From Aussie Land

All right, here I am!!! This is going to be fairly quick; perhaps I can give a lengthier report later. So far I am really enjoying Australia and Australians. Kendra and I are forever pointing at flowers, trees, and birds, and saying, "What's that called?" Other than that, driving on the left side of the road (very freaky!), and accents, Australia is mostly like my home in April. Well, maybe.

So far, I've heard Root Beer compared to fly spray, American coffee compared to burnt rubber, and Starbucks compared to dish washer fluid. Hmm. Australians' general opinion of Americans? We're "tall poppies" that need to be cut down to size. Despite this, Australians are certainly not rude; they have a great sense of humor, are quite friendly, and have great accents. I'm working on mine!

Yesterday we took the train to Melbourne took a little look at the city. We even went to the State Library and found an article about the Coronet's visit in their newspaper archives! Uncle Tim is probably very proud of us.:D

Another thing we did was go to China town to get some Chinese with Amanda's (our friend) Vietnamese friend. We silly Americans think we "like Chinese" but little do we know! The stuff that we call Chinese is barely the real deal. It was hard choosing from the lengthy menu. Hmm. . . fried eel?. . . seaweed?. . . pig's stomach? Kendra and I ended up ordering duck with noodles in boiling soy sauce.

All right, perhaps I'll write something more another time! Ta ta for now!

Flightplan

Today has been a bit frantic, as I've been making valiant attempts to pack everything I may need. Oh yeah did I mention that I'm going to Australia? Oops, I think I'm being a bit too repetitive! But as you can imagine, it's been confusing what things you can take on the plane nowadays, so that is something that is definitely a semi-stressful factor in my thinking!

Hmm, I haven't been on a plane since I watched Flightplan or Red Eye. That's a little spooky. At least I don't have anyone to lose but myself (oh dear until I hook up with Kendra), and I'll be sure to take a pen in case if I'm forced to stab somebody. Ugh. My brothers also helpfully pointed out to me that when I'm flying back from Australia to LA, it will be practically the same route that the people from Lost took when their plane crashed. Double hmm.

So as you may have guessed, the closer and closer the time comes for leaving, the more and more I'm realizing that I could use prayer in torrents, if any of you dear people happen to think of it. For one thing I have to change flights all by myself, which may be no problemo for a seasoned flyer, but I've never had to change flights when I've been on my own, and it seems to be a daunting experience. For another thing our flight is very long. We're talking nearly eighteen hours from LA, including a stop in New Zealand. Then of course there's the coming back when I come directly home and I have to change flights alone at night after I've been traveling for ages while I'm exhausted. Whew! So if you happen to think of it, your prayers would be greatly appreciated (though there's absolutely no pressure).

Hurray, now that I've asked you all to pray, probably some terrorist or assassin reading my blog will change his mind about doing some disaster on my flight! Ah, the power of prayer striketh terror into the hearts of those who would bring terror themselves!

I'd still rather that a terrorist wouldn't be reading my blog anyway. . . .

Brunette Brilliancy

I was walking along one day, minding my own business. How many stories start this way? Anyway, I was walking along the water one day with Craig during our vacation, when I saw a sign. It was on some sort of trash can (which I didn't notice at first, but since this thing was cylindrical, it explains what happened next), and it read, "BE VERAGE." This puzzled me exceedingly. What in the world does "verage" mean? And how am I supposed to "be" it if I don't even know what in the world it is? The next instant (and I do mean like literally two seconds!) it all came clear.

duh!

The sign didn't read "BE VERAGE," but actually read "BEVERAGE." (which I'm sure you figured out ages ago) Somehow or other since the sign stretched around to the other side of the rounded trash can, I thought there was a space in there somewhere. No wonder I couldn't figure out what "verage" meant!

My brilliancy doth shineth from my gleaming brunette head, doth it not?

And some people think blondes are empty headed. . . .

For Kim

I think that perhaps another person on my favorite people list is my dear second cousin Kimberly. She has just moved down to Florida for college (not before we had an outing to Chilis as a farewell party), and I know I am going to miss her. Somehow she has just always been a part of my life, right from the beginning, even when many years ago she frightened me in a game where she put on eye shadow and talked about icy fingers around my throat. What I've especially enjoyed the past few years though is getting to know her more and more as a special friend.

I even recall when they were making up decathlon teams, I actually prayed that I would be on Kim's te am because I knew that if anyone could make me feel comfortable and be an exhorter even if our team didn't do well, Kimberly could. This especially happened after a stressful game of indoor soccer that we lost partly because one of the points had been made when the ball bounced off my shin and into the goal. I was on the verge of tears, and Kimberly gave me a big hug and told me honestly that it really didn't matter.

I also remember the time she was editing a movie for us that I had actually already seen (unedited). She actually took the time to pray before the movie and I think I enjoyed the movie triply more than I expected!

