Terrigal Australia

The past few days have flown by. We arrived in Sydney after getting up a 3am. Our ride was waiting for us at gates C/D and we had arrived at A/B. After waiting patiently I decided to try calling him. My international mobile needs prayer. Nothing worked. When I get time, I’ll have to figure out what is wrong. But after much ado we obtained coins and used a public phone. First I called his cell phone, no answer. After another half hour, we obtained more coins and I called his home. His wife answered and basically was annoyed because her husband had been waiting for us for an hour and a half. Where were we! You have to smile. I asked her to call him and tell him precisely where we were, by the Krispy Kreme donut booth, ah yes they are all over Australia. Just then I saw a man with a Bible Lesson displayed and so did Dave, who walked up to him. Problem solved! He had finally turned on his phone and gotten my message telling him precisely where we were waiting. After the hour ride to an Indian run motel in Hornsby, need I say more, we went for lunch at one of the biggest nicest malls I’ve seen. Had delicious Mediterranean food. Then John took us back to the hotel and we collapsed into bed for a couple hours before I did the lecture prep.

Next day John took us to Terrigal, which means place of the little birds. What a charming location! It’s on the sea with a beautiful beach full of children surfing. Cute little restaurants are across the narrow road. We lunched on a terrazza overlooking the scene and had a marvelous meal. Blue skies, perfect weather, this was heaven! Then we took a walk up the hill and down again into a peninsula park overlooking the little bay and on the other side the cliffs and the sea. We walked all about, seeing white pelican, fairy wrens, and lots of red-billed gulls. It was quite hot so we stopped at a delightful café in the park for a coke and sat for over an hour watching the scene and drinking in the lovely day. It was so beautiful I didn’t want to go back to the hotel, but duty called. Another lecture prep, re-writing a lecture for a talk the next morning, and off we went for a full day of talks both morning and afternoon.

Yesterday had dinner at Fishbonz and had New Zealand hoki. May I recommend it! Fabulous fish, so tasty, it’s white and must be a deep sea type fish. Really wonderful. Anyway, had a pleasant evening in our marvelous apartment hotel called Sails. One of the best places we’ve stayed actually. We’d go back in a heartbeat. It was very modern, with white tile floors, delightful sofa and tables, balcony. Trees in front were home to rainbow lorikeets and a new type of cockatoo with red around the neck and blue around the eye. They chattered incessantly. Where’s my bird book? This town was charming, quaint, perfect, with great food.

Today I worked the morning and then our ride picked us up to take us to luncheon at Meg’s home in Hornsby. What a delightful yard! We ate outdoors. She cut fresh lemon herb to make tea for me. Wonderful! The tabouli included fresh parsley from her garden. A rainbow lorikeet literally flew through our lunch so close to Dave that it almost clipped his ear. If we come back to Hornsby, we’ll stay with her. She might not have an internet connection but she has a lovely home and birds! The lecture went well. They had refreshments on the lawn afterward. I tried a delicious orange poppyseed cake with orange icing. The minister from the church next door came with several of their parishioners. They had enjoyed the talk and we discussed their congregation which is a dual English/Korean one. Then John brought us back to Sydney. We’re staying in a Holiday Inn king suite, nice upgrade, overlooking the lights of Botany Bay. The room has a 20’ bank of windows. We’ve actually kept the curtains open to enjoy the lights and view tonight. Well onward to Perth early tomorrow. I’m ready to be home.