'p' and wanting a fight or something were highly reasonable, so i just let it go. but hearing that there were 2 fatals in my area last night. STRAIGHT UP FREAKY.
thats no good, and also the shortage of cops in our community, how long before people start taking the law into the own hands and coming up with their own form of justice.
today i'm kinda feeling sorry for the cops though, flip, i mean, i wouldn't want to work for an organisation that was understaffed, not liked or respected, and having the extremely difficult job of dealing with the victims families.

this one goes out to the boys in blue. Keep it up.

in other news, we took some of the trinity boys out to hunua falls yesterday arvo.
shot anybody that's jumped off that and survived, SOLID!

it was good times, all the boys seemed to have fun and the drizzle and nobody fell off, so it twas good.

which brings me to my quote of the week, so far:

'your car's not very fast' - daniel jeffery, stating the obvious.

peace kids.

word out.

classifieds.

2005-07-25T08:49:00.000+12:00

hey kids,

a couple of you may have noticed whats going on over here

congratulations go out to both of ya - i'm pretty stoked for you guys.
just the whole situation bought back a sense of deja vu.

this year is my 6th year of flatting, and i don't know whether i scare dudes away, or make girls feel comfortable, or what, maybe my flatting styles aren't up to standard? but scotty enters a long list of my flatmates, past and present, who have got up and got married within a year of living with me, or in the same year.

here goes:

2000 - andy stringer
2001 - simon eyre
2002 - bryan (double) davis -(he actually got married in 2003, but i flatted with him july 2002 to march 2003 anyway)
2003 - nathan leslie
2004 - michael (muffy) dixon
2005 - scott kennedy
2006 - *position yet to be filled

so yeah, i'm not telling you to come flatting with me if you want to get married, i'm just saying this is how its worked out for me, over the short period of living away from home.

so yeah, march - april '06 bring it on.

and last but not least, finally a toast to the future kennedy's, - scott and sarah. cheers!

history

2005-07-21T11:06:00.000+12:00

hey kids,

was just reading the 'listener' last night and noticed a column by a young matt nippert. that name resonated within me, and when i finally remembered i pulled his business card out of wallet, he gave it to me somewhere around tirau.

it was christmas eve 2004, and he was hitch-hiking from auckland to wellington, and i helped get from mercer to tirau, (on my way to rotorua), but not only was he a hitch-hiker, he was also a staff writer for the listener. writing a column about his hitch-hiking escapades.

sadly i didn't make it into the final cut, and if you want to you can check it out here

as he said when i emailed him, 'you had some tough competition' from the other characters on his trip.
the one suprising thing - i had heard of hitch-hiking evangelism before, but this guy got a lesson form the mormons and then 2 young lass's blazed radio rhema on the way down, i didn't get into the gospel, but told him a little bit about trinity and stuff. the funniest dude would have to be the fulla with the crossbow in the backseat to sort out some business dealings - reminds of my t-shirt 'machete express - don't leave home without one in your boot'

fun times.

lets hear it for hitch-hiking!

friends

2005-07-19T10:00:00.000+12:00

i'm gonna dedicate this post to my friends: you know who you are.

i'm not sure where to start i but i know where i want to end, so here goes.
i've been blessed with so many good friends. friends that don't just know about you, but know you.
friends that just come round to hang and don't have to be entertained, friends that make you smile and laugh just by their natural selves. friends that have been there, done that and made it out the other side. friends that have supported and prayed, defended, protected, sheltered, when things have been rough.
friends who know your phone number off by heart, who don't need a reason to pop round, who invite you to share their life with them.
who know you almost as well as you know yourself, and still decide to stick around.
friends who let you drive their car - and drive considerable distances just to see ya.
even after you haven't seen them for a while, you can kick it off again just like old times.
friends who leave the front door open. friends who have nothing and still share it with ya.
friends who bake a cake, and its not even your birthday.
friends who forget your birthday and don't bring a present, but come to your party anyway, cause being there makes your day.
friends who give you a hug, and say 'i love you bro' and once again everything looks brighter
friends who take an interest in something you like, just because you like it.
friends who look after you when you are sick, feed you when you're hungry.
friends to tell you what you need to hear, even when you don't want to hear it, but with humilty and respect.
friends who offer their experience as a lesson to protect you.
friends who serve.
friends who name jesus as a friend also.

akld haters

2005-07-18T09:00:00.000+12:00

yo.

went down to the huntly golf club on saturday, with big neil, holla!
and experienced a great piece of, country humour, graffiti, (hate speech?) auckland bashing?

