Alan and Pat live and work in Bordeaux. Alan is a pastor and Pat was a nurse. Now we work with UFM worldwide. Read on! (If you'd like to know what took us to Bordeaux, then start with the archives from September 2004)
The kitchen with our devoted kitchen staff
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Although you'll find our home a mess come in, sit down, converse. It's not always as bad as this - it's usually worse.
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Anonymous said…
What gorgeous photos. You really do share your lives with us. Thank you. Diolch Gwilym a Catrin hefyd. Love the Welsh flag!
All we need now is a photo of you, Alan, in your best 'bib n tucker' (not that you're not always impecably dressed!), standing next to a pulpit, large Bible in hand with a cheesy grin! Oh, sorry, no you're in France, not the USA. I think I'll stop there. I have a Romanian friend who is in Theological college in the US. I wonder if he'll produce such a photo?
They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor...
Yesterday we went over my script from August 13. There really wasn't much she had taken exception to. Once or twice she wondered quite what I was getting at (they had the same problem at Deeside, I think...) and I do have difficulties with the word " de ", but then she said "Who doesn't?" So I felt very encouraged. I also took the opportunity to ask her about one or two things: 1) Direct preaching. Like I used to in Britain, I preach saying you - using "vous" when I am talking to the whole wide world and "tu" when I want it to feel as if I am addressing each person individually. French preachers tend to say rather "What will we do, what will one do". So I asked her if she felt my way was too direct, too brutal for the French ear. She said "I think you can get away with it with your English accent". In fact several people have commented on how much they appreciated being spoken to directly in preaching. 2) Liaisons Last...
Following the Great Keswick Debacle, when our volunteering at the Keswick café was sabotaged by our assorted indispositions, we had airline tickets to use up. Yes, we had not taken travel insurance, so we paid even more money to change our tickets to fly for a short visit to North Wales. This time we were able to go. We passed extremely slowly through a very crowded Bordeaux airport but in good time to get our plane. All seats in the terminal were taken so we leaned against whatever we could find while waiting to board. Hey, bags need seats, too! though sometimes pointing out to Pat, "No, that's a bag seat", makes the bag find a new refuge on the lap of the person sitting next to it... Once on the plane we quickly found our allocated seats - right at the back on the left hand side - stowed our bags and the flight was smooth and uneventful. We had 30 minutes in Manchester to disembark, get through immigration , hustle off to the station and board our train for Shotton. I...
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All we need now is a photo of you, Alan, in your best 'bib n tucker' (not that you're not always impecably dressed!), standing next to a pulpit, large Bible in hand with a cheesy grin! Oh, sorry, no you're in France, not the USA. I think I'll stop there. I have a Romanian friend who is in Theological college in the US. I wonder if he'll produce such a photo?