journeys

last saturday i took part in an event at broomhill methodist. three people from around the circuit were sharing stories of various journeys they had been on, part of which was a retelling of my time in israel/palestine with highway projects. the evening started with the sharing of food and conversation, followed by two talks. a break for drinks and more conversation followed by the final talk and questions. the format worked really well, but with just over 20 minutes to share some of my experiences it was quite a challenge. It really is impossible to summise how experiencing another culture affects you, how sharing my love of christ in work and deed works itself out practically. I often feel i get so much out of giving to others. and of course my trip was punctuated with the commencement of a war. reflecting on my time there reminded me of feeling of some use, a purposeful vocation. not that the mundane is without purpose, on mission everything is more heightened, added to the context of another culture, really impacts my faith journey. which was the purpose of the event, we are all on a journey, which sounds trite, but at the same time ideas, events and circumstances can have a great impact on our journey of faith and our understanding of the divine. i found great encouragement from m experience on an experience exchange project in zambia. a chance to utilise all his skills to their full in assisting projects throughout the country. challenging and humbling, really made me consider doing something similar in the future.

travels with v

It was strange to see v at the airport when I went to pick her up. Waiting expectantly in the arrivals hall, the door periodically opening with showers of people as planes landed. The arrivals board indicated that her flight had landed and that the passengers were awaiting the baggage, five minutes after the board revealed that baggage was available then the doors opened with v at the healm. It'd been about 6 months since I'd last seen her, and now in 3D, which is far better than the small 2D screen of the webcam that had been our means of communication. I was really pleased to see her again.
We exchanged presents and spent a few days around sheffield, meeting friends and family and also going to see a few movies. The bizarre, Perfume: the story of a murderer, directed by Tom Tykwer of Run Lola Run fame. A stroy line so strange and twisted that it left you leaving perplexed. However it was infinately better than the dire the holiday, reminding me why I detest romantic comedies that are neither romantic or funny. When was the last time that Surrey experienced significant snowfall between christmas and new year? Still it amused v that I would be willing to accompany her to such a film.
We spent a few days of the new year in Prague, which is a very pretty and quaint city. It wasn't too cold, but an icy wind made it feel very chilly as we wandered around the city. Public transport from the hostel to the city was cheap and efficient. We saw many of the historical sites, churches that looked like something from Gormenghast, interior decor that, though beautiful, often lifted high some man or other, often some saint or bishop and sometimes in a pose that was quite oppressive, eg standing on top of someone. I find this style frustrating, male and power centric, detracting from my understanding of my christian faith. The changing of the guards was long and dull with few choreographed moves, I'd have preferred some mock sword fights at least! All backed by a brass band leaning out of windows playing a tune similar to the Thunderbirds theme, but in a different key.
We did enjoy a stringed performance of Vivaldi and Mozart, there was some violin maestro dude who was very good and we applauded heartily at the end. He bowed and left the stage, we continued the applause and the backing string players took a bow and left. We continued clapping and the maestro dude re-entered, excellent an encore I thought, but alas, he had returned merely to hold aloft his violin and take a further bow. It's not like going to gigs!
Food and drink was very cheap provided you kept away from the touristy areas, though both me and v felt that czech food left little to be desired. Little wonder there aren't chains of czech restaurants outside bohemia! We did find this lovely tea house where we spent some time drinking strange asian teas and doing sudoku.
After Prague we went to London for a night for my friends 30th bday, travelled by coach which cost us less than a return to town on the tram! Great to see my friend and also to have a day to spend in london. We visited the tate modern and enjoyed the slide installation, riding the larger slides, which I actually found quite scary with the fast twist and turns. Also amused by Merde d'Artiste and other works on display. One of my favourite museums. Had lunch in London's longest bar near paddington station, then to Harrods, then straight out of Harrods as we could barely move through the hoardes of shoppers. A quick view around the science museum before some yo sushi and the coach home.
Prague photo set
London photo set

Nice is nice

Just spent a few days visiting my friend in Nice. It's still pretty warm out there, especially in the sun. Managed to fit in quite a lot of activities whilst there including a good deal of walking. Was chatting to my parents on my return yesterday, but they thought I'd been to Greece, not Nice, obviously some confusion!
So Nice really is nice, depite the upheval caused by the construction of some tram lines, the old town and market are pleasant to walk around. We also went to a nearby village, eze sur la mer, where we then climbed up the mountainside to the village of Eze, secluded atop the mountain with vast views across the sea. Being a sunny day we could see some bulges on the horizon which were quite probably the mountains of Corsica. In the afternoon we had a look around a museum dedicated to the biblical works of Marc Chagall, which I'd highly recommend, he has a very distinct style and there's some examples on flickr. Unfortunately the pics of the stained glass work did not come out. In the evening we went to the cinema and as Scoop was the only english film available that was not dubbed we settled for that. It was actually not too bad, though it was clear that a lot of the audience were woody alan fans as there were cheers when he appeared on the screen. You won't be surprised to find that he plays a bumbling neurotic character. Nevertheless there are the odd humourous moments, harmless fun. On the friday we took a train out to Saorge, a beautiful journey on a recently reconstructed track following an old important line bringing rocks, cement and salt. There are a number of villages dotted along this line, they are all built into the mountain side, high above the valley bottom. They really look incredible, and a feat of engineering, but I wonder how precarious some of the older buildings now are as they hover over these long drops. C has done many walks in the area, so we walked onto the other side of the valley to which she has previously walked. The paths are well marked with regular yellow rectangles to ensure that we are going in the correct direction. It was quite a challenging walk as we climbed up to 1300m above sea level, the views were incredible, seeing the border with Italy, the sea in the distance, and many more magnificent Alpine mountains. I do enjoy a good walk, though on the decent I realised that my wallet was no longer in my pocket. After first thinking that it had fallen out at the summit when we sat down to eat lunch, I decided it was more probable that it had fallen out in the train. At the end of the walk, we still had a couple of hours so we walked up to the village of Saorge, one of these mountain hugging villages. It was surprisingly large, with maze like narrow streets, quite picturesque. There was a wonderful shop selling cakes and nougart and a variety of incredibly tasty honey, sourced from various areas in the region. What an incredible array of flavours dependant upon the pollen used from the delicate acacia honey to the dark and nutty horsechesnut.I purchased a pot of high alpine honey with it's incredibly sweet taste and myriad of flavours. Fortunately someone had handed my wallet in to the lost property and we were able to retrieve it the following day, alas (that is probably the first time I've ever used that word, though I don't believe I've ever used it in conversation, or indeed ever heard it thus!) there was no longer any cash in it. On the flight back I got some good views of the alps with the moon above them. Photos can be found in my flickr set.