An Angelic Blessing

Now everyone is going to think I have flipped my lid. What is Robin doing posting pictures of angels accompanied by angelic voices singing a lullaby? I happened to be listening to this song as I went to sleep last night. It occurred to me that the blessing included in this song is quite similar to the wishes I had for each one of my children when they were little. I never wanted them to experience loneliness, sorrow or heartache. While I never specifically asked that they be wealthy, I never envisioned their lives being dominated by poverty either. Yet as they grew up, some were taunted in school, some struggled to find good friends, and all of our hearts were broken.

Fast forward to today. Mom was over for dinner the other day and offered a blessing at dinner. She prayed for "angels" (not her exact words) to help those in need across the world. As we pray as a couple each day, we find ourselves praying that angels will watch over each of our grown children, especially Chelane and Brooke who are so far away from us now. In reading the scriptures I find that we are entitled to call on the blessings of angels to watch over our loved ones. Heather helped us to understand that angels are real and that angels can take on many forms.

Some angels come from the other side of the veil. They can provide voices of warning and comfort, or peace. Other angels may come in the form of people who have the ability to listen to the promptings of the spirit and the courage to act. A perfect example of this kind of angel is my brother Morton, who dropped everything when David died to care for our family. Still others are family and friends who know us - know us well enough to know when things are not right and help is needed.

I am posting this for our friends and family to know that it is OK to pray for angels to watch over us. The Savior said "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" Matthew 7: 9-11 Angels are one of those good gifts. Don't be afraid to ask for their help. Our Father wants to bless us, and together we can call down these blessings for us, for members of our family and for those we know who need help.

So you decide if I am crazy - or maybe not.

Mikey Went Too!

 Mikey was at Featherdale too! For some reason, every time I tried to add Mikey to the last post, the system would delete them. I guess the post was too big or something. Dang computers! Mikey taught Lily how to feed the wallabies

 Mikey thought it was hilarious the animals wanted to eat Tyler up.

 

Mikey loved the little babies and was very tender with them.

Featherdale Outing

When you are, in Sydney with kids, a trip to Featherdale is a must.

It is a Wildlife Park for people who have never seen Australian critters. The kids had a great time there feeding and playing with the animals.

Lily was scared at first, but pretty soon she was happy to be around the animals. Of course, when the wallaby started to nibble on her little fingers she backed off quick.

The pigeons wanted their share too.

Tyler wasn't sure what was going to happen, so he never took his eyes off the bird.

Lily fell in love with the bunnies

Tyler and the goats didn't get along so well. In fact, he didn't like them one bit.

 Lily had no such difficulty with goats. Once she figured out that the right thing to do was to share, they got along fine.

 No trip to Featherdale is complete without the Koalas. Lily was a little scared of them. But they are sooo...  cute!

Signs of Australia

People in Australia talk fast. They also just come right out and say what they mean. In the US, we would say "Pick up after your dog". (as if he left his toys on the living room floor or something). Not so circumspect in Australia.
You never see signs like this in America. Of course, we don't have a rampant wallaby, kangaroo and wombat problem. Wombats look like a someone mated a pig with a pug. They are supposed to be the densest animal in the planet (not meaning stupid) and they move fairly slow. If you hit one in a bingle, you are for sure going to be seeing a panel beater.
No - petrol is not 135.9 Australian Dollars per litre, even though that is what the sign says. This was as low as it got while we were there. It is $1.35.9 per litre, or $5.14 per gallon ($5.71/gal. at the current exchange rate). If you put it on your charge card, you can add 2-3% for a foreign transaction charge. Brooke's car (a Kia 7 passenger van with a really powerful engine) was pretty good at just sipping the fuel. When we left, it was at $1.59.9 per litre (you do the math)
Australia is famous for "brekkies" or breakfast. Burger King is called Hungry Jacks in Australia and is good for brekkies, though we never went to one. Half the items on the food menus are not recognizable to someone from Utah. They had meat pies with "mushy peas" on top. Unfortunately, that is exactly what it sounds like. A school lunch might include a Vegemite sandwich (or sandwhich as they spell it) and some bikkies. We bought some lollies to bring back home.
There are quite a few places where you cannot abseil. On the set, we noticed special places on the floor that must be kept open for the electricians and others that work in the upper rigging to abseil down in the event of an emergency. I would never even think of taking the scout troop abseiling.
Most restaurants offer take away. They have these incredible re-useable plastic containers if you want something to go. It goes along with their environmental ethic they seem to be particularly proud of, notwithstanding the inscription I saw scrawled on the back of a truck " You can take your carbon tax and stick it where the sun don't shine". I guess not everyone is an environmentalist there.
Reminiscent of our trip to London, they drive on the wrong (left) side of the road. As a pedestrian, you have to be very careful. Sydney is just as crowded as London. There are lots of narrow streets. The street by Mikey's school is so narrow two cars cannot pass. If a car comes the other way, someone has to back up. Steve got me approved to drive there. If you drive in Sydney, driving occupies all of your resident brainpower. You cannot sightsee or carry on a conversation. Any lapse of attention and you can find yourself turning left into oncoming traffic.* At first, it freaked me out to look over at the car in the lane next to me - and see nobody in the driver's seat.
Oops! No sign here
I would never think of reversing in to any parking spots in Australia. Brooke marveled that I backed into a spot in the parking garage
I never did figure out what a EFTPOS was. It seems nobody has them, though.

It seems that every important building (and some not so important) was dedicated by some member of Britain's royal family. Who would have thought that would happen? I suppose the Queen has to do things like that to keep her subjects content.


Who would ever think of using the word "rubbish" as a verb. Nobody knew what I was talking about when I asked where the trashcan was. Most surprising of all was not the Australian accent. It was frightening that I had no idea what so many words meant. "G'day mate, how ya goin" threw me off more than once. Of course, they looked at me weird when I responded "Howdy!"

Dictionary
bingle - car accident
panel beater - body shop
petrol - gasoline
eftpos - ?
take away - take out
abseil, abseiling - rappel, rappelling
bikkies - biscuits, or cookies
lollies- candy
Vegemite - obscenely disgusting fermented yeast spread


* Thank heavens I only did that once!

Report from Down Under

Here is what it is like to go exploring with Brooke and Steve and their family. Everyone is in their seatbelt and we are all on the lookout for Wallabies, Kangaroos and Wombats, well not Tyler - he likes to sleep. I shot this through the fisheye rear view mirror.

I have several poses for this clever young fella. He is enrolled in the Coogee Public School and is on holiday right now. He misses school and wants to go back soon. He has a keen eye and can pick out blue bottles (jellyfish), sting rays and sea snakes before anyone can. He is pretty good with the flying foxes too.

Lily is amazing. She can go from unhappy to to cheerful in about three seconds. It takes about eight to go the other way, but when she is happy, she is a little darling. Lily has been working on her letters and sounds. She will be reading in no time. She worries about the family staying together and doesn't let anyone get separated.

Tyler is pretty sure-footed now. If we slid a surf board under his feet, he could surely handle it. He is quite even tempered right now and lets Lily mother him and carry him around. In all, the family is doing fine experiencing all that Australia has to offer.