OFF to market we go

We have had a busy morning loading trucks to send our sheep to the Dublin market tomorrow.
The first photo on the right came to Black rock to load 93 Cross bred lambs. The second photo is of a B-Double that loaded sheep out at Haynes yards on the side of the road. This truck had 645 sheep on board when he left us, unfortunately only 205 of them are ours.
Hopefully will have some photos and sale prices tomorrow when we get back from Dublin.

Back from the Big Banana

The holiday went quickly but if feels like we have been away for ages. Go figure! It felt very surreal coming home into such a big house after spending time in small rooms and apartments, though having said that, our place in Qld was lovely and roomy, just low ceilings. The kids even had their own ensuite! The view was lovely from the 8th floor. On the warmer days we had brekky on the balcony. We got our $ worth at the three parks. Movie World 3 visits, Sea World 2 visits and 1/2 a day at Wet & Wild (thats more of a warm weather thing!) still, we had fun. We all became ride addicts. We went and saw P.O.T.C. 2 at the cinema at Pacific Fair (Southport), then after being inspired by the Matrix display at Movie World we bought the DVD set & began watching them in the evenings (with our finger on the fast forward button). On the fri we caught up with Mikes Uncle Norm & Aunty Beth. They showed us some local sites & fed us well. The drive to Coffs Harbour was rather long so we didn't see much arriving at night and knowing that the drive to Sydney was even longer the next day we tried to leave reasonably early only to have the kids get washed over by a wave after we had packed the car and thought we should have a quick walk on the beach before we go. Hmmm... It was classic funny home video stuff but of course we didnt have the camera. Sydney is huge! and very hilly and lots of watery bits. Manly was a great place to stay. Catching the ferry was lovely as was seeing all the usual sights. So now we are home and the kids need to get ready for school tomorrow and I have a ton of washing to do. The kittens grew and seemed happy to see us. Jenny did a good job looking after them for us, we all except maybe Isaac managed to put on weight so lots of healthy eating and exercising now the hollys are over. We can't forget to say Happy Birthday John!!! Glad to see you had a great day. We were thinking of you. We love and miss you and have been thinking of you all while we were awayLindy I have had so many SMS and calls from friends asking after you even while we were away so know that you are in many peoples thoughts and prayers. I even had a call from Bronny W asking after you and sending her thoughts & love, she may read the blog now to keep in touch.(Hi! :)) Love you all and see you soon! xxx

John's Birthday Part 2

Okay, then the gang moved on to Arthur and Lou's house for the joint party with Jessica, their daughter, who turned four yesterday. Both the White families were there, our friend Nayla and Jessica's neighbours. There were games, food and John's cake which he made and decorated himself.
All in all it has been a good day. Thanks to all for your calls and messages. We love you all lots.

John's Birthday!

Well John has had a good day I think. He has just gone to bed now, so it is only my opinion, but he seemed happy.
We started the day with family pressies in bed as per tradition. Unfortunately because John wakes up so early, he had to wait for the rest of us to wake up. But then he enjoyed reading all the messages from everybody. We went up to Theopolis and had lunch with Tata and Jido and Aunty Grace and Uncle Johnny. That was very nice and helped to fill up the morning. I will do the rest of the day on another entry.

Yummy Birthday cake JOHN

Special birthday greetings to John B from Orroroo, trust that you will have a great day with your family as well as spending time with some of your friends. We enjoyed some Blackforest cake with Grandma Jeanie yesterday. It was yummy but it would have been even better if we could have shared it in person with you.
It is a nice sunny day here today but we will be spending most of the day inside getting ready for tomorrow and doing end of month bookwork. Your mum might be interested to know the Orroroo A grade are playing Southern Flinders (used to be Laura Wirrabara & Gladstone Combined) at Football Park as a lead up to the Port Adelaide Sydney AFL game tonight. It is part of a fund raiser for the Gladstone Explosion appeal for the families of those killed in the Gladstone Explosion a few months ago. Not sure if we told you about it but three men were killed and two others injured. They were all heavily involved in football and the AFL have got behind the appeal. Happy Birthday again and we love you all. Grandma & Grandpa C.

Some work to do

Today I finally managed to get to do some work sorting out the clothes, shoes, toys and books that were left over from stuff given to the orphanage. All these things will go to families staying in either the Baptist school, or the local government school here in Mansourieh.