I also loved roaming the mall with her last Christmas season when I couldn't be with my mom for shopping reasons but I wanted to be with somebody. We spent the whole time together and talked for most of it! She even took me into her confidence and later had me deliver gifts to her earthling so that Elizabeth wouldn't suspect her. What's more, Elizabeth never did!

There's a lot of positive things I could try to say about Kim, but they would barely skim the surface.

However. . . . . .

Kimberly is fun

encouraging

friendly

great at volle yball

witty

athletic

speedy runner

good conversationalist

interesting photographer

strong singer

has a good taste for clothing (I've thought so anyway)

willing to pray and testify genuinely (always something I appreciate in a young person)

sensitive

joyful

diligent

seems to love everybody

and is loved by everybody

I appreciate her

she'll leave a hole in the Fairwood circle

I love her

and I'll miss her a lot!

(if you love Kimberly like me, you can comment lots and lots!:D)

Catalysts

Yesterday I read something unusual in my biology book. Here it is: "It is often said that a person 'burns' up his food or 'burns' off fat. These expressions are not merely figures of speech; they are accurate. The food is combined with oxygen for the release of energy, almost as if the food had been set on fire. The difference, which prevents a person from cooking himself as he digests his dinner, is a complex system of organic catalysts."

Oh me oh my! Has it ever occurred to you that without these vital catalysts we could all be dead meat, literally speaking? Somehow the proposition of cooking oneself seems an extraoridinary one. I recently finished reading Robinson Crusoe, so I kind of have cannibals in my mind. I suppose if any of the cannibals in South America had been really smart, they would have removed these catalysts and fed their victims, saving themselves the problem of cooking their dinner. What a morbid thought. . .

But thank the Lord for our organic catalysts!

A Briefly Very Long Summary of My Vacation.

I travel far and see quite much

I now fly home, the ground I touch

The sky is pink, and golden too

The clouds and mountains both are blue

My house is familiar, though strangely still,

It calmly welcomes, at its own will

I've seen much beauty; but wherever I roam

I now come to realize that the best is at home!

These words of the soon to be famous writer--er, me, hit home in a bittersweet way. I've been away for awhile, and I've been inclined to feel sad and sluggish that my longed for vacation is now over, but at the same time I appreciate the greatness of being at home, even if I am busy. So even if I do feel a little bit blothpick----but this is ridiculous!!! Why should a sensible girl like me feel sad over leaving Canada when in less than a week I'll be in Australia!!! Hello?! I think I should take some sort of sanity test or something. (Please keep in mind that I'm not trying to knock Canada in the slightest, but I think my reader will understand)

But I've gotten ahead of myself. If perhaps you never read Craig's blog (which is very unlikely), you may have absolutely no idea where I've been, although I've hinted at it. So, although I don't know what others in my family have written, I shall write as much or as less as I jolly well please, and you may be able to read someone else's blog in my family for a more rounded view.

We set out a week ago last Saturday, our mini van being a bit overstuffed. We then proceeded to pick up my brother at his condo. . . and we realized that it was a good thing that Kendra wasn't with us!(no offense to you, dear sister) Not only did we have our roof top carrier loaded with sleeping bags, camping supplies, and cooking utensils, but the back was practically stuffed to the ceiling with all assortments of things. Although I may have at first felt bad for packing a bulky duffel bag, my guilt dissipated much when I saw what some of my brothers were bringing. I thought I was bad! Okay, okay, do we really have to take three lap tops in this family? A keyboard too? Now why do you have to take such a humongous backpack on top of your camera bag, computer, squish pillow, and suitcase? You must also remember that we had to take all our own regular pillows as well, not only because many of us prefer to for travelling, but we were planning on some camping. Now maybe Jacob is okay with a rock for a pillow, but I certainly am not! To top it all off, it doesn't help when so many big guys in our family wear size thirteen in shoes, so they have to carry those separately as well, then there are the usual snacks, blankets, etc. I suppose you probably got the picture a long time ago, especially if you've ever had a fair number of people cramped into small quarters for a long time! My poor brothers have had to train their legs to become accordions so that they can fit in the car! ;)

Next we drove down to Gloucester, after taking a wrong turn into some random private company ("Neil I don't think there's any other way out of here," my mom attempted to persuade my dad to turn around). Here we picked up Craig who had been doing music for a friend's wedding reception. Clyde got out of the car to "stretch his hoppers," (that is certainly an expression I seem to have missed) and pretty soon Craig came out in his stocking feet because he didn't want to take his dress shoes all the way to Canada with us (he left them with another friend). Hmm, problem is, we didn't know where in all the clutter were his shoes, so when we came to a rest area he was rather puzzled. I gamely suggested Chad's water shoes, which he wore, and although they proved to be wet, it was just as well because that's the only use those shoes got all vacation.

