A French Experience

Well we're in Paris - city of ....well we're finding out!
But first, we left home at 4.20am and drove to Edinburgh, checked in and sat around for a while before boarding. Small plane (ask Mase for all the details about it if you want!)... but good leg room. Flight lasted about 1.5hrs but the taxiing into Charles de Gaulle airport was another thing!! it's huge and I reckon we were taxiing to our drop off point (not a gate into the terminal) for at least 15 mins before we disembarked. Then we boarded a bus which took us to the terminal - I guess it was the shortest way but that too took about 10mins - but the kids enjoyed seeing some of the planes and different vehicles involved in refueling, baggage carrying etc. One thing Mase is finding quite frustrating/testing is the toilet stops that 3 children and a wife need to take. As I try to pour at least a litre of water down their throats each day and 2 litres down mine it makes for frequent ablution - which means we get to the airport and we go straight to the toilet, then onto the plane and straight to the toilet and then on the flight the kids make frequent trips to the little room. Arriving at the terminal, we walk fast and even though we get to the customs desk close to the front of the line - nature calls - and so we go to the back of the line...queueing is not a Linden family custom - dating back to Father John Linden!!! (or as Mase is in the habit of saying "I come from a long line of people who avoid standing in long lines"). Anyway leaving the airport we got to the train station and funnily enough someone's absolutely busting for the toilette - so off we go but this time it's 50euro cents for each person (most expensive toilet trip we've made in our entire stint away). The train station was another 'underground type experience' - our photo is taken with the train schedule in the background...On to the train and finally to our hotel....Hotel Favart - a petit hotel which has retained the old french style of furnishings (in a slightly more modern way). What matters most is that the bed is comfortable and the pillow not too thick - which after a night's sleep has proven to be tres bien! However the children have now been introduced to a bidet and a very interesting tiled bathroom - there's a bath with a detachable shower hose nozzle in each bathroom but no shower curtain - so it's a sit down bath/shower affair - different.
This is our first experience in a country speaking a foreign language primarily, so we've been practising our french - au revoir, bon jour, bon soir, merci, excuse moi, pardon, sil vous plait, d'accor - but Jo and I have had some fun trying to translate different things (with some success - at least we think so). Anyway we unpacked and went out to do an initial reconnoitre of Paris. We walked past the Academy of Musique - a grand and beautifully ornate building - stunning to see the sun glinting off the 'gold' statue at the top. We then walked along a few more streets seeing many cafes and restaurants to finally arrive at des Gallerie La Fayette. Having walked thru this massive shopping gallerie (it doesn't seem appropriate to call it a centre - that wouldn't be posh enough) I can only say that Perth has nothing like it. Here's some photos of the dome ceiling and lower floors. The Xmas tree is suspended from the roof. The entire complex covered three blocks and had heaps of exclusive brand shops etc - but what I liked wandering through was the gourmet food market. There were gorgeous little stalls selling french cold meats, sausages, cheeses, chocolates (Mase bought a little something here), vegies, fish, asian food, indian spices - very aromatic, candy section (kids chose to share a soft nougat bar - it took them ages to chew through it and kept them quiet while we explored). Des Gallerie La Fayette had huge Xmas light displays on the outside of the building and also automated stringed soft toy scenes in the outside windows. We took lots of photos and the children were entranced with the window displays. One thing we haven't been able to miss noticing is the number of beggars and street people on blankets/beds on the pathways. It's been more confronting here than in London or Singapore, though Aberdeen has a few people that you see regularly sitting on the main street. In Paris many of the beggars have signs asking for money or a ticket (to a restaurant). This has provoked lots of discussion with the children. There is one man whose 'outdoor lodging' is on the same street as our hotel. Last night we saw him lying on his mattress as we went out around 6pm then when we returned at 7pm he was well stocked with some Baileys and cigarettes. This morning we walked past again at around 8.30am and he was lying on his mattress on the ground in a sleeping bag with a mate beside him, both sound asleep. Today it's Saturday, 28 November - after an early night we woke feeling much better. Breakfast was included in our accommodation and was a french breakfast. Each of us were served our breakfast on a silver tray which had a basket of pastries, butter, jams and a bowl of cornflakes - much to the delight of the kids. I managed the croissant and a wholemeal seed roll but that was enough. However the boys managed to polish off their entire tray, Mase and Jo left their rolls. Then we were