This Little Monkey Still Has a Snakebite on Her Arse (no sexual nuances intended)

My heart has been waiting forever for this day to come and now the day has arrived.....Feb 8th is HERE.  Today isn't your average monday, it's a special day for me for a multitude of different reasons. Let's start with the obvious that today is the start of the Chinese new yr. Gung Hey Fat Choy to everyone around the world. What makes it even more special is that it is the year of the monkey, my yr. For each of us out there celebrating Chinese New yr that falls upon the animal of our birth yrs happens only once every 12 yrs. And to top it off this yr the lunar calendar Chinese new yr happens to fall on feb 8th and in Chinese culture 8 is the luckiest number of all.

But there is another secret reason why feb 8th is a significant day for me, this blog turns 6 yrs old TODAY. It was on feb 8th 2010, that I sat in my dorm room thinking to myself "hmmm, I wonder what would happen if  I took copies of all the emails I've been sending to a select group of people and posted it on a blog?" So I did exactly that, I innocently posted copies of my writing, my blog began exploding with hits from visitors around the world and the rest is history.

Touching the Sky to Celebrate Australia Day

I moved from Australia when I was young but even after settling back in Canada we would take trips almost every yr to the great motherland to see our loved ones. Around 1993 at the church I was attending I began to hear some buzz about a church in Sydney called hills christian life centre that was sparking a revolution amongst the Christian music scene first in OZ but it was starting to spread world wide and catching fire.

Well amongst the Christians we all know how that story ended. Hills Christian Life Centre eventually became Hillsong Church and who's influence stretched beyond the borders of OZ. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a die hard fan of Hillsong and I am incredibly proud of how the churches in OZ have become a catalyst for change all over the world.

I was listening to pastor Brian Houston once say that he's blown away at the reach of their church. In one weekend in OZ they have 65 services and around the world every weekend more than 50 million people singing one of their songs. Their reach has gone so far that there is a Hillsong Church plant in just about every major city in the world, NYC, LA, London, South Africa, Moscow, Stockholm, Buenos Aires etc. 4 yrs ago when their plant in NYC was born I was hearing his wife Bobbie Houston talk about how the church in NYC was literally a baby that just couldn't wait to come out. The church was born prematurely and on it's first Sunday for both services there are massive lines up of people who couldn't wait to get in.

When the church in NYC was planted no one could have envisioned that Bono or Vanessa Hudgens would be walking through it's doors as regular members. No one could have imagined that Brian Houston's son Joel who pastors it alongside Carl Lentz would be hanging out with Justin Bieber and bringing spiritual healing to his life. The Houstons other son Ben pastors Hillsong Church LA.

And no one could have imagined that Justin Bieber would be taking a plane to Sydney Australia last June to attend Hillsong Conference in Sydney as well as telling his fans to go listen to their newest release called Empires.

 Hillsong church members are in the background of so many things on our world scene. Many years ago 2 young Australian men were caught smuggling drugs in Bali and given a death sentence. This was a huge source of controversy in OZ. It was a little known fact that pastor Brian Houston and members of the Hillsong were actually in touch with these young men bringing them spiritual healing before their execution date. In fact these two young men were singing praise and songs to God as the guns went off ending their earthly existence. The funeral of one the former drug lords was held at Hillsong church.

Another amazing movement born out of a speaker of hillsong church's Christine Caine and the A21 campaign http://www.a21.org   She and the A21 campaign went wouldn't dare go in cracking down on human trafficking. To date they have changed laws in Europe, they have seen traffickers cracked down on, built transition houses for survivors they've rescued. They are also starting to teach curriculum in countries like the Ukraine where there is a high level of trafficking and teaching young women how to avoid being trafficked and what signs to look for. The team is also training security at airports on how to spot signs that a trafficker might be passing through the crowd. And not to mention that since the organization started hundreds of young women have been rescued and continue to be rescued.

So I found it appropriate to post this on Australia day. Even though I grew up in Canada, I wanna acknowledge the incredible achievement the churches of OZ have done to impact our world and I realize that Hillsong has had a tremendous part to play influencing my life.

I know that on this website I get people from all walks of life and all kinds of cultures and faiths. And I always make it a point to only share videos or clips that anyone could enjoy or benefit from even if they are from a different faith. I've chosen to post the above clip of the Hillsong United team when they visited the todays show with Kathy Lee and Hoda talking about their new album Empires.

The single that they do live is called "Touch the Sky" and not only am I in love with the song but apparently Kathy Lee and Hoda are too. This song can resonate with any one of you no matter what faith you embrace. I can't think of a better way to celebrate Australia day than by touching the sky when my knees hit the ground....

