Ocean Grove 2024

Arriving in Melbourne I made my way to carousel 1 where our luggage had been allocated for pickup.  We hadn’t waited long before there was an announcement changing the pickup to carousel 2.  I soon received a notice on my phone to say my bag had arrived in Melbourne and was ready to collect and then there it was coming up the shoot of the carousel. Sometimes this new technology is very convenient. Grabbing my bag I headed to the exit where I asked where the Gull bus to Geelong departed, then headed in the opposite direction to meet my sister, Kat coming in from Cairns.  I had a little time to wait so ate the lunch I had packed into my luggage, grateful I didn’t have to wait around for something to be prepared.

Kat arrived early and asked if we could take an early bus, so we hurried back down towards a bus which we could see waiting.  Praise the Lord, we were able to change the times, and boarded the waiting bus just before it departed. It took just over an hour to reach the train station in Geelong where we were met by Jen’s partner Ralf who drove us to Ocean Grove in his van.

It was lovely seeing Kate, Jen’s daughter who I hadn’t seen since April 2017.   She had come over for a friend’s wedding and was staying long enough to catch up with family and friends before leaving again early February. Jen showed me where she had arranged my ‘room’ in the garage where she had set up a lovely spot for me, very quiet and private. It was great to have my own space where I could head off early on my jogs without disturbing anyone.  Jen also has two permanent boarders, Kauren and Kerry, she had drawn up a chart with dates and rooms marked with who would be in them and when.  Very organised.  That’s our Jen.

Because I hadn’t slept well the night before I left Perth and wasn’t able to sleep on the plane, I was exhausted.  I was hoping this would work in my favour to help reset my body clock, three hours earlier than Perth time.  I fell asleep quickly but woke at 10:30 unable to resettle for over an hour even though I was still exhausted.  I finally fell back to sleep waking after 8am (being 5am Perth time which was my normal wake up time for Perth).

I forced myself to get up and go for a run just to help me reset my body clock and because I hadn’t jogged the morning I flew out. I didn‘t have breakfast till around 10am as I really wasn’t hungry but I did have my late lunch around 3pm and wasn’t hungry for the rest of the day.  That night I took some Phenergan which helped me sleep better, waking just before 5am for my jog.  From then on it seemed my body had readjusted to the AEST.  This all went out the window on the Tuesday night when I went to bed and couldn’t sleep. By 9:30pm I gave up and took a sleeping tablet but then there was crashing and bumping as people went in and out of the metal gate which latched onto the side of the garage where I was trying to sleep. Then around 10pm there was a power surge which turned on the ceiling light connected to the remote roller door, jolting me out of my drowsiness.  It took ages to turn off, in the meantime I called Jen (I didn’t get out of bed because it was a cold night), she said she’d look at the manual as she also didn’t know.  Praise God it soon went off soon after that, automatically and I was finally able to sleep.

Jen’s place is within walking distance to the beach and the shops, which was very convenient as I was often popping down to the shops to top up with things needed or go for a walk or swim at the beach. The first day of our arrival Kat was a little insensitive towards me which didn’t help as I was feeling fragile having not slept well but after this things settled down.  She and Kate both had colds, sneezing and coughing all over the place, which I wasn’t happy about as I really didn’t want to get sick while I was away.  Praise the Lord it wasn’t Covid.

That afternoon I joined Jen, Ralf and his dog, Tucker, for a long walk along the coast north of us at Black Rocks.  There was a cool blustery wind which put us all off swimming.  Jen is worse than me at avoiding cold water.  It took a 41.5 degree heat to get us both in the water the following day.  It was late Monday afternoon and the three sisters and Kate walked down to the local beach.  Perfect weather, no wind, no waves and the water was beautiful and refreshing, about the same temperature I was used to in Perth, cold but not too cold.

Tuesday the four of us went into Geelong, Kate needed to renew her Australian drivers licence and Kat and Jen wanted to do some shoe shopping.  They were both looking for boots and then went on to buy sandals, even I found a pair of sandals. I have been trying to find a nice pair for a while.

