Thoughts on our Journey Home

I was interested to change from Etihad Airlines to

South African Airlines at Abu Dhabi.

Immediately I thought...

"Ah yes... we are back with our fellow countrymen... (black and white.)"

There was wonderful management of passengers with Etihad Airlines

and amazing disorder and entitlement with South African Airways passengers.

The staff gave up trying to order the ranks.

We arrived at OR Tambo Airport.

Breezed through passport control.

Waited two hours for our luggage at the baggage carousel.

Discovered along the way that there was a baggage handler's strike.

I thought matter-of-factly... "Yes we are in South Africa again."

I watched the SAA stewardesses waiting for their luggage off the carousel.

They were like a bunch of young adults dressed in 

stewardess uniforms but definitely "off duty."

I felt a little sad.  This is how I think: 

"OK when you are out of uniform, not OK when you are in uniform..."

I doubt that would have been acceptable for Etihad stewardesses.

That being said...

I felt an 'attitude' at Abu Dhabi airport.

I felt like we foreigners, and we women, were tolerated for 

the revenue we bring to their country.

I hope I am wrong.

I suspect I am not.

Friday morning I went to the temple.

My first time driving here.

I drove my normal route.

There is a big project happening along the way.

I'm not sure what it is yet. Large excavations. 

At one point - in the dark - I slammed on brakes.

I'm glad I was not distracted or going faster!

There, right in front of me, were unlit barriers surrounding 

open road works right across my lane!

I thought "Ah yes... we do things in our ways here."

Coming from "Think safety" England to here is certainly

moving from "We will let you know what we are doing...

and do everything to ensure your safety"

to "Look out for yourself."

Being a passenger there is filled with anxiety for me (I didn't drive)

with the narrow roads.

Driving here is filled with added vigilence for me 

(anxiety of another kind) - 

Prepare for the unexpected!

It might well happen! 

I guess we become accustomed to where we live.

I must say I am deeply uplifted to be around our 

bright vibrant colours here again.

I am loving the Spring green all around!

Glenn and I arrived home definitely 'under the weather' healthwise.
It's a few days later and Glenn is further ahead than me.
I am still a coughing mucous factory.
I look forward to feeling hale and hearty again soon.

Heritage Day (public holiday here) was Thursday,
Doug, Nadia and girls are at a Young Women Camp.
I've yet to see Nadia and Jarom.
We were so tired when we got home after 
being awake mostly for around 44 hours so we hibernated.
I know Nadia wanted to come and Doug shielded us.

Dom and Cindy popped in the following day.
Lovely to be home!
Miss you hugely!
I have been singing the song
"I've grown accustomed to (your) face(s)"

Henry Higgins sang...

"I've grown accustomed to her face
She almost makes the day begin
I've grown accustomed to the tune
That she whistles night and noon
Her smiles, her frowns
Her ups, her downs
Are second nature to me now
Like breathing out, breathing in
I was serenely independent and content before we met
Surely I could always be that way again and yet
I've grown accustomed to her looks
Accustomed to her voice
Accustomed to her face"

I have some empathy with him.

I miss you my beloveds in England.
I'm really glad we could spend time with you.
See you next year if at all possible.
In the meantime,
You are in my mind and in my heart.
May your hearts turn to your parents and grand-parents here.
We look forward to your contacts with us.

Faith, Hope and Love - Comfort for my Soul

I woke this morning feeling physically beaten up.
I am coughing, sneezing and blowing out mucous.
I will likely stay quietly home this morning.

I am sure I will feel better in a day or two.

I thought of the General Women's Conference session held yesterday
(My mother's birthday by the way).  I decided to get up and watch it.

I feel encouraged to go on doing the best I can today and every day.

I wrote down:

Purity is possible
Living the gospel, loving the Lord, building the kingdom.
Puddle of pessimism, mess of melancholy
"It's not fair" is the song I sang for a time.
Faith gave me the hope to live joyfully now.
... faith fortify every footstep.

