Resident Aliens

It's a bit of a doofy photo but the only one we got so far!

Where to start!

Okay I know it has been ages since I have written anything. I just didn't have the brain power to say anything interesting. As usual life has been busy. My days in Tyre are good. So far it is working going down on a Wednesday night and having a whole day to teach on Thursday. John has just started having extra French lessons after school twice a week. Work at the orphanage is still going well and I start my third part time job this week as temporary Church Administrator while the previous one takes three months leave. We had a church day away last Saturday which I mostly coordinated. It went really well and we touched on the issue of grief and healing the emotional wounds from the summer. This is a big thing for Lebanon at the moment. Yesterday we had our Soul Connection concert that Wadih had organized. It was designed to encourage the youth of Lebanon after our disastrous summer. We had four different christian rock bands each play a few songs with interviews and video clips. It was supposed to be five but the grunge band pulled out at the last minute. Some of us from church made up one of the bands, called Resident Alien. We had a good laugh and the audience seemed to enjoy it. There were about 500 there. I decided to cut my hair Friday night and it seems to be okay, very a la Debbie! If we get some of the pictures from the concert I will post some. That is our life at the moment.

God's quick answer

This afternoon nearly 100 people from around the area gathered at Magnetic Hill to pray for rain. People from the Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, CRC, Salvation Army & UCA all took part. The trouble was God got to hear about our little plan and it started to rain about 15 mins before the service started and the rain got heavy as the time went by. We had rushed to get there following a luncheon with the Rostrevor folk and I was in a short sleeved shirt and got completely soaked as I was upfront bringing a prayer of Supplication. But it was a good day. We have had 7 mls of rain here in Orroroo but I think it was much heavier at Black Rock. The photo is not of today I was just checking to see if I could get a photo to come up this is of the Feb. floods but hopefully we will have more photos of flooding to come in the coming months. Giving up on predicting crop yields. Same old story not as good as it looks Having header breakdowns which are adding to the frustrations.

Sunday walk

We still have no outstanding news to tell tho I have recovered well from my broken arm, stroke and gouging wound just not my tonsil op!(acting for the exams!)
We enjoyed the lightning and rain last night and had a nice service this morning
then after a quick lunch decided to have a meander around Hallet cove park, see the photos and a shot of plants in the back yard.
Hope all are well and happy :)
Love Kerryn

Trevor's gavestone

Finally on monday Trevor's grave was completed. As you can see from the photos it has come up very well. Grandma Jeanie is happy with it and i think glad that it has finally ben finished.
Hope to finish reaping the barley out at Ian Tapscott's today going about 2bags was hoping it would be a bit better than that. Not sure if the wheat is ready yet. Most people are pretty laidback about harvest this year with so little to do and off to an early start.

Some rain at last

We have just had 5 mls of steady rain this afternoon , put some water in the tanks and settled the dust. First rain since Aug. May do some good on the last crop of wheat at Trevor's house. Hope to start reaping next week this rain should not damage the grain at this stage. Have had a very busy time on the Ambulance, two jobs on Mon. 5 hrs 2 trips to Port Augusta yesterday On the road from 8.00am til 6.30 had to assist Augusta crew whose Truck had broken down in the pass so assisted a patient in Wilmington until a backup Ambulance arrived and Back to Port Augusta this morning. They were all for Xrays of various kinds.
Sold some lambs on Tues to the meatworks Av $48.00 which is twice as much as we would have got in the local market. Have 2 baptisms on Sunday Nyree Walley & Kerry Manning, should be a good day.
A sunset from out front of our house a couple of weeks ago.

An Interesting Day

What an interesting day!

Any day when four students are charged with offences under the Explosives Act has got to be action packed. Going home in the middle of the day to have a shower - that's fun too. Dropping a bottle (that a student has passed to you) because it is bulging, bubbling and getting warm is always a real highlight. Having an explosion that is so loud it could be heard in the staff room (150m and two buildings away) occur before the bottle hits the ground next to your foot is an absolute blast! And learning how easy it is for kids to make a chlorine bomb - that's always interesting. Fortunately I wasn't hurt, and neither was anyone else.

