Traditional Boxing Day Party at Carl and Mavis' house in Donaghadee. We seem to have been doing this now for 20 years! It's always a great evening with old friends and catching up with all the news.

Bill was back from India and in great storytelling form! Got a free upgrade to Business Class to Bangalore!
Tim had won the contract for supplying and erecting the Christmas Tree (26 ft!) in Stormont and that was a saga. Etc. etc.

Had sausage and mash for dinner followed by the traditional flaming Christmas Pudding and this year a chocolate fountain in the kitchen.

We stayed overnight, and as most of the party didn't break up until about 2.30am it was just as well!
The following day we were invited for lunch in Annabel and David's. Good to see them again too.
We are really blessed with Good friends.
Rick and Kate and Reuben arrive back from New York on Saturday morning. I'm picking them up at the airport at 8.20am.

Had a great Christmas. I really love this time of year. Despite the fact that Dave and Stace are living in Canada and Rick and Katie were visiting friends in New York this year, we had another great Christmas.

The church was packed for the Carol Service on Sunday. Here's the Nativity group from the "Tinies" who took part in the early bit of the Service.

Then about 40 of the YF came up to our house afterwards for snacks and games. Played "Empires" and "The Steeplechase Game"

On Christmas morning opened our presents and had church and then Freddie and Linda and the Family came for lunch on Christmas Day.

Dave & Stacey Skyped us from Canada and Rick rang us from New York.

Here's a picture of Caleb playing with one of his toys on Christmas morning in Canada.

Boxing day was the

traditional Boxing day football match, "Youngun's v the Oldun's.Another travesty of "The Beautiful Game" ! And the Oldun's were hammered again.

Escaped the Christmas madness by going for a walk this afternoon through Crawfordsburn Country Park with Pearl and Archie. Cold but bright and very clear. Lovely walk for a couple of miles along the coastal path. Sea very calm. Full moon rising as we were coming back.

Reminded me of a poem by Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

After our walk had coffee and made our way home again. Nice afternoon out.

Who said Belfast was full of cowboys?

Day off today so we went into Belfast in the afternoon to do some shopping. Belfast's a bit mad at the minute and all the shops are bunged with people who have obviously stopped work at lunchtime to have a party and have no intention, (or are in no condition!) to go back.

Some guys in traditional North American Indian gear performing in Royal Avenue for some reason. A crowd of bemused shoppers gathered round, enjoying the strange chanting, singing and dancing although strange chanting singing, and dancing can be heard in many areas of Belfast most nights when the pubs are getting out.

Met Linda and Freddie in the Europa, which appeared to be in the middle of Party mode with several office dinners going on simultaneously and went and had a meal somewhere quieter and cheaper. We were going to St George's Church to hear "Melisma" a singing group I had heard at the BBC "Sing Carols" event in Spires. They were excellent and the acoustics in this old church are amazing. It would be good if modern church architects could recover the art of acoustics without relying on amplifiers and speakers which are a very poor substitute. This old church has an interesting history. In 1690 William of Orange passed through Belfast on his way from Carrickfergus to the Battle of the Boyne, and had a famous sermon, "Arise Great King", preached to him here. They still use the chair he sat in! Henry Joy McCracken, a leading member of the United Irishmen in the 1798 rebellion was buried in the churchyard after being hanged, before later being moved to Clifton Street Cemetery.

A Bad Day at the Office

Christmas is coming. Bought our Christmas Tree on Friday morning.

On Friday night we had the Annual Gingerbread House Building Competition. This is now the third year and the competition is hotting up. Below are the six finalists. Despite Alison and Nev's shameless attempts to put out the lights and illuminate their house with sparklers.

The judge, (one of our neighbours, Pat Stirling,) refused all bribes, ignored all hints, nudges and threats and chose Rick and Katie's two roomed bungalow (need to tighten up the rules for next year!) as the winner!
On Sarturday morning Lilian and Katie decorated the Christmas Tree and we spent a quiet afternoon reading the paper, listening to carols and playing "Phase 10".

Back home again in good old "Norn Iron" as we call it here. Back into church life with a bit of a bang and three months post to sort out at home. Met Rick and Katie (and Reuben of course) and headed off to the Christmas Market in Belfast. This has become a regular feature now in Belfast at this time of year with lots of people from various European countries selling their local produce.

