Baggas' Blog

We’re heading off down south for a 3 day getaway tomorrow night, and as always, one of the most important preparation steps for such a journey is to get my iPod playlists ready. It changes each time but I always make sure to include a hearty dose of country music, but also have to make sure it’s acceptable to the rest of the family (ie Jen) – hence no heavy metal or Johnny Cash is generally allowed (quite tragic not being able to play the Man in Black on a road trip but that’s the way it is…)

Anyway I’ve got a few new CDs over the last few months so I’m going to simply throw together my playlist out of them. Here’s some of the one’s I’ll be including (and I realise it’s not a particularly ‘cool’ list but so what)

1. Portland – These Broken Hands. This is an awesome easy folk rock band from the UK. Great harmonies. Pretty sure they are a Christian band but they’re not preachy about it. A belated answer to my friend’s question of a few weeks ago (can you suggest any good Christian music? – my initial answer was ummm ….. sorry) – but now I’d say – try this!

2. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More. Still probably one of the best CDs I’ve bought in years. Love it. And despite that they are not a “Christian” band, their lyrics are very spiritual (except for the one obvious rude word on there.. lol). If you don’t have this album yet you must buy it immediately.

3. Bruce Cockburn – Slice o’ Life. If you don’t know Bruce he’s a Canadian folk-rocker who’s been putting out great music since the early 70s. Amazing acoustic guitarist and song-writer. This double CD is a live album from recent solo shows.

4. Gloriana – Gloriana. A guilty pleasure this one. It’s slickly produced country pop-rock that I just can’t help enjoying despite it’s unabashed commerciality. Almost every song is interesting. A band of beautiful people who all sing and play instruments – two young guys, two young girls including a hot blonde singer/mandolinist… how could I resist

5. Passion 2010 – Awakening. Live worship CD from the annual Passion conference in the USA featuring artists such as Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Christy Nockels, and this year Hillsong United. Lots of great stuff this year, especially the title track from Chris Tomlin/Reuben Morgan, which I plan to introduce to our team in the next few weeks.

6. Katie Noonan & the Captains – Emperor’s Box. I’m always a big fan of Katie, the awesome and unpredictable singer. I love her jazz stuff with Elixir (and even her really weird Beatles jazz covers album), her pop CD Skin, and of course her work with George. The cover of this made me think she was going to go in a more folk direction but it’s mostly alt rock – closer to George than anything else she’s done but still quite different. I need to listen to this a few more times to get a feel for it.

7. Darius Rucker – Learning to Live. The ex “Hootie & the Blowfish” singer crosses over to become one of the first black country stars. An enjoyable, solid, if a tad cliched country album.

8. Bethel Live – Here is Love and Jesus Culture – Consumed. These bands seem to overlap so I’ll lump them together. It’s worship music from California and a couple of steps further in the Pentecostal/free worship direction than anything coming out of Hillsong. Really interesting and inspiring music including both original songs and covers… they even rehabilitate the song Healer, which dropped off the radar after the scandal with Mike Gugglielmucci in 2008. Such a good song and a shame to have it tainted by all that… if I ever get cancer (the real thing, not the fake sort) that will be the song I’ll be wanting to sing.

9. John Butler Trio – April Uprising. A bit more energetic album from JBT. Sounds fresh with his new band, and it’s a good thing.

10. Jimi Hendrix – Valleys of Neptune. It’s not the strongest of all his albums, but it’s Jimi so I need say no more. Some alternate versions of old classics and some unfamiliar stuff, like the title track, which is a good one.

Anyway that’s more than enough for a short trip down to Busso. A couple of other CDs on my list that I haven’t listened to yet are the new albums from William Fitzsimmons and Vicky Beeching, which I am expecting to be pretty good as well.

And to finish with the obligatory music video. I was looking for a clip of Portland, but couldn’t find anything on YouTube… so here’s Gloriana – this song sums them up pretty well I think – enjoy.

Greetings from sunny tropical Queensland, where aside from missing my wife and kids I am suffering from serious guitar withdrawals. I can’t find any station on my TV where I am staying except ‘Max’ and have had the radio in my hire car alternating between my iPod, some new CDs I got, and the local country FM station (Kix – the Best Country in the World!) – why doesn’t Perth have a country music station?? seriously one of the worst things about Perth… anyway I digress… so yeh, I’m listening to lots of interesting music but have no guitar to play – very frustrating!

I seriously think that the airlines should allow guitarists to take one guitar in addition to their usual baggage allowance.. would make for a much happier, more melodic travel experience. How bout it, QANTAS?

When I got my first Fender from Nashville I flew with it half way back around the world to Perth, but at that point I was able to just count it as one of the kid’s pieces of baggage. Sadly I have no kid with me this time so no baggage allowance to co-opt. I shall have to think of some cunning plan to bring a guitar for my next 2 week trip here…

I did visit one of the local ACC churches here on Sunday : here’s my ‘mystery worshipper’ review. Smallish church but the music was good. Lots of energy courtesy of the excellent young guy who was worship leading and the youth who were moshing in the first couple of rows. The band was simple – they didn’t play any super complicated licks (except the bass solo in Salvation is here), but they were really tight and it was a nice mix (my only complaint would have been I couldn’t hear the girl plying lead guitar). Overall I took out of it that you can have a really quality sound without doing anything too complicated if you have a tight band who knows the songs, a good mix, and a dynamic worship leader who can really take the music in the right direction. I liked that they also (in a couple of songs) left space for people to worship freely, although even that was fairly brief and the worship leader had his finger on the pulse and the band followed him diligently. So nice to have a great worship experience away from home. I think it is valuable for us as worship leaders and musicians to visit other churches from time to time and get a feel for what others are doing.

