Live music is so intense

Live music is so intense.

I've just got back from the freeway cafe. Me and a friend went tonight to see what was going down. There was this one band playing called 'To Tell' who were great performers and musically very talented. They sounded very much like Ben Folds, so if that's your thing check out www.myspace.com/totell


They come from London as well! Well, London Ontario. Fail.

Let's talk strategy

Well it's fantastic weather at the moment here in Hamilton, Canada. It's raining and about +5 degrees. It really does make me feel like i'm back at home in the UK! It's funny how poorly Canadians deal with rain...but maybe slightly better than how we deal with snow in the UK!

Last week here in Canada it was -25 degrees and blue skies. Beautiful weather but just a bit chilly! It's meant to stay warm for a while before getting colder again in the next couple of weeks.

I've been back at work for over a week now after my trip home to the UK. Having some time back at home allowed me to think about the things I should be doing in my final few months. I want to be more strategic and assertive with my time as if I'm not I'll easily fill my days with things which aren't worthwhile doing. There's still plenty of things to be doing here so i'm excited about this final leg of my Canadian journey.

I'll keep you updated.


(I took this picture last week. No jokes. It was that cold!)

Snow Flake 2009...

What an awesome weekend. On Saturday I was down at Niagara falls for the second time. This time it was for a conference called 'Snow Flake' and not for the 'maid in the mist'! Snow Flake is an annual weekend youth retreat with teaching, worship and lots of other fun stuff. Several people from Grindstone were involved in planning and leading the weekend so it was great to head down for the day and see how it was all going.

The weekend was titled 'Snow Flake 2009-SHIFT' with the theme of the weekend being shifts and changes in life. Great idea for a theme, however, having a big red t-shirt with SHIFT on it can be easily mis-read! When I got offered one for free though I wasn't gonna turn it down!

The location was obviously amazing. From the conference centre you could see both Niagara falls and the Canadian falls. Everyone there took no notice, of course, as if it was the local corner shop or something like that. Oh Canadians!

(That's the Canadian falls in the background)

Fresh Expressions

I've just been checking out a great website called Fresh Expressions. "Fresh Expressions is an initiative of the Church of England and the Methodist Church. It has been going since September 2004. It aims to help Christians of any denomination think about ways of starting and growing fresh expressions of church in their area."

Yes I did just copy and paste that from the website...well I'd just ramble trying to explain it.

It's really fantastic to see some of the stuff going on. I'd highly recommend you checking out the website (http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/). You know what. Go to www.freshexpressions.org.uk/mixedeconomy RIGHT NOW and download their magazine (free of charge) and read about all the amazing things going down.

'Mission is finding out what God is doing and joining in'...oh yes.

Time to head back to Canada...

Well it's been a great trip back home to the UK. I came back about a week ago and was meant to fly out today but we (me and a friend of mine from Canada) missed our flight because of the aweful weather conditions. Luckily we've been able to book a flight out for tomorrow night though.

We spent this past weekend at carotty and had a great time as you can see below..well I did anyway!

Hiking...

Just looking through some of my pictures I found a couple from when me and my Dad went walking one 'summer' back in the UK. I love hiking! That's one thing I really miss about Britian. Don't get me wrong, there's places to go hiking in Canada but it's just not the same. Maybe it's because it's like -15 degrees outside at the moment (-20 with the wind chill)!

A picture of me standing on striding edge as the misdt comes over

Royal Botanical Gardens...

I just got back from a visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens, a short bus journey from where i'm staying here in Canada.

I ended up going on a long walk through some woodland flood planes which are looked after by the RBG. It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny day as i'm sure you can see from the pictures!

It's only $8 for an adult to get into the RBG so it's very cheap! And it happens to be the biggest gardens in Canada so it's definitely worth a visit.