Some shots of around Nashville

Here are some shots I have taken of the Nipps' home, Lipscomb and just other things that have passed my way as I wandered around. I also added one of Jeff's little hobbit hole he calls his "office", quite funny really.

Slumming

This might be a short post, or it may be a long one, it really depends on how I am feeling when I get halfway through. Last night we had some tacos with a twist ( to all those Australians ). We ate them in a bowl made of chips- so we could not only eat the taco stuff- but the bowl too.Today was the second day that I spent at the Nipps', using my time well to rest from my hectic last few days. I was driven by Justin to Lipscomb after a trip to mall which resulted in the purchase of nothing but a dodgy tasting Cajun chicken meal. I got to Lipscomb, met up with Betsy and passed some time talking with her and tried my first Sun Drop, which is apparently some southern drink which is supposed to taste like Mountain Dew or Sprite or something. It wasnt too bad, so I was justified in paying a dollar for it. My visit with Jeff confirmed what I had thought earlier that day, that the meeting was indeed cancelled as the Belmont game was occuring at the same time. (see the post re: Battle of the Boulevade) So with that cancelled I went outside and ran into Betsy again, and now I am going to be travelling down to Atlanta again it seems for a few more days this weekend. This is good news indeed, as I now can hopefully catch the Skees and the Jones' instead of missing them as I did last time.

Back to the Nipps

I will be staying the next few days at the Nipps' place, to recuperate and get a few things done after my time in the dorm and then Atlanta. I missed the Skees on my way up to Nashville on Saturday, so I was unable to catch up with Gerald who seemed to be at work. The trip up was fun in its own way. We decided to go to Lookout mountain, a place just on the border where you can see 7 states from the top. After following several signs that pointed to the "way" to get there, we came to the deduction that they were placed so to make us pass the most businesses on the way, hopefully there to take our money. By the time we got up there, it had cooled off significantly, and we needed to put the top back on the car and slowly wind ourselves up the road on the side of the mountain. After taking shots of the top and from the mountain we took the short way down to the highway and again began our journey north. A few hours later, I arrived in Nashville and spent the rest of the night with Ryan and Stephen watching movies. The next day I went again to Woodmont Hills and saw Gina, who is getting married very soon. For lunch I went out with the Phillips' and the Ansteys to this Mexican place close by. It was a great deal, I got alot of food for not much and I couldnt eat for hours afterwards. Buy this time I was exhausted, so the rest of the afternoon was a bit of a blur from going to Donalson with Justin for basketball then onto Chilis for dinner then back to the Nipps'. I even fell asleep a few hours ago just sitting on the couch, an indication of how tired I am. There is another Perth team meeting on Tuesday night, so by then I will again be on Lipscomb's campus for another period of time. The shots I have posted are of the view from the mountain, a store that was on the bottom of the drive, a cool tree covered in some sort of creeper in Jacquie's front yard (in the middle of winter mind) and the place we ate at today after church.

Atlanta again

After I arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday night, I made some plans the for the next day to go to Kell High School to see some of my old teachers. John drove me to Kell at about 10:30 and as I walked into the office, I was told that I wasnt allowed to visit the person that I wanted to, and to come back an hour later. Initially I wanted to see Debbie Jones, but I found out she had been promoted a few months earlier to County level as the Athletic coordinator and no longer was there. So I went out of the school and walked around a bit to pass the time, then came back when the lady told me I could. I buzzed in Ms Barnes, my Chemistry teacher and waited til she got there. Needless to say, she was shocked to see me- it is not every day that you expect to see an old student, especially one from Australia show up at school again. The next few hours where spent back in her class room and seeing a few of the kids that I knew from when I attended. She told me that I should of been there an hour earlier, so I could talk to her AP class. I also saw Coach Baum, and a few other coaches before I left and walked down the road to get some Mexican at a small place on Canton road. Kathie picked me up from there and we went to pick up Britany at Lassiter. It ended up that we could not find her, so we went all around town to find her, only to learn she was there the whole time. We then drove over and I saw some of Jacquie's Irish dancing- she is very good and is going to a tournament as I write. Dinner that night was home made Calzones and after dinner Jacquie and went over and saw the Obriens. We spoke for over 2 hours and saw pictures of Stephanie and Brad's wedding and the newly remodelled kitchen and adjoining rooms. Erin was the only Obrien kid left- both Brett and Stephanie were gone. The next day Jacquie had off from school, so we took the BMW 7 and drove up to Cherokee county and visited a Middle School and I spoke to two classes of kids and answered questions about Australia. Of course there were some stupid questions, and one girl almost had a heart attack when she discovered that we did not have Abercrombie and Fitch in Australia. Many of them still seemed to think that Australia was a country that didnt have any modern industry and all we did was wrestle crocodiles. After that, we drove back home and did a 3 car swap and then drove out in the Accord to a mall in Roswell to pass the time until we picked Brit up from school again. That night I went to the Kell basketball game and watched the boys lose to Pope by a few- there are still a few kids that I played with on the team there, but many I did not recognise. I saw JB and Chas briefly, so hopefully later today I will be able to see them and Gerald before I leave for Nashville. After the game we met up with Erin and Mr Obrien at then new Steak and Shake off 92 for a late dinner before driving back to the house. All I am doing now is waiting for Chai and I will begin my journey back to Nashville.