Anyway I should turn out the lights… getting late here in Qld and I have another day of biostatistics awaiting me tomorrow (actually make it today now… zero hours). Just one last plug if you want to listen to some classic music – I just watched the movie ‘The Boat that Rocked’ – not bad for a laugh.. think Austin Powers meets Titanic and you’ll be on the right track. I can’t say I can recommend it as a good wholesome Christian movie (don’t say I didn’t warn you) but if you want a fun movie with some awesome old 60′s music… check it out.

And on that note I’m signing off. Keep on rockin’

Tonight I find myself in Townsville, in the north of Queensland. Never been here before, in fact this is the furthest North I have been in Australia thus far (I’ll break my south record next month when we go to Tasmania). I’m here for a three day course in Travel Medicine, starting tomorrow, as part of my Masters degree.

My midnight flight from Perth to Brisbane was delayed by an hour last night but thankfully I slept pretty much the whole flight, even though I didn’t get the window seat I requested as I volunteered to move so a couple could sit together. In spite of this I think I was asleep before we took off and woke just before descent. Then it was a short flight from Brisbane up here to Townsville.

I had a short nap after checking in to my hotel and then took a drive around. Certainly is a scenic place – I took a walk along a beautiful beach called the Strand with views across to the mountainous Magnetic Island. Then I took a drive up Castle Hill – a steep rocky mountain which dominates the landscape, towering above the city. I drove past many people walking up and felt a bit lazy but I was tired from flying and have a bit of a cold so I don’t think I would have handled the climb very well. Driving or walking, it’s well worth the effort – the 360 degree views are spectacular! I’ve got a few photos but for some reason flickr is not letting me upload any (something to do with the hotel’s net connection) but here’s a Mobile Me Gallery of today’s photos. Driving down the hill I mostly coasted in neutral and let gravity do the work – not sure if that’s a bad way to drive or not?

Anyway, after a steak dinner and a brief dip in the spa here it’s time for an early night to catch up on some more sleep. First day of Uni classes for me tomorrow since 1999 so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

This weekend we wanted to get away for a couple of days for our tenth anniversary. Since neither of us had been here before, we decided to visit Adelaide. 

I doubt Adelaide would be a place I’d plan on visiting regularly, but it’s been nice seeing somewhere new.

A few observations :

• Adelaide airport is nice – better roomier, cleaner, easier, and better resourced than Perth
• Adelaide city, although smaller, has more going on after dark than Perth – plenty of places open, people everywhere, music pumping
• Rundle mall – good place to shop. Just seems to go on forever.
• Seem to be a lot more street people and mentally ill people here – maybe they are just more visible
• hard to understand the pedestrian crossing rules here – cars trying to turn while people are crossing the road – a little scary
• does this city have freeways? I’m yet to see one.
• the city of churches label does seem apt – only other place I’ve been to with a similar concentration of churches was Nashville (great city, lovely feel, nice people, awesome music!) Uniting church seems big around here.

Today we took a drive around the Barossa Valley and enjoyed a scenic trip back via the Torrens river valley and Adelaide Hills. Plenty of nice vineyards (didn’t stop at many though, although had a beautiful lunch at one), more Lutheran churches than I have ever seen in my life. In terms of natural beauty and general tourist appeal though, the Barossa isn’t a patch on Margaret River.

Mia has been wonderful this trip. Slept well in plane, car, hotel and when out & about. No major problems. Six months old and already a great little traveller.

Well my schedule is officially looking pretty insane the next two months. I had to break the news to Chas, our church music director, last night, that I will be away a fair bit between now and Christmas. Between travel, and hospital on-call weekends and study I’ll be limited in the amount of Sundays I can play, although I’ll still try and pitch in as much as I can (especially since I’ve only just got my new Telecaster guitar, and need to “run it in” a bit more..)

Earlier this year I was feeling a bit of a case of travel withdrawals. After travelling to Africa (3 times) and around the world to the UK and USA in the last two years the prospect of a year with no trips away was not something I relished. I well and truly have caught the travel bug. I even like hanging around airports, hotels etc (Jen would say I’m a bit mental.) Having said that, with Mia being born this year, a break from travel has been the right thing to do.

But in the next 2 months we’ll be making up for lost time. Starting next week – Jen and I (and Mia) are flying to Adelaide for the weekend to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Then two weeks after that I’ll be off to tropical Townsville for 4 days for a course in Travel Medicine as part of my Masters degree. And in November we’ve booked in a family holiday to Tasmania for a week – a place we’ve recently been inspired to visit for the first time. In amidst all that I have uni exams (first is on Monday) and assignments, and hospital cover, and birthday parties, and a home group weekend down south, and much more. So it’s going to be a bit of a roller coaster ride for our family, but hopefully all good. I’ll keep you posted.

