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8.53am Friday 2 June 2017 – Tavira, The Algarve, Portugal

Another beautiful sunny day with wafting sea breezes to keep it bearable. Just sitting and reading and enjoying the peace and quiet – apart from the birds singing! – in my monk’s cell hideaway in the middle of nowhere but close to the centre of everywhere! I have enjoyed the past couple of weeks exploring with my friend, Jennie and am enjoying these last few days of solitude before moving on to Torre del Mar in Andalusia to visit friends in Competa.  Can’t upload any photos in my blog anymore!

So back to Facebook – useless WordPress!

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Hello again hello! – Thursday 27 April 2017 – Horley, UK

It is 8.47am in my brain but actually 00.47 English time – and here I am again on my travels! Decided just now that I should keep my blog again to record some of what happens on my journey! Yesterday I flew into Heathrow from Seoul and met Leisha who is a beautiful person who had just attended her granddad’s funeral in Auckland. He was 97. Relatively non-eventful 11 hour flight and arrived at Heathrow on time. Not worth getting a SIM here for me mobile phone as I won’t be in UK after today for a month. So soldiering on without a phone! Good for the brain? Stayed at the Yew Tree House hotel at Gatwick last night which is a two minute walk from Horley. Intend to walk to Horley tomorrow morning and then catch my flight from Gatwick in the afternoon. Started chatting with the great Cockney lady who was looking after the NATIONAL EXPRESS bus passengers to make sure we got on the right bus – in our haze of tiredness! If I ever feel like feeling sorry for myself God always introduces me to someone who has had a harder life than I. This lady lost her sister to a brain tumour two years ago. That sister had had to cope with being born with hydrocephalus and everything that involves. She was 39 years old when she passed away. Jane still lives with her mother who needs her help. As a treat they go to Tenerife each year but this year it is Majorca for a change so they can “start making new memories” after the death of her sister. They laid some of her sister’s ashes in Tenerife because she had loved it there so much. I love chatting to people as I travel – everyone is interesting. Jane did thank me for chatting when I left. Iike to think it helped brighten what could be a lonely old day amongst people with only one thing on their mind – themselves and where they are going and how they are going to get there!! I did make one annoying blunder though – confession time – I forgot to mention that I had a Coach Card and missed out on my thirty per cent discount on my £25 bus ticket to Gatwick – oops! Not like me must be tired from the plane journey – I hope! 

Time now to sleep until real morning! God bless you all. May your Guardian Angels always look after you as mine do me. Thank you, Lord, for bringing me safely this far.

Lovely sunset here last night…will show photos on FB as not enough space to upload to my blog apparently. Have to get that sorted when Ibfind a young person who knows about these things!

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Wednesday 9 November 2016 – tennis yehey!

But first some devotions…

Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless. 

This directive seems clear from Isaiah! Sounds like a good plan.

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Enjoy your day! I have a busy one planned as usual starting with tennis, movie with Sandy, f2f bridge with Moira and online bridge with Bob! Looks like a bit of a “me” day today but I am sure I will fit in a walk to Terrigal this evening to clean out the well-used butt bins! Thank you again to all you caring smokers! I love that you are enjoying helping me to keep Terrigal clear of butts – it’s quite a challenge!!!!

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Thursday 3 November 2016 – Terrigal

Some sound advice again from our Sabbath School lesson…

Matthew 7:1 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor. 

Romans 2:1 Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done. 

1 Corinthians 4:5 So don’t get ahead of the Master and jump to conclusions with your judgments before all the evidence is in. When he comes, he will bring out in the open and place in evidence all kinds of things we never even dreamed of—inner motives and purposes and prayers. Only then will any one of us get to hear the “Well done!” of God. 

All words directly from Jesus that warn us all against judging others!!!! Mmmmm!

I am off for my daily walk to the sea to ponder those thoughts.

Have a great day!

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Monday 31 October 2016 – trick or treat?! Happy Hallowe’en!

