As the countdown continues till I head off to Bangladesh - 8 days in fact before I climb aboard that aeroplane to Dhaka - there needed to be some serious fundraising.

What do you think of that, Tim?The church was packed a couple of weekends ago as I organised a 'Movember' within the church. Fortunately our "Movember" involved starting a couple of weeks before the other copying Movember going on, so it was great.

Had a fantastic night of music, cafe and enjoying each others company at Mt Roskill Bap, and all the while raising some serious money and accruing some fantastic support for the Bangladesh team of me, Rita and Brian.

Enjoy these photos. That's if the Mo above on that stunning guy didn't totally freak you out.

Tim getting a serious leg waxing... $250 raised!

and the other photos took too long,,,...,,,

Tim reckons he's a bit of a photographer... so he took some photos. This writing has been done post-2xcomments... taken on Saturday the 4th of November. These images are copyrighted, so if you think about publishing them without permission - you'd better think again.

And yes, I can copyright God's images...

What's it with people who leave cell phones on all night and are extremely grumpy when they are woken up at 10:50am (or any other time ... eg 3:30am) by a call or a txt message?

There's an interesting article in the Readers Digest this month about technology keeping us connected... permanently. There's an interesting story from the writer that he was up in Nepal, checking out mountains, when he saw a net cafe. He decided to check his emails, then spent a while laughing at forwarded emails before noticing that he was in the most beautiful part of the world, reading stupid emails, and promply left.

I remember sending a txt message at 6:30am once, and getting told off because I shouldn't be sending txt messages that early in the morning.

What is it with our facination that if we do not check our emails, or leave our cellphones on at all times, that the world will suddenly cease?

I realise that I too am a slave to the cellphone and email. Although in the last 6 months or so I've started turning my phone off at night. But I was thinking that all this eagerness with technology, especially communications technology, is not making life easier. In fact, it makes us busier. Being switched on, needing to reply to a txt message within a five minute time frame or else we come across as snobs.... are we not placing unreasonable demands on ourselves?

Sometimes its just good to stop and smell the roses.

And for goodness sake... start by turning your cellphone off at night.

I cant claim any of these quotes... but they're pretty funny.

As a child, Chuck Norris played Hungry Hungry Hippos with real hippos.
Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
Chuck Norris can speak braille.
Chuck Norris' calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd; no one fools Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris has only one hand: the upper hand.
Chuck Norris can slam revolving doors.
Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.
Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting implies the possibility of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.
The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris's fist.
There are no weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Chuck Norris lives in Oklahoma.
Objects in Chuck Norris's rear-view mirror appear at their correct distances.
Chuck Norris did that to Michael Jackson's face.
Chuck Norris' cowboy boots are made from real cowboys.
Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
Chuck Norris died ten years ago, but the Grim Reaper can't get up the courage to tell him.
Rosa Parks refused to get out of her seat because she was saving it for Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris sleeps with a night light. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris
When Chuck Norris exercises, the machine gets stronger.
There is no Control button on Chuck Norris' computer because Chuck Norris is always in control.
Chuck Norris is allowed to talk about Fight Club.
When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
We all know the magic word is please. As in the sentence, "Please don't kill me." Too bad Chuck Norris doesn't believe in magic.
Someone once tried to tell Chuck Norris that roundhouse kicks aren't the best way to kick someone. This has been recorded by historians as the worst mistake anyone has ever made.
When Chuck Norris gets in a car crash the air bags do not save Chuck Norris, they save the car.
Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
Chuck Norris doesn't see problems. Chuck Norris only sees victims.
Chuck Norris crapped in his pants once in his life. That was when Chuck Norris saw a picture of Chuck Norris for the first time.
Chuck Norris always has the right of way.
The only reason the Energizer Bunny keeps going and going is because it knows Chuck Norris is after it.
Jeeves asks Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris once caught the common cold, then broke it's neck.

Question:

Will we have free choice in heaven?

I'm off to Bangladesh in about 30 days... and at this stage, even with the political situation like it is, we're still going. So its busy times at the moment, trying to get a concert on the 11th of November at church done. It's going to be a cafe style night.. come along! 485 Richardson Road... from 7pm.

Anyway, that plug signals the end of that and what I really want to say...

In my discussions on talking to people about going to Bangladesh, people think they know everything that I dont already know... but what I notice from most people is that the last thing they say is that "but, it's such a different world" in how Bangladesh is.

Hang on a sec. Is it? I thought we all lived in one world?

Why do we always regard something that isn't the same as our cosy little country a different world? Why do we always think that if something is radically different from what we're used to, its a 'different world'?

I know its just a saying, but its said so often!

I think it just shows the widening gaps in our world - the 'sucessful' west distancing itself further and further from the apparent misconceptions that the 'problem' of poverty and non-western culture is 'over there' and is not this world.

Surprised? You should be!

I've been reading the news as per usual, and this week I've just been disgusted (more) with the state of New Zealand politics. This week National and Labour have been at each others throats, threatening each other that the other is corrupt, mainly from the debarkle surrounding election spending. Each party is saying the other is at fault for how it gained the funds to fund certain aspects of its campaign, namely National and its association with the Exclusive Brethern who funded a smear campaign against Labour, and Labour with its election 'Pledge Card'.

What digusts me is the level at which the bantering is occuring. The low-levels which Parliament is sinking to just to psyche out the other side is getting to a stage of outright stupidity. In reply to National's claims that Labour is corrupt, Labour is threatening to release personal details about individual National MP's in order to bring them down individually.

Have they really run out of options that they've sunk down to the level of blackmailers?

The other thing to do with this - I hate Trevor Mallard.

This so called 'Minister of Education' - in cabinet to represent schools, education, and the interests of children in New Zealand, has come out with some calls that would make a teacher put a child on detention if it were school. The name calling, the threats... It's just rubbish.

I was watching "Agenda" this morning on One. Michelle Boag, former National Party President, was subjected to being called "the National Party slag" but Mr Mallard. Her entire family heard this, as it was publicised to the country, so her husband called Trevor Mallard. He wasn't in, so a PA took the call. When Mr Boag told this PA why he was calling, the response of the PA was "well, she is."

Pete Hodgson, Labour MP for Defence and other stuff, who was part of the wider interview, looked genuinely shocked. I liked Pete Hodgson already, but his reaction inserted some humanity back into the wider picture. Although he couldn't relay this shock, the rest of what he had to say was relatively toned down.

Like many other New Zealanders, who's hard earn money leaks so quickly away into the ever deepening pockets of politicians, shouldn't have to stand for this, but we are. We're so used to not doing anything, that when the time comes to do something, we don't know what to do. So we ignore it, and wait till the next election to vote the same, aging politicians who are all to happy to unanimously vote for their next pay rise.


Democracy works so well.