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!

EARLY MORNING CONSTITUTIONAL ! ! !

As promised in a previous post, some photo's showing the walk I try to do a couple of times a week from our home. It's so beautiful and one day I'd love you to come with me - I INVITE YOU (as my German girlfriends would say!).

I did this walk last Tuesday.

Walking out the front door

Start of the walk up the hill


View from the top

Cherries!! (no, I didn't pick any)

Walnuts

Beef ! ! !

Horse ! ! !

Lovely cool green foliage to walk through coming down the hill

Across the bridge (busy Route 317 underneath)

Street behind our place

The back of our house (house in middle of picture)

Couldn't resist taking a picture of the canal (our garage on right front)

Back home! Takes about 40 minutes so not bad!