From host to host

Saturday was a quiet day: my host Christine had engagements early morning and from mid afternoon onwards. So we went out at about 12, initially to the Quaker Shop, an enterprising charity shop which Chris used to run and which is now run by Topsy Evans, who is my next host. We called there briefly, but long enough for me to buy a blue bead necklace, something I've been wanting for ages. Then we went to the National Wine Museum: on one exhibit you could play the winemaker, and make all the vital decisions as to how to make your wine: then it told you how good yours was. I chose to make a riesling, and ended up creating a Gold quality prizewinner. Maybe I should think of taking this up....

We had a sandwich lunch at the museum, very pleasant in the open air, and walked back to the car through the Botanic Gardens. Christine was pleased to see these little red Sturt's Desert Peas: apparently they are very common in the drier parts further north, but she'd not seen them here before. We also passed an ancient tree trunk of a Red Gum, some 1500 years old or more.

Then back home, where I rested while Christine got ready and then went out to her function, a reunion of a group who had visited Japan together some years ago. I had quite a time for myself, which was good: I was able to rest, write, check my talks, play the piano and help myself to a few bits to eat. I've been eating so much since leaving Heathrow, it was good to have a day when I didn't eat much: after a sandwich lunch (half a filled baguette each) I still didn't want a lot, and settled for new bread (I took it out of the breadmaker, half an hour earlier) and some soft blue cheese, and some pieces of fruit. More than adequate: we all eat far more than we need.

Christine's husband Norman arrived home from a trip to Melbourne before she did, so we introduced ourselves and had a bite together. He had some immediate homework to do, though, so I continued to read quietly until Christine got back, quite late: by then I was ready for an early night.

Sunday morning saw me finishing my packing before breakfast and then going to the Eastern Suburbs Meeting. Only eight people: three more were in hospital and three visiting another project that morning, and others away for other reasons. A pleasant Meeting all the same: I felt led to speak about the importance of Being as well as of doing, and the continual challenge of seeing, in the Light, how we need to change.

After Meeting we went back home to collect my luggage and take me off to Topsy's house, where she was laying on a barbeque for all the volunteers who worked at the Quaker shop that we visited yesterday. This was great fun: party animal
Sarah enjoyed herself a good deal! I had a snooze, though, when the guests were finally gone, after which we chatted and had a supper of leftovers. Topsy is definitely a morning person and goes to bed early, so I did too, giving me a nice long time to write up this and to read a little before sleep.

Australia at last!

I hadn’t realised that flying business class really does, as the advertisements said, deliver the businessman ready to do business: it certainly delivered the Quaker ready to meet Quakers, and with virtually no jetlag. Two days got compressed into 36 hours, but two periods of sleep, even if the second was relatively short, made it feel like morning when I arrived in Adelaide. The airport were very efficient at processing two big plane-loads of people at once: they send officials along the queues to pre-process so that when you get to the immigration and customs desks most problems and queries are sorted.

So I was spotted at once, coming through to the arrivals area, by Jo Jordan, who whisked me back to her home for coffee and chat and some delicious toasted fruit bread. After a shower, we went out in the car to see what we could see from the top of the highest of the local hills, appropriately named Mount Lofty (though in fact it’s less than 3000 feet high!). It was damp, spots of rain (the locals were delighted, there’s been a heat wave the last few days), and rather misty, so the usual panoramic view of the city was rather muted and it felt cold. So we went back down into the city, and to the central market. This had reminiscences of the Grainger Market back in Newcastle, though it seemed cleaner, fresher and with loads of locally grown fruit and other foods. Australians are evidently keen on getting local produce. We wandered round, sampling some exotic delicacy from a stall in the fish market, and then going through to the food court where there was every kind of Asian food on offer – Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Malayan and the one we tried, Vietnamese. We had huge bowls of beef broth with ‘cold rolls’, a kind of spring roll but in a cold rice-based wrapper around more rice and vegetables. The broth is apparently boiled for ages, and was very tasty, full of beef, noodles and several other bits and pieces.

Well fed, we went back home, Jo having an instinctive sense for my needs which by then were for a nap and a rest for my knee, now making its wounded presence felt. I had a good sleep, and then sorted out a few things, repacking a bit after the journey, and enjoyed a cuppa and the company of Naomi, Jo and Joseph’s granddaughter. Then Christine James arrived to collect me: she’s my host until Sunday, when I move on to the next family. Chris was a little delayed, so I’d not been at her house ten minutes before Drew Thomas arrived to take me away to my first Quaker engagement. Drew is part of Quaker Learning Australia, which is a group trying to tackle the difficulties of providing learning opportunities to a small and very, very scattered collection of Friends. QLA were interested both in my experience of distance learning with the Open University, and my knowledge of Quaker learning in the UK, at Woodbrooke and elsewhere, It was a good meeting, and I was pleased to be able to contribute some ideas and suggestions – which of course has also given me some follow-up work to do! But that’s partly what I came for: to offer what I can and learn what I can, and I’ve already started on both of those. The other unexpected thing is that although I’ve been here barely 24 hours, I’ve started thinking in terms of ‘when I next come’. This is, I think, because the Friends I’ve met, quite a few already, have all been easy to relate to, people who are clearly on the same path as I’m trying to follow and who will be good companions with whom to share the journey.

Back, then, to Christine’s, for a cool fruit juice on the terrace, overlooking the city from the elevated location of the house. The evening temperature was cool and pleasant: a lovely way to end the day. I went briefly on line to check my emails, ‘and so to bed’.