Many Travels

It has now been two years since we first began the process of moving here. It has flown by. The back garden is Andrea’s domain and all the plants she has planted have all grown. There is even a place for herbs and onions and rocket salad leaves. It is lovely in the summer to be able to sit out and enjoy the sunshine. Things have changed in regard to the back garden though. When we first moved in, out the back were only garages. Now, there are a whole load of houses built there. They are wooden clad things and one or two are quite big with 7 bedrooms. A play park has been put in. A couple of weekends ago we went to visit our dear friend Alison Newman.  She had moved to Leicester. She is married to Paul.  She is very happy and has a lovely house in a quiet area. Sadly, she says, she has less contact with Bengali’s We went bird watching on the Saturday to a nearby reservoir and I visited her church on the Sunday morning. After church Paul and Alison cooked a brilliant roast dinner. I wasn’t left out of things as she got me peeling spuds! As you know, Richard normally lives in Germany. But, that weekend, he and Fiona had to come to England for a wedding. He was able to join us for the roast dinner too. Where the wedding was was only about 35 miles away. After dinner he had to dash off back to Kent so I was sad. We did not want to leave Alison too quickly so we went for a walk to her local country park. It was a nice warm evening at that time. Driving back to London took about 3 hours I had to drive most of the way as Andrea does not like driving in the dark. Mia is growing up fast. She is nearly 2! We recently had a lovely time going with Kieren and her to Greenwich park. Mia walks everywhere now and very rarely uses her pushchair. She is far more happy to run about. Andrea still looks after her on Tuesdays. Andrea says her language skills have come on amazingly. Whereas before she would chatter away to herself and it would be difficult to understand what she was saying. But now sentences seem clear and quite complicated. She was running up and down the hills. I’m not getting any younger you know, so I found it difficult to keep up! We went to a local Pizza Express for Lunch. I am proud of my little granddaughter and do love her very much. But something special happened that day. After spending the morning with her in the park, and sitting next to her at lunch, I had real sense of love for her. I felt I really connected to her.  I said to Mia. “I love you!” and gave her a big hug. She gave me such a lovely smile. I think she too felt connected to her granddad. The houses behind ours have all been finished and people have begun to move in. Tonight when I came home from work I decided to open our back gate and meet the families that were playing on the play park. I love to make  friends and they seemed interested in meeting us. Surprisingly one Bengali lady offered us to take a tour of her new house they are nice and spacious inside. I think we have gained some new friends. Living in London has its advantages. A few weeks ago we were able to visit The Royal Academy of Arts. They had a lovely art exhibition there. A Yorkshire born artist called David Hockney, over the last few years,  has been painting the Yorkshire countryside, painting the same scene over and over again at different times of the year; Spring, summer, autumn, winter. He painted with vibrant colours and different media (paper,paint bits of rubbish). He even used iPads to draw or digitally paint things. We often try and get to a gallery to see art, and we can honestly say that this was one of the best exhibitions we've seen. Andrea and I have sought to keep visiting our Bengali friends Ayub and Hanna. They seem always pleased to see us. A little while ago, when we visited  them, Hanna complained that he back was hurting. I offered to pray and she said yes. The next time we saw them she said her back was feeling much better. She was happy to accept that God had healed her. Their daughter Anisa had been a bit shy and unwilling to see us or speak to us, but recently-probably after this incident-she seems far more friendly. The last time we visited them she enjoyed sitting with me  to read a story to them. On Monday’s Andrea helps at a drop in centre for vulnerable women. I first alerted her to the place when I had a meeting there about church stuff. I felt it would be great for her to get to know the women and pass on some of the skills about knitting and sewing she is so good at. As you know Andrea works for a charity, and when they heard she was interested they offered to pay her for the morning session. This was amazing: She could do what she felt God calling her to and get paid for it! Andrea's parents are getting a bit old now, and quite frail. Over the the years they have accrued quite a lot of stuff. We too have got a few things and did not really need. Andrea's brother wanted to do a boot sale while we  visited Andrea's parents in Clacton on Sea at Easter. I am afraid it did not go that well. The weather was a bit cloudy and rather cold. That meant no-one was willing to come out and have a look at the stalls. Andrea and her brother did sell some things but not really enough to cover the pitch charge. I went to see them there for a time but it was very cold and rather boring. I felt for them. To cap it all off it began to rain as we packed things away. Yes it has been rather wet this spring. So we were glad to get away from all of this by taking a lovely holiday in Cyprus. We had booked it long ago, in March, and it seemed a long time in coming. On the day of our flight  I thought. Let’s get a through train from Whitechapel to Gatwick to save time and money.We had a rail card that would have given us a third off.  