sleep schmeep

I think I have officially destroyed my body clocks' sense of time! Many late nights due to music mostly. I am addicted to music. It is now 3am and I have just gotten home (from my neighbours flat) and yeah not really feeling tired yet. A brief rundown of my week so far:


Sunday I went to Sheffield in the evening for a young adults meet at the church there and when I got back to Liverpool at 11pm I went over to Hannahs to catch up with some music mates there and watch the open mic (until 2am). I often sing, but it was pretty packed out that night, some wicked random jams with guitars and even a guy with a saxaphone jumped up so that was pretty cool. I've arranged for next sunday that myself and another Aussie guy called Neil, we're going to do an aussie set of music so that will be fun. Someone suggested that we need to play the theme song for Home and Away, so see if that will happen. Would be slightly amusing. A guy played a cover of Postman Pat the other night at Leaf. Absolutely brilliant, everyone joined in!!

I love music. I think that is why I love Liverpool so much. My life here almost revolves around music and different events and things. On Monday night I had a set at a bar called Chameleon, which was through a French guy Augustin I met at Leaf a few weeks back. He is an amazing guitarist/singer in a band called the Dots. Later a whole bunch of us went out afterwards and ended up at his flat where we were jamming and playing each others songs and mucking around. Good fun. But because of that I didn't go to bed, and then it was about 6.30 when I was walking home and it was a beautiful looking day, a bit windy though and then I got home and sort of just kept going and then didn't have any sleep. And then on no sleep I went to Leaf for their open mic, met up with some friends there, got to play there and then after that ended at 11pm went to Hannah's (its on my way home... that's my excuse) and played there as well. So because of that, it was about 2am before I got to bed Tuesday night having had no sleep on Monday night. I think I kind of needed sleep after that because I slept all day yesterday. Literally. I woke up at 4pm! I never do that!

Then tonight I went to connect which was at the Megacentre for church because they are moving back there this weekend. On my way home I went to the supermarket and bumped in to Yaz and Ida, two people who live in the same buildings as me and they invited me to come around (to someone else's flat) for a movie and chill out so I did that and then ended up playing guitar up there as well and having my first (un)official guitar lesson!! actualy part of it was a semi bass guitar lesson too. oh well. woo hoo. I don't even know the name of the songs that the guys were teaching me, but I know that everyone else does and I need to learn a couple more songs that other people can play! Music makes me happy!

In a couple weeks I've got a gig at Zanzibar. I haven't actually been there yet, so will see what it's like. Should be fun. I was pretty excited on Monday when I found out that I'm going to be on a poster for it!! woo hoo!! Cheering. All I need now is to get some paid work singing and I am all set. I've never been paid to sing before. Apparently I should go busking. We'll see! I did get offered some work singing and playing at a restaurant on Lark Lane (major music hangout) except I've got work at Hannah's that night so I wasn't able to, which is a shame. Oh well next time I'm sure something will come up.

Church wise things are going well, except I can't go for a couple of weeks because I'm working and then next week I'm in London for some uni work training. I had a day trip over to Sheffield last week to check out their leadership academy. I'm still undecided, so will see what happens there. It was good to go for a bit of a drive in the countryside, we went down a road called 'snakes pass' rather than the motorway which was nice. The landscapes reminded me a bit of the Lake District, similar sort of mountains. It made me miss my car and being able to go for drives and escape.

I've had some amazing conversations lately about being a Christian and my beliefs and things. There have been times where I immediately tell people, and then others where I have definitely held back out of fear of scaring people away and them not liking me. I was challenged by that on Sunday night, well a good reminder at least that we need to break the silence and talk, meet the needs and forget recognition. This was in reference to the story in Mark 2 about the 4 guys who brought their friend to Jesus by breaking the roof so they could get to him. Brokenness silences us, reduces the confidence we have, the authority and influence we have on our own and others' lives.

colour my life with the chaos of trouble

I am so ridiculously happy right now. Have you ever been so happy you could cry? It is extremely bizarre. I can't quite explain how it works, or the reasoning behind it (no there is no boy involved in this happiness). I think that I am just at total peace with myself, and thats why I am happy. I am happy with who I am, happy with God, happy being wherever I am, happy being single, happy whether I get to see people or not. I'm just happy :) Side note, I've now written the word "happy" so many time's I am questioning whether I am even spelling it right... weird hehe...

