Calling on the Duke

Bronwyn and I are both still struggling with a delightful sinus/chest infection that I've been fighting now for 10 days, and which I generously passed on to her during that period. I was bedridden for two days last weekend and still wake up feeling gross. Ironic way to spend our two-week break when I haven't had a sick day this entire year. Regardless, we've made it through Christmas and head off tonight to York. We haven't heard from the Grand Old Duke yet, but are expecting he'll be making contact at some point during our visit there, surely.

Whether he does or not, we certainly will be seeing good friends Michael and Jenny, whom we will be staying with. We've heard so much about the beautiful scenery around York, so plan to drag them out to at least march them up to the top of the hill, then march them down again. Or similar. Ahem. We're a bit uncertain about internet access while we're away, so are not expecting to update again this... year, I guess.  : )   We'll be home on the 1st though so expect us to be broadcasting again relatively soon.

Christmas roundup

Christmas Day in our household went off with a bang. We had eight in the house, the largest gathering we've had since we moved here in fact, not tending to cater for conferences these days. Liz and Brett (left) joined us with cousins Katie and Becca (back). With many hands the work was actually quite light despite some worry at various times from all members of our household about how we'd get everything done.

We managed to get everything cooked in our one medium-sized oven, with a bit of preparation. Being used to flexible cooking we also took into our stride catering for one vegetarian and one gluten-and-dairy-free non-vegetarian. We only managed to eat about one-third of our 6kg turkey, and could have fed 12 though they'd have had to eat off a napkin and sit on the floor! Desserts are really my speciality anyway, and I contributed this acceptably rich brownie to the mix, along with Nick's most excellent Christmas cake, and Christmas pudding, ice cream, custard, as well as sorbet for Hayley. There were Christmas mince pies too though they didn't get much of a look at. Left-overs of both courses are still keeping us in good form and will last another day or so yet.

One note on my favourite Christmas present, a Katita Windup from my Australian cousins. Wind up the spring and this critter jumps around like a skitterbug on hot coals... This will be a most excellent addition to my desk at work. You really have to see this thing in action. I plan to upload a short video clip, and when it is available there will be a link here.

A good Christmas. Yes, we missed family of course. However, we all felt it was a suitable celebration and a most excellent time. I have a lot of respect now for those who have hosted me for Christmas in the past. And would we do it again? Definitely.

Christmas Eve

While we're a long way from home this year, we're still having a big Christmas. It's been excellent to welcome my cousins Katie and Becca into our household on Monday, who will be here with us for Christmas. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of presents under the tree either, though the majority of them are either for Nick or Hayley! Following Hungarian tradition, presents from Nick's side of the family were opened tonight on Christmas eve, while other presents are waiting until tomorrow. Of course, it's already Christmas Day in Australia and New Zealand, so we've had a queue of phone calls to family on various sides. I'm still feeling quite flu-ey so found it a little difficult to hold up my side of some conversations... apologies if I sounded a little flat! Our food preparations for tomorrow are anyway complete, so with kiwis Liz and Brett joining us tomorrow to make eight, we're feeling reasonably on top of things. I'm just pleased to have my local presents wrapped and under the tree. (They're on the right, though you'd be hard pressed to pick them out!)

Yesterday Rebecca and Katie spent the day visiting family friend “Granny Totman", down in Hayling Island. In the evening, we went into the city to see the West End musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. Big dance numbers, and a good time. We enjoyed it! Just down the road we passed the quintessentially English James Smith & Sons, purveyors of umbrellas of distinction. Yes, that sign above and to the left of the corner window does indeed say “Life Preservers, Dagger Canes, Swordsticks.” We peered in with considerable interest. I've never seen a £250 walking stick before!

