Sunday, December 27, 2015

On Monday, Dad and I drove to a bed and breakfast just outside of a little village called Montville which is about 2 1/2 hours from Hervey Bay.  Dad really needed some downtime and so I found this perfect little B & B to go to for three days.  It was up in the hills in a rainforest kind of setting.  Megan and Arthur run the B & B and they have built a beautiful place.  We had the guest flat which was one big room with a bed, dining table and kitchenette (with microwave and kettle) and a separate bathroom.  The decor was really nice, the bed was so comfortable and the food provided for breakfast was delicious (locally sourced yogurt, blueberries, cereal, bread, mango smoothie, etc.).  The flat had folding patio doors which folded out all the way across the room.  The flat is very private so we opened up the doors the whole way every morning.  It was amazing to see the beautiful scenery from the room.  They also had a salt water pool which we enjoyed all three days we were there.  Megan and Arthur joined us in the pool the first day and we had a really nice long chat with them - very friendly and very hospitable people.

 Dad laying on the bed in our B & B

Looking out the window of our B & B with the folding patio doors open

 View from our balcony

 Another view from the balcony of our guest flat

 Our guest flat

 Our guest flat

 Me in the salt water pool at the B & B

 Kookaburra in the tree outside our B & B

Dad was a bit weary after his full year of work and being a student, so we really didn't do much of anything for those three days.  We spent some time just relaxing in the room, some time in the pool, some time geocaching and some time walking the main street of Montville (cute little shops and cafes - expensive to buy things, but nice to look at).  We ate a big lunch at a restaurant each day and then had toast and fruit for dinner each evening since we didn't want to go out again in the evenings. Those three days were wonderful and very rejuvenating for Dad.

 Rick's Garage where we ate lunch the second day (where the band plays in the evenings)

  Walls of Rick's Garage

 Dad with his chicken wings for lunch

  Me with my hamburger and fries for lunch

  View of Rick's Garage from across the street

  Christmas store in Montville

  View from cafe in Montville

  Hanging canvas Christmas scene hanging at a church in Montville

  the scenery around Montville

  In Montville

   Cuckoo clock store sign in Montville

 Cuckoo clocks inside the store in Montville

 Cuckoo clocks inside the store in Montville

 Gardens of a little cafe we sat in in Montville

Iced chocolate made with real Belgian chocolate we had in a little cafe in Montville

After checking out of our B & B, we drove to a little place near Montville called Maleny - it's famous for its milk, yogurt and especially its cheese.  We did a geocache there and walked up and down the main street, stopping for 'morning tea' at a little cafe (I had a vanilla slice and Dad had an apple turnover).

 Scenery between Montville and Maleny

 Love locks on a fence on the way to Maleny (love locks or love padlocks are padlocks which sweethearts lock to a bridge, fence, gate, or similar public fixture to symbolize their love - typically, the sweethearts' names or initials are inscribed on the padlock, and its key is thrown away to symbolize unbreakable love)

Scenery on the way to Maleny

 Dad standing in front of where we found a geocache (behind the cow's udder)

On Friday, I spent a lot of the day typing out personal notes to the people who I was sending Christmas newsletter emails to.  I decided that rather than send a general letter to everyone, I would write a short personal note in each email and then attach the Christmas newsletter and photos.  I thought it was a nice touch to write the emails this way, but it sure took a long time to do it.  Dad still wasn't up to doing much and so we ended up not going out for our Christmas barbecue on Christmas Day.

On Saturday, however, Dad was ready and raring to go and so, we carried out our Christmas Day plans on Boxing Day.  We started off the morning going geocaching.  Dad had found four geocaches along a nature trail and so off we went to find them.  We enjoyed the walk, but it was so hot out and by the time we were done with the caches, we were sweating like crazy.  So, off we went to the beach for a swim - the water was lovely and we had such a great time in the ocean.  After going home and showering and changing, we got our stuff together for dinner and headed back down to the beach again.  Dad barbecued some lamb chops which were delicious - it was lovely sitting near the beach eating lamb chops and salad.  When we got home, we had some pavlova which we had made the day before.  What a yummy Christmas (Boxing Day) dinner!

 Our first geocache

 The name of the cache is "A prickly situation" - get it? :-)

 Our second geocache (it was called 'What a hoot' - get it? :-)

 Dad sitting on one of the benches along the trail (this was near the end of geocaching)

 Me holding my 'hiking stick' standing beside one of the trailmarker posts placed along the trail

 Proof we went swimming on Boxing Day :-)

 Dad in the water on Boxing Day

 Dad cooking our lamb chops on the barbecue beside the beach

 View from the barbecue

 Dad's Christmas dinner on Boxing Day

My Christmas dinner

Our Christmas dessert - delicious pavlova

Sunday, 20 December, 2015

We are home - yay!  We do love travelling and Dad loves teaching, but sometimes we just long to be home.  Dad's course this week went very well - he had 12 students, three of which were QAC instructors.  He was teaching a course on an engine and it was a relaxing week compared to the previous two weeks in Melbourne and the previous course in Montreal.  Dad said he was a bit tired at the end of this third week and he is looking forward to a little break.

