Sunday night and it has been an interesting weekend.
Yesterday, Saturday 17, Anji and I took part in a fund raising event known here as Relay for life. It goes for 36 hours.
It is to raise money and awareness for all types of cancers and the research into the cures.
Anji and I are both working for The Cancer Council of NSW, which is the major cancer research and awareness association in Australia. Totally unfunded by any government, they rely solely on donations and fund raising events to get the much needed money for cancer research.
Since returning home, I have begun working for the local branch as a volunteer as a training officer for community speakers and also doing some public talks on Healthy Lifestyle and other cancer related issues.
Anji is still looking for work and they invited her to come in one day a week to help with the branch accounts. With her experience in office work and management, she has fallen on her feet into a little position that she is good at, is doing something worthwhile and is getting valuable work experience in an Australian working environment.
I get enough work to keep me mentally active and still have enough time to do the many things around the house that need to be done after 7 years away.
And the government pays us a living allowance for doing the volunteer work.
We are doing a lot of work in the yard, front and back and it is good to be able to get out in the sunshine and make the gardens look nice. My front lawn has always been my pride and it is starting to take shape again. Anji loves to sit on the grass and pull out the weeds. She finds it relaxing and I find it great because I hate weeding.
A funny thing came to my realisation this afternoon. I was looking at the sky and musing at how blue it was and I realised I had forgotten just how blue an Ozzie blue sky really is. So deep that you feel you could fall into it. I guess 7 years of looking at the murky, pale grey/blue skies in Weifang made me forget how blue a sky could be. I miss many things about China but I am glad to be home among the gum trees, with lots of plum trees, a parrot or two and a cockatoo. (he! he!)
Anji has been slowly getting the wild birds to come and feed in the backyard and has a few eating out of her hand. She is over the moon because she has never had a wild bird come so close to her, let alone sit on her hand and eat. They have become her pets. And the lovely thing is they are not in cages but are genuinely wild and go back to their trees at the end of the day. Next morning, they outside waiting and even looking in the kitchen window trying to get her attention.
It is mid spring here and it has gotten a little cold after a warm August. But days of 18 and blue skies are easy to take. Daylight saving stared at the beginning of the month so outdoor life is good. We have had a lot of rain this month and that is good because everything was looking
I still haven't tried putting photos on this new web site. I thought I had downloaded all my old blog before it closed but I may have lost all the old details.
A lesson learnt, I will try to remember to save a copy of each of my postings on this new blog. Hard to remember 7 years of blog postings. A pity because I know I had a lot of information that could have lead to me writing a book which I still intend to do.
For everybody's information, we have SKYPE up and running so you can call and talk for free if you want to. I set it up for Anji to chat with her family. We got her father to load the Chinese Skype and they tested it successfully today.
So that's it for today. Our work day tomorrow. Put on office clothes for my one day a week. Next month we have a training week and I have to present two training courses, both of them half day presentations.
I have an appointment next week with a man from a solar water and electricity company. I am going to turn my house into a solar system. If all works out, I will be producing solar hot water and generating electricity from the sun. Any electricity I don't use will be bought back by the government. :-). I'll keep you up to date as this goes along.
Cheers to all our dear friends.
Ian and Anji
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