Melbourne December 2017 “Dock of the Bay”
01/12/17 03:59
We're in Australia for Christmas. My wife is excited to be with her sons in their country rather than having them travel to Malaysia for a fortnight and use up most of their annual holiday entitlement doing so. I'm just as excited fort the photographic opportunities that will present themselves during a six week stay. We have been here twice before but this time we will be staying at her sons home rather than a hotel. The first two weeks find us in Frankston and the Dandenong Mountains, first at a conference in the Melbourne area. I am wary about saying this sort of thing “is not for me” but I struggle with the concept of approaching strangers and asking them if they need prayer for healing. My wife can do it and sometimes prayer works as I witnessed this week when she prayed for someone's back pain to go and it did. Was that real? Well the person who had that pain no longer had it and I only have to look at my little finger to know that truth. However I feel outside of my comfort zone asking if someone needs prayer for healing so I don't even try. After that we have a week reprising what we did last year, visiting gardens and the scenery around Orlando, Victoria (not Florida!). The place I found for us to stay at was significantly cheaper than others in the area and was right at the top of the Booking.Com web page. It wase a lovely place to stay and half way through we were upgraded to a larger room at no additional cost.
We moved on from there to stay with her sons for a month. They are still at work during the day and didn't need their car so they let us borrow it to explore the Melbourne suburbs. I choose to go to Williamstown as we had enjoyed being there before. The harbour is home to a restored and photogenic Second World War corvette that provides an interesting contrast to Melbourne's Central Business District in the distance behind it. I had taken that photograph last time and hoped something new would present itself. We stopped off at the foreshore and in the distance could see a large ship approaching the port. I guessed it would take at least thirty minutes to draw closer so we drove off to look at some of the houses and then quickly hurried back when I realised I had got my timing wrong! Nevertheless I was able to get photographs of the giant container ship with the city as the backdrop, before heading off for fish and chips followed by an ice cream. This town is famous for its Italian ice cream shops and I wasn't going to miss out on one of those treats We sat contentedly on a seafront seat looking out across the bay whilst rushing to eat our ice creams before they melted in the heat. A even bigger container ship went by, full of cars and dwarfing both the corvette and the yachts in the Marina. A small Police patrol boat then sped by allowing me to contrast the relative size of the two vessels in a single photograph. That evening I processed the shots I had taken and posted a selection on my Facebook site. It felt perfect to add the words of “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” as their caption. “Sitting in the mornin' sun. I was sitting when the evenin' come. Watching the ships roll in and then I watch 'em roll away again”. That felt good.
A week later we head out to the winery region. I'm not driving the car so am looking forward to sampling the wines wherever it is we are heading. The first winery we visit is Point Leo, in the Mornington peninsular. Apart from its wines of course, it is known for its garden of sculptures and that provided a great photographic opportunity but first we needed to eat. The main restaurant was packed so instead we headed to sit outside in the wine bar where a music duo was about to start playing. Some food snacks were sent for, drinks were ordered and I got that glass of wine I had been looking forward to. Then the band started singing, “Sitting in the mornin' sun. I was sitting when the evenin' come. Watching the ships roll in and then I watch 'em roll away again”. I stared into my glass and then I turned around to watch them playing. Was that a message for me? This was the song I had used earlier in the week and here it is again. It's not even a common song! There's nothing around me to trigger an association so I bank that occurrence in my mind and look for a confirmation. That was to come the next day.
It's Sunday and we're off to Bridge Church for the 11am service. I notice I am moved to tears with the first song we sing and its not even a favourite of mine. That is unusual for me. No, it's not being reduced to tears because that happens every week, but so quickly? I'm now on alert for 'something' and that 'something' came in the message. The Pastor was talking about the story behind the story of Christmas and how God uses the least of people, in that case Mary and Joseph, to carry out his works. Then he said “God can use all of us in different ways” and my mind said “Get back to writing this Blog”. I had stopped or suspended work on that mainly because my writing style is such that describing a single event takes me almost a day to complete so I had put it in the “to do when I get back to Malaysia” box. Now my ears were open again and I was listening. “He who has ears to hear let him hear” came into my thoughts but that message wasn't for me. It was quite clear, write down your experiences for others to read. There will be those who read this but who are unwilling or not ready to listen or see what is going on around them and then there will be those who read my words and will find it strengthens their beliefs. I had gone to church with an expectation that I might get some guidance or hear something that resonated with me. An expectation raised by hearing that song being played yesterday and I came away strengthened in my resolve to pass on what is happening in my life. I had the ears to hear but it still took me nearly a day to write this chapter.
