I seem to have gotten a little behind with my blogging again!
I've had a great Christmas in Rocklin with the Hobsons. One of the highlights was the Christmas Eve service at Bayside. The YouTube video here was the online "advert" for the service!
Well the service more than lived up to the expectations raised by the preview! The service was more like a professional show (and was free!) than a traditional church service. We went to the 12'th of the 13 services that were offered (starting a week before Christmas). As it was Christmas Eve, we expected a crowd so we got there early. They had set up a huge tent in the courtyard in front of the church to provide some shelter for people waiting for the services to begin. They had gas heaters in the tent to (try to) keep the cold at bay, and a group of three women singing Christmas songs to provide some entertainment. Our timing was impeccable, because we arrived early enough to be close to the front of the queue, and the doors opened about five minutes after we arrived, so the wait-time in the tent was minimal. We ended up with better seats than we usually get on a normal Sunday morning!
The service itself started off with some communal singing of Christmas carols, and then got into the less traditional part. The usual (very accomplished) worship band had a small string section join them for the musical items. They performed the music that accompanies the YouTube video (Carol of the Bells — a beautiful piece of Christmas music that I had not encountered before this year). There was also a female soloist who did a lovely version of Oh Holy Night, which is probably my favourite Christmas carol. The pastor gave a very good, topical message, which was itself interspersed with some video clips (some funny, some very thought-provoking).
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Monday, 22 December 2008
The Messiah
It's been a fairly quiet week, other than doing some Christmas shopping. I moved into a new office on Wednesday (it seems that one of the common features of all universities is a lack of space!). The new office is in a separate building, close to the main CS Department building, but I'm not sharing the office (for the moment anyway!), as I was before.
I spent the weekend in Davis again, mainly because I had booked to attend the performance of Handel's Messiah on Saturday night. That was performed in the university's very smart theatre complex (try to imagine the Grahamstown Monument theatre on steroids!), the Mondavi Center, by the American Bach Soloists. They are a very accomplished group of performers who were joined by some superb soloists (a little unusually, they had a countertenor for the alto solos). It was an outstanding performance, and a most enjoyable Christmas highlight.
The programme notes had the following, interesting observation on the custom of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus: "...Handel's Messiah is certainly the most well-known and universally enjoyed major work in the Baroque oratorio genre—if not among all “classical” music works—and that standing as a group, in the name of tradition, unites the audience with the performers for a few minutes in a most energizing way... you have only to look at the performers when you stand at that wondrous, thrilling moment: you will see their smiles and their spirits lifted even higher, knowing that millions upon millions of people have stood at that very same moment in music, and in virtually every corner of the world". We stood!
Today (Sunday) has been a fairly quiet day in Davis. I enjoyed the service at University Covenant Church this morning, and then stopped off at the little Austrian restaurant for brunch on my way home again (see the blog entry for 16 November). It's been grey and rainy all day, so the afternoon was spent curled up with a good book (the latest P.D. James novel).
Colin has business in the San Fransisco area tomorrow, so will pick me up on his way back to Rocklin in the evening, where I will be spending Christmas. I'm looking forward to the break and spending some time with the Hobsons, although Janet has to work between Christmas and New Year (Colin has the week off, but is forced to take it from his annual leave — labour practices here are somewhat harsher than in SA!).
Interestingly, the day after Christmas is not a holiday here (no one has heard of "Boxing Day"!). Also a little different: the churches all have Christmas Eve services, but no services on Christmas day itself. The Christmas Eve services are a very big deal. Bayside is holding 13 services this year (a few more than last year), starting from a week before Christmas. They've got a dedicated Christmas website, which is worth a look! We are booked in for the 8:30pm service on Christmas eve, which is likely to be one of the most popular, apparently, so we will need to get there really early. They've set up a huge tent in the courtyard area in front of the church to provide shelter for people waiting to get in. I say we are "booked in" because they've been issuing tickets as a way of trying to balance the numbers (9 of the 13 were "full" on Thursday already). It promises to be an eye-opening experience!
I may not get a chance to write an update before Christmas, so let me take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy and Blessed Christmas, and may 2009 be a happy, and joy-filled year for us all.
I spent the weekend in Davis again, mainly because I had booked to attend the performance of Handel's Messiah on Saturday night. That was performed in the university's very smart theatre complex (try to imagine the Grahamstown Monument theatre on steroids!), the Mondavi Center, by the American Bach Soloists. They are a very accomplished group of performers who were joined by some superb soloists (a little unusually, they had a countertenor for the alto solos). It was an outstanding performance, and a most enjoyable Christmas highlight.