Another glorious day in Terrigal. Today we learnt what not to say to people who are grieving from Job’s friends who gathered around him in his time of trouble to comfort him. They spent 7 days with him saying nothing but giving emotional support. That was OK but then they started the accusations of “he must have done something wrong in order to incur God’s wrath!” We are reminded that all good things come from God but all bad things are a gift from Satan. Everything works together for good for those who love God – even if we do not see it at the time – God is in control – Amen!

Just thought I would take a photo when I was briefly top of the leader board at BridgeClubLive! It did not last long! I dropped down to 10th that day – it is hard work!


Have a great day!

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Thursday 27 October 2016

BIBLE GATEWAY verse of the day explains why we start each successful day by reading God’s Word…

2 Timothy 3:14 But don’t let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk! There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us. 

The start of another exciting day in Terrigal – what will it bring I wonder?!


This fella is probably wondering the same!

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Monday 24 October 2016 – a question?!…

As Christians, we certainly have wonderful promises for the future. At the same time, amid present sufferings, how can we learn to remember the good times we had in the past and to draw comfort and solace from them?

It is very easy to remember the good times of the past because we have memories etched in our brains, photos and comforting memorabilia. However, we must also enjoy the present because it is the only time we have control over. The future is not ours to decide and the past is gone. I wake up each morning to the sounds of the kookaburras and the dawn chorus of other birds. It reminds me how great life is – even amid the struggles. I am grateful every day for my health, my friends and my family. Thank you, Lord for the life which you have given to me. I appreciate it and try to live it to the fullest for Your glory. Amen

Some smokers get it – but some don’t! It never ceases to amaze me that when there is a bin right there they still treasure the habit of throwing their butts on the ground!! Thank you to the caring smokers who do use the bins provided.

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Friday 21 October 2016 – preparation day…

Are you ready? Here’s a great discussion question. How do we know God is love? Look to the cross…

• Dwell on the question of suffering for those who don’t believe in God. As we saw, they don’t have to struggle with the same questions that believers in God do when facing tragedy. On the other hand, what hope can they have of ever getting answers, of ever finding resolution? Imagine going through all that we go through here in this world and then to believe that it all ends in the grave, with nothing beyond. No wonder so many unbelievers despair of life or of even finding any meaning to life. Secular literature is filled with their exclamations and protests about how meaningless it all is. How can we, then, even amid our sorrows here, draw hope from our faith, despite the difficult questions that remain?

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Off to tennis…

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Thursday 20 October 2016 – Terrigal

This week we are studying the Great Controversy between Good and evil…

“Every question of truth and error in the long-standing controversy has now been made plain. The results of rebellion, the fruits of setting aside the divine statutes, have been laid open to the view of all created intelligences. The working out of Satan’s rule in contrast with the government of God has been presented to the whole universe. Satan’s own works have condemned him. God’s wisdom, His justice, and His goodness stand fully vindicated. It is seen that all His dealings in the great controversy have been conducted with respect to the eternal good of His people and the good of all the worlds that He has created.” —Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 670, 671.

However hard it might be for us now to understand, immersed as we are in a world of sin and suffering (and if it’s hard for us, imagine what Job must have thought), when it is all over we will be able to see the goodness and justice and love and fairness of God in all His dealings with humanity, with Satan, and with sin. This doesn’t mean that everything that happens in the world is good; clearly it’s not. It means only that God is dealing with it in the best way possible, and then when this terrible experience with sin is over, we will be able to shout: “ ‘Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!’ ” (Rev. 15:3, NKJV).
It is some small compensation that everything will turn out OK in the end! Thank you, Lord. I will maintain an attitude of gratitude. 

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Another relaxing day planned for a walk to Terrigal.
We came first in the teams of three bridge afternoon on Tuesday. Well done my partners, Nola and Daphne – and of course to our intrepid team Captain, Bill T. Thank you all.

Once again the photo above contrasts the ugliness of man-made waste with the spectacular beauty of God’s creation. I never cease to marvel at the amazingly ornate detail of our created world – thank you, Lord. Photo taken while walking from Hornsby station to my hairdresser yesterday. 


I live in a beautiful part of God’s universe. Thank you for guiding me to Australia. It is truly God’s continent.