Recently, my office moved downtown Toronto changing my commute time considerably and causing me to reconsider my method of transportation to work. My drive time prior to the move was already long enough as it was, but this move was going to tack on another 1/2 hour on - most of which would have been sitting in traffic pulling my hair out.
So, I looked in to the option of commuting via the train and it worked out to be the best option for me. Although it has only been a couple of weeks (more...)
On my commute to work lately I’ve returned to an album that I hadn’t picked up in a while - Mumford and Sons’ debut Sigh No More. After a number of listens through now, I have to say, I feel like I’ve rediscovered the album. In particular, there are two songs that I’ve really found myself attached to this time around. ‘Timshel’ and ‘After the Storm’ have won me all over again. I’m not sure why these two gems didn’t stand out to me before, but they are definitely two of my favourites now.
They’ve got so much depth lyrically and just a rich sound overall. I particularly like the 4 part harmonies in Timshel, and it works so perfectly with the picking acoustic guitar. (more...)
While building this site, I've been playing around with some of the newer CSS3 tricks that are out there. Because I've been wanting to play with this idea of making my blog more like a magazine in its layout, I was digging around for ways to have my text flow properly across multiple columns. This has long been an impossibility and frankly a source of headaches for me as line lengths can be too long at times with only having the ability to flow text in 1 column.
But, no longer! Now, it looks like modern browsers are supporting a few new CSS properties that accomplish just this. These properties are as follows: (more...)
It's been a long time coming, but I've finally got a web presence back up and running. It's hard to believe that a web designer who has been in the industry for the past 8 years is just getting his website up now? I do realize how preposterous it really is. But rather than beat myself up over that fact, I will choose to focus on what's ahead.
I've definitely got plans for expansion here. I hope to post to the blog fairly regularly and I'd love to put the time in to make each post look pretty and treat each one uniquely (more...)
They may have just released their second album under the monicher ‘Pilot Speed’, but I can’t help but wish the name-change never happened. Am I the only one that finds the name ‘Pilot Speed’ a little lame? I‘ll keep using thier original name in protest.
Regardless of what they call themselves, there’s no need for protest when it comes to their craft as musicians. They’ve continued to produce music that is arranged beautifully, rich with hooks.
Although thier sophomore effort ‘Into the West’ (aka Sell Control for Life’s Speed) didn’t quite measure up to their debut Caught by the Window in my opinion, I think they’ve gained some ground again with their latest release. Wooden Bones. It’s solid.
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At this very moment I'm sitting in Dulles Airport in Washington DC waiting for my final flight home. While I'm waiting, I'm thinking to myself that I can't believe it's over. As much as I'm looking forward to seeing folks that I've missed at home it's going to be strange getting back into the regular routine again. And I'm already beginning to miss the friends I've made in SA.
It's gone by so fast - as these things always do. I'm sure re-entry won't be without struggles though. I know I won't be able to forget some of the things I've seen and I trust this experience will have an lasting imprint on my life.
I have a couple more special moments to share to close off this last SA blog entry. Sunday and Monday, I finished off my time in SA with a bang. Here's what happened...
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I see that I haven't posted anything since last Thursday, so there's probably a lot to catch up on here. My apologies for not keep up on the blogging. I meant to write last night, but the guest house manager took the internet device with him last night so I couldn't connect.
Anyhow, I'll do my best to fill you in on all the "goings-on" of the past few days.
Friday was an eventful day. I spent a good chunk of the day working in the office again and organized some things for Daphne. I was hoping to go out to the townships again with Jacqui, but it just didn't work out. This week I should be able to do it again.
In the evening, myself, Chris and Tara went to Baynsfield - a small town close by - to meet up with the youth group.We shared a simple meal together with the kids, hung out, and had a little message/discussion. Chris and I had also prepared some music for worship and it was a really great evening all around. I was pleased to see these kid's hearts to know God.
As the post title suggests, this weekend a few of us took a trip up to the Drakensberg mountains just north east of where we are staying - about a 2 1/2 hour drive. I had a fantastic time. The mountains actually stretch along a good chunk of the coastline - we visited the Northern section. Jacqui pulled some strings for us and we were able to stay at her friend's camp called "Emseni Camp". I couldn't have imagined a better place to stay. It was Christian camp along the Tugela river nestled in the foothills of the Drakensberg surrounded by a game reserve and cattle ranch.
The man who runs the camp, Dave, was the one of the kindest, most interesting people I've met in a while. He had a story for everything! But he was so hospitable and knew all the points of interest around the mountains.
So for the Saturday, he rode along with us to show us around the area a bit. We visited a cool little tourist spot with a bunch of gift shops and a restaurant, so we stopped and had a drink there. From there we drove to the mountains a little further to a point called Monk's Cowl. Along the way I found out my camera battery was dead and I neglected to bring my spare battery with me. I was quite perturbed, because the view along the way was breathtaking. Thankfully the other guys had their cameras and allowed me to take shots whenever I wanted and we've since swapped photos. What a bone-head move though! I won't let that happen again. So we made it to that view point at Monk's Cowl and just sat on the hills for a bit and took in the magnificence of the mountains.
From there, we made our way back to the camp and shared our supper with Dave. We all really wanted to have a camp fire so we brought our guitars and bongos and sat around a campfire for the remainder of the night. Some other volunteers from the camp joined us for a bit and I proudly demonstrated how to make smores - passing on the campfire tradition and representing Canada well. Dave turned out to be an incredible guitar player and we found out he used to be a professional musician. So he wowed us for a bit with his Eric Clapton repertoire.
Sunday was equally fun. For the morning, we went up to a different part of the mountains to find some good hiking trails. We stopped at Cathedral Peak and found our way to a good hiking spot. I think we hiked for a good 3 1/2 hours. It was amazing though.
Being right in the middle of these mountains, hiking our way up to some pretty high points was a great experience. I think we got some great pictures. We even got to see some Baboons in the distance (thankfully not up close - they can be pretty vicious apparently). After the hike, we returned to our car having felt like we really accomplished something and realized we also worked up a good appetite, so we went to "The Waffle Hut" which came highly recommended by Dave and we all stuffed our faces with delicious dessert waffles. We then returned to the camp and Dave took us on a stroll around the property and along the river. We were hoping to see some Kudu(a type of Antelope) or Water Buck, but no luck.
So that was pretty much the weekend - a great time indeed.
Today I was able to help Daphne and eSimphiwe with their groceries for the week. They didn't have the money this week to take care of all the needs for 40+ children, so I offered to help out. So I went to the grocery store with one of the other volunteers and purchased their food needs for the week.
This afternoon, a few of the volunteers met with Daphne to do a briefing of the past few weeks - a sort of state of the union. Daphne was kean to get some feedback from us on the process so far. I think we were able to give some helpful feedback on how things can be improved for future volunteers as well as how things might be improved with operations as a whole. Again, I am amazed at how Daphne remains so pleasent with all the responisbility and stress that falls on her.
Jacqui and her family invited Tara and I over for dinner this evening which was so sweet of them. I almost felt like part of the family tonight! I've enjoyed very much getting to know this family. They've been a great blessing over these past weeks.
