What a week!!

Where do I start?

Well first I should apologize for my lack of posts in the last couple of weeks. In my defence, I've came down with a pretty nasty cold in this past week, and so I've been trying to get some early nights. Needless to say, it's clashing with my insomnia so it's not working all that well.... Oh well.

AND on top of that I've been crazy busy with university and a whole lot of other things! So now that I have a few spare hours (finally!) I think it's definitely time I updated all the bloggers.

So I'll start with last Friday. Cos it was kind one of the best days of the year!
The night before I was just talking to the RA from my hostel and a few of his mates. And then one of them was like "We're going to the snow tomorrow, do wanna come?" I made the biggest snap decision of my life (so far) and said "Yeah, I'd be SO keen!"
Had to wake up super early the next day (5.30) but it was totally worth it! After the long car ride up, we got all our gear and bought our passes for the day before heading up the mountain.

Despite reports that the weather was going to be good, it was actually pretty shocking most of the time. While most of my photos make it look like this:

When really it looked like this:

It was snowing 90% of the time and the visibility was shocking. Oh and it was really cold to. But that didn't really matter that much! It was fine enough for us to hit the slopes and that was the important thing!
Oh and all that snow made for some awesome skiing/boarding too!

After a few runs, and a few falls (I took a while to remember how to stop properly!) we stopped for lunch then got back into it. It cleared up a little while we were on the chairlift which was really exciting, but by the time we got to the top it had clouded over again. I did one run which was super hard cos we had no idea where we were (you couldn't see anything because the snow and the clouds are the same color and it all turns into a giant white blur) and also it was so cold! I swear my fingers almost froze off!
Anyway, we jumped on practically the last chairlift of the day to the top of the mountain (well, as far up as you could go) and on the way up it finally started to clear! It was amazing! And when we got to the top of the lift, it was so clear you could see all the way down to the carparks! So we ditched our boards/skis and took a group photo. As you do.

Because it had been snowing pretty much all day, the snow up there was so deep and powdery. It was so deep that you sunk in to halfway up your shins! So we took the opportunity to have a bit of a snowfight. I think we buried someone in snow too. Just 'cos!

All our boards/skis...

Even the signs looked pretty amazing!

Then we headed down on the final run of the day. It was super fun cos we were like the last people on the skifield and we could take pretty much as long as we wanted. So we did a few jumps, went off into the back country for a bit (where I got into snow so deep I sunk in up to my knees! It was hard getting my skis out of that one...) and just generally mucked around.
After that we returned all our gear back to the hire place and then headed to the hot pools. Which was awesome after all that skiing! Then it was the drive home, where we stopped and lay on a road in the middle of nowhere just cos we wanted to look at the stars. It was so random, but pretty cool! Definitely the best way to spend a Friday!
The rest of the weekend was good too. Hung out with some friends I hadn't seen for ages, and had some good times at church!
This weeks been super busy at Ucol! Had to prepare for our pop gig (which was last night) and that was a lot of work because 2/5 of the band didn't show up. So we ended up performing as a three-piece (with a little bit of help for a few of the songs) which was actually a lot of fun. Reminded me of playing with Mayday. The gig wasn't quite as good as I was hoping though, cos barely anybody turned up and even the people which were there didn't really get into it that much. And our last song was kind of ruined because my guitar totally died on me in all the crucial parts :( But apart from that, it wasn't too bad. Performing's always fun! Plus I got really into it and jumped of the stage to play my guitar/dance with the audience, which is something I've always wanted to do!
Oh and we had our hostel photo/dinner last night too which was awesome! I had to skip half of it though cos of the gig, but it was still really fun! The dinner was really nice, and it was with good company too! Love the hostel.
Oh man, I really don't want this year to end. It's been so good!

Hows your week been? Feel free to leave a comment!

Till, then, catch you on the flipside bloggers!

Thoughts on the weekend...

Sorry I've been so bad at posting lately. It's not that I've been terribly busy or anything lately - it's just mostly because I've been seriously lazy. And also because my computer's been having problems....

My weekends been pretty great so far. On Friday night I went on a massive skate with Beka. We were longboarding for like an hour or something crazy like that. Then I woke up late on Saturday morning, which was nice. I guess there's bonuses to no longer having a job....
The rest of the day I spent mostly playing guitar. Oh the joys of power tabs! Makes everything so much easier to learn! I was mostly playing this cheesy pop song called "Heartbreaker" (by Pat Benatar, not the Led Zepplin song of the same name unfortunately) but I also learnt "Message in a Bottle" by The Police. Love the riff in that song! The rest of the day was really relaxing - didn't do that much apart from skate to the library, which was pretty pointless cos I got there just as it was closing. Fail....

Church this morning was real good. Salt had this preacher from India/Arizona come and talk to us. He was so awesome! Felt really inspired afterwards. Man there is so much in this world which is SO SO wrong! And it's pretty scary to think that it's going to stay wrong unless we do something about it. And this guy was! He wasn't just blogging about it, or putting up a status on Facebook - he was doing it! Made me feel like I could be doing so much more with my life - to get into being that type of person, not just talking about it.
So yeah, really inspiring. And we got to sing songs in Croatian and Japanese too, which is always fun!

After a sweet lunch (yet another reason why I love living at the hostel!) I went shopping with Beka which was pretty fun. Got me a sweet shirt which is super warm. Real handy to have with the cold weather we've been having! It was pretty chilly today, and quite wet too in the afternoon. Good old Palmy weather for you.

