WEEK 88 to 90 (23 Mar – 12 Apr 2008)
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Folk in the UK will remember the snow on Easter Sunday morning and made our trip to church a little slower than usual. It had cleared up by lunchtime and before I managed to borrow a camera. My camera is still in Arua. It snowed again a week later – and I managed to get a photo.
The Elcomes visited us in Romford on the Bank Holiday Monday and Laura had volunteered to organise the catering for lunch. So we started with another trip to Tesco’s and ended up with a selection of bits and pieces from around the world, with a particularly Indian theme. The Elcomes have visited India recently and visited some of the same places as Laura.
Andrea and I saw the consultant on the following day – and arranged for further tests but with long waiting times. A bit frustrating. I took the opportunity to make a quick visit to my family in Winchester and stayed for two nights. Laura travelled down with me – but in separate cars – and stayed the first night before going on to Exmouth. I intended to check e-mails via Brian’s (brother-in-law) wireless broadband. My laptop switched on – the fan was working – but no screen display, a sad event with laptops as this is often the most expensive part to replace. There have been a few other faults too so it’s not surprising – it has been used a great deal and suffered much travelling. Fortunately, I backed up everything on an external hard drive not long before we left Arua, but again, the hard drive is in Arua and of no use while we’re here in the UK.
We were able to put our aches and pains to the back of our minds for a few days as our friends, the Taveners, offered us a room in their chalet at Spring Harvest, Skegness. They even re-arranged the booking so that we could have a ground floor flat with disabled access. Andrea couldn’t have managed the stairs each day so it made it possible for here to get out twice daily. The theme was “One Hope” with stimulating and entertaining Bible Readings in the morning and other good seminars and events later in the day. We even managed to spend several hours just browsing through the extensive book stall during one of it’s few quieter periods. Three of the Taverner’s present have a distinct mathematical interest and expertise. The fourth was just returning from South Africa. So Andrea provided a few mathematical style puzzles which led to some very odd meal time conversations. Linda and I just concentrated on eating!
Sunday 6th Apr was Jonathan’s first birthday – he is Mary’s fourth child and we were reminded again of how much we are missing our friends in Arua. We have had a few e-mails but it’s not the same. It also made me realise that I need to keep up the blog, but this time for our friends in Uganda.
On our return from Skegness, we ordered a replacement laptop. Andrea managed to do the research on the internet based on some criteria I set and fortunately they narrowed the choice considerably, with price being the final factor. We have gone for a lighter and therefore slightly smaller version as I get more than a bit weary lugging it around.
We had another visit to the hospital – for the first test, exactly one month after we arrived back in the UK. We don’t know the results yet but Andrea seemed to think that it went as well as could be expected. We’ve been unsuccessful in getting an earlier MRI scan (currently scheduled for Sunday 20th April). The waiting is getting a bit tiring and Andrea is tired of being tired and aching. Our friends have been very good in visiting or offering meals and cups of coffee. Andrea’s Mum appreciated the break from looking after us while we were at Spring Harvest – it’s not easy looking after two extra people for such a long time. The extra shopping, cooking, washing and ironing must be very tiring for her let alone having to watch TV programmes she would not normally consider! We do appreciate having somewhere to stay – and of course the use of the car.
The Elcomes visited us in Romford on the Bank Holiday Monday and Laura had volunteered to organise the catering for lunch. So we started with another trip to Tesco’s and ended up with a selection of bits and pieces from around the world, with a particularly Indian theme. The Elcomes have visited India recently and visited some of the same places as Laura.
Andrea and I saw the consultant on the following day – and arranged for further tests but with long waiting times. A bit frustrating. I took the opportunity to make a quick visit to my family in Winchester and stayed for two nights. Laura travelled down with me – but in separate cars – and stayed the first night before going on to Exmouth. I intended to check e-mails via Brian’s (brother-in-law) wireless broadband. My laptop switched on – the fan was working – but no screen display, a sad event with laptops as this is often the most expensive part to replace. There have been a few other faults too so it’s not surprising – it has been used a great deal and suffered much travelling. Fortunately, I backed up everything on an external hard drive not long before we left Arua, but again, the hard drive is in Arua and of no use while we’re here in the UK.
We were able to put our aches and pains to the back of our minds for a few days as our friends, the Taveners, offered us a room in their chalet at Spring Harvest, Skegness. They even re-arranged the booking so that we could have a ground floor flat with disabled access. Andrea couldn’t have managed the stairs each day so it made it possible for here to get out twice daily. The theme was “One Hope” with stimulating and entertaining Bible Readings in the morning and other good seminars and events later in the day. We even managed to spend several hours just browsing through the extensive book stall during one of it’s few quieter periods. Three of the Taverner’s present have a distinct mathematical interest and expertise. The fourth was just returning from South Africa. So Andrea provided a few mathematical style puzzles which led to some very odd meal time conversations. Linda and I just concentrated on eating!
Sunday 6th Apr was Jonathan’s first birthday – he is Mary’s fourth child and we were reminded again of how much we are missing our friends in Arua. We have had a few e-mails but it’s not the same. It also made me realise that I need to keep up the blog, but this time for our friends in Uganda.
On our return from Skegness, we ordered a replacement laptop. Andrea managed to do the research on the internet based on some criteria I set and fortunately they narrowed the choice considerably, with price being the final factor. We have gone for a lighter and therefore slightly smaller version as I get more than a bit weary lugging it around.
We had another visit to the hospital – for the first test, exactly one month after we arrived back in the UK. We don’t know the results yet but Andrea seemed to think that it went as well as could be expected. We’ve been unsuccessful in getting an earlier MRI scan (currently scheduled for Sunday 20th April). The waiting is getting a bit tiring and Andrea is tired of being tired and aching. Our friends have been very good in visiting or offering meals and cups of coffee. Andrea’s Mum appreciated the break from looking after us while we were at Spring Harvest – it’s not easy looking after two extra people for such a long time. The extra shopping, cooking, washing and ironing must be very tiring for her let alone having to watch TV programmes she would not normally consider! We do appreciate having somewhere to stay – and of course the use of the car.
posted by J & A McAdam at 8:42 PM
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