Catching up with Peter

Recently at a function I caught up with my old friend Peter Clyburn. We talked and laughed about everything and nothing, as we have often done. Suddenly Peter was ready to go home.

I was surprised he left so early, but assumed he was tired. The following day he accidentally rang me – pressed a wrong digit – so I asked him if he’d been okay. No, he’d been exhausted. Needed to go home to rest.

I remembered all the times with Peter in the past. Originally I met him in Papua New Guinea, where I was working on a mission station before getting a teaching job in a nearby high school. Peter, also a teacher, just turned up at the door one evening as Glen and I were having coffee after dinner. We quickly warmed to him and he became part of our social network in PNG. Little did we know it but he was to remain good friends with both of us.

When my position at the boys’ high school ended, Peter recommended me for a three month vacancy in the girls’ school where he was teaching. I was given this position and Peter and I spent many hours together discussing the issues that arose for us as young Christians. The school was very beautiful and that whole time had an idyllic quality. (The school, by the way, is the setting for a large part of my latest novel, Lantern Light, with the permission of the then-headmistress.)

To my surprise, when I left at the end of the year, Peter also left – but after returning to his home in Sydney, moved to Brisbane to attend the Bible College run by my church. I was, for a time, living with my mother at Burleigh, and we had many happy weekends as Peter, ever popular, brought some of his new friends down for weekends and we had wonderful sunlit days swimming and picnicking. Out of this was birthed our ‘famous’ New Zealand trip, which I will no doubt talk about down the track, as it was a chapter of miracles.

All this time, Peter was the one striding out ahead of us, planning, full of energy.

Then he married lovely Marion, his ideal wife. Together they did missionary work in several countries. Always with Peter the energetic leader.

So why did Peter get so tired the other day? Admittedly my own energy levels are not what they used to be, but . . .

Peter has Parkinson’s Disease, a cruel disease which severely depletes his energy and effects various other physical areas such as balance. He is still as dear and kind as ever, but he’s frail.

It is said that suffering makes one bitter or better. I miss the flamboyant, active Peter, but he now emanates a humility, gentleness and unselfishness beyond anything he had in earlier days. And being less active, he has had time to use one of his other gifts – writing. Recently he had published the first book of a trilogy: his well-written, often hilarious autobiography. So he continues to achieve, to reach out.

I have included this explanation with his consent. He prefers people to know. It’s easier for him.

winner of draw

The winner of the draw is Glen McDonald. Congratulations, Glen! thanks, all who participated.

Christmas

It’s Christmas again. The shops are bright with tinsel and song. And in the background as I write, Chris Tomlin is singing Christmas carols.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a Christian, so Christmas is a special time of year for me.

I realise we probably got the date wrong but . . . I know what it is all about for me and my family: we are celebrating the birth of Jesus. (My sister’s birthday is actually 25^th December, but we’ve taken to celebrating it on 17^th October so she can have a day when her family and friends have time to bless her. It is no less special for not being the actual date she was born.)

As I grow older (okay, I’m not OLD yet), each year I become increasingly moved by the wonder of Jesus’ birth and all it meant. The enormity of His becoming a baby, born in such humble circumstances. The love God the Father showed in sending Him.

Do the glitter and noise in the shops grate on me? Most of the time, not at all. It is, after all, a time of celebration. Celebrations tend to be noisy, glitzy and full of excitement. I enjoy the family getting together at Christmas too. The sheer delight of the children as they open their presents.  As it is a time when God showed his love in such an extravagant way, that love spreads out to family and friends.

This year – with the exception of our family in Seattle – we will all go out to our family (Ben and Em and their three gorgeous little boys) who’ve bought a very old heritage listed Queenslander on a few acres of rough bushland in Pullenvale. It’s a new venture for them and it will be our first Christmas there. Should be great!

My childhood Christmas memories (we grew up in an old Queenslander at Corinda) are of decorating the enormous camelia bush in the garden with bright baubles, tinsel, and a big star. We’d put out trestle tables under the huge magnolia tree, and sit out there in the welcome cool shade – our  immediate family, aunt and uncle, cousins and the two grandmothers all crowding around eagerly.

The tables were laden with goodies – the most important being the chicken. In those days, chickens were a special-occasion food. The dessert was inevitably plum pudding with ice cream and the lucky one found a threepence (the theoretical equivalent of three pennies) or a sixpence (twice as much and equal to a five cent piece) in his/her pudding. (Strange how it was mainly the kids who found the coins!) The other ‘lucky one’ received the wishbone (surprise!) in his/her chicken. We ate about three times as much as our normal post-war diet allowed, and after the final course of huge wedges of watermelon, we kids lay on the grassy bank at the side of the house and groaned in pretend agony, genuine discomfort. Which only completed our enjoyment.

