I woke up to the surf and the cars at 6:45 a.m. Why can’t I sleep late? Decided to experience the Church of England, so I got ready for church -- St. Aidan’s by the ocean.
It was a quaint little church, doing some renovations outside. The inside had beautiful wood and no kneeling bench. There were pads that I mistakenly thought were for the floor to kneel on (they were for your butt on the hard pews).
I was the second one there. The priest had a white beard and lots of white hair. A very nice couple, Vivian and Peter, and their granddaughter, Emma, came in and spoke with me. I sat on the back row with a couple of older women and a young nice couple, Byron and Veronique. He is a builder and she is a conservationist. She had the saddest looking eyes even when she smiled. You could tell something awful had happened to her or them. She was crying in church as well. My heart went out to her and I was praying for her. You just wanted to reach out and hug her and tell her whatever it was would be ok. The rest of the crowd was varied, a grouchy looking grandfather with his blondeheaded granddaughter. I spoke to him and said Happy Easter and he got real friendly. A few families in whole rows and some families with tons of kids on the very back of the church (there was a box of toys back there).
The service was very different. No one knelt for prayers. There was a screen with the hymns and prayers on it. Oddly some of the prayers were not worded like ours. Even the Lord’s Prayer was worded a little differently. The priest was very funny and started out the sermon with something like Jesus was just and “ordinary bloke” who raised a “chap” from the dead. Gotta love it.
After the service, Vivian, Peter and Emma asked me to join their family for coffee at Wickens, a local coffee shop. I thought that was very nice of them as they had 12 total. We drove down there as it was raining and saved 12 seats for the latecomers. They were from Melbourne and had a beach house here. Peter was retired and had been a teacher, then an accountant, then a business manager for a private school. He told me of his first adventure in America in 1957 -- he could only carry $200 with him and had a grand time hopping on buses and seeing our country. Vivian was also a retired teacher and loved jazz music. She even went to New Orleans alone just to hear jazz and a conference. Emma was eight and in “grade three” and wanted to know what kind of music our kids listened to. After our hot chocolate and their mob arrived, I excused myself and thanked them for their generosity. It is quite nice to have unexpected encounters.
I went back to my hotel room and got redressed for a day on the Great Ocean Road (GOR). It was a dreary day with rain showers, so intelligent me decide to go for a hike. I didn’t have a clue as to how long the track was it said 15 minutes (I guess that is for a sprinter on a good day). A small group and myself took off on the tract to Shelley Beach. It was wooded, extremely muddy and slippery. We encountered some people covered in mud as they had slipped. There were places that could cause great concern in that they had steep drop offs. I decided to turn back around after seeing the beach area from above. Smart move, as it started raining again as I was leaving.
Instead of continuing up the GOR, I opted for a quiet day in lovely little Apollo Bay, as it wasn’t raining there. I sat out on the beach and hit all the little shops looking for a new journal, as I had filled mine up. I was going to go to a movie but decided to update my journal and blog and go to sleep early so I could get out on the GOR early tomorrow.
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