Die Adelaider Zeiten
The Adelaide Times (better than the New York Times)
Edition 10 – Thursday 24th December 2009
http://brian-vogt.customer.netspace.net.au/DAZ10/index.html
Written and edited by "der umherziehende Reporter"
Continuing in the tradition of Die Rüsselsheimer Zeiten (35 editions in 19 months, 1998-2000),
this is my summary of the past 52 weeks in Adelaide.
I continue to be an active member of the Prospect Road Uniting Church.  I usually operate the PowerPoint presentation during Sunday morning worship services.  It's not hard work, as the ministers prepare screens for all of the hymns, liturgy, illustrations for their sermons, etc., but it does require a continuous awareness of what's happening next.  I sit beside the sound system controller (another Brian).  We wake each other up when we see that the other one has become distracted by events around us.  The church has a wide range of ages amongst the people who come, and the ministers keep on doing things a bit differently to help us avoid becoming robots.

Building work on our HEALS (Health Education and Life Skills) Centre was completed early in the year, and a small network of used computers was installed by a consultant.  Our senior minister invited me to be the volunteer Network Administrator, which I accepted.  In the left and centre of the picture is the old part of the former Blair Athol Uniting Church building (before the 1996 amalgamation) which had to be completely stripped inside.  Now the chapel occupies only 1/3 of the old space; the rest is used for consulting & counselling rooms, reception office, kitchen etc., and there's a new upper level for the seminar room.  Despite the serious need for health services in Blair Athol and close neighbour Kilburn, it's difficult coaxing service providers into the place.  The art group (led by church members) and the gardening group (with leaders supplied by the state government) both meet on Wednesdays, and both cater significantly (but not exclusively) to people with learning difficulties.
Aside from adminstering the computer network (Windows Server 2003 SBS with Windows XP clients), I help out with other small tasks at the HEALS Centre, and attend Bible Study there on Monday afternoons, so I'm well known to the other people around the place.  Unfortunately I missed the official opening and bbq lunch on Sunday 3rd May because I was already committed to organise and lead a very interesting car club run to the S.A. Police Museum.

As you probably guessed, I continue to be an active member of the Hillman Car Club.  At the Annual General Meeting in August, I was re-elected to the position of Social Events Officer – co-ordinating the people who volunteer to organise specific events, and continue in the appointed position of Webmaster (8 years now).

I'm also on the newly-formed organising committee for the 2012 Hillman National Rally to be held in South Australia.  My main task is to create a CD-ROM (mainly featuring a PowerPoint presentation) to be included in the promotion pack which will be released at the 2010 rally in Geelong at Easter.
Because of the computer network at the HEALS Centre, I kept an interest in further study at Thebarton Senior College.  Despite not having completed one subject at Certificate 3 level in 2007, I wanted to continue with "Network Management" and "System Maintenance" (of PCs) at Certificate 4 level.  A random encounter with the senior I.T. teacher (at a supermarket near my home in May) revealed that the subjects would be offered during the 2nd half of this year, after a delay of 18 months.  Although not attempting the whole course, I was given special permission to study those 2 subjects – and I learnt a lot.
Tennis – I retired from playing at the end of last season's minor round (late February); my team didn't come close to qualifying for the finals.  Somebody once said "Age shall not weary them."  That's definitely not true in tennis.  I can no longer hit shots (including service) with sufficient speed to remain competitive in the bottom division, so the fun has gone out of it.  However, with sheer persistence I was able to win my last singles match.  Now, after 10 months of retirement, I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.  I'm happy to have played the last 6 seasons with the Denman Tennis Club, not wanting to retire too early lest I disappoint myself by missing my final opportunity to play.  However, my retrospective judgement is that I should have quit one year earlier – but one never knows until all opportunities have been taken.
I did stay on to complete my year as a committee member (finishing at the AGM in September).  My main ambition was to create a website for the club which has perhaps the proudest history of achievement in the Southern Districts Tennis Association.  It's now mostly complete, but cannot be released to the public until other members have provided pictures and brochures to be added.

My involvement with the Gideons continues.  In May I was re-elected to the position of Treasurer of my local group (inner north eastern suburbs).  As in previous years, I placed Bibles in the rooms of several Hotels/Motels along Main North Road, as well as distributing testaments to Year 8 students in schools.  At one school, I remembered the Year 8 co-ordinator as having been a fellow student at Kapunda High School in the 1960s.  At Calvary Hospital (North Adelaide and Walkerville) I helped to place bibles for patients and pocket testaments for staff.  I spoke in 5 churches about the work of the Gideons.
I was a member of the arrangements committee for the Gideons State Convention in April, as Ushers Co-ordinator.
Now the current news:  A visit by one of my German friends, Anke von Belino, who has been on a group study tour in New Zealand.  On her way home, she's been visiting her friends Anita at the Gold Coast in Queensland, and Kristina near Sydney before arriving in Adelaide yesterday morning.  Amongst the 5 days of sightseeing I have planned, we'll spend Christmas Day with my father at Kapunda (where I was born and went to school), 70 km from my home.

Anke and I met sometime in 1999, at the church I was attending in Germany from 1998 to 2000.  Her parents live directly across the street, but she was studying at the university in Lüneburg.  Continued studies led her to 2 universities in Sweden.  She now works as a nurse at Lund in southern Sweden.  It's almost 10 years since we last met.

Picture from yesterday: Anke standing under Umbrella Rock on Granite Island, Victor Harbor.

For the 7 working days before Anke's arrival, I had contract work at Mitsubishi Motors – looking after their large IBM computer system in the absence of the 2 MVS System Programmers who work there.  It's a throwback to my old profession.  My task was simply to be onsite to handle any emergencies – fortunately none occurred, so it was a very quiet time.
The rate of pay was very good, but only 7 days of it is not enough to keep me alive for a year, so I'll need to find some permanent work in January.  The type of work still remains a mystery to me.

Ich wunsche Euch frohe Weihnachten und ein glückliches neues Jahr !
(I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !)
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