Happy 6th and Charity Function

This morning Aaron was up early. I was awake, but Nick took a bit of convincing before both eyes were open together. Aaron did the traditional present-hunt with Caleb, and then opened his pressies. He wasn’t hugely spoiled this year, but he’s very happy with the presents he received!

We didn’t dilly-dally after that as we needed to leave home at 7.40 to be at the docks by 8 to bid farewell to Pam, Geoff and Maddy and Jean March, all of whom left on the ship this morning for Ascension. Pam and co will fly to the UK for their Christmas holiday and return to the island via Cape Town on the 6th Jan. Because they’re only gone for a month it wasn’t too traumatic, but it’s never easy parting with friends. Jean will be on Ascension for a few months, returning here on 8th March, and we will miss her too. After a cup of coffee at the Coffee Shop (7 of us squeezing very comfortable around a table), we walked with them to customs where they boarded when “last bus” was called. We waved goodbye. Then we chatted with a few more people hanging around – it’s like being at the airport, except that it’s with a whole bunch of people we know! We spent a bit of time in town, then Nick wanted to show someone from the Falklands the Manse. I found a book to read in the meantime called “Sometimes I Prefer to Fuss”, written by a female missionary in Thailand. So far it’s pretty good – I’m always encouraged and challenged by missions biographies. I baked a carrot cake for Aaron, and Nick made lunch of fried pork sausages on rolls while I cleaned up.

In the evening we had a Ladies’ Orchestra Charity Function at the Mule Yard. Nick was convinced that it should be cancelled due to the weather – it had been grumpy all day and was drizzling in town when we arrived, but cleared up and was lovely for the event. It was organized specifically as a fund raiser for our church, and with donations being taken and a cake raffled, ₤250.47 was raised. We are very grateful to the Ladies’ Orchestra and friends for their efforts. 14 items were on the programme – mostly the Ladies’ Orchestra and a few choir pieces performed by the Palm Villa Singers. Vincent, Vilma, Nick and I sang a quarted of “I’ll Fly Away” with two guitars and two mandolins which was great fun and the crowd enjoyed. Tammy and Nick performed a pre-release song by Tammy, and Nick and I did another duet of a Christmas song we learned in Joburg last year. Nick did a great job as MC, although he nearly skipped an item! Father Christmas paid a visit during the last item with sweeties for the kids, who had been playing on the grassy area during the concert.