HIKING - Maulburg to Schopfheim

We led a hike the other Monday, meeting the group at Maulburg, 2 stations from our place. Unfortunately it was a rainy morning, but it didn't deter the 19 of us that met for the walk. Promised at the end......soup and cake! I made a yummy vegetable and red lentil soup (with coconut milk added) and a Mulligatawny soup, rather spicy but everyone seemed to enjoy it. We had garlic bread and also Weisental Brot! I made a very large Apple cake for dessert, which we had with cream. In the end there were 21 of us for lunch!
Oh how I love doing this for my friends.

Here are a few Autumn pictures as a treat. There are not many leaves left on the trees now, so this is a good reminder to me of how lovely Autumn is.

Kevin and Stewart in our sunroom


Susan, Sue and Nick enjoying dessert

Wow, we love this Apple Cake!

Morag, Roger Deborah and Angela

Janet, Elinor and gorgeous Lilly

OUR SUNDAY

I am home alone tonight (Sunday). Roger has gone off to a concert near Zurich to hear the band Delirious (from England). It is their farewell tour. Our German Youth Pastor Dave rang up on Thursday and invited Roger to attend. I bet Rog will be thoroughly enjoying himself. I hope so.

Roger spoke at Crossroads International Church in Basel this morning on "Jesus, the living water". John 7:27-39. It was a dynamic message, probably all the more because of what is happening in his life at this time. Towards the end of his message, he shared very personally about what has been going on in our lives these past few months. There were many visitors in the Church today and it was a joy for us to speak to some of them after the service. I particularly had a great chat to 4 young ladies (2 Swiss, 1 German and 1 Australian). I am hoping to connect up and encourage these girls.

When we got to the Church this morning, Roger realized he had left his lovely blue corduroy cap on the train! Oh hear! (Hold this story!!!!!)

We had arranged to visit our dear friends Fritz and Ilona Weibel with Anna and Jakob after the service and for lunch. They live in the cutest little village in Switzerland called Hochwald. I love to visit them here, but not really in the winter!! Fritz picked us up at the tram stop and took us to their place. Jakob was delighted to see us both. He will be 2 in February. We were wined and dined in a lovely way, went for a walk through the woods (not suitable footwear, but, oh well, who cares - nothing that a bit of water can't get off).

(photo of Fritz, Ilona and Jakob taken back in June)

I decided I would keep an eye out for Roger's cap when I got on the train to come home. I mean, you never know!! Well, guess what? Yes, it was on the luggage rack and I couldn't believe my eyes. In fact a friend from Loerrach got on the train with me and she was amazed that it would still be there. Naturally we are both very happy. I sent Rog an sms because I was so happy.

It has been raining off and on today and I don't think we will be going hiking tomorrow morning. If it is raining, it just isn't any fun being wet for hours and then having a long train ride home! I think we will snuggle up in bed and have a sleep in. Goodness knows what time Rog will get home tonight anyway.

Thanks for keeping me company!!!

Rheinfelden Spa

Roger and I managed to get to Rheinfelden Spa, just out of Basel, on Monday morning. We have a good friend that has been there many times and offered to take us and show us around. Our daughter Jocelyn went to this Spa when she was with us back in January 2007, but we hadn't been. In true Swiss style everything is run with high efficiency and cleanliness is paramount.

Water, water everywhere. We were truly amazed. We started in the salt baths which is just 12 months old and a new feature, then went to various other water baths. A fantastic facility and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I thoroughly enjoyed the outside pool with various jets used as water massage, a whirlpool and jacuzzi.

We were there 2 hours. Roger was probably not as keen as me but it beats the price of a massage hands down and you're in control of all the things you want to do. I love that. We hope to go back at least every month!

Needless to say we both had naps in the afternoon when we got home!

Sharing some sad news

I saw one of my special English friends at Centrepoint today. She was commenting about my silence in keeping my blog up to date, especially whilst in Australia. Of course she has now realized the reason for this. I told her it was time I wrote on my blog what has been really going on in our lives these past 3 months. What I need to write will be helped a little by what Roger has written recently to our friends. Here is what he has had to say:


"Gaynor and I need to tell you something about Roger and we thought it best to tell you this way. The reason will become clear soon.

