eek!
i shall soon be presenting MY research at a professional conference - eeek! very scarry but very exciting...i say my research - i mean a co-project that i researched for and co-wrote with a member of my team at work..but yeah - all very exciting!

that's about it really. am desigining a new leaflet for work - its nearly done - we had a mini photo shoot at work today - it was bizarre but funny!

um, not much else to report at the moment...am maybe getting some church stuff underway...and the Passion of St John by Bach is coming along nicely, although it is the most challenging piece of music I have ever sung!

so, as I said, I am going to do a little blog of my little eastern european travels.
the holiday started on the friday night, with how many travels with Dave and Karl start, trying to sleep at a transport terminus...this time Luton airport. On the Saturday morning we had a very early check in and flight to Berlin....and we arrived in a tram/bus/underground strike...making the trip to our hostel difficult but not impossible. some street trampelining, and a long walk via churches later, and during a snow flurry we reached the Brandenburg gate...
several tours of the city were undertaken....including the third reich tour, the red communist tour, and a tour of the local regal town Potsdam. An evening with Esther who we met in Geneva happened - it was great, we all talked about our testimonies, a real bond. We also met with Corinna. I did some stuff on my own - like the Catholic cathedral, a bombed church in West Berlin, the Berlin Dom, and many other Berlin buildings - including the synagogue. I was mastering the German underground and over ground systems. We all went to check-point charlie, and we all walked up and down the remaining sections of the Berlin wall. The history behind berling in fascinating, it is like the city will never learn....i personally found the city quite bleak, but it was the history i admired.

an overnight coach journey, and then we arrived, once again in the very early hours of another city -Krakow - an emotional city for me...ot had been 9 years since my last visit to Poland. A mastering of the tram system, and the use of my Polish meant we arrived at the hostel safely. then an exploration of Krakow occurred, and an opportunity for me to go to Mass too. we saw the openning of the altar, and many many many other churches - every other building seemed to be a building of religious significance. we went to Wawel castle and cathedral (2 minutes away from the hostel), and a bottle of wodka later, we went out for dinner with another person we met in our hostel, and played pool, and i sustained a head injury (thanks to Karl). during our time in Poland, we went to Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was so very sad - still unbelievable as to what occurred - and the size of Birkenau is just crazy - and to think that over half of it has already been pulled down. I mean - just crazy. Standing in the gas chamber brought shivers down my spine - i mean, the number of people that lost their life in that room - it was just awful. not so much of a happy day, but a day that means that when seeing such a place, hopefully something of this scale cannot and should not happen again. that evening we met with some of Daves friends from England, who most certainly do not know how to treat a woman. Dave locked us out of our hostel (Karl and I) that evening, and no matter how much poo Karl threw at the window, he was not to be woken...so some, Krakow middle of the night, and sun-rise later, we found a bar called tequila - so what did we drink at 7 am - you guessed it! we certainly paid for it later in the salt mines....

....an overnight train journey to Prague (having met my relative at the station), and you guessed it, another early morning arrival in another city...Prague greated us with very very cold weather. we had a tour of the city, and then washed and cosied ourselves up to do more Prague discovery, before finding a yummy restaurant - and a much deserved sleep. the next day was the church, cathedral, castle of Prague, and dinner, and the last day was tv tower, mozarts residence, a dancing building and last minute eiffeling of things, before the airport, and home....to in a break of tradition, a late night arrival at Gatwick.

It was a good holiday...I was emotional for some of it...due to various things that happened before and during the holiday - but all the different histories that we heard, saw and discussed were very interesting, and the two boys were just lovely. they do have respect for a woman and i appreciated that for the whole time i was out there.

it will now be a very long time before i have a next holiday (most probably be Taizé this summer), but 4 countries in the space of a month has been good enough for me...although I do want to go further afield - india will be great, as would china, and now obviously NZ...so much i want to do and see...we shall see.

travelling unleashes something in me...a sense of discovery, not just of my surroundings, but of myself. I was surpised that I did so much stuff on mine own, and that I had the courage to speak to random people in languages i have not spoken in a long time. it gave me a sense of I can do things, but also highlighted my weaknesses, and what I really must battle with. But most importantly, it highlighted the joy that my travel Bible and prayer book can bring in times of need.

so, berlin, krakow and prague have now all been ticked off - more will be said about that soon - today's post has a special message. holiday with the boys was great - i love them both dearly as friends, which is why these last few days have been hard, as today Karl flew back out to New Zealand. I am sad. i thought that Friday was going to be my last night to say goodbye, so we went out, and Dave gave karl and I some time at the end of the night to say goodbye. we hugged, a close tight hug, and we didnt want it to end. i gave him my card, and hugged again - and before i cried infront of him, i got back into daves car when the tears came.

but then, last night, i had just out the last fork of my tea into my mouth, and a phone call happened. Chris, Sarah, dave and I were going to spend his last night with him. we went out, and he said thanks to us all for everything (i tried hard not to cry), another long hug, and a see you later, and that was it...

I heard from him from the air port this morning...he got to check in on time, and that was good news, and we are keeping in touch, and I have assured him, I am going to do all I can to get myself better.

Can we pray that he finds a job and a home in NZ, and he also finds a new church to join, where he feels welcomed, and that he uses God in all the decisions that he makes.

It just means that when i have the funds and the holiday accrued, I am just going to have to make my way to NZ, where I know that I have someone to welcome me and show me around. I will miss him as God provided him at a time when everything else was not looking so positive in my life, and we talked candidly about God, relationships and everything in between in an open manner which i really appreciated.

but, there are many more new people for me to get to know. I am doing more things with different churches so I hope to meet more new people, but hopefully not many more from the other side of the world as I hate saying goodbye to people, and especially when they live so many time zones away!