One of the other nasty side effects of the conflict is the growing mountains of rubbish. I think it is because so many of the workers for Sukleen, our rubbish collection company, were Syrians who have gone home, that they are not able to collect regularly. There is a skip just 20 meters down the hill from our house, and it is becoming a problem. When the wind is coming the wrong way it can get very whiffy!!

Things were a bit noisier today, with a number of explosions early this afternoon and evening. It seems to be quiet now and we will see how the night passes. I have plans to copy some school work from the staff room at the orphanage for John and Jessie as all their summer work is at Louizeh school. I'm worried their brains are going to turn to mush jsut sitting around all day. Well that is all for now. Thanks for showing us the Advertiser item Dad. Cool. Love to all.

Adertiser letter

Lindy just to let you know your letter is in today's paper Hope the photo shows it up OK about to loose power so need to keep this short Robert Wilson repairing laundry after the water damage.

Some good news!

So many have been asking about Nigel down south. Well today he managed to get up to Beirut. I don't know any details of his trip, he has just given me a very quick call to say he made it, and I would guess that he is having a very happy reunion with his family!!! However, he did drive up, despite warnings from the embassy. The problem was, the ships that were taking evacuees from the south were taking them to Cyprus, and he wanted to get to Beirut to be with his family. So anyway, he is here safely now. You don't realise how stressed you are, but when he hung up from telling me he was here, I just burst into tears. Not what I thought my reaction would be!!

Apart from that, it was great to talk to Fouad and Lisa yesterday. I look forward to reading some comments from you guys now!! ;) Sorry Lisa, I did not get the info, although I am sure that if you look up KidsAlive.org on the web you should be able to get the info there.

Thank you Deb, we did have a lovely lunch together. Apart from another truck that we heard being hit this morning, today has been quiet here. Hope it stays that way. I have my car full of clothes, books and toys that I hope we can take to the refugees down at the baptist school this week. Will keep you all informed. What's happening with you lot? When do Keza and the Hoggies get back? I would love to hear some normal life news.

My opinion

To answer Debbie's question about Alexander Downer's comments, I think the general idea, and this is not just Australians, the Brits have said simular things, is that now is the time when we have large ships, we can take big numbers of people and we won't be doing this large scale operation again. So when they say "get out now", it is more because, "this is the time we are here to take you". I don't think it would be impossible to get out of Lebanon after the evacuation stops, in fact I have friends who are counting on it, but it will be more difficult, at your own expense and only as far as another arab country til you buy a ticket out. There is some feeling that after the ships and foreign armys have gone, we will be in for another heavy bombardment or the ground invasion that they are promising in the south, so I suppose they want people who want to go, to go now.
I actually wrote a letter to the editor at the Advertiser/Sunday Mail online yesterday. Don't know if they will actually do anything with it, but I wanted to make the point that while so many people are quick and ready to complain about the government, I think most people have no idea what it is really like here and the undertaking of evacuating thousands of people whilst still under fire, within 10 days of the war starting, is no small task. I wanted to express my gratitude to the government. I have had two phone calls from Canberra and Melbourne, from the Dept of Foreign Affairs, just to check I am okay, asking if I want to leave and to let me know what is happening. You tell them thanks from me!!!
We are getting ready for church now. I think we will still have about 30 people as a lot of the foreigners up here are coming to join us. Then we are having a pot luck lunch in the Chetti's garden, just down the road from us. Better get the Shepherds Pie out of the oven. Love you all lots. Lindy

Another Quiet Day

Well it has been a fairly uneventful day today. Beirut had a reasonably quiet night and the city has been quiet for most of the day. I was able to join in the prayer meeting that is being held daily in the seminary today. It was good to meet with others to worship and pray for Lebanon, and hopefully there will be an opportunity for me to help package food and hygiene parcels for displaced families in the schools. Yesterday I was able to give a big bag of toys and books to be given to the children, hopefully to help keep them occupied. For the first time in a week, I was able to drive down to Beirut today. The prospect of getting another kitten out of the house was too tempting and Wadih allowed me to drive down to see the friend who was taking the last white one. Jessie and I didn't stay long but it was good to see some different scenery and see that there are other areas where life is continuing. On the way home we stopped in at the supermarket for some more water and washing items. I'm not sure if it was encouraging or discouraging. There were more things than I expected, so for people who still have money, you can still buy. However, there were LOTS of empty spaces, especially flour, sugar, pasta and rice. No fresh or long life milk, only a limited supply of powdered milk and less water than I would have thought.