off for the day. We had to catch a train to Arc de Triumphe at one end of Champs de Elysees and then we walked to the Louvre at the other end - a couple of kilometres walk in. Mase handled the whole underground train system with great ease and so our train experiences in France were pretty good. What was interesting was the children's worry that we would be separated - some on the train and some left behind - I think the London experience was playing at the back of their minds and a few times I was pulled anxiously onto the train or held back by the kids. The morning was pretty chilly and we had numb lips at one stage and the usual drip on the end of the nose. Anyway, we got to the Arc de Triumphe (the start of our day) - we looked at the names of people and countries listed on the arch, saw the flame commemorating the unknown soldiers of world war I and then began searching for the closest la toilette! After this slight diversion, we then walked down Champs de Elysees taking a slight detour at the Arcade Champs de Elysees. Another shopping complex, many of these shops weren't open at 9.30am but nevertheless we got a good feel for the place and the sort of people who go there. Put simply, it's way out of our range - we showed the kids some shoes priced at 2250 euros, small girl's dresses for 200euros and higher, some fur coats for 2380+ euros - some of the price tags have been almost beyond belief. How people justify shopping here when there's people without homes/food just outside is something to wonder about.Continuing further along Champs de Elysees we saw McDonalds with a french twist - some pastries and briochs. So many of the buildings have stunning sculpture and carvings on the exteriors - a lot more than ornate than London was. As we walked along Jo spotted the Eiffel Tower in the distance and took a photo to prove she was first to see it! Finally past an ornate light post, to the jardine la tuilleries (not very impressive in winter - trees are mainly deciduous and so the branches are bare, the grassed areas and fenced off and it's freezing cold. But this jardine brought us to the Louvre which is an absolutely stunning building - both inside and out - lots of statues of presumably famous people along the outside of the building. As you approach the Louvre there is another arch similar to la Arc de triumphe (but much smaller) though just as ornate. Once at the Louvre, we queued for the security check at the glass pyramid - at this point the children had the foresight to suggest we time our wait in line...in total we waited 50 minutes to get thru security and purchase our tickets - the lines were huge and it was only 11am. Tickets in hand we decided to view a section of the Egyptian Antiquities
display. To be honest though I could have spent just as much time looking at the Louvre interior (which is art in itself) as the displays. We saw some egyptian gods carved from stone, hieroglyphics on stone tablets (we imagined similar to the tablets of stone for 10 commandments), sphinx, jewellery, wooden combs, razors, tweezers and bronze mirrors, some egyptian wooden carvings of boats and people...not all of which was to the children's taste. Then we went into the French/Italian painting exhibit. Here the Louvre interior architecture was even more amazing - some photos of the painted ceilings etc give a small idea of what it was like. We saw many paintings of Biblical scenes - the wedding of Cana, Jesus and the apostles, Mary and the Child etc, which was interesting for the children...and much more - including the Mona Lisa. The kids ascended some temporarily empty raised displays and posed as the latest Louvre exhibits representing the entire
Australian modern art collection. After we left the Louvre we had some lunch and then crossed la Seine. Everywhere we go there's beautiful buildings. We also visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame which again is a beautiful building inside and outside. We walked past some seats reserved for people awaiting their confession with the priest - this was something the children couldn't understand. Jo particularly had lots of questions about the process - why tell the priest, what does he say, does God want this, is he able to forgive sins etc, etc. We had quite a discussion about God's views of the Catholic system based on Revelation. Sam was really impressed with a circular stained glass window in the cathedral and to my surprise described it as awesome - so maybe they are appreciating some of the sights we're seeing together - unfortunately the photos of the cathedral interior didn't turn out due to the lighting inside. Then we walked past St Michel - presumably
depicting the scene of Revelation 12 where John says michael and his angels cast the devil and his angels out of heaven. Then down a small alley to reach a labyrinth of lanes lined with cafes, restaurants and other little eating places - very nice! Mase resisted the kids pleas for a treat until we got to the last shop which was icecream - his achilles heel! The