I kept myself busy this week with joining a card making class at the local library - I learned how to make some Christmas cards - very basic, but I wanted to get an idea of how it's done as the first Relief Society activity in January is going to be card making.  I thought I did a pretty good job considering that I am not terribly creative. :-)  I also returned to the knitting group at the other library - the lady in charge of the group helped me to understand how I was supposed to sew up the reindeer I am knitting for a friend of mine.  I just couldn't seem to understand the written instructions - once she explained it to me, it seemed so obvious.

We flew home yesterday with a stop at the airport in Brisbane.  Melinda, one of Dad's bosses, met us there to collect the course paperwork from Dad and also to give us a lovely Christmas giftbasket.  It was full of delicious treats such as Christmas puddings, coconut ice, mixed nuts, figs, etc.  It was so nice of them to show Dad their appreciation for all his hard work.  When we got to HB, our 'chauffeur' was waiting for us at the airport - we are so glad that Rob and Bernie have the airport shuttle business - it's great knowing that we can count on them to shuttle us back and forth every time we fly in / fly out of Hervey Bay.  Everything was in place when we got home which is always nice to see.

Everyone welcomed us back at church today - the members were all happy that we were actually going to be home for more than just a few days.

Sunday, 13 December, 2015

We booked a cruise - woo hoo!!!  We are so looking forward to it!  We have been looking at cruises for quite a while now - it's been almost four years since we have been on a cruise and we've really been missing it.  I was looking online and found a 13 day cruise to some islands east of Australia (Vanuatu and New Caledonia) for an amazing price!  AND, we are going to get a balcony cabin - we have never had a balcony cabin before and we are looking forward to seeing how different it makes things for us.  There's not much to do in the places we are going to that we haven't done before, but we are not really going on this cruise to see anything, but rather to just relax and have everything done for us.

On Wednesday, I went to a knitting club held at a library near the unit.  I had read in a pamphlet from our local library here that a knitting club was being held weekly at another library and that they made items for charity.  I thought it would be great to go along and find out two things: how to sew up a knitted item (I have so many knitted things completed except for the sewing up) and also what they make for charity and who they give the items to.  The leader of the group is a woman who works for the library and there were four women there besides me.  The leader showed me how to sew up a toque I had previously knitted and I finished up that one and another one which I left with her.  The charity they knit for is a local homeless shelter.  She said that they will take any knitted item - she had some donated wool there and so I took some to make a scarf.  I told her that I would work on some other items as well and bring them back to her when we are back in Melbourne again next year

Dad's course finished on Friday and he was glad to be finished it.  It was a very jam-packed course and the days were quite long.  He had 12 students on the course and they had varying levels of experience, so it was a challenge to teach such a varied group of guys.  They did all pass, though, so that was a good thing.  As usual, Dad received very favourable reviews from the mechanics in relation to his teaching ability and knowledge.

The weather was so nice this weekend and so Dad and I got out in the fresh air and went geocaching both Saturday and Sunday.  We looked for 12 geocaches over the two days and were able to locate 11 of them - we are pretty sure that the one we couldn't find wasn't actually there as there had been some construction changes in the area which we think might have disturbed the cache.  Dad sent a note to the owner of the cache and we'll see what he/she says.  We have found 73 geocaches so far and every time we go out looking for them, we have a great time - we enjoy being outside and it's a fun way to get exercise, as well.

 Look who came to greet us at our first cache of the day

 Dad 'talking' with the goats

 Isn't he/she adorable?

 What a great cache location - we had to lift up the metal number plate on the pole which looked like it actually belonged on the pole - they had drilled a hole in the pole and then covered it with the metal plate - one of our favourites, for sure

 Close-up view of the hole in the pole with the container inside the hole

  Two of many kangaroos we saw on the way to the final cache on Saturday - the male on the left was absolutely HUGE!

What a great action shot Dad got!

 More kangaroos in the field

 The cache was in the middle of a hollow log - when I bent down to look into the log, I was surprised to see a small goanna sunning itself - it was very well camouflaged - can you see it?

 Here's a closer look

 Can you see the cache inside the hollow log with the goanna guarding it?

 See the pine cone?  It was hanging on a branch of the tree and it looked kind of out of place to me - I asked Dad to check it and it was a fake - someone had taken a real pine cone, but drilled out the centre and inserted a small container with a screw top - the top of the pine cone had a hook on it which was hung on a branch - very clever!

 A bunny we saw on our way to another cache

 A very clever cache named 'You call this archaeology' - I love the clues which the names of the cache sometimes give us - this one you had to 'dig' under some leaves and branches to find it

 This one was tricky to actually get - it's attached to that chain in the middle of the picture - it was under a bridge which was over a creek, but Dad had to really stretch to get the container attached to the chain - I was a bit worried he might fall in, he had to stretch so far

A selfie after the final cache of the day on Sunday - we love being out in nature!