Today we had a civilised start to the day but at 11:30am, realising we had only four hours of daylight left, we decided we'd better get moving. We finally left the house an hour later and headed out to Richmond Park. I've been wanting to visit this park all year. I was once driven through the middle of the 2,500 hectare park by a colleague. The park is beautiful, the largest green space in London, and we enjoyed the variety of animal life including birds on the large lakes. One of the local residents took a particular interest in us, when I started eating my salad sandwich. Was it the food, or was he trying to determine whether we'd been naughty or nice? Certainly, while there were many much larger deer in the flock, as this one came striding within a few metres of us we realised just how sharp those main antlers really are. We moved on and he followed for around 100 metres before finally losing interest.

It is quite possible to live a life in London that is entirely removed from the usual concept of the metropolitan lifestyle. I walk 20 minutes to work, and within a few miles are three major wilderness areas including this park. The expansive green spaces in London make it so much more pleasant to live in this big city. And while we'd like to be closer to all our family at this time, we're enjoying our first northern Christmas.

May you all have a peaceful Christmas.

And now the week that was...

‘But first this from the recent issues desk: On December 10th Tim Babbage, brother of the blogger, graduated with his Masters of Business Administration. This worthy effort was marked by an immediate family event with his parents travelling to New Zealand for the occasion, which happened to fall on his father's birthday. His younger brother, Duncan, said: “This achievement reflects Tim's sharp mind and keen sense for business, something he must have found outside the immediate family...” Tim Babbage was unaffordable for comment. Now back to your regular scheduled broadcast...’

The last week before Christmas week is no doubt uniformly a busy one, and ours has been no exception. Monday night started with Bronwyn overseeing a Christmas concert at her school. The concert reflected her diverse passions, or perhaps her passion for diversity. Other teachers were surprised at some of the students Bronwyn managed to get involved this year in things like the choir and junior and senior ensembles. Similarly, the music ranged from self-composed piece in a three-man group with driving guitars, to the student pictured here who left the audience stunned with her accomplished rendition of part of The Messiah. (This same senior student had previously impressed with an awesome hiphop number at the school talent quest, and had selected The Messiah herself.) Bronwyn had been anxious about how the concert would go. Instead, many attendees and other teachers told her it was “the best in years", encouraging her a lot. We've really noticed here in London that other teachers actually comment on and complement the work Bronwyn is doing.

Tuesday night saw our final homegroup evening for the year, sharing Christmas mince pies and mulled wine, more things that make much more sense when it is actually cold at Christmas time. Shown here with Bronwyn is Cory and Misha (who are passing through, from Canada originally), Fiona, our leaders Carolyn and Chris, me, Sarah and Dave. Missing this evening were both our Annes. While it is sometimes tough for Bronwyn in particular to get there on a Tuesday night, due to needing to prepare classes each evening, we've found this group a good support, encouragement, and a place where we've learned more about God. Thanks guys!

Determined not to spend a night in if we could possibly avoid it, Bronwyn spent Wednesday night at her school leaving do, after the term finished for the (calendar) year at midday. Not to be outdone, I went out with workmates to mark the departure of three members of our physiotherapy team. As there was no school in the morning we were both to bed pretty late, though admittedly the physios demonstrated more stamina than the teachers and unfortunately I still had to go to work in the morning! But hey, you're only young once, right?

Ahh, so Thursday, surely you spent Thursday at home then? Not likely. Meeting at the train station straight from work (Bronwyn having returned to school like a well trained puppy to do extra work...) we headed across town to meet up with recent arrivals Liz and Brett from Palmy in New Zealand. They were staying with Megan and Brent, also of Palmy fame. It was nice to have dinner with them all and hear some stories. Liz and Brett will be joining us this coming week for Christmas Day at our place, once we figure out how to get them here. We don't own a car, and there isn't any public transport running... We're in the process of organising to borrow one which hopefully will solve this problem.

Somehow this entry has turned into an epic of boring proportions. Let me therefore pull a curtain over Friday, commenting only that Nick and Hayley our housemates went out, so we stayed in and had the place to ourselves.

