He is risen!

Christ is Risen!

He is risen indeed!

Last week my son asked me why we have eggs at Easter. I explained that they are a symbol of new life and that is the central part of the Easter story: Jesus risen from the dead, giving us life. 

I then failed to think of a good reason for chocolate, although late in the day when the kids have run me ragged I think chocolate can give me a new lease of life!

The joy of Easter is not that Christ died, but that he rose from the dead. Many people die cruel deaths, some die to save others, but only Jesus brings eternal life. Hallelujah!

May I wish you all a very Happy Easter!

First Class Treatment

Half-term brought a series of joys.

Firstly, the children went to visit Grannie & Gramps.  For the whole week.  The extent of my duties were to travel to Peterborough to dispose of them, and then be on time to collect them at the end of the week.  Clearly I failed at the latter: personal failure rather than something I can blame on the trains, but not so disastrous as to mean I didn't get them back.  The children, that is.

Secondly, I'd decided to treat myself to a first class ticket each way when travelling alone.  I decided that I could blow the entire £56 I have earned this year on such a treat, only to discover it was only £6 more than second-class each way.  Still got £44 to spend...

Not that I was going to spend it on dining at the table, of course.  The first journey (back from Peterborough) was an adventure: what did first class really mean?  Clearly it offered wider seats and, I noted, a table at every seat.  One of the most annoying things about train travel is not having a table, particularly if you want to work at your laptop, or marking papers, or your five-year-old wants to colour in endless pictures.  Anyway, I was sharing a table with three other first-class virgins, who were heading to Edinburgh for a hen night.  I can now categorically state that champagne does not help when writing sermons (the latter had to be completely reconstructed by my husband in time for an assessed service the next day).  But I had a great time!

For the journey back to collect the kids I took full advantage for first-class freebies.  I discovered Newcastle has a First Class Lounge.  I could get free orange juice, tea, coffee and biscuits - although I had not left enough time for this before the train left.  Then I realised that these were also provided on the train itself.  I did pick up a copy of The Times and exploited the trolley service as much as possible: bottled water, fruit, packets of biscuits.  Perhaps - just perhaps - I took as much as the extra £6 it cost.  Certainly the kids benefitted from the snaffled biccies on their journey home with me!

The only downside to half-term was the misery of stress back home.  Whilst I enjoy all the travelling and seeing the world, how I long to be established and settled and providing a concrete future for my children.  Yet uncertainty abounds: husband's job, house rental, house purchase, education standards.  Should I get a job and stay here?  No sooner do I decide something than I un-decide it.

Still, the children are back now and I realise just how much I live for them.  And, thankfully, they also seemed quite glad to be back with me too.

Old haunts, old friends (2)

The original purpose of the visit: Sunday.  It turned out that you cannot get to Edinburgh from Newcastle by train on a Sunday before 11am, so Saturday was added on as a way out of this problem.  Cannot even begin to understand the mindset that has no trains going north of the border until lunchtime, but heck - no-one has asked me to run Network Rail yet.  Perhaps if they did ...

Our venue at 11am was our church in Leith.  After many years of worship there, the Methodist Church as decided to combine four churches in the city into one City church and we were invited to the final Sunday morning service in the church.  I thought it would be emotional, teary, sad, but I should have known better. I am priviledged to have worked and worshipped there. I have never been to such a cheerful, enthusiastic, open church in the UK, full of innovative ideas, full of God's praise. 

Full of food too.  The buffet was a banquet and I suspect many church members will be eating ham sandwiches for weeks to come.

Of course, this also gave us the opportunity to meet up with friends whom we haven't seen for too long.  When we left Edinburgh our friends were married and just beginning to contemplate children.  On Sunday we ended up in the Botanical Gardens, eight children running around madly, making new friends as their parents tried to catch up on the missing years.  It did appear that it was only us who had changed jobs/life/country with any degree of regularity.  However, nothing matched up to the glories of Gareth's new A-reg Landrover.  I could see my husband drooling in envy, mentally reciting the 10th Commandment over and over again: Thou shalt not covet thy best friend's landrover.

The journey home was late and uneventful, although such a long walk along the platform at Waverley that we were back out in the open air.  Also a cross-country train despite booking through national express.   One day I'm determined I'll understand the world of big business but for now I'll just rejoice in the simple joys of meeting old friends and time together as a family.

Old haunts, old friends (1)

The long weekend gave opportunity to travel to Edinburgh for an overnight stay.

No1 child was studying Castles at school last term so we arranged our train journeys to give us time to see Edinburgh Castle on arrival on Saturday afternoon.  Journey uneventful.  Glorious sunshine in Edinburgh.

On departure from Waverley, beginning the long climb up to our destination at the head of the Royal Mile ('Mum! I'm tired! My legs hurt!'), my husband noticed someone waving madly at us from their car.  We haven't lived in Edinburgh for over 12 years so this was somewhat unexpected.  More surprising still was when we were greeted a couple of minutes later by friends who we thought were in New Zealand.  (They wish they still were.)  It was a former flat-mate of my husband, still living in his university town.

Our children were unimpressed.  No1 child simply wanted to get to the castle...

I believe that neither of us actually visited the castle when living in Edinburgh.  The queues to buy tickets was appalling - surely some better system could be devised?  Another three attendants would have been a good start.  Still, our children loved running around, discovering the different rooms, rushing past all the amazing history and showing only a modicum of interest in the Crown Jewels.  Thank goodness for tea and scones - recuperation medicine for exhausted parents.

We drifted down the Royal Mile in order to catch a bus to Leith.  I reminisced, thinking how beautiful the city of Edinburgh is, how lively and interesting.  We both pointed places out saying, 'Wasn't that a vegetarian cafe?' or 'That's where our friends got married.'  We smiled at the tourist guides giving foreigners a potted history of the sights.  We ambled along, disgusted that the central Post Office is no longer there, remembering lining pennies up along North Bridge in a fund-raising attempt when at University, marvelling that the city is going to get a tramline.

Eventually we plumped for a restaurant on the waterfront at Leith.  Given how posh it was they were remarkably accommodating for us with large, ungainly rucksacks and two exhausted and exhausting children.  A bottle of wine later and we adults at least felt sane again.

A final walk to our B&B for the night.  More reminiscing, as we remembered Easter sunrise services on the mounds on Leith Links.  The regeneration of Leith is quite amazing and a delight to behold.  We finally collapsed into bed - amazed that our children could still want to sit up and read - and slept like logs.