Australia – New South Wales: Malcolm Naden Escapes Police Again

For more:

http://www.news.com.au/national/police-admit-they-had-guns-on-fugitive-malcolm-naden-before-he-fled-out-back-door/story-e6frfkvr-1226229189862

CAR CRASH: ONE YEAR ON

One of the longest years of my life has finally come to an end. It has now been one year since the car accident that almost claimed my life. One year on I am still feeling the effects of that car accident – in more ways than one.

My injuries have largely healed; however, my right shoulder continues to be a bit of an issue. I have slight pain from time to time in the shoulder and it doesn’t do what it used to be able to do.

There are of course other reminders of the accident that will remain with for life, with various scars on my right arm and hand, and above my right eye. These are reminders of the day that I almost died and they will be useful reminders of the fragility of life.

There are also other ‘scars’ of that day and accident that will take some time to ease – but these too are slowly improving also. These ‘scars’ are financial, spiritual and mental. The improvements in these areas are palpable to me, but there is till some way to go.

One year on I am still thankful for the gift of life and the second ‘chance’ so to speak that I have been given. One year on is a useful time to reflect on lessons learnt from a near death experience and how far short I have fallen in the goals that I set while I was lying in hospital reflecting upon my life that had so far passed at that time. There is still a long way to go.

I am thankful to God for His many mercies and His undeserved grace.

My car after the police removed it to a holding pen in Gloucester

AUSTRALIA: NEW SOUTH WALES AWASH – Flooding

The severe weather that has moved south from Queensland into New South Wales in the form of an active monsoonal trough has now developed into an East Coast Low of the New South Wales North Coast. This system is bringing a lot of rain and flooding along the Mid-North coast and Great Lakes region.

There has been some flooding near Bellingen and Gloucester, and also some flooding around Bulahdelah where I live. There has been no let up in the rain since Friday night. Previous to this we had but 12 mm of rain for the whole of 2009 to this point. I have heard that there has been over 10 inches this weekend, which is roughly 250 mm.

Minor Flooding is being experienced along the Bellinger River above Thora and near Bellingen. Moderate to Major flooding is expected along the Williams and Paterson Rivers in the Hunter region, with Minor flooding along the Hunter River in the Hunter Region. Minor flooding is also taking place along the Gloucester River.

From what I have heard in Bulahdelah, there is localised flooding along tributaries of the Myall River and in Bulahdelah itself, with water covering the main street.

Flooding is also occurring in the north-west of New South Wales, with Bourke receiving record amounts of rain.

BUSHFIRES FINALLY ARRIVE AS HEAT WAVE CONTINUES

The bushfire season has taken a bit longer than usual to arrive this year, but in the last couple of days bushfires have begun to appear across Australia and in particular in New South Wales and South Australia.

In my region the temperatures rose to the mid thirties (Celsius), while further to the west the temperatures reached the low forties – which has been the case for several days now.

A cooler change is expected in the very near future but temperatures will remain in the mid to high thirties tomorrow before another cool change. The high temperatures will then return at the beginning of next week.

In short, the bushfire season in eastern Australia is now well and truly here and more fires can be expected over the next couple of months – especially given how dry it currently is.

There have been fires around Sydney over the last couple of days with some property (sheds, vehicles, etc) being destroyed by fire today. There have been other fires around, including near Gloucester and Singleton. In South Australia there was a particularly bad fire at Lincoln.

BELOW: Footage of the bushfires

Sweet Escape or Inner Self Realities

This is not a post about the Gwen Stefani CD ‘Sweet Escape’ – just in case you turned up on that possibility. I do have that CD and I am something of a Gwen Stefani fan, but that is a whole other story.

No, this post is about trying to make a ‘sweet escape.’ There are times in life when you think that just maybe you can escape your troubles and get away and make a fresh start ~ just like I did several months ago when I quit my job, left Newcastle and moved to Gloucester. There are many reasons for doing so – some good, some bad – I’m talking in general terms and not specifically about my own case. Some flee to escape prosecution, being caught out, embarrassment, etc. Some flee to escape hardship, personal trauma and distress, financial difficulties, etc. Some escape to just have a change, an adventure or for something different. There are a myriad of reasons for trying to have a sweet escape.

I have catalogued various reasons for my change of circumstances several months ago in letters, Blog entries, web sites, etc. I’m not sure whether I have carefully articulated every reason there was for me doing so, but I have made mention of quite a number, which were not insignificant reasons, for doing so. These included work stresses, illness, etc.

What I have come to experience (which I already knew intellectually to be so – though one often flies in the face of what one actually knows to be the facts) is that those reasons which have impacted significantly on the ‘inner self,’ which I believe some might call the ‘psyche’ or some other similar term, are not possible to escape from. These travel with you no matter how much running from them you might attempt to do. In my case I carry quite a few of these things with me ~ significant hurts, personal flaws and failures (some of which could be accurately titled sins), eating disorders (that might come back to bite me – no pun intended), etc.

Right now one of these not so helpful ‘pseudo-symbiotic&r squo; reasons is plaguing my consciousness and has returned as a major ‘filler’ for my quiet moments, solitary times, etc. Not long ago I had thought I had come to grips with this particular issue, only to find it re-surface several weeks ago and cause renewed distress, etc. As I say, it is near impossible to escape those experiences and impacting issues that have significantly impacted on the inner self.

Now this would be the point at which some would say to ‘simply take it to the Lord in prayer,’ as though uttering a few words or a given formula is the panacea for all of life’s ills. I would suggest that these folk either have had little experience in truly ‘inner self’ impacting crisis’ or they are not telling the truth about how hard difficulties have been to cope with which they have experienced for fear of portraying prayer in a different light to that with which they have been indoctrinated.

I am not about pouring scorn on the merits of prayer or the God to whom prayer is directed ~ that is not my purpose in this post, for I too herald the power of prayer in transforming lives and being a mighty aid in answering life’s problems. I am simply stating that these ‘inner self’ impacting experiences are very real and are often the source of recurring heartaches, etc. I am also saying that I am not immune to these times as my current experience bears witness and my life history bears continuing testimony ~ even though prayer is an important part of my life.

So just at this point in time I find myself again enduring the difficulty of an ‘inner self’ impacting experience, along with all of the emotional stresses that come along with it – as do most (the honest readers anyhow) of you out there.

So why share this particular circumstance? Well, it is my Blog isn’t it? That’s what these things exist for – an open online journal, among other things.

Got a Car

So I have moved to Gloucester now, about two hours north-west of where I was before (Cardiff). I’m looking for work up here now – haven’t got a job yet. I’ve only been looking since Friday – so that isn’t too bad I suppose. There have been four jobs that I have applied for – two haven’t been successful at this stage.

I did get a really good bye today – a car for $2000.00. It’s not new of course, but it is in really good condition for its age and seems to be a very reliable type of car. So I’m quite pleased with it at this stage and it should allow me to get about up this way as I look for a job. It should see me through for a couple of years, so I’ve done really well with that I think.

So things are going not too bad at this stage.