The Thursday Blog

Hello everyone and welcome back to another fantastic episode of The Thursday Blog. You are going to love today’s episode whether you are reading this for the first time or have just spent the last 14 hours reliving all the action over the last 2 years of episodes, only taking shorts breaks to go to the toilet and to feed your cat.

Well it is an exciting time in life. Why? Because tomorrow is my 28th birthday which is a lovely segue into today’s episode called:

The Ultimate Past-Time

Also as another segue if you are looking for a great birthday gift for me I would love a segue. Those things rock…. literally.

Did you know you can make any day sound like your birthday by announcing your age and adding the word ‘today’ at the end? You should try it. Your birthday may be in March but if tomorrow you go to work and announce to everybody ‘I am 24 today’ you will get a lot of people wishing you well and may even get a cake. The fact that you were 24 yesterday and 24 tomorrow is irrelevant, you are 24 toady and you want that cake.

I love birthday’s and I always have. The fact that one day, once a year, in very small circles that can be as small as just your family and a close friend or two, on that day you are the most important person they know. I used to try and prolong this experience by having a birthday week. I wouldn’t tell people which day it was but told them the week. This is because when people know when your birthday is they book in a lunch or dinner. Once those 2 spots fill up then it is game over. You tell them you already have plans and they walk away scot-free without buying you a meal and treating you as being important. Can you tell I have felt cheated in the past? But a birthday week means I have 14 potential lunches or dinners that a number of people could take me to and make me feel important. Hey I know it sounds vain, but I do think that song is about me.

When you think about it, it is a funny thing to celebrate. It is not like I achieve anything that day. I simply relocated myself from inside a house to outside a house by sliding down a slide, head first. My part was so easy I did it with my eyes closed…

What I do love about my birthday is that it reminds me that I am getting older. Growing up is my absolute favourite past-time because it is the pure definition of a past-time. Now I know that sounds like a strange statement but there are so many advantages of growing older:

* I can choose my own bedtime (though these days more often than not I like an early night)
* I can go to horror films (though I never do, I stick to pixar films)
* I can get all sorts of crazy loans from a bank (though I have to pay the money back)
* I can be selected for Jury Duty (though that means I have to do Jury Duty)

See hundreds of advantages!!!

My love for growing older actually has nothing to do with the 4 advantages but it has everything to do with a little secret that I learnt a little while ago. In fact it is so good I think it should be in quote form. Here it is -

“If a man can learn to love those things that cannot be changed, then that man will always be happy” (Dan Lee-Archer, 2011).

Wow, great quote. I would of liked the end to be a bit more punchy, maybe use some words from the first half in a different order and possibly rhyme them; but I guess that is something I can’t change so I love it. Well I could change it, but that could take hours.

I love growing older because there is nothing I can do about it so I might as well enjoy it. Now all I have to do is take this concept and apply it to washing up the dishes and I will be set.

So learn to love growing old and you will definitely always

Have Fun

Dan

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to another awesome episode of The Thursday Blog.

Today’s episode is all about starting again so I don’t mind if I do.

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to another awesome episode of The Thursday Blog.

Pause for a chuckle for those of you who like lame jokes. I better throw to the title before more come out.

Reinventing

Hi there. This is hidden message. That is all.

Man, I hate it when a good idea is not working. Let me explain. I was asked to start up a radio show on www.cmconnect.org . They were starting up a children’s ministry radio channel through blog, talk, and radio and they wanted me on board. They had some great people already on board to do some shows about ministry, volunteers and topics that would be of great value to any person in “kidmin”. These are all awesome shows but I thought there was a gap in the line up for a show about nothing, and that is what I created.

FMD & Me was the name of my radio show. This is a clever name because it rhymes, plus as an added bonus it sets up the twist to the show. Every week I have a different guest host. Now I set out to do the show once a fortnight like every other show and I really enjoyed it. It was fun, it was fresh and other great words that hopefully started with ‘F’ for alliteration’s sake. I had an idea for a few really great segments and my first few fortnight’s I was smashing it. I then decided that it was time to go weekly and that is when the problems started.