The programme notes had the following, interesting observation on the custom of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus: "...Handel's Messiah is certainly the most well-known and universally enjoyed major work in the Baroque oratorio genre—if not among all “classical” music works—and that standing as a group, in the name of tradition, unites the audience with the performers for a few minutes in a most energizing way... you have only to look at the performers when you stand at that wondrous, thrilling moment: you will see their smiles and their spirits lifted even higher, knowing that millions upon millions of people have stood at that very same moment in music, and in virtually every corner of the world". We stood!
Today (Sunday) has been a fairly quiet day in Davis. I enjoyed the service at University Covenant Church this morning, and then stopped off at the little Austrian restaurant for brunch on my way home again (see the blog entry for 16 November). It's been grey and rainy all day, so the afternoon was spent curled up with a good book (the latest P.D. James novel).
Colin has business in the San Fransisco area tomorrow, so will pick me up on his way back to Rocklin in the evening, where I will be spending Christmas. I'm looking forward to the break and spending some time with the Hobsons, although Janet has to work between Christmas and New Year (Colin has the week off, but is forced to take it from his annual leave — labour practices here are somewhat harsher than in SA!).
Interestingly, the day after Christmas is not a holiday here (no one has heard of "Boxing Day"!). Also a little different: the churches all have Christmas Eve services, but no services on Christmas day itself. The Christmas Eve services are a very big deal. Bayside is holding 13 services this year (a few more than last year), starting from a week before Christmas. They've got a dedicated Christmas website, which is worth a look! We are booked in for the 8:30pm service on Christmas eve, which is likely to be one of the most popular, apparently, so we will need to get there really early. They've set up a huge tent in the courtyard area in front of the church to provide shelter for people waiting to get in. I say we are "booked in" because they've been issuing tickets as a way of trying to balance the numbers (9 of the 13 were "full" on Thursday already). It promises to be an eye-opening experience!
I may not get a chance to write an update before Christmas, so let me take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy and Blessed Christmas, and may 2009 be a happy, and joy-filled year for us all.
Monday, 15 December 2008
Tour Guide to African Visitors!
I've had a very good extended weekend with the extended Hobson family. Colin's brother Jonathan and his wife Ann, from Port Elizabeth have been visiting for a few days. The three of them picked me up from Davis early on Thursday morning on their way through to San Francisco where Colin had some business to attend to. We dropped him off just North of SF, and headed further North. Our first stop was the earth quake trail which I had visited several years ago with Janet. That is a fairly short walk along part of the San Andreas fault-line, and has some very interesting displays about the California fault-lines, past earthquakes, etc. One of the most impressive things is a section of a wooden fence where one part was displaced about 5m by the big 1906 San Fransisco earthquake. There is also a very peaceful looking field with some blue poles running through it. The poles mark the fault line!
Our second stop was the Muir Woods section of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This is a lovely national park with some magnificent redwoods (the first "real" redwood forest I have visited). We had a good time on one of the walks through the forest. By the time we were finished there, Colin had finished his business, so we headed back towards San Fransisco and picked him up (which meant I could give up my responsibilities as tour guide!).
Colin took us down to the Golden Gate bridge where we stopped at some of the viewpoints. While I had seen the bridge before, I had never taken the time to stop off and enjoy the views, displays, etc. From the bridge we headed into San Fransisco proper and found the street with the "painted Ladies" — a row of beautiful old Victorian-era homes that feature on many of San Fransisco postcards, calendars, etc. We then browsed around the Chinatown area and some of the shops in the central shopping area, inlcuding Macy's which has some very impressive Christmas displays.
Alcatraz with the moon rising.
San Franscisco in the setting sun.
On Friday Colin took the day off and went fishing with Jonathan. They had a good time and Colin actually caught a couple of fish (he hasn't been having much luck recently). Ann and Janet went off shopping, while I caught up with some work. In the evening, we all went into Sacramento to see the local pantomime (Cinderella). That was very good fun, but not particularly well-polished or professional.
The rest of the weekend has been relatively quiet, with some shopping, some braaing, church (on Saturday afternoon!), etc.
It's turned grey and drizzly through the day today, but we've had stunning weather for Jonathan and Ann's visit. Our day in the San Franscisco area on Thursday was beautiful, with the sun shining brightly and no wind at all.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Winter in California
I seem to be doing a good job of catching up with my blogging tonight!
Just a quick comment on the weather: central California can get cold! The last few weeks have been settling into more wintery weather, which consists of a lot of very chilly fog, it seems. Minimum temperatures at the moment are in the low- to mid-single figures, with maxima in the low- to mid-teens (Celsius — I can't work in Fahrenheit, but fortunately the local weather website allows you to select Celsius as an option!). I nearly froze cycling into campus this morning in a light fog. When I got to the office the view was amazing as the Sun was shining faintly through the fog, looking just like the moon (white and one could look directly at it).