but i'll share mine, and you guys can share yours, if ya got any?

here goes:

inside the toliets at the golf club their was an official sign on the urinal tank, that read:

'please flush the tank after use' - because it didn't flush automatically

followed by some graffiti which said:

'yeah, auckland needs the water!'

and then auckland got theirs back:

"yeah, we bottle it up in auckland and send it back to you as beer!'

heh, it had me chuckling to myself for the first 3 holes.

anybody else got any good stuff?

not quite breaking news

2005-07-14T11:01:00.000+12:00

you guys remember my facial hair poll?

well, 'flava savour' just broke 25 votes (my original standard), and is now hovering on 26.
and some people have claimed my poll to biast in the past, which i'm kinda leaning towards given the fact the clean shaven is now in 4th place, either that or i have been misreading girls for the past few years? both are still very good options.

anyway. that'll about do it for now.
another interesting thing to note is at the time of writing this i have the least facial hair of all my flatmates, which hasn't happened often this year. (thanks to a trusty neckbeard).

keep it real cuzzies.

peace.

firefighter

2005-07-12T16:29:00.000+12:00

hey kids,

well, i'm on a bit of of a comedown at the moment, cause i was getting all amped last week about becoming a volunteer firefighter, but alas no, i live outside the 2.5km radius for the papakura firestation, but there is still hope for the manurewa one - although they don't have a sign up outside, saying 'volunteers wanted'. so we might have to put it on the back burner for a while - no pun intended.

but yeah, i was getting pretty excited, i mean how cool would it be, to help out people in distress, put out fires, learn heaps of really cool helpful stuff, and get a manly uniform. yea-uh. oh well, i guess i'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

in other news, - i get around.
i now see why the diesel is cranking over 325,000kms. went down to matamata in the weekend, to holla at my home boys 'tubbs'

seeing as he was up from chch to visit his girlfriend, so it was cool, went for a skate (yes - matamata has a skate park), had a beer, chewed the fat, and just downright enjoyed each others company. i also like that photo, represent the nigga lines and handlebar moustache. Oh to have some corn braids........
hopefully he'll move up to hamil-tron next year and we can go on surf and skate missions all over the show.

well thats about it, everybody take care, eh?

peace out g-units.

carl.

gat

2005-07-08T08:51:00.000+12:00

hey cousins,

just thought i'd write about my new found hobbie, so that its recorded hear, in all of it's glory, and somewhere down the line line people can ask me, 'hey didn't you start learning the guitar?' i can truthfully respond, 'yeah.'

that's right! i'm learning the guitar!

i haven't learnt a musical instrument since those good 'ole piano lessons in form 2, so it could be interesting, but seem to be going alright so far. i can now (on a good day) play the first verse to "Ancient of days" - chorus coming to town near you soon!

learning stuff is weird, because you're always very conscious of where you're not up to, and what you can't do. but i'm sick of all of that i've changed my philosophy to nike - just do it.
apart from self improvement and the challenge of learning something new, the main reason i took up guitar, was to aid my church (trinity - represent!) in worship, and also the cambodia, as no one was willing to sing acapella! heh.

so umm yeah, just bear with me for the next few months while i try and get it sorted.

peace and random strummings,

carl.

greetings

2005-07-05T08:57:00.000+12:00

'whatup bro?'

'nothing'

'oh true? .....sweet.'

just been thinking about the way i deal with people lately, and alot of my conversation starters revolve around that sort of thing from both directions, or:

'how are you?'

'aight'

'thats good.'

is that because it is my culture? or the way my society interacts? are those answers/questions my default settings for user interaction?

i obviously realise i can change what i say, but by using these 'templates', does that show i am unwilling to communicate, or simply not excited about the conversation taking place.

i mean, obviously you can't go deep and meaningful on everybody that you interact with everyday, but surely, apart from not talking to somebody, this most be about the minimal contact you can have with another person. if a conversation is for giving and taking / sharing information, then there's not a whole lot happening in those examples.
i'm not really sure where i'm going with this. feel free to drop your comments.

peace out. carl.

and yet life goes on

2005-06-30T12:03:00.000+12:00

hey team,

well, this will be my first official post from my new job. much belatedly, admittedly.
but still there none the less.
its been going well so far, still a lot of things to get my head around, and a number of adminstrational duties that i'm not really used too. apart from that it's pretty exciting. i have a big shiny 'mac' tucked under my desk and a phillips flatscreen. and also a view out the window, which the planes from america fly directly over. coolies.

in other news, i got rid of my flu, almost as quickly as it came on.
not a real nice experience, but what doesn't break you, only makes you stronger apparently.
on the facial hair front, i think i might close my poll tommorrow, seeing as it's the first of the july.
so we'll see who wins, i don't think any one feature will make it too 25 votes.
so it looks like either 'flava savour' or handlebar mo' will take it out.
i don't really mind either, and seeing as i just bought new blades the other day, i may as well get some use from them.

well. hope everyone is well. take care and look after yo'selves.

peace out homies.

carl.

sickety sic sic' sick.