Now as I am well aware a weekly commitment is a big commitment. This blog as much as I love it is a big commitment. I don’t have the luxury of getting in the mood to blog and pump out 5 or 6 posts then do nothing for the next month until I feel the vibe again. I am blogging every week, so much so the time is midnight on Thursday night and I am still typing away. This one will be a bit late, sorry to Australia, not to America, you have just woken up So the weekly call was a big one and I foolishly made it.

The biggest problem was my guest hosts. I would have to organise it so far in advance that not many people would know what they are doing in 3 weeks time on a Thursday morning. I am not that good at thinking ahead in my normal life so many a time I would realise the night before that I didn’t have a host. A big thank you to amazing friends like Sam Luce, Dave Wakerley, Travis Butler, Nat Fisher and Jamie Doyle who all did a show with me at the very last minute.

The other issue with the hosts is the time difference. I am getting up very early in the morning to do the show, so my Australian guest host friends think I am crazy doing a radio show at 7am in the morning; for my American friends it was anytime from 1pm to 4pm which is generally totally inconvenient; and for my UK friends I still don’t know what the time is over there.

These were challenges I could overcome but it was nearly impossible to overcome some of the technology issues I had. The blogtalkradio system is weird. It is a process to schedule a show so I set a recording weekly show. Unfortunately one day I woke up, got everything ready, called my guest host, got Travis (the show’s producer) on the line, had a final debrief and then realised that my show wasn’t scheduled. That is because it was daylight savings in America and the show went to air an hour early, 30 mins of pure nothing. Due to the policy you are allowed one show a day, and that was ours. The show was cancelled.

I do the show through skype because it is free and I can conference people in. Skype who has worked everyday of my life decides that when I do a radio show that is the time it will stuff up. I have had co-hosts drop out, guests we are interviewing drop out and even myself drop out. And it always happens at the worst time. Once I had a guest on the line, and at the exact moment I said ‘are you there’ it dropped out.

My final show of last season my skype was working but the system decided to throw me out. I couldn’t reconnect, it wouldn’t let me. I had to call the show from my mobile and say ‘Hi, it’s FMD, I hate technology, the show is over’.

We couldn’t go on, the idea was great but it just didn’t work. So instead of giving up we have simply reinvented it. So the FMD and Me show is back and everything is fixed. How? Well that is a secret but the moral of the story is that though you may have a whole page of things that are against a good idea, it doesn’t mean you have to throw out the idea…you can simply reinvent it.

Have a listen to the new show below, you will really like it or your money back.

Have Fun.

Dan

Hello and welcome to another awesome episode of The Thursday Blog.

I need to stop right there because I have an announcement to make. I have been challenged!!!!

No it is not a challenge to who has the best hair in Kidmin because Sam Luce wins every year, but I have recently been contacted by K! Magazine asking if any of my regular readers would be considered ‘creative’ enough to contribute to an upcoming issue of their magazine.

I humbly replied ‘Every single one of them have more creativity in their left pinky finger than a small to medium advertising company that after many years of building up their business are now at a point where they are making a substantial profit and can pay dividends to their shareholders.’

So here is the pitch from K! Magazine.

K! Magazine realises that there are lots of ideas out there that children’s pastors need to share with one another. Your idea may be just what someone else needs to energize their ministry. If it blew your kids out of the water, it could do the same for another group of kids … in another church, another city, another state … who knows, you could start a movement!

The Nov/Dec issue of K! will include a pull-out centerfold of 10 of these incredibly creative ideas, and yours could be one of them! If your idea is chosen for publication, you’ll receive a year subscription to K! and a quarter of The Kitchen kids’ church curriculum—a package worth $170. So, get busy and share one or more of your crazy ideas!

Have you …
• come up with an amazing way to disciple kids?
• used fire without burning down the church?
• kicked off the year with an event that kids are still talking about?
• taken a unique object and developed an entire lesson around it?
• challenged your kids to serve in an unusual way?
• created an environment that kids didn’t want to leave?
• connected with the local schools in a new way?
• handed over leadership of an event to the kids?
• involved the entire church with kidmin?

Hi, It’s Dan talking again. I know this completely smells of a “mass group email where I have changed the name of who it is to so it seemed really personal”; but that is a good thing. This means the challenge has gone out to different blogs around the world and if successful your submission will be deemed the top 10 ideas globally. Now that is what I am talking about.

