Aiden and Shania are Rebecca and Shaun's kids i.e. my sister Phyl and Glen. Glen is dozing in the background.

This is our second cousin Jean Brookes. We used to play together as children. We last saw each other in 1957 some 57 years . A lifetime has passed but we chatted about our families and it was very special indeed.

Beverley the lanky one with son Caleb who is the splitting image of Gerard Grant, his grandfather

On the beach at Mahabalipuram. We watched the fishermen bringing in their catch. These days the boats have a motor!!

At Mahabalipuram. Great Resort

At Mahabalipuram Resort

Chennai April 2011

Cary, Becky and baby Leah 6 weeks

Heather dressed for the stage

Chennai - 2011

Daphne with daughter Beverley and grandson Caleb aged three

This tiny bird is a hummingbird in Chatsworth Georgia in the garden of David Wimberley. They are the tiniest little birds ever and they move so quickly it is impossible to get a good shot. This one was taken, thanks to David.

Would you believe it if I told you that these cows are actually MI5 undercover?!! Well we had an unusual experience with them. We were walking up the hill to the radar dish, when turning a corner these cows were standing near the fence line. When they saw us approaching they quickly turned and scurried up a small mound or ridge and stood there watching us. We kept walking and turned a corner and for a while we were hidden by a huge barn. Well, the cows became curious and ran ahead of us, went down another slope and up another ridge, and were actually peering around the barn to see our approach. I tell you it was the weirest experience ever. Young Natasha who had a vivid imagination, said, "I think they're MI5!! I never known cows to pay attention to humans. These cows actually followed our every move. They never took their eyes off us.

In all my travelling around the world twice, I don't believe I have flown in a Boeing 747 400. I couldn't have, or else I would have known. When getting to our seats, I looked up and down the aisle and it seemed as if I was in the corridor of a building. I quietly panicked! But in all my days of flying, the take off and landing of this monster was perfect. I actually didn't know when we were airborne as there was no window in our view. There was an upper level

so I am positive this was first for me.

This is taken just af ter we returned from church. Gregg took us to the first Baptist Church

(sorry lost the name just then) where people were friendly and very welcoming. It was so kind of Gregg to do this for us. We did appreciate it so much.

We went to see the Reynolds Mansion. These are the folk who made their millions from tobacco. We did a tour of the mansion which was too amazing for words. Sadly, the father died before the mansion was finished. And his young widow (42) married again and despite the warnings not to have any more children, went ahead and bore her second husband a son but she died 3 days later. Such a sad story. The lesson - money can't buy health or peace of mind.

Gregg and Helen outside their lovely house.

We were so comfortable and well cared for in

this place. There's bushland behind the house which creates a lovely look while sitting out on the back deck. Gregg has a green thumb and the garden looked lovely.

Of course with Andy gone and all, this is the new Sheriff of Mayberry.

We visited Mt Airy to the town of Mayberry. For those who enjoyed the Andy Griffiths show in the 70's should know that this is where the whole show was filmed. The town is as it was then. THe barber shop, the snack bar, the Sheriff's car. Here I got myself into trouble and dear old Barney wasted no time in putting me in jail.

A typical Moravian home. An electric candle burns in every window. They have their own College on this street and folk are so friendly, kind and charming.

Gregg took us to Old Salem which is a Moravian town. These folk came from Czechoslavakia after much persecution. The Gospel was in their hearts and they settled here in North Carolina. The street remains exactly as it was then. This bakery is the oldest of its kind and is a wood fire oven. Thousands of loaves of bread are baked here daily. It is called Winklers Bakery. They also wafer biscuits that are as thin as tissue paper, light and crisp and totally delicious.

We don't see humming birds in our part of the world. And while I knew what they looked like, I had no clue about how little they were. They are the size of our big grasshoppers. I fell head over heels in love with them. They moved so quickly that it almost impossible to get a shot. There are two feeders and late in the afternoon they flutter in. I was spell bound!

The Wimberley men - Anthony, Vernon and David. Anthony has been away in Afghanistan for a couple of years. Good that he is home safe

and well.

Here they are three generations. This is David's daughter Kristen. The timing was wonderful. Kristen is studying art and design across the country on the west coast. It was good that the holidays brought her home so we could meet.

Kristen is 21.

This is David's mum, Hazel. It was so good to meet her, finally. She has changed little since I first saw her photo when young David at 16, placed it on the dresser. The very first thing he took out of the box.

