Welcome to 2011 sojourners of CHONGLAND!!! This is a new weekly feature that I hope to write weekly on, who would have guess it, a Sunday…

For most of this week I’ve been getting used to my new abode, The Flat. A shared apartment I’m living in with Jase and Lairdy in Carlingford, which I’ve been residing in for just under 2 weeks. I’ve been setting up my room, building and installing a Hackintosh Pro (a PC running Mac software; the benefit being a significantly cheaper machine with some ability to upgrade and add components in the future), and getting reacquainted with the tasks of cooking and cleaning for and after myself. On Wednesday I got out to yum cha at Fook Yuen in Chatswood with my folks, sister and brother-in-law and his mum. It was a tasty meal. Thursday night was a BBQ at the Billet residence with some guys and girls from church.

On New Years Eve as i was making my way in to the city, i caught the 9pm fireworks on the train as it made its way between Milsons Point and Wynyard before I got down to Slip Inn to catch Random Soul aka Yogi & Husky DJ, and see Julie before heading downstairs to Chinese Laundry to see and hear one of my prog heroes Nick Warren ring in the new year behind the decks. He was impressive as always, managing to maintain a regular thump through a range of progressive house styles. Carl Cox also made an appearance down at Laundry, but didn’t manage to jump on the decks for a spin. He was in town for Space NYD, which I made my way to the next day, after getting a train home and to bed around 4:15am.

I got a fairly late start to the day, cooking up some scrambled eggs topped with smoked salmon, and a banana and whey milkshake, before heading off to Moore Park around midday for Space NYD. Upon arrival I wandered into the main arena to find Darren Emerson playing to a small crowd of maybe 30 people spread out across a large grassy area. He seemed to be enjoying himself and was pushing out some funky proggy tunes. As he wound up, with Rock To The Bit by The Youngsters, I could see Dave Seaman in the wings ready to take to the stage.

Dave masterfully pushed a great progressive set out to the slowly growing crowd with peaks and troughs, hard hitting tunes and softer melodies. It hardly felt like he’d even warmed up when his set came to a close… I moved on from the main arena over to the smaller Coachbay Arena to hear Ralph Lawson of 2020 Vision Recordings, making a slight detour into the cool of the air-conditioned Forum where Bassdrop were hosting the drumnbass party, catching a small taste of AndyC who was going hard. Back out in the sun with Ralph, I danced up a storm to his funky deep house, stirring up cheers from many a passer-by, people with video cameras to record some footage (of which I’d love to see, if anyone comes across any…) as well as less welcome visits by drunk-guys asking me to teach them how to dance, or poorly imitating me. By the time that Nick Curly jumped up on stage to play my feet and abs were in pain, so It was time to sit in the sun for a bit. During this time the medics and cops descended on a guy that was in a bit of trouble, strapping an oxygen mask over his mouth and leading him off. Another chick was escorted off by the cops, which is always a sight to see…
After another short dancing stint to Nick Curly, met with a hearty cheer by one of the professional dancers passing by, I decided that it was time enough to stop dancing for the day and retire into The Forum again for some drumnbass madness. I got in there just on the changeover from Kobra Kai to Netsky, who was met with many a great cheer by the crowds. His set was a great rollercoaster through the Hospital Records discography as well as a few other popular dnb, dubstep and grime tunes, mashed together. There were a few technical hitches along the way through, with the sound tech wandering around the stage the whole set, fiddling with levels on the mixer and the amps, and Netsky asking to turn the volume up more often than not. As he finished up, Lincoln Barrett AKA High Contrast took over to the sound of almost silence, thanks to another sound hiccup… After that got somewhat sorted the crowd gave up a great cheer for the man who threw down a great deal of quality tracks whilst also battling with sound problems. Halfway through the set I decided that the mediocre production quality and the fact that I was fading fast was enough to drag me away from The Forum and Space NYD to head off home.

Today was a lazy day full of rest and relaxation, so much so that as I sat down to eat some fried rice on the sofa, I nodded off to sleep twice during my meal….
At graceat6 tonight James Warren returned to the pulpit to speak on Flee Sexual Immorality, Wazzaisms included, with talk of prayer for sex lives & race comments. It was a good sermon, re-assuring us that Jesus is the reason why we want to flee, because He told us to and because He knows how hard it is, helpful in distinguishing the thin line between desire/temptation and lust/action, and outlining & encouraging practical actions to take. The week wrapped up with a bit of hang-time with some guys and girls from graceat6 at the Trevena residence, chatting and catching up, playing iPhone games and a few rounds of Mafia, around some food and drink.

I’ve been slack already in delving into the Word over this week, but I hope to rectify that over the next one…