In Atlanta

This is just a short post to say that I am Atlanta and that I made it safely. Chai and I made it in about 3 and a half hours, so it was nice and quick and I did not feel like I was all cramped up in the car. We got into town at 11pm local time, so there was not much to do but get my gear unloaded and get into bed. I stayed up a little later after Chai left, as there is an hour time difference between Nashville and here. I will post more later when I get some time, if I manage while I am down here.

Woodmont Sunday

Saturday was a day that Justin went to work and I occupied myself by hanging out with Mark for a part of the day and then that night we went bowling again. When we got to the bowling alley, it was packed and we had to wait for an hour and a half to get a lane. The place kept letting other people go ahead of us, it was crazy. By the time that we were done, it was 1:30 something and we could not go back to Lipscomb. So we went back to the Nipps' and Justin and I drove back to Lipscomb then next morning. Yesterday I was to go to Woodmont with the Phillips' and they picked me up at the dorm at 9:35. Keller was a little suprised to see me, as Mark had not told him who they were picking up. At the service I saw Chai, and the Ansteys and even bumped into Taylor. I spent the first part of the day in the youth centre with Keller and then sat in the 3rd service. After the service I tried to fit in Chai's car and found that with a bit of folding, I can fit in. I am not sure how I will go for 5 hours in the car, but it will be a fun experience nonetheless. That afternoon I spent with the Ansteys at their home. We ate some great lasagne and talked about past mission trips and just spent some great time catching up. After that afternoon I went out with Justin on a mission to Cool Springs to get some jeans. We got there and found out that it was closed, so we took a detour to Walmart and got some things then made a trip to Krispy Kreme and bought a box of doughnuts. It was so good, I havent had such in years. These last few days it has been raining pretty bad, Sunday it rained all day from about 9am onwards until 11pm. School is back in again, so there may be some more people around that I am to meet up with.

Battle of the Boulevade

Last night I was at the famous rivalry game of Lipscomb and Belmont. Both these schools are small A-Sun teams that are in the same city, so there is a considerable amount of competition between the two schools. There was a pep rally on before the game and they gave out free purple shirts and food to all the students. It was a good game, it needed overtime for Lipscomb to take the game. Of all things that Lipscomb has, school spirit is definately something that it is great at. The arena was noisy, and it was a good atmosphere for a rivally game. It is a shame that I wont be there to see how Utah does the same for BYU, but seeing a small school do it wasnt too bad. I have found out that I will be travelling to Atlanta on the Wednesday til Saturday next week, so that should provide some interesting things to blog. I caught up with Mark Ott last night and we drove to the Parthenon in near Vandy and I took some pictures. I should hopefully get back to Old Hickory before I leave for Atlanta so I can post all those shots and unload my camera. Tonight Justin and I are going bowling again- maybe this time I can work towards getting a score 170+.

Lipscomb

The last few days have been crazy, in a fun sort of way. I have been to Otter Creek for their night service which is very soft and reflective, and to the Lipscomb 2006 Perth Mission team meeting. I have caught Mark Phillips and shocked him with my presence and driven all the way to north Nashville with Ryan as we returned a car seat that belonged to his sister. These days feel like they have so much packed into them, it is difficult to believe that it was just tuesday that I last wrote something. I am at the Nipps' now, restocking my clothes and getting around to doing some things online that the Lipscomb computers will not let me do, such as upload my photos. Today I sat in on Jeff's class again, it is proving interesting and I am getting some free tuition of sorts in the art of youth ministry. Campus life is fun, around classes and waking up for things I have met so many people that I have forgotten their names, but I have not yet been in want of something to do or a person to meet.

Hanging with Chip

These last few days I have been sleeping at the dorm at Lipscomb and have hung out with a bunch of the old Lipscomb crew and met many new people. I have met up with Betsy again, Chip, one of the new LU team- Kim, Taylor, Shapiro, Kristen Givens, Jeff Fincher, Britt,- and thats it for now. Yesterday I met up with Kristen and we ate dinner in the Lipscomb food hall and then I met up with Taylor at the LU basketball game then moved back to the dorms from the the Nipps'.Today I sat in on Jeffs class on Youth Ministry programming, which was interesting and after that I went with Shapiro and played some basketball at the Rec Centre with a bunch of other kids. After that I met up with Chip for dinner and we went to get some jeans at Cool Springs. I finally got myself a pair- and not too expensive either. After that we went back to a coffee place and caught up. It snowed here in Nashville, which was strange as it was 60 something the day before. The weather has been strange, but no worse than it was in Utah. Tomorrow night there is the meeting with all the new team, and I am going to that and taking pitures of everyone there. As of now I cannot post pictures while I am at the university, but I will update each post as I get availablility near a computer.