Creativity is not something that by itself has any value. But when you take a purpose and work out a way to achieve that purpose that is creativity at its best.

So here is what we are going to do. We are going to flood this competition with some of the most incredible ideas the world has ever seen. They can be ones you are currently using in your kids ministry or ones that you have only dreamt of trying.

You need to send you ideas with your name, email, church, city, and mention The Thursday Blog to submissions@thekmagazine.com . Entries close on August 1st.

What ever you do, whether this takes you a few minutes or hours, remember whilst you are doing it to

Have Fun.

Dan

Hello again and welcome to another simply awesome episode of The Thursday Blog. We are only 5 days away from the start of Hillsong Conference and it is getting exciting. Last night we had a “Heart and Soul night” where all the people who call our church home gathered together for an awesome meeting with Brian Houston. Then we split up into departments where all the volunteers for the Conference gathered with their respective teams. I obviously went to the Kidsong World meeting.

The meeting was great, run by our fearless leader Dave Wakerley, you may remember him from such facts that he is awesome. But to start off the night he had to get one thing straight for all the new volunteers. He brought me on stage and in front of a few hundred people said:

“This is Funny Man Dan”.

Pause for a medium but not overwhelming cheer. I believe the biggest cheer for the night went to Eva Stringleman who is the events coordinator for Kidsong, so that honour was rightfully placed. Mind you she is the person that organises the food passes for the volunteers so I think people were keeping her happy. Anyway back to Dave talking to the crowd.

“This man, more than anyone else in this building, has the absolute………least amount of responsibility during Conference”…

The crowd laughs as Dan looks shocked because he thought he was getting a compliment, but between you and me I knew the joke was coming as he ran it by me moments beforehand so the shocked looked was simply a touch of acting to milk a reaction.

“But for some reason…..all of the glory. What do you have to say for yourself Dan?”

I lift my microphone and say with a cheeky smile:

“It’s good to be me”.

Dave laughs as the crowd joins in not really knowing that Dave probably didn’t think it was a funny response as he’d already heard it a minute before when I ran it by him.

We don’t always plan to a tee what we are going to say and I haven’t always been Funny Man Dan. (Nice Segue). The story on how I got that title shortly after a heading:

Just tending to the sheep

Where we left off was that we had an over enthusiastic teenager who thought the world revolved around him. Much to his horror he found out that the world revolved around the sun and even though he believed that the sun shined out of a certain orifice of his; it still didn’t revolve around him. So something had to change.
All the change that has happened in my life all shares one common characteristic. It happens slowly and in some cases at a snail pace. I attended church for a further 6 months and then I went home for the summer. I didn’t really have a reason to go back to Sydney but somehow I found myself back on a flight and got myself a ticket to a young adults summer camp. At that camp I made a decision that this is where I was going to stay and make a big part of my life.

At the camp they pointed out and thanked a few key people that made it happen. I wanted to be one of those people, someone that could really contribute and in all honestly I still wanted the public thanking (I was still young). So I started to think how I could get there, who would I have to meet, what would I have to do, where I should hang out so I could start to get a bit of a name for myself. Then I stopped myself and I made myself a promise.

I had heard a message about Moses who was simply tending to sheep when God called him to do what He wanted him to do. He didn’t try and make things happen but instead was faithful in what he was doing – simply tending the sheep. I made myself a promise that I would never try to promote myself again.

So the answer to the question that you have all been asking for years. How did I become Funny Man Dan? The answer is…… I joined the carpark team. Seriously that was it. Over the last 9 years my life has been a series of events that has shaped my role as FMD. None of these events I had asked for, organised, or tried to create by networking or by sheer effort. I had nothing to do with anyone of it, I didn’t even think of my stage name. In fact nobody knows who gave me the name, on the second day of my first Kidsong Conference someone had put up a graphic with the words Funny Man Dan and it just stuck. Nobody knew how they got the graphic, they just did.

So what can I take credit for? The answer is the same as my level of responsiblity as pointed out by Dave…… absolutely nothing. All of this happened whilst I was simply tending the sheep.

Have Fun.

Dan

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, welcome to another fantastic episode of The Thursday Blog.