On my way home this afternoon, I stopped off at the local bike shop and bought a pair of thick, full-finger cycling gloves (my thin, fingerless, "normal" cycling gloves were close to useless this morning)!
Just a quick comment on the weather: central California can get cold! The last few weeks have been settling into more wintery weather, which consists of a lot of very chilly fog, it seems. Minimum temperatures at the moment are in the low- to mid-single figures, with maxima in the low- to mid-teens (Celsius — I can't work in Fahrenheit, but fortunately the local weather website allows you to select Celsius as an option!). I nearly froze cycling into campus this morning in a light fog. When I got to the office the view was amazing as the Sun was shining faintly through the fog, looking just like the moon (white and one could look directly at it).
On my way home this afternoon, I stopped off at the local bike shop and bought a pair of thick, full-finger cycling gloves (my thin, fingerless, "normal" cycling gloves were close to useless this morning)!
Of Elephants that are White!
Last night, we had a very nice Christmas "pot luck" supper and "white elephant gift exchange" at the church "small group" that I attend in Davis. I made a green bean dish that Janet had made for our Thanksgiving dinner, which was very nice, and turned out to be very popular — I had to email the recipe to everyone this morning!
The white elephant gift exchange got a little tricky for me as one normally takes something from around the house that you don't want any longer that would be suitable as a gift. Having arrived only a few months ago with one suitcase of belongings, that didn't really work for me! I had found a nice, cheap wooden bowl in a charity shop in Rocklin a couple of weeks ago and put some Lindor chocolate truffle balls in it, which turned out to be very popular. The "rules" of the exchange are that, when it's your turn, you can take a wrapped present from the pile, or else you can "steal" a gift from someone who has already got one, forcing them to take a new gift from the pile. One complication is that a gift can only be stolen twice and then it belongs to whoever holds it. Rather to my surprise, my makeshift gift turned out to be highly sought after and was the only one that got "stolen" twice (and it wasn't just the Lindor chocolates — the person who ended up with really liked the bowl!).
I took a gift from the pile rather than "stealing" one, and got a CD audio book of one of Max Lucado's recent books (3:16, which I haven't read yet). I was rather pleased with that, and had to work at putting off someone who was eying it out for a possible steal!
The white elephant gift exchange got a little tricky for me as one normally takes something from around the house that you don't want any longer that would be suitable as a gift. Having arrived only a few months ago with one suitcase of belongings, that didn't really work for me! I had found a nice, cheap wooden bowl in a charity shop in Rocklin a couple of weeks ago and put some Lindor chocolate truffle balls in it, which turned out to be very popular. The "rules" of the exchange are that, when it's your turn, you can take a wrapped present from the pile, or else you can "steal" a gift from someone who has already got one, forcing them to take a new gift from the pile. One complication is that a gift can only be stolen twice and then it belongs to whoever holds it. Rather to my surprise, my makeshift gift turned out to be highly sought after and was the only one that got "stolen" twice (and it wasn't just the Lindor chocolates — the person who ended up with really liked the bowl!).
I took a gift from the pile rather than "stealing" one, and got a CD audio book of one of Max Lucado's recent books (3:16, which I haven't read yet). I was rather pleased with that, and had to work at putting off someone who was eying it out for a possible steal!
Thanksgiving
I've been a little remiss on the blogging front. In my defense it has been fairly busy here, and I've been trying to fend off a cold (thanks to Jared who was sniffling through the Disney trip! Actually, he was a trooper on the trip as some of the rides and the hectic schedule couldn't have been fun when he wasn't feeling well.).Thanksgiving was the Thursday after our Disney trip (27 November). In some ways, it was a little anti-climatic: we prepared some food at the Hobsons (Colin braaied, sorry, barbecued the turkey!) then went to a friend of Janet's for the meal (mid-afternoon lunch/dinner). There were three families there with a sea of kids and it was all rather chaotic. I was also struck at the lack of "ceremony", which seemed odd (I had expected some sort of discussion/reflection on what we were each grateful/thankful for, but it didn't happen).
When I brought this up with Colin and Janet later, they said that it is usually customary to have some sharing along those lines, and they had felt that it was a rather "flat" Thanksgiving. Anyway, on the Saturday evening, we sat around the kitchen table in their home, rather than in front of the TV, for supper (which, appropriately, was Thanksgiving leftovers) and took the time to share together. That was a rather special event, which left me feeling a lot more positive about the idea of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Saturday and Sunday afternoons that weekend were spent putting up the Christmas decorations: various lights and a manger scene outside; and a Christmas tree and various other model scenes inside. It is all very American and rather over-the-top, and rather nice! The attached pictures don't really do justice to it all, and I still need to borrow a tripod from Colin and try to get some night-time pictures of the exterior lights.
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