Camp & stuff

Even though it was "Mylor again!" We had a great family camp, just one night sleeping over-good idea!It was nice and green by the fast flowing river and the temp not too hot or cold.The summer fire ban started at midnight so we got to have the last fire for a while. Our speaker was the same guy as last camp-Gill Camm, he continued on the same topic of making the church( us people!) adaptable and relevent to current times. Very good and challenging. Dad I would like to get you a copy of what he had to say I think it would be very helpful for the Orroroo church too!
The kids had sportsday yesterday and their house -Topaz won and they both did very well.Zac had a very exciting race as the fourth batton runner in the relay and came from behind to hit the lead at the very last second!No surprises that Annie easily won the shot put:)
I still cant say I've fully recovered from op.Havent got all the feeling and taste back in my toung yet and still hurts to talk a lot and swallow and hurts a bigger lot when I yawn which I seem to do a terrible amount of times a day.
Hope all is well for everyone. Take care and lots of love to all.
Kezza xxxxxx

Ambos to the rescue at Park Tce.

As you can see a painter came to grief doing some work on the house but he was lucky enough to have an Ambo arrive some 24 hours later. This scene is just one of many around the town as people get involved in creating a scarecrow as part of the Quilting and garden activities in Orroroo and districts this week. There are quilting displays in the town hall, Uniting church Hall, spinning and weaving the CWA rooms and a display of Bridal gowns in our church hall.
Grandma Jeanie and your mum had a look around most of them today. The Scarecrows have many themes like water skiing, painter, surfer, silo worker, council worker, bank robber, bride plus a number of traditional scarecrows may get some more photos later.

Still Alive

Well, just to let you know that we are still here. The kids have been back at school since last Thursday and seem to be coping okay. John was much more relaxed about moving up to the Senior school than I thought he would be and Jessie is managing without her big brother in the Junior school, although she still looks for him on the basketball court at breaktime.

We are getting absolutely soaked with three solid days of rain and thunder storms, starting with a great electrical lightning show on Saturday night. Went from hot humid days last week, to cool wet ones without any real autumn in between.

Apart from that there is nothing new. Wadih is still looking for work and I will have my first day in school in Tyre on Thursday.
Bye!

Out on the town at 91

Grandma Jeanie celebrated her birthday with a lunch at Maggie's yesterday. Before we went she enjoyed watching a birthday dvd that Debbie had prepared for her.
Very hot day for Oct. with strong north winds, much cooler today which is good as I have a wedding in Murraytown at 3.30pm and which is outside in the sun.

Isaac says

I went to Orroroo we had a Bonfire it was very hot, I looked after Mum while Dad was at work its a shame she didnt get to keep her toncils ,I also went to the movies to see Stormbreaker and I thougt is was a good funny intence action movie , I went to Net-Lan and played Dawn of War and Counter Strike with my friends and stayed home and watched movies with Mum. I havent played any risk lately because there has been noone to play it with. love Isaac B+C=P

We've been on holidays!!

Well, we finally managed to get a few days holiday down in Tyre. ALL of us!! We left Tuesday morning and due to traffic in Beirut and crossing the Litani river, took two and a half hours to reach Tyre. Nig and Annette very kindly let us use one of the flats below them in school to stay in and the kids actually slept upstairs with Nadine, Maria and Sam on the first night. The kids had a great time, playing and watching movies together. The girls as the Copy Cats, with some help from John, gave us a lovely show of singing and dancing (just like Merise and I used to do!!)
The roads have changed quite a bit since I came down last, as you can see. There are quite a few of these French Army bridges and the one across the Litani has been there almost from the first week of the cease fire. They have done a fair bit on fixing the roads and highway, although you still never know when you will have to swerve around a huge crater or move over to avoid someone coming down the wrong side of the highway because their side is impassable!! Welcome to Lebanon. I have done a few other enteries about the rest of the holiday, so I could put up photo's. Much more interesting than me writing loads. All in all it was lovely and I could have used about three more days of it!!

