by tashmcgill | Jan 25, 2013 | Travel
It’s not often you get a call to say, Hey, you’re going to Palm Cove to stay in a 5 star beach resort for 7 nights and the bad news is, you have to take your best mate with you. My advice is when those calls come, be sure you answer the phone with a smile. We arrived in Cairns, in Far North Tropical Queensland just in time to settle in to our apartment at the Peppers Beach Club & Spa, right on the main drag in Palm Cove before dinner and enjoy an afternoon beside the pool.
As any responsible travel journalist should do, I’d Googled away to my heart’s content about Peppers. While the website had looked really inviting, there were a few reviews on TripAdvisor.com that made us wonder – was it really all too good to be true? Well,
by tashmcgill | Jan 25, 2013 | Travel
Apart from sugarcane, crocodiles and the Great Barrier Reef, you might be hard pressed to think of what else to occupy your time with (if you have to drag yourself away from the pool that is!) in Far North Tropical Queensland.
Having spent a few days in the sun and finally got in the air for a hot air balloon ride with Raging Thunder, we were excited to do something a bit different! A scenic railway excursion it was. Who would’ve thought that this magnificent piece of engineering would have been built from Cairns through to Kuranda, let alone that it would’ve taken creating 15 tunnels, 93 curves, dozens of bridges and 75 kilometres of track to complete and is now known as the Kuranda Scenic Railway. You can make a great round trip of it by catching the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway back down, sweeping over ancient rainforests for insane views. (more…)
by tashmcgill | Jan 25, 2013 | Culture & Ideas, Spirituality
I took this photo using a self-timer, my camera propped on the rooftop of the car. I had taken the car for a little sightseeing, headed east into the mountains and desert outside of San Diego, in October 2007. I was intoxicated with life, at the end of an almost year long journey into rediscovering myself. And by that what I really mean is, I’d finally shed nearly 50kgs of extra weight I’d been slowly accumulating. And now, when I look at that photograph, I feel like a failure.
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by tashmcgill | Nov 22, 2012 | Love & Marriage, Spirituality
I write on a regular basis for a Christian column of young writers. Recently I wrote this piece which continues to sit with me as I ruminate on friendship, home, love and marriage these days. Within a Christian culture where women are still largely defined in relationship to their husbands and children, when ideas of ‘godly womanhood’ are overflowing bookstore shelves and womens’ events are all the rage – if the traditional church’s answer to singledom is ‘Trust in the Lord and wait..”, I’m not convinced that the liberal church has a better answer either. In fact, I’m not sure what the Church is really saying at all.
Is It Really Ok To Be Single? – originally published here
These days, it’s rare to find a mainstream media commentator that raises their voice in a way that resonates with the church– but I read an opinion article by Shelley Bridgeman a couple of weeks ago that did just that. The writer asked the questions “Is it really ok to be single?” from the premise that society by and large still discriminates in many ways against those who are unmarried, either by choice or circumstance. (more…)
by tashmcgill | Nov 15, 2012 | Spirituality, Youth Work
Have you met my friends The Youth Cartel? When I say friends, I really mean that. Marko has been a trusted confidante, guide and thought-provoker both in life and youth work, and Adam became a good friend during my brief time at Youth Specialties in 2009. The great thing about friends, is that often they think in similar ways you do, so you find synergy and a sense of buoyancy, as well as companionship on the road to revolution.
This last weekend in Atlanta, a bunch of people became better friends with The Youth Cartel, with each other and found some companionship on the road to revolution. (more…)
