From Meaghan: Turtle power

When a group of us went to Blairgowrie it seemed that Ben was either full of
energy, dominating the kitchen to single-handedly cook carbonara for
10, organising a dusk expedition over the dunes and leading us through
the bush when we got lost, or a complete sloth, retiring to the futon
and refusing to move for a board game, movie or even to animate his
conversation.

His energy levels were no reflection on his mood, it just seemed that
Ben's aim for a beach holiday fluctuated between activity and
condensed relaxation.

This evening Ben was in sloth mode, and I pulled up a cushion to join
him. We lazily struck up a conversation, which morphed into a Q & A
session and then into playing 'clinkers'. We didn't actually have any
'clinkers' available, so we contented ourselves with taking a bite
from an imaginary chocolate, rolling our eyes as we savoured the
imaginary flavour and waiting to hear if our prediction of the colour
matched what the other had imagined.

Wrong guesses required answers to questions such as what makes a church a good church…and what our favourite graffiti in the Bailleau [Melbourne Uni library] was.

Ben's was "Turtle Power" on carrel 25 [below] in the basement.
[Click on the photo and zoom in for turtle details.]



carrel |ˈkar(ə)l| noun
a small cubicle with a desk for the use of a reader or student in a library.

Mallacoota Theos

Mallacoota in far eastern Victoria was one of Ben's special places because of the years he spent on the Theos outreach team each summer. This video is a promo for Theos made after Ben died, but he features in a number of the scenes along with many lovely friends.

Snippets

When we emailed Jess about using the story below for the blog, we
asked if she had any other tales about Ben. She said:

I'll have to search my mind for any other good anecdotes that haven't
already been told. Mostly my memories of Ben are little snippets...
Like the way he could charm any cat into cuddling him for hours, but
didn't care much for dogs (too eager to please I think). Or how he was
such a wild feral jungle kid when he had dreads, but as soon as they
were gone he became Mr Stylish and was immaculately presented, all the
time.

Soccer anyone?

Ben and Jess directed Mallacoota Theos youth outreach together. Jess remembers...

This is a memory of Ben from Theos 2005/06. It was the year of the rustic Ben - very tanned, blonde dreads...spent most of his time in boardies and a blue wife beater :)

We were out on the oval one afternoon playing soccer when I rolled my ankle. Stubbornly I kept playing, even though the most pace I could get up was a pretty pathetic hobble. Finally someone (in desperation?) passed the ball to me, but when I looked up there was Ben pelting toward me like a steam train, moving in for the tackle.

I think a squeak of terror was all I managed to get out before we collided... but imagine my surprise when instead of flying through the air for an awkward landing, I was gracefully slung up over one shoulder as he neatly collected the ball and kept running.

He ran all the way down the field, and either scored a goal or came pretty close to, with me held up by one arm! I retired after that... but it certainly made my day :)