New Year's Day email group reunion

I had a quietish New Year's Eve. The relative quietness carried over to New Year's Day. At the last moment, I decided to pike church's NY Day picnic at Sherwood Forest Park in the afternoon. That's mainly due to the bad weather & absolute laziness on my part. So, I remained indoors & watched a Transformers DVD.

Then after dinner, me & 3 friends (Al, Fat & George) had an "email group reunion" near Sunnybank Plaza. We are a group that email each other during our work hours, though probably not that much these days. Unfortunately, the other member of this group, Yunita, wasn't with us (she's probably back in Sydney). Al & Fat are based in Sydney & are in Brisbane on a break. As for George, he's based in Brisbane but I barely see him around. I can't remember the last time I saw him.

We firstly met at Cafe Di Luna, for some dessert & drinks. I ordered a choc cake (the exact name escaped me), & ice coffee. What I ordered dwarfed the orders placed by the other 3, who each ordered smaller drinks than my ice coffee. The dessert was good. We spent time talking at Cafe Di Luna, & then continued the conversation at the McDonalds nearby.

What did we talk about? Well, lots of stuff, lots of catching up. We had deep & meaningful discussions as Christian brothers & sisters, mainly about how we found year 2007 & our resolutions for 2008. We also talked about stuff such as how we're going with our walk & any issues/challenges we currently face. There were jokes thrown about too - but that's mainly from George & myself. It's just guys being guys. Some of George's jokes were at Al's expense. Georgey - tsk tsk tsk. Actually, I could be pretty bad, too, with the jokes (Fat: "How's your walk?" My reply: "Walk? I drive a car...").

But jokes aside, much of our discussions were serious. We reflected on what's happened & what's been happening in our lives, & talk about our hopes for the year ahead. We also tried to encourage & spur each other on. The 4 of us went from just after 8pm at Cafe Di Luna & finished up just before midnight at McDonalds. I think our get-together took longer than expected, mainly because we had so much to talk about. A couple of us said some prayers to finish up.

And oh, yeah, I did come up with resolutions for the new year. Normally, I don't make such resolutions. But this time, I did. Though, to be honest, I was pushed into coming up with the resolutions. Anyway, my resolutions for this year are:

# To spend more quiet time with Bible & prayer (sounds familiar to some of u!). More in terms of both quality & quantity. Actually, I think I might have said spend quiet time everyday. Wow, that's really raising the bar!
# To keep blogging.
# To read at least 1 crime fiction a month.
# Also, I think I might also have said build up my friendships.

The last 3 resolutions are easier than the first one! In particular, I will easily manage 1 book per month - I might probably achieve 3 books every 2 months. That might mean a fair few book reviews popping up on this blog.

But anyway, I thank God for the time I had with my 3 friends. I found the time spent together very edifying. It's good to come together & talk about serious stuff like we did, as opposed to chatter about stuff which are not that important. I hope I will get the chance to have such deep & meaningful conversations in the future, whether with this group or with other friends.

PS: I've posted pictures on my Multiply blog.