Yes I have something to say this week, not just poke fun at my friends that blog about their twitter updates. Justyn Smith and I are friends again

So things over here are heating up. Soon it will be Hillsong Conference which means I have the awesome privilege to serve on the Hillsong Kids team. This is my 9th year serving at the Conference as Funny Man Dan, and it has been a blast. How did Funny Man Dan come to be, you ask? Well I am going to answer that next week but today I need to give you a back story with an embarrassing secret. That is all in today’s topic:

“The world survived without me”

I am going to let you in on a massive secret that not many people know.

Are you ready for it?

Here we go!

I was once knocked back as a Hillsong Kids leader.

Gasp, shock, horror, faint. Here is the story.

The year was 2002 and the month was July and it was a Sunday and I was invited to Hillsong Church for the very first time. I had been living in Sydney for 6 months but I hadn’t found a church. I came from a Catholic background but I got saved at 13 at a youth camp. Over the years the youth camp at which I spent every spare moment of my holidays at, gave me a great network of Christian friends but I still attended my Catholic church. The parish I am from is really really great and I did get a lot out of it, but when I came to Sydney the local Catholic church was slightly boring, and I didn’t feel welcome. So when my friend asked me to come to Hillsong I was pumped.

I loved the service, I loved everything about it and I then found out that starting the very next day was Hillsong Conference. I was told that people either registered or they volunteered in a department they chose. I saw that Hillsong Kids was still available and I got excited.

“Perfect”, I thought to myself, “I am absolutely perfect to do the kids program. I have my juggling stuff and my balloons. I can do performances for them, and they will love me and the leaders will love me and I WILL CONQUER THE WORLD!!!!!!!”

Let’s just stop there for a minute. I was not a megalomaniac but I did have a confidence issue. It did sound like confidence is not what I lacked but it was. I desperately wanted to be noticed, I desperately wanted to be liked, and I desperately wanted to be praised for being awesome. These are not good motives but I am being brutally honest.

I honestly thought Hillsong Kids had been waiting for me their entire lives and I was going to be the answer to their prayers. I had done many children’s parties, I had busked, I had some skill and I thought that I could be the best thing since the bread slicer machine that made sliced bread…Well, it turns out that I was wrong and I needed to change my awful attitude.

Now here is where it gets funny. I rock up to Hillsong Conference, I go down to Hillsong Kids with my juggling clubs and balloons and I say “I am here, and you’re welcome”. They were so nice to me. They introduced me to one of the pastors who took the time to talk to me. They said they would love to have me help out but I just had to follow their normal procedures first. I needed to fill out a form and then tomorrow they could process it, do the necessary checks and then have me come back tomorrow night to help out.

I was shocked. Form???? I had to fill out a form??? Didn’t they know I could juggle 4 balls? Didn’t they know I could make a Winnie the Pooh out of balloons? How in the world have they survived without me???

I never filled out the form. One of the reasons was it asked for a pastors reference and I only knew my priest from back home and I wasn’t sure if that counted (oh, I was so young and silly, of course it counted). But the other reason was that that encounter with the kids team really impacted me. I realised that they had survived without me for many many years and they would continue to do so if I never joined. They wanted me to be a part of it, but they didn’t need me. This lesson is one that we all need to remember as we serve our church – it is not about you, but we all do care about you.

So that year I went to the night rallies and started to have my attitude and my life changed, especially as I started being planted in my church and I have never looked back. But this still doesn’t answer the question “how did I become Funny Man Dan”. That will be answered next week but I will tell you this……. I did finally fill out that form.

Have Fun.

Dan

Ok, here is the problem. I have a blog called “The Thursday Blog”, which many have hailed as a pure genius idea. It means I only blog once a week, every week and it gives the reader a nice sense of familiarity. Also it protects the blogger from what happens to all bloggers from time to time…….. they forget to blog. Then you get the wonderful posts like:

“Haven’t blogged in a while…

Sorry.

Ahhh, so life is good.

Yeah.

Oh, here is a video I found on Youtube where a guy sees a double rainbow.

(insert youtube link)

Life should be exciting”.

Some people try to avoid long gaps without blogging, by automatically posting what they have said on Twitter for that week:

“I had pizza for lunch”

@samluce how about those redsocks!!! #genericsportshashtag

So pumped to see @jimwideman at #orange #kidmin #ican’tbelieveigot2meetJimWideman #ishouldofaskedforhisautograph

I just read @davewakerley ‘s blog. Man that video about the double rainbow is awesome.