kids exploited this knowledge and with great skill got him to walk in and buy!! Then to the train station - past the latest cold weather fashion model walking the street and past the long line of hire bikes and motorcycles that everyone seems to ride on (at their own peril)! We're also trying to get used to the cars driving on the wrong side of the road and most drivers on the wrong side of the car - makes crossing the street a little more hazardous! For tea on Sat night we went to a little French restaurant in St Michel (one of the cafes we'd seen earlier when we walked thru the labyrinth of lanes lined with restaurants). The children tried french onion soup and choc mousse and creme caramel. The menu even had escargot on it but we declined to order it. I had a salad nicoise (tuna and salad) and profiterole, Mase had duck l'orange with creme brulee. We all had a try of each other's desserts and Mase's was definitely the nicest. Then back to the hotel to get the
kids into bed before 9pm after a long day.Sat night/Sunday morning we were woken many times during the night to hear the drunken, happy singing and shouting of men in the square opposite our hotel - the window opened out onto the square - but we all went back to sleep fairly quickly. Sunday morning we had breakfast - I opted for some fruit we'd bought as the thought of pastries/bread to start the day was not good.
On to the Eiffel Tower for the morning - it was raining lightly at times and we walked through the green parkland area to the Eiffel Tower taking a few photos from spots along the way. The photo of us all together in front of the Tower was taken by some Americans girls we met. From this viewpoint I felt that the Eiffel Tower was a little disappointing -it looked like a huge mess of dirty metal rather than the impressive, warmly lit attraction that you see on postcards (possibly because it was an overcast day)...anyway as we got closer it began to look better and by the time we were underneath, it's reputation was restored in my mind. We searched for la toilette as Mase lined up for tickets - we all
wanted to climb the 600+ stairs to the second level (you can only reach the top by lift and we weren't going to worry about that). The kids loved the climb - it was the morning's exercise and by the time we reached the top I was glad to stop. The view was fantastic - a full 360 of Paris and suburbs. We were able to see the Arc de Triumphe and track our walk to the Louvre which was a lot further than I'd realised. Also, on the first floor they have information points around the platform pointing out important landmarks - this was really interesting as I found out a little more about some of the buildings we'd seen. They also had some interesting facts about the design and building of the Eiffel Tower - it took 2yrs, 2mths, 5 days to build. For the engineers out there they hammered in 2.5million rivets - Mase tells me that's an awfully big job and a horrible way to have to do it - but that was how it was done back then. Apparently Gustaf whoever- he-was (designer) expected the Tower to last about 20yrs but as he was smart enough to let weather forecasters and TV
broadcasters use the tower for their broadcasting it has proved invaluable. So the Eiffel Tower continues on until today as the symbol of France - proven by the number of hawkers trying to sell us 5 mini eiffel tower key rings for 1 euro...and we succumbed! Fortunately the rain held off while we were up the Tower but the wind made up for it. Then we headed for the quarium la Paris - this was for the kids as we'd dragged them to all the places we'd wanted to see and we thought this would be more to their interest. There were lots of individual windows showing ocean habitats of the world and they had coral, anenomes, small coral fish, large cod, leopard shark, reef sharks...heaps of varieties - many different to what we've seen in Perth. There was a huge aquarium and a touch pool for the kids which they loved and ended up with soaked sleeves but very happy with their efforts to touch the fish. Matt says that the fish were too slimy and slippery too catch and that when he had one it moved it's muscles and they were so strong he lost grip. They also had some 'green' movies - we watched a couple - one was about polar bears and the impact of global warming causing the ice to melt quickly, leaving them little area to hunt food, having to swim in freezing water for long distances (causing a huge loss of body weight) only to die from weakness and starvation - this was the only movie with english subtitles - the rest were in french and while we could pick up the odd word or two, it was a bit hard for the kids to follow. However Sam/Matt still wanted to watch the one on tiger sharks.
After this we returned to the hotel to get our baggage and head to the airport hotel as our flight left at 6am the next morning to Switzerland. When we got to the hotel the kitchen staff and receptionist were having a birthday celebration. They invited us to join them for some cake - we thought we'd better show our thanks by singing happy birthday in english which they seemed to appreciate and then one of the men sang happy birthday in Gambon - he sang and clapped in true african style. The kids had strawberry gateaux - we declined.
On to the hotel at the airport where we relaxed for the afternoon - this hotel had a shower (blissful sigh). The children spent an hour or so in the bath having a wonderful time while we got a few things organised for departure. I'll post this blog here as the end of our French experience and will add photos later....au revoir

