breakdancing to thirsty merc

well, i'm back. (yes, i was away.) just spent 11 days (dec 27 to jan 7) down at shellharbour involved in the christian beach mission at the caravan park. and i'm so very tired.

i went down there sick, with an ear infection and a cold, managed to recover for one or two days, and then came down with a vicious cough. the coughing fits were always worst straight after prayer, because i'd try to be quiet with a scratch building in the back of my throat, and i'd have tears streaming down my face. the memories. and sleep wasn't so good, either, on a thin mattress on the hardwood floor of a church hall. i had two nights when i couldn't sleep from open windows, and one when i couldn't sleep from the snoring.

the snoring was when the boys had to sleep in the hall with us girls for two nights - on new year's night there was such a roaring gale blowing that the boys' tent tore and we had to drive down to the park to drop and peg down the other tents. and yeah, i'd heard rumours of snorers amongst the menfolk, but i didn't really get it til the second night of sharing - i crashed the first night - and there were at least four ripping snorers. at one stage they seemed to be in chorus - one would follow the other directly. so i'm quite tired.

this isn't to say that mission was bad - on the contrary, mission absolutely rocked. the weather was a bit moody, from blistering heat waves, culminating on new year's day, to cold and rainy, and hot on the last day for pack up. that was fortunate, though, cos we were afraid we wouldn't be able to hold 'no talent night' on the 6th if it rained, and if the tents weren't dry by the 7th we'd have had to take the tents back up here to sydney and commandeer backyards for a few days to dry them out enough to be packed up for next year, so that was alright.

no talent night went off, highlighted by the performace by pat and joel, two five-year-olds from minis, who danced to thirsty merc's someday. yes, random much. joel's moves are awesome, sort of like very amateur break-dancing combined with ninja moves, but pat, who was supposed to be just supporting, stole the show with his worm and the splits, repeatedly. and off a chair. he'll probably grow out of that, but kudos. joely wants to be a pro-wrestler when he grows up. he wrecked ally's shoulders for a few days.

keenites was a bit smaller this year, though the groups above and below our age group, minimites and jt's (which stand for junior teens, but don't let that fool you, they're actually pretty cool), were bursting with kids. jt's usually only have ten max to my knowledge, but they regularly had 15-19 kids, not only to the 'fun' activities like bowling and the big day out (a very cool version of the amazing race spanning shellharbour) but to the christian talks in the morning.
anyway, keenites are generally kids starting years 3-6 this year, though we had one year 7 girl stay behind because she loves it so much. our average was around 9, which is okay, but we're used to more, so i've been trying to think of ways to attract more kids, especially boys. i know there are other kids at the park, they're just not hanging with us. work to do.

all of our nighttime activities went really smoothly, though, and the adults didn't really go overtime at all, which is excellent when you're trying to keep 8-11 -year-olds busy for two or more hours and you can't take them back to their caravans til their folks are back. the adult dinner up at the church hall was awesome - they almost always go overtime, and we have them for about two and a half hours in the first place, but it felt like no time at all this year.

on the day off (new year's day) i saw narnia in the cool air-conditioned cinema, bearing in mind that was the hottest day of mission. i rather enjoyed it. i've heard complaints of mary-sue-ishness, but really, that was the way they were in the books (which i re-read just prior to watching the movie) and secondly it was made by disney. i mean, what did they expect? and tilda swinton rocked, i like her more with every film of hers i see. so it's a good thing i saw orlando first. and mr tumnus, well, what can you say? the most attractive faun i've ever seen.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0564215/
james mcavoy, also in wimbledon (the brother, i think), children of dune (paul's son who gets all scaly), band of brothers and an intriguing macbeth that i'd like to get my hands on.

anyway, i'm tired so i'll leave it there. i've missed out a whole bunch of stuff, seeing as mission is always my most packed 10-11 days of the year, but i reckon that'll do. you get the idea.