When Gaynor and I went to Australia to catch up with family and friends in 5 cities in 4 states we did not anticipate the difficulty of the time “home”. On 5 August I visited my GP for a check up and to talk about my problem fingers on the left hand. The Dr. suspected Motor Neuron Disease and sent me off to a Neurologist and he in turn set me off for special tests including an MRI. To cut a long story I have Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed. (courtesy ALS Assoc. website http://www.alsa.org/als/what.cfm).

Naturally this came as a great shock to us and as we have so many good friends (like you) who get concerned or upset when we personally tell them. We then in turn upset ourselves again. So purely for selfish reasons we have decided to stop telling people individually (hence this group email) and to let the news spread of its own accord. ALS is a very unusual disease, it affects about 2 people in every 100,000 and the usual survival rate is 2-5 years.

So we have to say that our time in Europe will not be as long as we anticipated. Roger’s symptoms are a minor nuisance at this stage and it is not preventing us from doing things, although we tire easily at present and that skews our emotions. Roger still rides his bike, shops, works, hikes, cleans and typed this email!

Enough said, we still plan to participate in Centrepoint (you can’t get rid of us that easily!) so we are volunteering as usual and I will be hanging around the library if needed. Feel free to talk to us as you usually do and if you have any information about ALS because you are one of those rare people who have heard about this, don’t hesitate to tell Roger (preferably not Gaynor) - more information is good.

Sorry to have to be bearers of not such good news. I have faith in a loving God who knows me better than I do. He did not send this disease to me; I know I got it because I live in a broken imperfect world that isn’t quite the paradise that God created. Why people get ALS specifically is unknown. For my part I intend to live life to the full so whether it is 2 or 5 or 10 years to go, there are still going to be lots of parties!!"

We are still processing all that has been going on these past 3 months and coming to terms with the impact this is going to have on our lives in the near future and the future. We have felt emotions never felt before and have shed so many tears we know we have kept the angels in heaven working hard.

We are happy to be back in our lovely little home in Schopfheim and will make the most of each day that we spend here. It is winter here already, but our home is cosy and warm and we love the haven it provides us as we go out each day and come home to such comfort.

I have so much to blog about and will try and continue to blog regularly. Thank you for your patience with me in this regard. We can feel the love of our family and many friends surrounding us during these days.

NEWCASTLE with the family

Roger, Jocelyn and I had a lovely sunny 2 weeks in Wagstaffe and then Newcastle, at the end of August, meeting up with Roger's brother Dave, wife Sue and family. It was a very precious time spent together and all too short. Newcastle is on the Pacific Ocean so we thoroughly enjoyed smelling the sea air. It was just a little cold to be swimming, but there were actually people in the water.


Gaynor, Roger and Jocelyn

Roger and David

Gaynor, Roger, David and Sue

The brother's

Anna (niece), Jocelyn and Roger. We had a lovely picnic together.

Amy, Gaynor, Jocelyn and Matthew

Jocelyn, Anna and Dave

A game in action (Jane, Sue, Joshua and Gaynor). Two balls! All too much for me.

LET'S P A R T Y ! ! !

Australian Football is the blog theme at the moment, so bear with me. All will be revealed in this post!!

We arrived in Australia to Football mania, and this was particularly relevant to Roger and myself because our team - The Geelong Cats - were second on the ladder and doing particularly well.

So, during September they had all the preliminary finals of the various teams who were on top of the ladder. The Geelong Cats made it to the Grand Final. This was held on Saturday 26 September and Roger and I were ready to PARTY!!! It was a real family affair, with only Tom missing as HE WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY BE AT THE GAME!!!

There was lots of noise, lots of food, lots of decorations and lots of people. Even Peach the dog managed to join in the fun of the day.

It was a a very good tense Grand Final, coming down to the last minutes of the game. The rest is history. The pictures will tell the story!!


Here's Jocelyn, my niece Heidi, great nephew Zephyr and Roger cuddled up on the couch!

Roger and Amy in the loungeroom having a toast to something! Note the impressive decorations!

Roger and Gaynor are pretty happy! GO CATS!!

