Sunday, 18 May, 2014

Dad finished up his first course yesterday and he was really pleased with how the whole course went.  All of the guys passed the exam which is always good. :-)  After each course, Dad gives out an evaluation form about the course and the instructor.  Dad received wonderful comments about his teaching - it always feels good when others appreciate your knowledge.  We had two visitors to our unit this week: Munir (a colleague of Dad's who is actually leaving the company) and Harry (Dad's boss).  Harry actually treated us to take-out last night.  After that, Dad and Harry spent the evening reloading the ipads which the students use for the course.

I have now knitted eight baby beanies and two adult beanies.  I was able to stitch up the adult beanies without assistance and they look okay.  I don't want to try and do it with the baby beanies on my own, though, as I want to make sure that they are done perfectly.  I also started on my online course 'Sharing the Gospel' this week.  After stating the objectives of the course, the main one being that 'the main purpose of missionary work is to bring people to Christ', I learned about the growth of the church in the past 150 years.  It's amazing how fast it has grown, especially since the 1960s.  There are little tests every now and then and, so far, I have passed the ones I have taken.  I had to take a pretest for one of the sections and got 6 / 12 - not too bad, eh? :-)  On Friday, I finally took advantage of the gym here in the building and did a half hour on the treadmill.  I hope to get more use of it in our final week here.

Dad had Tuesday off and so we decided to go to Rottnest Island which is 18 kms off the coast of Western Australia.  We caught a ferry from Perth and it took 1 1/2 hours to get to the island.  Once there, we took three walking tours given by volunteers on the island.  There are not very many permanent residents on the island, but there is a school and a teacher there (something like 5 - 9 kids over grades Kindergarten - 5 -- I'll put up my hand for that job :-)  The three walking tours we took were: 1) Reefs Wrecks and Daring Sailors Discovery Walk - Pilots were stationed on Rottnest Island between 1848 and 1903 to guide ships safely around the Island's dangerous reefs. This free walk from the Visitors Centre to the Bathurst Lighthouse involves enthralling tales of the exploits of the Pilots and crew on Rottnest. The tour incorporates the pilot crew accommodation, the boathouse and replica pilot boat;  2) Quokka Walk - Rottnest Island's famous marsupial, the quokka, is discovered in this informative walking tour. With an educational focus, this walk
leads participants to the quokka's natural habitats and imparts some interesting facts about this iconic animal; and 3) History of the Settlement Walk - A free guided history tour around the settlement. See where gaolers and ship pilots lived and worked. Discover why Rottnest

became an Aboriginal 'open prison' in 1839. The volunteer guides were fabulous - they have such an amazing knowledge of the island and its peoples and animals.  The weather was fabulous - we had a wonderful day out.

the red ferry in front is the one we took to Rottnest Island

a quokka

tree knocked down by strong winds which began growing upwards again

 a building built by aboriginal convicts 

our view from the seats at the back of the ferry on the way back to Perth

"Millionaire's Row" on the way back to Perth

Sunday, 11 May, 1990

Dad's course continues to go well.  Two new students joined the class for four days last week - they just needed to complete one part of the course.  One of Dad's colleagues, John, joined us in the unit on Wednesday for three days.  He was teaching a different course at the airport, but joined us for dinner each night.  We had met him once before in Melbourne, where he and his family live, but it was nice to get to know him better.

I continued on with my knitting this week and have now completed five baby beanies.  I am alternating between the three colours just to give myself some variety.  I also signed up for a free online course from BYU about preparing to serve a mission.  It's actually geared to young people getting ready to go on a mission, but I figure that it should be pretty much the same for older couples who want to go.  Since Dad and I want to serve a mission when we retire, why not start now to prepare.  I have also started reading a new series of books: Rizzoli and Isles - a detective series which has been made into a tv series - I like watching the tv show and the books have turned out to be quite good so far.

Thursday night Dad and I went to the movies.  Dad's boss had remembered that I had talked with him in Brisbane about how expensive movies were here in Australia ($19. per person here in Perth) and he sent us a movie gift card that was lying around the office and expires next month.  There wasn't much showing that we were terribly interested in, but we wanted to use the card since Chris had been kind enough to send it to us.  The best of the lot seemed to be a movie called 'Chef' - it received good  comments on rottentomatoes.com.  It was an 'okay' movie - nothing to write home about - more of a tv movie-of-the-week, I thought.  I was glad that I had not spent my own money to go and see it.  We are hoping that something better will come out in the next two weeks before I head back to Canada.

