Week 47 (10 – 16 June 2007)
Mary and her family came around to Mum’s on Sunday morning for a cup of coffee – and stayed for 2½ hours. Mainly because we found some old photograph albums and the children enjoyed laughing at their mum when she was – shall we say, different! My Mum also got out her jewellery box and the three generations of females had a great time looking at some strange items. We then discovered that a member of the family has worked in a jewellers and clearly knew something about the items shown. As a result, one is being taken for a valuation. Later we went to Libby & Brian’s for lunch, a walk and a chat.
On Monday morning Andrea stayed with Mum and helped to do a spring clean. Mum cancelled the cleaning firm recently as they were so unreliable – and not particularly good. She will be looking for someone else. I managed to escape and went to help Brian (my brother-in-law) sorting through Dad’s affairs. He did the phoning and I wrote the letters. After lunch, Andrea and I did some shopping for Mum. Mum and I did and initial sort and tidy through Dad’s clothes and personal belongings. Not easy, but it seemed to help Mum and least have a look and what is left. I also started re-arranging some books (my version of therapy!). Mum is in no hurry to make final decisions but doing a little at a time is good. In the evening we went around to Libby & Brian’s to watch a video.
On Tuesday we set off for Exmouth arriving in time for a very strange experience. Our daughter took us out for lunch. And paid! But, as Laura pointed out, she is the major wage earner of the family at the moment. In the afternoon we walked along the cliffs then on the beach and enjoyed the views along with the wind and rain. Laura cooked us a meal and we survived. Actually, she looked after us very well and it was great to be with her in her own flat. The flat is small but comfortable and even has its own CCTV camera just outside the window. Normally it is focussed on the main street and nightclub below the flat. The furnishings reminded us of our own home, mainly because the pictures, CDs, many of the books, saucepans and mugs are ours! But it’s better that they’re used than stored. We stayed with Jenny, where Laura had boarded for her first two years in Exmouth and again we were very well looked after.
We met Laura again in the Christian Aid office on Wednesday morning. She has a difficult journey to work each day – it takes about 45 seconds from her flat. That’s walking. We hadn’t realised all the resources Christian Aid produce and their current projects so got a brief update. At least we can now visualise where Laura will be based. We later watched the DVDs made of her visit to Senegal in February 2006 before descending on the shops of Exmouth. More to stretch our legs than anything. Not that it was a long walk as the Christian Aid office is just beside Woolworths. Sadly our visit had to come to an end and we left for Winchester at 6pm as Laura went to the church to lead a youth meeting.
We set off again on Thursday morning for Brentwood High Street and then to Romford in the afternoon. The evening was spent having a bar-b-que with Steve and Gill Golding. Steve has never let the weather interfere with a bar-b-que and so the heavy rain just meant that we sat in the conservatory instead! It’s hard to describe how precious such evenings are to us now. Recent events and our different lifestyle have helped us to discover what’s really important and lasting. When you can’t easily spend time with family and friends then they become even more precious. You never know what will happen nor when. Peter Thomas told us this morning that an American friend of Lyn Cooke was killed by a drunk driver on the main road at Zana. She leaves four children.
Friday was not an easy day for me because the events of our time here caught up with me. Andrea and her Mum went shopping for plants so I had some time to be quiet and watched the Thanksgiving Service for Emma Golding on DVD. It was very moving and I would like to listen to it again sometime. It was a real tribute to Emma and her family and another precious memory. Later that afternoon I had another mining session in our storage, trying to re-pack and sort a little. I even found some old tapes which I can now transfer to a digital format on the laptop – but it will take time and I have to choose which two or three of them I can record this time around. In the evening we had a wonderful meal with the Taverners and McMahons. The company was good too – but we do tend to talk a lot about Uganda. And I can’t even blame Andrea now for doing all the talking!
Back to Brentwood High Street on Saturday morning to collect Andrea’s new driving spectacles with special clip/magnetic sunglasses. It’s just as well that she didn’t hurt herself too much when she fell over a wall that she didn’t see on her way back from the opticians. Maybe she should have been wearing the new ones. I then made the mistake of allowing Andrea to come into Maplins at Lakeside Retail Park. They sell electrical and electronic goods. She wanted to try out the new glasses and unfortunately saw many goodies that “would be useful”. Still, we got the bits I was looking for to supplement our solar system in Arua and the only addition was a wind-up lamp. Our wind-up torches work well so a lamp would be a useful addition when you need to use both hands. And then we set off to explore the M25 again. We were able to have a good view of the surrounding countryside as the traffic was moving so slowly. Eventually we decided to explore some of the Surrey villages even though our main objective was to get to Andrea’s brother’s home in Redhill by lunchtime. We were just in time – and were suitably stuffed again. It’s hardly surprising that we’ve put on weight on this visit, with so many good cooks amongst our family and friends and three very special meals in three days. And we’ve still got a Chivers Sunday lunch to come!
