places and people we love
we had such a lovely send off at church this morning. but also
quite emotional after our full day of goodbyes yesterday. we might see
many of them again on the morning of our departure at church, but this
was our proper ‘goodbye’
this saying goodbye to people is really hard you know. we’ve
realised how many fantastic friends we have here in the UK who we’re
leaving behind. And saying goodbye is really painful. there have been
much tears inside and outside this weekend.
here’s one of our closest friends. it’s old fish-face ian
He said some lovely words about us after church. And so did Heather in
a talk about our children. And then they presented us with an
incredibly generous present which we shall use wisely
Church feels so much like home. it’s where we got married, where our children came to faith and got baptised, and where we were privileged enough to be part of the music group. we’ll miss the place and miss the people even more.
At the same time, we’re incredibly excited about getting stuck in to a new church over in NZ. but these last few days are all about goodbyes.
my hardest goodbye
here’s my mum in a pub last friday kindly posing for a picture. I like the peacefulness and calm of the picture.
and now i’ve said my final farewells to my mum in person it’s also quite poignant.
We’ll see her in NZ in not too long, and the power of the email / skype means we’ll still be in touch. but still a rather renching thing.
sorry the blog is a little down beat today !
a hard disk to break
i found some more hard drives to destroy sat on our front door step and took them apart before clonking them with a hammer. it really is a joy smashing these things up. you should try it.
and then, when you’ve finished your clonking, you can use them as spooky owl or fish eyes as demonstrated by our good friend ian
our leaving party
here is my mum with jane’s parents and kezia.
we got photos of everyone before they left (well all except one family who did a runner before I had a chance to photo them). not sure if i’ll post them on here, but it was great to see so many friends. although the nature of a 10am to midnight party with friends throughout the day is that you don’t get a huge amount of time to talk to people.
the house was busy during the core party hours of 11am to 11pm. everyone is now tired and speechless. and a litle sad.
unlucky dip
as a family we came up with the fab idea of having an unlucky dip at our goodbye party yesterday (apologies if you weren’t invited, it wasn’t anything personal – we’re just being rather dippy at the moment).
anyway, the unlucky dip was a bit of a tombola, and you got to win something we were just going to throw in the bin. so that was nice.
my mum
here’s my mum !
grey’s court
yesterday afternoon my mum and i went out for lunch then on to grey’s court for a mum and son afterrnoon
i really like grey’s court, and it’s lovely how they have this little labels around the place written by people who work there explaining why that particular area is their favourite corner. the one above was particularly nice – click on it to read it (i won’t spoil it by paraphrasing)
despite visiting 10s of time, i don’t think i’ve ever been at this time of year before when all the veggies in the garden are ready
there was an honesty box if you wanted to buy some of the produce
this sunflower line up must have looked dramatic a few weeks ago
and even the request to return your tray was lovely.
t&t for tea
we went out for a last supper with our lovely friends tony and tanya last night. it was a bit of a last supper, although we’re expecting to see them again before we go. everything we do at the moment seems to end with ‘oh i wish we’d done more of this’.
T&T are among our closest friends and we will miss them.
the picture below is the picture above shown on the back of my camera then photoed by tony’s camera then photoed again on the back of his camera by me. interesting how his camera has turned in to a big eye.
blue velvet trousers
way too tight, but way too cool to chuck away. not sure if i ever actually wore them. definitely gone in the pile marked ‘take’
travel anywhere
this cupboard has appeared in our local train station ticket office area. it claims you can travel anywhere. just step inside i guess.
it’s good the british train system is finally embracing technology advances
peter mandleson in our garage
for some reason this front page picture of peter mandleson has unearthed itself and is now in pride of place as you walk in to our garage. i’m not sure i like it.
old phone
i think i must have bought this from a jumble sale some time ago. what a horrendous thing. now in the pile marked ‘bin’
lady bird
insects are brilliant. little armoured chaps going about their business.
the world
i went to the lovely town of bath yesterday to see whether it’s worth me applying for associate membership of the royal photographical society. (i think it is by the way!)
all over bath is an exhibit of photos of different parts of the world showing the impact of global warming etc. I think the exhibition is touring round different towns as i think i may have seen some of the pictures in london.
anyway, it really brought home to me how far away New Zealand is. But at the same time how the world really is so small (before anyone mentions it, i know this is a scale map, and not actual size)
on the way back i popped by stonehenge (more photos to come on that) and there was a lady wearing the world as a hat. again, not actual size. but a reminder of our impending departure on the 11th October.
lower bristol road
as low roads go, the lower bristol road looks pretty low. and a rather wet drive.
