Christmas at Dee's

Well, we've spent Christmas Day with my sister Nadine and her family in Valla Beach (north of Nambucca Heads, NSW).

First up was a trip to church early in the morning - well, it was early for us as we were still on Queensland time. Then it was back to the house for present unwrapping before lunch. Dee decided that it would be better to unwrap presents then because Darcy (4 months old) would need to be put to bed for a sleep.

Bailey (2 & 4 months) got to unwrap his presents first. First up was Uncle Livio's gift - rather larger than the rest, it needed to be unwrapped first to enable it to be moved out of the way of the rest of the gifts.

It turned out to be a rocking horse which was duly inspected to ensure it had both ears and eyes before being ridden.

Bailey was so enamoured of it that I wondered if he would bother opening the other items he'd been given.

In due course he did open his other gifts, including a couple of books from aunts (his and ours) and the item I'd bought - a stuffed toy Superb Fairy Wren that twitters when you push a spot on its back. Apparently this was one of the best things I could have got because Bailey is currently into birds. Let's just say that the wren got as many rides on the rocking horse as Bailey did after that as he carried it everywhere with him.



Among other things, Darcy got a lovely quilted rug from Alicia and a stuffed toy possum from us. The ears, feet and tail were taste tested.



After the great unwrapping, it was time for a delicious lunch, which had been prepared by Dee's husband, Dennis, and family.



We'll be travelling back to Brisbane tomorrow, so it's time to do some packing.

Wedding in Dorrigo

Yesterday was the wedding of our friend, Tracey Francis, to Londe Iki. The wedding was held in Tracey's hometown of Dorrigo in New South Wales.

It was raining when we turned up at about 3pm (for a 3:30pm wedding) and was still drizzly when the groom and groomsmen arrived. Fortunately for Tracey, it had basically stopped by the time she arrived.

Londe is from PNG and would have liked to have been dressed in his traditional dress but apparently it couldn't pass through Customs (I'm guessing that the spears would have been a problem for Customs and any plant material would have been a problem for Quarantine). Instead, he and the groomsmen were all dressed looking like people's mental images of 1920's USA gangsters (sans tommy guns). They all wore black hats and the bridesmaids wore matching white ones. As one of the pastors said, they looked very sharp.

Unfortunately for Londe, none of his family was able to make it from PNG due to sickness. Tracey's brother and cousins were the groomsmen. Most guests were members of Tracey's family or other friends from the Dorrigo area. There were a few from Toowoomba (where she did her degree) and Darwin (where she taught early in her career) and Ian and I from Mackay (where she teaches now).

The reception was held at the local bowls club. Tracey and her mum did an excellent job of making sure all their guests would be fed appropriately. We ended up very full! We don't think we've been better catered for at any function since our diet changed.

The usual is to get just boiled vege's for dinner and fruit for dessert (often this is after fruit for morning and afternoon tea at conventions - come on, people, if I keep eating that much fruit, I'll never leave the toilet!). At this affair we had cottage pie (to which we could add some of the vege's provided for the regular mains if we wished) and chocolate cake for desert. Mmmm, yumm! Oh, AND Nuttelex was provided for spreading on our breadrolls.

Afterwards we played pool before giving a lift to three other girls who were also staying at the same place we were. The accommodation was Dangar Falls Lodge, which can sleep up to 12 people; all you have to provide is your food. The Lodge, as we all called it, used to be part of the nurses' quarters for the base hospital.

It's called Dangar Falls Lodge because it's right beside the entrance to the walkway to the Dangar Falls. On the other side is farmland used for cattle. Being Dorrigo, most cows one sees are dairy stock.

Today we walked to the Dangar Falls where we saw a couple of blokes from New Zealand swimming at the bottom! It was rather cool for us so we thought they were a bit game. We also checked out the Skywalk at the other end of town, as well as the Never Never Picnic Grounds about 10km further on.

We got take away for lunch, which we had back at the Lodge. One of the girls we had given a lift to last night was glad to see us as she had been left to wait for the laundry to finish while her sister had gone to help with the clean-up. She had been rather bored for 2 hours. Just as we were about to leave, Tracey and Tracey's mum came to pick her up. We were glad that we weren't leaving her to be bored waiting any longer.

On the way back we stopped in Bellingen again (we had stopped briefly on the way up) to do some shopping at the galleries. Then it was on to Nadine's, where we arrived around 5pm.

Laetitia's Job part 2

Laetitia works for a company that specialises in subdivisions. Her grand title is Subdivision Projects Co-ordinator. She writes engineering reports.

Sometimes she turns into a pseudo-town planner by also writing planning reports to accompany the applications. Lately, Laetitia has been involved in operational works development applications.

Laetitia recognises that she has learnt a lot in this job (and frequently screams internally when given something new to learn FAST). However, she was a lot more comfortable in her previous roles in traffic related organisations. She likes the company and her colleages but misses traffic engineering.

She's happy to have some time away from her job, especially as she was able to wrap up (for now) a few of her jobs.

Ballantyne Wedding III

There's a long story here, which I don't have time to tell now. But here are some of the photos! There's more photos here!

Townsville

Laetitia's Creative Memories business has been hard work for her this year, not knowing many people in Mackay. She has made good friends with some of the other CM consultants having joined a group of 'exotics' (not originally from Mackay CMCs) run by Lynne Baillie who moved to Mackay from Brisbane in October last year.

We recently travelled to Townsville for some home classes. These were for a lady that Laetitia met in April at the Australian Gospel Music Festival.

We also did a little sight-seeing - Mt Stuart, Castle Rock, the OmniMax theatre, The Strand. Laetitia was quite startled by just how close Magnetic Island is to the mainland, particularly for such a mountainous island. All the islands off the Mackay regional coast are further out / smaller / flatter or not actually islands but low tide isthmuses.

