Hey'a!
I can’t believe another week has passed. And then I remember September is nearly here and I’m even more amazed. We’re quickly coming to the first anniversary of our move here and I can hardly believe that!
Continue reading ‘Where has the week gone (and random pics)’
We took Lars and Maria and the boys to the airport on Wednesday for their flight to Denmark. We loved having company but are worn out now, and looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. It’s great to have people visit us though. I think with Northern Ireland being such a similar culture and language to our own, you often don’t notice the subtle differences. I think we feel so at home here, that we don’t realize the small ways that we don’t feel at home until we get to spend time with people from home. So it’s been refreshing. Thanks to our guests. We had a great time with you.
Sometimes it’s just nice to hang out with people who call french fries french fries and spell color without a ‘u’, you know?
Walking on the promenade with the Kristiansens.
Bridge over the Shimna
Lars, Maria and the boys at Tollymore Forest Park.
We are so excited to have the whole Kristiansen gang here with us for the week. That is Lars, Maria, Luca, and Silas for those of you who don’t know them. They are in the process, albeit a rather long one, of moving to Newcastle to join us in our work here. And we get them for a whole week while they’re “on their way” to Denmark to visit Lars’ family. They’ve dealt beautifully with the jet lag, including the boys and have already begun to meet friends and explore our beloved home. This morning we’re going to head to a coffee shop for breakfast and are particularly excited to share this place with them.
Lars sent us an email just a month or two after we’d moved about a coffee shop he’d come across online that was for sale. It was at the south end of town, down by the harbour, and we’d never come across it before. So we decided to go check it out. We saw no signs of sale, but we LOVED the shop and have been faithful patrons of it ever since. The staff are wonderful, decor is actually cool, clientele is young-ish, and scones are the best we’ve ever eaten! So today we get to show Lars in person the place he introduced us to virtually. What fun!
We’ve got more plans for the rest of the visit, which lasts until Wednesday. Pray for us that it will be a good, useful, and encouraging time. We don’t know what we need to accomplish together, but we sure want it accomplished. We’ll get some pics up soon as well as another “_______ Revisited” update from Mom and Dad S’s visit.
You might recognize some of these places by now, as this is one of our favorite places here – Tollymore Forest Park. Some of our favorite spots were blocked off when we went because a movie (Your Highness, I’ve been told) was being filmed. It was raining, so nobody out filming. I’m looking forward to seeing a movie with scenes filmed in such a beloved spot! I’ll have to wait another 2 years or so, though. Anyway, enjoy some lovely pics…
Heading into the park.
Made it down to the river and the trees were shelter from the rain.
The water was moving more than we'd ever seen.
These are the stepping stones we usually walk over. A bit flooded today, though.
My cutie-pie mom. Who could resist such a shot?
The rain stopped by the time we left and we had some pesto in the back garden. What a satisfying day. *sigh*
My dear parents flew home yesterday after a whirlwind 3-week adventure here with us. And we were absolute failures at communicating with the world during that time. Sorry about that. Right now we’re both in recovery mode, though Mark seems to be ahead of me on that front. We’ll do some extra blogging in the next week or two to fill you in on all the fun. Somewhere along the line you’ll get some Ange-ramble about the emotional ride of getting to be with my parents again, but I certainly need some more processing time. So you’ll get some fun pictures and a bit about the early days of the trip. Yeah!
After a bit of rest, we took the folks to the best chip shop in Ireland (for the last 4 years). Yum!
Then we felt the need to take a walk by the harbor in Annalong...
...and another walk on the Prom in Newcastle.
Dad was so happy to be by the sea.
Mom and I couldn't help but have Dad take cute pictures of us.
We also got to open some fun presents. Have I mentioned I love presents?
And the adventure begins.
…to be continued…
This is so wierd. We’ve been here long enough now that I sometimes hear a Northern Irish or British accent and think it’s an American accent because it’s sounds so normal. We were watching a British movie on TV the other day and I totally could not tell what the accents were. I wasn’t convinced they weren’t American accents until we noticed they were driving on the left side of the road.
It just happened again today. We’re at a big craft fair and this girl came up to Ange’s booth. I thought she had an American accent, but I couldn’t tell for sure at all. It’s like I couldn’t remember the difference momentarily, and we had to ask our Irish friend Kerry what kind of accent it was (it actually was American, by the way).
I’m sure it’s just a transitional thing as my brain gets more and more used to living here, but it’s sure wierd.
I’ve never really enjoyed getting my car fixed. Even in America, there’s that awful feeling that the mechanic could so easily take advantage of my lack of knowledge – “That’s right, sir, your second carburetor needs a new truss rod and parts alone will cost $300…” So this week I got to have the super-fun experience of trying that in another culture.
Fortunately, things are not too different here, but it does add to the insecurity quite a bit when you have no grid at all for what things should cost, things are called by different names, and laws are different. It seems like there’s more of a propensity for people to use a mechanic they know, who often just works out of his house, rather than a big business like Midas or something. There are tire (spelled tyre, of course) shops and body shops, etc., but they’re mostly specialized shops. As with most things here, it’s who you know that counts.
That’s what friends are for, though. I think I found a pretty good mechanic on the recommendation of one of the Night Light guys. Fortunately, once you find someone you trust you can just stick with him. So there’s one more problem sorted.
Could I be any more creative with this post’s title? Maybe. But that’s just what this week has been. Again. And I’m not complaining. It’s been full of hard work – Mark with computer work (of the required and voluntary sort) and me with sewing. We made a loaf of banana bread for Sarah the other night. Mark weeded the garden and trimmed up the bushes. We cleaned up the house and then made it messy again. We talked to our parents. (I’m excitedly counting down the *9* days until mine come to visit!) We made dinner. Went to our favorite coffee shop for scones and hot drinks. We had another worship time last night with the Downpatrick group and other friends of theirs. We generally had a great, quiet week. {sigh}
Love,
the Guinns
This look captures about how I felt watching the video of my acting...
It’s been a quiet week for us. Campbell and Kristi left for a month-long trip to visit her family in Thailand on Monday, which always leaves a bit of a vacuum socially. The upside is that you know you have good friends when you miss them. We’ve needed a quiet week though, since the ones before were pretty manic.
Tuesday night the local theatre group I was part of had a barbecue and a showing of the DVD of our performance. It was really fun to see everyone again. It’s always really weird to see yourself on video though. At this point, I’m pretty used to hearing myself speak and sing so that’s not awkward anymore, but seeing is a whole ‘nother deal…
Anyway, since there’s not a lot of news, here are some fun photos.
An authentic Irish BBQ - rain and all (this is from a gettogether at Campbell's a few months ago)
The Irish version of a coffee house church...
Hope is like
a toddler in the surf,
a candle in the draft,
a frail child at recess.
Hope is held up on the thinnest string:
So easily he falls prey to the waves, the wind, the bully’s words.
We must guard him, this tender egg.
If he hatches he brings a new world,
If he cracks then many things are lost.
We will buck against the cost;
We will blame the wind and waves but
It won’t be their fault.
What We’re Doing Now