The crash of an Iranian Tupolev airliner in northern Iran with 168 people on board comes just two weeks after a Yemenia Airbus A310 crashed in the Indian Ocean off the Comoros with 153 passengers and crew on board, with only one survivor.

That incident occurred just 29 days after the crash of an Air France A330, killing 228. The three crashes make June and July one of the deadliest periods for air travel.

I have to admit that I love flying and while the recent air crashes have saddened and concerned me, I’d still jump on a plane tomorrow if I had the chance.

Has the news of recent air crashes discouraged you from flying? If you had to get from point A to point B would you look for alternate transport? Do you think that flying is still safe?

If you love or hate flying, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just click on the comments link to leave a few words in the comments section of this post.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• March 17, 2009 — Putting life on hold
• May 1, 2008 — Got the time?
• April 21, 2008 — Manic Monday
• April 5, 2008 — The day arrives
• April 4, 2008 — Come fly with me

With more than 70 percent of couples in the United States living together before marrying, and I’d guess a similar number in Australia, this study gives an interesting insight into the alarmingly high divorce rates in both countries.

The study, carried out by researchers from the University of Denver, also shows that those who wait are more likely to have a more satisfying marriage.

An AFP article, Living together before marriage ups chance of divorce: study, quoted researchers explaining some of the main elements of the research findings.

“We think that some couples who move in together without a clear commitment to marriage may wind up sliding into marriage partly because they are already cohabiting,” said senior researcher and study co-author Galena Rhoades.

“It seems wise to talk about commitment and what living together might mean for the future of the relationship before moving in together, especially because cohabiting likely makes it harder to break up compared to dating,” said another researcher, Scott Stanley.

Of course it would be a gross over simplification to suggest that waiting leads to ‘happily ever after’ and living together is a direct pathway to divorce, but it is well worth looking at the research and seeing what we can discover.

Why do people choose living together over marriage? I wonder if it has a lot to do with seeing the breakdown of so many other marriages, especially parents’ marriages.

Some research from a separate study that has appeared in the Journal of Family Issues says the most common reason people choose to live together before marriage is that they want to spend more time together, followed by convenience, followed by testing the relationship.

Testing the relationship used to be the biggest reason but researcher Galena Rhoades suggests it’s also the worst possible reason to move in together.

Cohabiting to test a relationship turns out to be associated with the most problems in relationships.

So what do you think? Are we better off sticking with traditional values and waiting? Can living together lead to long lasting relationships if we are sure about the long term direction of the partnership or does that still lack the committment of marriage?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• February 24, 2009 — The Building Blocks of a Good Marriage
• March 10, 2009 — Characteristics of a good marriage
• September 3, 2008 — Abuse, adultery and desertion
• January 31, 2008 — Dr Pat Love in Perth
• March 8, 2009 — What love language do you speak?

If you’ve ever wanted to be quoted in a book, here’s your opportunity.

Anne Jackson, author of the fabulous Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic which I reviewed here, has a new project underway. She’s writing a new book based on her extremely popular blog post, Keeping Your Mouth Shut. The post asked readers to leave a comment about things they didn’t feel they could say in church. It rapidly gathered hundreds of comments as people confessed the secret thoughts they felt wouldn’t be welcome in church. Some were funny, some very serious.

Anne’s new book, Permission to Speak Freely, is starting to come together but she needs your help. Check out her post Be in My New Book & Get the First 1200 Words Free to see how you can have your confessions added to the book.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• May 11, 2009 — Mad Church Disease
• May 11, 2009 — Holiday Reading
• May 6, 2009 — Life is slow …
• June 27, 2009 — John Piper and Television
• June 10, 2009 — Awesome

On Friday last week I was a Convict for a Cause.

I broadcast my 98.5 Sonshine FM radio programme from Karrinyup Shopping Centre where I was asking people to donate towards Cystic Fibrosis WA so that I could be released. I was joined by fellow announcer Tim Long and a number of guests. Check out the video to see some of the fun we had for a serious cause.