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Wow, it's been 2 1/2 weeks since we arrived back in Australia - where has the time gone!  Dad and I both had a good flight back to Oz - I was so happy to be upgraded from Vancouver to Sydney - I got the best sleep I have ever had on that leg of the journey.  It took us about three days to get back to our Aussie body clock - I do not enjoy getting up at 3am, I can tell you. :-)

I was called as the Relief Society Meeting Co-ordinator before we went to Canada which basically means that I will be working with Robyn, 1st counsellor in the Relief Society presidency, to plan and carry out activities for the women in the ward.  We are planning on having one activity a month, so we are going to be very busy organizing things during the year.  I was so happy to be called to this position as it will help me to feel more a part of our ward - it's been tough with not being at home much.  Everyone is so welcoming when we come home and that makes us feel really good, but it's nice now to be able to contribute to the ward even when I am away.

So, I spent time in Montreal (mostly on Pinterest - love that site!) coming up with some activities which I think the sisters will enjoy.  I also came up with a spiritual thought that would go along with the activity.  We want to have activities for the sisters which will  help them get to know each other better and also give them an opportunity to serve others.

I spent most of our one week at home with Robyn going over the activities I had come up with and she added her thoughts (two heads really are better than one!).  We also planned out the December activity (which I won't be at) completely so that Robyn knew what she needed to do for that day.  We also bought all the supplies she will need for the day.  They are going to have a 'speed friendshipping' activity first - kind of like speed dating where you ask questions of a person in front of you and then change to a new person every three minutes.  They will then have a progressive dinner - usually this is done by going to a different home for a different course of a meal.  We are doing it a little differently.  We are making a hexagon with six tables which will sit four sisters on the inside and four on the outside of each table.  The older sisters will sit on the inside and they will not move.  The younger sisters, who will be sitting on the outside of the tables, will rotate one table for each course of the meal.  I wish I could be there, but Robyn has promised she will take lots of pics for me.

We have been down here in Melbourne for a week now and the weather has been crazy - there's a saying down here: 'if you don't like the weather in Melbourne, wait five minutes!'.  They are not wrong.  It will be super hot one day and then the next day, you will need a sweater - crazy!  Dad's course has been going really well - there are 12 guys on the course - some of them are newbies, though (meaning that this is their first course after their basic training) and that has been a bit of a challenge for Dad.  It means that he has to find the 'sweet spot' of when to stop and let the newbies catch up (they have to use their laptops to figure out how to troubleshoot a fault which Dad has given them - they then have to make notes and answer questions electronically on what they found) and when to go on so that he doesn't lose the other guys.  One of the part-time instructors, Neil, from QAC is a student on the course and is staying with us in the unit.  He is very nice, but very quiet - it's been hard to get to know him.

I have been spending most of my time trying to get the nitty gritty details down for each of the activities Robyn and I have planned for Relief Society in 2016.  Some of them include: card making, quilting, bread making, learning Tai Chi, family history and gift bags for the needy.  I will keep you posted as we have each of the activities.  We are planning on having the activities on the third Saturday of the month so that the sisters can plan their other activities around that date.  We are hoping that the sisters will enjoy these activities and getting to know each other.

Dad and I spent last weekend (both days) geocaching.  We had brought back five geo travel buddies from Canada to put into geocaches here in Australia.  One of the owners of one of the travel buddies asked each person who found it to take pics of where the cache which it was being put into was.  We took some neat pics of this fabulous cache where we put it (one of our favourite caches so far) and also a pic of a kangaroo we saw nearby.  The owner of the travel buddy was so happy to see the pics of the cool cache and the kangaroo. :-)  We went geocaching again today after a quick nap (for me).  We set out to find six caches and we found all of them. :-)  We are getting really good at finding the exact spot of the caches, although we did have to get clues for a couple of them today.  Sometimes, it's obvious where it is, sometimes it's pretty clear where it could be and sometimes there are so many places it could be hidden that we generally look for a bit and then, if we both can't find it, we check out the clue.  I have also been out on my bike a couple of times since we've been here and also Dad and I try to get out for a walk each day.

 Cactus we saw when we went geocaching today - just out in the middle of nowhere - almost as if someone had planted them there

One of our favourite geocaches - a pipe inserted into the ground - a fake rock attached to the other end of the pipe which slides into the pipe into the ground - so cool

 Can you see the geocache in this tree trunk?

 Dad pointing to where we found a geocache

 Me pointing to another geocache we found

 Kangaroo watching us as we passed by him on the way to another cache

Tree I really liked by the path we walked onto to get to another cache

Yesterday, the ward here (Glenroy) held their Relief Society Christmas party.  We were all asked to bring a salad and a $5. gift.  I brought 'salad in a bag' as it was easy to do here in Melbourne - it was actually really nice.  The gift I bought was a selection of creams for the body.  Along with the salads, the ward provided chicken and ham and desserts.  There are a lot of Samoan people in the ward and so there were a number of foods which I didn't recognize - and you know me, I didn't try any of them. :-)  I did ask one of the Samoan sisters to tell me what had been cooked.  After eating, each table was invited up to sing a song - we chose 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' - thankfully, the other people at the table could sing. :-)  At the end of the afternoon, the gifts were handed out to the sisters - I ended up with a cute Christmas globe and a fan.  It was a really nice afternoon - this ward is so welcoming and I was able to get to know some more sisters in the ward as I talked with other sisters at my table.