Easter was a quiet time of reflecting on the Lord’s amazing love through the redemptive works of Christ. Jan, Mum’s old neighbour, called me up just as I had started to listen to our churches on-line service. She invited me over to watch it at her place. It was nice to watch together (with social distancing of course). We had a time of reflection and prayer before I left. Then later in the day we met down the beach for a swim. One side of the beach had fewer people but both areas were quite choppy so we didn’t stay long. A quick dip was all we needed to help rejuvenate ourselves.
Since the global shutdown, many of my overseas friends have found they have more time at home and I’ve been able to catch up with them for a chat. One of these friends, Yvonne, is a clinical educator who works in a rural clinic in South Africa. It’s been fun catching up with her and hearing some of her stories. I was rather concerned when she said one of the patients visiting her clinic presented with flu like symptoms. As she was checking his chest he coughed in her face. Praise God she was wearing a mask! Even so after the examination she wiped everything down including her grasses with alcoholic wipes. Pease pray for Yvonne’s safety.
When I visited Yvonne in 2015 she was very busy with the clinic as well as a training program, which has since be abandoned due to lack of funding. We still enjoy each other’s company and humour. While chatting on WhatsApp Yvonne found she could alter her appearance through an app. I laughed so much tears were running down my face. She often says I’m the techno one but she was the one who worked this one out. I couldn’t find how to do it on my phone, but then again we have different phones. On this particular evening we were chatting just as I had hopped into bed. Not a good time for me to chat but I have to grab the opportunity otherwise it’s hard to connect and sometimes we don’t talk for months. We talked for quite some time, ending with me in hysterics over her funny faces, not an ideal way to relax before sleeping. I told Yvonne I’d blame her if I couldn’t sleep! Sure enough I was so hyped up it took me quite a while to fall asleep, then I woke up around 1am and couldn’t sleep till after 4am! Still it was worth the chat.
I’m pleased to say many of my overseas friends have made their way back to Aust. They have all had to do the 2 week isolation but are all safe. My friends in Phuket and the couple coming back from the US are home with their families in QLD, friends from Bahrain are also safe, friends working in Cebu who were stuck there till mid-April were finally able to get a rescue flight back to Melbourne and are still in isolation. But my friend in Nigeria was unable to get out due to border closures and is stuck there as is my friend in Spain who is waiting for the sale of her house. Praise the Lord they are both still safe. Please continue to pray for their safety against the virus and speedy return to family here in Australia.
I love autumn here in Perth. It’s the least windy season with lovely warm, sometimes hot days and cool mornings and nights. The start of April was hotter than usual with temperatures up to 37 degrees. Even though we have social distancing, the beaches near me usually are not very populated, although getting to the water might be a bit difficult as people are not used to moving 1.5 mts out of the way for you to pass at the acceptable social distancing rule. I started to think that if you pass someone going the opposite direction then the social distancing rule did not apply, as I frequently saw walkers, joggers and cyclists passing people sometimes even brushing shoulders as they passed!
When out jogging I often have to remind people by saying “which side, left or right?” On one occasion an elderly chap replied “It’s ok. I’m ok I don’t have anything” I replied “I might not be, others might be asymptomatic”. My neighbour said he was over all this rubbish and was going to do his own thing. I explained that he might be ok now but doesn’t know who he has been in contact with who might be carrying the virus which he could then unknowingly pass on to someone with a low immune system who could then die. He wouldn’t feel so confident then. He agreed I had a point. It really amazes me that people think it’s all about them and have no thought for those who might be asymptomatic and passing something on to them! I feel this is another reason to wear a mask as no one knows who is carrying the virus. Like I’ve said before, ‘prevention is better than cure’. Don’t get complacent just because we have been doing so well thus far. Hopefully we become accustomed to the social distancing but also that it will only be a temporary normal.
One of my previous projects I mentioned was making my own pickled olives. The first lot of olives I soaked and bottled, the second batch I also finished and put into jars. I’ve now got quite a store of olives, some that are ready to eat are delicious.
I’ve also been working on providing extra shade to my Kiwi Berry vine which doesn’t like direct sun. It now grows under the pergola but still needs shelter from the western sun. I put two star-pickets into the ground and attached the top onto the pergola before strapping some plastic lattice and then shade cloth onto the frame. Next summer I will add extra shade cloth across the top of the pergola till the grape and wisteria cover it with shade. I’m hoping this will be enough for my fussy Kiwi.
