Christmas Note 2013

A few weeks back I was about to throw out some  boxes from the opportunity shop and decided they could tell a Christmas message.

The inside message is Jesus, and that God loves you,happiness ,forgiveness, hope and a future and peace is what God has for us. 

This is the  third  Christmas letter from Tennant Creek.

  

Karen has helped Anyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation get accreditation,

since then she has taken on the job of Clinic Nurse Manager for the  Anyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation.

They are very busy  with 40-70 patients a day with often quite complicated complaints and poor health .

Karen is responsible for 20 staff nurses and doctors, drivers , pharmacy ordering  etc. 

She is kept busy with lots of things going on, yet handles it well, and is appreciated by the way she works through often complex issues.

On the home front I experiment with cooking, cleaning , playing the banjo!  I have even started watching cricket !

  

I help  at the Uniting Church  Opportunity shop, and lead a service a month. On Fridays after Op shop in the morning  I spend the  afternoon teaching at the High School as a volunteer.

Like all years this has been special, celebrations of Tuiana turning 21 in January, and  starting  her early childhood degree with Te Tari Puna Ora O Aotearoa in Nelson. 

Brother Allan turned 70 in March, another good cause  to be there. 

Another  highlight this year was  our OE walkabout adventure .  

Landmarks seen on TV and film became real. Nephew Phil Crew was a great help in London .

It was great seeing the part of London he helped transform.

Meeting up with Lisa was another highlight along with Mick and Chloe Kent was amazing , friends  pick up where they left off and continue to make more memories along the  way.

  

You know that song , 'I've been everywhere man' . Well  we haven't.  However this year saw us going to places that had only been names and misty distant feelings of, 'It would be good to go there sometime'.  

Well it happened, with  Karen doing a terrific job of putting legs on  the dream trip of Ian & Karens 'Travel Walkabout' 

We headed away on the 6th of September from Tennant Creek by car , onto the first of a number of flights, Alice Springs, Sydney , and on to Dubai , to stay on Khalid  Bin Waleed Road.

From Dubai it was back to the land of our ancestors  Glasgow, Oban, Inversdale ,Martyrs Bay Iona, Holyrood  Edinburgh.

At London, Heathrow  we  changed planes and airports.

  Gatwick  to Rome  Fiumicino  Tempio Di Pallade Via Giolitti ,Rome 

At the  Port of  Civitavecchi we left for ten days on big boat,heading for the  Turkey and the Greek islands  via  Sicily (Messina ) Italy . 

 

Some steaming at sea to Athens (Piraeus) Greece  and onto Ephesus  (Kusadasi) ,Turkey Rhodes Greece,Santorini  , Mykonos  a day at  sea back to Naples ,Rome (Civitavecchi) Italy Via Gaeta,  Fiumicia    Rome  .

We went back to the United Kingdom Dublin,  Waterford, Cork and London.

Charles De  Gaulle airport saw us saying goodbye to Europe as we headed back to the land of Down Under and  Oct 15 saw us back in Alice and driving the 500km in the Northern Territory back to Tennant Creek.

Each name and place is a story in themselves , some has been put on our blog: teatotennant.blogspot.com

We have a very full memory bank of,'dinning out stories.'

It is good to be having Joel, Hayley,   and Tuiana here with us for Christmas.

Today a  bowlegged Akubra wearing Warumanga man asked me the time , when I was sweeping outside the Op shop. I told him and and he said, "Thanks Old timer! " 

Yes another year nearly gone. What wonderful people we have met along the way. 

Family and friends we carry in our hearts in our travels. 

We pause at this time the year again at the Manger and look again at the one who gives us hope and joy and hear the Angel's message,Te harinui ! Glad tidings of great joy!

Merry Christmas !

God bless

Arohanui

Ian and Karen

  
Sent from my iPad

No grass.

I had a look under my feet the other night, there is no grass growing under them!

Actually there is not any grass  to speak of in Tennant Creek, except for the well watered AustralianFootball  League ground..

