les Davey de France

Martin Downes is the pastor of our home church in North Wales. His little daughter, Kezia, has been ill for some time and yesterday an MRI scan revealed a brain tumour. She's expected to have an operation today.

The weekend starts now - with preparation for the Synod of Saint-Girons. I've printed out all the papers and I ought to read them, though I could also read them in the car on the way down. Today we also have the Pessac guys group and the Great English Class this evening. Tomorrow morning will find me joining the others at Cadaujac to scuttle off to Saint-Girons, a small town in the depths of the Ariège, not far from Andorra and Spain. The church there is pastored by Jean-Philippe Bru and it will be great to see the place. This is what wikipedia says about it . The synod is what we call our Regional Council, and it will last till Saturday afternoon, whereupon we scuttle off home again. Synod plus points - seeing the folks, discussing the life of the churches, seeing Saint-Girons Synod minus points - Wot, no Queen ? Sunday evening we have the English Service. Last Sunday there were some new faces and we had three lads under two years of age.

It's not brilliant but you may be able to read if you squint...

We bank at present with Credit-Agricole Normandie (Britline), this because we could establish the account from the UK before we moved here and so on. Also the folk speak English and don't assume we know everything about how accounts work. We need a second account for our work support money. It's currently paid into our main account with our personal allowance but it has been decided that this needs to be separated off into an account apart - a good idea. So I contacted Britline. "Hum, har, oh dear, well we'll need all the documents you sent us originally" (which was a lot) and so on... The other day I was paying a cheque in at our local Credit-Agricole Aquitaine. How do I set up an account here ? Come and see us with your electric bill. So I did and 37 seconds later the guy said "You'll receive all the forms at your house by post. Bring them here, sign them, I'll activate them and bob's your uncle." Wow ! Quelle efficacité !

Yesterday was a gorgeous day - bright and sunny and not too cold. That's because the weather is on the change. The torrential rain is over for a while. Now we'll have MUCH COLDER WEATHER. But yesterday was lovely. After a morning potching about (cutting back the buddleia, etc.) we went to the cinema to see the film Red, which was quite good fun. Then a pleasant evening with the children off at solfège and me doing a bit of the necessary on the trombone. A nice day off. Today back to the grind with a meeting with the bank this morning, distribution of leaflets this afternoon and the student Bible study this evening (which I am not leading at all).