les Davey de France

I had time. My flight was from Gatwick at 18:45. The whole of London was before me, and a heavy bag was trailing behind me. I contemplated visiting the National Gallery, the British Museum, putting my bag in a cloakroom (do they still have them in museums?) dragging it up and down escalators in tube stations. In the end I got on the bus for Brent Cross and went to see one of the joys of my life - the towels in John Lewis. I should have taken a photograph, really, but I just love those shelves and the way the colourful towels are arranged so neatly. If I could do one thing bring extra joy into our home it would be to stack towels in a small reflection of John Lewis' perfection. After exploring Brent Cross - of course it was disappointing, but I always expected it would be, so in a funny kind of way it wasn't, I got a leisurely bad lunch in some fast food joint, then plotted my course for Gatwick airport. The C11 bus would take me to West Hampstead railway station, then a tra...

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Public transport seems really easy in London now, helped, of course, by the fact that EMA runs from 10:30 to 4:30, so allows you to avoid all the mad dash on the trains and underground. From Cricklewood there's a train that takes you almost to the Barbican, where the conference was to be held, and that first day my host guided me flawlessly from Farringdon station, past Smithfield Market to the huge concrete brutalist garden. Singing for the conference was led by a pianist and two guitarists. The two guitarists were miked to sing, too. We currently believe that it is very difficult for any congregation of any size to sing without a miked up lead singer. I don't know why we developed this strong conviction or where it came from. Not long ago we managed pretty well without. Anyway, I digress. The talks at EMA were divided into four strands: Strand 1 : Morning Exposition, from Andy Gemmill. These were "working out" sessions where Mr Gemmill examined Ephesians tryi...

Pat and I got up all excited. Today we were flying to London to go to EMA, the Evangelical Ministry Assembly. In addition we would be able to run amok through London. Yipppeeeee! I printed out the boarding cards and got our passports out of the special folder. Alan's, Catrin's. Pat's? No passport for Pat. So began the long hunt. The long and exhaustive hunt. The long, exhaustive and all-encompassing hunt. The long, exhaustive, all-encompassing and fruitless hunt. So there I was sat on the Easyjet plane with an empty seat beside me, when a young woman came up the aisle, looking at the seat numbers and sat in it. Long story short, Easyjet overbook their flights. They're allowed to overbook by up to 10%. This lady had bought a ticket for the flight on the day before, when all the seats were full. She checked in at the airport to be told that no seats were available, it was overbooked, but that as she was the first person on the waiting list there was a strong possi...

On the other hand, maybe we need to mobilise the grey army? Read about it here .

Feeling encouraged and discouraged, hopeful and frustrated in equal measure at the moment about the progress of the gospel here in Bordeaux. Some years ago we were very concerned for Mérignac. Now there's three or four churches newly there - a new ADD church plant, a CMA church plant and a big charismatic church relocated there from Talence. It does leave a hole in Talence, mind. Meanwhile, on the more frustrating side, who can dare to come and pioneer in Bordeaux and in its suburbs? Our guys in their 30s need to be assistant pastors in settled churches and work in teams before they can get enough experience to begin church planting. That means they'll begin to pioneer when they're 40 or 50. It's what we did, but it's hardly ideal. We're old, tired out and hide bound, and due to retire before long, and we need young, flexible people with decades of service before them. I wonder whether we need to lower the entry age to seminaries and training institutions?...

Our flight was at lunchtime so we had plenty of time to pack and leave for the airport. The 10:30 bus 42 to Mérignac, then the 1 to the airport. I printed out the boarding cards and got our passports from the special cloth wallet. "Where's your passport, dear?" So it was that I left on bus 42 and Pat waved me off. Since then the flat has had the cleaning of its life, and no passport has emerged. This has brought further consequences which I will explain later. An uneventful flight to Gatwick and a leisurely journey across London to Cricklewood where I was to stay with some friends during EMA.

It felt good, though a tiny bit ... breathless? ... to be back on the trail this morning. I didn't run during the heatwave. The government told us to avoid physical effort. Also we weren't sleeping very well. And it was already HOT first thing in the morning. So it was good to be back out today, even though I had to take a few breathers!

but here , I think he is saying something very important.

Our big, old house with its dark varnished, turned balustrades. As I climbed the winding flights of stairs towards the attic room I was startled to see all the toys were moving around. No-one else was there, but the toys were just wandering back and fore, randomly. "What's going on here?" I asked the toys. Well there was no-one else to ask, was there? "Nothing's going on. You're just schizophrenic", came the toys' reply. Much later when I woke at 10 to 8, too late for a run, I remembered my dream.

Sorry chaps! It's been one of those times when it's hot, you charge as slowly as possible from one thing to another and lots of deadlines loom large. Meanwhile we're encouraged, but feel discouraged. Probably the result of tiredness from the heat, as well as the bigness of our ambitions for the city and the smallness of our resources and talents. Oh well. Loaves and fishes, I suppose. Loaves and fishes.