I've thought this a few times, but the thought came out loud and clear on thursday night after I had been hanging out with some old friends of mine Erin and Jared. It was great hanging out with them again, and good to see that some people in life don't change and are always there regardless of how long it has been since you last got to catch up. We chatted and also watched the movie 500 days of summer, which is where my blog title came from - it seemed to adequately describe my life in general!!!

On Friday I helped out a friend, Wendy Konemann at her scripture classes (year 4 and 5) at Glenbrook primary school. I hadn't really prepared anything and at last minute was asked to take my guitar to sing a song or two. I really enjoyed it, the kids were characters - some real attention seekers but they all had things to say and ask. Some of them have the most deep and theologically confronting questions, for example there was a question about whether when parents genetically altered their baby to look the way they wanted it to (eg blue eyes, blond hair), did that mean they ruined the 'perfect' child that God had designed, or was the one the people designed the right one?!! One kid answered in a way that nearly made my jaw drop there was so much thought in it (I guess even I am guilty of understimating how smart kids are these days...)!! I sang a couple of songs for the kids, and they also sang me a couple in return - actions and all! They all really got into the songs! I love how music brings people together. Our society values music so highly, however there is such a limited amount of singing that we do in our culture - it is not the norm. All in all, it was a fun and challenging experience, thinking on the spot and reasoning why I believe what I believe.

I've also been able to catch up with Justin a musician from Katoomba who I met in Chiang Mai. We got together yesterday with his producer Laurie out in Lithgow and made a bit of music which was great fun. We stayed up to the early hours of the morning, singing, drinking lots of cups of tea, eating cake, playing guitar, watching youtube clips of people exploding, hurting themselves and failing to drive properly and writing random silly funny songs. Loved every moment!! :) I also discovered that they are both Jehovahs witnesses.

So at the moment I am still figuring out what to do. I had an interview for a job in Geelong the other day and also have an option of a job up in Cairns as a community dietitian working with Aboriginals. I haven't really had much to do with that population, and the job would involve a fair bit of health promotion and flying around in little cessna's and things. Not really the clinical stuff I have been doing. It sounds good... But... Full time PERMANENT job = scary. I think I may have mentioned something about this earlier, but I am pretty sure i am scared of commitment. At least I definitely shy away from it alot.

I think I decided today that I don't want a permanent full time job because I don't want the restrictions it imposes. I like chaos (ie: my quote title). I like spontaneity. I like freedom. I like being able to make decisions on the spot, and change my mind just as quickly. However, I still want to be reliable - is this a total contradiction? I want my 'yes to be yes and no to be no' where if I say I'll do something then I'll do it. For example, if I have told someone I will meet them at a certain day/time or whatever, actually following through and doing that. But still, I want freedom, complete freedom..

I know that one time I will probably have to settle down, but at this point in my life I am definitely not ready for that. During a chat with Wendy after the scripture class, she brought up the fact that the continual restlessness could be either me running away from things (which I have been accused of alot), or it could be a blessing and a gift. I'm not sure. Any thoughts???

And my last day arrived :(

This sad to say, will be my last post from my trip here in south east asia. I am currently in Phuket wasting the next 10 hours or so until my flight. I thought it was either at 4, 6 or 8pm (and forgot to actually check) so caught a 9am ferry over this morning, when I could have easily caught the 2pm ferry and spent some more time on the beach! ah well. Its all good!

I'm heading back to Sydney tonight. I can't say that I'm particularly excited or looking forward to it... I am looking forward to my friends wedding and catching up with friends and family, but I have been really loving travelling and would like to continue doing so.... And once again over the past 4 days while at Phi Phi islands I got that same feeling/incentive like I should stay, that there is a definite ministry opportunity there amongst the travellers and other permanent/temporary residents on the island.

anyway, to recap the last few days......

