Well, I had to turn the title into an alliteration, but my day today has been truly sensational up until this point.

I got home from my Sensational Saturday to find a birthday party for a 16-year-old in full force over the back fence, with music so loud I can feel the floor shake in my bedroom. Rather than attempting to sleep, which would clearly be impossible in such a circumstance, I have decided to write about my Sensational Saturday.

First up today, I had a much-needed sleep in. I woke up around 7am, fell asleep again, before waking to discover it was 9am! Sensational.

Then it was time to do some quick study. Today was our monthly CYC activity, and this time it was the “Grandparents and Friends” day – a lunch and some lawn bowls, with a Bible reading and a few thoughts about the reading in between. I had unfortunately been nominated to offer said thoughts, which meant I had to actually come up with something to say.

One of the daily readings for today is Mark 11, so after searching for something truly profound to say and failing, I decided to fall back to talking about the fig tree, and the temple. In the preparation for my thoughts I did consider Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, and pondered about why he decided to make such an entrance, but chose not to include this pondering in the thoughts I delivered.

We had a barbecue lunch at Riverwood hall, the usual sausages-on-a-roll, with some salad and desert. A selection of grandparents et al. showed up, and seemed appreciative of the day, although as usual we were all running late so I didn’t say much at all about the reading – maybe only 5 minutes worth. Still, I had a good bit of discussion afterwards in more depth about Mark 11.

Next we proceeded to Peakhurst bowling club, where I duly discovered just how hard lawn bowling was. Getting a combination of angle, spin, and power proved quite challenging. We got into groups of six – three vs three per ‘lane’. Seeing as how our group was comprised of equal numbers of girls and guys, the natural grouping was girls vs guys. The final result was as it should be – guys won on 9 vs girls on 4. Still, it was a great deal of fun, definitely something I’d be interested in doing again.

Towards the end of bowling, Phil mentioned we might want to go to the A league soccer game between Sydney and Melbourne that was on tonight at Sydney Football Stadium. That sounded pretty interesting to me, so I agreed to come along. I’d never been to a soccer game before, nor the football stadium. While the experience was refreshing, it was ultimately disappointing, given that the game finished with a nil-all tie. In fact, the several confrontations between the Melbourne supporters and the copious quantities of police could have been considered more exciting than the actual game.

I didn’t want to have too late a night, so I didn’t dawdle around at Phil’s place before coming home. In retrospect, I needn’t have hurried. I won’t be getting much sleep any time soon. As soon as I got out of the car, I noticed the loud pulsating music emanating from a neighbour over the back fence. It turns out I get to enjoy the floor shake to the poor choice of music that 16 year olds apparently appreciate until midnight. It might be time to go looking for some earplugs. That, or their fuse box…