Back in Town

[Bravus]

Thanks all for the greetings back to Oz and all the good wishes. We're in our new house, will pick up our new car today, and I pick up my new motorbike on Monday. This is being written on my new laptop! Some photos will be forthcoming pretty soon. Waking up looking out over the bush, to the sound of birds, and with our friendly local hare and bush turkey bopping by the window is wonderful... we have been richly blessed.

It's great to be home here in CA/AF too, but the time away has let me know I can be here and have fun here without being here all day every day. Less computer time and more family time is a good thing. I'll be around though, definitely.

See ya, and big hugs all around,

D

[Jeannieb43]

Welcome, Bravus! You had a fast trip! I was afraid we'd not be hearing from you for months!

Some more descriptions, please, of your lovely new home town there in Oz -- ? I've never been to Australia, and I'd love to know what it looks like where you are.

[Gail]

Awesome to have you back, Dude! <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Amelia]

What does a hairy bush turkey look like?

Glad to have you back. Be careful on the []http://southbayriders.com/forums/images/smilies/5cycle.gif[/]

[Pockey]

Welcome back Bravus!

[Neil D]

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What does a hairy bush turkey look like?

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[ahem] Sort of like a hairy.....[fill in the blank]....

And leave my name out of it! <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/oops.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[aldona]

Read about the Australian Bush Turkey here, and see a picture!

The Dreaded Bush Turkey

[Bravus]

Yep, that's the guy - though it's definitely possible that when I go for a swim when it's warmer people will identify *me* as the 'hairy bush turkey'. Actually, I'm convinced the turkey (the girls will give him a name when they get here, I'm sure) thinks this is his place, and we're just the new tenants. He just strutted by the window a few feet away as I was writing this. The hare is just a big bunny, and a bit shyer.

The house is about 40 min drive out of Brisbane, which is about halfway up the east coast of Australia. Brisbane is a city of about 2 million, set on the Brisbane river and near Moreton Bay - a big bay behind several barrier islands. So a beach with actual surf is maybe a bit over an hour's drive away for us.

I'll be teaching at the University of Queensland at its main campus at St Lucia (in Brisbane itself) and a satellite campus at Ipswich, maybe 10 min or so further west from here. So the location of our home is pretty convenient for both parts of my job.

We're on 2.5 acres of bushland, leading down to the Brisbane River. The house is in an estate development that is all small acreages like this, and all quite nice houses. We're renting where we can't really afford to live! But for what we're paying for this place in the bush we'd just have a small suburban house in closer to town. Part of the point of renting now is to figure out whether we think the commute is worth it for the lifestyle...

We have a salt-water inground pool out among the gum trees and palm trees with a little rock waterfall leading into it, and the dining area also has huge windows out over the bush, as does our bedroom. In Edmonton, even in summer, we woke up to the sound of traffic and the sight of the apartment building across the road... here we wake to the sound of birds and the sight of trees.

We have been richly blessed, and we're not unconscious of that. All it needs now is our daughters (they've spent the past week staying and getting reacquainted with Grandpa near Sydney) to arrive on Sunday and it'll be home.

[Bravus]

PS There will be photos, oh yes...

[Nan]

The description makes my mouth water Bravus! And that just after a Sabbath morning walk with my son, through a little bush land and round a mist shrouded lake. (I took the camera and came back with about 50 pictures - came across a group of rainbow lorikeets feeding on some bread on the ground...) Will look forward to your pictures. Is the brush turkey the same bird as the Mallee fowl or whatever it is called in Victoria - the habits certainly sound similar.

[Bravus]

A few photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bravus/

[Dr. Shane]

Great pictures! The landscape looks like that where I live... of course we need irrigation to keep it green. I bet starting a new job is exciting.

[Planey]

Great pictures, Dave!

Must be really good to be back in the place of your birth. Brisbane is a beautiful city, and Queensland is very close to Australia! Although those Queenslanders are very full of themselves at the moment after State of Origin, lol.

A word of advice though - be wary of the motorbike. They are convenient (and fun) but many other road users give you scant respect and I am sure there are many times when they don't even see you. Be very careful.

Welcome back

Graeme

[Bravus]

Yeah, thanks Graeme. My philosophy on the bike is "Assume every car on the road is deliberately out to nail you, and don't give them the chance." <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Dr. Shane]

I have a motorcycle liscense but haven't used one in 10 years now. Up north the drivers were not near as crazy as they are here. I am thinking about buying another but one does have to ride them defensively. A couple of years ago I saw an accident on the freeway where a biker had been run off the road.