The kids are starting to get a bit stir crazy, always in the house. Nadine, Maria and Sam stopped by this morning before they went off swimming and another friend Nayla often stops by. That helps keep the boredom at bay, but I must say it is at times like this that I really appreciate having the Play Station and DVD player. Well that is it for now. Hope to talk to you all tomorrow. Lots of love, Lindy.

Final Update

After a busy day, I finally have time to sit down at the computer to write something. It has been fairly quiet last night and today, probably due to the ships in the port, taking evacuees. Having said that, we just had four really big explosions, again in the southern suburbs, that shook the house. It was really good to talk to Mum and Dad today. I appreciated the fact that they were able to support my decision to stay for now. I know some people will think I am mad, and some of my friends have been pressured from family to leave, but I feel that my heart is here, with the people, and that I have responsibilities and duties that I cannot just walk away from. Currently there are just under half of our boys on site at the orphanage, as well as around 7 families who have fled the noise and smoke of Beirut, choosing instead to sleep on the floor in the day care centre, or with relatives who are on staff there. I can't just leave them. Also, from all our leadership team and church council, we have the two wardens, one of whom is due to leave any day, one council member and myself. Alot of our church family have been evacuated but we are still a small number who will be meeting together, and accountable for each other. I don't feel that we are in any immediate physical danger and my one concern with the kids, that we would run out of food and water, has been diminished by the fact that we have been given alot of food from people who have left, enough to last for quite a while. I told John that we are on the Israeli diet!!! To be honest, I am rediscovering the joys of entertaining, with all the fresh food that needs to be used relatively quickly, it has been lovely to have people around and to be able to feed them and spend time together. We just enjoyed a lovely roast dinner with 7 other friends which was a treat. I havn't enjoyed cooking so much for a long time. Well, I think that is it for now. We love you all very much. God Bless, Lindy

Lindy update

Had a long talk with Lindy on the phone tonight. She was unable to send an update yesterday as the Internet was very slow and made it hard to get through.It was good to hear first hand how she is coping. With so many people now leaving the country she has been able to build up a good supply of food in fact Lindy says they have enough to keep them going for a couple of months. The Baptist college has their own well for water and with their own generator they are much better equipped than many. She is having 14 people around for the evening meal tonight because along with the long term food there is a lot of fresh food that needs to be eaten up hence the roast tonight. With all the negative news towards the government about their lack of action we are pleased to say that the Dept of Foreign Affairs rang this morning to say that Lindy had registered with them but they had not heard from her since she registered and were wondering if we had heard if she was looking to get out of the country. When told of her decision they assured us that if the situation changed we should let them know and they would do their best to help..
We have had the Everetts staying with us for the last two nights they are on their way home from hols. in Alice and the Rock. Was hoping to get a photo to put on the blogg but missed the chance.

Tuesday Update.

Hi everyone! Well it has been a good day, a quiet day today. We have just been at home with a friend and helped sort out a neighbours house. The kids have gone swimming with another friend, (close by) and should be home soon. We are going to some other friends just up the hill for supper in half and hour so all in all it has been very pleasant. We have not heard any bombing today. Aparently it is not Beiruts turn. They have been hitting the Bekaa heavily today.

So there is not much else to say, just letting you know we are still fine and online. Love you all lots.

Tuesday Update.

Hi everyone! Well it has been a good day, a quiet day today. We have just been at home with a friend and helped sort out a neighbours house. The kids have gone swimming with another friend, (close by) and should be home soon. We are going to some other friends just up the hill for supper in half and hour so all in all it has been very pleasant. We have not heard any bombing today. Aparently it is not Beiruts turn. They have been hitting the Bekaa heavily today.

So there is not much else to say, just letting you know we are still fine and online. Love you all lots.

A quiet night, not so quiet day!