Dad finished work early yesterday and so we headed down to Kings Park - an incredibly beautiful park in Perth.  They have free guided walks given by volunteers and so we decided to go on one of those.  It was a walking tour through the Botanic Gardens.  The tour guide, Margaret, was so knowledgeable about the plants/shrubs/flowers/trees in the park and so it was interesting to be on her tour.  Dad and I want to go and take another free guided tour in Kings Park tomorrow - this one is called 'Kings Park: Past and Present'.

Saturday night, we went to a see a play with our friend, Rosalea, which was put on by an LDS theatre group in her Stake.  It was called 'The Importance of Being Earnest'.  It's a British comedy play and the actors did quite a good job.  After church today, we went to Rosalea's for dinner with her children.  As it turned out, her youngest son got the time wrong and so didn't show up until after we'd eaten and her middle daughter didn't show up as she wasn't feeling well.  Her oldest daughter came along with her husband and daughter, but wanted to wait until her brother showed up to eat and we had to go early to let another of Dad's colleagues into the unit here.  So, Dad and I ate dinner with Rosalea without any of her kids.  I felt bad for her since it was Mother's Day and it didn't turn out as she had hoped.  It was a delicious meal for us, though.

Sunday, 4 May, 2014

Dad's course is going really well although Dad found the long hours this week to be tiring.  There was a lot of information to cover this week and so they needed to work long hours each day to get through all of the material.  Dad found that he was tired by the end of each day and that during the last hour he was sometimes losing some of the guys.  He said that this coming week they will be doing shorter hours which will work way better.

For this week, while Dad has been teaching, I have been relaxing inside the apartment.  I have been doing more knitting and now have almost completed three baby beanies (white, pink and blue) and they look so adorable.  I haven't sewn up the sides of the beanies yet - I need to go onto the internet and check out more closely how to do this.

On Thursday, Dad and I got back to our healthy eating.  We feel so much better when we are eating healthy and getting out and getting some exercise and fresh air and sunshine each day.  We are keeping track of what we eat and what exercise we do each day.  Our goal is to do some kind of exercise at least four times a week.  Right now, we are walking to get our exercise in.  Whenever we get back to HB, we will also be going for bike rides.  I am also looking forward to getting back to going swimming.  The weather here in Perth has not been good for swimming outside (too cool) and I do miss swimming.  I also plan on doing pilates three times a week while in Australia - there's a pilates show on tv each morning which I can follow.

Yesterday, Dad and I decided to be tourists for the day and so went on a bus tour of the city of Perth.  It was on one of those hop-on / hop-off buses which gives commentary as you drive along.

Perth is a very nice city - lots of nice architecture and some really nice parks.

Dad and I enjoyed the two hour ride and then got off the bus at The Art Gallery of Western Australia and spent the afternoon there.  We went on a guided tour of one of the exhibits of an Australian artist and then just wandered through the gallery at our own pace.  The last exhibit we checked out was one showcasing the artwork of the graduating grade 12 students of schools in Perth.  Their artwork was AMAZING - they are so talented. My favourite was 'Creation Aspiration' by David Lane (the middle picture below) and 'Khmer Grandmother' by Jessie Lee was voted the most popular by the art gallery audiences (picture on the right below).

Here's a link to what was displayed - it doesn't do the work justice, but you can get an idea of  what was shown.

http://www.artgallery.wa.gov.au/exhibitions/documents/130035_Yr12_Perspectives_ONLINE.pdf

I bought a print of one of the paintings in the gallery which I loved when I saw it - very typical Aussie scene.  When I get home to HB, I will find a frame and then a place in our home to hang it.




Today, Dad and I were invited over to Rob and Rosalea's place for lunch, church and dinner.  Rob and Rosalea are good friends of ours who used to live in Hervey Bay.  It was lovely to get together with them again and to spend some time with them.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

We did a lot of relaxing this week along with going to a couple of appointments and hanging out with friends.  Dad and I have both enjoyed spending time outside relaxing on our chaise lounges and eating our meals outside on our patio.  I have been reading a book called 'Friday Night Knitting Club' - it's one of those books which is about different people's lives who meet up every Friday night to do something in common (knit).  I only got to chapter 4 before I had to return the book to the library.  I will have to wait until I get back to Canada to take it out from the library. :-)

Tuesday was massage day and was I ever happy to be back on that massage table.  I even talked Dad into going for one.  Ali (the massage therapist) is amazing.  He had told me that getting a massage before going to the chiropractor really helps keep the muscles relaxed and so helps also to keep the adjustment working longer.  Dad said that he quite enjoyed the massage and that it was very relaxing - he is looking forward to going again when we get back to HB.  He went to the chiropractor in the afternoon of the massage and said that next time he will get the appointments closer together as he thinks that the massage will be more effective than it was this time.