Highly recommended: Masala Indian Restaurant on Palmer Street and the OmniMax theatre next to the aquarium. We saw a great movie about various forms of sea life narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet.

You can also see some of Ian's photos of Townsville.

The heart of a father

Bill is Laetitia's father. He's had a dodgy heart valve for years and this year was the time for it to be fixed!

He went into hospital just before church camp in early September. Normally heart valve replacement patients are out after about four days. Bill was in the ICU for four weeks with another 2 weeks in the rehab ward.

He was under sedation for the week when Queensland had a change of premier. When he came around, and could understand things, Laetitia took pity on him and told him what the date was and that Anna Bligh was now the premier. She and other family members had considered telling him that it was 2008. :-)

While he was under sedation, all his children returned to Brisbane (if not already in town) because he was touch and go. There wasn't much that they could do for him, although Laetitia did sing some hymns to him, but at least they could be around for Bev (Laetitia's mum) supporting her.

Doris & Munro

Ian's parents Doris & Munro came to visit us in Mackay in October. We enjoyed a cool day trip together up to Eungella National Park.
But we didn't see any platypus. :-(

Church camp: Cape Hillsborough

Church camp at Cape Hillsborough, just north of Mackay, was most enjoyable.

Square dancing!

New friends at church, Phil & Janine Searles, invited us to try square dancing, which has become an enjoyable hobby! We travelled to Rockhampton last weekend for a weekend event run by the Capricorn Waves club on the north side of town.

The main caller was Brian Hotchkies whose voice and style we had become used to as our callers use some of his records for some dances (like when they want a dance). Our callers, Peter and Margaret Harvey and Charles Barnes, also called some dances.

Our group is Pioneer Valley. Here we are in our group's formal attire.

While in Rockhampton, we stayed with Vicky as she lives close to the hall where the event was held. We have greatly appreciated Vicky's company on the occassions we have passed through or stayed in Rockhampton.

Ballantyne Wedding I

Laetitia saw our friends, Esther Jacobsen and Andy Ballantyne, at the end of June. A fortnight before their wedding, she had gone to visit them at their new townhouse to discuss which album coverset and what type of pages to give them as a wedding present.

A week later we bought tickets for flights down to the wedding. The next day we received a phone call from a distressed, but calm, Ruth Parker, Esther's sister. The conversation went something like this for Laetitia:

Ruth: Have you heard about Andy and Esther?

Laetitia: No? (They can't have broken up; I just saw them last week!)

Ruth: Andy's in hospital - he had to have his leg removed.

Laetitia: Pardon?

Ruth: He had one of those flesh destroying bacteria that attacked his leg. They've had to remove the whole leg. So you don't need to come down now because there isn't going to be a wedding next weekend.

Laetitia: Oh, my! (Pardon, have I heard all this correctly?!) Well, we've already got plane tickets so you still might see us...umm. (Someone pinch me, please?)

So we joined with the rest of their family in prayer, got Andy added to our and our families' churches' prayer lists and went to Brisbane anyway.

And the wedding went ahead - in the hospital chapel. It was the first day that Andy had without an operation. We didn't get to see it though - it was family and bridal party only. Oh, and Women's Day.

When Andy went in for the original op, all the preparations for the wedding (florist, photographer, caterers...) were cancelled. Then when they decided that it was back on (the day before), Andy's dad called WD and offered the story in return for some funding of expenses (evidently has a head for business, that man). So WD provided photographer, afternoon tea reception, flowers etc. and according to the wedding party were all very nice.

So now the story has come out in WD and we got to see the wedding that way. We did also see Ruth and family on the day, even though we didn't get to see Andy and Esther. Andy's been in and out of hospital since for some 'mopping-up' operations and seems to be recovering ok.

It still seems rather surreal - it's one of those things that one reads about happening to "some guy in the US" or other far-off place, not to someone one knows.

Laetitia's new job

To pay the rent, Laetitia has found a part-time job working for civil engineering consultancy firm, Cardno Ullman & Nolan, in Paget on the south side of town near the airport. We live in North Mackay so this is a 15 - 20 min car drive in the morning. Laetitia misses Brisbane's public transport.

CU & N specialises in sub-divisions and Laetitia's job consists mainly of writing engineering reports for small sub-division development applications.

Although only working three days a week, Laetitia earns more than Ian does working full-time. Granted, Laetitia has been in her industry for around a decade whereas this is Ian's first year as a teacher, however, we see it as a reflection of the status that teachers have in Australian society.

Finding somewhere to live

True to Mackay's reputation, it took us two months to find somewhere to live.

We ended up in a house literally over the back fence from Ian's school. It's very convenient!

Many thanks to Traude & Eric Carter for their generous hospitality and patience.

Church

We tried a few churches, ending up at Mackay Church of Christ, about 1.5km from home. On the first morning we went, all the women between the ages of about 15 and 65 descended upon Laetitia with flyers for a women's night at the movies.

We have felt very welcomed and a real part of this church. We enjoy the fact that it is relatively small and therefore we can get to know everyone. We have also joined the music roster with Ian on strings and Laetitia on vocals.

Mackay!

In mid-January we drove to Mackay for Ian's new job as a high-school teacher. It took us three days! On the way up we had dinner in Rockhampton with Vicky whom we had met at CMS Summer School.

It rained so much that parts of Mackay flooded. The water was knee-deep inside some of Ian's classrooms!
We don't understand why people insist on building on a tidal swamp.

CMS Summer School

The year started, as usual, with CMS Summer School on Mt Tamborine. There we met a lady named Vicky who lives in Rockhampton. We also got to know some of the new missionaries, such as the Greeffs, and those in training who will go next year, such as the Barlows and the Weekes.