Wow, what a day. I am watching right now live on the TV a possible plane or plane tank exploding and crashing to earth, in the suburbs below/beyond the kids school.
It was a reletively quiet night. We went up to Theopolis to see Fawzi and the family. He is trying to find a safe way to get out, but because he only has a green card not a passport, he will not be included in any government planned evacuation. Okay, there were just another three huge explosions now. If I took a photo now of the city from our front door, you could not see anything, there is so much smoke and cloudy haze. We can actually smell the acrid smoke that is blowing across the valley. I went in to work this morning, but with all the phone calls, talking with the other staff and being quite tired from sleepless nights I didn't really get that much done. Not as much as I would have liked. We are having to open the orphange for refugee families now. The Baptist school in Beirut has about 500 people in there already and lots of the other schools are filling up with people who's homes have been destroyed or are in dangerous places. And Debbie, those who came to have church here were people who all live within a few kms of here. Those who are in Beirut are mostly hunkered down in their homes. The streets are pretty deserted unless you go up to the mountians. Going up through Broummana yesterday the hotels, cafes and resturants were all full with people who had run away from the city. We will continue to keep you all posted. Kerryn and Hoggies, hope you are enjoying your Qld holiday. Love you all lots. Lindy

A Good Morning

Okay, where to start. We have had a really good morning at church up here in the seminary. About 30 of us met and it was so good to be able to pray and worship together. After the service we invited everyone over to our garden for coffee and I commented that it has taken acts of war for me to have people in our garden!! Shame. Two of the guys (the same ones who were here the other night) are still here having lunch. I took some pictures so I can show you some good things as well as the bad. Love you all lots.

It's a noisy night!

Well it is now 2:20am, Sunday morning and we cannot sleep. Since about 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon there has been a steady stream of rockets into Beirut. For the past three hours they have been coming about every 15 - 20 mins and it is loud, hence we are still awake. Thankfully the kids have managed to sleep through it all every night so far. I am waiting to hear some comments from you all, just to feel connected. I hope it is not freaking you out when I write about what is happening here. It helps me somehow. Writing here gives me something to do.
We have decided to have church up here at the seminary and those who are down in the city will meet together in the vicarage. Please join us in praying for Lebanon. Of all the times to be left as one of the ones in charge!! I'm very grateful for the others who are still here.
Oh my gosh, I just jumped about three feet then. There was a REALLY loud explosion. Mountains don't help as everything echos as well. Some of the noise is just sonic booms but they are all so loud. If you don't see the flash of light or smoke before hand it makes you start.
Well, I guess I will write again tomorrow, God willing. Love to all, Lindy and Co.

The View

I actually thought to go get the camera just now as the jets came again. This is the view from our front door. It is a pity I can't add the sound effects.

Life in Beirut

Well, what can I say. This is probably the weirdest situation I have been in, in all the 15 years I've been here. We have lived under bombing and attacks, and I have previously had to stock up supplies 'just in case', but we have never been so closed down as we are this time. We have not left our area now for three days. We are the fortunate ones to be where we are, which is probably one of the safest suburbs in Beirut. It is very strange to be looking at the footage on TV and thinking, 'Oh yes, I know where that is'. I had to go to the supermarket this morning and I was not sure what I would find as the Lebanese are much quicker to go fill their cupboards and petrol tanks, and even on Wednesday, there were a lot of empty spaces on the shelves. Thankfully, I was able to get most of what I needed and we are the lucky ones to be living where we are with a large generator that can run the fridge. Most of my other friends are stuck with buying dry and canned goods as there is not a lot of electricity at the moment. We are also blessed that we have alot of our friends nearby and so can still see them. We had an American and an Irish friend over last night. I think they appreciated having a local be able to translate all that was being shown on telly. I was able to talk to Barb's friends this morning and they still hope to be able to leave through Damasc. tomorrow. The airline told them that they should still be able to fly out from there as they already have tickets. They are at a premium at the moment as all our tourists flee through there. It is a disaster for Lebanon economically and Wadih is quite depressed about losing another summer season. Despite all that, and his statements, I'm sorry, but I still do not want to leave. I would so feel like I was abandoning the Lebanese people who don't have the option of running away to another country, and my home. Who knows what will happen in the future.
And having said all that, the kids and I were able to enjoy a lovely afternoon with Annette and the kids at a local water park yesterday. It was a bit surreal to be sitting pool side, watching the runway go up in a puff of fire and smoke and listening to the planes flying over and bombing, but I still think it was better for the kids to be occupied and for us to be there instead of sitting inside glued to the TV news all day.
We love you all and it is always nice to be able to talk to you. I will try to keep you all posted here if anything else exciting happens, presuming we continue to have electricity and internet connections. Keep praying for Lebanon. God Bless. Lindy

Isabelle's Hands and Feet

We finally collected both the prints from the hospital and the gold, framed molds on Tuesday when we arrived in Adelaide. It was lovely to finally have these special mementos in our hands.

