goodbyes & hellos

Cambridge had its goodbyes, including a party for Tessa's birthday and lunch at the Fitzwilliam Museum, which is a good place for an elegant snack. It seemed a shame that, due to our course timing, our MPhil group drifted away in ones and twos rather than going out with a bang, but it was nice to see those we saw.


Back in sunny Sleaford, it has been decided that I ought to learn how to cook, so I have been cooking for the family every night for the past week. Although I have to allow for triple the preparation time suggested in the recipe, things have turned out fairly well so far. My repertoire includes prawn pilau rice and ratatouille chicken.

Last Saturday we went to an ecofriendly house somewhere, which was open to the public for the day. This was a fascinating experience, the house having solar heating, earth banks supporting the walls and extensive grounds. Some of the more interesting technical details escape my memory.

We had a goodbye party on Thursday for two girls from church going off to university.

On Saturday night my sister Lizzy suggested watching a DVD she bought for 99p. The film, I Don't Buy Kisses Anymore, about a Italian-American graduate student who dates an obese male for the sake of her research, was surprisingly engaging, though one might need to be in the mood for 1980s-style cheese (though my research tells me it's actually from 1992). During this film my sister made some colourful cards for varied occasions.


Yesterday at church we had a guest preacher, Steve Melnichuk from Next Level International, a missions organisation involved in training leaders to plant churches in central and eastern Europe. NLI has taken my sisters and parents on trips to Ukraine. Afterwards my family took the Melnichuks (Steve & Michelle, Alexa, Shayelle and Isaak) out for lunch at a restaurant near an old watermill. Steve and Michelle are from Canada but with Ukrainian ancestry and have travelled around quite a bit so conversation was wide-ranging. Grinding flour in the mill was quite fun too, especially for the children.

Today I helped out with a parent and toddler group, helping with carrying things, clearing toys (from around children’s feet) and collecting cash (from mums and childminders). Our takings were £8.50 above what they should have been given the number of people and the most likely explanation seems to be that I didn’t give someone change from a £10 note. Whoops!