If I'd started writing down earlier, I would have recorded more.
I am reminded that we live in our SA world of slower internet,
so I was trying to find a way to watch without buffering happening
distractingly frequently.

Here is the link to the conference if you want to take a look.
(I"m trying the 'link' option - I think I got it?

I'm skipping along learning my way along my path into my future...!

Blessed Sabbath to you all.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2015/10?cid=HP_SA_9-26-
2015_dPTH_fGC_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng

Final Week with Hilmar and Dianne

We enjoyed a quiet week with Hilmar, Dianne and Phillipa.

We like to quiet right down before the rigors of our international flight.

I enjoyed the view out of their lounge window. 

Beautiful Autumn is in the air...

The leaves are changing colour all around.

Our final week we slept in their lounge.

At night we took down and covered the clock so as not to hear the ticking.

I put it on the couch.

Tulip tried and tried to get the moving second hand.

It was so funny watching her persistence in trying to get that moving thing!

I thought I'd be compassionate and remove the offending hand by turning the clock over.

Then she tried to get to it underneath.

Lovely minutes among the last of our trip's memories.

So good to spend time with Dianne and see her 

consideration and compassion growing and blossoming. 

She is beautifully professional with her clients.

She is so talented and unusually aware. 

Good to see her managing her various challenges with 

more skill and confidence.

She is a really good woman in many ways.

I'm proud to be her mother.

I'm thrilled to hear she and Hilmar have been called to coordinate the

Faith in God Primary activity days programme. 

(I think that is what it is called...?)

I pray this will be a blessing to them individually and together.

Phillipa is thrilled!

Hilmar took us on Tuesday to catch the X26 bus to the airport.

We awoke at 4am to catch the bus just after 5am in Croydon.

And then from bus to Heathrow express train to terminal 4.

Our flight was delayed.

This is us taxi-ing towards take-off.

Goodbye lovely England...

I love your grey days.

See you again next year... Deo volente.

I loved the discipline and professionalism of the Etihad Airlines stewardesses.

Doug asked what Abu Dhabi airport was like.

Glitsy... differently glitsy to Dubai airport.

I loved this mosaic creation in the centre court of our departure terminal.

Wonderful craftsmanship.

I liked this lego camel.

I took the photo for Samuel.

Please show it to him someone?

When we got home I was thrilled to hear that Hilmar has been accepted 

as a participant in the Harrod's Management Programme.

Go Hilmar!

Go Dianne!

Go Phillipa!

Tot siens...

Home Again...

We are back home and running!

Three months' bills to sort out...

Other administration to tackle...

While we were away Doug cut the one window out of the kitchen and

made the space for the new back door.

He also bricked up and filled a foundation for my new laundry.

I am excited!

For the first time in my life I will have a dedicated laundry!

I look forward to that!

The new door is where the original kitchen door was when we 

bought the house thirty years ago.

We bricked it in to make an open-plan kitchen/diningroom/lounge.

Glenn, Sylvester and Ishmail (Doug's workers)

laying the drain for the new shower.

The missionaries dropped in and lent four more hands when 

Glenn was working on the new back door.

The style of the back door is like the front door.

It is called a "Happy" door.

I must say both doors make me feel happy.

The missionaries came again a little later for supper last night.

One is from Palau, one is from Samoa.

Today Sylvester and Ishmael laid the foundation for my new laundry.

And now they are digging the trench for the pipes for the 

new kitchen on the other side of the house.

I said to Glenn... "It feels like we never left and went away!"

Strange feeling.

I'm so glad we went.

I hear thunder outside...

Lovely!

We need rain.

It is blazing hot.

The spring leaves are all green but Doug says we need rain.

We always need as much rain as will come our way.

I hope we are utilizing it better and better in our country.

Excellent Resource for Dealing with Stress...

Yesterday I was browsing through my "Gospel Tools" down-loading anything new.