[Gail]

Nice photos, Dave, but what's that I see? No junk in the garage??? How long will that last?

[Bravus]

Hehe - most of our junk is still on a container-ship somewhere in the Pacific... so the answer to your question is 'about 6 weeks'! <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Nan]

Good to get a view of the new habitus. I am extremely wary of motorbikes - a few weekends in the Cas/Emergency room of a Base Hospital cured me for life I think. Hope the settling in proceeds smoothly for you all.

[Amelia]

I am coveting your sun porch. But why so many pics of bathrooms?

[Bravus]

Hehe - that's a longish story...

One of the other boards I frequent has a long-running (over 1500 posts) 'restroom project' thread, in which posters take photos of themselves in restroom mirrors around the world and post them in the thread. I'm sometimes a participant. If there's anyone who would find that kind of thing amusing, the thread is here: http://williamgibsonboard.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2866012481/m/6921080481

[LifeHiscost]

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Bravus said:

churchsign

Just wondered why you took this photo and if you believed it?

[:"red"] ""But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. " [/] Deut 4:29 NASB

[:"red"] "I and my Father are one."[/] John 10:30

KJV

[:"red"] "Jesus saith....I am....the truth...."[/] John 14:6 KJV

[:"red"] "...and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." [/] John 8:32 NASB

[:"red"] "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." [/] John 17:3 KJV

<img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/DOVE.gif" alt="" />

[Nicodema]

Not yours Dave, but I like this one:

[]http://static.flickr.com/21/37323491_79a24e197f_d.jpg[/]

Your home looks lovely! We are getting ready to move next weekend ourselves, same situation -- renting where we could never afford to buy. We'll have an acre of lovely leafy green around us in a "back roads" area of unique single family homes all set APART from one another and NOT some "planned community" nonsense. The house is a contemporary style 70s model with 4 BR and 3 BA, huge kitchen and a big back deck and did I mention lots of NATURE around it? Can't wait! (Hence the premature "location" tag under me username).

Still, it's not Oz -- for that you've my envy. <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Nico <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/couch2.gif" alt="" />

[Bravus]

Yeah, that's a great photo of Louis as well as the washroom. He's from Paris and I got to meet him in Vancouver recently: lovely guy. In the photo he kinda looks as though he's floating in space. Congrats on the move to the green, too, Nico: we're loving it, and I'm sure you will too.

Life, the church sign picture is actually a fake: there's an online site that allows you to put whatever text you want on the church sign. I made that one myself, because I like the quote a lot. I see what you mean with the texts you quoted, and I agree about finding the truth in that sense: what the quote reacts against is those who think they've found all the truth they ever need to find, and don't need to keep on seeking. I think you'd agree with me that that's not a healthy place to be.

[Nicodema]

I recognized the "church sign" photo as from that website you mentioned, Dave. And the sentiment as cautioning against those who have their minds made up that they "HAVE" the truth (about everything & anything) and thus, "don't confuse me with the facts!" rather than trying to insinuate that truth does not exist to be discovered and explored.

To wax on this a little: I think the crux of the problem stems from equating TRUTH with "the answer(s)." When we think of TRUTH as "having the answer" to everything -- rather like the over-zealous bookish brat in the classroom always putting his hand up and never giving anyone else a chance -- we diminish the depth and meaning of TRUTH as something multi-dimensional, reducing it to a series of pat textbook "answers" which presumably constitute thought-stoppers on any and every subject.

(If I'm not making sense, blame the hour -- it's 4 a.m. and I've a bout of insomnia this morning.)

[LifeHiscost]

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Bravus said:

Life, the church sign picture is actually a fake: there's an online site that allows you to put whatever text you want on the church sign. I made that one myself, because I like the quote a lot. I see what you mean with the texts you quoted, and I agree about finding the truth in that sense: what the quote reacts against is those who think they've found all the truth they ever need to find, and don't need to keep on seeking. I think you'd agree with me that that's not a healthy place to be.

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Thank you for that response, Bravus. I, more or less, felt you were of that opinion. I was moved to add some clarifying Scripture as I knew there could be many others who saw it and might not make the direct connection.

[:"red"] "...it is having been written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God; every one therefore who heard from the Father, and learned, cometh to me..." [/] John 6:45 YLT

<img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/DOVE.gif" alt="" />

Blessings!!