Special Occasions

In November 2005 I have an entry about "The Mob", The Mob being our family.
There are so many special occasions, and over the years there have been so many, they begin to merge in the memory. I remember, the year was 1959, and Billy Graham had come to Melbourne for an "Evangelistic Crusade". At the time we were based in a Gippsland area at a place called Nar Nar Goon North, the Methodist church there was quite involved, we organised buses to Melbourne and worked hard at filling them with people to go and hear Billy Graham preach the Good News about Jesus Christ.
We were so busy, and I remember commenting on this busy-ness and some one relied, "When the Crusade is over things will quieten down".
I have often thought about this and then said quietly to myself, "Wrong"!
It never happened.
I would suppose there is a quiet place somewhere in an old people's home with the "Happy Valley" address. Even as I think about this I am drawn back to a conclusion I have arrived at many times, that being, "I have never seen an Old People's Home yet that I have liked!
They are probably very nice for the inmates, but for this little black duck,...... not yet!
You might be asking yourself, "What has brought all this on"? Well, just the last week or so, let me explain.
About a week ago I decided to clean out some of my junk to save the boy's later on, I started with the back shed, cleaning out the timber saved for something I can't remember, and as I applied myself to the task I kept noticing other tasks needing to be done, like fixing the side fence, pulling out a tree which was too close to the house, this took some days because there were four half days of stocktaking at a Hardware store, and four other cleaning appointments, as well as some extended jaunts to the shops. While all this was happening, the weekend was sneaking up on me.
Well, let me say we had a great weekend, it went like this:-
Saturday Morning we had a Missionary Breakfast. It was not the old fashioned type where the missionary was on the menu, but a 2006 style Missionary Breakfast.
Our Number one son, Mark was the speaker, and though I could be slightly biased, he was wonderful, and the breakfast of eggs and bacon were pretty good also.
We went into the Dandenong Capital Centre afterwards for a while.
At 2PM there was a special occasion in Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne.
Our number 8 granddaughter was celebrating her 11th birthday, here is a picture of the cake, I assume it was made by her dad


Mark and Val arrived, along with their two girls, they had travelled from their new address in South Melbourne by tram. Ben and Zoe came by car and Ali's friend Bridget was also there. Here are a few photos



















Now Sunday was a special day, May 14, was Mother's Day.
At about 10.30am Ben picked us up in a Ford Territory, he dialled in or destination and along the way we were directed by this voice saying, you now take a left turn followed by a right turn and so on accompanied by a screen showing our position progress , distance still to travel and the time it would take us. I was waiting for the voice to say, "I am lost, you are on tour own", but no, we arrived at the Malvern Station exactly on time, 11am, and there were Simon, Brenda and their two children emerging from the shelter of the station as it had begun to sprinkle with rain.
We made our way down Glenferrie Road to the first place serving food that was not full of people, it was a "Brown's Bakery ". We enjoyed the good company and good food for about an hour before making our way back to our transport by the Malvern Station.
The Territory guided us safely back to Rowville some time after mid day.
Another record of our high life Style follows.



It was not long before it was time to head off to a place called Skye, where we were to meet Paul and Cindy for afternoon tea at the Sandhurst Golf Club House.
I must say it was something of a let down to get in our little Toyota Corolla and figure out our own way in the rain.
After our stint at the club house, Paul and Cindy showed us the town house on the complex that they are interested in.
Here we are in the club house




I will set myself a quiz, here goes

Would I rather be busy or bored?
Would I rather be busy or in jail?
Would I rather be busy or in Happy Valley Home?
Would I rather be busy or in hospital?

I've completed the quiz in no time and busy wins hands down