2.9

2.9 is the average number of people a Melbourne train driver hits during his driving stint.

I wonder how many people think about that when complaining that the trains are late or out of service. Next time the train is late think about why. It is very possible it's late due to the fact that someone decided to end their life and selfishly jump in front of a train.

This is the underbelly of train transport.

We really should be nicer to our train drivers. They deal with a lot. According to Brandon, looking for people on the tracks is number 6 on the list of important things a driver must do. There are five other things he has to think about each moment just to make sure the people on the train are safe.

I am disgusted with the kids that play dare games on the tracks. Imagine how it must feel for a driver when he comes around a bend and sees some kid trying to get as close to the track as possible. What must the driver be thinking at that point in time. There is virtually nothing they can do.

Because Brandon works in the rail industry we get to hear some of these stories. Brandon has talked to a few drivers. One guy hit two girls who were walking on the rails. There was nothing he could do and there was no where for the girls to go. It takes over 1.5k or 1 m until a train comes to a complete stop.

As we ride through tunnels I see graffiti and wonder about the risk the artists took. I feel sad for the drivers who have to endure life long scarring due to the foolishness and selfishness of some people.

Next time you get on a train think about the driver. Pray that this year might be a safe year for him/her. Pray that there would be good counseling available for those who have had a tragic year. If you ever get a chance, thank the drivers for doing their job well. And most of all don't be stupid around the rails. For your own sake and for the sake of the driver.

They don't want you to be one of their 2.9.

I like you but should we do everything together?

People with similarities seem to find each other. We make a choice to live a certain way and then gravitate towards others who have chosen to live similarly.

Homeschooling is no different. We form co-ops, study groups, help sessions and other such academic gatherings.

That is not all. For instance my girls go to swim classes that have been set up for homeschooling families. The sessions are during the day and of course cheaper. Homeschooling families like cheap*.

My girls would like to take ballet next year. I told them they could if they learn how to swim this year. A tells me she can swim now. I asked her to show me. She put her face in the water and started to do a butterfly-ish type stroke, while walking around the pool. I told her swimming means that neither your feet or hands are touching the pool. They must be moving to propel you forwards or backwards. I think she still has some work to do :-)

Anyway, back to ballet. So we will probably start up ballet again. There is a homeschool ballet group just north of us. We are thinking about taking lessons from that teacher. This is where I pause and wonder what to do. I could join the group but then we are involved in another activity that only involves homeschoolers.

Many homeschoolers tend to be Christians. I know, I know that doesn't mean they all are but for the sake of making my point, bear with me. I pause wondering if I should only be involved in groups that are homeschooling Christian families. I wonder about the 'being in the world', 'go and make disciples' and the multitude of other verses talking about reaching others for the sake of the gospel. My question is, can I do this with the limited time I have when I am only involved in these groups? I want my kids to know that there are other homeschoolers out there. I want them to be around other Christians. I also want to reach out to the community around us, as a family. That is after all why we moved up here. My kids are the first field for sowing but then the community around me is the second. Am I missing the second by the types of groups I choose to participate in?

We can (and should) pray that God will bring us people that are hungry for the gospel. From all the Scripture I have read we need to be actively seeking them out. I feel that the Christian homeschooling community can at times be so inward focused, exclusive** that we forget about the job we have been given. In the world but not of the world.

We need to find a balance. That is why I pause. That is what I am wrestling with right now.






*I am not saying this is bad, I just see it as a defining characteristic of the homeschooling group. Mainly due to large families, one income and other convictions surrounding money.
**I am a second generation homeschooling parent. This is just a trend that I have noticed from my time in the homeschooling community.

Lentils as anything

We have once again come to the season in our budgetary lives when we begin to save up for a trip back to the States. When the decision is made the budget gets a thorough look over. Only a few categories in the budget escape the chopping block. The grocery bill is not one of them.

So due to our decision to start saving for a trip home and also because of living in an expensive city, we eat lentils. I would say several times a month. We tend to not eat much red meat, mostly for the reason above but also because lentils are a bit healthier.

Here are four lentil foods we tend to eat a lot of.

1. Moroccan Stew and Couscous

2. Lentil Enchiladas

3. Lentil & Vegetable Lasagna

4. Pumpkin and Lentil Soup

5. Dahl ( I haven't made it for ages so it doesn't fit with the above criteria )

I need to find some more recipes.

Since this post is about lentils I thought I would mention one of our favorite places to eat in Melbourne. The restaurant (there are two now) is called Lentil as Anything. The following is a mission statement from their website:

Lentils provides unique training and educational opportunities for many people who are struggling to find a place in mainstream institutions. Currently, it provides a place for the long term unemployed, new migrants, refugees, and people with disabilities to build confidence, gain skills and receive assistance with access to legal, health, housing and education services.

