Wednesday 24 July 2013

Grati-Tuesday

First  a little gratitude of my own.  I forgot to show you this last night.  Angela's lovely daughter, Amy, surprised me on Sunday with a BIG bunch of green customs forms.........which she had filled out for me already!  That might not seem like such a big thing, but for me, given the number of parcels I send off regularly and, more importantly, the fact that I have pesky arthritis in my hands which makes it painful to do too much handwriting, this is a lovely thoughtful gift.  Thanks Amy!


For Julie Ann


Good morning/afternoon,

I would like to thank you very much for the absolutely fantastic laundry bag that I received the other day.

What a brilliant surprise, the bag will be something that I will take home and keep for the rest of my years.

It is very humbling to know that even people we have never met are willing to take the time to make something so personalised and special, it does indeed put a smile on my face.

Its the little things from home (Australia) that mean the most,

So thank you once again,
P.S. I plan to give my daughter this bag so hopefully it will be shared and past down to her children and so on with all the memories that were passed onto me by my father and great grand parents.


Hi Pia,

I received your parcel today in the post. The bags are always well received. We have a member of the team who is a keen fly fisherman so I gave that one to him, he was very impressed! We are several weeks into a very long deployment and we are feeling the isolation. It is good to know that we are still thought of back in Australia. I hope you are having a pleasant winter, the temp over here is 50 degrees and 5% humidity. The wind feels like you are holding a hair dryer in front of your face!

Thanks again for the bags!



For Lynn and I 

Jan-Maree,

I recieved the quilt the very afternoon which I emailed you. Its wonderful, the 37SQN logo and aircraft shadow are great touches

For Stephanie T

Good Evening,
I have received my quilt today and it is amazing it sits nicely on my rack and will be getting a lot of use. The design is amazing and put a big smile on my face, Thank-you so much, what your doing is amazing and is greatly appreciated 
Thank-you once again 


Dear Rita C,

I received my quilt today and it is beautiful!  Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into it. I love the colour and the fabric, but the message panel really makes it special, something I will treasure forever.

It is still quite hot over here but in a few months it will be getting colder. Thankfully our rooms are air conditioned, so the quilt will come in handy at night.


Thank you again, for supporting us.

And this one would be my favourite and I especially wrote to ask permission to publish it.  You will understand why when you read it!  LOL 



Joan & Robyn,

Earlier today I lost my washing bag - after 2 long hours of intense detective work I surmised that it had been stolen. So I spent the next 30 minutes accusing who I could find within the task group of theft. After I had upset a good portion of my mates, I decided to go back to the laundry and check all the washing again. To my sheer relief I found that my name tag had somehow dislodged from my washing bag. Elated I went to mend all the broken relationships I had so easily derailed. Some apologies took longer than others, however I had it cracked out within a couple of hours ( still getting a couple of funny looks though).  So today turned out to be very emotional.

That was the long winded background, now to your washing bag.

I decided that I needed a washing bag that stood out, and by sheer hap-stance your gift fell into my lap. I guess it was meant to be, so from all the members at Taren Kowt Afghanistan " Thank you for your wonderful gift" - I intend to keep this bag for the rest of my career and beyond.

It is people like yourself that have made the last 18 years serving this Country a sheer pleasure.

Thank you,


And to end a photo of the happy recipient of one of my laundry bags! Don't you love that smile!


Till next time.............keep spreading the word and happy stitching!  JMxx

3 comments:

  1. I have always been really proud of what this group does for our girls and guys 'over there'...but the message from the poor fella who thought he had 'lost' his laundry bag...well, lets just say it really hit home just how much our laundry bags mean to these very special people. oopps,something in my eye....

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  2. What an excellent story - he though he'd lost his laundry bag, accused everyone of staling it, found the tag and then the bag, had to apologise to everyone, planned to get a better bag and - voila! one appeared.

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