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WITH THAT????? Seriously I read it on twitter during the week why do I need to read it again on your blog. It is like we are celebrating the achievement of placing something on the internet by having it do a victory lap on multiple platforms.

This final blog type is the worst. It is the blog where we take 2 minutes to ask a question and hope that people comment and start a discussion. This is basically outsourcing the blog to those who are willing to comment because their input will make the blog great. In the meantime the blogger is laughing like a fat cat whilst other people make them look interesting.

So now I found myself in the situation where I don’t know what to blog about. I can’t do the first one as all the good Youtube clips have already appeared on Samluce.com. I can’t do the second one as I haven’t really twittered anything of notable variety lately since I tweeted about that weirdo who predicted the end of the world getting it mixed up with the end of Oprah’s show. It was such a great tweet but that was the 21st May, much too late for a weekly update. I could do the last one but I am averaging 1 to 2 comments a week so it would be a very small debate.

So what am I going to talk about when I have nothing to talk about? The answer is ………… nothing. Instead I am simply going to leave it there and go and ……

Have Fun.

Dan

Hi there, I hope you are well, in fact I hope that that friend who is currently having an issue in their relationship  takes your advice and sits down to talk it through (only to find out that they both deeply care for each other and sometimes when tension comes it is the simply clashing of two personalities and they shouldn’t take it personally).

Gosh I am feeling in a very specific mood.

Ok, tonight’s episode is talking about:

“Sucks-ess”

oh what a night…. late December back in 63..

What did I do there? I took the word success which is usually a positive word and made it a negative but saying it sucks. Clever hey. Now how does that get us to Jersey Boys the musical? I have no idea but it does.

So I went to Jersey Boys the musical. My parents are visiting the big city of Sydney where I live. I refer to it as ‘a big city’ only because compared to the city they are from it has 16,000% more people living in it. The cool thing about having family visit is you get to do all the tourist things that you wouldn’t normally do or even know that were on. One of those things was going to Jersey Boys.

Now I normally get my theatre tickets from a company called Showbiz. This is a company that pre-buys tickets from the actual ticket company ie ticketek, ticketmaster; and then they put them into a package. One of those packages I have never tried is called ‘Dinner and a Show’ where you get a free dinner at your choice of 6 really nice restaurants and the cost is about the same as a ticket. I couldn’t understand how they could do this until I saw our ticket allocation. The last row, up the back to the far right where you are advised to bring your own oxygen tanks. We didn’t mind as the show is all about the music.

A few weeks before the show I got an email with the title of “Great News”. The email lived up to its name as it told me we had been upgraded to much better seats. On the floor to the far left. We went from E grade to C grade seats. The funny thing is that when we got there the view wasn’t that great, seeing as we were close to stage it gave a blocked view even though it was close. We may of been better in E grade.

The show was about to start when we noticed that the theatre was fairly empty. We started to plan a little upgrade as soon as the lights went out for the first song. Whilst we were debating whether it was worth the risk, the usher came and told us we were free to move up and take any seat we liked. Next thing we knew, we were in the A-grade section, seated like royalty. Ok the seats were the same but the view was great. We felt like those that Jesus mentioned in the bible, who sat at the lower end of the table then got invited to the head of the table, then started singing ‘oh what a night’.

The show was excellent!!! The Australian cast were absolutely amazing and performed to perfection. The music was wonderful and the story line (a true story) was compelling. There was one part of it that really hit me hard and I wanted to quickly share it with you.

It was the story of the band The Four Seasons, centreing around their lead singer Frankie Valli. This group achieved major international success and made an impact on the music industry; they were so big they were inducted in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Frankie Valli went on to do even more and is still in the music business today. But there was this one part in the show that gave a glimpse into what all this success meant to him.

The love of his life, the woman he married, the one he wanted to be with forever filed for a divorce. He was on the road working so they could have a good life when all they wanted was a father. He had three girls whom he loved dearly but never saw them grow up as he was never around. When everything was going right in his career but wrong at home he says this ‘I have had it all, but if you have a wife that loves you and kids that want to be with you, you have much more that me’.