Besides being unique in how they serve the community they are also unique in how they price their meals. They simply don't. If you take a look on their menu you won't see any prices. Its based on a honesty policy. They have a tin on the front bench top where you place your "tips" based on what you feel like you should give.  Again a statement from their site that sums it all up:

We would love to welcome you as part of our community. We extend our hospitality offering you vegetarian cuisine cooked with love and gratitude. Our unique financial model functions independent of any government funding and we rely on your generosity in order to pay our rent, utilities, wages and stock.
Make an agreement with your conscience on what is reasonable, how much you enjoyed your food, our philosophy and our community. Be part of a unique financial model that is centred on the values of trust, generosity and respect that gives people the opportunity to eat out and be social regardless of their financial situation.

I know it sounds a bit hippie like but their food is great. I think it is interesting that they are trying to survive without government help when so much of the population expects the handout. I also like the fact that these establishments are stepping stones for some of the many refugees and immigrants we have in the area.

If you come visit we will take you there and you can try the Japanese pancakes. Warning though, they are heavy on the onions.

What does 7th most expensive look like?

The Age recently published this article on the rise of Melbourne and Sydney on the World's most expensive cities to live in list.

The strong Aussie dollar is giving Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane the unenviable reputation of being among the world's most expensive cities, a global survey shows.
It's now cheaper to live in London, Vienna, Rome, Berlin, Hong Kong and Beijing than most Australian capitals, the Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide Cost of Living survey found.
Sydney is now the sixth priciest city in the world, up from 32nd place two years ago, while Melbourne has jumped from 38th to seventh.

So what exactly does it look like to live in one of the top ten most expensive cities? I thought it might be interesting to record some common prices we see from day to day.

• Average house price - $550,000 I see it as each bedroom costs about $200,000. In regional areas it goes down to each bedroom costs about $100,000.
• Mortgage - $2,580/month - Average mortgage is around $350,000. Interest rates are at 6.5% (low) to %8.5 (high). So this avg. mortgage at 7.5% over 25 years yields roughly a $2,560/month mortgage payment.
• Rent - $360/week. Around our area that will get you 2-3 bedrooms, 1-2 living areas, a small yard, garage, hole in the ceiling, leaking skylight, and leaking water tap.
• Average water/gas/electric bill per year - $2500
• Petrol - $1.37L = $5.17AUD/gal = $5.48USD/gal
• 5 seater, 4 door economy  - $35,000
• 5 seater, 4 door wagon - $85,000 - Sadly fake wood paneling is not included.
• text message - $0.50 to send, free to receive. Fit in as much as possible when texting. Don't ask your friends too many questions.
• We pay $50/month for internet - this gives us 30gb peak download/70gb off-peak downloads. Once you go past that you are at snail mail speed.
• DVD rental - New release $6.00
• Tickets for two adults to the cinema - $28.00 - Sadly dollar cinemas do not exist over here. The cheap nights cost $9.00/person. So cheap.
• Dinner out for two in the city - I read recently the avg. was about $50/per person.
• Pint of beer at the pub - $9.00
• Coffee at the cafe - $4.00 - This would be a small or extra-small in Starbucks size. Do they even have an extra-small option?
• Cheap haircut - $25.00 (this is like Great Clips in the US)
• Pair of jeans from Target - $45.00
• 3L of milk - $3.00/3L = $3.78AUD/gal =  $4.00USD/gal
• Loaf of bread - $2.50AUD = $2.65USD
• Loaf of nutty, oh so good, bread - $4.50AUD = $4.77USD 
• 1 kilo of minced beef (Aldi price) - $8AUD/kilo = $3.85USD/lb.
• 1 kilo of chicken breasts skin off (Aldi price) - $10.00AUD/kilo = $4.75USD/lb.
• 1 tub of yogurt (1kg) - $4.00AUD - $4.26USD
• dozen eggs - anywhere from $3.00 (don't care about chickens' living conditions) - $7.00 (care immensely about chickens' living conditions)
• Nappies - cheapest ones are at Aldi - 44pk for $14.00 - $0.31/nap Everyone at church with a kid knows what another parent is talking about when they ask, "do you have a koala?" Or,"do you have a kangaroo?"
• Wetwipes - again cheapest at Aldi - $2.69/pk - $0.03/wipe
• Yearly school fees - private - around here $10,000 per child/year would be the average. With $4,000 being the lowest I could find at a local Christian school.

Last but not least income tax

Ammount Earned                             Tax on Income
$0 - $6,000                                          nil
$6,001 - $37,000                                 15c for each $1 over $6,000
$37,001 - $80,000                               $4,650 plus 30c for each $1 over $37,000
$80,001 - $180,000                             $17,550 plus 37c for each $1 over $80,000
$180,001 -  over                                  $54,550 plus 45c for each $1 over $180,000



Cost of living report for Melbourne - some of the prices seem to be way too high. Like children's shoes at $85. At k-mart you can get them for around $30.00.

So there you go. That is what you can spend your money on in the 7th most expensive city in the world.

Waste Not

Just read this article this.  Brandon and I had a little discussion several months ago about food production. Brandon thought that if we suddenly had to grow our own food a lot of people around here might go hungry. One of his thoughts was that there isn't enough free land around Melbourne (maybe we were still living in Geelong at this point, don't remember) to grow the food this city would need. I thought that perhaps if we didn't waste as much food or land we might be able to grow the food needed. This is all hypothetical and just another brain exercise/debate that he and I often like to take part in.