2005-06-28T11:16:00.000+12:00

yo homies.

well good news on the job front, i accepted the offer yesterday, and was supposed to start this morning, but alas came down with the flu last night? how's that for bad timing? so spent the majority of the evening between bed / toliet, overheating / freezing, you guys all know how it goes. funity fun!

so went to the doctors this morning to get checked out, cheers scott, holla!
and turns out it wasn't the standard flu, pretty close to it thou, minus some other symptoms, so gotta get on the fluids and the panadol, and just keep it chill.

one thing that was quite refreshing, was that whilst enjoying the waiting room literature, all of the office staff, and maybe some of the other nurses? starting singing the maori version of 'How Great Thou Art', and concluded in prayer in anticipation of the day. at about 8.45amish? so that was cool. cool to see christians having that witness, and trusting in the Lord for the daily strength.

this was at the manurewa medical centre by the way. keep it up team!

well, hope everybody else is all good.

take it easy.

carl.

s.t oked

2005-06-24T21:42:00.000+12:00

hey kids,

just a brief update in the life and times of a carl . r . muir.

this week has been crazy! but alls well that ends well.
got a phone call today, which concluded in a job offer. sahweet!
i actually thought i had bombed the second interview, but God is good and worthy to be praised. I can now see that it was nothing that i could have done, but only by His grace and power, a lesson He has been teaching me over the past couple of months.

i'm excited about gaining back some much anticipated financial security, but also conscious of the self dependance that brings, so my prayer is to continue to rely on Him to provide for me as i have seen Him do so many times in the past while.
awesome.

the other advantage of severe underemployment, is the opportunity to help my church out more, i've helped the rest home team, and had the opportunity today to do mercy missions. i don't think there is anything as rewarding as serving other people.
so if you want to experience warmth and well earned rest, go and serve your local church. wicked.

in other facial hair fronts. there has been drama over the reliability of the poll on my blog. and i don't think any one section will make it to 25 votes. so seeing as i have a new job, i might do what all the chick's apparently want, and go clean shaven for a while? i can hear flatmate mocking in the background.....heh
i await your feedback?

out.

i love gisbourne

2005-06-20T13:55:00.000+12:00

hey kids, whatup?

things have been fairly hectic in the life of carl.r.muir lately. but not without various patches of excitement.
gisbourne was flaming awesome. I can't believe i hadn't made the trip earlier. there's something about getting out on the open road to which just leads to rejuvenation.
i hadn't visited the town for about 8 years, and can't remember a whole lot from that trip either, so it was cool to get back to small town life, (read: not locking car, no traffic jams, late night strolls, and giving way to the locals in the line up.)
also had the opportunity to catch some surf, which was also rejuvenating, in a draining sort of way.
smallish 2 -3 ft offshore in the morning, and way larger 8 - 9 ft onshore in the arvo, complete with a few axe sessions. awesome.
thanks to the mac.pherson family for letting me come, it was mint.
back to life in akld.
my interview today went well don't think it could have gone much better. thanks for all the prayer, should know on wednesday what the outcome is.
but alas, due to formal interview requirements, had to say goodbye too my furry little friend 'the neckbeard', so if i've read everyone else's coments correctly - bring on the ladies! ha!

i'm not really a proponent for or against facial hair, but do enjoy it's versatility on the odd occasion.
in fact, to sort this facial hair situation, i'm gonna let you the reader decide my facial adornment for the month of july. first to 25 votes wins. let the interactivity begin:

* extra value will be placed on votes for 'small furry creatures'

E_A_S_T

2005-06-15T08:40:00.000+12:00

well firstly, i must holla out to our blogsister 'alana', who has returned from the land of afar. nice to have you back.

also in other revolutionary blogging news, 'thus spoke jono' is back and he's fired up about facial hair. good on ya mate.

well. after being shafted around for a warrant of fitness, (alternator belt, anyone?) hmmm. i finally got it on monday, so now the trusty diesel stallion can vacate it's usual south auckland premisis and enjoy a vast roadtrip to the hearty east coast.

hopefully, whilst enjoying the natural countryside and fine company of relations of friends, i'lst also be granted the opportunity to partake in some splendatious wave riding adventures. heh.

wickedies.

sorry, don't have anything contentious to blog, maybe next time.

stay tuned to find out whether our hero survives his dangerous adventure to the east coast,
remember, same bat time, same bat channel.