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common life threatening, recessive genetic condition affecting Australian children and is the second most common life-shortening, childhood onset inherited disorder in the United States. For such a serious condition it really doesn’t get a lot of attention.

What can you do to support families who are battling CF?

It’s not too late to donate. Simply click here, choose how much you’d like to give, then fill in your relevant details.

Donations can be accepted on Visa or MasterCard. Please keep in mind that the amounts are in Australian Dollars and of course the tax deductibility is only available in Australia. If you’re not in Australia and you’d like to work out the exchange rate you can work it out through this currency converter.

Thank you for your help with this. Together we can make a very big difference for families who can really do with our support and encouragement.

Other posts you may enjoy:

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Back in February I told you about a sad goodbye. My wife’s sister had just passed away at the age of 41 from cancer.

In the weeks leading up to her death I was throwing an idea around for a bike ride from Perth to Albany. The ride would take my morning radio programme on the road to broadcast from a different town each day. I wanted to give people who had been touched by cancer a chance to tell their story. Whether they’d lost a loved one or survived cancer, I wanted people to have the opportunity to break the silence and let people know that they’ve been through some deep waters. I wanted others who have been touched by cancer to know they’re not alone.

Plans for that ride are now well underway.

As well as giving people opportunity to tell their story we’ll be raising funds for Cancer Council Western Australia.

I have a number of cyclists ready to take part and I’m looking for a few more. Each morning I’ll broadcast my radio programme before hopping onto my bike just after midday to cycle to the next town.

Here’s the itinerary:

Saturday 17th October 2009: Perth to York – 97km

Sunday 18th October 2009: Rest Day

Monday 19th October 2009: York to Pingelly – 87 km

Tuesday 20th October 2009: Pingelly to Wagin – 100 km

Wednesday 21st October 2009: Wagin to Katanning – 55 km

Thursday 22nd October 2009: Katanning to Cranbrook – 80 km

Friday 23rd October 2009: Cranbrook to Albany – 91 km

TOTAL: 510 km

Where to from here?

The task now is to finalise the team of cyclists. I’m hoping that we’ll have around ten to twelve riders. We’ll be followed by support vehicles which will carry all our gear.

If you know anyone in any of the towns along the way who you think would be a good contact, please let me know.

If you’re part of a business that would like to partner with us on the journey, I’m looking for some sponsors for the cycling jerseys. There are different levels of sponsorship for various sized logos on the jerseys.

I also need your story. Have you been touched by cancer? Are you battling cancer now or beaten it in the past? Does a loved one have cancer? Have you lost a friend? If you’d rather not leave your story in the comments section of this post, you can go to my contact page and send me an email.

Sometime soon I’ll let you know how you can donate to Cancer Council Western Australia in support of the ride.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• April 16, 2009 — One more reason
• July 9, 2009 — Can Cadel Still Win?
• June 29, 2009 — Inspiration
• June 1, 2009 — Perth Cycling
• May 20, 2009 — Nick Marvin talks about Perth Wildcats

The two days that are meant to help us get back into balance seem to have become all about activity. We rush around between sporting activities for children, heading out for a spot of shopping, meetings, catching up with friends, catching up on the work we didn’t finish last week, jobs around the house, maintaining the garden. By Sunday evening we collapse in front of the television and try to stay awake long enough to see the end of the programme that we’re watching. Sound familiar?

Once we’re back at work the activity remains frantic. News.com.au is reporting on a recent survey suggesting Aussies’ stress is all work and no play.

NEARLY nine out of 10 Australians are feeling stressed and most blame work for the way they feel, a new poll shows.

Finances, health and personal relationships were also stress factors, a Newspoll commissioned by Lifeline Australia revealed.

