The day after the retreat, and the bonding games, everyone was out cold. But, I really wanted to visit the Australian sister church in the same alliance as my current church in Japan, while I was back.
There was just one issue. We were in the middle of the country, and I didn't have a car. Who would have come to the rescue other than the man himself, my friend soon to be wed. He offered to drive me back, even though he had no obligation to, and though he was as tired as the rest of us from the day before. So much gratitude.
Unfortunately at the church as well I was too involved in the moment, and didn't think of taking photos. By nature I'm not really a photo kinda guy. But I try.
I couldn't stay back long at church, because we had unfinished business leading up to the wedding - purchasing matching white shirts for the groomsmen. Once again, none other than the groom to be himself came all the way to pick me up so we could look for a shirt together. There I met his fiance, and a mutual friend of mine, for the first time in maybe two years?
When I mentioned I hadn't had lunch, they offered to take me to the best burgers in town: Grill'd.
My first impressions were pretty good. The place had a sort of modern and stylish yet fairly laid back feel to it. I ordered the Summer Sunset Beef burger. Having heard this place being so highly spoken of, I had high expectations for my burger. Here's what it looked like.
So I gave thanks for the food, and dug in. And my first mouthful... was cold and ordinary. Quite disappointed really. I mean it wasn't a BAD burger, but just not the best burger I imagined I'd eat.
When I told my friend that, what did he do? He called the nearest waiter, told him the burger was cold, and took it back to the counter. And the shop, they brought me another burger, freshly made. That certainly went beyond my expectations.
My second experience was much better. I definitely have confidence in placing it up there as the best burger I've eaten. The bun was freshly baked and crisp, the lettuce was crisp, the meat was juicy (and warm), and the sauce oozed out just the slightest when I bit into it. It's not the biggest burger I've ordered, and it didn't have every single one of my favourite ingredients in it, but for quality, I rate it 9.5 out of 10. I give my friend the same rating. Anne, you couldn't have asked for a better husband.
So after that memorable meal, we met up with the others and went shirt shopping, and found a great shirt. What's even greater, is that the guy serving us is the friend of my friend's fiance. He gave us his members 40% discount ^^
On the way out, we were met by this Christmas tree. But it's no ordinary big Christmas tree.
This Christmas tree, and the decorations around it, are entirely made of LEGO.
On our way back I indulged in a $1 frozen coke at Maccas. This is something I've never seen in Japan Maccas before.
An interesting find at a sushi train restaurant in Hornsby. It's a dessert that looks like a mandarin, with attention to detail right down to the tiny depressions on the surface, and actually tastes like a mandarin too. In all the sushi trains I've been to in Japan, haven't seen one of these before.
At night, I was able to meet all my old church friends from ALLC at the carols service. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had become a join event run by three churches in the area. I had always hoped to see the churches uniting in their efforts for outreach. Speaking with the main pastor involved, it turns out the carols on the oval has been happening for the past seven years, and this has been the second year ALLC has joined in.
The big space in the bottom of the photo, was reserved for the fireworks. I was quite impressed. In a country where there is a total fire ban, they pulled off quite a spectacular display. And I came from a country where there are more fireworks each year than there are people in Australia. (It probably isn't an overstatement, if you consider the single units of fireworks that are used in total over the summer). They had the rural fire service on site as stand by.
