Well, its Monday morning and I’m back to the usual activity for a Monday – work. Such a dull contrast when compared to the vibrant excitement enjoyed over the last 4 days, due entirely to a fantastic weekend. This year our annual study weekend was held in April, a departure from its usual slot of the June long weekend.

The study weekend was on Jehoshaphat, led by Jonna Lawson from Blackburn, Melbourne. A fantastic speaker, who really brought Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to life. An incredible example of a man who led by example, enthusiastically removing idols previous kings had left untouched, and leading Judah in their service to God. A man who made monumental mistakes in his life, but learned from them, turning to God for help in his times of distress. A ruler who involved the people in his decisions, who in turn supported their king when he needed it.

The weekend itself was very nearly perfect. The venue was great, and provided a good amount of much-needed shelter from the vast quantities of rain which fell on Thursday and Friday. Apparently, it had been raining all week, which provided the perfect environment for much mud-enhanced footy. The girls started off playing basketball or netball (I don’t remember which) but that quickly degenerated into full-on mud slinging.

We went to mini-golf on Saturday morning, which was great fun. The course was massive, the biggest mini-golf course I’d ever seen. In retrospect, I think that was probably just as well – a smaller golf course wouldn’t have been able to handle the 120-odd crowd of young people descending upon it.

The variety evening on Friday night was fantastic, the committee did an awesome job with it. It was basically a trivia night, with a few fun and demeaning (for the people involved) bonus sections, such as a pushup competition, drinking some foul european version of coke, and the alltime favourite, raw garlic eating.

It seems the Guinness world record for most cloves of raw garlic eaten in a minute was five (Note: I am unable to verify the veracity of this record – a search on the Guinness site reveals no such record). The premise of the particular bonus round was that chewing and swallowing 6 cloves of raw garlic one after another was surely not that difficult. And it seems that was a valid premise. Several people managed to sweat through six cloves of garlic, in under a minute. Incredible!

Eating raw garlic apparently produces a strong burning sensation, initially in the mouth, and down to the stomach. This much was evident by the red and contorted faces. The other downside to this particular exercise is the renowned odour associated with garlic. Those who participated in the exercise were studiously avoided for the next day or so, the smell remaining prevalent even the next morning.

Another benefit arising from the weekend is the newly revamped look for the Sydney CYC website. The availability of unsecured wireless internet permitted those involved to collaborate on the new look, during the free time available.