(*daunting theme music*)

rotorua is gangsta

2005-06-09T11:00:00.000+12:00

one of the joys of underemployment, is you have a lot of your own time to do stuff you please (if you can afford it), so deciding to enjoy my new found freedom, i spent 2 nights with the whanau down in the BAY.

highlights of the trip included:

watching homie g dudes 'freestyle' to a boombox at the local skatepark. (was almost tempted to join in. heh

using the mighty diesel's raw power to pass multiple big trucks on the open road.

sleeping in, only to be awoken by a blazing rendition of 'the boys are back in town'. QUITE LOUDLY! shot uncle. holla!

showing my 7 year old cousin my sketchbook, only to later notice she had attempted everyone one of my sketches in her her own style during the course of the weekend. pure class.

sleeping in front of a blazing fire. mmmmhmm.

hope you guys had a good'un.

peace.

vanity

2005-06-07T14:38:00.000+12:00

hey kids,

these been a few rumblings amongst my peers about men and their fashion, their facial hair,
but for those of us that went to eastercamp,
we all know that what girls are really attracted to are:

drum roll please.

FOREARMS!!!!

see here for an excellent example of manly prowless.

if concerned about the validty of the easter camp statement, see willy, ryan, dwaine, jono, jared, or andrew (all fine forearm examples too.)
shout out to b-double for the photo - get ur blog up soon sunshine! peace.

looking after...

2005-06-02T18:04:00.000+12:00

whatup kids?

don't know how many of you know, but i've been having a few financial problems of late.
and as i was rumbling through my morning routine this morning, noticed there was a envelope sitting on the windscreen of my car. (seeing as i park in front of the kitchen window this was not particulary unusual).

although what i found there was:
on further inspection the envelope was wrapped in gladwrap to protect it from the diabolical weather, and had a simple 'carl' written on the front.
enclosed was $40 of good ole hard earned cash. except i hadn't earned it. someone out of the goodness of their heart, and mysteriousness of anonymousness had left it there for me.

i was rapt. as i had been praying the night before about how everything would work out, because me and God have been battling through this situation. (He's winning!) I can see how its gonna benefit me in the long term, but its not real fun now.
He used that as a sign of His provision to show that nothing is too big for Him.
i have also been blessed through close christian mates praying for me. cheers guys - you know who you are.

so, i hope thats encouraging to you guys, it certainly was to me.

and a specific thanks to the anonymous giver. you rock.

now, no anonymous comments, ya hear? peace.

i freakin' hate secrets

2005-05-31T11:02:00.000+12:00

i mean do secrets actually benefit anyone?
well of course they do. its just that i'm sick of being in conversation with someone, and their tongue gets to loosened, followed by:

'ooops, you didn't hear that'

'carl. you can't tell anyone'

or my personal fav:

'that stays between you and me'

then you have extra information that you have to carry round your life, which slowly burns away at your vocal strings, seeking a release.
why can't people just keep stuff to themselves, or accept the fact that they shouldn't talk about such stuff. no offense to any Personnal, i'm speaking from personal experience and just get annoyed when other parties let one slip, and then i have to hop onboard the secret carrying brigade.

sometimes 'ignorance truly is bliss'

thinking

2005-05-26T14:49:00.000+12:00

particulary in response to alex's latest post.
here are some lyrics from one of my favourite hiphop bands

'ugly duckling' - dumb it down

where is the world going to?

Here we go now, keep it low-brow
Get stupid (Why?) Cause I know how
Check my brain in, be a idiot
Act lame and stay ignorant
Be remedial, wear the dunce cap
Slouch over and drool like a hunchback
Don't discuss things, shout the last word
Put your good sense out to pasture
Drop your IQ, that's what I do
My advice to girls and guys who
Wanna be a Nobel Prize finalist
Smack the scientist, try apply in this
Keep the customers comin around
If you're smart then you better start dumbin it down
Don't say anything too profound
Dumb - it - down

Da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da
I wanna hear ya
Da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da

Da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da
Everybody
Da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da

What are you thinkin? I don't know
Do you have a dream? I don't know
What about tomorrow? I don't know
What does this mean? Hm?
Please no questions, no topics
Save the message and the logic
Take it easy, keep it lightweight
You're on thin ice and I might break
Call me blockhead or an animal
While I walk like a Neanderthal
Don't say anything too profound
Dumb - it - down

ride

2005-05-26T10:37:00.000+12:00

on my brisk walk from my carpark to work. i eyed one of these out of the corner of my flawless vision.