Fyvie Castle, Zoology Museum (Aberdeen University)

This blog is a mixture of miscellaneous things we've done over the last week in Aberdeen (from 23 Nov until we left for Paris)...don't feel obliged to read it's for us to remember some experiences!
We also went to the zoology museum at the University of Aberdeen and saw lots of interesting animals (all stuffed) and some skeletons too - one of which was a sabre toothed tiger which Matt instantly recognised. There's a hedgehog, a fox, red squirrel, a badger to name a few of them in the photos below...lots of male deer

an elephant skeleton

This is Mase and the kids after playing soccer for an hour at the park down the road - it was a mud field - the kids took great delight in running in front of Mase near the mud patches and making him swerve and then slip over in the mud - they had lots of laughs.

On Sam's birthday 16 Nov we had to drop Mase off at a conference which was North of Aberdeen, so we decided to visit a castle that our neighbour had said we should visit - Fyvie Castle.

The visiting times to tour the interior of the castle were over but we thought it was worth seeing the grounds. The castle was really quite impressive. Very tall and imposing. We walked through the enclosed vegetable garden which in its time had been sufficient to maintain the castle inhabitants. It had been designed to keep the rabbits out - so it was a thick, high stone wall with black wrought iron gates with meshing down to the ground. The photo below gives you an idea of the size of the gates and therefore the whole castle...

Last fling in Aberdeenshire and local area

Saturday, 21 Nov, we drove to Glen Muick. Bro Joe had said we had to go there before we left...so we did. It's about a 1.5hr drive from Aberdeen. It's a lovely glen (valley) surrounded by mountains and Loch Muick is nestled at the base of one of the mountains. The road out to the Glen is narrow and windy but the bushes were low and so you could see the road ahead - which meant Mase could go a bit faster and take the bends a little more generously. As we headed along the road Matt spotted two deer - stags - one with larger antlers and one younger male - see the photo. Before we walked to the Loch we stopped at the Visitors Centre which was one of the best ones I've seen - lots of interesting exhibits - both for adults and children. Touch and feel things, a kettle that when placed on the hot plate tells the story of the area, stuffed animals - grouse, rabbit (one with a winter coat - white and the other with a summer coat - brown/white). Some antlers to touch, a large model of Glen Muick and the Loch. As we left the Visitors Centre to walk to the Loch we saw a sign telling us to keep to the paths as they were shooting hinds that weekend - we kept to the path. Well it was freezing when we got out of the car and fortunately I'd brought my beanie and gloves. As we walked along Mase and I noticed our lips and chin become numb with cold. The temperature was about 2 or 3 degrees and we were walking into a strong wind which made things even colder. Mase cheerfully said it was a good lesson in wind chill factor. This was proven true as when we walked back we defrosted because the wind was behind us. Anyway we reached the Loch and the water was cold to touch but when we pulled our hands out of the water it was much, much colder with the wind hitting our fingers - on with the gloves! You can see the speed of the water flowing under the bridge (and hear the wind) in the video (having trouble uploading it, so it's not here yet). It was beautiful - the clouds were heavy and at times were halfway down the mountains, hovering at one end of the Loch - other times the sun came out and you'd get a glimpse of blue skies...created for God's glory. The kids didn't like this walk - it was along a nice wide pathway and was too easy - they much prefer bush bashing and picking their way up a mountain - getting soaked and muddy! On to Carrbridge (another 1.5 hrs further south west) where we planned to visit a place called Landmark. It had a red squirrel tree top walk, feeding stations, some water coaster slides, rope walks, wood chopping, a maze etc etc - sounded fantastic. On our way there we took some photos of the Cairngorms at a viewing spot. The panoramic view was spectacular - a real patchwork of green, brown, yellow/white, grey.... It was on this road we saw lots of rabbits which had been hit by cars - we inspected one - Matt was quite pleased to be able to say he'd seen his first real rabbit (not a taxidermied one) that was dead - quite a feather in his cap.

He then asked Mase to drive over it so he could see its insides!!(we didn't).

As we entered Carrbridge Sam saw a really good photo opportunity - so we went back and he took a photo - the one of the river with the arched stonework over it.Funnily enough we were flicking through a book of Scottish landmarks and that scene was included! Well we arrived at Landmark and the children were very excited to see where we were going only to discover that all the outdoor fun things for the kids were closed for winter...so we went through the Maze and the children were able to play on a couple of slides and a playground that were still open. We were able to have a look at some old wood cutting tools, machinery and saws. The photo of the five of us is taken on the throne of the woodcutting champion. Then we went along a treetop walk to spot squirrels - which we didn't see any of, until we'd almost finished the walk - not sure if that was because of Matt's voice, his footsteps on wood decking or the weather. Anyway, the ones we saw were very cute - smaller than I imagined - similar to a numbat in size. We've seen heaps of grey squirrels (including one in our backyard) but the red squirrels are much rarer. As we went along the tree top walk they had some interesting information boxes for the children to learn about the squirrels' habitat. What I found most interesting was just how many animals are dependant or semi dependant on the pine tree - the squirrel, pine beetle, a particular parrot, ants that make nests out of the pine needles, deer and many more - it really gave me an idea of how extensive, well planned (created) and interlocking the whole of creation must be. Interestingly the deer are culled yearly in some areas to prevent them grazing on and destroying young pine and birch saplings - apparently the increased numbers of deer have caused devastation in some forests. As we left the Park the rain began to fall - which we were expecting. The last few days of rain in northern England have caused severe flooding in some places - particularly in the Lakes District. We looked up the BBC news online and were able to see some footage of the towns affected - we had been to a couple of the places which were now totally flooded. Anyway as it was now raining pretty heavily we left Carrbridge and drove through Aviemore and up to another peak of the Cairngorm mountain range...no doubt it would have been a great view but the rain was far too heavy to see much so we began the drive home...in the dark, at 4pm! Bring on the long, hot summer days - only 3 weeks to go God willing.