United Airlines offers in-flight iPhone and iPod Connectivity | The Apple Blog

Over the last couple of years I’ve spent many hours on planes, huddled over my iPod watching shows and movies on the little screen. In fact I watched the first three seasons on Battlestar Galactica (awesome show) in this manner. And almost invariably if you look around the cabin on any flight you will see several people with those characteristic white earphones in their ears. So the above story definitely appeals to me and I’m sure many other travellers. In a nod to the increasing ubiquity of these devices, United Airlines have installed iPod connectors in some of their planes so you can browse your iPod or iPhone and watch or listen to your own content on their screens, as well as keep your device charged. Certainly beats huddling over a tiny screen and definitely good to have more choice beyond the usual in-flight entertainment. Hope this comes to Australia soon…

In other iPod news, I noticed today that you can now purchase some TV shows via the Australian iTunes store. Only a couple of years behind the rest of the world! Hopefully movie rentals will follow. My guess is they’ve finally got their act together and done this because of the upcoming Australian iPhone launch.

Miss Mia’s first travel booking

Originally uploaded by baggas

For some reason I thought this was cute, seeing Miss Mia’s name in print like this

Jennifer and I are going to Adelaide in September for our anniversary for a few days, and Mia will be coming along for the ride.

Jetlag is all in the stomach – www.6minutes.com.au

This story just popped into my inbox, which suggests that it may be easier to reset your body clock when food is scarce. In other words, fasting before a long flight might help reduce the amount of jet lag you feel. This data is derived from animal experiments and has not yet been validated on humans but it’s worth thinking about.

If nothing else it just gives one more excuse to avoid eating dodgy airline food…

Ever become aware of a stupid habit you have when someone mentions it in themselves? This happened to me this morning in church where Mark mentioned the habit he has of packing far too many books whenever he goes travelling, even if it’s just for the weekend. I too am seriously guilty of this – I pack 4 or 5 books in my suitcase if I’m going away, only to get maybe one or two of them read.

But what’s worse, no matter where I am, I’m always drawn to look in bookshops and wind up bringing back several more books in addition to the ones I took with me. The last 3 times I visited Uganda I brought back at least 4 or 5 books each time (with the justification that ‘you just can’t buy these books back home’) – one of which was a massive 3kg textbook that I ended up having to pack in my luggage the other 3/4 of the way around the world through another 3 countries! Crazy. I can see one attraction of Cambodia (where ob1 was) perhaps being that there is less likely to be a big English language press there and hence less books to tempt me.

The other stupid thing I do is that I am too ambitious in my choice of reading material for travelling. Rather than picking something quick and light, I have a tendency towards choosing books of serious literary or theological cred, only to find that airplanes, airports and even hotels (especially when the kids are around) are not the best settings to try and tackle these sort of tomes.

So, my take home lessons for travelling readers (or reading travellers) are :

1. Choose fairly easy to read, (relatively) lightweight books.
2. Only take 1 or 2 books maximum. If you run out, you can always buy more along the way.
3. If you’re like me, factor in the fact that you almost certainly will acquire more books in your travels, and accordingly allow room in your luggage for that eventuality.
4. Guidebooks can be useful but I’ve found photocopying the relevant sections to be worthwhile. If you know you are only going to be in a couple of cities in a country, then copy those pages and leave the other 90% of the book at home. That way when you move on from that country you can simply leave your photocopied pages in the rubbish.
5. Taking novels set in the country you are visiting is a good way to prepare yourself for your visit, and might also lead you to reading some books you might otherwise have not considered (for example I’ve read a few excellent novels set in Uganda that I probably would never have read otherwise)
6. Consider books in digital format…. I haven’t done this travelling but a few years back I went through a phase of reading PDF books on my Palm Pilot whilst doing long quiet ICU shifts. I read the entire Dune and Wheel of Time series in that way.  Great for saving luggage space but for me this idea has one huge drawback – it violates my whole “books as furniture” principle – just like I prefer a physical copy of my music rather than a purely digital one, I like having books to hold and put on a shelf. There’s just something about holding a book in your hands and turning those pages that a digital reader can’t replicate. This is perhaps why, although I have 19 different bible versions on my PDA phone, I still do virtually all of my Bible reading in physical Bibles (preferably leather ones that sit nicely on my lap but I’m getting way off topic now…)

Anyway if anyone have any other tips they want to add to the list I’d love to hear them. All this talk, and following ob1′s blog of his travels over the last week has got me a bit “travel sick” (I doubt that’s the correct term but I’m using it in the sense of the opposite of “homesickness” wherein I’m actually seriously missing being in airports and on planes and in strange countries – Jen would say I’m crazy). I’ve got no plans to go back to Uganda this year, since we have a newborn baby and wouldn’t want to leave Jen and 3 kids for 3 weeks or so – plus I haven’t heard at all from them if they are actually doing a Watoto medical team this year.. but if another opportunity was to present itself for I’d be seriously tempted to jump at it…