On Wednesday, we went out with friends to the beach for the afternoon.  Our friends, Denise and Rob, have a two person kayak and we met up with them and Robyn and Geoff.  Their kayak is awesome - you can make it go by using your feet on these pedals or the regular way with oars.  Dad and I want to buy a kayak/kayaks and are trying to decide whether to get one two-person kayak or two single-person kayaks.  Denise took me out in the kayak first and we had a nice time on the water - we even saw a turtle.  The only thing was that she went out too far for me - I know that there are sharks in the ocean and while there hasn't been any problems with them in HB, I am still aware that they are out there and it makes me anxious to go too far out.  After Denise and I went out, I went out with Robyn and then again with Dad.  Dad loved the kayak and is doing more research to find out which kayak we will buy.

Our flight to Perth on Friday was uneventful and it was nice to get to the unit.  We were hoping to do some sightseeing yesterday - we had picked out a double decker bus tour around Perth that we thought would be fun to do - however, it was raining and so we ended up staying home.  It was a good thing that we did, though, as it turned out that Dad needed more time than he thought he would to prepare things for his first day on the course tomorrow.  So, while he prepped, I knitted - I finished one doll blanket (I already finished one earlier this week) and also finished one of the baby beanies for the preemie babies at the hospital.  Now I am working on a knitted doll which is going to be sent to a hospital to give to children who are coming in for an operation.

top left: crocheted doll blanket

bottom left: knitted doll blanket

back right: preemie baby beanie

bottom right: the start of the knitted doll

Sunday, 20 April, 2014

On Monday, we went to visit with Wendy and Norm Keilar and had such a lovely time with them.  Wendy and Nana used to work together  many years ago in Wagga and have been friends ever since.  When Nana and Warren came to visit us in Australia, we spent three days at Norm and Wendy's and they were such gracious hosts.  We wanted to visit with them again this time we were in Melbourne and take them out to lunch to say thanks for hosting us back then.  When we arrived at their home, we spent some time chatting with them before heading out to the restaurant they had chosen.  It's a little cafe called Miss Marple's Tea Room in a place called Sassafras in the Dandenong Mountains.  Miss Marple is a fictional character appearing in Agatha Christie's crime novels.  Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. The tea room is really quaint and very popular.



The food was really yummy!  I had a delicious quiche lorraine, Dad had a ploughman's lunch, Wendy had a pastie and Norm had fish and chips.  Mmmm.

Next time we go back to visit with Norm and Wendy, they told us we will come back to the tea room and just have dessert.  Apparently, the desserts are huge - looking forward to that! :-)

We flew home to HB on Tuesday and our 'personal chauffeur', Rob (the shuttle guy) brought us home.  It was so good to be back home again (even if it is only for ten days).  Everything was as Dad had left it, other than the lawn which looked more like a jungle.  I was surprised that the neighbours hadn't made a petition to kick us out. :-)  While we were at the airport in Melbourne, Robyn and Geoff had called us and invited us to come to dinner at their house that night.  That was a lovely surprise  and one that we looked forward to all day - we really missed them.  Robyn had cooked a fabulous roast lamb dinner - what a treat!  And it was great catching up with them again.

I love how homey our house looks now with all of the pictures/paintings/photos placed around (thanks to Dad and my friend, Pauline).  The 'family' photo wall in the family room looks fabulous!  Dad put up the 'Family' sign (thanks, Jennifer) above the photo frames and I love it!  My goal is to get a photo of every grandchild, each girl's family, our family, parents and grandparents.  I'm hoping to connect with Dad's Aunt Janet when I am back in Canada to see if I can get a photo of Grandma and Grandpa Noble.

Thursday was a busy day of appointments.  First stop was to the doctor's so that he could look at my third finger on my right hand.  I thought that it was sprained, but it had been hurting for over two weeks and so I wanted to make sure that it wasn't broken.  Dr. Schnetler wasn't too worried about it (it definitely wasn't broken, he said), but he wasn't sure what it was, so he had me go straight to the radiology place to get an x-ray.  He wanted to get the results right away as he was going away for ten days starting the next day.  I was able to come back to the radiology place that afternoon and get the results and take them straight back to the doctor.  The good news is that it was only sprained.  The not so good news is that it could take a while to heal and stop hurting/stinging.  He told me to put a bandaid around the third and fourth finger so that they are buddies.  He said that that would act like a crutch to the sprained finger - that the fourth finger would help the third finger.

