Mission Report No 78 - Back to Victoria

 Monday 25th September 2023

This morning we drove from Brisbane down to Toowoomba to visit Margot's cousin Glen and his wife Joan. Glen is one of Margot's Aunty Doris's son. Last time we saw them was when they visited us in Lara over 10 years ago. 

In the afternoon Glen took us for a drive around Toowoomba to visit a couple of places. The timing of our visit was good as it was the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers. I'm not much of a gardener, except if it involves something I can eat, but I must admit this was pretty spectacular.

Margot with cousin Glen

Margot and I at the Flower Show

One of the flower beds- there were heaps of others,
I just like these colors.

We also stopped by the Toowoomba Ward meetinghouse, which was where Margot was baptised as an eight year old, having flown up there from King Island.

 

Tuesday 26th September 2023

Glen Mohr with his wife Joan and Margot and me.

We left Glen and Joans early today so we could drop in a see my old mate Greg Cowan, who moved up to Queensland a few years back. His wife Penny died unexpectedly last year. It was good to see him.

Old mate Greg Cowan out on the farm.
His property is back left of photo.

Nai flew down from Cairns while we were in Brisbane. That's her Mum
behind Margot, and her young cousin in the middle, and Naila being fed.

We left Greg's and tried to get to see the Fields family who had also moved up here from Geelong a few years back. It seems that everyone is moving up here from Victoria. Unfortunately we missed a freeway exit and consequently missed out on seeing the Fields!

We did get to see Nai and her Mum and her cousin back in Brisbane. We met at a cafe. Nai and baby Naila had coincidentally flown down from Cairns to see her mum, so it was great to catch up with her and meet her mum. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will know Nai already.

After visiting with Nai and family, we headed over to visit my old friends John and Robyn Taylor. John is an old friend of mine from Melbourne (actually first met him while I was on my mission in Christchurch) and he married Robyn just a couple of years (I think) before Margot and I were married. It was great to catch up with them both.

 

 

 

 

Margot and I with John and Robyn Taylor

Margot and me with Elder and Sister Greenhalgh

We stayed that night with Elder and Sister Greenhalgh (pronounced Greenouch) from Utah. Lovely couple - she was a regular singer with the Tabernacle choir for many years and stood beside Karen Maxwell, who with her husband Cory Maxwell, were our former Mission Leaders here in Melbourne. Had a funny incident while there. I had a pair of  trousers that needed washing, and had some difficult to remove marks on them. Sister Greenhalgh nicely offered to spray on some stain remover, but grabbed the wrong bottle - it was the bathroom cleaner! Yes, bleach! Most embarrassed, she came running out of the bathroom to display the result - it wasn't good news. While the trousers were still wet, we came up with a solution to the problem - let's just soak them in the bathroom cleaner (which was a bleach) and they'll just end up being the same color as the bleached patches. Worked perfectly!

Wednesday 27th September 2023

This morning we went for a morning walk with the Greenhalghs before heading off to the Gold Coast, where we had planned to stay the night with the Hargraves, who had served as the Senior Mission couple in Townsville prior to the Smiths, who are there now. So, for most of our mission, they were our nearest fellow senior couple, being only a 4 hour drive away.

Prior to going to the Hargraves, I wanted to try to get a kite foil session in, so we went exploring the Gold Coast, trying to find the spot where all the local kite foilers might congregate. I did find it, but it was rather intimidating, purely because of the amount of boating traffic out there. I think the place I went to was Runaway Bay. There was only one other  kite foiler there and he had just come in, and he gave me some good advice, but in the end I just found the amount of traffic out there too intimidating.

We found the Hargraves place and very much enjoyed staying the night with them. We went to a Thai restaurant for dinner and had a beautiful meal.

 

The view from the Hargrave's balcony

Us with the Hargraves and their son who was visiting

 

Thursday 28th September 2023

Here we are at breakfast with Karen and Bro Hargraves and us.

This morning we went to have breakfast with the Hargraves at Espresso Bonsai on Chevron Island. Karen is one of the owners and manages this wonderful little cafe, along with Christian Harvey, who grew up in Geelong. It was a pleasure to meet her. Karen is attending the Isle of Capri ward when she can get away from the cafe.

The rest of the day was taken up with driving down to Harrington in NSW to visit Margot's brother Greg, where we were able to stay the night. He cooked a wonderful meal for us. It was very much enjoyed as it was quite a big days driving down to his place.

Friday 29th September 2023

Had a wonderful early morning walk around the beach and river at Harrington with Greg and his dog, Pepper this morning. It was the first time I had seen proper waves in 18 months. Beautiful!

Margot with her brother Greg and some nice surf in the background

 

After  leaving Harrington this morning, we stopped by Greg's ex-wife, Hady, and their son Ross, in Newcastle. We saw them 12 months ago on our way up to Queensland, and it was really nice to see them again. We went out for a meal at the local hotel.

Margot, Hady, Ross and me.

Tonight we arrived at Hornsby Heights in Sydney to stay with Joanne and Don, Margot's sister and her husband. But the best night is tomorrow night when all their family are coming to see us!

Saturday 30th September 2023

Margot and I went for a long walk this morning, up and down the hills of Hornsby Heights. Margot did well - she didn't like the hills in Cairns but I think her brother convinced her to put a bit more effort in and tackle the hills.

This afternoon all of the Carswells kids and grandkids arrived and had dinner with us tonight.

Joel, Alan, Taylor, me, empty chair (Margot) Joanne, Don,
Hannah and Jude and Finlay

Sunday 1st October 2023

We attended Normanhurst Ward this morning with Joanne, so Margot was able to catch up with old friends, as she had once been a member of that ward. In the afternoon we visited Margot's cousin Graham Mohr and his family, which was a really pleasant time. If was fun listening to Graham tell stories of him taking Joanne sailing when they were young.

Graham and family with Joanne and Margot

Monday 2nd October

Off to Wodonga. This was the only leg of our trip with no visits to anyone. Sort of boring really!

Tuesday 3rd October 2023

We went for a walk around the shops of Wodongas CBD this morning, then had a quick breakfast to start our cruise down the Hume to then get on the Princes Freeway to Lara.

It rained from when we left Wodonga
until we arrived home in Lara. It got slowly
lighter the closer we got to home. And it was cold!

The only stop we made along the way was to visit my 92 year old cousin Pat Lockwood, and we forgot to get a picture with her. I can't remember what time we got home. We couldn't stay at home in Lara though, as the house is totally empty. We stayed our first two nights with our friend, Stephanie Woodford, while we went out to the house during the day to get a minimal amount of furniture in the house so we could live in it. And now we are painting and getting ready to have the floor sanded.

I hope you've enjoyed coming along this ride with us for the last 18 months or so. Maybe you've learned something about what life is like for a senior missionary couple with the Church. Maybe you might want to serve as a senior missionary couple yourselves one day. If you have any questions about it, we are happy to try to answer them for you.

Love to all

Elder and Sister Ceff (Murray and Margot)