"The Jamberoo Railway" update

Here we go:
As of today, all the track is painted a 'rust' colour, and the table top has been cleared and vacuumed ready for the back scene to be repainted a lighter shade of blue and the ballast (little rocks) to be applied to the track. This marks the beginning of the scenicking side of the layout building.

Church member's house (original post sent by mobile phone!)

The view from a parishioner's driveway. Tough parish!

More pics of the Illawarra Fly

Here they are:

Our ad in the Kiama Independent

Here is today's ad in the Kiama Independent for our church.

Illawarra Fly

We the Farrells of Jamberoo (not to be confused with the other Farrells of Jamberoo) visited the new attraction just up the hill from us, The Illawarra Fly.

No, it's not an humungous zipper in the pants of the region, but an aerial walkway in the treetops just metres from the cliff face on the Illawarra Escarpment, and just a few kilometres from our place.

The photo is pretty crappy, Zozo wasn't co-operating.

But the view is awesome. Go visit. In the meantime, visit our Picasa web album.

Photos from the big wet

The Big Wet

These photos are from "The Big Wet" of 5 February 2008 (see original post here)

Horsing around in Jamberoo

Well, I've blogged the cor transfers that run through Allowrie St (the main street) of Jamberoo.

On Sundays church is often interrupted by large numbers of loud motorbikes passing by on their way to the pub.

Sometimes during prayers in church on a Sunday we hear the clip-clop of horses as recreational riders take their gee-gees out for a walk.

But this was on a Thursday! And the bloke had your typical farmer look, with wide-brim had not a helmet like the weekend riders!

At our front gate!

We love living here. Truly we do, that's not being sarcastic.

Funerals

I am taking a funeral on Monday - the first in over 8 months. This is remarkable given that I minister to an ageing church where most members are over 65, and a significantly large minority are over 80!

Elva is a dear Christian sister. All the time I've been at Jamberoo she has been a shut-in.

But I grew to love her. She has a great sense of fun. I had scheduled a hospital visit for her one time and arrived in the ward dressed fairly casually, as is my habit. I wore jeans rather than shorts for a change, but otherwise was very casual.

But all the ladies in the ward were done up to the 9s, because Elva had told them the minister was coming. Such was the build up that the ladies had insisted on their best nighties and the nurses had had to put make up on the ladies! We all had a good laugh. One of the nurses thought the archbishop must've been coming, such was the preparation.

Another time Elva was snoozing on her front verandah, and I just went and snoozed next to her until she woke up. He had a good belly laugh when that happened.

But now Elva is with the Lord Jesus. A great Christian lady, with whom we will be reunited at the resurrection.

She is a Jamberoo girl through and through - from one of the old families in town - a generation that will pass within 20 years and break the historical links with the beginning of white history in our beautiful village and valley.

Allowrie St, Jamberoo (the main street!)

Hi all,

Well it ought to come as no surprise that there are cows in Jamberoo. But sometimes they are transferred from the various farms down to the swamp (which last week was flooded!).This morning Jensen and I went for a pre-dawn walk in Kiama (and we were rained on!); then we encountered a cow transfer at 7:15 in the middle of Jamberoo. These photos might give you some idea of what I am talking about.

Making movies in Jamberoo

No, not our boring old home movies! This morning as I headed for the gym in the pre-dawn light, I encountered lights! action! camera! at the junction of Riversdale and Jamberoo Rds. A green early model Barina was parked on the side of the road with doors and hatch open, lights trained on it, and all the support vehicles for a film shoot. It was still there on my return, with the hatch part set up for a 'picnic'. No actors visible, though!

Further on, I caught up to a slow moving catering van which turned into Fountaindale Rd (listed on google maps as Saddleback Mountain Rd). There was a sign at the intersection indicating directions to the 'film shoot'.

Wonder what they were filming... probably just an ad for local use.

A wet day in Jamberoo.

Hi everyone (or the one of you that peruses this),

We all probably know about the Big Wet that's infested the east coast of Australia.

Jamberoo's version today was interesting... we received 119mm of rain from 9am Monday 4/2 to 5am Tuesday 5/2 when the rain shorted out our outdoor power-point thus waking us up with the office UPS going off its nut. At 6:30pm Tuesday 5/2 it was up to 161mm since the rain started.

So, silly me: I went to the gym at Kiama. The swamp was full; various creeks were overflowing their banks and it was obvious that if the heavy rain did not ease, I wouldn't get home in a hurry. More's the pity too: I had forgotten my wallet and mobile phone. Furthermore, I was meant to drive my parishioner-cum-self-appointed-personal-trainer (actually, wife-appointed!) Marc in to the gym. But after the blackout I overslept so he'd already left when I drove past his place.

At this point I decided that if Marc was in the gym, I'd arrange to drive back to Jamberoo in convoy with him. If he wasn't in the gym, I'd return home immediately lest I get stuck without money or phone!

Needless to say, Marc was in the gym, so I did 10 mins cardio while Marc finished his big jog and did a big bog, then we hit the weights. Our mate Liam (not pronounced the conventional way; it's Lie-am, as in tell a lie - amm) was there. So was the other Mark, and the bloke from the over 55s development across the road.

We did our weights, paid each other out as we do, and we headed home about 8.15am.

Not far into our trip, we encountered a stranded car in Dido St (no prizes for guessing what the locals call that street). The VT Commodore wagon, with two young women and green P plates was stranded on the causeway as the waters of Spring Creek rushed around it. Fortunately, the local SES base is close by so they were on the scene pronto.

It was slow going behind a delivery truck, up around the bends as we traverse the watershed between Spring Creek and the Minnamurra Valley. There were lots of slow-gos around flooded corners and across overflowing culverts leading into both waterways. The Terragong Swamp was chockers; Swamp Rd was under water, someone was being towed out of Browns Lane and Jerrara Creek was well and truly in flood. The historic 1850s Terragong House was only a few inches above water.

Then we got to Fountaindale Rd, and the stretch between there and Factory Lane was submerged. In the middle of it was the Kiama High School school bus loaded with kids. Ouch! We knew it'd be folly to try to get through, so back to Kiama, then home the long way via Albion Park!

This was not uneventful, either! At Dunmore, the Shellharbour Rd was banked up to the highway due to the railway level crossing being flooded and the crossing gates being down as a result!

Then at the Oak Flats Interchange the exit ramp was under several inches of water!

Finally, the approach to the Minnamurra River crossing at Jamberoo was well and truly flooded! We were so close. 4WDs were going through, and it was obviously deep. Thankfully it was not fast flowing, so Marc and I discussed our options. My car is little, but there was no where to leave it. The Volvo was bit and heavy and Marc had a tow-rope. So he went through first and survived, so I followed! So we made it - only 1 hour 15 minutes late, and some 40km out of our way!

We stayed put all day after that. But the question is, given that the rain continues, do I go to the gym tomorrow?

Ok, so I'm a nerd!

Here is a picture of my weather station.

So ok, I'm a nerd.

But it's fun!

G.

Yee haa!

Last Friday was our big Bush Dance... what a fun night was had by all.

Church socials... hmmm we tend to frown on them. But it was great.

I think the best thing about it was that the church were able to see the youth group - and vice versa.

I've been telling the church how well youth group has been going, but I don't think they believed me!

Well, they saw it WRIT LARGE!

From this photo you'd be forgiven for thinking we are a young church.

Praise God for the youth who come each week to hear the gospel and learn about Jesus and his Word; pray that they will move from being able to articulate the gospel message (which they can do well) to apprehending it in their hearts.