Before I left Perth I had ordered a supportive wrist brace online thinking it was like the one I already had but when I tried it on it was very uncomfortable so inquired about returning it.  The reply was yes but they would not pay for the postage.  As I’ve previously mentioned THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS I DON’T LIKE BUYING ON LINE!!  I had tried and tried to find one I liked in the shops, in fact I even bought one from my local pharmacy after trying it on, but later I realised the straps were annoying and it rubbed on my knuckles. Jen said she would try to sell the new one on line and I too posted it to see if anyone in Perth might like it. The crazy thing was I was also sent a free gift.  A magnetic bracelet and necklace which I really don’t like or want so if I was to post it back it would cost extra for their silly gift!  I prayed for guidance and asked the Lord to help me sell them.

When I went jogging I took my phone with me so I would know how far I had jogged.  I timed myself, giving myself 17mins in one direction and then made my way back a different route to try to make it 3km in total. I like to include a few, not too steep hills too.  The first time I went towards the beach but there were too many steep hills so the following day I headed in the opposite direction which was much better.  I even found two public toilets along the way, very convenient if I ever needed them, plus a park with exercise equipment.  Unfortunately I had only had a few early morning jogs as I began to feel crook, I had caught the colds that were going around so didn’t go again for several days.

On Wednesday I had arranged to catch up with my tenants in Geelong, Meredith and partner Isaac, who was unfortunately at work at the time. I wanted to have a look around my rental home which I hadn’t seen since 2014.  The agent informed me I couldn’t because they had already done an inspection and by law, here in Victoria, I was not permitted another inspection so close to the last. After a long wait and many reminder emails I eventually got a reply through the agent that the tenants, who had been away, had agreed I could visit.  I borrowed the little yellow car Jen had been loaned, which has been so convenient with all of us needing to get into Geelong or just around to places we couldn’t walk to.  I drove Kat in as she was meeting a friend, then spending her last night in Melbourne with Matt our nephew (Jen’s son) before flying back to Cairns early the next morning.   I then drove off to meet my tenant and neighbours Bob and Liz from unit 1 and Stuart from unit 3.  I hadn’t met them before as they had both only recently bought the units. I had made a date and time to catch up with Bob and Liz for coffee after I’d visited my tenants.  Bob contacted me to say he was unable to come but would meet me at my unit for a chat. As I was walking down the driveway I saw Stuart and asked him to join us. I met Meredith and had a quick look around the house checking out the new back fence which had recently replaced the old one that had partly fallen down. Bob and Liz showed us around their lovely home which I’d never been in before.  Our units had been built by the builder owner, who had lived in the first unit which is superbly built, a real show home.  Bob, I found out is also a handyman and loves gardening and was happy to keep the hedges along our borders trimmed and help out my tenants if they needed things fixed. What a blessing.  Liz, Meredith, Stuart and myself walked to a local café where we got to know each other a bit more over coffee before I drove back to Ocean Grove.

Because I eat later in the day, I was eating whatever was prepared for dinner the night before.  So after my morning out I came home and made a delicious precooked meal which was easy to put together, followed by a dessert as Ralf had a cherry plum tree which has been giving abundant fruit.  Jen had even made jars of Chinese spiced plum sauce which is delicious.

Thursday we went on an op shop crawl. Jen had decided that on Christmas day we would have a Kris Kringle gift for all who were at the house on Christmas Day.  I had brought my gift from home but came along anyway. Of course when you go to these places there always a temptation to buy something, so we all came back with more than we had gone for.  We also visited the local Food Co Op which provided food for a small donation to anyone who wanted it.  This was food provided by supermarkets and shops with excess. We stacked up our shopping baskets and were given more from the lady who was trying to empty the over-full shelves and refrigerator.  They also had some lovely cakes which were free with our coffee.

Ralf’s daughter Saskia 18 yrs old, came down for a few nights to be with her father then spent the night with her boyfriend in his family’s caravan before returning to the house for breakfast and a lift from her father to work in Geelong.

