August 22nd

Well, today is technically our day off – but as our real involvement with South Bank finished yesterday I guess today has been a holiday instead! Ian drove us down to Sea World on the Gold Coast.

We saw loads of animals - including polar bears, sharks, a dugong and sealions. There were several really good shows which we went to and we went on some rides as well. One of the polar bears was amazing – he played with a fish in the water just in front of us – awesome. We also saw sharks swim by closely to the viewing window in the shark pool – so cool. The dugong was called Pig!

Beth was delighted to see Polar Bears for real (they are a passion of hers), Abi enjoyed seeing dolphins up close and Bex enjoyed the sealion show. It was a fabulous day out. I went on a roller coaster by myself and absolutely adored it. I went upside down in a loop and then did a corkscrew. I guess I was upside down, upside down – technically the right way up for a second or two!! We finished the day by going on the monorail right round the park.

Ian brought us back to South bank and we had dinner at Amici's which was lovely. Then a last walk beside the river, a play in the playground and then a walk home along to Kangaroo Point cliffs.

August 7th

We spent this morning reviewing last week with Ian and covered this weeks plan. We then arranged our placement project with him - a prayer event due to happen on our last Sunday here. There is a lot of preparation needed to get this together which we will have to start this week.

There seems to be a lot of things coming up, we will be going to the Baptist College on Wednesday after the change in our arrangements for last week. We will be going along to all the regular events that we have already been involved in - English conversation, Home Group, local pastors' meeting, etc., but in addition Ali will be leading the devotions at the womens' meeting on Thursday and Jon will be involved in the youth group on Friday.

This afternoon Kerry took us to the Gold Coast - the journey is a good time to talk about church and about our ministry as well.

The Gold Coast is a magical place with golden sands and huge rolling waves. The girls and I all got soaked, several waves took us by surprise and we got our trousers/shorts all wet! It was really blowy, but absolutely - take your breath away - beautiful! I found several fan shells which are gorgeous!

This evening we did planning, but are struggling with getting thoughts into words.