We're on heatwave alert here. That's when it's over 30 in the day and still in the 20s at night. It means you heat up and you never cool down. Not never. Not at all. Our secret weapon is shutters, so we open the windows ni the morning to change the air in the flat, then we close everything down and live in the gloom till the sun has shifted from the terrace. Then we can afford to open the shutter on the big window to the terrace and let some light in. Yesterday when Pat got back from her trip to the doctor (routine, nothing serious) she found the firemen attending to one of our elderly neighbours, a man who lives on the second floor. We've never been able to have a chat with him and he keeps himself to himself, so we don't know which flat he lives in, even. He had fallen on the path outside the flats. The firemen had brought him into the cooler corridors. Pat took some water out and also gave him our phone number so he has someone to ring, just in case. If we ...

Escape and Pray sent people to Bordeaux again on Friday and they phoned me for help. The idea, I think, is loosely based on  Luke 10, and consists of sending folk out with a return airline ticket to a city to meet people, to find out about their situation and to pray. The folk sent don't take any money, credit cards or whatever. They depend on the people they are sent to, who don't know they are coming. Generally the folk don't know where they will be sent, and don't speak French, so they ring my number, which is on the Bordeaux Church website. At the moment. Last time it was a group of Dutch guys who arrived on the weekend of the 18th December last year. They joined us for a meal and ended up staying at James' place. This time two Dutch guys phoned while we were waiting for the judges' deliberation in the music exam. "I can't speak now, I'm in an examination." "Is there a meal in your house? Can we come?" I sent them the...

but we're hiding inside behind our radiation shields and keeping well hydrated! Temperatures are set to hit 39°C today (that's in the shade) and we are on heatwave alert, so we're keeping the shutters down and drinking lots! Heatwave alerts are issued when the temperature is set to reach above 30 in the daytime and stay above 20 all night for at least.three days, I think, which means that you never get to cool down at all.

So on Friday evening we all took a singing exam. It made for an exciting Friday because we had rehearsal with the (excellent) accompanist at 15h30, Charlotte from OM was arriving at 16h, then I had a meeting at 17h, then we had the Home Group at 19h, then the exam at 20h. We reserved a Citiz car, and that made it all go surprisingly smoothly! The exam? Well there were 9 singers and two examiners; the director of the local music school and the conductor of the choir I sing in. (I was HORRIFIED when I saw that it was him!) People sang a wide range of song, from a Stromae rhythm and rap number through Fauré songs through to Mozart opera. It was an entertaining time. Of the Daveys Pat sang first. She sang a popular song in French called Syracuse, which is a kind of nostalgia for travel. "I'd really like to see Syracuse and various other places before I get too old to store up memories for when I'm in Paris." Rough translation. Then me. I had a recital and ar...

So the Expert from the insurance company came at 9 on Monday. He may have been a couple of minutes late. At any rate he apologised for his lateness. Then we got to work. I gave him the list of things taken and all the receipts that I had dug out. He then added, converted pounds to euros, applied his depreciation rate and ... wrote a cheque. I hadn't expected a cheque to come straight away. I scuttled off to the bank and paid it in quickly! Now we're almost back to where we started. We are equipped as regards computers. The big question concerns what we do about cameras. Pat had a 2005 FZ3. An excellent camera, though it had only 3MP and is now worth nothing. The equivalent would be about 300€ for a FZ300. I had a 2007 TZ1. Again an excellent camera, it had 5MP and again is now worth nothing. The equivalent? Who knows! Both of us generally use our phones for photography now. The best camera is the one you have with you. Neither of us fancies lugging a big su...

Well, his bronze men have. I'll take a photo some time soon, but meanwhile here's an article about it.

First a word of explanation. Hot. It's hot here. Very hot. The kind of hot where you just cat-nap all night, skimming over the surface of sleep like a stone on a lake. But I thought, if not now, then when. So I donned my special running socks, my special running trews and my special running shoes, plus yesterday's tee-shirt, and ventured out. Boy was it hot. Not only that but the first drops of the approaching storm were falling. But I made it to the château and back, and next time it will be easier.

We agonised about hiring a car, mainly because I hate pretty much everything about it. I hate driving in the UK now. I hate the busy motorways. I hate parking in supermarket car parks. I hate driving down rough lanes and driveways. I hate the little stones that fly up on the motorway and knock against some part of the car. We hired a Kia Rio from GreenMotion - diesel, comfortable, nippy enough and plenty of room. As we picked it up the guy said he'd checked the tyres. We loaded up and set off. Two days later the tyre pressure sensor told us to check the tyres. We did. One was going down. So we topped it up every two days till we were within reach of the excellent Buckley Tyres, who removed a nail and repaired the tyre. Apart from that our time with the car was uneventful and we returned it safe and sound. I've never had a problem with a hire car. In fact, this puncture was the worst problem I've ever had. Pretty good really, eh? But still I hate hiring cars!

My week is calm, but the weekend is nuts, especially Friday. Of course, there's a reason for that. Two conferences to which I am not going, at Bala, and at Evian-les-Bains. But it means I can catch up a bit.

We left Liverpool on a grey day. It had rained. It was not raining, but it would soon rain. It was about 14°C. We arrived in Bordeaux to scorching sunshine and 35°C. And the lime trees are still fragrant.

I packed lots of shirts, two light sweatshirts and a thin nylon pacamac. Big mistake. We needed thick sweaters and fleeces!

Hi all! Sorry for the unannounced hiatus. We've been in the UK for two weeks. Two cold, wet, hectic weeks. I'll post a few trivia soon. But we're relieved to be back in France and WARM and DRY!