News.

We toddled off to church with ma, Sunday morning; Anglican (Episcopilian? if you're American), liturgical, not what Ditz is used to at all. She won't ever take communion at ma's church. After the first hymn ma leant over me & whispered in Ditz's ear, 'You're not singing?' As Ditz has sung non stop since she arrived ma can be forgiven for wondering but neither Ditz nor I knew any of Sunday's hymns so remained noticably silent.

I grew up with the liturgy so know my way round, sort of. They keep changing things, including the Lord's Prayer, which we still say the old way, so gabbling away happily am likely to find myself out of sync with the rest of the congregation who have all learnt the new words ~ or at least use the prayer book!

However as the old testament reading arrived I felt the Lord whisper in my ear,'Pay attention, now ~ There is something here for you.' The reading was Isiah 49 which begins: Listen, o Isles, unto me, ye people from far; the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name... You may giggle. I'm sure the Lord has a splendid sense of humour & I will be investigating this chapter more thoroughly when I am back on my own computer. There is no way the minister could have known there would be people from far islands in that church service!

We walked from Mudjimba to Macoola on Saturday. All I can say is ~
Yuk! The beach has disappeared. There are exposed rocks, nasty pebbly things underfoot, hordes of tiny bluebottles, & filthy foam. It was bad enough to force us to walk back along the boardwalk in our bare feet. Ma was sorry she'd taken us but it is the same all up & down the coast. The beaches are in an awful state. Still fortified by icecream & an excursion I have been decimating Ditz at both scrabble & gin & finished a Kellerman (whom I've never read before & found a little too gory) & a Picoult, whom I have read & like very much.

Meanwhile the beginning of our school year creeps ever closer. Ditz is alreay dragging her feet.