Melbourne Pettys - September

Ellen came back from holidays in Queensland, Marion went for a visit to Dubbo, Ellen and Dylan head off to USA, I get to drive a rally car, Marion worked at the show.   

Vern at the Mansion

The first was a Saturday and we had Jordan Fox down from Dubbo and Danielle Byers over and we all headed up to Epping to have a go of the Go-Carts. Unfortunately it was closed so we checked out the JB store across the street them headed home. That then a few people came over for Jordan’s birthday party.

For Father’s day I got a great box of chocolates, a Zippo lighter and a Bunnings gift card, a good day. We stayed back after church for a baptism and then home and a very laid back afternoon and evening.

Down by the Werribee River

Just because we could Vern and I went and stayed at the Werribee Park Mansion on Friday evening of the eighth. It was dark and windy when we got there and since neither of us had been there before we made a couple of wrong turns. The hotel has been made out of the old Catholic Seminary that joins onto the mansion. Our room on the second floor looked out over the old laundry and back of the mansion where one of the former owners had shot himself. I guess he didn’t want to make a mess in the Mansion.

In the morning we went for a walk down by the river, around the old farm buildings then inside the mansion. It has been restored to how it would have looked back in the late 1800s. It was quite impressive. We went for a drive down to the beach at Werribee South and had some lunch in the car, watching the big ships go by while we got lashed by wind and rain.

Carmen off to the Ball

Sunday the ninth I had to speak at the Mandarin Branch in the city so I took Austin and Calvin along since they hadn’t been before. Eddie Tsiu and Aaron Lai were happy to see them and they liked wearing the ear pieces. That afternoon we had Vern’s seminary class come over to break their fast for Bro Fell. This was also the first day our stake joined with Deer Park for Mission Prep at Glenroy were Ellen and Dylan will be teaching.

On Wednesday the twelfth Ellen and Dylan flew out to USA and Utah to go to a wedding of one of Ellen’s companions and to attend General Conference. I has been fun looking at the photos they have been posting on facebook.

Vern and I made it to the Temple together on the twentieth since she wasn’t working that night which was nice. Carmen when down to the Priest’s and Laurel’s ball in Pakenham on the eleventh. The Stake provided a bus but it was already full by the time it got to Fairfield so she went down with the Partons. Bishop Parton told me she was very funny singing and dancing on the way down.

Austin about to go for his ride.

I went Rally driving on the twenty second with the gift card Janet gave me. It was a nice sunny day and Calvin and Austin came along to watch. I was a bit nervous as they were proper rally cars. I enjoyed myself and managed to stay on the road, just (a couple didn’t). After we did our eight laps our rally driver instructor takes the wheel and we are the passenger as they fly and slide around the track. Austin and Calvin also had a turn as a passenger. We all thought the scariest part was when they raced down the back straight. It felt like the car was floating.

The Honda had to go in for major repairs so that made the weekend logistics a bit tricky. I had to speak in Caulfield Ward on the twenty-third and Carmen was speaking in Fairfield. Vern had to drop me off at my High Council meeting then Terry Morrison dropped me at Caulfield and then Calvin picked me up later.

Marion worked the last week of the month at the Melbourne Show. She took tickets at the dodgem cars and didn’t finish until nine thirty each night. Vern, Carmen and Austin also helped out now and them. One day Austin and Carmen dressed up as pirates and helped out on one of the rides when the cancer kids went through.

On Saturday the twenty-ninth Vern and I picked up a couple whom the missionaries had brought to our place for dinner a couple of weeks before and took them for a walk to see some kangaroos. They are students from china and have only been in Australia for a few months so they were pretty excited to see some kangaroos. We took them to the Plenty Gorge Park and saw several mobs of kangaroos and a fox. It started out as a sunny day but got very cold and as we got to the car it started to rain. We took them to the Carome farmhouse cafe for some lunch. It is a recently restored 1860 house by the Plenty River that has been made into as cafe. It is nice and sits by itself out in the middle of a paddock.

The last Sunday of the month Marion had to work but the rest of us rode up to Seymour and attended the Branch. Austin, Carmen, Vern and I all spoke and Calvin shared his testimony. There were just over thirty people there and we met up with Sister Yule whom we knew in Glenroy twenty years ago.