Mebourne Pettys - May 2010

Austin and a few of his friends go go-carting, Dylan gets his mission call, Nan comes over, we have a farewell for Ellen and Dylan, Austin goes through a fence in a van and the Kombi makes it’s last trip.

Austin wanted to go to the go-cart track for his birthday so on the first of the month we went up with five of his friends plus Dylan and Dean. It was a nice sunny day and we had great fun ripping around the track for half an hour. Afterwards we went to McDonalds then home. Marion has started working at the Video store in Fitzroy that Ellen and Calvin work at. She is going to take over Ellen’s shift when she goes off on her mission. She was doing her second shift, Ellen was training her but had gone out to get some dinner so she was the only staff member at the store counter when she turned to help a customer and man jumped over the counter behind her and grabbed some money from the till. When she realised what was happening she tried to stop him but he pushed her away grabbed the money and was gone. It was all captured on video and they were late home that night because they had to talk to the police. That was a bit of a problem in that Ellen needed to drive to Bendigo that night to pick up Calvin who had been at a rock concert up there all day. That made for a long day.

Monday the third we were all sitting down for dinner and Dylan walks in holding his mission call. He had been home that day but hadn’t told us that it had come. He opened it and read out that he was going to the Auckland New Zealand mission. He was a little disappointed as he wanted to go somewhere a little more exotic and learn a language but Vern and I were happy, I think we both hoped he would be sent there.

Australia Post got a new manager this year and he has proposed sweeping changes to the structure of the business in an attempt to arrest the falling profits. Mail volumes are falling and delivery points are growing so it is going to be a tuff job. He wants a leaner support staff and so this month they started the process at the top and laid off quite a few executives and senior contract managers. They were spoken to on the Monday and gone by Friday. Two managers from our little team got the tap on the shoulder including the manager I report to. Now they will start working through the lower ranks so everyone is a little nervous. Of course being Post they don’t leave empty handed and if it happens to me with my length of service they would give me a payout that I could live off comfortably for about two years.

On Tuesday the eighteenth Nan flew in from New Zealand. She came over to attend the Missionary farewell party for Ellen and Dylan and to come to the Temple when Dylan went through for the first time. Dylan went to pick her up and had a little trouble. First the traffic was heavy, then he missed the car park entrance and had to go around again. He knew he was late so he quickly parked the car and ran to the terminal. Nan had been there for about an hour and was sitting down reading her book. They walked back to the car park and because Dylan was in such a rush he couldn’t remember which level he had parked on. There are many levels and they cover a large area. He finally located the car but realised he hadn’t paid for the parking. He was under the impression that he could pay at the gate but once they got there he could find where to do it so he had to park the car and run back to the ticket machine in the parking building. Then on the way home he missed the turn off from the freeway so had to take a long way home. He told me that he didn’t get stressed out, just a little frustrated with himself.

On the Thursday I woke up with a head cold so I thought I would take the day off and spend some time with Nan. Dylan wasn’t working that day so since it was such a nice day, we went for a drive to Thomastown and had a look around some old buildings from the early German pioneers in the area. There was a cemetery, farm house some old farm buildings and a church. They sure don’t build them like that anymore.

We decided to have a combined missionary farewell for Ellen and Dylan on the twenty first. They both invited lots of their friends from church and school on facebook and there was a lot of interest. Vern invited the Members from our Ward and Meadow Heights to come along and ask them to bring some food for the dinner. Gazelle and Neil Armstrong and their daughter (who Dylan stayed with in Kalgoorlie) came over as did his friend TK and the Branch President Peri Kauwhata whom Vern and I knew from Church College. Vern’s cousin Spencer and her friend Joanne and her daughter and a couple of nieces came down from Queensland and Moana, Robbie, Nei, Pahnia, Kiriwai and Dolly came down from Canberra. Most of them stayed at our place so we farmed most of our children to other places. Nan had the upstairs room so she had a get away from all the noise.

The farewell went well, there must have been close to two hundred people there. Many were their friends from school that were very impressed with the Stake Centre and want to come back to play basketball. We had a meal, then there were a few items; Robbie sang and Carmen and Marion did some Polynesian dance numbers with their cousins which they did very well. Dylan and Ellen both spoke then most of the oldies went home and they had a dance.

The next morning it was up early to take Dylan to the temple. Nan, Ellen and Moana came as did the Kalgoorlie mob. It all went well and Dylan was fine with it all. The other big news was the end of the Kombi. It has been on way out for some time but I didn’t want to spend money to fix it since we were going to buy another car in September. It has been ok for very short trips but when it really heated up it would lose power and stall since the values are shot. Unfortunately we needed to pick up some people from the airport and it was too much for it. Its last trip was to and from the Stake Centre for the farewell. It still runs but really rough.

The next day Sunday the twenty third after my early morning meeting I got President Dudfield to come over to help transport some people to Church, he ended up taking Nan and I since the other’s weren’t ready. We went to the morning ward then as he was doing interviews I went to Meadow Heights in the afternoon. I had called Clayton Williams onto the Bishopric and had just made that change when President Dudfield gave me a signal from the door to come out. I thought “what have I done wrong”. When I got out he told me that there had been an incident in the car park were a couple of boys had driven a van through the fence and damaged a couple of other cars and one of those boys was Austin.

Austin and Kole Judd who was also twelve were both fine. Austin had stayed at the Judd’s place that night and Vern had brought Austin’s church clothes and he was getting changed in the back of the Judd’s van. Tina had already come into the chapel with the rest of her children. Austin was getting changed in the back when Kole suggested that he start the van, Austin told him not to but he did so anyway. He had his foot on the accelerator then he put it into gear and it jumped the concrete stop, went through the metal security fence and crashed into a parked car on the side of the road. He then put it in reverse and backed into the remains of the fence and it fell on two other cars and damaged them. The boys were in Bishop’s office looking very shaken but fine. That will cost the Judd’s a lot of money since it is unlikely that the insurance will pay up.

That afternoon Janet and Johnny took Nan to Kyneton for the week so they missed all the action. That evening we had a regional institute graduation with Elder Tad Callister a member of the Seventy and the Australia and Pacific Area President in attendance. Ellen, Dylan and Marion sang the hymn, ‘Be Still My Soul’, as a trio and did a great job. Nan had enjoyed hearing them practising during the week.

The weekend was tiring for Vernice with all the visitors and the fact that she stayed up late every night. She came down with a bad cold and her cough became worst so she ended up having to see the doctor to get some drugs.

With the Kombi out of action we borrowed the Dudfield’s van to get around on the weekend. On Saturday Calvin and I battled the traffic to check out some cars. We ended up putting some money down on a 2005 Honda Accord Euro with a Sunroof and leather seats that we will pick up next week.