Success for the sake of success sucks. Nothing is more important than people. There are a lot of things I wish to do and be successful in, but if they mean I need to sacrifice my relationship with my family, there is no return big enough that will make me pay that price.

Have Fun.

Dan

Hi there everyone.

No time for small talk, let’s get into today’s topic which is:

“Cash without a cause”

Hi there. The hidden message is back. I hope you are well.

Money may have the power to make the world go round but sometimes I doubt the power I have in my wallet. I could have $5 to feed myself but I would rather have $5,000,000 to feed a nation or even $300,000,000,000 which experts say could put a end to global poverty in 10 years. Now that is power that unfortunately I do not have…… yet.

Yes in this episode we will discuss how you too can make thousands of dollars a day working only a few hours a week from your own home. Just email me at: makeheapsamoney44@hotmail.com. Gosh those spam emails make me laugh. If they really were making that money they could afford an email address that isn’t a free hotmail account. We will not be talking about how to make money today.

Today we will be simply discussing an experience that I had over the last week. I was rich, rich I tell you, I WAS RICH!!!!!! Let me explain.

As you may know I went to Amsterdam for my good mate Spronky’s wedding. You know he is a very close friend as The Netherlands is not close to Australia at all, even by plane. Now in my everyday life I am a responsible manager of the money that the Good Lord has given me, by having a budget. I flirted on and off with a budget in my single days, but I got really serious about it when I got married –  every dollar that has come to us and we have parted ways with, has been accounted for. I have been married for nearly 4 years and I can tell you how much money we spent on groceries for the week ending 2/09/2007. The answer is $126.30 in case you were wondering.

Now our budget has advanced over the years and now we are running with 21 categories each with different weekly allowances. This is a big complicated budget that we need to spend time on each week. Every time we purchase something we need to allocate where this money is coming from and do we have available credit in that category. But when I go on holidays everything is different.

On holidays one of my favourite things is that especially overseas ones, I budget a daily allowance and there is only one category. Flights and accommodation is prepaid so this money is simply for food, experiences and shopping (though more of the first two). This means I only have one category which is such a treat. I either spend my allowance and then get more the next day or don’t spend it all and get even more the next day. Cool huh.

When I went to Amsterdam I had no idea how much things would cost over there or what in the world I was doing. I was there to help my mate get to the altar and have a great time doing so, which I did. I took a lump sum of money over there for the 8 days, it wasn’t thousands but it was a generous daily allowance and it turned out to be more than enough. My accommodation was sorted, I was blessed by several people including my mate who cooked a meal or two for me so every chance I had to spend money I did. There wasn’t a desire that I denied myself, if I wanted it I simply pulled out some Euros and got it. I was in all definition of the word, “rich”. I had such a wonderful time with my friend and the expereince of not having any fincial responsiblity was fun but I do not prefer it. Why? Because I was without my two Princess’ who were waiting for me in Australia.

I only had a sample of a few days of being wealthy but I found that there it can only be enjoyed if you have people to share it with. I much prefer my massive budget at home. Yes it means I can’t spend without thinking, yes it means I can’t treat myself whenever I want to whenever I like, yes it means a lot of hours recording everything, placing it into categories, managing incoming wages etc; but I rather that because that budget means I can adequately look after my family and to grow it. The cash on my holidays didn’t have a purpose except for providing me with some enjoyment, but the money I earn at home has such an important cause that it makes it worthwhile.

I am believing that in the future I will have great amount of money but I am also believing that I will have a cause that is bigger than my bank balance.

Have Fun.

Dan

Hello! This is Dan’s Princess here, writing on his behalf. As I am typing this, he is boarding a flight from Amsterdam, on his way home from one of his best mates’ wedding. His Little Princess and I are very eager to see him – it has been a long 10 days!

Dan was very thoughtful before he left – he recorded two separate videos for both Grace and I, that we could play every night before we went to bed. I was so grateful for the one he made for Grace, because how do you explain to an 18 month old that Daddy has gone away for a little holiday? She is too young to understand properly; but I felt that this way, at least she could see his face every night and it would remind her of him

My video made me bawl on the first night, because we had just dropped Dan at the airport a few hours earlier, and I was missing him already! Thankfully it has become easier, due to being busy hanging out with my parents and brother. And now, one more sleep to go before I pick up my amazing husband.