Saturday I left KO Phangang (via multiple modes of transportation) at the early hours of 5:50am in a mini bus which took me about 2 minutes drive away to a truck taxi where another 3 people were waiting. The truck took us to the pier where we did the typical thai ticket shuffle. I seriously do not understand why the receipt you get from the travel agent is not sufficient to get you from your initial to your final destination. no. instead you swap that for additional tickets along the way which usually say the exact same thing! strange. got the freighter ferry to a town on the mainland where we piled off the ferry, waited in the sun for about 10 min then jumped on a coach bus that took us the 1 hour drive to surat-thani. My talent for being occasionally clumsy (and bruising like a peach) shone again when I slipped down the stairs climbing out of the bus and bashed my arm against the wall. We then waited at the next travel agent with our stickers indicating where our final destination is (I always lose mine though) for the next hour. A mini bus arrived and 3 of us headed to Krabi/Phi Phi jumped on board. It was a very cruisy and comfortable drive. I played guitar most of it, and slept the other half (or at least attempted to). We arrived in Krabi and then I had to wait an hour and a half for the ferry to get to Phi Phi islands. I was informed that we'd arrive at phi phi at 3pm, but that was actually the time that the ferry was going to leave. hmmm. ah well.

Made it to Phi Phi about 5pm, found myself some accommodation after a bit of wandering around and then hit the beach for some chill time. In the evening I happened to stumble past 2 of my old friends, Martin and Raphael from my vietnam days - the french boys who convinced me to buy a guitar!!! It was great to catch up with them. They were working at a cool chilled out roof-top bar called banana bar. Every night afterwards we would go and play guitar when the music stopped (after 1-2am) till the very early hours of the morning. I was really hoping to go diving, but had unfortunatly caught an ear infection while on Koh Tao, so was dosing myself up with antibiotics and ear drops in the hope that it would be clear by tuesday for a dive or 2.

Sunday
On the advice of one of the diving guys I'd chatted with the night before, I hired out a kayak at about 11:30 for 3 hours and took off for a solid 3 hours of kayaking. By the time I made it back to sure I was pretty much wrecked! I stopped off at Monkey beach to watch the monkeys for a while, have a bit of a swim and then cntinued going around the coast line which is all cliffs. It was quite rough at times and part of me was thinking that it probably wasn't the smartest move in the world as a) no one knew where I was if I went missing b) the people i hired the kayak from didn't know who I was! But I enjoyed getting out on the water and exploring. I actually went all the way up to the other end of the island (the end where phi phi lay of maya bay "the beach" is) before turning around. And I got to see a turtle!!! Not up close, but he was there about 20m away poking his head up for a bit which was cool.

In the afternoon I decided to go the opposite side of the island in the opposite direction with the aim of reaching Long beach. I happened to stop randomly on the side of one beach to take pictures of the boats in front of phi phi lay and who do i spy sitting on the beach? none other than Scott! So funny how we keep bumping into each other randomly. We went out for dinner with some other people he had met on the buses and ferries across from ko tao and all organised to go on a boat trip for the next day. At night I ended up playing guitar with my french friends till 6;30 in the morning... oops :)

Monday
After about 2 hours sleep I was up and at again to move rooms into a place sharing with scott so i had cheaper accommodation and he didn't have extremely bizarre habits of other dorm mates impacting his sleep and memory. The group of 6 of us started the boat trip around the two islands that comprise Phi Phi islands. A little hiccup to start with where our driver was pulling apart the engine but other wise no dramas - especially since he was smoking weed pretty much the entire time we were out on the water. We had been informed upon booking that we would get breakfast and lunch, but unfortunately all we got was a very small container of fried rice and some water. So I was pretty much starving hungry when I got back to land!! We stopped at monkey beach to watch the monkeys (obviously), at mosquito island to snorkel (and be stung by a jelly fish and bashed on the head accidently by the pole the rudder is attached to ) at Bamboo island (which ironically is covered in pine trees) to eat lunch and then Maya bay aka "The Beach" on Phi Phi Lay for a couple hours of snorkelling, exploring and chilling in the sun. It got quite rough at some stages while we were out on the water in the long-tail boat, then it rained a bit and we all got wet. The monsoon season is approaching which means that the seas are often a bit more choppy than normal.

At night we went out for dinner, had some good food and then headed to banana bar where we did our usual body painting (there are black lights everywhere which makes the paint glow in the dark), dancing and lounging about. The streets are emptying out quite quickly at the moment as most tourists head to Ko Phangang at the moment for the full moon party on the 28th. On Monday there were 2000 people that took off on the one boat with that destination in mind! I was provided with some education in more music styles and decided that I really like dancing to 'dubstep' an english style of music that is very distinctive. fun fun. :) "early night" whre i ended up getting to bed at about 3, as I was going diving in the morning - had decided my ear was well enough!