Aberdeen Ecclesia

For those who are interested (and for the sake of our diary) I've put in a few photos of the Aberdeen Ecclesial Hall and the brethren and sisters we met and enjoyed fellowship and friendship with. The Hall is a community centre and so has many rooms for private hire, along with a music room (drums, percussion, electric organs etc etc), laptop/internet stations, small gym and lots of other facilities and resources. As you can see the interior of the room hired by the ecclesia is hot pink with black leather lounges and some wooden chairs which are used for the meeting. At the back of the room is a ball pit (it only appeared in the last month) but the children and visitors love playing in it - as photographed. Bro Joe and Sis Lydia Coutts are another couple at the Ecclesia and were very helpful in getting us settled in when we arrived - giving us bed linen, some food and a meal on our first day in Scotland! Bro Tony Miller (on the left), Bro John (centre) and Bro Vernon (right) - made us feel very welcome at the Ecclesia.
We really got to know Vernon and Tony while we were in Aberdeen. John lives some distance from Aberdeen and can't make it every weekend. Then there's John again with an older brother named Jack - a lovely man - a self confessed hoarder and we really enjoyed talking with him. I've heard the short version of how he discovered the truth but we never seem to find the time for the longer version! Bro David and daughter Zoe - David's wife passed away in May this year - rather tragic for the family. David used to work offshore but is now at home caring for Zoe (6yrs) and a 14yr old son who we haven't met.
Sis Lydia Coutts with Sis Lorna (on the left) - plays the organ every week. We had a few laughs together over the blunders we've made when playing the organ!
Bro David and Sis Sarah (his daughter). Sarah has an interesting job which sounds very technical but she seems to thrive on the challenge. David reminds me of a professor - he always seems to be carrying a pile of books and have something interesting to tell you.

Bro Martin and Sis Claire O'Dona____ with their children, Matthew (16yrs), Jamie (12yrs) and Sarah (not pictured - 14yrs). Matthew, Sarah and Jamie introduced our children to the music room at the Centre (on the first Sunday we arrived) after the meeting and we could faintly hear the roll of drums, clash of cymbals and an electric organ in the background as we talked.
On the weeks when there was other children this kept them very happy while we talked with the bre/sis. We also met other brethren who visited the Ecclesia during the time we were there - Bro David Mills, Bro Hamilton ____, Bro Kenneth and Sis Sarah Yuile with their son Paul (13yrs) - Kenneth, Sarah and Paul are pictured with Tony.
PS - I've tried to line up these photos and the comments for nearly 1/2 an hour with little success - so you'll have to piece the people and words together yourself!

Stirling

Weekend of 7/8 November we visited Stirling, approx 2hrs south of Aberdeen.

When we left the house we saw the first frost on our front lawn and ice on the windscreen that had to be scraped off - actually we just turned the engine on and waited for the car to heat up. The car was freezing to get into until it warmed up. The car temperature gauge told us it was 0 degrees outside - so that's the coldest I've ever experienced...however when we're in Switzerland Mase tells me that the temperature will get to below 10 degrees - so that will be a interesting.

Anyway, we drove down to Stirling early Sat morning in mist and cloud, so thick at times we couldn't see more than 10m either side of the car. We were to stay with the Maher family and visit Stirling Ecc for the weekend.

Before we arrived for lunch at their place we visited Stirling Castle (built in the 1500's) - one of the oldest and largest castles in Scotland. It was a strategically important place as it guarded the lowest crossing point of the River Forth, allowing access to central Scotland (knew you'd want to know that). Anyway it's quite an impressive Castle - built high on a volcanic rock and visible for miles from all directions. It looks very speccy at night when it's lit up and I can well imagine it being the residence of many generations of Scottish royalty. In fact the kids and I were reading about Mary Queen of Scots recently and she was crowned Queen of Scotland there when she was only 9 months old (many other coronations, baptisms and deaths also occurred there)! She was beheaded at 35 years old. We didn't go into the Castle as we wanted to go for a walk in Alva Glen before heading to the Maher's house for lunch.

