These have been the two things that could best summarise the past month for me here down under.

May started wonderfully with a much needed break down south in Dunsborough, one of the most beautiful places here on the West coast of Australia. I had the absolute joy of spending 3 weeks in Dunsborough last year as the final part of my DTS outreach, so it was great to be able to go back again this year and visit. I was down for a week, taking a coach there and back for the 4 hour journey, and was able to stay in a very nice resort courtesy of my parents. It was a week of walks on the beach, reading books, watching movies, and most importantly, no alarm clocks!! I loved it. A week with no schedule or things that needed to be done, just pure indulgence.

I must confess it was also very nice to get away from people for a while! As much as I love people, there are a lot of them here on base, so it is quite nice to get some space to yourself once in a while. Some people thought it was funny that I was going away for a week by myself, but honestly, it was the best thing for my soul. Spending time with myself and Jesus. It was delightful. Plus I did get to drop in on some friends a couple of times too, going out for tea and cake one morning and enjoying a home cooked meal one night too! So all in all, a fabulous week, and I came back to Perth feeling relaxed and well rested, ready to face the world with new energy and enthusiasm.

That lasted a whole 3 days in the office back at work, and then I fell ill to the dreaded stomach bug. I woke up very early Thursday morning and was horribly sick, and so spent the next 4 days curled up in my house not much use to anybody. Its one major downside of living in community – any sickness or lurgy tends to spread pretty quickly, and that was definitely the case in this instance. So many people have come down with some sort of illness these past 2 weeks, not helped by the sudden entrance of the winter months, although it has to be said I seem to have come out of this worse off than most people. Because having managed to get back to work again on Monday (although to be honest, I still wasn’t really feeling quite right) by Thursday I had a bad cough/throat and could barely talk, and even yesterday I nearly passed out in the kitchen. Today my throat is slowly getting better and my cough is on its was out, but I am still very low on energy and feeling pretty wiped. I never thought I would say it, but I’m actually getting fed up of needing to sleep all the time, which is still what my body is crying out for. But at least the dizzziness has gone for the most part.

So there you have it. 1 delightful week of rest and relaxation followed by well over a week of feeling pretty pants. It’s not exactly what I was hoping for. Trying to remain positive and be sensible though with not overdoing it too quickly in my desperation to get out of the house. I want to get better as soon as possible, so for now, that means sleeping and lots of it! Apologies for not getting my next newsletter out yet – it has been on my to-do list for the past 2 weekends, but to be honest. my brain hasn’t really been up to it. In fact, this blog update is the first step towards my brain actually functioning properly, so hopefully this is a sign that I am slowly on the mend! But I will try and get my next update out as soon as I possible can.

Here’s hoping that you are all feeling much better than I am right now!

Jo 🙂