Us!

Last week, when John and Jessie came back from their little holiday, Nadine, Maria and Sam stayed for the evening while their parents went to a graduation. It was the same night that Fawzi arrived so we all went off to the airport, (Yes, the same one that was hit this morning.) where the kids entertained themselves by riding around on the trolleys. Yesterday we had a surprise birthday party for Sharon Khoury (you know her Mum and Dad) and Jessie had been creating and painting a gift for her and somehow ended up with red paint all down her plait!! She liked it.

Things are a bit tense these days in the country, especially after the airport bombing today. Yesterday people were saying they thought it would happen and quite a few places on the road down south have been hit. Nig sent the family up here yesterday just to be on the safe side, so we had the pleasure of their company last night :) The kids summer school was cancelled today so they were happy. They are very tired after staying up with their friends too late.

Lots of love to everyone

More Cats!!

Okay, I know that you are probably getting sick of the kittens but we have started to give them away. So, I thought it would be nice to have the last photo of the five together. I would often come home and find them asleep together in the laundry basket. Cute Huh!!

hahndorf excersion

hello my fellow peoples!hope you enjoyed my last entrie.the other day my class(7 S)went to hahndorf.we went because its the last german settlement that has people still living in it or something like that.we went on a tour led by a lady called anni lour fox.and no i didnt forget the E her name is spelt anni unlike mine which is annie which u may know.she showed us around many places in hahndorf and its wasnt how u say "fun" it was realy quite boring.after anni left we went to miss sautners(my teacher) church st micheals.that was kinda interesting.then we went to the hahndorf in and had lunch.the meal we had was called the german expiriance.there was a pretzel,potato salad and a sausage.its wasnt that nice.the worst thing about the inn was that there were ants in our bread basket and though the bread!yukkie none of the people on my table ate the bread(obviously).then we went shopping and bought loolies from my friends parents lollie shop.most people blew all the money there but there were not regrets.over all it was an ok excersion.
HAVE FUN luv annie XoXoX

On the road again

Well I am home for a little while before hitting the road again this time heading south to Adelaide. Really enjoyed the trip to Roxby yesterday had a ten minute look around Woomera on the way up and after loading the car and trailer we had lunch in the Tavern and then a quick look around The works where Nathan is and a drive around the mine site as well. We were home by 6.10pm in time to go to a meeting at 7.00pm. We hope to be on the road to Adealide by 12 noon for an Emmaus gathering tonight and staying with the Hogbens overnight. Not a lot of exciting photos but here are a couple One of woomera and the other a view of the mine site

Floods

Okay, I will put my money where my mouth is and rain a few photos of my own. This is Jessie with her baby! They (Jessie and John, not Jessie and her baby!) are enjoying two days of holiday down in Tyre with Nigel and Annette while we get on with life up here. Fawzi arrives tonight (Friday) for a couple of weeks so it will be good to see him again. Thats all folks.

What a win

What a win by Italy, even though they put Australia out, I am sooooooo glad they won tonight. I got sick of following just comments on BBC on the internet so at half time I went up to a local cafe to watch the rest of the match. Yaaaaaaaay. The fireworks are going crazy over Beirut, though not as many as there would have been if Germany had won I don't think!! Well that was fun :) Good night!

Another era is drawing to a close

We had a special training day for our Ambulance recuits today and just before the lunch break I informed the Orroroo Team members that I would be stepping down as Team Leader as from the 30th. of Dec. This is to give them time to advertise the position and carry out interviews of those that may apply for the job. I am confident that there is at least one person who is willing to take on the role. I think I have held the position for about 25 years. At this stage I told them I would be willing to stay on as a team member which pleased them to hear.
Two more days of shearing to go and then hopefully that will bring to an end a run of early rises.
Try and guess who came to dinner last Sunday for a church lunch. We had John Symons from Chad speaking about his life in Chad.