The curious delight of friendly faces

A day of lovely surprises! I'm now in Leamington (well, actually I'm now in Warwick Uni campus where the reception has public internet access, and I'm staying with a friend in Warwick town, not Leam, but anyway). I had lunch with friends from church - a couple whose love and care so practically expressed to everyone has been not only a support and encouragement whenever needed, but also a big inspiration to me to follow their example.

Well, wandering through Leamington en route to the bus stop, who did I meet but the lovely Cate McNee, of NUCU. Not so strange as she lives in Warwick, but a lovely surprise to bump into her in the street, and even to be told that she's visited my blog!

Then at the bus stop, who was there in the queue but a friend from 'my' Leamington church, waiting to catch the same bus - a lovely surprise again!

Thank God for friends and surprises :)

Over the sea

Having just done a week's HBC at church (v encouraging too), I'm about to head over to England for a few days in Nottingham, a couple in Leamington, and then down to Kent for IFES Orientation. This is the point for a wise reflection, but I have none, and we're off to the last day of HBC.

to Belgium and back

Just back from a few days in Bruges with Pippa. Unrelated to moving to Brussels in a couple of weeks' time: simply a holiday. I'd show you a picture, but Pippa's the one with the digital camera. We walked round the city admiring the lovely buildings etc (Pippa proving much better that me at following the self-guided tour directions: I'm too easily distracted), took a canal tour (by boat, obviously), and cycled to the beach town Zeebrugge, at which point I went for a swim in the sea and Pippa declared me mad - the latter a more usual occurrence than the former (the sea to me was warm, but I'm used to the Irish sea :-)). The cycle ride was around 20 miles altogether, though getting out of Bruges was the hardest part: crazy 1-way system. We also watched Fantastic Four, which was fun, and I do think the subtitles in both Dutch and French quite added to it. And of course, we checked out many chocolate shops, though were very abstemious on the whole! Thank God for lovely places and friends.

Oh, and I have such admiration (slightly tinged with green in fact) for the waitresses in restaurants there, who switch between fluent Flemish, French and English, without batting an eyelid. I want to learn Dutch!