That night we stayed at the Randall's camp, and here we experienced a new appreciation for running water since we had none, and we soon found out that this was an appreciation that was to be stirred in us at least twice more on our trip, as we stayed at campgrounds and also had a time when our running water stopped running! We all went to bed at similar times and gave each other salutary good nights like, "Good night John boy," just like the Waltons.

The next day we headed on up to Canada, but we took a fairly out of the way route to go visit the easternmost point in the United States. No, that point is not in New York or Massechusetts, as some interesting bibleschool students were guessing in a game of quiz boll, but in Maine itself. There was actually a lighthouse (called West Quoddy, for those of you who may be interested), and here we once again enjoyed the refreshment of taking photographs of yet another lighthouse. I have seen so many lighthouses this year I am tempted to be sick of them, but this one had red stripes which made it all the more delightful.

After our little detour we headed on up into Nova Scotia to stay in a town. Now this town has an old legend. When the Irish were settling in those parts, they built what is called Irishtown (which later became the town dump), as well as a town right next to it by a small bay, where they later became famous for their salt and silver pewter. Well when they came to the naming of the town, they were quite stumped. It seemed they had used up all their puny imaginations when they christened their other town, and when it came right down to it they couldn't think of any good name except Irishtown, which of course wouldn't do since that was the name of the neighboring town. So the leader (who soon became mayor, if Canada has such things) asked his council of trustees what they thought they should name the town. There was a silence, and then a small voice called out, "Oh, pugwash!" And thus it was officially called for lack of a better name. Now later the story came out that the name Pugwash was not suggested by any of the trustees at all, but rather by a little boy. He had been having a quiet argument with another little boy at the back of the room, concerning whether pugs are blue or pink. Well, this little boy got so fed up with the other boy's theory of pugs being blue that he searched his brain for the best exclamation. Of course he meant to say hogwash, but since he couldn't remember it properly, instead he cried, "Oh, Pugwash!" Here we must point out that a careless exclamation can often have drastic, and sometimes tragic, effects. And now I should probably stop making up stories and get on with the facts.

. . . on up into Nova Scotia to stay in a town called Pugwash. Now who ever came up with a name like that? All I can figure is that it means something in some language, someone was really weird, or people actually liked to wash their pugs in the bay there. Anyway, here we had arranged to rent an old house. I have no idea exactly how old it really was, except very old, but I do know that since the time it was built someone tried to redecorate it in the fifties and that was just the way it had been left, in good old fifties style. Some of the doorways were low or crooked (the boys bumped their heads occasionally), and we did have a little mountain in the living room floor and a slant where the kitchen table was located, but other than that the place was very satisfactory.

The next couple days were spent in hanging around and exploring the town, including a friendly dinner visit with Mr. Phil and Mrs. Bev (an odd way of putting it but I'm trying to be discreet:). Nothing too much to report except relaxation bordering boredom.

On Wednesday we set out for Cape Breton Island. This was truly a marvelous trip. The weather was pretty, and we took great pleasure in the grand look outs we had over the blue blue ocean far below and the dramatic cliffs. We were frequently reminded of Norway and Scotland (even though none of us have ever been to the latter). Also on this sometimes precipitous drive we were extremely thankful that our breaks worked, (even if we were having problems with the car battery) as well as the seemingly functioning breaks of the semi truck in front of us creeping up a hill, or the one coming barreling down in the other lane. We weren't as concerned with the Porche's breaks in front of us, because probably if it had fallen backwards they wouldn't have flattened us like the truck would have.;) We camped that night, reliving our camping days which we hadn't experienced for roughly four years, and we even made the standard fire with s'mores, even if the campground was cheap in selling us wet wood.

The next day we broke camp and set out of the national park, taking the longer but more scenic route home. Here I will note that we observed a peculiar Canadian love for brightly colored Adirondack chairs. It wasn't too unusual for us to pass an array of neon green, pink, yellow, and red chairs sitting casually in front of someone's house, or by a random pond. Occasionally if the opportunity arose, we would take advantage of these picturesque subjects using our cameras, capturing yellow or red ones by a beach or next to the water. Perhaps someday you will get to see them yourselves, after I get my film developed.

After stopping at a relaxing, though jelly fish strewed, beach for lunch and strolls with our cameras, we eventually meandered on to our temporary home, after a stop at Dairy Queen of course.

