Tortured Genius...

I can't really do anything other than apologise profusely to the two people who are still following this blog (And I think that one of them keeps coming here by mistake). I have been very busy recently, but that's not much of an excuse. I just needed to manage my time better and make sure that this thing didn't drop off - but it did. So sorry about that.

I suppose that I could say that I haven't had much to actually write about. Yes, I suppose that would be a better excuse. It's been a combination of being busy and not actually living the exciting playboy lifestyle that I have previously painted of myself. I have, in fact, been living in a storage container on the Newell Highway for the past few months. Ruth came back from England and found a muddy footprint within a twenty metre radius of the house, so she kicked me out. My days have consisted of eating grass and scraping rust from the interior of my new home. I nearly have enough to make me a rust hat. Yessir, then I'll be set for the summer. Anyway, all of that is not really blog-worthy material so I haven't been keeping it updated.

Wouldn't that be the height of postmodernity, or irony or something, to update my blog with a post giving excuses as to why I haven't updated my blog? I am a genius.

Well, coming back to earth, I can let you know some real stuff that's been happening. I've finally finished the course that I've working on - apart from one bit that I'll tell you about in a moment. I've been doing this, on and off, for the past two years and it's nice to finally reach the end. It's been a long struggle, but I finally made it and that's good. Now we have to think about what we're going to do in the next year. Our ideal plan is to stay on at Cornerstone and join the staff at the first year centre in Canowindra. To stay on, however, we need to think about getting ourselves a permanent visa, and it would be easier for me to become a member of Bloc Party than get into Australia. Although you and I know the truth about my tremendous abilities, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship are not so enlightened. Apparently, I need to have a clearly defined purpose and role to come and stay in Australia, and for some reason vague descriptions such as 'brilliant genius' are insufficient.

So I have to do a little more training to acquire a qualification that Australia is actually interested in (unlike my Master's degree). It's no exaggeration to say that if I was a hairdresser, acupuncturist or private art teacher I'd be able to get in to the country a lot easier. Those are just three occupations that are on the Skilled Occupation List. "Tortured Genius", however, is not.

So, we'll be making some decisions over the next few months and I'll be working on more coursework (and filling our forms). And we'll see what happens.

This seems to be par for the course for Ruth and I. We find ourselves in situations where we've got an uncertain future and we have no idea how it's all going to pan out. I find it a lot more...exciting than I used to. We've been through this before and God has never let us down. I get annoyed that He leaves things so late, or insists on stretching us a little further each time but that's the way that growth happens. It would be nice to live an uncomplicated, safe life but I wouldn't swap our adventure for any amount of security. What Ruth and I have learnt about ourselves and God over the past five years is worth more than anything. The wisdom and experience that comes from finding yourselves unable to do anything other than trust God is priceless. Of course, more than ever we're now seeing the folly of investing yourselves in things that don't last. It's interesting to go through all this against the backdrop of a global economic crisis. Against the backdrop of a global economic crisis? That sounds like a great phrase to put in the trailer of the movie that our lives will become. "A MAN AND A WOMAN FACE AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE...AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF A GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS...WITH THE FATE OF THE WORLD RESTING ON THEIR SHOULDERS..." hang on - I've gone a bit wrong there.

I think I've said it before (in so many words), but I'll say it again anyway. If you're a Christian and life is not constantly challenging and stretching you then you're doing it wrong.

Actually, I have got a story for you. I was up on the roof this evening, trying to clean out our air cooler in preparation for the coming harsh, blistering summer. So I did what I though I was supposed to do and because I'm an awesome genius - I think I may have mentioned that earlier - I managed to short all the lights in the house. Oh dear. Apparently I was a little too indiscriminate with the hose. Now we have to wait until tomorrow to get an electrically-minded person to have a look and assess the extent of the damage that I've done. So I'm writing this by candlelight. Isn't that just the perfect mix of current and ancient technology. Blogging by candlelight. I really am a genius.