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Ireland 2013
After France we toured Ireland, starting in Dublin. Dublin is an attractive city to walk around, with many historical and cultural points of interest. The Easter Uprising of 1916 is commemorated by...
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Scotland 2013
When we had completed our tour of Ireland, we took a ferry to Scotland. Naturally pipers were everywhere. Among the many places we visited was Edinburgh Castle. One of our favourite crime writers is...
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England 2013
After the tour (of Ireland and Scotland) we spent two weeks in Lancashire, based at Philip's house in Preston. We arrived at about the same time as Philip's bees, and we watched him set up his hive. We...
View ArticleSummer Holiday 2013
For our overseas trip in 2013 we returned to Europe. We owe a debt of thanks to our friend and travel agent Christine Klein for her great organisation of our trip. If you need a travel agent contact...
View ArticleThe toughest thing ...
It was the evening of Sunday, 2nd February, 1975 and I was about to perform the most difficult act of my life. I was sitting at the kitchen table at my parent's house. That morning I had performed my...
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The Witness of the Holy Spirit
IntroductionIn this post I will argue that the fundamental issue maintaining religious belief is an indwelling sense of God in a person's life. The converse is true: non-belief is founded on a loss of...
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Western USA Tour
The first part of our North America vacation, 2014, visited some of the iconic areas of Western USA. (Note on photos. Click on a photo and a new tab or window will open at the flickr site showing a...
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Eastern USA and Canada Tour
NEW YORK The second leg of our North America tour began in New York. The beginning of our stay in New York was not auspicious as we arrived at night, it was raining heavily and our booked transit took...
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Canadian Rockies
VICTORIA The third leg of our North America tour was the Canadian Rockies, which began in the beautiful city of Victoria ... ... which huddles around a very attractive harbour ...... and is the...
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Alaska Cruise
We sailed out of Vancouver harbour in the late afternoon ... ... watched a stunning sunset from our private balcony ... ... and cruised for the next day and a half to Juneau. JUNEAU Juneau harbour:...
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North America Tour
Introduction There were four sections to our North America tour. This post provides a brief overview. For more detailed descriptions click on the links below: 1.Western USA, 2.Eastern USA and Eastern...
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Christmas Letter 2014
INTRODUCTION It has been a busy year of travel, Village activities and changes in our family. TRAVEL We spent three months of the year away from home, most of that in North America North America Tour...
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Eulogy for dad
Emil's Video Tribute: Stephen presented the sections in black, Philip presented the sections in red. One day in 1949, a young man knocked on the door of a house in Flemington, Melbourne. In his own...
View ArticleClimate Science - lines of evidence
Under Construction That global temperatures have been warming is known since the 1980s James Hansen and Sergej Lebedeff Global trends of measured surface air temperature First published: 20 November...
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Christmas Letter 2015
FAMILY We have had a mixed year.        Dad (Eric) In March Stephen’s father died after a brief illness. He had been living happily (or as happily as possible after mum...
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Christmas Letter 2016
FAMILY Another busy year for us and our families - involving travel and some important milestone events.         Philip and Bev In July Philip and Bev were married....
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Christmas Letter 2017
When Margaret starts putting up the Christmas Decorations I know that I have to begin planning the Christmas Letter. Margaret's latest craft work is a certain reminder of the fast approaching season:...
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A WWI Anniversary
Today, 30th April 2018, is the 100th anniversary of the wounding of my paternal grandfather, Samuel Charles Spencer, on the Western Front.My grandfather was born 8th January, 1896, in Broadford,...
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Christmas Letter 2018
As 2018 draws to a close, we are starting to feel old, with five of our grand kids now having completed Secondary School.Joshua is a qualified diesel mechanic; Cameron is completing an apprenticeship...
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Christmas Letter 2019
IntroductionAnother busy year for us and our families, involving travel and some important milestone events in the lives of our grandchildren. The GrandchildrenJoshua, our oldest grandkid, continues to...
View ArticleChristmas Letter 2020
Well what a year that was! At the time of the last Christmas letter we had no idea what we were in for. Happily, in Australia we have fared much better than many other parts of the world. The residents...
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Christmas Letter 2021
Well, another difficult and unusual year for us all. We had planned some overseas travel this year but although that was impossible, we managed some travel in Victoria and NSW: • Philip Island with...
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Christmas Letter 2022
During the year Beth and Mark received the bad news that Mark has Multiple Myloma a form of blood cancer. Mark is receiving some very aggressive treatment which has had success in significantly...
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Christmas Letter 2023
The big news from us this year is that we have become great-grandparents. The first child was Mia Lester the daughter of Hayley and Richard, who was born on 16th August. The second was Austin Creasey,...
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