This year the City Hall is dominated of course by "The Big Wheel", (Belfast's answer to the London Eye).

Had a good walk round the market buying olives and cheese and stuffed vine leaves and various breads and then we all headed back to our house and had a bit of a party, pigging out on this stuff and watching a DVD.

Incidentally here is a sachet of sugar from the Stephen Center (sic) in Tiranne, the capital of Albania. This is one side, in Albanian.

And this is the other! Who would have believed a few years ago, when they were suffering the most brutal prosecution, that one day Christians could be as open as that in the capital of Albania.

That's by the way, now back to Macedonia!

On Tuesday after meeting with Pastor Soso, (see Sabbatical Journey Blog) I went back to the office about 1.30. I hadn't had lunch, (in fact I hadn't had breakfast either so Marino offered to take me out and show me around Skopje, the capital, where I was staying. Skopje is divided ethnically more or less, (like Belfast)! One one side you have Albanians who are mostly Muslim and on the other you have Macedonians who are mostly Greek Orthodox. We started on the Albanian side and went through an old part of the city with narrow streets, small shops and a huge market selling everything! We also visited the old castle overlooking this part of the town. A lot of it was damaged in an earthquake a few years ago, but it gave great views over the city.

I bought a few odds and ends including a hamburger, (made out of a few odds and ends!). We then moved across into the more modern part of the city. The centre is dominated by a large plaza and there are lots of upmarket and expensive shops.

When I'm abroad I tend to buy a book as a souvenir of where I have been. In Tirane I bought an English translation of "The concert" by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare, here in Skopje I bought "The Pianist" by Wladyslaw Szpilman, the story of a concert pianist's survival in Warsaw during the German occupation. A film was made of the book a few years ago.

Had a couple of coffee to wash down the hamburger and as it was late afternoon we headed back to the office. I was told that all of us were going out that night for a meal. Which we did in a traditional Macedonian restaurant, and very good it was too!

Sorry you haven't heard from me for some time, the laptop crashed. I am now in Macedonia and have access to this computer in the office when isn't being used. First of all a couple of pictures of our last couple of days in Canada, Lilian out for a walk with Caleb, (we walk he runs!) and his sister, Grace who seems a quiet as Caleb is noisy.

The next country I visited was Albania and frankly, I didn't quite know what to expect!
In fact, that's probably the best way to describe Albania, "unexpected". A beautiful country with some dark and ugly corners, a hangover from it's long period under communism. I visited the ancient city of Berat with its 2400 year old castle and it had a real Mediterranean feel about it. We stayed in Tirana, the capital and it is a mixture of old and very new/ spick and span and dirty/neo classical and ultra modern/ rich and poor! Like I say, you don't quite know what to expect!

Eating out is a big thing in Albania and there are lots of restaurants, roadside markets and coffee houses. With its large Muslim population the men tend to gather in coffee shops rather than in pubs. All meals are large and they just keep coming.
The weather was warm and bright but as we are coming into the winter there was the occasional dull day and shower of rain. There appears to be a phobia about getting wet and everybody carries an umbrella.
Southern Albania is particularly beautiful with lovely beaches but judging by what I have seen of coastal development so far, they need to be careful they don't "Majorca-cise" it with ugly blocks of high rise hotels right along the beach front.

Elsewhere some of the buildings and architecture would not be out of place in Los Angeles or London. During my time here I have met a lot of Albanians and done a lot of eating and talking, (no surprise there!) While they are delighted to be free and democratic, they say that corruption is rife and many of the politicians who are in charge were big Party members in the former Communist regime with all that implies. Some parts of the city (the best parts) which are now open to everyone were previously closed to all but senior Party members and that sense of privilege (corruption they would call it) is still part of the political mind set!
It's been a fascinating time here but now I head across into Macedonia. Interestingly relationships between the Macedonians and the Albanians are not so great and in fact Greece itself doesn't recognise Macedonia and insists on referring to it as "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" so its all a bit mixed up around here politically but coming from Northern Ireland we're well used to that. However on Sunday after church I will be travelling into Macedonia and I'll tell you that story on the Sabbatical Journey blog. The link is on this page.