Newcastle, Australian version

My time in Sydney ended, after the wonderful Opera evening, with a very pleasant bridge evening with two visiting Americans. I'd been to Meeting on the Sunday, quite quiet until I felt led to speak, reflecting on the double standards depicted in 'La Traviata' and how our Testimony to Truth was a refusal to have two standards: but how well did we keep it, and other testimonies, me being well aware of how far I'd flown to be there! I suggested that was was vital was to submit to the Light and listen to the guidance. In the evening we had a shared meal which Nick had prepared, and bridge: and Julie, bless her, helped me take my luggage to the station and minded it whilst I got my ticket - and even ran back for my lunch which I'd left sitting in the fridge!

The train journey to Newcastle, NSW, was interesting, with some attractive lake and mountain scenery, lots of woodland which is always heartening. We arrived at Broadmeadow on time (the previous stop was Cardiff, and the train home from the opera had gone to Liverpool! so many English names here), and I met with Jean, who took me back to her lovely home. She has a superb tropical garden, and, as I discovered, real tropical birds. How about breakfast looking at the Rainbow Lorikeet through the window! We had a short trip out that evening, seeing some black swans and a kookaburra (related to the kingfisher, I'm told), and the following day I was taken round the town, looking at the cathedral and the town centre, and the up and coming area known as Collingwood which has some fine colonial architecture, as does the town centre. Back for a rest in the afternoon, and a bring and share supper (lovely starters of home-made houmus and arabic bread, and smoked salmon canapes) and a talk on Ministry. We had a really good discussion, and some deep sharing: the best this talk has gone so far, I thought.

I was sorry to have been in Newcastle for so short a time: I'd have loved to go a little way up the Hunter Valley and see a winery or two, and more of the region. Australia's Newcastle is a little larger in population and a good bit larger in area than the UK one, and it's still a coal town: they are tearing coal out of the valley as fast as they can ship it out, and I counted ten ships waiting to come in and load up with it. New loading facilities are being built, and much of it is exported to China: all in all it must make a significant contribution to global warming, though when you look at the CO2 per head of the Chinese, it's way, way less than ours, so we can't really complain!

Next morning I was off good and early, with other Friends driving me to the airport, smaller than our Newcastle Airport (it did seem odd seeing the familiar name in a strange place!) but very easy to go through, and soon I was in the air en route to Brisbane. I'll describe that in the next post.