After our doctor's visit, we headed over to our hairdresser, Christa, to get our hair cut. Both Dad and I prefer to get Christa to cut our hair and so, whenever we get back to HB, we make an appointment with her.  After that, it was time for a lovely walk on the beach.  What a perfect day it was, too - sunny and warm (28C).  We walked for an hour and were in heaven.  We love living in HB -  I'm sure you can see why. :-)

I have been thinking about what I can do with myself when we are away from home and Dad is teaching.  I do most of the cooking and getting Dad's breakfast and lunch organized and cleaning up afterwards.  But, during the day when he is teaching, I have a lot of time to myself.  I do spend some of that time studying my Sunday lessons and exercising (walking and swimming), but that still leaves a lot of down time.  A thought came to me that knitting and crocheting are things that I enjoy and things that are easily taken on airplanes.  But what to knit?  Then the thought came to me that I could possibly do something for charity.  After some searching on the internet and talking with my hairdresser, I have two options to check out.  One is making beanies for babies in the local hospital and the other is making lap blankets for the old folks in nursing homes.  Dad and I are going to check out both of these ideas next week.  I have also found some other ideas on the net - both are making things for charity.  I have cut and pasted the websites here if you want to see what I am hoping to make.  http://www.ausee.org/ausEE%20Knitted%20Doll%20Pattern.pdf and  http://www.miraclebabies.org.au/miraclebabies/assets/File/Baby_Hearts_-_Knitted.pdf .   I am planning to work on these projects while I am in Perth.

This weekend was Easter weekend and it's also school holidays and so downtown Hervey Bay, especially along the esplanade and the beach, are crazy busy.  Most of the weekend, we spent sitting  outside on our chaise lounges relaxing in the warmth.  We did make one trip downtown, though.  Dad has been researching remote control helicopters for a while now and this weekend, we went down to the hobby shop in town and bought one for him.  He is loving playing with it - it will be something for him to do when he is away from home without me. :-)

Sunday, 13 April, 2014

It has taken me much of this week to get back on track here - this is the worst it's ever been for me when returning from Canada.  I still have my cold which is wearing me out, but I am on track for getting up at a decent time in the morning, so there has been progress. :-)

Dad finished up teaching his course yesterday.  He was very pleased with how things went overall and received some positive feedback from the guys on the course.  We were able to stay in Melbourne to complete the course so we were really happy about that.  Dad had to go to the airport late on Thursday and Friday night this week as that was the time they were able to use the plane to complete the hands-on part of the course with the guys.  Dad was able to have as much time as he wanted on the plane and so was able to give the guys a very thorough look at the cockpit which was the part he was mainly focused on.

Dad asked his company if we could stay in Melbourne for a few days and so we don't have to leave here until Tuesday morning.  We wanted to catch up with a few people before we left.  Ian (a guy who served his mission in HB and who lives in Melbourne) met us at church today and then came over to our house for lunch.  We didn't have much to offer him as we had let our supplies run down since we are leaving on Tuesday.  We had a really nice visit with him, though.  We have also planned on going to see our friends, Wendy and Norm (Nana's friends) tomorrow, which we are really looking forward to.  We especially want to treat them out to lunch to thank them for hosting us at their place when Nana and Warren were here.

The weather in Melbourne was not very conducive to going for walks this week.  Melbourne is known for cloudy skies and rain and it didn't vary from that much this week.  We did get to go out for a lovely walk yesterday, though.  When I was in Canada, Dad was going for a walk almost every day (when the weather held up) and he preferred to go to this park nearby where we are staying.  So, that's where we went for our walk yesterday.  It is a lovely park full of trees, shrubs and grass - and because of the rain, it's really green.  Dad and I even commented that it reminded us of our trip to Ireland (which has so many shades of green, you wouldn't believe it!).  My camera stopped working in Canada and so I wasn't able to get any photos of the park - when I get a new camera and we get back to Melbourne, I will take some photos so that you can see how beautiful it is there.  It was a cool day which was perfect for a long walk and we really enjoyed getting out in the fresh air and sunshine.

I loved watching General Conference today - here in Australia, they download the conference videos during the week after the conference is shown in North America and then broadcast it the following Sunday.  The talk which really spoke to me was given by Elder M.Russell Ballard entitled "Following Up".  In it, he spoke of the importance of sharing the gospel with others.  In part, he said "may I suggest that we can all be more consistently involved in missionary work by replacing our fear with real faith, inviting someone at least once a quarter—or four times every year—to be taught by the full-time missionaries. They are prepared to teach by the Spirit, with sincere and heartfelt inspiration from the Lord. Together we can follow up on our invitations, take others by the hand, lift them up, and walk with them on their spiritual journey.