Friday was a lovely day, Jen, Kate and I walked down to the beach, it wasn’t as warm as the previous day and the sea was rougher with lots of seaweed.  I might have gone in but was wary of what was under the murky waters as during the previous swim I had trodden on, what I suspected was a crab.  Something had snapped my foot.  Praise the Lord it had let go the moment I flicked my foot.  Friday evening was a special Christmas dinner for Saskia as she was driving to Adelaide to have Christmas with her sister and her mum at their grandparent’s place.

Saturday was a day at home for Jen and I, while Kate took a train to Melbourne to catch up with friends and stay a few nights with her brother Matt in his new flat.   She was dropped off at the train station by Ralf who returned home to Geelong, to get some work done.  Ralf comes and goes between Jen and his place depending on work.

Sunday I was feeling much better and borrowed the little yellow car to drive to church in Torque where I had planned to meet up with a long-time friend, Mindy.  I also stayed the night, catching up with her children Benji and Grace who I hadn’t seen since I visited them in the Philippines in September 2019.  Mindy and I had a great time catching up on stories.  That afternoon we walked along the creek at the back of her place, down to the beach and back in time to join her friend for evening church.  Unbeknownst to us they had put on a Christmas dinner.  It was Mindy’s first time to this service.  We joined a table and introduced ourselves.  Both Mindy and I weren’t eating so we had more time to talk.  Not a problem for me anyway as many of you know. We stayed for the message which was very encouraging then left before the dessert as Mindy still needed to feed her kids.

I was up early the following morning, and although I had forgotten to put my jogging shoes in I was determined to go for a jog.  Praise the Lord I was able to go in my sandals which strapped on firmly.  By the time I had finished my exercises and breakfast, Mindy was up so we had another chat before I left at 10am.  Jen had asked if I would like to help her at Ralf’s place, as she wanted some help with arranging the rooms for the photographer who was coming after Christmas to take photos for the sale of his house.   I spent most of the day cleaning doors while Jen did some patch up painting and painted the back of an open wardrobe in the room I was to sleep in.  The irony of this is that I had asked a painter in Perth to do the ceilings of my place while I was away so I didn’t have to sleep in a room with toxic paint smells.  Fortunately we were able to leave the window open most of the afternoon and the door open all night so it didn’t give me a headache.  Ralf later returned home after a day of work in Melbourne. That evening when we sat down to relax I introduced them a TV series with light humour called ‘The Cleaner’.

The following day, Tuesday, I went for a jog around a nearby oval then back to help around Ralf’s place.  Jen mowed the lawn, then power hosed the little car which we don’t think had been cleaned for years as the crevasses were full of leaves and spider webs.  We then drove back to Ocean Grove, stopping along the way for another shop. That afternoon, Kate, Matt and Jen’s X husband Jeff, arrived.  They came down for Christmas, some staying on a few days.  When Jeff, and later a friend of Jen who visited, saw me they both thought I was Jen until they saw her.  It was quite funny, we are very similar. It used to happen a bit when we were in our twenties too.

Wednesday was Christmas Day. I didn’t sleep well and decided to have a bit of a sleep in as we had a busy day ahead. As I was lying there I could hear a munching and a dropping of something outside my door.  I came out to investigate and saw a sulphur crested cockatoo eating Jen’s quince.  Jen had previously had problems with possums eating the new shoots off the trees, stripping them and nearly killing them.   The trees now had quite a bit of fruit developing which she of course wanted to keep.  After chasing off the cockatoo I noticed Jen had left a Christmas stocking filled with goodies outside my door, a treat I hadn’t expected although I knew she had done them for the younger generation.  I felt very spoilt. Jen had also prepared most things for our Christmas lunch.  She had taken my dietary needs into consideration, making it Christmas lunch instead of dinner which I was very grateful for.  After breakfast the household came together for the Kris Kringle gift giving.  We drew numbered stars from a container to see who would go first.  I picked out number 1 so was first to choose.  I looked for the lightest gift as I didn’t want anything too heavy or bulky to pack, which was a little ironic as I ended up needing to pack a huge suitcase. It was lots of fun and some very interesting gifts which seemed to suit each person who chose them.

