Retirement
31 December 2006

I have officially retired from window cleaning. It has been my working life since I finished my teaching degree in October 2004. My last day was on Friday where I finished battling a 2 story high atrium of death including my favorite glass roof.

I want to give a big shout out to my boss Paul for his generosity and Christian servitude. For those who don’t know, my boss and all the people in our company are Christians. Paul has been a excellent boss and a great friend for the last couple of years.

...Paul

I want to thank all the blokes I’ve worked with and help train including...

... Joe


...Mike

...Geo


...Adam


...Jeremy



Caleb and Pryderi (sorry no pics of them)

Also to Derek and Aaron and the “Grubber” who taught me much about how not to window clean… but I digress.

(Me digressing)

Do I have any regrets you ask? Haven’t you wasted the last two years of your life? No dear reader I have not. I have been working in active ministry and have been able to do far more than I could have done working as a teacher. I have had a relaxing relatively stress free two years in which to recover my sanity and refocus my Christian life.

Here are some pics from my final few days working.

This is the funny but wierd bloke from a restaurant in Battery Point.


Things I didn’t do
  • Break tiles on any roofs
  • Fall off the ladder
  • Fall off a roof
  • Hit a customer for being rude
  • Break or damage a customers (insert valuable antique of choice)
  • Crash Paul’s car (I did try though)


Areobatics to clean this window

Things I did do… or the toll
  • 1 lost pole $200
  • 1 lost squeegie $50
  • 1 damaged TV aerial (no charge)
  • 1 smashed pot (no charge)
And again...


(OHS alert) Standing on the bucket on a ledge about one story up...

Things I’ll miss
  • Charging fussy customers lots of money
  • Working with Paul and chatting about church and Christian stuff.
  • My Monday shop run
  • The nice lady at Love and Clutter
  • My tan and buff shoulders and arms.
  • Windows so clean they look like they aren’t there.

Nice view... if you can afford it. And yes they did pay the full price for their windows.


Things I won’t miss
  • Annoying customers who think you are 18 and don’t know what you are doing.
  • Rude grumpy customers
  • Any Atrium of death
  • Paul’s driving
  • Getting up at 5:30 and earlier
  • Egg and spit on shop windows.
  • The woosher woosh lady.

These were Christmas presents given to me by customers

supportMIKE is enjoying retirement.

2 comments  

tags , ,

mikstine engagement bbq video
27 December 2006



thanks to Angus and Swil

10 comments  

tags , , ,

Some pictures
24 December 2006

Christine being arty (behind the camera)


I took this...


A rock took this... not 100% but good for a rock. It was of course my idea.


Day


Night? You decide...

1 comments  

tags ,

Happy Christmas...
23 December 2006

I haven't had the time to pump out Christmas cards so here is my slightly lame attempt at thanking the many mates, family and blog readers for their faithful readership, thoughts, prayers.
I hope and pray you have a wonderful Christmas and that the birth of Christ is as meaningful to your life as it is to mine.



supportMIKE wishing you a Happy Christmas.

3 comments  

tags , , ,

Pictures and where I have been
17 December 2006

I have been a busy chicken working the windows of Hobart over four days a week. This is usually around the 40 plus hours bracket. Christmas is a crazy time for window cleaning.

Christine and I have been managing do a few things but not as many as we would have liked. There is so much to show her and see but we both get pretty tired especially me.

Please keep praying for us as we approach our holiday and mission trip in Sydney from the 1st of January. We'll be working for a week with under privileged Aboriginal children in Northern New South Wales. In the mean time enjoy the pics.












5 comments  

tags , , ,

engagment bbq thing invite
16 December 2006


For the internationals that is Sandy Bay, Tasmania, Australia.

supportMIKE invites you.

14 comments  

tags ,

Christine arrives...
09 December 2006

Later today. But you may have some questions...