Doesn't he look proud of his Corvette? Yeah that's Vernon, David's dad. And get this, the car will pass from Vernon to young Austin. Now how did that happen David?

Young Austin catches a fish. He was showing signs of annoyance at one stage until he caught a fish. And then he caught three! Good on ya Austin.

Here we are at the lake where Austin caught some fish. I am sure that some of you who knew David would be surprised to see the "middle" he is carrying. It is too easy to put on weight in the Deep South believe me. There are endless food outlets and the temptation is great.

David is a great dad as I said before and we were thrilled to see him again and to meet his family. I know he was too was thrilled to see us after all that time.

From Niagara we flew down to visit David, Tammy, Vernon and Austin. David was 16 when he lived with us in 1983 through Youth For Understanding. He attended Wavell with our girls. He's come a long way from being that young boy. However, he has turned out to be a great dad to his girl Kristin (21) and young Austin (8).
Chatsworth being a dot on the map has very little to offer. But over the borden in Chattanooga David took us to the most amazing Under water World I have ever seen. And also into the mountains where he got his training to be a "mountain goat" as I used to call him. They also invited all their family to meet us and it was so special to finally meet Hazel his mum after 26 years. His father Vernon who lives with him is a dear, dear man and we enjoyed his company. Well, they have promised to visit us 5 years from now and also to allow young Austin to spend a year in Australia. Let's see how life pans out.

From Madrid it was on to Niagara Falls where we arrived at 11:30pm at our hotel. The next morning we were up bright and early and it took us 2 mins to walk down the road and this is what we saw. We were starving but there was no one in sight. Only one other man on the street besides us. So we took some shots and walked past beautiful gardens and into the city itself and had breakfast at 8:30am at Starbucks. Nothing opens here until 10am.

We took a 2 hour train ride up north to Valledolid to visit Gemma Barrio and her family. They came to our place when in Brisbane in 2007 so they were overjoyed that we would take the time to visit them. Valledolid is famous for its universities. In this photo Gemma and are in her little home town surrounded by farmlands. This particular place now has only 100 folk living there. It also has a small castle and walking through it was like going through a ghost town. On the side of the mountain was this amazing garden, small but filled with gorgeous blooms of all kinds. Gemma and her family visit her during the summer to enjoy some quiet times in this totally beautiful spot.

Behind us the Crystal Palace in the heart of the Madrid Botanical Gardens. The garden itself is twice the size of our Brisbane gardens. In the centre is a lake and on this end of it is the palace. The other side has row boats where families can be seen picnicking on the side. There are buskers of all kinds throughout these gardens. Mostly trees and shrubs rather than flowers. But also many many statues of famous Spanish folk and impressive entries with kings and queens can be seen throughout this park.

Pictured here is Cecilia, Jeff and Cristina in another one of those amazing church halls in Toledo. The art on these walls is stone with ivory intricately molded together.

Near here we visited an art exhi bition of the famous Greek artist El Greco. We were gifted a print of his best work by Ignatio which we hope to frame. I say hope because we still have prints from our world tour of 1999 waiting to be hung! But as they say, there is always a right time for everything.

We arrived in Madrid in the home of Ignatio and Cecilia Arange du Juan to a warm and wonderful reception. They had organised our whole week. The next day they took us to Toledo, a historical town that was once the capital of Spain. A quaint and fascinating place where we once again walked narrow cobbled streets, filled with eating places and shops. In this photo with Cristina we were in one of the smaller city squares

Glen Doris and Jeff are pictured here in the gardens outside Drum Castle. Cherry blossom stood in rows of pink and white making quite a spectacular sight. There was a quaint little chapel on the grounds.

Back in Scotland, we visited Drum and Craiters Castles. The gorgeous colours of Spring blooms greeted us everywhere. Daffodils in massive spreads along the hills, growing through grass was breathtaking. There were also Rhodedendrums in all hues as well as tulips. But the daffodils captured my attention as my mind went back to my school days when we had to memorise William Wordsworth famous poem
"Daffodils". Thanks to our brilliant teachers at Doveton, I can still remember that poem.

U Max and A Betty have a small but well kept, shrub garden. The small trees and shrubs are well placed and packed together to form a compact and attractive garden. The sun was shining on the day we arrived but it did not last for long!