On Monday morning Andrea stayed with Mum and helped to do a spring clean. Mum cancelled the cleaning firm recently as they were so unreliable – and not particularly good. She will be looking for someone else. I managed to escape and went to help Brian (my brother-in-law) sorting through Dad’s affairs. He did the phoning and I wrote the letters. After lunch, Andrea and I did some shopping for Mum. Mum and I did and initial sort and tidy through Dad’s clothes and personal belongings. Not easy, but it seemed to help Mum and least have a look and what is left. I also started re-arranging some books (my version of therapy!). Mum is in no hurry to make final decisions but doing a little at a time is good. In the evening we went around to Libby & Brian’s to watch a video.
On Tuesday we set off for Exmouth arriving in time for a very strange experience. Our daughter took us out for lunch. And paid! But, as Laura pointed out, she is the major wage earner of the family at the moment. In the afternoon we walked along the cliffs then on the beach and enjoyed the views along with the wind and rain. Laura cooked us a meal and we survived. Actually, she looked after us very well and it was great to be with her in her own flat. The flat is small but comfortable and even has its own CCTV camera just outside the window. Normally it is focussed on the main street and nightclub below the flat. The furnishings reminded us of our own home, mainly because the pictures, CDs, many of the books, saucepans and mugs are ours! But it’s better that they’re used than stored. We stayed with Jenny, where Laura had boarded for her first two years in Exmouth and again we were very well looked after.
We met Laura again in the Christian Aid office on Wednesday morning. She has a difficult journey to work each day – it takes about 45 seconds from her flat. That’s walking. We hadn’t realised all the resources Christian Aid produce and their current projects so got a brief update. At least we can now visualise where Laura will be based. We later watched the DVDs made of her visit to Senegal in February 2006 before descending on the shops of Exmouth. More to stretch our legs than anything. Not that it was a long walk as the Christian Aid office is just beside Woolworths. Sadly our visit had to come to an end and we left for Winchester at 6pm as Laura went to the church to lead a youth meeting.
We set off again on Thursday morning for Brentwood High Street and then to Romford in the afternoon. The evening was spent having a bar-b-que with Steve and Gill Golding. Steve has never let the weather interfere with a bar-b-que and so the heavy rain just meant that we sat in the conservatory instead! It’s hard to describe how precious such evenings are to us now. Recent events and our different lifestyle have helped us to discover what’s really important and lasting. When you can’t easily spend time with family and friends then they become even more precious. You never know what will happen nor when. Peter Thomas told us this morning that an American friend of Lyn Cooke was killed by a drunk driver on the main road at Zana. She leaves four children.
Friday was not an easy day for me because the events of our time here caught up with me. Andrea and her Mum went shopping for plants so I had some time to be quiet and watched the Thanksgiving Service for Emma Golding on DVD. It was very moving and I would like to listen to it again sometime. It was a real tribute to Emma and her family and another precious memory. Later that afternoon I had another mining session in our storage, trying to re-pack and sort a little. I even found some old tapes which I can now transfer to a digital format on the laptop – but it will take time and I have to choose which two or three of them I can record this time around. In the evening we had a wonderful meal with the Taverners and McMahons. The company was good too – but we do tend to talk a lot about Uganda. And I can’t even blame Andrea now for doing all the talking!
Back to Brentwood High Street on Saturday morning to collect Andrea’s new driving spectacles with special clip/magnetic sunglasses. It’s just as well that she didn’t hurt herself too much when she fell over a wall that she didn’t see on her way back from the opticians. Maybe she should have been wearing the new ones. I then made the mistake of allowing Andrea to come into Maplins at Lakeside Retail Park. They sell electrical and electronic goods. She wanted to try out the new glasses and unfortunately saw many goodies that “would be useful”. Still, we got the bits I was looking for to supplement our solar system in Arua and the only addition was a wind-up lamp. Our wind-up torches work well so a lamp would be a useful addition when you need to use both hands. And then we set off to explore the M25 again. We were able to have a good view of the surrounding countryside as the traffic was moving so slowly. Eventually we decided to explore some of the Surrey villages even though our main objective was to get to Andrea’s brother’s home in Redhill by lunchtime. We were just in time – and were suitably stuffed again. It’s hardly surprising that we’ve put on weight on this visit, with so many good cooks amongst our family and friends and three very special meals in three days. And we’ve still got a Chivers Sunday lunch to come!
Having successfully published some pictures from UK I found this spontaneous picture of Laura, Matt and Lisa's visit in April.
posted by J & A McAdam at 5:45 PM
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