Glenda and Peach enjoying the day

Adrian (Heidi's husband), great nephew River and Tim enjoying time on the couch!

At the table!! Jocelyn, Tim and Amy (displaying Geelong colours)

Roger and our lovely niece Cherith who was visiting from Geraldton in Western Australia



THEY'VE W O N !!! "WE ARE GEELONG THE GREATEST TEAM OF ALL!!"


Gaynor and Jocelyn were pretty happy and so we celebrated on into the night! What a day!

I'M BACK ! ! !

MCG Members Bar - Footy with the kids, Friday night 7 August
Gaynor, Glenda and Jocelyn

Apologies to my lovely family and also to my faithful blogging friends for the silence of GAYNOR'S WORLD! But I'm back (having received a little pressure from a certain source!) so I will try and communicate to you all that has been going on in the lives of Roger and Gaynor Ridley these past months.

We left for Australia on 31 July and came back to our little home here in Schopfheim, Germany on 14 October.

We had a very special time with our lovely family - Tim and Amy, Jocelyn and Glenda and Tom in Melbourne. We stayed with Glenda and Tom who were very patient with our comings and goings. We also made a big decision to get our few belongings out of storage, cull and then re-store them with a friend (about 8 boxes in all). As you can imagine, this was rather a painful few days for us and we became rather ruthless in what went back into storage. I wouldn't be surprised if it all eventually WENT!!

So, just to keep your interest and get you used to reading my blog again, here are some pictures of our time in Australia. I will explain each one as we go along!

Roger, Tom and Gaynor

Tim and Glenda



Tim and Amy

We spent the day with Tim and Amy on Saturday 8 August and they took us to a few of their favourite haunts. We had a wonderful time and were all very happily tired by the end of the day!

Tim with his girls!!

So, this is me partway through the day. We had just done the Kakoda Steps in the Dandenongs and then the walk up the hill again. At least I made it.

So, this is a start to the beginning of blogging for me again. Please be patient with me and I'll try and continue to tell the story of our last few months. xx

JANET and THOMAS' WEDDING

We were guests at Janet and Thomas' Wedding last Saturday 25 July. The Wedding was held in Basel and we had a lovely time catching up with our Centrepoint friends and meeting other people. Here are just a few photo's of the happy occasion.

We all went from the Church to the restaurant on a special tram. It took us on a 'scenic' tour of Basel!!

RUNNING FOR THE TRAIN (Zug in German) !

Roger and I arrived in Germany on 2 March, 2006. We first saw our new home in Schopfheim at 6.00pm on 10 March. We seem to have been running for the train every since!!

When we first arrived our timing to the train station was not good! It was okay for Roger, he walks faster than I do with bigger strides. To get round this I would leave for the train a little earlier than Roger (if I was organized)!!

It is a comfortable 6 minute walk to our station. That's okay, I can manage this no problem.

We do have some issues coming back from Basel though, especially if we are having dinner with friends and enjoying ourselves. Our train runs every hour from 7.50pm until midnight.

Why am I telling you all this? If you ever read in the paper about "Couple both die of heart attack running for the train at Badischer Bahnhof", then you will know it is Roger and Gaynor Ridley!! What a way to go ('cause we're always doing it').

So, Roger is recovering from his hernia operation last Friday isn't he? He has done really well and is trying to take it easy, but is a tad frustrated.

Last night we dined with our lovely Swiss friends who have a beautiful apartment on the Rhein in Basel. It was a balmy night and we were thoroughly enjoying their good company, good conversation and good food! We had already told them we didn't want a late night.

Roger and I both looked at the time and it was 9.20pm. Must go, we tell them. But 10 minutes later we were walking down the stairs. "Must hurry", Rog says as we come out the front entrance! Yes, we see our tram no 6 in the distance! Too late.

We don't want to wait 1 hour 10 minutes for the next train at Badischer Bahnhof so we decide to hot foot it to the Station. We have 14 minutes! Now remember, Rog is recovering from an operation and I have inappropriate shoes for walking fast in!!

Needless to say, we did make it, Roger walking very fast and Gaynor trotting beside him every now and then and trying to walk fast at other times!!

(Tried to find picture of our trains, but it is taking too much time!! - apologies!)