I hope all of you reading this have a happy and blessed Christmas!

P.S. It’s not too late to put up a comment and be in the draw for a free book. I’ll see who the winner is on Saturday. I’ve included your name even if you only commented on facebook as I realize some of you are perhaps daunted by the ‘comment system’.

P.P.S. The next post will probably be at the beginning of 2014 as I’ll have too many other things to do during the Christmas-New year week.

12th December 2013

Seattle

Seattle. We arrived at about 10 pm in the last of the long dusk. As we scrambled  through the crowd at the airport, suddenly there was Bek, looking just as if we’d seen her only the previous day. (It had been eighteen months.) Hugs, tears and laughter. Then there was Odyn, looking very trendy with a new hair cut.

We arrived home to a pretty house in an outlying suburb about 10.30 at night, just as it was getting dark. July evenings in Seattle are long and gently lit. Great for having out-door dinners. Over a cuppa and much excited chattering, including Bryenna who has grown into a happy and lovely fifteen year old, we exchanged news. Bryenna was thrilled because a family from their church had kindly offered to pay for her to have very expensive (and genuinely needed) tooth-straightening work.

Then, at last, bed, only to find sleep elusive after the flight.

My first impressions of suburban Seattle by day were: it’s very pretty. Hilly, with crystal clear mountain streams running right through the suburbs. It’s green, especially with conifers and maples. And everything, absolutely everything, is clean! The streets, the parks, the streams, the houses and gardens, the lake on which Seattle is built (Lake Washington), and the air! I suppose in a city which is the home of Boeing, the clear air is attributable to the rain that falls most of the year.

We’d chosen the warmest, driest month to go and it was fine every day. Fine and springy, about maximum 24-27 degrees but not at all humid. Incredibly pleasant. I loved the softer light, the gentler sunshine after the often-fierce sun of sub-tropical Brisbane.

We did all the touristy things. Odyn had taken a week off work to drive us around. We looked at the space needle from the security of the ground, then caught a monorail that whizzed through the maple leaves above the city to the far end on Puget Sound, where fishermen, florists and others sold their wares in fishy-smelling markets. We drove two hours along a lovely clear river with snow-capped mountains in the background to Leavenworth, a Bavarian township which has Bavarian music playing in the streets, huge hanging baskets with colourful flowers spilling everywhere, a tall snowy mountain peeking above all the shops. We tasted chocolate, fudge, cheese, ice cream and wine and bought souvenirs.

Friends of Bek and Odyn’s invited us out for a day on Lake Washington. How beautiful Seattle is from the water! We peered at Bill Gates’ mansion on the lake (all six or so storeys of it tucked into the side of a cliff). And the hardier ones of us (not including me!) dived straight from the boat into the clear, cold water and swam.

We did many other ‘fun’ things. But always we were aware of how freshly-scrubbed and pretty it all was. Admittedly we arrived on the 2^nd July, so perhaps we benefitted from major cleanups ready for 4^th July celebrations.

We had the fun of worshipping with Odyn and Bek and their team leading at Evergreen Church.

When we drove back to the airport a few weeks later, Mt Rainier towered above us, gleaming bright white in the early morning with its covering of snow. “It’s usually covered with clouds,” Odyn told us.  We felt God had given us special weather all the way.

A beautiful city indeed!

Bek and Odyn on the way to Leavenworth

Bek and I on the way to Leavenworth

Random Experiences Overseas

Random experiences overseas

Thursday 5^th December, 2013

Recently my sister and I visited my niece Rebekah, her husband Odyn and their two girls in Seattle. Odyn works as the music and worship pastor of Evergreen Church.

We were lucky to get flights that went via Hawaii, where we stopped over both ways, and apart from that went straight to Seattle.

I found the plane trips rather long, cold and cramped, so our flight through the night (“Oh, you’ll be able to sleep all the way!” friends had told me. But every time I began to doze, I woke with my hands cramping with the cold.) – well, it wasn’t the ‘rest’ I’d hoped for.  Not to worry – we arrived safely, about half an hour before schedule, and made our way through customs and all the other hoops.

It was on this journey I learned the sheer ingenuity and deviousness of current usage of the word ‘random’.

I do know what ‘random’ means. And I also know that some atheists are fascinated with the concept of ‘randomness’, seeing often apparent randomness in life but not wanting to attribute it to God and His sovereignty. (The ‘Why him?’ response when, for example, one is miraculously safe and another killed in a disaster.)

But on this journey the word took on a whole new level of convenience.

You see, I have three metal devices in my ankle, subsequent to a bad break, and despite my declaring this verbally and in bold type, at every single check point I was told, “Would you mind stepping aside here. You have been chosen for a random check.” Which involved varying degrees of searching of my clothing and body. I guess ‘random’ is politically correct – if dubious in its accuracy. I’d have preferred it if they had felt free to say it related to my ankle.