Saturday I awoke to discover I was not in good form, absence-of-flu-wise. It was also raining hard outside which was a bit discouraging as we had tickets to see the New Zealand Barbarians play the England XV at Twickenham on Saturday night. I cancelled other plans and stayed in bed until mid-afternoon, at which point we began our travels out to the ground. Our tickets were at reasonable elevation in the stands, just off half-way, and we had heard about the swirling winds that slice off the Thames there. Now, even when hiking at reasonable altitude in cold weather in New Zealand I've never worn two layers of polypropylene before. Yesterday, however, we both wore two layers of polypro top and bottom, to which I added a further thermal top and three layers of merino wool underneath my coat. I'm pleased to say this resulted in a adequate degree of warmth in which to enjoy the game. (Dave on the other hand, the husband of a colleague who is pictured here, was no doubt warmed by fulfilling a 50-year wish to attend a game at Twickenham when his wife snatched up our spare ticket as a Christmas present for him after our friend Sonja was unable to come.) Unfortunately, while we were warm the Barbarians clearly did not have my foresight and it must have been due to the cold that they failed to make a swipe for the cup when it was paraded at the end. The game itself was enjoyable even if the final score of 42-17 didn't swing in the hoped-for direction.

While we're used to large numbers of people now, the travel home was something else. The sell-out crowd of 75,000 streamed out of the stadium, filling the streets. It was like herding cattle, with the cowboys (and girls) being mounted police on fairly twitchy-looking horses. With the queue for London-bound commuters extending back half a mile from the railway platforms, we were glad to be able to catch a loop train in the other direction that ended up back in Wimbledon. “Home sweet home” we said as the train finally pulled into the platform, and as I staggered home in my flu-induced state I reflected that had become true...

There. So now you have all our news, there's no excuse not to write.   : )

In response to my recent

In response to my recent entry of December 6, our good friend Geoff emailed me with this quote from William Booth. I repeat it here without further comment from me partly because it stands on it's own, and partly because it is 11:30pm!

Just to hand...

This just in, from the BBC Weather web site... One of those numbers (actually the blue-backed one, strangely) is the maximum temperature for tomorrow, the other the minimum. I sincerely hope that this is some sort of error. Negative four degrees maximum.... Brrr!

Dashing through the snow...

Well, we're not quite dashing through the snow, but it is getting pretty cool here (forecast maximum 4 degrees centigrade today, but I think it's a bit warmer than that) and we have been dashing... More news on recent events some other time perhaps, but for now you can have a look at the photos from the recent Christmas events from Duncan's main workplace, and the other place he works...

Imagine.

Imagine if there were no time between initial action and final completion. No time for second guessing. No time for waiting. No time for boredom or u-turns. Just the first step, then immediately you've arrived... Today I pulled the plug out from sink, but washed the last dish I'd missed before the water ran away. The other day I walked out the door, but before I was 20 metres down the road I popped back for my gloves (mmm possum fur... thanks David and Jenny!) because boy is it cold here now on occasions. At times I still long for a fast forward button on life, to close up the gaps between now and the next “important” thing that is coming. It's funny though; when life really is running at that speed, I'm always wishing I could get off... Since becoming a full-time pedestrian I've noticed that cars always accelerate to close up any brief gap in the traffic to the car in front. For me, this makes it so much harder to cross the road. I want to be the kind of life-driver who lets the gap run, maybe even spools it out a little. Why the hurry for the destination?

Talking of hurry, I'm one day late uploading the photos of our trip to Eastbourne. One day late, that is, given a six-month window of acceptable delay... Clearly already taking my own non-hurry advice on that one. Hope you enjoy them, if you're into that kind of thing!