In the Missionary section I saw an additional resource - "Adjusting to Missionary Life"
I downloaded it and took a look into this new booklet.

It is excellent!
Sound counsel for any of us who might be heading for stressful times or who are stressed,or who need to manage physical, emotional, social and/or spiritual demands.

I recommend it for anyone needing encouragement and general principles to guide their life and living as steadily as possible in demanding times.

I will dip into it myself every now and again to remind myself how to better manage when I feel stressed.

I love how we are blessed with brilliant eternal truth - for our 'asking' and fairly easy 'finding' which we can adapt to our particular circumstances.

Take a look!
May it bless you too...

PS... "A Missioariy's MTC" resource and "Missionary Preparation" are also lovely.

Pause for Reflection...

Ponderings on my journey from Carisbrook to Redhill - 15th September 2015:

"We need one another, so I will defend each man as my brother, each man as my friend."

My beloved ones on the Island - I echo Jesus' words
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

"We're on this train to where this train is going."
(Inside in our souls and/or outside in our bodies.) 

From evening scripture reading with Samuel and Isaac 
the night before we left:
"Jesus was led up of the Spirit to the wilderness...
Then Jesus was taken up into the holy city
and the Spirit setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple..."
(Sometimes when we go to be with God in a 'high place' 
or when we are placed in, elevated to, 'high' places' 
we are severely and thoroughly tested...)
(And... by the way... then we have a TESTimony afterwards...)

Advert on our train journey:
"Those who face the music get to pick the tune."
(I can do the really hard learning and practicing... then I am free-er!
More able to be creative!  More Useful. More used would I be.)

"Sometimes it is interesting 'outside' while we are around a silly 'inside' conversation.
Sometimes the conversation 'inside' is more interesting and not much 'outside.'
(I was reading my morning scriptures on the ferry being conscious of 
some Bestival goers conversing next to me.  
Then I was looking outside the ferry windows still surrounded by chatter.  
We couldn't find three seats together so Glenn and Patrick sat together 
and I sat two rows in front of them in a single seat with the windows 
of the ferry right in front of me.)

My mind wandered to remembering our last Sunday School lesson.
"There are several individuals in the class this morning that are
'strangers and foreigners' to those usually in this class -
yet in this class 'we' are neither strangers nor foreigners,
but of the household of God, gathered in this place on this day
to be blessed and to bless."

I thought about how I sometimes feel about a 
"Public Displays of Affection" - that it can be distasteful.
I thought about people who can be churlish and surly publicly.
.I got here to Dianne's and looked up the definition of the words:
churlish - rude, mean-spirited.
surly - bad-tempered, unfriendly.
"Is that not also distasteful?  A public display of churlish and surly behaviour?"
Distasteful - disagreeable, unpleasant. 
"Hard for the one receiving that churlish and surly behaviour,
and unbecoming to the one behaving that way.
Difficult too for the ones witnessing it."
Sometimes it is me being churlish and surly... sobering.

I said to Angela at Jungle Jim's
"We are on the way to being FULL of grace and truth like the Saviour.
Of course we will not get it right all the time.  We are on our way.
There are those around us who are ahead of us - we can learn from them,
ask them how they do it, watch how they do it, and try it.
We are ahead of some others.  We can be generous and compassionate
to them and let them learn from us as they reach out to us."

On one of the stations our train stopped at I saw someone look at their watch...
I thought "It doesn't matter what YOUR watch says the time is...
the clock on the platform is the one these trains follows...."
A big lesson as I apply the principle in my life.

I look forward to this day -  
when 'they' will be able to let any 'nursing or weaned child' 
in their presence be themselves un-attacked by them.  
I love it when I am in the presence of those who are able to, 
but do not,strike at the nursing or weaned child parts of me.
I love being around those who do not HURT or DESTROY (Me).
I then feel like I am indeed in HIS... HOLY... MOUNTAIN...
I love that 'rest', His rest.
Not for the faint-hearted...