Crossroads was pretty good tonight too. Read through Samuel 3 which is a really awesome chapter of the Bible. So cool how God spoke outright to Samuel! I was thinking about it before and kind of wishing that that kind of thing still happened today. Then I thought: "Man, probably 90% of Christians in the 21st century haven't even dedicated half of the time Samuel did to the Lord." I mean, that was literally his life. He was in the temple 24/7 from the age he was five. And then after that he was walking around prophesying and advising kings in God's ways. Man - maybe if we made God such an important part of our lives, then we would be able to hear his voice out loud? Just a thought....

How's your weekend been?

Adventures in recording!

First of all, I'm stoked to announce that I've finally started work on some more new music for you guys. Lately I've been listening to a ton of ambient music by artists such as Bon Iver, Sigur Ros, and Future of Forestry, and I've been hugely inspired by the magical soundscapes they create - it's almost like painting with music! So because I've been getting into it, my own music has been leaning that way a bit more, which is pretty exciting! Started work on a new track this week and it sounds pretty epic so far - so hopefully I should have that up on my Youtube Account sometime soon. So keep an eye out for it!
We had our reggae gig last night, which was....um...interesting. Ignoring all the stuff which happened after it, the show was actually legit! Everyone played super well and the crowd got really into it! Plus some of my friends came out and supported, which just made it that little bit awesomer! Thanks guys :D
Anyway, one of the better things about last night was my band won second place out of all the originals aired that night, which meant we got to go record it in Wanganui today!
It was so much fun! The recording studio was set up sweet, and the final mix sounded so professional! We had heaps of good times on the way too - talking about wooly mammoths and laughing at Ben & Curtis' ridiculous Rasta voices. Oh, and we got it cut in super quick time too - in under five hours which was pretty impressive (apparently that's as fast as a proffessional band would do it!).
Actually to be honest, I'm pretty stoked with this original. I ended up writing a significant proportion of it which was a bit weird, but kind of cool. I'm not used to playing reggae, let alone writing it - but it was a good experience. I think it forced me to step out of comfort zone a bit - and really stretched my songwriting limits. But the end result was amazing! All credit goes to the band - they really took it on board and made it their own - so it no longer feels like my song, but our song! It has a sweet beat, was awesome to play live, and even more fun to record! I'm super keen for when our cd comes out and I can hear the final result - it's gonna be awesome
Here's the lyrics, if anyone is interested - hope you enjoy!


WE ARE STILL ONE
(lyrics by Jordan Gowan and Alissa Pawson)

Yeah, many people on this planet
Have no voice
With different opinions
Divided by nations

But we are still looking for the same things
We're still searching for freedom

So move your feet to the rhythm of the people
Who stand up, stand up for you
Move your feet to the rhythm of a nation
Who's aching for the truth

Yeah, many people on this planet
Live in separation, alone and supressed
These different opinions
Dividing the nations

Different people
But we are still one
Different nations
We are still one
Different governments
We are still one
Oh so many different things
But we are still one
                                     (c) copyright Band 2, Jaguar Falls, and UCOL Contemporary Music 2012

Peace out world!

Jordan

From Here To There...

Lately I've been thinking about the difference between walking and running.
And the point in between.

I suppose some of this may have to do with my current physical condition. Last Friday I was playing soccer with a few friends, and managed to sprain the middle toe on my left foot quite badly. By quite badly I mean I had to sit out the rest of the game, and could barely hobble back to the hostel. Since then, it has improved in small stages - I'm super stoked I can finally longboard again! But I still have a little bit of a limp. And every so often my foot gets a little twinge, almost as if to remind me that I am not completly whole.

The hardest part is not being able to run.
I like running. I don't do it very often, but when I do, I really enjoy it. The feeling of your muscles pumping, the ground shooting by underneath your feet - there's nothing like it in the world. And even when I am not running, I pride myself on my capacity to be able to run.
Now, when I can't even walk properly, I miss it even more. The other day I was walking, or rather hobbling, home from work and I had to limp past the Parkour crew. It was horrible, because all I wanted to do was join them in practicing wall vaults and precision jumps (or in my case, trying to wall vault and precision jumps!). But I had to limp past, a cripple only dreaming of being able to run.

There's just SOMETHING about having a limp which really gets to me. I guess it's because it's the point between walking and running where you can't do either very well.

It seems a bit like life sometimes....

It started off so well. Sometimes I just feel as if I'm gaining ground, picking up speed. As if I'm getting where I need to go in a short amount of time. My faith feels strong, and it's almost like progress is being made in every aspect of my life. Sure, I don't put as much effort in to it as I probably should.... but I pride myself in my ability to pick it up again whenever I choose.

And then I take the wrong tackle, and find myself sidelined.

It's such an anti-climax. Just waiting for the right time, till whatever holds me back is gone. I'm already dreaming of running....and yet, I cannot run. Sometimes, it's even hard to walk. I have to limp my way slowly, painfully through life.  It can get all very discouraging, when you feel the need to pick up the pace and yet are unable to do so. It can get extremely frustrating when you dream so big, dream of running so far, and something - you're not even sure what - is holding you back.

Sometimes I feel like I am moving just for the sake of moving. Stuck in between running and walking, and not really doing either properly. And I just wonder, how am I supposed to get from here to there?