We spent a weekend in Cheltenham visiting U Max, A Betty and cousin Ray and Brigitte. Even though our hands were often cold because of the weather, our hearts were warmed by the love we shared. It was short but very sweet.
U Max still has a good mind but is slower in steps.
A Betty is one of the most amazing woman I know. For her age, and for all the medical problems she has experienced over the years, she still does all her own housework and her home is gleaming. Cousin Ray is gorgeous and drove us back and forth and treated us to dinner at a Chinese restuarant called The Swallow. We have vowed to meet for Uncle's 95th birthday in Brisbane Australia. So know now, all rellies, and plan to join us around September 2011.

When flying into Aberdeen, we saw large patches of bright yellow fields and wondered what it might be. Well we soon discovered one at our back door! This is Natasha standing near a field of rapeseed plants and behind is the radar dish which is the top of the hill from where we could see the ocean. Natasha is a prolific reader and a gifted writer for her age. She has got a full scholarship with the most prestigious school in Aberdeen. I think she could well be the next JK Rowling.

This lovely family hosted us for a weekend in their delightful farmhouse. Glen, Grace with Natasha (11) and Callum (8) Callum is my special boyfriend. He told Jeff to buzz off as I was his girl! Glen is doing his PhD in World History at the renowned Kings College which has a 500 year history. Grace works as an Administrator at the same Uni. Glen showed us around the countryside, through two castles and Kings Uni. on a very rainy cold day but it was all worth it. Their place is surrounded with miles of barley and rapeseed plants and walking up the hill we saw the north sea not too far away.

When in Israel, we took a two hour bus trip to visit Dina Croitoru (remembered by some as Dinah Tarasinghe of Doveton Corrie Girls School) We last saw Dina about 14 years ago in Brisbane so it was wonderful to visit her. She is a great hostess and brought out an abundance of food which she had prepared herself. We spent the Sat. morning at some markets in a Druze village in the hills. Even though we only spent a day and half with Dina, we will remember our time with her as special indeed.

Rudi Barraclough is an extended family member. His mum, Marie was married to Jeff's mum's brother Staffy. Staffy was greatly loved by his three step children, Euan, Rudi and Dollar who speak highly of him. Jeff met Rudi when they were young boys in Ambala and on other occasions in India. So it was special to catch up again as we had not seen him since 1999 when we last visited the UK and Staffy was 90. Rudi and Arlene saw us several times and we enjoyed wonderful afternoon teas and even a lunch with AI's at a church hall venue where AI's meet twice a week. Hopefully we may meet again in Oct 2010 at the AI worldwide celebration in Perth.

On our first day, at the markets in Croydon. Unlike Brisbane when markets operate on Sats or Sundays, markets operate every day of the week.

Very reasonable priced fresh fruit and vegies. I have noted that the cost of supermarket food, including meat and vegies are about the same as in Australia.

We had dinner at Des's sister Yvonne's place. Yvonne is in the blue striped top. She cooked chicken biriyani, pork vindaloo, chicken KFC for nibblies and we had a good tuck in. Yvonne lives in another part of Croydon, so a 5 min tram ride got us there.

From Jerusalem to East Croydon. Daph, Des and Marissa outside their place.

On our last day in Jerusalem, we visited the magnificent Garden Tomb. This is where Jesus was laid. Inside it is just enough for one person to have a peek at the spot where Jesus' body was placed. It was a very emotional experience for me. The rest of the garden is beautifully set out with small areas where people gather for prayer and services. There are also two chapels in the garden. Each section is beautifully designed with magnigicent foilage and flowers making it a serene and reflective place.

Judean Hills stretch for miles and miles. Consider Jesus walking the dusty roads and seeing nothing but these bare hills. No place to rest, just a few water holes along the way. Perhaps they came to little groups of dwellers along the way with an oasis or two.

We witnessed baptisms in the River Jordon. Many people were being baptised when we came through there. The river is banked with trees that look similar to our weeping willows and give it a rather billabong look.

This is the garden of Gethsame. The trees are the very same that were there in Jesus' day. However the garden is barracaded off and clumps of blooms edge the garden. Next door is a church built to the memory of Mary Magdalene

On Jeff's 66th birthday in Jerusalem, we did some Table Ministry outside the New Gate. As you can see, there is a variety of books, dvd, cds and brochures for those who show an interest. But we also handed out general brochures to those who were willing to accept them. Jeff said he could not have done anything better on his birthday.