Another outside job was to pull out some ground creeper what was starting to grow up into my grevillea. I cut it right back and pulled out the runners from the bush. In doing so I saw a beautiful female Australian golden orb-weaving spider which, praise the Lord is harmless. The female are large, very large and the males much smaller. Mum had previously had one that had spun her web on the patio. It was truly magnificent. I’m please to say although the web was partly destroyed with my clean up, by the next day there was another beautifully constructed golden web. Unfortunately grevillea are known to cause skin irritation and while I wore gloves and long sleeves my wrists were obviously uncover and I ended up with an itch on my exposed skin plus two insect bites on my left side. I’ve no idea from what or how but I’d say probably ants!
For some time I have been thinking of getting solar and have done my due diligence to see what company, brands and cost is involved. I had considered getting the work done before I left for Thailand but then didn’t. Now that I’m staying, I decided to go ahead with it and on Thursday 16th April I was up early for my jog (after taking something the night before to help me sleep through). I was informed the workers would be at my place between 7 and 9am. They arrived at 8am when I was just about to sit down for breakfast. There was an electrician from Brazil and one who arrived later from India and another worker, a Sikh also from India. I thought I had organised everything before they came but it seems I wasn’t given the correct information. Not only did they need access to my switchboard inside the house but also the power-board for all the units which was locked and only accessible to Western Power and our unit manager.
As my relationship with the unit manager is not the best I asked the electrician to contact her. I could hear the conversation between them was rather heated, with him saying he had talked enough and would ask his organizer to call her to discuss the matter. She was trying to tell the electrician that he didn’t need to get into the power box to turn off the house power. Within minutes my phone rang. Yes, she was now trying to tell me why he didn’t need to turn my house power off. I explained to get my power connected to the grid, my mains power would need to be turned off and a sticker put on my power converter in the power box. She eventually gave in and came to open the box. Unfortunately she was unable to unlock the box, I think she had the wrong key but insisted the lock had been changed since she had opened it last. After calling a friend, they both returned and with a grinder cut through the lock. Fortunately she had a similar spare lock to replace the old one. What a rigmarole!
With that over, the guys were able to complete their job, which took them only 4 hrs from start to finish. One thing I hadn’t realised is that because the solar is connected to the grid, when the power goes off the solar also goes off. It’s not like a backup system which is very disappointing. It will be interesting to see how much power is generated and how much I will be saving. I checked my average daily usage on my last power bill which was less then 6kw per day and when I looked at the solar system after 4 hrs it had already generated 13kw! Ok it’s been a very sunny day but still I thought that was brilliant!
As many of you know I suffer from insomnia. Recently I’ve really struggled with a full night’s sleep, waking around 1 or 2am and not sleeping again till after 4 or 5am. Sometimes I go back to bed after my morning jog but usually if I’ve been awake for hours during the night, I wake up feeling drained and tired with no energy for a jog. Sleeping later in the morning has its challenges too, especially as there’s construction going on across the road. The beeping of trucks reversing, concrete mixers grinding away, dogs barking, cars tooting and of course noisy commuters coming and going on their walk to the beach or walking the dog often prevent me from dozing off or wakes me.
If I do fall back to sleep it often results in weird dreams. On one occasion I dreamt I was swimming in a pool and heard my phone alarm going off. I swam towards where I had left the phone and turned the alarm off, diving back into the pool. As I surfaced I could still hear the alarm. I kept tapping the phone to turn it off and another would start. Then from a hazy fog I 
began to rise out of my dream, realising it WAS my phone and it WAS still trying to get my attention. It was 7:45am! Ok, so although I turn my phone onto silent and hang a ‘sleeping’ sign on my front door, I still have my alarm set to reminder of things I need to do during the day. Looks like I’d better make it for a later time. On another occasion I needed a reminder so this time I set it for 8:45am. Wouldn’t you know it! That too woke me up! I’d been out for my jog and had returned to bed to try to catch up with some extra sleep after a restless night. It had taken me awhile to eventually fall asleep which was the reason I’d slept so late. Oh well, God willing I get a better break next time.
