Post-travelling post

Apologies for the lack of bloggy-ness the last couple of weeks. Life is hectic is a bit of an understatement. I tend to arrive home and crash into bed...there's not much time for pondering, or for creativity.

Still, perhaps things may calm down a little...we shall see. I think my brain would like a rest.

The past few days I have been in the not so sunny Portugal, down in the Algarve which was rather exciting. Laurena who did FP last year and I were asked to go out and run the kids work for the weekend conference that was being held down there, and where the leader of my church was speaking.

This pretty much involved a lot of craft and a lot of running around, and a fair amount of attempting to translate Portuguese because we only spoke English.

Over the course of the weekend I made...bookmarks, salt dough fish, colouring pictures, chicken crowns, flying fish and I'm sure several other things. We did also steal large numbers of pebbles from the beach but we never got round to making them. We were too busy jumping on balloons and creating a heck of a lot of mess.

Still, it was really good fun. We spent some time with three girls from the Lar, which is effectively the Portuguese orphanage. The church out there works with them a lot, and although two of them didn't speak any English, the other, Pipas was amazing and translating and generally pumping huge amounts of joy into the group.

We were put up in a beautiful four star hotel, with out balcony overlooking the sea. It was stunning, even though the waves were the steely grey that comes from stormy weather. We shared breakfast and dinner together the first two days, with the most incredible range of food. I'm not a big meat eater, but they certainly know how to cook their meat! and their fish! Golly, sea bass and kiwi...YUM!

Then there was the fruit. I like fruit. English fruit sucks. I must've eaten about ten pineapples and melons in the brief stay I was there. Bowls of fruit were just everywhere. Then there was the coffee. Oh my, good proper coffee...also everywhere. I must admit, the culture of food and hospitality and family is a good one.

I realise at this point I've talked about craft and food and little else.... I think that definitely dominates my weekend.

I met so many new people, mostly from the UK but also from Gibraltar (had to ask where exactly that was) and from Portugal and South Africa. It was exciting to get to see how church is done in somewhere other than England, even though this was very much an English church.

Considering I spent maybe 15 euros all weekend, and got a free book, cd, a present and a holiday I feel very blessed.
When I am feeling a bit more awake I may write something that makes a bit more sense.

For now, I am waiting for my lift so I can go and cook a three course meal for 45 people all to celebrate Robert Burns...or at least that's the idea, it's really just the chance to have a bit of a party and get everyone together!

Love and hugs x