Holiday Part Two

One of the things we enjoyed was going out for a meal and then we met up with the Whites, Correia's and a couple of other people for really good ice-cream, very cheap too. Then we walked along the corniche (by the sea) and back to school. That was the first night, the second night we had dinner with all the school volunteers and then had a walk around the old city port, stopped for a drink at Le Phonician restaurant on the sea front, then came home for an evening of card games in our little flat. Lovely!!

Holidays Part Three

The other thing we did which was great was hit the beach in Tyre. As you can see, we have beautiful beaches here and the kids had a great time with their friends. We were able to share it with the UN soldiers and Lebanese teenagers, anxious to show off their football skills. We went there on two days and it was one of the highlights of the holiday!!

Black Rock Bombfire

The Hogbens joined the kittos at Orroroo for the Oct Long weekend The Hogbens + Rachael Fergusson stayed with us with us and the Kittos along with three other couples from Whyalla stayed at a B&B house owned by Lisa & Keith Slade (Edna Probert's granddaughter)
We had a bombfire down at Black Rock Sat. night burning up some of the pine trees that we had bulldozed down to stop blocking up the gutters with pine needles A lovely calm night I was a bit worried because they were forcasting strong winds coming up in the night but fortunately they didn't arrive until lunch time on Sun with a few spots of rain. Still no rain turned 900 sheep onto 400 acres of crop Sat morn. Some photos of the bombfire hopefully as the week goes by there will be other entries.
The gathering was to help Stuart celebrate his birthday

Brighton Bits

How do you like shepheard Isaac? This was his main costume for the musical, he also had a smaller roll as the slave that was beaten by the solier that Moses killed!!
He did a good job at both parts. Annie helped out the back with the make up, kinda her thing at the moment:/
Both kids had good reports and are looking forward to the holidays, though having to look after their old mother might make things a bit quiet. :)
Still waiting to see if the Fergies are comming with us to Orroroo for the bonfire to beat all bonfires, mmm must remember to ask someone to feed the presious pussys while we are away.
John & Jessie I guss it must be getting close to schooltime soon,enjoy the last bit of the holidays.
Well take care all
Love Kez xx

Back to the Future

Today Orroroo celebrated its 100th. show. Started off a lovely day but the wind came up in the afternoon that made things a bit uncomfortable. I was to have lunch with the Governor, but she was sick and unable to come. Grahan Gunn our local member of parliament opened the show in her place. Some photos of some of the old vehicles on display. Lindy the Crows have just been beaten in the prelim. final by West Coast by 10 points bit sad as they led for the first 82 mins of the match.

Finally we have broadband

After delays of 3 months last night the fellas rocked up to install our connection 40 mins later we were up and running. This morning I was checking out a couple of our favorites sites when page cannot be displayed kept coming up. After playing around for some time I thought I would check the new tower on the Top Hotel and as I walked towards the street I saw the new 50 foot tower lying across the power lines. So our boadband was short lived.
Fortunately it did not cut the power off but had a few people worried that the hotel was alive.
ETSA arrived about 90 mins later and shut the power off and removed the tower from the wires..
This afternoon we were back on line with a smaller tower but it seems to be working OK.

Masri News

Well, ithought it was about time for some more news from the Masri's. It is not very exciting but it is us at the moment. The dog is Ronja whom I have been looking after for our neighbours/friends while they are back in Sweden. She is very sweet and it has been good for me to have to get out and walk three times a day with her. I am going to miss the evening walks and may even keep doing them, even without the dog!

We now have our very own private road. You can see they have put a huge gate across the road and even though it means we now have to drive all the way around, it is very nice not having cars and trucks driving past our lounge window. They also took away the tall fence around the garden and the plan is to put LAWN!!!!!!!!!! That will be very exciting, and I hope they are going to maintain it as well. Here's hoping.

Lastly is John's Lego creation. He was trying to see how tall he could make his...... link/chain thing. As you can see, he managed to make it pretty tall!

