A lesson learned...

Ok, ok! I've had too many people complain that I'm a slacker and don't blog enough!

The most exciting thing I've done so far this year is a trip to WA! My friend Steph was over from London so we decided to take a trip together.

We had such a great time! Spent a few days in Maragret River before heading back to Perth for the rest of our time together.

I just want to say that I am completely in love with Margaret River! It has three of my most favourite things (great food, great wine and the beach) so close together! While we were there we visited a few wineries (how could we not) and I bought a case and a half of a few very tastey wines (I needed to stock up I was practically out at home!)

Here are some pics from Margaret River:

Creating my own blend of Cabernet Merlot

The view from the Evans & Tate cellar door

The river mouth

Surfer's Point (where the Margaret River Pro is held every year)

Whilst in Perth we took a day trip out to Rottnest Island. The place blew me away! It's so beautiful!

Here's a shot of one of the inland lakes:

Now I realise that I titled this "A lesson learned" and I really did learn a huge lesson on this trip! That is, whilst God can't stop foolishness He can certainly soften it's blow!

How, what, why? Well... Somehow between Steph and myself we managed to get our departure time from Sydney to Perth wrong!! That's right! (We were flying there via Melbourne and we both had the Melbourne departure time stuck in our heads!) So even though we had to pay for a whole new flight (thanks so much to my dad who got in there and fixed us up by making phone calls and jumping on the internet) God helped us out in other ways:

• When leaving the airport a couple gave us weekly tickets (train, bus and ferry) that included the airport gate (over $50 worth each!)
• Steph was able to spend some more time with her family and do the 75th birthday Bridge walk
• Steph was able to vote (she'd completely fogotten about it)
• We were still able to make our car hire, even if a bit late in the day
• We had to pick up the instructions for our accommodation from the tourist info place and we weren't going to make it during business hours. Luckily, the day we went down was the one day that month that the manager was going to be staying back cleaning til 8pm!

All I can really say is hooray for God's provision and care!

Tea & Birthdays

I love birthdays! I love tea! So what could be better than combining the two!

Last Sunday I had a few friends around for High Tea. The dress code was "Heels, Hats & Frocks" (the hat part was a little self indulgent as most people don't actually fancy hats but it was my birthday so self indulgence is allowed!)

We ate so much food and drank so much tea! I even introduced most of them to the joys of Pimms - Yum!

Here are some lovely pics thanks to Sarah and my Dad...

Computer Stuff

I know most of you won't find any excitement in this but it's new territory for me...

I just created a links in my blog! Thanks so much to Sarah for giving me a hand. I tried for ages and couldn't get it to work (I think I must have been putting it in the wrong spot or something silly like that!)

On another note, my work website is really frustrating me at the moment...

We've been having issues over the last few weeks because of stupid Explorer 7 deciding that one of our pages was insecure and not allowing people to book online. Now there's all this rigmarole to get it fixed and it's just plain annoying!

To top that off the Telstra T3 connection has been down for most of the day and people haven't been able to process their payments online!!!

Blah. That's my vent for the day.

I knelt to pray...

My dad sent me this poem as part of a really corny email but it really hit me about how true it can be of my life at times!

I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease.....
All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They'd laugh at me I'd fear.
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to die.
I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast eyes.
For in his hands God held a book;
It was the book of life.
God looked into his book and said
"Your name I cannot find
I once was going to write it down...
But never found the time"

It's so easy to rush through a quick bible passage and a quick prayer out of "duty" because it's something that we know we should do instead of being something we want to do.

I know that I find it easier to talk to stangers about God than to my closest non-christian friends. Rejection by a stranger is much easier to handle than rejection by a friend!

Do you have the time to tell others about Jesus?

Sleep

I really love sleeping. I don't think I appreciated just how good it is until I stopped getting enough of it. 5 hours a night is no where near enough for me... 8 is great and what I function best on. If I get more than that I'm cheering very loudly!

My reasons for lack of sleep at the moment are:

• My musical - GYPSY! We open tomorrow night, so the last few weeks have consisted of late nights at the theatre rehearsing and painting sets.
• Possums! Some of these lovely creatures have decided to move into my roof and make their front door above my bedroom. Joy.

I'm looking forward to next week and a few early nights!