The train was running late! Roger got to the train 2 minutes before me and held the doors open. As I was coming up the stairs I heard him yell "Gayn"!! "Yes, I'm coming, hold the door"!! We both collapsed into our seats, puffing, panting, etc. My goodness we are CRAZY!!

Needless to say neither of us slept very well last night. I couldn't breath out of my nose and Rog was whacked!! We are so silly! But, "you gotta love those trains"!!

EMOTIONS

Happy

I have so much to be thankful for. Living here in the most beautiful part of God's creation and being free basically to do whatever I want. Knowing each day I have a husband that cares for me very much, and a wonderful family and extended family that love me. Friends galore. Where do I start!

Sad

Some of the things that are going on in the world that make me feel so sad, especially as I know I can't do anything about these things, apart from pray.

Anxious

Roger went into hospital for a hernia operation last Friday and I was a tad anxious, especially as he was going into a German hospital where language could be a problem. He came through the operation with flying colours, but we were very disappointed with the post op care, hence he discharged himself 24 hours after the operation to come home and recuperate. He's doing very well and we're both very happy to have these next 11 days to relax before we head back to Australia on 31 July for 10 weeks.

Concerned

For people we know who are experiencing difficult times at the moment.

Excited

We are going back to Australia for 10 weeks after being here in Germany for 3 1/2 years. We are very excited and can't wait, especially to see our beloved children - Tim and Amy, Jocelyn, Glenda and Tom

Loved
Where do I start! We have just come back from our neighbours. There was a knock on the door and "Bitte Komm" (please come). Off we went and had cake and champayne in the cool of the evening for several hours! Just as well there's nothing much happening tonight!!

Cared for
Again, where do I start. My goodness, the phone calls, emails, letters, cards we have received of late. Yes, we are very well cared for.

11 days to go. Australia here we come!!!

The Story of the Pencil

I have been reading the most amazing book by Paulo Coelho "Like the Flowing River", Thoughts and Reflections. It was given to us to read by our good friend Kevin, who thought we would really enjoy reading it because it is basically what we are trying to do here in this little part of the world. I highly recommend you buy this book and read it often. It has many, many treasures to read about, learn from and reflect on.

"The Story of the Pencil

"A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked, 'Are you writing a story about what we've done? Is it a story about me?'

His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson: 'I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I'm using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.'

Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn't seem very special. 'But it's just like any other pencil I've ever seen!'

'That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on to them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.

'First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.

'Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards he's much sharper. So you too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.

'Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.

'Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.

'Finally, the pencil's fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. In just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action.'"

TOUR DE FRANCE

Roger and I have been watching the Tour. It has been so much fun this year to follow the action. Why, you might ask?!!

I was speaking to our son in law Tom on the phone a few weeks ago and he wondered if Roger would like the Official Guide of the Tour De France (Australian Edition of course). Well, of course I said he would love it. If only I'd had the camera ready when the post arrived with the rather thick (225 pages) guide arrived. Roger was absolutely thrilled to bits. He loves bike riding and maybe in another life would have liked to have been one of the participants!!!!!!!

So, each day he reads the Official Guide, marks in all the winners and statistics and generally enjoys finding out who's who, and all in English!!

The highlight of this tour is that it is coming very close to our little corner of the world - Colmar in France, just about 1 hours drive from our place on Friday 17 July and we would love to go. Well, actually I AM GOING, but Roger is a little poorly at the moment, so it remains to be seen whether he will be able to go or not.

A visit to see Ruth and Andreas

We went up to Krefeld, near Duesseldorf by train the other week to have our yearly visit with good friends Ruth and Andreas. Ruth had asked if there was anything we would especially like to do! As they live so close to the Netherlands border (about 27 km's) we asked if we could have a trip to Antwerp, Belgium. Ruth lived and worked there for a short while. It was a 2 hour drive and we had a wonderful day together. Pictures to prove it!

Ruth and Andreas

Belgium Beer !

Australian Ice Cream ! (not sure about this!)

The Cathedral

What some people do for a living (go the green)

Main Government Office in Antwerp

We had dinner near this lovely part of town - so yummy

Sorry you can't have a taste, but this is Belgium chocolate!