Nashville, TN

Alot has happened since I last made a post, I have been to car shows, flown halfway across the country and now am in Nashville for a month. Lets start at the beginning shall we? I spent my last day with the Osborns as they were taking me to the airport the next morning. That night we met the Clays at Crown Burger for a meal then back onto the Osborns house. Randy, Troy and I all went to the car show that was in Sandy, only a few minutes drive from the house. The car show was interesting, with all sorts of American cars and some that were a little more familar. What is strange is that they have some of the same cars, yet call them by different names. I suppose the Australian names are not beefy or aggressive enough to sell to the American public. One part of the show that was cool was the custom and exotic car sections. I have posted a shot of one of the Ferrais- one looked so cool in all black and such. There was even a Shelby GT 1969- Elenor from the movie "Gone in 60 seconds". There were also a Ford GT there, which was great. That night was a fun end to my time in Salt Lake this time around, and I look forward to seeing those people that were so good to me and my brother while I was there over the Christmas Break.For the flight and such: I got up early enough, and was shipped off to the airport by Suzan and from there started the second half of my trip. Well, lucky me my flight had been delayed so I had to wait an extra hour to get on my flight. They said there were "mechanical problems" which isnt something that you want to hear.Worse still, while we were still taxiing on the runway, there was a lady next to me on her mobile (cell) phone. As if there wasnt enough problems with the plane, this lady was determined to crash it before we even took off. After that the flight was unevenful and I landed in Nashville a little ahead of schedule andmet Jo Carol and startes back toward their house.That night we were treated to some Mexican chicken and potatoes and such. Before that I played the Nipps boys in some ping pong. I shall need some practice- I havent played in a while. Saturday was finished off when Justin and I went to see the movie Glory Road- its is a great basketball movie, kinda like Remember the Titans for basketball. Sunday was church and then lunch at Santa Fe. I was so tired from the day before I had a little nap then we made leftovers for dinner before I went bowling with Justin and Jonathon. We went to this place that was all you can bowl for 3 hours, which was great- I now have a new bowling style birthed from the fact that I could not fit my fingers in the holes in the ball. Anyway, it has been a busy few days and after the holiday tomorrow I shall hopefully meet some of the Lipscomb crew.

A close game

Last night was the last game that I would see for a while, and it proved to be a good one even though the Utes lost. It was a close game for its entirety with Utah then San Deigo each taking their own lead for short periods. As the clock wound down, San Deigo led by 3 with a few seconds to go. Utah forced 3 turnovers, but could not connect on any of them, leaving San Deigo to score and ultimately win the game by 5. There were instances where the whole stadium got so loud, it almost seemed like the crowd was willing the Utes to win. It sort of worked, with the deficit worn down, but San Deigo were just a little too far ahead. Luke did ok, with 7 points and 3 rebounds but again he missed a few free throws. It was definately the free throws that did the Utes in, if they had made more they may of been in closer striking distance at the end of the game.

Self Checkout

This little event is too funny to go unpunished. Last night at 11pm we decided to go to Smiths to buy some much needed food. We told ourselves that it was just for a few necessary things and that we would be back to the dorms soon. Wrong. 60 dollars later we got done ( and yes mum, we did buy a fair bit of fruit- grapes,bananas,apples etc ) so went to the checkout. Now because it was 11 at night, Luke decided that he would use the self checkout instead of going to the girl that was standing there with nothing to do. Nevermind that the self checkout is for 15 items or less, he insisted that he use it. Well, we had alot more than 15 items and after a while we had no where to put them all. The self checkout, for people who are in Australia is a a scanner with a scale next to it. Once the item is scanned, you place it on the scale anf keep going. Well you can guess that we ran out of room on the scale and the next thing we know the machine is telling us to put the item back on the scale (implying that we stole it). This went on for about 10 minutes and by the time we were finally done, it was 11:40. Well, from now on I shall be using the human to buy my groceries.

Tuesday classes

This morning I went with Luke to his exercise physiology class. It was a good idea at the time, but the weird sounding professor and the seemingly difficult content made this class a one timer. After that we went and ate at the Union and played some pool then visited the coaches, the academic assistance people and the whole circus. Well, at least I can now say that Luke is all ready for school this semester. Tonight I got bored and went out and ran around in the cold and tried a few new things out with my camera. Exciting stuff this.