On Friday we went down to Halifax. Here we got to see Peggy's Cove with its flocks of tourists, plus an odd older lady singing and playing the accordion right next to the lighthouse. After browsing here we went on to the city of Halifax itself, where we got to watch the busker displays along the water. Here we observed a man flipping a teapot with a stick he held in his mouth, as well as him transferring the teapot from one stick on his chin, to another stick on his forehead, without using his hands. This was impressive, but more impressive still I think were the break dancers. There was quite a crowd around this little group from the Bronx, New York, and this group consisted of what we believe was a black family of three boys (one of them being about eleven years old perhaps) and a father. Now the guys were the break dancers, not the father (he was a little too wide in the girth for that sort of job), but he announced and directed the group still. I had never seen real break dancing before, so this was a new and interesting experience. First they mostly took turns doing tricks, frequently with music in the background, but sooner or later they were doing synchronized stuff. Now, I have seen people do flips off of trees, but I have never seen them do it off a person, and that is just what one of the guys did with his dad. That was unusual indeed, at least for me. Then they began calling for volunteers from the crowd, to come forward and do things like little contests with their own kind of dancing. This was a scary part actually because they were picking some tall guys, and when a guy got called upon right in front of us, my brothers were a little bit nervous. Craig went so far as to remove his baseball cap since that was often used as an identifying factor to single someone out from the crowd. Luckily, they didn't get called upon. A lot more could be said about the whole thing but I'm not going to bother. After all this we then had another friendly dinner visit with Ken and Marea, plus their whole family. We met Graham's (sp?) wife, who is very sweet and talkative, had some laughs, then went back "home."

On Sunday we left our rental house for good and headed out for Prince Edward Island. I've been there before but it's been about nine years, so I didn't really remember it extremely well. Our stay there lasted for two nights and it went all right, but we were disappointed with car trouble and that it rained both days we were there, then started to clear up the morning we left. One of these damp nights was a camping night, which left us (and our sleeping bags) a bit uncomfortable, but nothing soaking. Fortunately we stayed in a motel the next night. Despite all these negative factors however, we still had a good time. We took some windy strolls on the red beach, Craig and I visited Green Gables and took a bunch of pictures, plus Clyde, Craig, and I went to the Woodleigh Replicas and Gardens. This was really interesting because it consisted of a lot of fountains, gardens, and outdoor miniatures of famous buildings, estates, churches, and castles in England. Some of them were big enough to go inside of, so we got to explore the nooks of a fortress, admire the crown jewels, see St. Paul's Cathedral where the bird woman in Mary Poppins sat, traverse the spooky hall of a dungeon, or go into a bloody tower, or under the Tower of London. On Monday evening a bunch of us went to see Anne of Green Gables, the musical. This we enjoyed immensely, although it was rather expensive, and now I'm raving about the songs, the book, the movie, and everything! L.M. Montgomery actually had her first poem published when she was fifteen! That makes me feel like I better get busy.:) Anyway, concerning the play, it truly was amazing how someone that was twenty could transform themselves to look and behave like an eleven or twelve year old! Of course it wasn't wholly convincing at first, since I could tell that Anne and others were a lot older than they were supposed to be, but once I decided to see them as being much younger, it came quite naturally. That is what I would call either talented or uncanny.

Finally, on Tuesday we got up and drove on home, although we faced some car trouble and had to be jumped a couple of times. So that is a briefly long summary of our vacation. I realize that a bunch of my narrative may have been boring, but I've considered it and decided that it's still a part of my life anyway, and you probably wouldn't be reading this if you weren't a wee bit interested in what's happening in my life, and plus you really don't have to read my blog at all, so there! Whew! Pep talks to myself can be a bit tiring.

So now, just in case I don't post on my blog before I leave, I shall say farewell until my return! Unless if I find extra time on my hands along with some internet access over there, who knows? Maybe I'll surprise you with a post from Down Under!

A tiny glimpse of D.C.

As I look over my pictures once again, I am reminded that I was blessed enough to make a trip to Washington D.C. this year twice. I've been there a fair number of times throughout my life so far, but I have never been privileged to take pictures like I did this time--in fact, I think I may have had more interest in taking pictures than going to museums!

But anyway, I particularly recommend that you visit our capital in the springtime, because it can be sooooo beautiful! Especially when we went at the tail end of March and the cherry blossoms were out everywhere! That made us very happy indeed.

So, in case you haven't already guessed or noticed, I have just a few of the many pictures I had fun snapping:

Lighthouses!

In case the info may or may not have reached you, I got a new camera!!! Like over four months ago. Anyway, it's a film Nikon N75 (it's like Clyde's for those of you who don't know cameras but have seen his), and when I compare it to my former $14 Wal-Mart camera, it's practically using a piece of heaven. Ahhhh. . . . anyway, as you can imagine, I've taken a few pictures with it.:) However, since it is a film camera it's taken me awhile to get around to scanning any so I can share them with ya'll. Well I haven't even begun to scan all of them, but I've done about fifty of them, and maybe gradually I'll post a couple here and there so you can take a peek of what my life has been like lately--through pictures.

Last March we went lighthouse hunting--and here are a few pictures! hehe *surprise surprise*