les Davey de France

began early with the preparation of the Powerpoint file - we project our hymns and songs so that we can draw from several books. Off to church for 10 to set up. Bully - no, encourage someone to read David's prayer from 2 Sam 7 during the service, leaving me with just the offering and some other things to lead. Afterwards church lunch ( hoorah ! ) Pat's chilli (with no chilli powder in it) and trifle went down well and there was LOADS to eat this time. Then brief church meeting followed by film on persecuted church. I set up the film but had to leave before the crucial bit of the church meeting to go and preach in Blaye. Well, I say "brief church meeting" but Samy does have a habit of stringing things out. When it was obvious that I was going to have to leave half-way through the meeting I joined in his game, feeding him distractions and discussing irrelevancies while people did their nuts (i.e. chanting le nom, le nom, le nom... ) wanting to get to the nub of the mat...

8:30 get up - I have taken to the French idea of the grasse matinée , a lie-in. It's GREAT not to get up at 6am / 6:30 ! 10:30 at the church for preparation of order of service for today. 12:30 get home quickly to take kids to Eysines for them to go back to the church with Ben for club. Type up the Order of Service and send it to all and sundry by email (we're very high tech !) Quick trip to supermarket for emergency rice and cheese (see below) Prepare for International Bible study. Correct error in Order of Service and send it out again ! (Vite fait, mal fait) At 6 people arrived to eat. "Can we all pile in?" said one of the seven people at Pessac tram stop. "No !" quoth I, "it's against the law, I'll do two trips." We were 12 in total and we ate a super ham, nice chilli (without any chilli in in it) and gorgeous cakes. Study at 8 on the Bible. Some of these folks have never held a Bible so it was REALLY BASIC ! These meetings are so h...

"Help ! Jenna's car has a flat tyre so Ben said he'd drive her home and now he's stuck at Place Victoire and I am at LeClerc with a trolley full of shopping and the kids are stuck in school !" "OK, Alan's about to leave to get our kids from school and he'll come and get you afterwards". Meanwhile great discussion whether there are trams and buses tomorrow for folk to come for the International English Home Group... (Yes, there are.) So after leaving the house at 4:20 I got back with our children at 7pm having driven no distance at all and very very slowly ! Everything is blocked solid.

Yesterday doing student surveys. Two guys stand out to tell you about. At the end of the quickie survey I asked the first guy what he thought about doing the longer questionnaire. He said "Ok, but I am busy this afternoon." "Yes, but we can make a rendezvous to do it another day." "Oh, let's do it now !" So we started. We got through the initial part, then started the "Partie philosophique". By what criteria would you judge your life to be a success ? "That's a bit personal !" "Well yes, we aren't asking about Descarte's philosophy but about yours !" Anyway after a bit of reflection we continued with the questionnaire in a very happy, relaxed way. He said he was born into a catholic home and did all the stuff but was now not practicing. We finished the questionnaire and chatted for a moment. Then he said : "Can I ask you a question ?" "Yes..." (wondering what was coming...) "The suicide...

They are striking because the contract for running the public transport in Bordeaux is passing from one company (Veolia) to another (Keolis) on 1st January and the public transport workers are concerned that their conditions of service may change. So it's down tools all day.

It's a memorable poem ( if you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same ) though it doesn't do a lot for me. Maybe I am not gung-ho enough, insufficiently "Roger of the Raj" to identify. However, one does detect faint echoes in what Tim reads in his Guinness.

Last night at about midnight the computer hollered uncle and the disk finally copied (using DriveClone). I had already gone to bed but I woke at about midnight and checked on the beast to see what had transpired and all was OK. This morning, after lighting the stove (it's frosty here) I switched the disks. ( Much ineffectual tugging with inadequate small screwdrivers till I tried an enormous screwdriver handle with a tiny bit. That worked. Never underestimate the motive force of intimidation on the inanimate object ! ) And here we are ! Now instead of an 80 gb disk and 2gb free space, there's a 160 gb disk and over 80 gb free space. That'll keep it going for a while. Can I get another three years out of the thing ? We'll see ! As Churchill said, "Never, never, never give up..."