How to make God laugh

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Ken Harman has a niece who is a Curate at a Church in Liverpool England and a couple of weeks ago on the Church facebook page she had this quote "If you want to make God laugh - Tell Him your plans"

How right she is as we have had a roller coaster couple of weeks - But lets start at the beginning.

Thursday 18th July - We started by heading to Sydney and stayed at the Amora Jamison in the Sydney CBD. That night we attended a retirement farewell function at the O Bar level 47 in the Post Office Tower building, this is the site of the old revolving restaurant. It was a great night and we had time to catch up with many C Smart people who work off site and also a couple of people I had met over the journey. During the night I was presented with a bottle of Bollinger and a Waterford Crystal Champagne Coaster. The coaster is small enough to keep in our caravan but it also is representative of a 'Porridge Bowl' symbolizing the fund we have set up to feed the children at Msalato kindergarten with a bowl of porridge every day. During the presentation Paul Lemaire, C Smart MD, announced that as an enduring legacy of my 10 years at C Smart, C Smart would fund the 'Porridge Fee' into the future with the fund now to be managed by Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Hastings Victoria - WOW what a gift. God is good.

Friday 19th July - We met Doug & Frances Orr at the BCA offices in Sydney. Doug is the Nomad coordinator for BCA and we discussed our plans with them and also gained some insight as to what is expected of a BCA Nomad. When we return from the UK will will contact Doug in order to determine where we can best be used by BCA. we also enjoyed lunch with Doug & Frances.

Tuesday 23rd July - With only 4 days to go until retirement we received the tragic news that my father (Jess's) had suffered a massive stroke and was in a critical condition - we spent Tuesday & Wednesday morning with him but with the Melbourne retirement function organised for Thursday night we headed back to Melbourne confident that dad was being looked after. Surprisingly we had an enjoyable night catching up with C Smart staff and some old acquaintances I had not seem for a long time. i am sure everyone enjoyed the night and it was a fitting way to end 10 years with C Smart and 44 years in Banking & Finance.

We left Melbourne straight after the function and headed back to Traralgon to sit with my dad, unfortunately as expected he passed away peacfully on Friday 2nd August and now is in the arms of Jesus. his funeral will be on Friday 9th August.

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Photos

Retirment Gift
Symbolic of the Porridge Bowel and the enduring Porridge Fee from C Smart