Yes we are over three weeks back in Australia after a most wonderful 'walkabout',  in other lands which has given colourful memories, and dining out stories, which take us back to the places we have been.

Yes we are back to the Northern Territory, to road trains, and windmills to 40 degree heat, and dust storms as part of the weather forecast, and big lizards, scaring me when sweeping in the Op Shop.. 

Karen has been busy again at Anyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation.

The no grass under the feet quip was in response to last week, as on Monday when we drove up to Darwin as Karen had a meeting there. 

Ten hours driving , it is nearly 1000 km from Tennant Creek to Darwin.  We came back on Thursday counting the number of dead kangaroos, and on red alert looking out for live ones and cattle on the Stuart Highway.  It was nice to see  some water buffalo in a water hole  as we approached Darwin.

I'll sign off  with some good advise, and post some pictures.

Thank God

call out his name

tell the whole world who he is

and what he's done for me

Sing to him!

Play songs for him!

Broadcast his wonders

revel in his holy name

God seekers be jubilant!

                                      

1 Chronicles 16:8-11 msg

God bless

Arohanui

Ian and Karen Davidson

Blog : teatotennant.blogspot.com

Email: teabagcreek@gmail.com

I Love Paris in the Autumn...

It is telling us winter is on its way and like the birds we are off away down under to sun and the Central Desert.

We thought we had two nights in Paris it is not to be, we had an email this afternoon from Emirates Airline to say we fly tomorrow .

So after five weeks of  travel we turn towards where our home is at present.

We return with our memory banks fill, stories to tell.  Most of all meeting up-with family and friends along the way has been very very special.

Here are some Autumn nights Paris pictures.

As always

 Arohanui and God bless you greatly .

Ian and Karen Davidson

 

Bobbies on by circles....

Well I did see two on horses and two minding  Parliament.

Yes Westminster Abbey and the Tower of Big Ben is still here

We appreciated Phil and Julia coming and meeting us helping us with further initiation of the Underground and London.

 A wosh, and a roar and  we would be off on a noisy,rattling, shaking ,underground moving experience.

Mick and Lisa had said leave our manners behind and just go for it. Karen was a bit slow at one station and I had just got on and the door was shutting so I put my arm out! Ow!! the door shut on it!! Fortunately it opened again , Karen jumped on and we we off.    

I think we have seen or been to every Monopoly name. 

arty and 

It was great going with Phil around the University of Arts London which he had a big hand in building.

A Lot of people would come up and acknowledge him , what a massive project and what a wonderful historical, up to date place for the arts to thrive.

Well I will let some pictures speak. 

I liked the herbs outside the restaurant, the ping pong tables, and the many other miracles which have been worked out an old   granary site to an exciting place student  compete to attend.

 Off to France in the morning .

Arohanui.

God bless,

Ian and Karen Davidson

Ps went to Lion KIng

Blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover

Actually we didn't see any  blue birds,however we did sing the song on our way to Dover .

Iconic names and places have come alive Canterbury Cathedral , Sandwich the Grand Old Duke of York..and of course the white cliffs of Dover,and Dover Castle.

Staying with Lisa ,Mick and  Chloe has been great lots of laughter and local knowledge giving us a inside information of what to see.

Our base has been the village of Aylesham, like Reefton and Tennant Creek a mining town where people in the community are known to each other.  We have felt very much at home here.

The size and history of Canterbury  Cathedral the organ music and pealing bells the high roof and looking out seeing the stories told in  stained glass.

Hearing that they were all taken out during the war and put in a coal mine for safe keeping. Men on the roof to throw the incendiary bombs to the ground . A railway line put into the cathedral to fill the insides with earth to protect it from shockwaves if bomb landed. 

It felt like a special place I even saw that one the Bishops buried there was a Davidson.

I 'll finish this now as we off in a tube??!! To London Town!

Here are some recent pics

Arohanui

God bless

Ian and Karen