It was great to be able to talk to Mum, Dad and Deb today. Sorry about the bad connections. Still, I think we managed to say all we needed before I went under the road and lost the signal!! Except maybe, "Thanks for the call. I love you."
Heidi, if you are still reading this blog, Wadih would like to be able to contact with you. His e-mail address is wadiham@hotmail.com

Thats all folks!!

a great "non party "birthday

Who are we kidding! It was a party. Nine friends after school with a big sister who oganised some games, mum who provided lots of great food, and lots of lovely cards @ pressies. Zac had breaky in bed and other good things for the day. Thanks for the e-cards from Lebanon.We had an eyeball treasure hunt-see photos, and today a soccer win 5-0 with pizza lunch breakup then a play with a friend who took him bowling, then the Lords and Hoggies Snr for Pizza tea! We will sleep well tonight and dream of pizza!
Take care all. xxxx

Night out at the theatre

Well that might be a bit of an exaggeration. We went to the school arts assembly with items from the primary school classes and choir at 6.30pm. This was followed at 8.00pm by the high school putting 0n their musical production "Back to the eighties." It was well done but did not see any future Australian Idols. It did not finish until 10.40pm so it turned out to be a long night in a gym that was getting colder by the minute.
Managed to get three Merino rams yesterday happy with what we got.
must go god bless.

we got mail

Good news Lindy, your letter arrived in the post today 10 days after you wrote your letter. Will try and get to Jamestown this week and set up the bank account and then we can start winding up Trevor's estate. Nice sunny day, off to buy some merino rams at Hallett and down to Mallala to get a couple of White Suffolk rams on Thursday. Photo of the Pekina reservoir taken on Sat.

Hogben happenings

Well a not too busy weekend is over and now its not long till Isaacs b.day & he reminds us everyday.This year is a non party year but somehow we have ended up with 10 boys comming for an afternoon tea "play" after school. Not too bad realy.
Cheese still featurs prominatly on his birthday wish list!!?!
I survived Annie going to the show without us and she did too, Zac and I had a nice day seeing Hoodwinked and getting him new shoes and a hair cut.
The jelly beans were from Todd and Tammy when they got back from the States. Annie sorted them out so we could sellect our choice of flavor and ....Todd and Tammy are growing their own Jelly bean Cleek!!!!:)I'm not sure if this means they are more or less likely to stay, we still have to wait and see.
The photo of us shows our ann. breakfast from the kids.
Murphy didnt go to the vet. She was fine the next day. Must have just been nerves or something. Hope Kat is ok.
Well John and Jessie enjoy the last bit of your holidays.
Hope everyone keeps safe and well.
Love Kez xx :)

Who'd have thought so many famous Australians could die in one week.!

Howdy Lindy, I just thought you might be interested to hear that in addition to Steve Irwin getting killed by a sting ray, this week has also seen Peter Brock wrap a car around a tree in a rally (causing his death) and Colin Thiele die a peaceful death at home. (You might have heard about Irwin, but I didn't think Peter Brock or Colin Thiele were likely to make the Lebanese or British news.)

Self Indulgence Weekend

Last weekend we were able to spend a few days just doing the things we wanted and didn't have to worry about being there for somebody else. it was very nice. Tiffan on the Park was very good. We enjoyed a great meal at a window table and was able to watch the world go by on Greenhill road. A relaxing spa helped us enjoy a restful sleep. We had a good day at the show with Aunty Kaye and enjoyed the evenings entertainment on the main show ring including the fireworks. Sunday we went to West Beach for church and were able to catch up with some people we hadn't seen for some time and then as you all know we had an enjoyable night at the Hogbens catching up with everyone. Monday after some shopping in Marion and Koorong it was home and back into routine with Ambulance training. 20 points of rain Tuesday night, has freshened up the crops a bit so there is still some hope of a harvest. A couple of photos of our room which included chocolates and after a bit of a wait we were able to get a bottle of non Alcoholic wine to go with our meal.

Busy Bakers

Thought it might be nice to see what my kids are doing to occupy their time. Cooking is one of John's current hobbies and he is quite good at it. Jessie enjoys taking over and doing the fun bits. She even managed to make tuna salad for all of us for lunch today. Aren't they clever beans!! And the cake was very yummy!

(Sorry the photo's are a bit fuzzy. I'm not sure why that is.)