E NEWS 5TH JULY 2024
Tena koutou e Rangatira ma, e hoa ma. I received a lovely surprise in the post this week. My dear cousin Ane and her husband Stephen have just finished 6 years of teaching in Shanghai China. Before their return to NZ I sent her my glasses prescription to get me some new glasses in China as I heard they were quite cheap. She sent me some frames to choose from via We Chat. I chose 3 options thinking I would get 1 pair. To my surprise all 3 pairs of new glasses arrived in the post. When I asked her how much I owed her she said, “Happy birthday and Merry Christmas for the next 2 years”. Our gift to you. Wow! that is a very generous gift. Anyway when you see me and you may be wondering what is different about my appearance, no its not my hair, or my clothes, its my new glasses. They are pretty funky and make me feel so trendy, I’m sure they will take a bit of getting used to by some of you.
I’m perplexed having just returned from getting a new tyre for my 3 year old car. When I had it serviced recently I knew that I needed to replace 3 tyres which I asked Mazda service to do. When I returned to pick the car up they said, oh you only needed to change 2 tyres as we placed one of the old tyres at the rear as it still had some tread on it. Then when I took it in for WOF last week it failed because of that particular tyre. So, today I had to get that new 3rd tyre but had to pay the costs for labour for fitting and balancing etc. which was about $130 alone. I think this cost should have been the responsibility of Mazda service since it was their error that they did not replace that tyre as I instructed in the first place. Sometimes, you just have to let it go, too much unnecessary stress.
Yesterday I came into the office as usual then left early afternoon to go home and take Snoopy for a walk and feed him before returning to the office for Parish Council at 7pm. Alas, I was not at PC last month so I did not read in the minutes that PC would be delayed for a week until next Thursday 11th July. I wondered why it all seemed so quiet in the lead up to Thursday. Another member of PC who also was not present last month turned up as well so I was not alone in making this assumption.
Last Thursday I experienced my first Board meeting for Queen Margaret College, the lovely thing about their board meetings is that they begin with a meal in the staff room prepared by the College Chef, so it was nutritious and tasty. Many of you would have seen on the news that one of the Nasa Space program agents Actura Space Camp went into liquidation about a week before it was due to start. Unfortunately, many families from QMC and other schools in NZ and Australia were affected by this and people have lost a lot of money. We will keep these families in our prayers and thoughts.
I get to meet a lot of people who are using our conference centre for their meetings. Many past acquaintances, long lost church connections, friends and colleagues of family. They all see my name on my office door and are gracious enough to pop in to say hello. Sometimes they bring me lunch or I join them in their morning tea. We are indeed a very popular venue for many of the government ministries and as an income stream for SAOTT long may it last.
Last Sunday we were led in our service by Doug, Cam, Barry and Mike on the guitar, Jen led us in the prayers for others. This Sunday is the 8th Sunday of Pentecost and Jesus visits his hometown and is not welcomed, he is shunned and basically treated as the homeboy with little or no respect. I will say more about this on Sunday.
Well, the temperature is quite cold outside and the cost of heating your home is expensive. Remember those who cannot afford to heat their homes and be thankful for small mercies that allow most of us this privilege. Hope you wrap up warm for the weekend. Ka kite ano. Fei
You can read the full E-news here: https://mailchi.mp/46a7f1e8b3cc/this-weeks-newsletter-from-st-andrews-on-the-terrace-9466360