1967 Cadillac Convertible

i was in love/lust?
it wasn't the convertible version, but had a nice deep red finish, white leather interior, and for all you homies, some hydraulics. it was just nodding away at the traffick lights.

seeing as i will quite possibly never have the opportunity to own one, it certainly made was a great way to start the day. hooray for old school, gas guzzeling, un-ergonomical, american cars!

wrestling

2005-05-24T16:23:00.000+12:00

one of my flatmates (who shall remain unnamed to protect his identity), has been striding round the flat, proclaiming he will kick everybodie's a**, which in turn, lead to some quiet ferocious wrestling this morning, (if you have time, i reccomend it as a morning activity).

i never actually watched a whole lot of wrestling on tv, but i'm quite a fan of the aka's, the alter-ego's, and of course the nicknames, heres some of my favs:

one man army

the quintessential studmuffin

made in the USA

the suntanned stuntman

the wrestler who made milwakuee famous

the madman from the sudan (not quite politically correct but still funny.)

El hombre' elastico'

the canadian rage

the boogie-woogie man

the toast of the coast

the walkin' riot

feel free to add your own. solid.

oscars

2005-05-23T15:04:00.000+12:00

Well, firstly i'd like to thank my Lord and saviour Jesus Christ for saving me from my sin, and blessing me more then i deserve
i'd also like to thank, my Mum and Dad (i love u guys), for bringing me into this world and supporting me always, cheers.
my g-unit nic aka tubbs, your the best lil' big bro a brotha could have, ash, you're the mantis too. we've been through some tough stuff, but you're still my boy. keep yo' head up.
i'd like to thank all the trinity family, u guys rock. the macca's, nothing but love.
its a hard life, but somebody has to do it.
shout out to my household homies scott and jono, thanks for the feeds, the support, the latenight adventures, the laughs. the flat uniform.
my other peeps, sam, you're my dawg. (thanks for letting me drive the skyline!), willie, keep rocking bro (thanks for the jumpsuit). harrington (the big man). speaks the truth when it needs to be spoke. suia sauce - long time no see, keep searching for the Lord bro. you crack me up. panapas (thats right, all of ya, my 'other' fam, cheers)
alana - style guru, thanks for sharing the love, old man socks, cardigans, op shop hard! louise - my soul sista, keep rocking in the east, may the Lord bless you. aimee - thanks for your love of the Lord (and breaking dancing), keep practising, battle coming soon. mark - gina, congrats, u kids are cool. tanya - thanks for lunch and the o.j.
my other auckland homies, too many to name (don't get mad there nothing but love from over here). adam (pakuranga hard!) muff (set it on fire), mark (swing), hamish (lets do madden), boss, bruce, dwaine, whats a whit eboy like me doing on the same field as u guys?
my christchurch peeps. vanrijs, vinsons, baynes, macphersons, eyres, pollards, chris, ya'll have had a big impact on me. keep it frozen, heh.
my owakie peeps, tim, jonno, dan, phil (the classic), mel, jamie, josh, rich, jake
the ones surviving in the dirty a.k.l.d, caleb (diesel luva), nath (roofing till death), its all good.
b-double, hope things are poppin' over there in the bama, 'roll tide - oooopps war eagle!' the trinity boys crew read: gangsta, you guys create carnage but we still love ya,
dan, shannon, aidan, henry, greg, daniel, pops, edu, shane, bo, brendan, jade, hayden, allan, penoa, taniora. peace dawgs. im sure i've missed a heap of kids, but thanks anyway, you've all had an impact on me in some way. so u can take some of the blame, heh! nah, just messing. much love and respect from this side.

thankyou 'sigh' (overwhelming applause!)
exits stage left

i always wanted to do that! heh

welcome

2005-05-23T14:24:00.000+12:00

sup'

well, i finally succumbed to immense innumerable pressure, from basically all my homies read: scott, louise, anita, alex. sorry hamish.
but unlike my almost 'westie' household brotha, i'm already running out of things to say. so theres certainly more to come.

but alas for now, bring on the first comments:

peace

choose my facial hair:
	clean shaven
	flava savour
	moustache
	handlebar moustache
	goatee
	thin beard
	beard (small furry creature)

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