Week 74 (16 - 22 Dec 2007)

It felt very cold as we drove to Brentwood on Sunday morning but it was more than made up for the very warm welcome we received. The new colour scheme is very welcoming and a little brighter though that could also be due to the extra Christmas lights. As usual, we were talking so much that we were last to leave! Although we wanted to join in the carol singing in Clements Park we decided that we didn’t have the right clothes to protect us from the cold wind but did return for the evening service.

Andrea still had some Christmas shopping to do – just a few things – so on Monday she spent from 10am to 5pm in Romford. Shopping in Arua doesn’t take so long! I went to our storage, mainly to find more of Richard’s belongings. It took nearly 2 hours to remove and check through the boxes at the front before I discovered his books and CDs. I also found an old Ireland rugby shirt with long sleeves that I can wear in the cold weather. At around 3.30pm I loaded the trolley of things to take out – after more than 5 hours of sorting and searching. I arrived at the car only to discover that a Corsa is smaller than a Vectra. I only just got everything in – mainly because I was too tired to return anything to the store. But then it all had to be unloaded again at Andrea’s Mum’s house. Richard has too many books and books are heavy. As I had missed my lunch I was “forced” to eat chicken soup, pate and cheese with Branston pickle at 4.30pm. We haven’t tasted Branston for ages. Strangely, I didn’t have any problem eating tea at 7pm either.

On Tuesday we visited Dennis and Doris for coffee – Dennis has just come out of hospital. Then we went to lunch with Peter Thomas, the minister of our church, to catch up with things since he visited us at Ushindi. We chatted well into the afternoon.

We set off for Winchester again on Wednesday afternoon and managed to get most of Richard’s books into the small car. Before we got to the motorway the dreaded orange light came on so we diverted to Magnus, the Vauxhall dealer. They found a fault within and hour and although it would be expensive to repair, the car would get us to Winchester. By now it was getting dark and near the rush hour but there were no delays and we arrived with Mum at 6pm.

On Thursday afternoon we decamped to Libby’s house to use the internet. In the evening, Brian arranged for us to meet John and Poppy who were Brian and Libby’s first home group leaders when they arrived in Winchester about 20 years ago. John and Poppy now work in Yei, Southern Sudan and will be visiting Arua in March! It’s a small world and we spent a couple of hours sharing our experiences. They arrived in Yei at about the same time we got to Arua last year.

Coming up to Christmas, food shopping continues to be a major activity – so on Friday morning we joined the throngs at Tescos. Or more accurately, Andrea did while I read a book in the café. We got back in time for lunch. I escaped to feed Libby’s cats (and check the e-mails) while she and Brian visited their grandchildren.

According to my diary, Saturday was the shortest day. But the clocks still ran for 24 hours like every other day. The morning seemed to be very long because we were waiting to hear when Laura was leaving Exmouth to join us. I think the clocks in Devon must have been running faster because she missed the morning completely and left at 12.30pm! I went shopping (again) to give me something to do. It was great to see her when she did arrive and we spent a long time catching up. This part of the day was definitely too short!