See you later

As of the next post, we will have to change our biographical details on the blog page as we have now left the Sherbornes with Pamber. C is no longer the Parish Assistant, and we will no longer be living in England. Next stop? Belfast!

As we are still tearful from our farewell last Sunday, we will leave the photos and written thoughts until we are in a better place emotionally. Meanwhile, we are resting/holidaying/sleeping/eating/swimming in Porto Soller (Mallorca).


This is the view from our hotel room.



Jealous? Excellent. Our work here is done!

Some things stay the same...

such as the hypertension which is packing up a house.

This was September 2005:



And this is September 2008:



We have just a single week left living here in Sherbornes with Pamber. No, make that a single week living in England. We find it difficult to remember that we are relocating to another country.

So some things change. When we get to Belfast, and we unpack all these boxes, we will be living:

1. in a country where the only people we have met are the folks who interviewed C for his position at All Saints. Read that again-we know nobody.
2. in a house we have never seen apart from internet photos, and
3. in a culture we have yet to begin to understand.

In the mean time, we are trying to prioritise people over packing, and God's truthful message over stresses of relocation. This is a real challenge as we are also trying to sell our Sydney house with all of the logistical awkwardness and emotional weight that this entails...especially when it is in country A, we are living in country B and moving to country C.

Please keep in touch with us at this time, even though we may not get back to you right away. We are a wee bit busy...

In preparation for our move to Northern Ireland (now less than 1 month away) we have reset our television and internet news to BBC Belfast. We know that we have a very limited knowledge of the culture (which we are desperately trying to change), but there are things which have us just gawping in wonder. Take this from this morning's news...

'Loose lion' turns out to be dog

Callers reported seeing a lion in north Belfast
A police operation launched following reports that a lion was loose in north Belfast has been called off after the animal turned out to be a stray dog.
A police helicopter had been used to search the area on Sunday night after officers received a number of reports.
Witnesses had said they had seen a sandy-coloured lion or large non-domestic animal in the Upper Hightown end of Cavehill Park.
Belfast Zoo had earlier confirmed that all of its animals were accounted for.

(And to prove that we're not making this up, here's the link)

So here's the question; if you woke in the morning, and looked out your suburban window, what would make you think that it was a LION wondering across your lawn? Golden retriever, yes...but native African savannah-dwelling beastie?