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.