Kilt Ordered!

On Saturday, I decided to cycle to Hector Russell to order my kilt. I knew it was quite a distance but I thought it'd be a good bit of exercise. Well, one hour later I arrived there and chose the tartan for my kilt. I went for the ancient Farquharson. As if that wasn't complicated enough, I also had to choose from three different mills who all use slightly different colouring. I don't remember right now the name of the mill I chose but I'll look it up.

The kilt should be ready in 6 - 8 weeks although it depends if the mill has the material in stock. It should be ready in time for all the weddings I'm going to in September. OK, both the weddings I'm going to in September...a week apart.

Will Elder - my friend

Today I received the sad news that Will Elder, a friend and ex-colleague died of cancer this morning. The news hit me as a bit of a blow because we had been praying and believing for God to heal him. The whole thing seemed so tragic as well as he had so much of his life ahead of him. He was 22.

I first met Will in 2002 when I started working at TACF as a volunteer in what was then the Media department. Will was such a friendly and cheerful guy. He was always enthusiastic, hard working and helpful. He had time for people and would help out whenever help was needed, even if it wasn't really his responsibility.

When he stopped working at TACF a while ago, I didn't really keep in touch with him. We just went our separate ways, really. He first contracted testicular cancer almost a year ago and he had a fairly bumpy ride with various treatments and some misleading good signs and even a phase when he thought he was cancer-free.

I went with a few friends to visit him about a month ago and we chatted for a bit. He told me of all the pain he was in, how he had gone hoarse one day from yelling so much because of the pain. Through it all, though, he never lost his sense of God's presence. He said he could feel God's love and he could sense angels in the room as well.

It's just tough when I KNOW that people get healed and cancer really isn't a big deal to God, he's healed people before. God is also a God of LOVE and he desires good things for his children. Right now these don't seem to add up with what's happened but I beleive there are other factors outside my understanding. I still trust God, I still belive he has a good, pleasing and perfect plan for my life and all the rest. I just wish I knew more about healing.

I've been wondering recently, as Will's death seemed more and more imminent - why should he die and me live? Really, when all is said and done, he was a nicer guy than me. I've probably run to sin instead of God more in my life yet here I am in perfect health. I suppose we may tend to associate sickness with God's judgment but it's not always that way.

Will isn't in any pain any more. That I believe. He's with God, his creator, his loving Father. How amazing a promise that is. Really, where is the sting in death? All we have is this temporary separation until we are re-united in heaven. Until then, though, I'll miss him.

I think I'll buy a kilt.

Since the wedding at the weekend, I've been considering how much money I've spent on kilt hire. The rental costs $150 each time and I know I've rented a kilt at least 3 times while in Canada, possible even 4. That's from $450 - $600 dollars right there and I have nothing to show for it other than a few cool photos.

I can get a full 8 yard, hand-sewn kilt from Hector Russell in Toronto. (Interestingly, the first Hector Russell was in my home town of Greenock.) If I get the kilt by itself, it'll cost $645 which I think I can afford. Then I can wear it whenever I want, which would be quite fun.

I'm going to go with the Farquharson tartan which is my family tartan, although it's not my name. To add confusion, there are actually four version of the tartan I can choose from. Here's a peek at each of them.


Ancient


Modern


Muted


Weathered

I'm going to go and have a look soon to see which one looks best in real life as they can look misleading on a computer screen.

HSBC No More!

I have finally closed my account with HSBC. I find PC Financial to be a far superior bank. I've been using them for a couple of months now but I still hadn't closed the HSBC account because I couldn't figure out a way of getting my money out without needing to pay a fee, since I had a lot to transfer and I didn't want to walk out with a bag full of cash.

I spent the money instead and today I was handed a $2 coin from the manager as she closed my account. It was actually quite amusing. It illustrated how little interest I had in the bank by that time - the fact that I had spent all but $2 before closing the account.

She was actually pretty grumpy about closing the account, as if my business going elsewhere will put her out of a job. She asked me to fill out a form at one point and when I handed it back she said, "Thanks, that's great....Well...it's not great."

I just smiled to myself, thinking her poor attempts at guilt and manipuation wouldn't work on me! Ha! Your Jedi skills will only work on the weak minded!

Photos from Chris & Lorri's Wedding

I now have the photos back from the wedding on Saturday. Follow this link to have a look. Luckily for Chris, I took out the one from the night before when we made him wear a thong.

A pretty cool wedding

I was priveleged to be part of Chris & Lorri's wedding on Saturday. We had quite a drive to get there, though. Chris is from New Hamburg and the wedding was in Saint Mary's. (the town, not a Catholic church) Check out a map of the area on Google to see where these places are. The reception was somewhere else entirely. I don't know exactly where it was - it was a barn somewhere. Mind you, it was a really nice barn.

One of the highlights of the day was at the end of the ceremony when the minister told us the reception was to be at 5:30pm. Chris and Lorri looked at him kinda funny and said "it's 6:30" to which he replied, "no, trust me, it's 5:30" Well, the newlyweds left in the car and then Lorri's dad came up to the front and said "The reason it's 5:30 is because they don't know this but we're having a helicopter pick them up and fly them there. Oh, and free helicopter rides for everyone!"

It was a pretty cool deal and far more original than the old "free drinks all round" concept. There were two helicopters, one of which could take three passengers and the other could take four. They kept going for quite a while until everyone had a shot. I had to be carefuly standing in line with my kilt on because each time a helicopter took off, there was quite a gust. I think I managed to defend my dignity ok, though.

All in all, it was a great day, though, starting with a last-minute band practice in the morning and ending with helping to clear up some of the stuff in the barn and getting back to Toronto at around 2am.

I love the community of a wedding. It's not just two people getting together, it's everyone being a witness and participant in the joy and celebration of their new life together. Here's to Chris and Lorri's new future together!

(I will hopefully have some photos soon!)

BICYCLE!

(In my best Queen voice:) I want to ride my BICYCLE, I want to ride my bike!

Yes, it's true. I finally bought a bi-cycle - a two-wheeler, with no stabilisers! I'm a big boy now, yes I am.

Inspired by the plethora of bicycles is use in Denmark, I decided to get one of my own to get around (round round get around, I get around!) my neighbourhood. I can also ride to work/church as well and get a bit stronger in the legs in the process. That way I'll be stronger for climbing as well and a spot of cardio exercise is always a good idea as well.

For those of you interested in bike details, I got the Yukon by Giant. I hope to have lots of fun and get fitter at the same time.