I am afraid the ticket office had other ideas. “Oh yes we can sell you the through ticket, she said, “but I can't give you the discount.” The money saved would have been significant so we used our oyster cards to get to a station along the route that would give the discount. I had looked on the computer earlier to check which trains and which stations to change at. Ah New Cross I thought I saw on the website. So off we headed. I was mistaken, for the station I chose was a terminating station and not a through station. Anyway we got out and got the tickets with the discount. We had to return in the direction we had come from and get off at a connecting station. Of course going abroad we were carrying heavy cases. This meant we had to climb the stairs up and over and down again. We were exhausted! We were back on track. Oh no, even now there was more trouble ahead. As we arrived at the proper station to change we realised we had just missed a train and had to wait 40 minutes! Meanwhile we did not realise that on another platform there was a train all the way to Gatwick! We could not get there so had to continue to wait. Eventually we got all the right trains and got to Gatwick OK. Three hours that took instead of the hour it should have taken. I would need a holiday to unwind! Oh, I was going on one. Our daughter SJ was waiting for us. She was thoroughly bored waiting in a big airport all on her own. I did try and keep her informed but it was still a long time to wait. It was getting near 1:30 and we had not eaten. So after check-in, and going through security, we rushed to get something to eat. We certainly did not have any time to eat it as they immediately called us to the gate. We were a bit down the line of the queue but I was glad I was able to find three seats together so that SJ, Andrea and me could sit together. Ahead of us was a four hour flight. When we landed and disembarked it was noticeably warmer. I had worn my thick leather coat in England and had to wear it getting off; I was definitely too hot with it on. We arrived 9:30 pm local time so it was dark. We had to wait for a bus to take us into town then get a connecting bus to out of town the other side. BREAKING NEWS Fiona (married to our oldest son Richard) has just given birth to a baby girl! That means we are Grandparents again. Her name is Jemima Eleanor Grace McIntosh. So, back to Cyprus So The next morning the sun was shining brightly. We had breakfast up on the balcony. SJ wanted to go straight to the nearby hotel to sit by the pool. So off we went. I am afraid having a stressful job, as I do, it took a while to unwind. It was nice to get some sunshine and SJ was in her element. After a day of exploring near where we were, we decided to hire a car so we can go further afield. SJ and me went to local shops to get prices. All seemed very similar. However, when we went to hire the car at one of the shops, the shop was closed! Opposite was another shop we had not gone to originally. At least this shop was open. Surprisingly though, when we entered the shop there was no one there. The only person was a customer waiting! So we waited and eventually someone came, but we were surprised that they had left a shop open with computers and things. We hired the car. It was cheaper than anyone else and it was a better car too. I drove it back to the villa to pack it ready for a trip out up to the mountains. In fact we had four days of trips up to the mountains, or up and over the mountains to the north of the island. Sometimes we were on good, tarmacked roads and sometimes on rough unmade roads; very exciting. In fact, where we saw the most birds was when we were on the rough roads. In the evening, when we got back to the villa, we tended to go out for a meal to a local restaurant. Sometimes though, we had had a meal in the middle the day and only had a light meal when we returned. Andrea had done a budget and by the end of the holiday we had spent about just the right amount. SJ has keen eyes. Many times she would say “what’s that bird?” and barely I had time to look when it would fly away. I have to admit, I got a bit frustrated. Sometimes they stuck around and we had lovely views of some very rare and exciting birds. We would visit the beach wherever we were: whether in the car or locally. It was so sunny that I got a bit burned. I did buy a hat while I was there-which seemed to help. Unfortunately I could not bring it home as it would have got crushed in the travelling. I had to leave it hanging up on the peg in the villa. So it was time to go home. We had to hurry to the airport. It was a two bus ride journey so we had to leave the villa in good time. It was sad to say goodbye to Cyprus. As we travelled on the bus I had a last look at the countryside. Amazingly, because Cyprus had had a wet winter everything was still very green. I had hoped to see some more birds, but the bus was travelling too fast. We got to the airport with two hours to spare. It was a good thing too as there was quite a queue at check in. I used up the last of the Euros we had by buying lunch. We had to hurry to the departure lounge and unfortunately we were back of the queue. I thought we would not get seats together but when we got to the plane there were three seats waiting for us. I believe God blessed us both ways. The flight seemed a bit longer on the way back and I was not relishing coming into colder weather. We had enjoyed warm temperatures and sunshine while away and the difference would be considerable. SJ’s boyfriend, Mark, met us at the airport and we continued our journey together for a short while. The problems with the trains were ready to pounce on us again for our return journey. We had to make two connections to get home and the app on my phone advised a certain station as the first one. I thought the suggestion seemed fine and logical; until I got there that is. We just missed a train as we were waiting on the wrong platform. The train did come in a but when we tried to get onto the train the doors would not open. This seemed so stupid to me. We had to lug our heavy luggage down the stairs and up to the right platform. Then I was disappointed to see a 20 minute wait. We finally got home and our neighbour, who had been looking after our cats, was in and just about to feed them.