The emerging church

"You killed my favourite word. Prepare to dialogue." On the cusp of you-may-as-well-admit-it-now, you're-a-grown-up 30, I find myself with a low-key identity crisis. My more academic secular friends would be unlikely to associate me with a postmodern viewpoint; would think the suggestion laughable most probably. I presume many people would consider me conservative; certainly I'm morally conservative compared with my peers. (Do not confuse this with fundamentalism.) I've without apology (attempted to) employ the scientific model professionally, so can hardly claim to have thrown off the shackles of modernism. Yet I find myself quietly disinterested in structural church. I am determined to place myself in relationship with Christian leaders I respect and can learn from. My experience to date has still been to find these people within church buildings.

The quote in the first line of the above paragraph is from Andrew Jones, who blogs at tallskinnykiwi.com, and who wrote recently about Charles Colson's dismissal of Postmodernity in a Christianity Today article. Andrew's blog, and life, is about exploring the emerging church that is growing outside church walls around the world. I find myself drawn back to his blog time and again, a fascinated child peering out into the garden though stained glass windows during the sermon. I've never experienced a worship installation with VJs mixing multimedia inspiration while I lounged on inflatable prayer chairs, and I'm not sure I would personally find it a freeing experience. Please don't confuse that last statement as dismissal or belittling of alternate worship... perhaps words are my multimedia. [ahh disclaimers.] More attractive for me though is an apparent focus on the infiltration of genuine Christian community into the 24/7.

I feel I am on a journey. I can't see a path under my feet, but every so often the foliage changes so I must be being led somewhere.

"Happy Birthday dear dblog..."

Life is so busy it almost passed us by... A big happy first birthday to this blog, which has been broadcasting now for 12 months and 1 day. It sure has gone quickly. We're into our ninth month here in London now, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but still... I'm pleased we've made it this far. Since we started logging stats we've recorded over 2,500 unique visits to the site, which hardly makes this the internet's busiest site. Since June I've been able to block our IP address so the site doesn't record visits from our housemates or maintenance visits that I make to the site. We're still receiving from 200-300 unique visits a month. (You count as a “unique visit” each time you come back on a new day, so weekly visitors get counted four or five times a month...) So, looks like there are at least a couple of people out there that are reading this! Thanks for keeping on coming back. We'd be interested to hear from you sometime (who are these visitors?)... Why not email us, or better yet leave a comment on this entry. Just click the "Comment" link at the end and leave your birthday message! Meanwhile we look forward to another year of broadcasting here from babbage.tv.

The upcoming broadcasts will include some long overdue photo pages for a number of trips we've made: to Whitby, Eastbourne, Tuscany, Paris, Bristol and Bath, Paris again, and Snowdonia in Wales... The thought of writing all those photo captions is quite exhausting. Perhaps we should have made a rule that we wouldn't go away again until we'd uploaded the last photos, as we seem to be getting a bit behind. With the holiday season nearly upon us though, I suspect that we may soon be even further behind. We'll be staying in London for Christmas itself, with two of my cousins from Australia, Katie and Rebecca, coming to stay with us. We're getting excited thinking about their arrival, and I know they're looking forward to their big trip. We'll also have another New Zealand couple joining us on Christmas day, which along with our housemates will make eight for Christmas here.

We've needed to be more organised than usual with Christmas presents of course, though we weren't organised enough for them to go by sea. I emailed Royal Mail in October to find out the seamail deadline, figuring it would be soon, only to discover that as far as they were concerned it had already passed! D'oh. Well, we've airmailed all our gifts now for Australia and New Zealand. We're glad to have the shopping finished, and are choosing to think of the postage in pounds sterling, trying not to calculate what it was in South Pacific Pesos. Meanwhile, shopping essentially done I can now begin the slide into holiday mode with the first of a number of work Christmas functions tomorrow. I'm looking forward to ten days off over Christmas, coinciding with Bronwyn's two-point-five weeks. We're hoping we may be able to spend New Year's out of town with some friends in York, though we need to talk to them about that yet. If you live in York you know who you are, and you should be receiving an email real soon!   : )