Jethro has reached the stage of being able to sit up quite well and even occupy himself for a time. This was how we found him when we arrived there for lunch. The Funk family still needed to catch up on sleep but otherwise they were stacking up OK, considering the wild party we all had the previous night. That went for us too. The lunch was a 'Gord' soup (yum) and the remaining sausage rolls that Jaye had made for last night's party (still yum).
This was a nice way to start the year. We stayed in the Hut while Asher and Jaye stayed in what Gembrook Retreat has called the Cabin. We joined them for a breakfast cuppa there before setting off for further adventures on this first day of the year.
The cabin has two bedrooms, this one with the double bed and the other with single beds for about four people. It is a pretty nice place with so many windows looking out onto such a nice and restful place.
This was the day a bit of raindancing happened. We drove to Gembrook and took Asher and Jaye with us. Our dancing was not for rain like the Red Indians might do it, but because the rain came. The day was massively hot and as darkness arrived our little party, waiting for the new year, was treated to lightening flashes on the horizon. And it all came upon us in a rush. It was a rush. There was the strong cold wind, and then the rain. So before we saw in the new year we just upped the tempo and made it all very religious.
Even Peter danced a bit before he felt it was worth catching some of the action with his camera. Bec and Gord were real stayers on the dance floor and danced till the end. To dance this night you had to not care how you looked and how wet you got... like saturated. It was a spiritual return to nature. 
Now not everybody went raindancing so those who opped out had stories read to them for a time. This was a very memorable last few hours till the clock reached midnight, and... Well, that is a blog for 2010, not this one.
This was the day we caught up with Terico and her husband Len. We enjoyed hearing about their recent wedding both the official one in Japan and then how they celebrated in Australia. Intercultural marriages haves stories that are always good to hear. Len has been living in Japan for ten years and can speak Japanese reasonably well so Terico's family warmed to him. That's always a good start.
Before letting them leave for their next (whirlwind) appointment, to see Midsummer Night's Dream in the Gardens, we stood in front of the mosaic at Flinders Street Station. Infact, that was the place we had arranged to meet... under the clocks.
Earlier in the day Peter had taken Asher and Jaye out on a good coffee hunt. The place they stopped at was in Kinkora Road, Richmond. Nice coffee.
They then stopped at CERES in Brunswick for lunch at the cafe there. Without knowing it they had missed the once a week market by a few hours. So now we know that it is every Wednesday for a few hours in the morning. An organic food market. There is also a place there to bring your old bikes and they will be given another life. A bike heaven.
They did lunch there and it was wonderful sitting outside under the trees. You cannot know that this place is very much in the middle of Melbourne. The casual nature of the place gives the impression that you are at a holiday destination. A faraway island.
This picture was taken at a very expensive place. Most things in the shop were glass creations, a lot of them costing in the four figures. They were lovely to gaze at but that was as far as it goes. You get to feel happy and sad at the same time.
Even though this was taken on Christmas Day this was the day that Dan made this really nice snap available to us on his Face Book photo collection. So we thought that it was worth giving it a wider viewing. Thank you Ma for going the full hog and giving everyone in the family a personalised towel. At eighty you are a marvel.
This day also marks the second day that Asher and Jaye are with us and we found that they are so into coffee that they take their coffee grinder around with them. Only Fair Trade (or even fairer trade) coffee beans are ground in it. They have very high principles. Good on them.
Something that has been happening all December has been flies in the house. They have found a way past all the screens daily. We are still to discover their secret. We have some suspicions but have not found the "smoking gun"... the fly in the act of sneaking in. So each day Peter gets out the fly-swat and stalks them till there is just a tolerable few. The number in the picture is Peter's kill for about two days... there is that many getting in. If anyone else is having the same trouble in their house, drop us a line. 
Today was the day that Asher and Jaye came to stay with for a while. Asher is our godson. He and Jaye live in West Australia and have come east to taste for themselves various Christian communities that they have heard about. We are chuffed that they have desired to stay with us for a time in the midst of their travels.
And how about this. They cooked up a storm on the very first day they came. They prepared a high class chinese meal from scratch in a kitchen they had never used. That's brave. We enjoyed their gift to us.
Afterward we continued our theological discussions as we discussed what "church" is in our present society. Asher and Jaye have only recently returned from an alternative church experience in Brisbane where they learned to do industrial bin diving, retrieving food to feed the needy, food that the stores are daily throwing out because it has passed the "used by" date but is still good. 
After church on this day we went and had lunch with Craig, Joy and Abigail. We often do this on Sunday and bring a jigsaw puzzel or two for Abigail while the food gets cooked and for after when we get to chatting. One of the waiters there took this picture for us. We had an enjoyable time and so did Abigail with a few "magic" tricks to show us, then the centre of attention.
Abigail is becoming a wiz at puzzles and this time she opted for doing it outside the frame just to make it a little harder. We will have to look around for harder ones soon.
Abigail is a very good runner. She is learning gymnastics as an extra activity in a normal school week. She will be in grade one in the coming year. 