I find it interesting that people are mostly blaming work for their stress. I tend to think that we can handle a lot of pressure in our work and private lives if we make sure that we have time out to look after ourselves physically, mentally, socially and spirituality. When we fill our downtime with frantic activity we lose the opportunity to recharge and the pressure becomes stress, which left unaddressed can lead to all kinds of health and relationship issues.

We certainly had a busy weekend but we did have times to relax as a family and with friends. I managed to wind down pretty well last night too. I sat in front of the heater with a glass of red, reading a good book until it was time to head off to bed.

How about you? Do you find time on the weekend to wind down or is it all about frantic activitiy for you?

Maybe it’s time we all took the time to change a few priorities.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• May 12, 2009 — Talking to a Demon
• May 11, 2009 — Mad Church Disease
• May 11, 2009 — Dispensable
• April 29, 2009 — Christian Carnival 274
• April 12, 2009 — Who is the guy with the beard?

This morning I’ll be broadcasting my 98.5 Sonshine FM radio programme from Karrinyup Shopping Centre where I’ll be a convict for a cause. I’ll be asking people to donate towards Cystic Fibrosis WA so that I can be released. I need your help to pull off my very own prison break.

I’ll be joined by fellow announcer Tim Long. Together we’ll broadcast at the shopping centre from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. If you’re local I hope you’ll drop in and say hello. I’m told that I will be allowed visitors and you won’t need to be searched. (Bring a cake with a file in it.)

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common life threatening, recessive genetic condition affecting Australian children and is the second most common life-shortening, childhood onset inherited disorder in the United States. For such a serious condition it really doesn’t get a lot of attention.

What can you do to support families who are battling CF?

Firstly, you can help us by donating. Simply click here, choose how much you’d like to give, then fill in your relevant details.

Donations can be accepted on Visa or MasterCard. Please keep in mind that the amounts are in Australian Dollars and of course the tax deductibility is only available in Australia. If you’re not in Australia and you’d like to work out the exchange rate you can work it out through this currency converter.

The other way you can help is to get the word out. If you publish a blog please link to this post. Can I ask you to email people that you know to highlight what I’ll be doing? Please help me get the word out to as many people as possible. If you use social bookmarking such as StumbleUpon or Digg you can use the buttons at the bottom of this post to share this post with a wider audience. Tell your Facebook friends, Twitter a link to this post, please do whatever you can to highlight what we’re doing. It’s not too late to highlight this very important issue amongst your friends.

Thank you for your help with this. Together we can make a very big difference for families who can really do with our support and encouragement.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• July 6, 2009 — Back Behind Bars
• March 5, 2008 — Cystic Fibrosis Western Australia
• March 1, 2008 — They’re locking me up!
• March 11, 2008 — $2051.60
• June 12, 2009 — Come on in and look around

Being a few seconds outside the time of the leaders is one thing, but being 2:59 down from names like Armstrong and Contodor makes the task almost impossible. Cadel is a great climber but we’ve never seen any evidence that he is good enough to put three minutes or more into the other climbers that stand between him and the yellow jersey.

The wheels came off Cadel’s campaign to win the 2009 Tour de France in the team time trial where his team was well and truly outclassed by the teams of the other favourites.

Thankfully Cadel hasn’t given up on his hopes of winning and if there’s an opportunity to do something spectacular, he’s still in the right frame of mind to take advantage of whatever situation might arise.

I’ve never been in this position at the Tour de France ahead of the mountains stages, so we’ll see what happens, but I’m feeling good. The Tour is not over for me yet.

So to the question, can Cadel Evans still win the 2009 Tour de France, I’d have to answer it’s not a big possiblity, but there’s still a flickering flame of hope, and I’ll be cheering him on whatever position he’s in when the peleton reaches the streets of Paris.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• July 2, 2009 — Let the race begin
• July 25, 2008 — Who will win Tour de France 2008?
• September 10, 2008 — He’s Back!
• July 24, 2008 — Can Cadel still win the Tour de France?
• July 5, 2008 — Tour de France 2008