Hard lessons and great news

Hard Lessons
Andrea and I have been learning a lot at church recently. Things have changed a great deal. First of all the church has moved from meeting at the hotel. Now we meet at a railway arch at much less cost. Numbers have also dwindled. When we meet, there are not many at the service. God has been encouraging us though. We have had a few good speakers. They have encouraged us to get out there to share with people the good news about Jesus.

It all started when a young man called Peter came along and turned our world upside-down. He told when Jesus sent out the 72 disciples as described in Luke 10:1-23. He told them to find “a man of peace”. In other words to find someone already wanting things of God. God is at work in people’s lives and has prepared people to receive the good news about Jesus, he went on.

Instead of preaching at them why not share with them and discover together what God has said. It really did turn our thinking upside down! We have been doing our best to put it all in to practice.

Great News
We have wonderful news Richard and Fiona are having a baby! This means (of course) we will be Grandparents again. The baby is due in May. They don’t know if it is a boy or girl but have nick-named the “bump” as “Apple” (you know Apple Mac- computer). Fiona has had several scans since they first heard the news, and the baby is doing well.

This news has all come at a very busy time for them. Richard had got a new job in a different city in Germany.

2012 is the year of the Olympics and as a preparation to that my work wants to get everybody working from home. Other colleagues have been having telephone lines put in so they can have Internet access in their home. For me it is not necessary as I have always been forward when it comes to technology. If I am working from home, then all I need to wait for is little mini security device that allows me to us my own computer. I am not sure I want to work from home for five days a week as I would miss the interaction with other people. I have the Christian group to think about too.

Easter Plans
Easter is fast approaching and The Christian Prayer Group,at work, wanted to do something to mark the festival. First of all we had hoped to be able to have a table in the town hall foyer with leaflets like we had a couple of years ago.

Secondly, as something different, we thought an Easter Egg hunt in the week leading up to Easter weekend. This would involve us producing little slips or tickets that if redeemed with us an Easter Egg would be exchanged. Some just small "Creme Egg" types and 1 or 2 as large luxury type in exchange for a special ticket. The tickets would be only put into open areas and be of an unobtrusive nature. We would hope it would be advertised on the Intranet and we would give out flyers from the table in the foyer. We have been buying quite a few Easter Eggs. It should be fun.