Before lunch we all, bar Matt, who wanted to stay behind, drove down to the estuary taking paddle boards with us.  The tide was out, revealing the sandbar which we walked across to deeper water.  Both Jeff and Ralf had paddle boards which everyone except me had a go on.  I’m not sure why I got missed out but I was fine with that. I took photos and videos of Kauren and Kate. Unfortunately when I thought I was videoing them getting on together and falling off, the phone wasn’t recording.  I couldn’t see my phone screen as I didn’t have my glasses on!  It was a fun morning returning at 1pm to put things in the oven for an hour to prepare for our big Christmas lunch.  Ham, baked vegies, salad, nut loaf for the vegetarians followed with Pavlova.  What a feast! For the rest of the day none of us were hungry.  Jen, Ralf and I later took Matt to the Marshall Train Station so he could return to Melbourne.  We then took Tucker for a long walk before returning home. For the rest of the day the new jigsaw came out and people, other than me who is not really into jigsaws, worked on it finishing it the following evening.

That night it seemed I was waking every hour!  I wondered if it was because of the wind or what we had eaten.  I dragged myself out of bed at 6am to go jogging as I hadn’t been since my return from Torque and Geelong.  I’m glad I did, I felt much better.  It was a lazy day, me working on this blog, some went for a morning swim, then lunch, Ralf returned home, Jen, Kate and I went for a walk to the shops and a late afternoon swim.  I decided to be brave as it was much calmer.  The water was so refreshing even though I was trying to avoid getting my hair wet and was caught by a small wave douching me salty water.

While sitting around the table, Jeff began to bait me about my beliefs, I refused to bite back, saying I didn’t want to discuss my beliefs as I knew he wasn’t interested and I didn’t want to argue.  Later Kauren said she would like to know more and was genuinely interested.  I gave her one of my tracts with a link for her to watch a video on line which she did.  We later exchanged email addresses so that she could ask me any questions she had.

The rest of the evening we lazed around with Kate asking trivial questions from a card game before we watched a ‘The Cleaner’ Christmas special. It was quite ironic that it finished off with a joke from inside the cracker which was my favourite from our Christmas Day lunch.  We all thought it was hilarious to be repeated in the movie and roared with laughter! Ok I’ll share it with you.  What do reindeers put on the Christmas tree?  You will have to watch the movie to find the answer.  Oh all right, I’ve written the answer below.

Friday I was up early having decided it was better to take some more Phenergan to help me sleep.  Kate was off to do some holiday cleaning to help supplement her stay, Kauren was back at work, Kerry visiting her parents, Jeff was told he could no longer presume he could stay as he had already stayed an extra night and his room was now needed for someone else and Jen and I packed up the Christmas tree, Ralf’s nativity scene and did some odd jobs around the house including putting up a large plastic owl overlooking her fruit trees hoping this will detour the cockatoos. That evening when Kauren came home she brought her hairdressing scissors with her so that she could give me what she called a bixie haircut.  I had been saying it was getting a bit long and had just cut my fringe myself.

During my stay I’ve been making my kefir which I brought with me.  It’s been rather cold so when the oven has been used and cooled down I put it in to help it grow.  I think on one occasion I didn’t wait long enough for it to sufficiently cool down and it might have gotten a bit cooked.  Praise the Lord after a few days it seemed to right itself so I had fresh kefir every day.

Saturday Jen and I drove Kate to the ferry in Portarlington where she took the ferry to Melbourne.  It was a bit of a nail bitting trip as Kate, also known as late Kate, had been working out at the gym that morning and wanted a shower before we left, cutting things very finely to arrive at the ferry just before it left at 9am.  We dropped her to run down the pier while we parked then walked to the end of the very long pier to wave her goodbye. We then walked around some of the town before driving back to Ocean Grove where I packed up to stay the night with Jen at Ralf’s home.  This made it easier to catch the Gull bus to the airport the following day. The huge suitcase Jen gave me was needed to bring home two framed paintings which she had been given while in the UK.  There were three paintings which our great grandmother had done which were offered to Jen, Kat and myself.  Jen had kept one, Kat said she didn’t have room to hang them so I asked if I could take them as a pair and when Kate finally moves back to Australia I can give them both to her.

