These feet were made for walking

Hey,
Thought I would cheer the tone up, since my last post was somewhat sombre, and I am hoping for some visitors to my blog, due to blatant self-promotion!

Today I received my Pedometer! it is cool. The last one was faulty, however this one seems perfect. In my 10-hour shift at work I walked 17,516 steps, in other words, 9.6 kms. No wonder I had been fading away (but now I am wondering why I aren't fading away more?) I am a little worried for when I stop being the human forklift, and become the office dweller that I have been trained to be. Anyway I thought the pedometer would provide some interesting data, especially so I can compare what I have been doing now, to the future (ie I will know that to get to the level I am at now, I need to do X amount of steps/day).

Japan still a little way away, made a subconscious goal to do at least one thing towards it a day tonight, or last night.

Anyway, tired now, going to have a feed... kidding, that was an old line from Billy T.

Insomnia and isolation

Welcome to another episode of the JT show.

I'm suffering the effects of insomnia last night. I think I drunk too much (3 glasses) Coca-Cola(TM) last night, so ended up not getting to sleep until 5am.

Naturally I have felt a little jaded today then.

The isolation part of the title is a little harder to explain. I guess you could say that is how I am feeling, isolated. From God, from reality, from my goals, from true love. Well, that just about sums it all up doesn't it...

This is where keeping the blog gets hard. Which personality do I want to express, or advocate to be the representative of me. Aye? you say. What I mean is what I choose to write dictates how you see me (or how I want you to see me). There is the tendency for me to want to portray myself as the perfect man, flawless and heroic. There is the temptation to censor myself from expressing my attitudes that may be somewhat immature, versus the desire to say what I really feel. Also the caution between keeping it real and leading others into temptation or un-constructive contemplation.

I think what I have just said (to me) is about the most succinct I will get it. Basically I am struggling with my place in the universe. My Christian walk has hit some obstacles and questions, and I need to iron them out to try and make sense of this, and re-connect. I won't go into further detail. If you happen to stumble onto this page several months from now, hopefully I have solved these issues and proceeded on with life, and perhaps this may explain my distance over this period. I don't know.

Kia Kaha (Stand Strong)

Another day in paradise

Hey,
I was about to ask "Hows it going?" but then I remembered this wasn't an email.

Its been a long week. The best bit being the fact I passed my exam. It was the first exam I need to become a Chartered Accountant. Now I can move on with life (i.e. ship off to Japan ASAP) and when I come back hopefully I will be hot property (for employers, but if it helps with the girls I won't complain! I need any advantage I can get). To be honest I was so relieved I did the whole YES! and a Tony Robbins-style air-punch, and then cried because I was so happy. I am man enough to admit that.

The rest of the week was fairly normal, except of course the London bombings. I have some friends over there, so far I haven't heard if they are OK, but I imagine they are, based on the theory of no news is probably good news. Naturally I am worried though, I have already lost a close childhood friend, I pray that I don't lose any others. One of the friends that is over there actually survived a case of menigitious. Guys, if you happen to read this - know that I am/have thought about you. Again, I am man enough to admit I care.

On a different note, I have just come back from having tea with a friend, in celebration of passing my exam. She made a lasagna that had half a bottle of red wine in it. It was delicious!

Anyway thats about it for now.

New Plymouth

Hey again.
At least this time I have something a bit more interesting to talk about - my trip last weekend to New Plymouth.

Last Friday I had intended going to Tauranga and going to a breakfast meeting about stress, but in the end I decided against it because I would have had to go there from work on Thursday night (ie after 11pm) and then get about approximately at 6am and fight with the Papamoa-Tauranga traffic to get to the Tauranga CBD. So I decided instead to go to New Plymouth, somewhere I had never been before, and had intended to see for a while. (Quite ironic that it was about stress isn't it! lol)

I left about 1pm on the Friday, after sorting stuff out. Stopped at Otorohanga and saw the Kiwihouse, another thing I hadn't been to before... and then carried on down to NP. I got there about 5.20, but my map was crap, and my sense of direction was even worst, so it took me about an hour to find the youth hostel.
The next day I got up about 8.15am, as I didn't want to waste anymore time (I should have left Hamilton earlier on Friday and then could have seen more stuff). The weather was bad, but I decided it was the day to visit the museum and local towns. 3 of my 4 Grandparents originated from the 'Naki so I wanted to see where they had come from. First stop was Inglewood for the FunHo museum (FunHo made steel toys for sandpits etc) then drove through Stratford and Eltham (Eltham was my paternal Grandmother's birthplace) and then stopped in Hawera (maternal Grandmother's birthplace) and climbed the water tower, and visited Dairyland. Gutted that there was no free cheese! I decided to take the surf highway back to NP, around the otherside of the mountain. That was OK. I was tired by the end of it all, the down-side of a break is that you can do too much rather than resting. On the Sunday it was fine so I climbed the big rock, had a brief look at the gardens, went to a cool lake and headed home, stopping at Waitomo caves museum for a look.
This weekend - I am going to Candyland at Taupiri, as I have never been there. Tonight I am catching up with some friends that have been away at Uni etc and hanging with my sister and tomorrow I am doing my First aid refresher course. I have just dropped my parents off at the airport (had to get up at 5.30am) at least I can do some productive stuff today instead of sleeping.