A colleague from my past working life recently phoned from her current office within some section of the Commonwealth Police, inviting us to morning tea as she had some toiletry bags for us and would we bring some photos please as some of her current colleagues had expressed interest in Bali and our stories.
Morning tea is something I do not often refuse, particularly when it's free, and the cost of collecting up some photo enlargements to pass around was no deterrent at all.
What I was to find out was that we were the mornings free entertainment, to talk about Bali and detail the circumstances surrounding some of the photos. On top of this surprise came the realisation that almost the whole office including the Director, had been involved in making ‘dilly bags'. (The Director is one of only two males that I am aware of who have plied the needle for this cause.) Not only had most of the staff been involved but through their parents and friends the manufacturing had extended to a Ladies Day Activity Centre in the small river town of Morgan and to St Josephs Primary School in Clare, another South Aussie country town. Here all of the Junior Primary students had been given a piece of calico and a set of waterproof coloured pens and been asked to draw a ‘happy picture'. The pieces of calico were then made up into bags by the teachers and parents. I know that some of the younger orphans in Bali will especially relate to these little gems and I think also that the ladies at Helen's Retirement Home in Denpasar will shed a tear or two over them.
In total we left with 166 new bags, (Yes, that's one hundred and sixty six.) enough to cover the Negara Orphanage (with a dozen or so extra for the kidz they will take in before we visit again in '06), the retirement Home in Denpasar that the Helen Flavel Foundation supports and also the Muslim Orphanage in Denpasar that we have yet to visit.
Don't think, however, that this lets any of you off the hook if you promised to make some but have not yet completed the task. Almost without exception these new bags, as with the others before them, show clearly their feminine heritage and I don't relish the task of making some 12 to 18 year old boy enthuse over a bag printed with fairies (of the old fashioned kind) or layers of lace and pretty bows.
Please we'd like a few more, but very boy oriented if you can.
It's a happy day, particularly for me although She is not really smiling too broadly as we'll have to defer our next holiday because I'll have to send Her off to work again so we can fill them up with goodies.
If you've forgotten, the postal address to send them to is -
Filo
c/- 194 Holbrooks Road
UNDERDALE 5032
South Australia.
We look forward to hearing from you.