We then drove to Alva Glen (slightly North of Stirling) and went for a gorgeous walk through the glen (valley) along a burn (river). The walk was a bit muddy in places but well worth doing. We saw a couple of waterfalls - one of which is my favourite of all that we've seen so far (pictured below). The walk trail was to take us to Smugglers' Cave and this meant we zig zagged up the hill and then down again to the Cave - good exercise. The Cave was quite amazing - not what I'd generally class as a cave - but at the back of the rock face (actually two rocks with quite an overhang) you could glimpse a waterfall and then the water turned and gushed out a small gap between the two rocks and into the Alva Burn where it pooled a little and then flowed down the glen burn (that's as close to Scottish as I've got!). While we were there we found part of the skeleton of a deer - a hoof and foreleg with the hair/fur still on it, we looked at the cloven section of the hoof - and a jaw bone with a few teeth, ribs and an assortment of other bones...then we headed back with the kids running ahead for their favourite part of the walk - the descent!

Having cleaned our muddy shoes in the puddles and on the grass we headed for the Mahers and lunch.

Luke (10, nearly 11) and Zoe (8) rushed out to meet us - Sam and Jo disappeared quickly. We then met the rest of the family - Linda (Shaun's wife) and Joshua (6) and later we met Joel (13yrs) when he came back from youth group.

The children had a great time together and we enjoyed getting to know Linda and Shaun a little more. We walked through Dollar Glen (Dollar is the town where they live) which is near their house and enjoyed the gorgeous views over the countryside (unfortunately we didn't take our camera on the walk). We got a photo of everyone when we got back though.

I have to say that this is the only place we've ever stayed at where we've been welcomed with fireworks. Shaun had bought some fireworks (it was Guy Fawkes Night the previous night) and so when it was dark we all went outside to watch him set them off in the backyard (legal in the UK). It was freezing!!! I was rugged up in Jo's rain jacket, gloves, scarves, thermal socks, jumper and was still freezing - Linda lent me a fleecy jacket and we huddled next to the fire. The kids had a ball - watching them shoot up, whizzing loudly, some catching in the trees or firing off wildly over the fence! They also had some sparklers which the kids flashed around all over the place.

Sunday we drove into Stirling to attend the meeting there. The Ecclesia has lunch together every Sunday, followed by a public lecture at 2.30pm. Here's a few photos of the hall (with Trevor Maher beside his car) and the sunday school rooms. I didn't get a photo of the creche but on the door there's a sign that reads "We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed" - very amusing! The main hall is downstairs with sunday school rooms/seminar rooms and a kitchen upstairs. A flat next door was bought some time ago and leads to toilets and other sunday school rooms and the creche.

The exhort was about remembrance - interestingly the church next door was having their remembrance day service at exactly 11am, so the meeting was delayed so we didn't start singing and interrupt their minute of silence. The contrast was made between the remembrance of soldiers who died for their country (never to rise again) and the remembrance we have each week of a man who died and rose again to life.

We met quite a few more of the bre/sis while we had lunch and I enjoyed hearing some of the life stories of the people there. One older bro (Harry) told me how he met his wife (Barbara) by coincidence and was consequently introduced to the truth by her.

After lunch a few of us went to the park with the children before the lecture. I was talking with a group of the teenage girls and one of them said 'I just love your accent - I could listen to you all day' - it was quite an unusual moment of realisation as I think of them all as having accents and not me!

The public lecture was fantastic - John Gill looked at the natural water cycle and explained how it worked and then went on to show the lessons we can take at a spiritual lesson. Sun shines on ocean, evaporation occurs and water is formed in clouds which then deposit the rain back on the earth and so it goes on. The Sun (essential for water cycle) represents Christ, the ocean represents the nations, the clouds are those believers who are drawn out of the nations by the teaching of Christ who then pass on that message of hope (the rain being doctrine) and so the process begins again...we looked at quotes to match each step and the children in the audience were involved and read out verses. Sam was able to follow it and really enjoyed it (as I did). What an amazing God we have - He can use nature to teach us spiritual lessons if we look hard enough!

After the public lecture we walked to the Wallace Monument (photo alongside) - built in honour of William Wallace a Scottish man who became a national hero when he led the Scottish to victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. It's built on top of a hill and is very conspicuous in the carse (local area) of Stirling. Having read a brief history of his exploits it is easy to see how he became a hero to the Scottish people - he killed hundreds of Englishmen and led numerous brave attacks on them, despite being outnumbered. He was quite a gruesome man - apparently one of the Englishmen killed in this battle was skinned and Wallace used a wide strip of his skin to made a leather strap for his sword! The English hated him and murdered his girlfriend, later his wife, his father and mother which of course fuelled his desire for vengeance....I'm very glad we don't live in those violent times!
The children (including Joel with red scarf) tried to scale the monument...