Sunday snow

Today was my last Sunday in Salt Lake before I fly off to Nashville on the 14th. It was spent alike the past few Sundays, with Church followed by lunch. Today we went to Jason's Deli and had some sandwich style lunches. What was amazing was the size of the potato that Steve ordered. This thing was huge- apparently it was grown in Idaho, and it seemed like they pumped it full of steroids or grown hormone or something- it was the biggest potato that I have seen in a very long time. Luke and I stayed on at the Osborns that afternoon and watched a movie and saw a picture of Luke in the paper with 3 players from BYU crawling all over him. He made the front page, which was pretty cool. As we drove back to the dorm, it began to snow and as of last night we finally have some snow again in Salt Lake City. I dont think it will last that long, the days are getting a little too warm and there isnt any more rain forcast. I went up into the foothills and mountains this morning for a walk while Luke was at his classes, and got some nice shots of the city and school from the hills. There was something interesting that I saw when I was up there. They are constructing a dam and attempting to save this certain fish that lives there. In 2002 another plant was introduced into the ecosystem and is killing the fish. So to solve this they are draining the entire dam and moving the fish to another place, killing the plants that live in the dam. There was all sorts of construction stuff parked all around the place, and it seemed amazing that they are spending so much effort to save this one fish, whose name sounds like a person. This is the week that everyone is back from their holiday trips, so around school is alot busier now. This means that the solitary life that we lived in the Guest House is a faded memory, with dorm life now the norm. People come in and out often, and it is good to see everyone again. I spoke to Jo Carol Nipps last night, and it seems that all my plans for Nashville are coming to fruition and I will have somewhere to stay over my time there- so all I need to do now is wait for it to come.

Friday night then BYU

Friday night was spent with the Osborns and was sort of a goodbye thing for Savanna. I was picked up around 3 and we went down to the Gateway and picked up a game to play that night. After that we swung back up to the dorms to get Luke and then onto the Osborns for the night. The night was filled with pizza, games and some TV action. But the most amazing part of the time there was the sunset that night. The sky filled with every possible hue of yellow, red, orange and magenta. It was amazing, hopefully my camera picked up some of how great it was. Picture that with the mountains and the valley under lights for the foreground, and you can imagine how cool it looked. Anyway, later that night we said goodbye to Savanna and went home. Saturday was the game against BYU and it was incredible. I drove down there with a few of the players' girlfriends ( it was the only ride I could get ) and we got some great seats 25 rows up. The noise was so loud and the stadium had a great feel to it, much better than the U. I have been told this is because the fans dont really ever show up at the Huntsman unless the team is winning, but who knows. The game was a good one, with BYU definately using the home court to their advantage. Luke played really well in the first half, getting 12 points and a few boards. He didnt do so well in the 2nd, with only 2 points and a few more boards, but he played over 30 minutes and got some great blocks too. The game was still undecided until about 3 minutes left when Utah couldnt score and BYU pulled away with some amazing shots. It seemed that BYU could not miss, but I guess that they just buoyed by the atmosphere. Tonight Lizzie is coming in from California, so we are going out there to get her at 10:30.
Steve and Suzan, I hope this is a good shot of the girls- maybe you can print this one or something.

Moving on Friday

Today was the day that Luke and I said goodbye to our hotel room that had held us over the Christmas break, so at 8 am this morning we unceremoniously packed all of our gear into the tiny beetle and drove off. This post is written from the dorm again, so we finally are back. Last night I wasnt feeling too well, I dont know what it was that got me like that- but it didnt stop me from having a good enough time with the Osborns. They had some friends from Texas over and we met them to have dinner at a mexican place, then the kids went onto some bowling. It wasnt my best performance, and in the two games that were played Luke won one, and Ryan (one of the guys from Texas) won the other with a massive score of 150 something. Earlier in the day I went down to the Gateway for some lunch and snapped these pictures of the building on the far north end of the shopping centre. The Delta Center is where the Jazz play and at night is all lit up with lights in those trees that you can see. Tomorrow is the game against BYU and I expect to be driving up there at around 11. Hopefully I will have some interesting stories and pictures to show all.

First conference game. 1-0.

Today was the first conference game for the Utes this year with a matchup against New Mexico, the team that beat the Utes last year for the Mountain West conference title. This game was one that was watched live by many of our friends, with the Clays and some of the Osborns coming to watch. I had dinner with the Clays before the game at a restaurant called the Training Table- a place where you can call your order on a phone that is near your seat. Then the phone rings when your order is done. Interesting concept. After this the game- Utah came out strong and led the whole game. Luke did well and received a pounding by the guards of the other team. He posted 7 points, 5 rebounds. Troy was also the ballboy for the game so he got the nicest seat in the house- right by the ring!