But honestly, we really do not use space very well in this city.  All those nature strips you drive by could turn into great gardens. Instead of having paper bark and red gum trees why not plant fruit trees instead? We don't even think to use our roofs or vertical space.


And honestly I do throw food away. According to the above article I throw away this much...

Per capita, Europeans and North Americans waste between 95 and 115 kilograms of food. Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia ( I seriously doubt Australia is a food saving nation. We should be alongside the EU and the US) waste much, much less – between 6 and 11 kilograms per person.  The takeaway? The developed world wastes 10 times more food than the developing one.

And this all leads me to the bread ministry we have going on at the McKinnon church. It was started about a year ago by one of the families at church. I can't recall all the details about how it started. But anyway here is what this family picks up every Friday night. This is just from one bakery on one night. This bakery gets rid of bread every night. There are hundreds of bakeries all over Melbourne. Now I suppose in this case the waste of the bakery (due to their business slogan promising a full store even at closing!) is helping those who are in need. But I just wonder how many bakeries on how many nights end up putting it all in the rubbish?

By Sunday morning there are usually only a couple bags left. Through this ministry contacts have been made with the community in McKinnon, the local AA group that meets at the church, and a few other folk.  We are thankful for the bread ministry God has given us. The opportunity to provide food for the body as well as for the soul.


Waste not.

People

We have been meeting people as of late. Nice for me especially.


New people #1 - A family up the street. They have a couple of boys that ride their bikes and scooters up and down the street. The girls and Gids like to hide from them. We have talked to the mom a bit. She told us about an awesome park a few minutes away. Maybe we can have them over for a BBQ sometime?

New people #2 - Our neighbors' son Theo. He is Greek. He and Brandon spent the better part of 30 minutes talking about Bible and religious stuff. He came into the house to retrieve his niece who was playing with our kids and we started talking about soccer. He follows the men's premier team pretty closely. Soccer is an important conversation topic to have tucked away in a neighborhood like this.

New people #3 - Lady across the street. I was asking Theo's mom about the name of our strange fruit tree out back. She didn't know the name of it so she yelled across the street to Deena. Deena is also Greek and knows her plants well. According to her we have a cherry guava tree. They are little reddish round things. Kind of remind of a miniature pomegranate. In taste more like a strawberry/pomegranate/something else. Deena told me how to make jam out of them. We now have three jars of jam with more on the way.

New people #4 - American family, met at the new awesome park the neighbors told us about. The accent always gives it away :-) The mom and kids just arrived in January. So they are newbies all the way. They are of Jewish heritage. They have three kids all about our kids' ages as well. It was nice to talk about basketball, Purdue, IU, how expensive Australia is  and other things that flow easily when meeting someone else from your home country.

New people #5 - Jehovah Witnesses that keep coming back. They have visited four times now. I thought after the third visit they were done with me but apparently not.  Although these meetings have been frustrating at times it has been good to strengthen my understanding of their beliefs as well as my own. I am trying to be patient and loving.

You could pray for that these relationships might grow and that we would have opportunities to talk to them about Jesus. Also give thanks that we are meeting new friends. It is always nice to have people around to talk to.

Living in the "city"

We are actually in a suburb of Melbourne. Do many people actually live in the CBD?

So one thing that many people mentioned before we moved up here was the traffic.

They would say "how can you move up there with all that traffic?"
or
"I could never move up there, there is too much traffic!"
or
"I can't handle traffic, I get too upset."

Well I am one of those people that gets agitated, to say the least, with traffic. Agitated is putting it mildly. I for the most part grew up in a town of 300 people. Traffic was what happened when the train came through town and three cars were lined up waiting for it to pass. So no one can say to me "oh you grew up with it (traffic), you don't know any different." Actually I do.

But I am learning to live with it. God is giving me the grace and patience to deal with it. The traffic here compared to Chicago, Los Angles, and New York City (all three of which I have driven in) is really not that bad. You certainly don't see the forever ongoing road construction Chi-town is famous for. Or the rush hour traffic of the Dan Ryan. So when I think it is bad I think about those cities and remember it could be worse. I also pray that God will help me to calm down and help me remember that life as we know it will not end if I arrive at my destination 10 minutes late.

Besides, what position am I in to tell God that I am not going to move up here to help (when he is leading us) because of the traffic?! That is worse than Jonah telling God he didn't want to go to Nineveh because the people were wicked.

Also here is a new thought for any of you who do not like traffic. I heard this while listening to Timothy Keller's sermon entitled "Should I not Love that Great City?" (click on title to go to mp3)

Why should Christians love traffic and traffic jams? Because they are filled with people.

And people are what God loves most, yes even more than trees and the countryside. God loves people more than trees and therefore the city, including traffic, is way more important to him than a few fields or a forest. I am not saying God doesn't care for creation! He does, but it comes after people.

Now I just need to meditate on the above next time I need to get somewhere in a hurry and there is a wall of traffic in front of me.