It's been a while...

Apologies for my absence from this pages over the last six weeks, but my time in the UK has passed in something of a blur.  I have managed to fit an incredible amount into my time at home and have caught up with nearly everyone I wanted to see.

I arrived after a very pleasant flight and settled myself into my temporary home with my friends Bill and Gwen.  In the past I have had use of the flat over their music shop, but this year I was upgraded to a room in the house!  I am very grateful to both Bill and Gwen for allowing just to come and go, in fact at times I was the only one resisdent as they were off having adventures in their little camper van!

My first port of call was to Kong's the chippy on Market Street in Hyde.  I had been dreaming about the place for about the last month in Karachi and I was desperate to taste their products.  I can honestly say that I was salivating by the time it was my turn to be served and meat and potato pie, chips and gravy tasted absolutely divine! This was accompanied by a butter muffin and a glass of ice cold cider, I was a very happy man once I had that lot inside me!

I also went round to see my mum and say hello and then headed off round the corner to my sister's apartment.  I told her that my holiday had been extended and that I hadn't yet told mum.  We decided together that we would keep it secret and so that I could surprise mum at her Silver Wedding anniversary party.


Sunday morning I made my way to my home church of Holy Trinity and Christ Church, Stalybridge, where it was lovely to catch up with old friends and also see so many new faces as part of the congregation.  It is over 5 years now since I left HTCC to go to Barnsley but I still consider it my spiritual home.

In the afternoon it was off to Darlington to catch up with Meg and put the finishing touches to the programme for SUbmerge 2010.  Admist all the work we were able to fit in the first of my 4 theatre trips as we went to see an amatuer production of My Fair Lady at Yarm.  The girl playing Eliza was excellent but the production as a whole lack pace which meant that what is always a long show, seemed to go on for ever! 

Thursday took me to Redcar to see james and his parents and we headed off to Middleborough to see Waiting for Gateux starring LIsa Riley.  The play was set in a slimming club and was really funny, the best lines being the rewritten lyrics of My Favourite things from The Sound of Music.  Their lyrics went 'Mars bars and Kit Kats, Yorkies and Snickers, Bags of Malteasers I hide in my knickers, big bowls of trifle with lashings of cream, these are a few of my favourite things"!

I popped back to Stalybridge on the Friday evening to support a jazz night that was being held at HTCC.  I only managed to stay until the interval when through a combination of the rather bland nature of the music and the call of Kong's Chippy I made my way to Bill and Gwen's armed with another portion of my favourite meal!


Saturday morning It was over the hills and far away to Finningley where my good friend and former boss is now Rector of Finningley and Chaplain to Doncaster Sheffield airport.  Neil and Catherine are also originally from HTCC though they left back in 1998 to train fof the Anglican Ministry.  Along with their three children they move to Finningley a couple of years ago and are very settled in to life in the villages and the churches.  The congregations are growing and it was a pleasure to join both churches for their services.  We were also able to have a celebration of my 40th birthday with a delicious Chinese Banquet.


The end of my first week found me in South Kirby in Yorkshire staying with my friends Susan and Daniel where there was more catching up and delicious food, including their world famous roast lamb and bacon and eggs for breakfast!


On that note I will leave you for now, to be continued...