Through the Pane Actress Pauline Egan Builds Wells in Africa to Help End Pain

PAULINE EGAN AND LOUIS FERREIRA - THROUGH THE PANE FILM from Pauline Egan on Vimeo.
3 MINUTE EXCERPT FROM AWARD WINNING SHORT FILM 'THROUGH THE PANE'.


It's my birthday and on my special day I get to write about things that make me happy or in this case people that make me happy and great give me joy.

Quiz time.....can you name me brunette actress that does amazing work on screen but also spends time doing humanitarian work? If you guessed Angelina Jolie you are WRONG.  The amazing actress I'm making reference to may not have won an Oscar but won my heart, Pauline Egan. 

I met Pauline at the after party of an indie film premiere called "Focus". As you know at a party there are people that you talk to and you know you'll never see again and you had nothing more than a nice chat. Then there are the people that you get a feeling about and you ask to take their number because you never know that that one connection may lead to. Pauline was the latter. After a brief conversation with he where we bonded over talk about Argentine tango, I knew we had to exchange numbers.

There was something about this actress that left an impression on my mind. Long story short through the magic of social media I found out that not only is she an actress she's a registered nurse who during the summer of 2015 took a break from auditions, shoots, and casting directors to build wells in Africa.  On her first 4 month trip they built 6 wells.




As of this writing there are still 74 communities in need of access to fresh water. So if you weren't around the first time for her adventure to Mozambique, fear not....for every good movie there is a sequel and it won't be long before Pauline will be grabbing her passport again and heading back with Water Underground. And what's even better is that you can be part of her next adventure abroad by clicking this link and donating to Water Underground.  I don't know about you but I really want to one day hear the joyous announcement that all 80 communities now have access to fresh clean water.





Every great movie has interesting plot points, things the characters don't know that are about to happen or things about each other. The nite I met Pauline I had no idea that she was scheduled to go to Africa. That never came up in our conversation. And what she didn't know about me was that I'm abit of a travel guru. I help people who are travelling, going abroad, or thinking about going abroad giving them advice and support.  We didn't learn these things about each other until much later on. So there you had two people laughing and chatting together, one of them about to travel to africa and the other whos gifted in helping travellers. Neither of them had any clue that a match made in heaven was about to happen. The plot thickens.....

Out of all the amazing creatures that inhabit our beautiful planet, if there was one animal I would compare Pauline to it would be to a lionness.  A lionness doesn't have to sit on a hill all day long roaring to prove who she is. She's just calm, solid and dependable, fiercely loyal and protective. Every animal on the african plain would never dare touch her cubs or anything that is dear to her if they want to live to see another gorgeous african sunset.

The spirit of a lionness roars within Pauline. She's one who has a calm solid energy, is dependable, watchful, nurturing, and protective to the ones that she feels are meant to be in her life. In the same way a lionness roams through the plains emanating beauty, power, and majesty, Pauline roams through her life with a deep lionness strength that flows through her veins and an ethereal presence.

I'll never forget when Pauline made an unbreakable vow to me that if I ever go down during the zombie apocalypse, as any true friend would she'll smash my skull to keep me from reanimating as a walker.

"I love you so much I would crush your skull" her exact words to me on twitter. In that moment I knew I had a lifelong friend. I don't know about you but when the zombie virus hits I'm 100% on team Egan all the way. After all,  we know that true friends are the ones that don't let the people that they love roam the earth undead :P



http://www.paulineegan.com



Pauline Egan Blue Mountain State - Trapgame from Pauline Egan on Vimeo.

Defying the Laws of Physics and Gravity with the Wheel of Death.

Working for Cirque Du Soleil one of the amazing perks is getting one complimentary ticket to the show as a visitor. Even though I'm quite familiar with all the acts from also seeing the show through large monitors while working, there is however one act that never ceases to make my heart stop or my mouth run dry every single time I see it. It is an act that takes place in the 2nd part of the show and truth be told, this one act alone is worth the price of the entire ticket. It is an act called "The Wheel of Death" and it has earned its name rightly so. I've a posted a video of the act here on this blog. You may be tempted to bypass it seeing as the video quality is a little less than what we're used to. But I guarantee you that within 2-3 mins of watching it you'll forget where you are, what you are doing, with your eyes glued to this video with your jaw dropped open. The Wheel of Death is the closest thing you'll ever come to seeing human beings defy the laws of gravity and physics.....