Another Challenging Month

Continuing on from the saga with my neighbour’s garden. Matt spoke to me later that week to say that he had spoken to the landlady about doing something about how his place is now so exposed to everyone walking along the street.  He also told me that she had asked which plants I had planted, praise God he didn’t say all those in his top garden as those he had mentioned were those she had pulled out, one of which was one he had bought and planted.  I really couldn’t believe her spitefulness!  Since then Matt has suggested I water early in the morning so as not to be caught out.  Unfortunately this came a bit late as one of my favourite plants, the Pincushion Hakea, Hakea laurina, which has a lovely pink flower with spiky stamen, didn’t survive. So beautiful and so disappointing.  The rain did come but it was a week too late and then a week of hot weather again.

City of Stirling Council is giving away more plants and Matt has been given permission to collect some, as long as they are not trees. He then asked some of our neighbours if he could use their name to order more.  Looks like he will be taking over from my native garden plot, it will be much larger than what I stated.  This is quite a relief for me and thinking back it was something I aimed for.  Since then he has bought a longer hose so he can do his own watering and planted a few trees.  He says they can be hedged, they look like bottle brush so it’s true they will bush out if cut.  One of the palms which was cut down, a phoenix palm, had pups which have since stated to sprout.  Kathy wanted to poison them by drilling into the trunks.  We must have spoken about this in her driveway where her neighbour overheard us and relayed it back to Matt.  By that time she had decided against it and instead would report it to the landlady but too late!  I saw the neighbour and Matt discussing things in his garden and not long after Matt confronted me.  He accused me of drilling a hole in one of his paperbark trees, the poison had made his arm sting as he brushed past the branches.  I reassured him it wasn’t me and I didn’t know who had done it. Thinking back I realised he was probably just making it up as the poison doesn’t come out of the leaves if it was put in a hole in the base of the trunk.  Since then the tree hasn’t shown any signs of being poisoned which confirms my point.  I was annoyed that he thought it was me as I’m the one who has encouraged him to grow things there.  The Lord works all things for good as now Matt doesn’t bother me every morning with more questions about plants and gardening.  It had become a bit of a daily obsession with him, stopping me as I came home from my jog, interrupting my morning routine even when I was in a hurry.

In my garden I continue to fight the rats even with the palms gone!  I don’t think the solar sonic rat deterrent is working at all!  I’ve even tried spraying Skat on the fruit and around the area but that doesn’t seem to work as well as I hoped either.  I’ve also covered some with split plant pots and nets which seems to be the only sure way to stop them.  But this also makes it difficult to know if the fruit is ripe.  The sonic sound which is plugged into the mains power outside my back door seems to have worked better as only one pear, which wasn’t covered and netted, was chewed.  Other fruit around my garden are; one nearly ripe Pomegranate and only one orange which didn’t split is still ripening on the tree as well as a tree full of mandarins which I suspect will all ripen while I’m away.

The first week of March I was feeling quite flat.  Things at TAFE weren’t’ going as well as I had hoped, plus the events with Matt.  Up until then the lecturer had provided video’s on the weeks lessons which I could go through from home covering all the points I needed to remember for that lesson. This helped me not fall behind so I was ready for the next week’s lesson. But without them my self-learning slipped.  The long weekend we had was wasted. I had now fallen behind.  No matter what I tried I just couldn’t figure out the assignment which needed to be in that week. Throughout that week and partly through the next I tried by all means to work it out but just couldn’t. I felt like I was hitting my head against the wall and decided not to do anything till I had spoken to the student support person.  I wanted to keep going as there were still things I wanted to learn.  I just needed some extra tuition.

The second week I had an appointment with my GP again, who gave me the papers needed to receive student support.  She also suggested I go on a low acid diet to see if it would improve my gut. That too was a struggle as most of the things I enjoy are acidic including coffee.  It seemed there wasn’t much I could eat, especially as I was still on a basic FODMAP diet too.  After a week there was no improvement so I returned to my normal routine.  All this time I felt there was a real spiritual attack from the enemy and I wasn’t going down without a fight!

Monday back at TAFE while waiting to be let into the class room I was encouraged by some of the other students who said they too were struggling. I was also relieved when our lecturer said it was a revision day and gave us all help with our assignment.  I was amazed at how many students offered to help me, especially one girl from Peru who had a very strong accent which made it difficult to understand her.  She came and showed me many things which later the lecturer told us not to use.  But she did show me a better program for writing code, helping me download it onto my tablet so I can use it at home.  From that day on I started to use my tablet and keyboard, not the TAFE computers.

