June 2014

We have been home in UK two and a half months already and the time has whizzed by. It is the season of long summer evenings which we love and even some sunshine.

It is always lovely to see the family. Our first weekend back we helped David move in Bristol from his flat (up two storeys) to a new apartment they have bought which fortunately is on the ground floor.

We have just been back to Bristol this weekend and had a very enjoyable time. They have furnished the flat very well and instead of lugging furniture we have walked and walked around different parts of the city, had drinks besides the river and eaten very well.

Christopher and David enjoying a drink in the sunshine

All four of us at the Clifton Suspension Bridge

We see Sarah, Chris and their two children Samuel and Keira fairly often as they live just round the corner and we are also on hand to babysit as needed. The children are a source of great joy to us as they all know us quite well now. Keira is quite keen on Granddad and likes cuddles from him.

Samuel as Goggle Man

Keira

We have also seen quite a bit of Fiona. Arran and Isabel and had a week cat sitting for them whilst they went off on holiday. Thame, where they live, is a lovely place to holiday and my highlight was walking 14 km along the River Thames on a beautiful sunny day.

A wet day out with Fiona, Arran and Isabel

We have no plans to pop across the Atlantic to see Jonathan and Alyssa but they are both doing very well and have settled into life in USA.

Being in UK means we can overdose on some culture whether it is visiting stately homes or going to see a live stream of Shakespeare from Stratford at the cinema.  We have had two outings with STARS (Seniors Taking Active Retirement Seriously) to the British Museum and Anglesey Abbey, a favourite of ours. We have also taken in the newly remodelled and opened Olympic Park with Sarah and her family.

British Museum

Idyllic England

Beautiful garden at Greys Court

The church at Greys Court

In between we have started an extension on our house which should take 10 – 12 weeks and we are already into week 4 and no bricks laid yet. We are assured everything will start to move on much more quickly now. Maybe? The idea was to extend the bathroom and add another toilet but in the process we are getting another room looking out over the garden and a small utility room. It will be lovely once done.

Before we began

The story so far

Demolition

It has been nice to be back at church to see the people there. The worship has been good, I have enjoyed the prayer meetings and the series on Just Like Jesus continues from Matthew 5 to 7. I even got to talk at Wonderful Wednesday, the monthly lunch club for the elderly.  It was quite hard going as most of them like a snooze after lunch but Christopher was awake and supportive! There is also an evangelism course going on – just for a change!

Add to all this a heavy bowls schedule and some golf (more golf for Christopher than me). He is playing with both the seniors section at our golf club and with the Kodak Golf Association. This week and last we played at least 5 bowls matches and that will continue for the next couple of weeks as we have the benefit of the long summer evenings with enough light for a bowls match.

I am still writing as much as all these other activities will permit and have made some inroads into the second novel in the Nick North trilogy for 10 – 12 year olds. 

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