Anyway it was getting dark (nearly 5pm) and cold - so we headed back to Maher's to pack and head back to Aberdeen.

Got in about 8pm and it was freezing outside - poor kids weren't happy about being woken from sleep, carried in thru cold, dressed in pj's and then put into cold beds...

PS - 5 weeks to go - looking forward to December 17th God willing!!

PSS - one thing I'm looking forward to (amongst many others) is some nice kent pumpkin - they only have butternut or pale-yellow fleshed pumpkins here and they're awful

The Lake District

Last weekend (Fri, 30 Oct to Sun 1 Nov) we drove to the Lake District in Northern England.

We had prior warning that there would be heavy rain on the Sunday but felt it was still worth visiting - Mim had said we had to go there!

Leaving Friday evening Mase drove most of the way in rain until just before the border into England, where he felt tired (due to some very late nights) and so we swapped. I was actually quite amused to think that I'd be the one driving him to Gretna Green (even though we weren't eloping) and then on into England. I didn't enjoy driving to be honest - passing trucks in the rain and having the windscreen mist over with their spray is not something I find relaxing when you're going 70 miles an hour...but I did it without incident.

Finding the hotel at Clifton Hill involved another test of our map reading/directional compatability - we failed on the compatability side of things - but managed to get there in the end...

Anyway we checked in, got kids to bed and as we were all sharing a room, decided we'd hit the sack too. Unfortunately (for the first time in all our travels) we had an awful bed - banana shaped, springs pressing into our bodies as we lay there - most uncomfortable.

Mase didn't seem to have much trouble going to sleep (as usual) but I lay there tossing and turning for ages. Eventually I decided to sleep on the floor and use the spare pillows as a mattress and some extra rugs and see if that would help induce sleep - with some success.

Next morning we were 'pleasantly' awoken by the sound of Matthews heavy footsteps heading for the bathroom at 6.30am (he seems unable to tiptoe - not matter how many times we tell him). Breakfast wasn't until 8.30am, so we had a couple of hours to kill and keeping the children quiet in our room wasn't an option.

So we went for a walk through the small village and then out along a quiet road where the kids baa'd to the sheep in the field and screamed and yelled at the top of their lungs. Anyway they wore off some energy and we headed back for brekkie.

Our morning was taken up with driving to Grizedale Visitor Centre where we were to hire mountain bikes to tour the local area and hopefully see some of the Lake District up close....it was a nice drive through the middle of the Lakes, past Lake Windermere but the day was rainy and overcast and I think our photos reflect this - a little more sunlight would have made some spectacular views. One thing we noticed being in England was the different houses (photos above) made of stone, whereas in Scotland it's granite or slate.

Fortunately the rain stopped as we got out of the car and we went to hire our bikes - with the two younger children assuring us they'd be able to ride the distance and didn't need to go on a tandem just in case! We had to sign a document outlining the dangers and risks in riding and accepting responsibility for any injury - scary!!

We headed off up into the mountains following one of the bike trails (rated average in terms of difficulty) - within a few minutes my heart and legs were working hard and Jo and Matt were struggling. The trail was wide but muddy, wet and had lots of loose stones. We were quickly spattered with mud on our pants and up our backs.

The trail took us slowly up through some of the mountains with a few viewing points to see the panorama below (not the best we've seen - but nice). On reflection though we didn't actually see as much of the area as we'd thought we might on the bikes - I think that was because when we rode up hill we focused on getting to the top and helping the kids as it got harder and then when we got to the top we had to concentrate on getting down safely (at varying degrees of speed).

As you can imagine, Mason and Sam were the speed demons, Jo and Matt were not too far behind and I brought up the rear. Honestly some parts of the trail coming down were really scary - you'd be going so fast and if you weren't braking enough you'd slide in the muddy sections on the corners or skid on the loose stones - there was one section where I thought I'd lost control but managed to hold on...you know the stomach in mouth feeling - well that was then.

But I think Mase may have come a lot closer to stacking than I did by the sounds of it - he and Sam were so far ahead I couldn't see what went on but Mase and Sam told me he was going too fast when approaching a tight corner and with the backpack stuffed with about 2.5 litres of water, some apples and kids rain jackets he had extra weight to add to his own. He had to put his foot out and lean right over to prevent a stack down the side of the mountain - I hate to think what we'd have done if he'd injured himself!

If it wasn't for the downhill sections I think Jo and Matt would have given up very early on but they managed to keep going at a really good speed for more than 2 hours - so they did very well!