To help you in this process, I invite all members, regardless of your current calling or level of activity in the Church, to obtain a copy of Preach My Gospel. It is available through our distribution centers and also online. The online version can be read or downloaded at no cost. It is a guidebook for missionary work—which means it is a guidebook for all of us. Read it, study it, and then apply what you learn to help you understand how to bring souls to Christ through invitation and follow-up. As President Thomas S. Monson has said, “Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together, to work together, to labor in the Lord’s vineyard to bring souls unto Him.”

There are practical ways for members to help and support our remarkable missionaries. For example, you can tell the missionaries that you are studying Preach My Gospel and ask them to show you what they are learning in their studies. As you share with each other, increased confidence between members and full-time missionaries will surely develop, just as the Lord commanded:

“But that every man [and woman] might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world.”⁷

And “Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor.”⁸

Brothers and sisters, can you imagine the impact if family and friends included things they are learning from their personal study of Preach My Gospel in their letters and emails to their full-time missionaries? Can you picture the blessings that will come to families when they know and understand better what their sons and daughters will be studying and teaching on their missions? Can you even begin to fathom the extraordinary outpouring of atoning grace that will be ours, individually and collectively, according to the Savior’s promise to all who bear testimony in the process of inviting souls to come unto Him—and then following up on those invitations?"

I have been thinking about studying "Preach My Gospel" for a while and have actually perused the book to see what each section talked about.  Dad and I want to serve a mission one day and know that this book can really help us to be better missionaries.  I have even kept on hand in my Inbox a series of Family Home Evening lessons which will help us to use the book more effectively.  Dad and I both want to start studying these lessons and plan to start this coming week.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

It's good to be home ............. well, sort of home. :-)  I wasn't sure if I was going to make it home on the day I had planned.  For some reason, the flights were full coming out of Toronto to Vancouver on Tuesday night.  I can't understand why it was so busy, but thankfully, I was able to get a seat on the plane to Vancouver.  Once I arrived there, I was able to get up front to Sydney.  I was able to get a good sleep on the plane, although it was broken up sleep.  For some reason, when I do that portion of the flight, I usually can only sleep 4 - 5 hours in a stretch before waking up for a couple of hours and then falling back to sleep for a few hours.  It sure is a nice way to travel, though. From Sydney, I hopped on another plane for the short flight to Melbourne where Dad picked me up from the airport - he had just finished teaching when I called him to tell him that I had arrived.

I had caught a cold a few days before leaving Canada and so my body was already weakened - then, to put the jet lag on top of that, I was soooooo tired - way more tired than I normally am when I get back to Oz. Usually, I can stay up until 8pm before falling into bed, but on Thursday night, I was 'napping' by 4pm and, after a yummy takeaway dinner of chiko roll and  chips (french fries), I went to sleep at 6:30pm.  Unfortunately, because I went to bed so early, I was up at 4am the next morning.  Grrrrr.  Our days have been pretty much relaxed since I arrived.  Dad taught on Friday and then did a lot of prepping on Saturday.  I woke up early (4am) both Saturday and Sunday mornings.  I hope that I can somehow get back on track soon.

We were given a warm welcome back to our ward in Melbourne.  Dad and I feel like this is our adopted ward since Dad has taught so much here in Melbourne.  We feel so comfortable here in Glenroy Ward.  I love how we can go to church in Canada on one Sunday and to church in Australia the next Sunday and things are the same - even the Sunday School lesson continued on the same.  I love it!

We're still not sure what's happening with regards to where we are going to be this week and whether or not we are going to go home for a bit before heading off to Perth.  The plan right now is to stay here in Melbourne for another week if Dad's company can arrange a plane for Dad and his students to look at.  There are two students on the course who actually work for the company who maintain the plane here in Melbourne and they have told Dad that there should be no problem for them to use their plane to cover the items Dad needs to for this course - hopefully, we will find out by Monday whether that is going to happen.
We would really like to be able to go home before heading off to Perth.

It's been great getting back into my shorts and t-shirt and sandals here - the weather is better in HB than in Melbourne, but no complaining for me, that's for sure. :-)  It was 22C when I arrived in Melbourne and today it's 25C.  The only thing about Melbourne is that it's often cloudy and wet - kind of reminds me of BC and England.  My friend, Robyn, in HB told me that it's been hot there - looking forward to that if we get to go home next week. :-)