Isaiah 11:9
8The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, 
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. 
9They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, 
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD 
As the waters cover the sea. 
10Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, 
Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; 
And His resting place will be glorious.…

"Honour thy father and thy mother..."
Not one, or the other...
Both.
Find ways to honour MY father and MY mother...

I remember one who had challenging parents say 
of his father  "I learned integrity from him."
and of his mother "I learnt compassion from her."
Knowing his parents my respect for him went up as he 
mentioned the qualities he singled out to honour in each of them.

I have some more work to do...
"One day at a time, sweet Jesus - "

Isle of Wight Final Week

So sweet...

Cheryn was changing Emily's nappy,

Isaac was gently holding her head.

Emily has grown!

She is a dear little baby.

Glenn spent a lot of time figuring out where the fault was.

The electricity were tripping out intermittently...

By this time his knees were sore so he worked lying on his side in the loft area. 

Friday evening Glenn and Patrick were still busy with the electricity problem that 

turned out to be three problems that happened to appear to be one.

Samuel and Isaac were somewhat poorly so when they were asleep

Angela and I joined Pete, Zeek, Rachel, Corbin, Cheryn and Emily and

six or eight other adults, all but one of whom I didn't know, and three other children.

Pete prepared a beach potjie at Fort Victoria beach.

What a particularly special evening for me at the beach sitting around the campfire

and telling stories and having meaningful conversations.
The tide was lapping in, approaching the campfire.
In Pete's temporary absence
I started the precarious move of the fire to higher, safer, beach sand.
By the time we left the in-coming tide was licking the embers
in the previous place the campfire was situated.
I'm sure Pete had no intention of being at the site so late.
Circumstances developed and so it turned out to be.
An unexpected and very special evening for me. 

We hardly saw much of Roxanne and Vincent this visit.

They were in and out about their Young Adult business.

This is a sign at Samuel's class room.

Saturday afternoon we took Samuel and Isaac to a friend's birthday party at Shanklin.

                            

And after the party we strolled to the beach to de-stress

from the noise and the psychedely (my word)

This was on the way to the beach.

On the beach across the road from Jungle Jim's.

I liked seeing Angela's hair flying in the breeze.

She is going to have it cut and donate it for wigs.

She is truly a good woman in many, many ways.

 Guess whose toes?

Do you see these little toes?

I went for a beach stroll.

And back again to the sand-play.

Samuel wandered off.

Lovely almost two hours on the beach after Jungle Jim's.

  Bless Angela... she puts the last of the sandwiches out for the sea gulls.

                      

Yesterday (Monday) we went to Bebe-Chinnos with Isaac

before fetching Samuel a little later.

I saw this sign in one of the home doorways on the way back from there!

I had a good giggle.

We fetched Samuel.

I stayed in the car and enjoyed seeing these berries.

I also enjoyed a feast of blackberries again!

Cheryn visited for the last time beinging Emily.

Here is Kieran feeding her as they were about to leave in the evening.

The lounge has curtains!

Glenn put up the rails.

Dianne found the curtains on free-cycle.

I adapted the curtains to fit.

The laundry has curtains too!

They needed shortening.

 And back on the early-morning ferry today with Patrick.

There were lots of Bestival-goers on board too.

Most of them left Sunday night or yesterday.

In Southampton there were three huge cruise ships that I saw docked.

This is one of them.

The cars on the ferry.

Grey day today.

I love grey days.

We have been blessed in our travels - un-wet weather every time until today

when it was fine drizzle.  Lovely.

On the train to Redhill again...

I liked the message in this advert.

"Find your place."

Indeed.

Find out who you are and what YOUR place in the world is.

More lovely flowers on one of the stations.

Our journey was about two and a half hours.

Another good message...

"Believe in better."

Indeed.

Dianne met us at Redhill again

and we are here for our last week!