So with this very big suitcase half empty I placed my small backpack into it, strapping in tightly across the paintings which I had wrapped in bubble wrap. I hadn’t packed all my things as I needed some things for a night at Ralf’s place.  When we arrived Jen and I had a relaxing afternoon watching a movie. Jen was definitely coming down with another cold, God willing not Covid!  I just wanted to get home uninfected!  It seemed the colds were doing the rounds as Kate had had two, I had one which I recovered very quickly from, having taken heaps of Vitamin C and Olive Leaf Extract; Jen was on her second infection and Kerry and Kauren was coming down with one too.

That night I tried to go to bed at 8pm but couldn’t sleep till after 10pm even after taking more Phenergan!  Then finally fell asleep and woke again with the light on!  I couldn’t believe it! Another power serge!  They seem to be following me!  Although I was up early I hadn’t slept well so decided not to go for my run, instead I prepared my bags for the flight and put a load of washing through for Ralf before loading his van.  Jen and Ralf wanted to do some shopping at Bunnings before dropping me at the bus/train station in Geelong where I caught a Gull bus directly to the airport.  I was rather embarrassed with my very large suitcase, I had planned to return home with only cabin luggage!  I had also planned to stay a night with Matt so I could see his new apartment.  I was relieved I didn’t as it would have been very cumbersome lugging around the huge suitcase.  The bus dropped me off early which I prefer, Virgin staff assisted me with my check in luggage, then I was able to relax before the flight and worked once again on this blog. The flight was late but I wasn’t concerned, I was going home.  On the flight there was a crying baby opposite me with parents trying hard to keep her quiet. I had a bag full of eats including fresh fruit which I needed to eat before I arrived and a good book to read so I settled into the four hour flight.

My trip to Ocean Grove had been a pleasant one.  I had forgotten how much cooler Victoria was but there were some very pleasant warm parts of the days as well as the usual cooler hours and occasional showers. I am very grateful the Lord provided me an opportunity to catch up with Jen, Kat, Matt and Kate and to meet Mindy and her family. I will miss having family around, my place will be very quiet in comparison with the comings and goings of Jen’s home.  But it will be nice to be back home in my own familiar surroundings.

Photos  1. Clematis, Old Man’s Beard    2. Family: Saskia, Ralf, Jen, me, Kate & Kat    3. Kate, Kat, Karen, Jen, Saskia & Ralf    4. Red flowering gum    5. Kate, me & Jen Ocean Grove beach    6. Tucker, Ralf, Jen & Kate Black Rock beach    7. Estuary: me Kauren, Kate, Ralf & Jen    8. Jeff, Kate, Jen & Ralf    9. Jigsaw finished: Kate Jeff, Kauren, Jen & Karen    10. Me in my new bathers    11. Christmas colours: Pink knotweed, Persicaria capitata

Prayer & Praise Points:

I praise God for my safe trip to Victoria and back, to be able to spend time with family and catch up with Mindy and her family.

Praise Him for great neighbours who are able to look after my house and garden while I’m away, especially in the 40 degrees heat they had.

Praise the Lord for the lovely weather in Victoria, some warm sunny days for the beach and cool days in between.

Please continue to pray for Gayle’s health, she is having more tests to try find out what’s troubling her, pray also for her son Joshua’s health.

Please continue to pray for Anthony Higgs; Elsie and Ross Winchester as they continue their cancer treatment. Believe with me for the Lord’s intervention and total healing for all of them.

Join me as we continue to pray for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Russia, and all 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 in 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.

Answer to Christmas cracker:  Horn-aments.