By the end of the ride our faces were splattered with mud, our bottoms had brown, muddy stripes from the wheel flicking up mud and our shirts were also pretty filthy! Mase had no change of pants - so he ended up washing his jeans in the toilet and walking around with his jacket over his pants so you couldn't see the wet patch - we must have looked a sight wandering through the Grizedale Visitors Centre. When we got back to the car the rest of us changed and we headed off for a drive through the Windermere area and then north to Penrith (if you know the area). This is a photo of Bowness on Windermere - note the tudor style house.

We stopped at Bowness on Windermere - it was absolutely packed with people - it was a small town, but had a busy shopping and cafe strip near the shores of Lake Windermere. Matt is standing near the white swans and the geese that migrate in the 'v' formation (can't remember their name). It's also the location of the Beatrix Potter Museum - we took photos but didn't go in. The next photo is a landscape photo of the Lake Windermere and the busy tourist boating area.

As the daylight hours are now 7am to 5pmish , by 4.30pm it was getting dark and we headed back to our hotel.

We had dinner at The George & Dragon on Saturday, 31 October - reason I put the date in is because it's Halloween and over here that's a big thing. So as we ate our meal we saw many kids come in all dressed up for the event. The shops have been full of Halloween stuff and peoples' houses are decorated with jack o' lanterns and other gear, the traditional pumpkins for carving have been selling in the shops and they have demonstrations in the shopping centres showing how to carve them....

Just one thing to say about our meal - I tried Partridge for my main meal - it was fine. Slightly stronger flavour than chicken, little bit darker, not much flesh on the wings but tasted delicious on a parsnip and celeriac mash...so that was my new food experience for the day.

Sunday we had organised to meet with the South Lakes Ecclesia and it was about a 1/2 hr drive from our hotel. So we drove through the centre of the Lake District to get there, which was the scenic tour route. It was raining very heavily and we could see paddocks flooding and rivers getting very high.

This photo was taken in the middle of a village - the river was a raging torrent of water running right beside houses! On the way to the meeting we saw one house with the water very close its foundations - on the way home we saw the same house with the water lapping against the side of the house!

We got to the meeting and were welcomed by the bre/sis there and enjoyed the fellowship with them. The brother who led the exhort spoke about how God works in our lives and how we need to try and work with him. He looked at Christ - who is the perfect example of someone working for God and God working through Him.
The Ecclesia always stay for lunch at the hired hall they use and we were invited to eat with them and have a chat, which we did. The children enjoyed playing soccer with two older teenagers who were there that were very friendly and had a great time. This photo was taken before the meeting began.

In the afternoon we drove back along a different road - through one of the mountain passes (as in photo) and we got some gorgeous photos of the valley and mountains in the area - so my rating of the Lakes District lifted quite a lot due to that.

There was also a lot of partial road flooding through the area and the kids had a great time looking out for large puddles and egging Mason to drive fast through them and groaning when we were stuck behind some smaller, more cautious cars. Here's a photo of some of the rolling green hills of England...

We had planned to see Hadrian's Wall in the afternoon but we didn't really leave the meeting early enough to get there in the daylight (as we found out later). By the time we arrived at the wall it was about 5pm and dark and raining hard and so we had a quick look around, took a photo or two to prove we'd been there and left to begin the drive back to Aberdeen.

Our drive back was going well and we were making good time until we were about 3/4 of an hour away from Aberdeen. We could see an enormously long line of red brake lights ahead and the traffic edging forward ever so slowly. We crawled along like this for around about an hour until finally (after making various prediction as to the cause) we saw the motorway was completely flooded over three lanes - so deep that all the vehicles (small cars to large trucks) had to go single file through the shallowest area.

As we entered the flood the car in front of us chugged along with the water level above it's exhaust pipe. We could see a few cars ahead which had driven thru the water but obviously conked out when they exited and were parked on the side of the motorway where it was not so deep (as pictured)...the kids were all asleep at this point and while we considered waking them, decided not to.
Anyway, on we went, a little more cautiously after that experience. There were some more areas that were partially flooded ahead but none as bad as the previous one. However at one point we had a bus that was in a hurry on our tail and a truck beside us and suddenly we came to this huge puddle in our lane - Mase couldn't brake hard for fear of the bus and so he ploughed thru and the water hit the windscreen in such a burst that we couldn't see for a few seconds and the noise woke Sam and Matt who were very impressed with the show!!

Fortunately Mase was able to keep steering straight with no visibility and we drove on with the bus right on our tail. As you can tell we obviously arrived home safely (again) and we thank God for His care for us (again).

So now the countdown is on - it's less than 6 weeks till we return God willing and the time is going to fly! Until then - God bless and keep you all.