After several consecutive weeks of poor sleep I decided to have a week on some herbal sleeping tablets. I needed to use up a few brands I’d tried in the past which had ceased to help. I hoped having had a break from them they would work. For the first three nights I took the last of one brand, followed by five nights of another brand. I was pleasantly surprised that I slept, although rather fretfully, seven to eight hours. On the last night I was still so tired in the morning that I kept going back to sleep finally dragging myself out of bed at 9 am! Wow! I must have needed to catch up after months of poor sleep. The following night I decided to return to just my magnesium tablets and again I slept well I’m just praying my body has regain its equilibrium, correcting my body clock so that I will continue to sleep well. Thus far, except for one terrible night when I woke up with a headache after taking some herbal tablets, it’s been going well. I’m waking around 5am, ready for my jog, which is getting later and later as I wait for enough light to be able see what’s on the path.
I felt this year’s Anzac Day has been a real community event around the suburbs as we congregated in our driveways to remember the fallen. One of my neighbours had designed a sign and a wreath, another neighbour, Bob, provided a flag which he had attached to a fishing rod, then strapped it to a steel rod I had driven into the ground at the top of our driveway. Just before dawn, while seven of us stood around, Bob blew his saxophone while other neighbours listened to the radio broadcast of the service. We could hear the sound of the bugle call throughout the neighbourhood as people listened to various radio stations. It was a memorable occasion which I hope we will repeat next year. Being up early I decided I’d go for my jog even though it was still quite dark. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many people at the end of their driveways with candles or lanterns, remembering those who had fought. At first I greeted them as I jogged by but then I felt maybe it was a little irreverent, interrupting their thoughtful contemplation and passed by in silence. Later that morning I listened to a recorded message of the Canberra memorial service.
Although I decided not to make face masks, my creative side has been itching to start a new project. So instead I chose to be productive in another area. For a while now, since cleaning out Mum’s camphorwood chest full of wool, I have wanted to get back into knitting. I love knitting all sorts of things including Fair Isle (which are designs of different colours), patterned 
stiches and the like and because there is a heap of odd coloured wool I thought the best way to use them up would be to make some beanies. So quick and easy and I can not only use up the colours but also try different stitches. Once I started, I found it very addictive and hard to put it down. Regrettably after my first knitting day my left shoulder became knotted and sore, still this hasn’t stop me I’ve started something and would see it to completion. Unfortunately I also need a bit of concentration when doing a patterned design or decreasing stiches to finish off the top. I’ve had to redo several rows after chatting to someone while knitting, but by the end of April I had finished three beanies. Approximately one every two days.
I’ve been having fun in the garden as usual. My seedlings have been growing and will soon be providing me with produce for the kitchen. My baby Bobtails have been spotted around the garden sunning themselves to warm up. Usually I can only find one but on occasions I have seen them both. I think they have their own territories in the garden, one is commonly in the lower garden, the other up on the higher ground above the retaining wall. It’s lovely to know they are getting used to my voice as they often remain where they are, when I pass or greet them.
Photos: 1. My Silver Princess gum with first flowers 2. Yvonne’s funny face and mine in hysterics (by the way this doesn’t look anything like Yvonne) 3. Mullaloo Beach 4. Olives 5. Shade for Kiwi berry 6. Golden orb-weaver 7. Solar installation 8. Anzac Day 9. Knitting
Prayer & Praise Points:
Praise the Lord for His blessing in this the ‘Lucky Country’. We have been so blessed thus far with such a low infection of the Coronavirus.
Please continue to pray with me for all our health care workers throughout the world, the scientists working on a vaccine and for those working on fighting this plague.
Pray also for our heads of state and politicians; that they may put their differences aside and work together for the good of the country and her people
Praise the Lord for His protection, peace, wisdom and strength during these uncertain times. Psalm 91.
Pray with me for business to reopen and once again offer employment so our economy can begin to pick up.
Please pray for friends and family who have either chosen to stay in the country they are working in or are unable to return home.
Pray also for those who have lost loved ones, for the elderly who are missing their families, for businesses and individuals affected by the economic situation.
Pray that those who don’t yet know the Lord Jesus will have their eyes opened to His love, peace and saving grace.
I praise God for all our supportive friends and prayer partners as we help each other through these difficult times. We all need each another in different ways and it’s reassuring and encouraging to know friends are not too far away thanks to technology and prayer.