Am I excited? Yes. More than when I went to the US.
Am I nervous? No I don't get nervous.
Am I going to madly clean up the house and bathroom? No (Christine and I have an agreement from way back not to hide our true selves from each other).
When is she down till? The end of this month.
When will you see us? It's Hobart so you'll bump into us somewhere.
Are you invited to the engagement BBQ? Yes and I'll do my best to make you feel welcome.
Can we have you guys round for dinner? Probably not I'm afraid we're booked out.
Why are you getting married in Germany again? Christine's parents live there.
Is post intended as a desperate bid for greater blogger stats? Partly.

8 comments  

tags ,

What's happend to Christimas?
05 December 2006

I went for a walk through Eastlands (Nearby shopping mall) the other day and this was the only thing I could find that was even remotely Christian...



Is trying to reclaim Christmas for Christ a lost cause?

In other news it seems that "pink" is the new "red". I walked past Santa's temple to discover it was decorated in ghastly pink. Don't get me wrong I don't hate Santa.... but pink?..... please! In fact all the decorations in the center were pink rather than the traditional red.

9 comments  

tags

Is secularism to blame for the rise in depression?

I had an intersting chat with a Psychologist this morning while cleaning his windows. He told me of many observation he had made over the years including the recent rise of depression and anxiety and a lack of Doctors able to look after people with these problems.

Most notably he mentioned that he thought that depression and psychiatric illnesses had a worse impact on persons without a consistent world view/ethical framework. I should note that this guy wasn't a Christian.

A good conversation and I still got paid 250 bucks.

5 comments  

tags

I don't usually do this...
03 December 2006

I heard a particularly good sermon this morning at Cornerstone on Revelation. This quote sort of summed it up well for me...


"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world”


C.S Lewis

1 comments  

tags

Heads up to...
02 December 2006

Shaun, DooDa and Angus.

3 comments  

tags ,

My Story...
01 December 2006

I arrived in Louisville feeling like… well... I had swallowed a roll of paper towel. It was almost midnight and I’d been flying and battling airports for over 30 hours.



Christine was late and it was a feeling of relief to finally see her. I was very tired. She looked nice… real nice. Much “hotter” in person than over Skype video. I gave her a big long hug and she kissed me on the cheek.



I took her hand. There was no awkwardness… no strange silences, weird moments, fireworks etc. It was just like we’d been together forever. It felt like hanging out with an old friend (be it in a foreign country) someone you haven’t seen for a while but kept in close contact with.

Christine was a million times better in person. We had so much fun together down at parks, shopping malls, coffee shops, book shops, the seminary and other normal some might say boring locations. I didn’t really care I was there for Christine and her alone. Other things in Louisville (tourist attractions and the like) didn’t interest me but that’s just me. We took photos together lots of silly ones. Planned stuff together read the Bible to each other and prayed ever night. I was a very happy pumpkin.





I hadn’t particularly planned on proposing in the USA but within three days I was sure I wanted to. That’s pretty good for me as I’ve taken longer to make similar decisions before and felt less sure. This just seemed right I had a sense of peace that I was making a good decision. Her Mum and Dad we really cool… Her Dad’s crushing handshake and Mum’s tall stories which a gullible me fell for.



I ended up having a wonderful time. The people I met left me feeling humbled for my rubbish attitude to Americans. As I left to fly home I also had an overwhelming sense of how wonderful God had been to me through the whole thing and how worthy he was of glory for our relationship working out.


God has stuck by me in the past even when I’ve been a (bad person). I’ve made many mistakes, dumb decisions, hurt people, stuffed several relationships up and felt like chucking in the towel. But God has forgiven me and has given me the strength to persevere through tough times. Praise God I’ve become the person I am today. May he continue to grow and change both Christine and I to be more like himself every day. It’s my prayer you discover this also.

9 comments  

tags , ,

Jonny... wants to be famous

Here is my friend Jonny playing in a pub band.... he doesn't actually know what song he's playing in this photo (by his own admission).



Jonny is always serious and always joking (his words not mine). He is known for his lack of facial expression when playing music. Here he is playing at church the next day... (note lack of facial expression).



Jonny is a very very funny guy. There are many stories about Jonny that could be told but he tells them so much better. Some say Jonny invented a crazy bike part worth millions. I heard recently that he was the internet...

Best of all Jonny is a Christian. Jonny supportMIKE salutes you

1 comments  

tags

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)