A week later I was watching the music video by The Verve for their song 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'. It is well known for its portrayal of their lead singer walking down a busy London pavement, oblivious to what is going on around him and refusing to change his stride or direction throughout. It's 20 years since its production and I've seen it about 20 times over that time so you can imagine my surprise when the following day we went for a meal with the family and on their TV screen the first music video I see being played is, yes you guessed correctly, 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'. I laughed, after all, there is such a thing as a coincidence isn't there? Well, yes and maybe I get more than my fair share.
We moved on from there to stay with her sons for a month. They are still at work during the day and didn't need their car so they let us borrow it to explore the Melbourne suburbs. I choose to go to Williamstown as we had enjoyed being there before. The harbour is home to a restored and photogenic Second World War corvette that provides an interesting contrast to Melbourne's Central Business District in the distance behind it. I had taken that photograph last time and hoped something new would present itself. We stopped off at the foreshore and in the distance could see a large ship approaching the port. I guessed it would take at least thirty minutes to draw closer so we drove off to look at some of the houses and then quickly hurried back when I realised I had got my timing wrong! Nevertheless I was able to get photographs of the giant container ship with the city as the backdrop, before heading off for fish and chips followed by an ice cream. This town is famous for its Italian ice cream shops and I wasn't going to miss out on one of those treats We sat contentedly on a seafront seat looking out across the bay whilst rushing to eat our ice creams before they melted in the heat. A even bigger container ship went by, full of cars and dwarfing both the corvette and the yachts in the Marina. A small Police patrol boat then sped by allowing me to contrast the relative size of the two vessels in a single photograph. That evening I processed the shots I had taken and posted a selection on my Facebook site. It felt perfect to add the words of “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” as their caption. “Sitting in the mornin' sun. I was sitting when the evenin' come. Watching the ships roll in and then I watch 'em roll away again”. That felt good.
A week later we head out to the winery region. I'm not driving the car so am looking forward to sampling the wines wherever it is we are heading. The first winery we visit is Point Leo, in the Mornington peninsular. Apart from its wines of course, it is known for its garden of sculptures and that provided a great photographic opportunity but first we needed to eat. The main restaurant was packed so instead we headed to sit outside in the wine bar where a music duo was about to start playing. Some food snacks were sent for, drinks were ordered and I got that glass of wine I had been looking forward to. Then the band started singing, “Sitting in the mornin' sun. I was sitting when the evenin' come. Watching the ships roll in and then I watch 'em roll away again”. I stared into my glass and then I turned around to watch them playing. Was that a message for me? This was the song I had used earlier in the week and here it is again. It's not even a common song! There's nothing around me to trigger an association so I bank that occurrence in my mind and look for a confirmation. That was to come the next day.
It's Sunday and we're off to Bridge Church for the 11am service. I notice I am moved to tears with the first song we sing and its not even a favourite of mine. That is unusual for me. No, it's not being reduced to tears because that happens every week, but so quickly? I'm now on alert for 'something' and that 'something' came in the message. The Pastor was talking about the story behind the story of Christmas and how God uses the least of people, in that case Mary and Joseph, to carry out his works. Then he said “God can use all of us in different ways” and my mind said “Get back to writing this Blog”. I had stopped or suspended work on that mainly because my writing style is such that describing a single event takes me almost a day to complete so I had put it in the “to do when I get back to Malaysia” box. Now my ears were open again and I was listening. “He who has ears to hear let him hear” came into my thoughts but that message wasn't for me. It was quite clear, write down your experiences for others to read. There will be those who read this but who are unwilling or not ready to listen or see what is going on around them and then there will be those who read my words and will find it strengthens their beliefs. I had gone to church with an expectation that I might get some guidance or hear something that resonated with me. An expectation raised by hearing that song being played yesterday and I came away strengthened in my resolve to pass on what is happening in my life. I had the ears to hear but it still took me nearly a day to write this chapter.
A week later I was watching the music video by The Verve for their song 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'. It is well known for its portrayal of their lead singer walking down a busy London pavement, oblivious to what is going on around him and refusing to change his stride or direction throughout. It's 20 years since its production and I've seen it about 20 times over that time so you can imagine my surprise when the following day we went for a meal with the family and on their TV screen the first music video I see being played is, yes you guessed correctly, 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'. I laughed, after all, there is such a thing as a coincidence isn't there? Well, yes and maybe I get more than my fair share.