Tuesday
Up at 6;30 as I had booked into doing a wreck dive which left at 7am. Unfortunately no one else had booked in for the dive as well, so my other option was to join in on local dives at 9am. I went and had some breakfast on the beach and then chose that option. Both dives went well, not quite as clear as Koh Tao, but we still saw plenty of coral and fishes - a massive puffer fish that was at least half of me!! we saw some dolphins above the water at one stage as well (not while we dove though). Lunch was at Maya bay in between our dives and we were back at our island by 2;30. I went exploring the island to meet up with the group at long beach, which is an extremely nice beach. we chilled out there by the water until the sun set and headed back for food. Had a great night out, chilling, painting people (getting my face completely covered in paint), playing guitar and singing till the early hours of the morning (ie, not going to bed....)

Its been interesting, how I've felt really comfortable here on this island, similar to when I was at Vang Vieng. I've made some good contacts and gotten along with so many people here, and had a great time chilling, jamming and making music. I have had a lot of people tell me I need to do something with my music, start recording. So, I guess we will see what happens when I get back, what further opportunities arise there.

Wednesday.

So, that brings us to today and my final hours of my trip in south east asia, well at least for now.... :) I'm counting myself lucky and hoping nothing drastic happens over the next 24 hours. I have managed to survive the last 10 days with no major incidents occurring which has been good as my travel insurance ran out on the 18th and I forgot to extend it so have had no insurance if anything goes wrong...

I am yet to have any proper sleep as I stayed up all night last night (having woken up at 6:30 am yesterday), maybe a 20 minute doze on the ferry over but thats about it. hopefully that forces me to sleep on the plane. i really hope so. I can't sleep unless i'm flat horizontal usually. When I stopped playing guitar (about 5:50am) I went back to my room, had a shower and packed some of my stuff then went and woke up scott to go climb the view point and watch the sun "rise". Awesome, tough walk that just keeps going up and up and up. From the top it is very clear to see how and why the tsunam i in 2004 wiped out the place so badly. It was a bit cloudy so in reality we watched it get light, chatted and listened to some good tunes. It has been awesome seeing how we kept managing to bump into each other on the last few locations without any planning - just sheer coincidence and God at work!!! I've enjoyed our chats about christianity and beliefs and reaching out to people, its been great. That hour or two on top of the mountain was a great end to my days in thailand, and a really chilled out vibe that left me feeling happy and refreshed and ready for whatever adventures are coming my way from now on.

now all there is left to do is catch my plane tonight at 10:20.. (note to self I should REALLY check flight times before catching a flight). It is slightly amusing though when I think about it, as I was early to catch my flight over to vietnam and now i'm extremely early to catch my flight back to aus!

If only I had finished that apologetics course...

Like I've mentioned before, many many people here in SEA are on a spiritual journey of sorts. Religion is a topic that comes up pretty much every day. Possibly could be slightly influenced by the millions of temples... I've found that I've been able to speak so much more openly about being a Christian here in Asia than I was at home - however these discussions have all been with other fellow travellers rather than locals.

Last night I caught up with those guys from the band again and ended up having quite a good very late night chat with one of them in particular. They're originally from Arkinsaw (spelling??) in the US, grown up in the church but now "fallen away" as P. put it. They were playing another gig at a bar in town, and when it shut at 11pm due to the curfew here in LP, everyone all headed off to the Bowling alley as for some bizarre reason that is the one place that is open till the early hours of the morning. I'd grabbed my guitar (they play banjo and mandolin) and we'd jammed a little bit. I'd earlier seen P. and had a bit of a chat with him before he'd started his gig, during which he gave me a list of christian books to read (my ever expanding list!).

Anyway, P and I were there sitting outside in the dirt late at night having this full-on chat about faith, beliefs, and proof that the Bible is a reliable document. He was telling me how he was not sure where he stood anymore. He asked me a question about what I thought Jesus meant when He said that we would do greater things than he?!! Asking all these deep questions and I was starting to think "aahhhh I don't have the words to answer this at all". A bit funny really, as I'd been reading Genesis a day or 2 previously and the whole story with Moses and him not being eloquent enough but God using his words regardless. Then we were discussing how we knew the Bible was true and . I felt way out of my depth as he knew way more of the bible than I did. I was there wishing I had finished all the apologetics classes from my early uni christian group days, and perspectives course! I don't think I was particularly all that convincing, but it was good to have such an open discussion in a country that is so closed in.