Praise the Lord, I have been accepted for the student assistance program as I really do need personal assistance to understand the class notes.  The following Monday, I felt a dread but hopeful anticipating that things would change.  The first half of the lesson was quite interesting about colours and how they are used on websites.  Instead of the usual basic colours (red, blue and yellow), the basic colours used for websites are red, green and blue and the amount of each is measured in numbers called the rbg or hex colours which are numbers and letters.  After this the lecturer went over some of the assignment’s criteria.  I wasn’t really interested but politely listened anyway, champing to get out to speak to the student support person.  I had decided that if I didn’t need particular information, related to businesses and clientele, to run our website, neither did I need to do the related assignments.  We were then given free time to work on the assignments.  I took this opportunity to seek out the student support person for a chat about what I was hoping to get help with.  I was so disappointed when she said she had no experience in IT or web development but was there to help students with time management and the like.  My hopes were shattered!   I left her to find the co-ordinator to let him know what I had hoped for.  He must have seen the dejection on my face (I’m not good at hiding my feelings).  Previously he had mentioned I could also get student support at any of the other campuses including Joondalup.  I asked if maybe there was someone else who could help, he promised to ask the woman at the Joondalup campus who he thought had some IT experience as well as Bob who had previously helped me on my first day.  I prayed for a miracle and returned to class.  After sitting staring at my laptop screen for sometime trying to pluck up courage to ask my lecturer for help, I make a list of things I needed help with and called her over.  She didn’t say anything about not using the TAFE computers but she did huff and puff about not liking to use a laptop without the mouse and she really hated touch screens.  She did help me with two of my queries, the rest I didn’t want to bother her with.

Unfortunately none of the student support workers had the knowledge needed to help me.  When I spoke with Bob, I could see he didn’t really understand web terminology or techniques for the website design I needed.  I gave up on the student support, very disillusioned.  What had all that paperwork and medical report been for?

The following Monday the girl from Peru, who had helped me the previous week, asked how I was going and I said I was about to give up.  Oh no, she said. She would help me, which she did.  Again I found it difficult to understand her and she was doing so many things I knew weren’t right and didn’t help me.  She did show me some good websites I could use to ask questions of AI.  She also told me I didn’t need to write my own information for the articles, I could use AI. I told her I enjoyed writing as toys (which was what the website was about) was my area of expertise, having been a Mothercraft Nurse.  I also preferred to write my own information anyway, especially if I knew about the topic.  Not long after this I suggested we ask the lecturer for assistance.  I’m so glad I did, as although she continued to huff and puff about using my computer without a mouse, she did eventually work out what the problem was and was quick to fix it.  This helped both myself and the other student advance our understanding and knowledge on that particular challenge.  I didn’t ask this student again but the following Monday she came over to ask me to help her!  What a surprise! I was actually amazed at how much I could show her, which helped with her assignment.  I do enjoy imparting knowledge when I’m able.  One of the Asian girls, Pearl, was sorry to hear I wasn’t coming back next term and asked for my contact number, which was sweet of her.  I have kind of enjoyed the challenge of learning something new but I am very disappointed that there wasn’t someone who could go through things slowly with me, one-on-one so I could retain this knowledge.

The last day of term I went in, even though it was down as a catch up day.  I wanted to say bye to all my colleagues and grab Pearl’s contact just in case I needed something she could help me with.  I was very disappointed that the one thing I really wanted to learn about website forms was not till one of the last weeks in second term when I will be away.  Still I have downloaded the lecture notes and now I know the basics I hope I can work my way though it.

Now for some good news, Gayle’s hospital appointment came through, bringing her down from Bali for a short stay.  What an answer to prayer as it’s lovely to be here to help her out with transport and accommodation and just to spoil her a bit while she is here.  Not such good news was that her bag was left on the plane and ended up back in Bali. Firstly she was told it wouldn’t arrive till Thursday (the day she was flying back to Bali) or they might put it on another flight and have it couriered out.  I suggested she ask them to keep in in Bali and pick it up when she returned.  Which she eventually did. In the meantime, I was at TAFE and suggested she meet me at Perth Station as by then I was finishing class and heading home.  I also messaged my friend Dorothy who was a similar size to Gayle and asked if she had some clothes Gayle could borrow. Later Dorothy offered Gayle accommodation if she comes down while I’m away.  God always provides.

It took a while for Gayle’s train to arrive, then together we took the train and bus to my place.  Gayle grabbed a bite to eat before we headed out the door to do a quick shop en route to Dorothy’s home.  What a blessing to have generous, loving, church family. The rest of Gayle’s time here didn’t go as successfully as we hoped, as she was told she would have to return again in the near future for more tests.  We are praying it will be before I head off to her place in Bali.

Closing on a positive note, I’m pleased to say I have received my Indonesian visa so I’m ready to go.

Photos:  1. Pincushion Hakea, Hakea laurina    2. Pomegranate ripening    3. Tropical Pear    4. My website assignment    5. On the bus with Gayle

Prayer & Praise Points:

I praise the Lord for Gayle’s safe trip down and back to Bali.  Please pray that her next visit will be soon. Pray also that all the tests will go well and a diagnosis can be made.

Please continue to pray for Gayle’s health, her return to Perth and for available cheap flights.

Please pray for my neighbour Matt, and wisdom for me as I face these challenges.

Continue to pray for the world.  For peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Russia, for Thailand and Myanmar and other countries dealing with major disasters, wars and the unbelievable hardships they cause.  Pray for all those caught up in the suffering these events have caused.  Pray that God’s peace may be known by all people especially for those who live with despair, that they will find hope in Christ Jesus.

Please keep my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat, in your prayers.  Pray that they will come to know the love of Jesus.