Or do I look suspicious?

Entering island countries like Hawaii from the air, you see stunning views of green-clothed mountains rising steeply out of the brilliant blue sea. And Hawaii is beautiful. The view from our hotel window revealed the sheer, wonderful blueness of the sea. And a lot of other high rises!

I suppose, though, I was just a little disappointed in it. We stayed in the Waikiki Beach area for convenience – it is an easy bus journey from the airport. We weren’t there long enough to go on sight-seeing journeys to the main volcanic areas or the outlying pretty little islands. And we did enjoy having the so-blue sea on one side of us and the cloud-wisped mountains on the other. The sea is truly blue. The kind of blue a child might paint it, pale blue and clear, graduating out to a very bright blue. We didn’t manage to find any modern changing sheds, to our surprise. And the shops were, well, adequate. Almost. There was a general feeling that the place was due for a face lift. We did manage to find a lovely little tree top restaurant where we had a delicious evening meal – chicken cooked in chopped macadamia nuts, and a huge salad including quarters of sharp-sweet mandarin.

That lovely sea was as good to swim in as it was to gaze at, so, as a stopover, Hawaii was ideal. We walked and swam all the crinkles out of our muscles after the long flight.

On the whole, though, I think our own Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast beaches are much better. The sand is softer (not gritty with coral) and the amenities are usually very good. The shops are great. But for ocean colours and sheer, green mountains, Hawaii is stunning.

The best was to come. Seattle is beautiful. Bek and family are loving it. More on that next time.

Just me trying paragaphs.

Well, I'm trying to get this thing to do paragraphs!

So, we'll see if it goes through with them still there. I don't know why it's gone to a large size. No doubt Laetitia will enlighten me.

It's a very hot day in Brisbane. I'm looking forward to the holidays so I can swim.

I think that's enough trivia to test it!

Getting Started.

Apparently these days authors need to have an online presence. So for starters I’m on facebook. Various bookshops have spiels on the net about some of my recent books. And finally I’m going to bite the bullet and start a blog! This is in spite of my amazing adeptness at putting my foot in my mouth (or however one says that when one is writing). Jamie Buckingham claimed, in his column The Last Word, to have offended an extraordinary list of people such as Christians, non-Christians, atheists, religious people, women, men, fat people, thin people, bald people, hairy people – and so on. I suspect that I’ll manage to do the same! I hope that you who read my blogs will take me with a grain or more of salt where necessary and forgive me if I say something that would have been better unsaid. I guess the world would be an ignorant place if brave souls hadn’t had the courage to speak out their convictions. But in these days of political correctness, the expression of truth and genuine convictions appears to have gone a bit smudgy. I’ve called my blog Jeanette’s Jottings, despite a misgiving as to whether I’m actually jotting when I’m typing. Perhaps I am. I’m planning to write posts on Fridays as they seem to be nice flexible days for me. Days to do things like writing posts and seeing friends. Other days I juggle teaching speech and drama, family things, praying and running prayer meetings, doing ‘life’ (shopping, washing, ironing, cleaning, answering the phone and the emails etc) and of course I write – books, short stories, poems – and now a blog. So it’s a fair smorgasbord. It’s hot, often stormy weather here in suburban Brisbane – after a scorchingly hot spring. Whirring, roaring and the shriek of sirens assault my senses from a busy road nearby. I’d much rather live in the country like I used to, but . . . well, to everything there is a season. I’m near family and lots of my friends. And to give this place its due, the landscape is still smudged in places with the mauve mist of jacarandas in spite of the recent storms. Jacarandas are amongst my favourites. I’m planning to buy a laptop in January – and am hoping and praying this old computer will last until then. I’ll miss it. Who would ever have thought I’d say that about a computer? I used to feel physically sick at the thought of learning computer, but one day I woke up and felt, I want to conquer the computer. As I am a writer, it is really a necessity, and to my surprise I enjoy it. Except when it plays up. I’ve kept to very basic skills, hoping that’s all I’ll need – but I must confess a friend, Laetitia (of Loquacious Laetitia’s blog), is helping me get this started! My sister suggested I offer a free book to one of my readers. I’m offering Mirage, a novel based on real life (not my life, actually!). So if you like my blog, leave a comment and your contact details below and your name will go in the draw to be drawn 21st December. Watch this space for the winner!!! My next post will probably be there on Friday and I’ll start with weekly (Friday) posts and probably change to fortnightly when I hit a busier spot. I’ll be keen to hear your feedback. See you in a few days! P.S. I’m open to your suggestions about what things you’d like me to write about – e.g. my books, daily life, travels, people, speech and drama teaching, writing, places I love, prayer (and answers to it) and other spiritual things, etc.