I've had a few Sara Groves songs stuck in my head over the past few days from her Conversations album - particularly 'Painting pictures of Egypt' and 'Hello Lord'. Good songs.

Anyway, today I'm having a chill-out day. Woke up still full from all that food yesterday and jumped into a slow-boat heading up the Mekong river to the Pak Ou caves. Along the way we passed by many people working along side the river, some of them sifting gravel out the section full of pebbles, others shovelling pebbles, and where the sandy banks are (as it is dry season and river is low at the moment) there are many many people there gold panning! I would never have guessed there was gold in the river here! We had a quick stop at a village to try some lao-lao (rice wine whisky). Always a good thing to have a couple of shots of extremely strong spirit that early in the morning on an empty stomach... Good thing they had some 'take-away' on hand. Banana's roasted on a charcoal fire - instant breakfast. Yum!

The caves were interesting, they have hundreds and thousands of statues of Buddha and other God's as a huge shrine. Sad though. One God is not enough. They have to have thousands of them.

Tomorrow I'm leaving town, heading east to Phonsavan to go and see the Plain of Jars. Its a bit of a mystery as to what these jars are for. They are man-made, weighting between 600kg and a few tonnes each. Theories are that they could have been for cremations, or for preparation of lao-lao. See if i can help unravel the mystery... :)

Sapa

Wow! I can't believe it is almost the end of February already - time is going so quickly, I have almost been in Vietnam for a month and my time is almost up :(

I spent 2 days in Hanoi while waiting for my Laos visa to be processed as I decided that I would cross over the northern border by bus rather than fly. During that time I met a couple of French boys in my dorm with guitars, and knowing me and music i got sucked in hook line and sinker and ended up buying myself a guitar for about $20 - just a little one, for me to carry around and play. I ended up spending most of my time in Hanoi playing guitar subsequently, we got a bit of a band happening and other guitarists and musicians just joined in on a jam on the side of the road outside the bar where our hostel is. Think we brought them in quite a bit of business too!!

So naughty me, didn't end up doing a whole lot of tourist stuff while in Hanoi. I did go to the prison, which was interesting, and went and saw the water puppets which was amazing! They are extremely intricate, i took some video of it, and at the end of the show they lifted the curtains to show that they are only manourvering the puppets with bamboo rods, but there must be wires or something inside the pole as they can make the puppets do all these crazy sorts of things. for example, at one time they had 4 dragons swimming around, overlapping and spitting water at each other! Definitely worth seeing if you are in Vietnam.

I am now in Sapa in northern Vietnam, I arrived here very very early wednesday morning after a sleeper train from hanoi to lau cai. That was an interesting experience! I actually slept quite well I think, but still woke up tired (understandably) at 4am when we arrived. I ended up being on a 'luxury' sleeper train and had 3 vietnamese in my room who spoke French. My passport fell out of my pocket as I was on the top bunk and they were kind enough to give it back to me! It did take a while to get to sleep initially though, because one of them had some vietnamese music playing from his phone as loud as possible, and I am definitely not the best sleeper.

After arriving in Sapa in the morning I had some breakfast at the guest house I chose from the collection of women 'selling' their guesthouses on arrival to the town. Then I put on my hiking boots and headed into town to walk to Cat Cat village which is one of many villages where many of the handicrafts are made. Almost immediately after leaving the hotel I had a few ladies following me trying to sell me their jewellery, clothing and other souviners. One particular old lady 'Me' from the H'mong people followed me for at least 2km down the mountain side towards the village, (hopefully the photo has attached itself) so I ended up feeling sorry for her and caved in and bought some earrings from her. Walking down the mountain wasn't so bad, coming up though was a completely different story! oh so high!! I ended up getting blisters from that walk alone, before I had even started my home stay so that wasn't the best. The views were amazing though. Because of those blisters I began to second-guess myself as to whether it was the smartest idea to go on a 2day trek and home-stay. However, when I was in Hanoi I'd had this discussion about not wasting our lives (think it was based on a John Piper book that I'm going to have to read at some stage), so decided that I would give it a go regardless of the pain...


It is now Friday afternoon and I have just arrived back at the guesthouse I am staying at after a 2 day trek. To say that I am a bit weary is an understatement. We trekked I think 17km on Thursday and about another 13km today. I'm scared to take off my boots as I know the blisters are going to be BAD!! I'll update on the last 24 hours in another post after I've had a shower and some clean clothes and hopefully my brain will be in working order again!