Dan & I have both realised that his little trip away has helped us to appreciate each other better. In day to day life it is quite easy to take each other for granted and assume that they will do “this, this, and this”. But when you are separated, you realise their contribution and more importantly, how much you value their relationship. Dan isn’t just a person I live with and look after our daughter with – he is my husband, my life partner, and my best friend, amongst many other things.

So for us, the saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder” is true. Dan and I can’t wait to meet at the airport and spend a few days together before he returns to work. I guess what I would like to put to you is, is there someone in your life that you unintentionally take for granted, who would appreciate knowing how grateful you are that they’re in your life??

Much Love

Jaz

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen all the way 40,000 miles in the air currently over Berlin. Yes I am in the final 69 mins of my 26 hours of travelling (including stop-overs) and I couldn’t feel better. That is a lie, travelling is physically demanding and I will feel so much better this time tomorrow morning, but compared to how I have handled other long haul flights, I am feeling great which brings me to the 2nd part of a 2-part episode:

Trains Planes and Automobiles – I can’t be just about the miles

Last week we chatted about how a lot of things regarding travelling are unfair. I have to add one little one to it. Why in the world do they take your headset off you 40 mins before you land??? That is the same time your ipod must go off, and whatever you are playing on and you are left with nothing!!!! The funny thing is I have not realised this in the past and I checked how long I had to land then started a movie. I still to this day have not seen the last 5 mins of Leatherheads (watched 3 years ago) and also Glory Days (watched 6 years ago). I got wise this trip, that is why I am blogging until they tell me to put it away, and place my bag under my seat…. and place my tray table up…….and put up my foot rest up ……… and place my seat in the full upright position. It is funny that on the last leg I got told to do all these things one by one by different flight attendants. They were popping up from nowhere.

Now last week I wrote that it took me two days to drive 1100km (700 miles) to go on a holiday and then had to drive two days back after it. I loved every second of that car ride because I unlocked the secret of travelling on holidays. The holiday starts the second you start travelling.

I personally hate travelling for the sake of travelling. I would gladly pay 2 even 3 times the amount to avoid travelling. I will drive instead of walk, I will pay tolls instead of going the long way, I will fly instead of drive. I can’t get away from the maths of travelling. Let me explain.

I had a friend who lived in Sydney and she started dating a guy in Melbourne. Melbourne is a good 869 km (539 miles) away so most people would fly. There are dozens of flights to Melbourne everyday on one particular airline during the morning and afternoons have a flight every 30 mins. Now my friend used to catch the train down because it was the cheapest way to get there. A ticket was about $70. Now a discount flight would range from about $70 special (sometimes cheaper but rare) to $100 -$150 tops. I have never paid more than $120 to go to Melbourne. Now she is getting the train trip for $70 so the difference to the most expensive fare is $130. Now the flight is 90 mins so that is 3 hours travel total with check in and travel to the airport. However the train in 12 hrs. Therefore the difference is 9 hours travel just to save $90. That is $8.80/hr she has saved. That is $6.20 lower than the minimum wage in Australia. Just work an extra shift and catch a plane!!!!! That kind of travel I hate.

So when I did the maths of how much it would cost to fly on our holiday or to drive, they came in roughly about the same. The car ride would give us 4 days on the sunshine coast with family and with the choice of available flights flying would also give us 4 days. But we chose to drive for the main reason that it would double our holiday from 4 days to 8. The holiday started the moment we got up at 4am to get in the car to beat the Good Friday traffic and finished when we opened the door to our unit upon our return. There was not much travel time, most of it was a journey.

This concept is new to me but it seemed to work on the car ride so I thought I would really put it to the test. The dreaded long haul plane ride. I have now landed, been picked up by the Groom-to-be, Spronky (the reason I am in Amsterdam), had some breakfast and had the all important shower. I tried to enjoy the flight and the journey and the overall verdict is….. it worked. Sure sleep is not comfortable, sure a little bit of the plane food came back up, sure I had a headache and incredible thirst each time I woke up because of the air conditioning; but I have really enjoyed it.

So I am going to keep exploring this concept and see where it takes me. All I know is where ever it takes me I am going to enjoy the journey.

Have Fun

Dan.