Category: Daily life

It was the clutch

Our car is getting older. It’s got over 200 000km and is about 13 years old. Over the last few weeks, we knew there was a problem with the clutch. Then on Thursday 30th May, when Esther had more problems, I took it to the garage and explained what the problem was. he listened, played a bit with the gears. There were things to be done on the car the following week anyway so I asked if I could drive safely until then. the mechanic said it should be fine and I left. The following day, I went to Rostrenen and came back without any problems. But on Saturday afternoon, when we were about to leave to take Jean-Baptiste to his football tournament, I couldn’t pass any gears anymore. The clutch had died.

On Monday, I called the breakdown cover and had it towed to the garage who lent us a car while they where looking after the problem. Esther got it back on Friday.

Lord’s day 26th May 2013

It was cold when I woke up. There was frost on the ground, and the sky was blue, without a cloud on the horizon. The morning service went well. I led and Emmanuel Hartiel preached on the end of James 3. There were a good number of people. After the service, we ate together before one of the members reported on a recent trip to Israel. It was a good time of fellowship, the sun was bright and for the first time this year, it was slightly warm.

Holidays

We’re on holidays at my mum’s place in the Alps. It’s good to be there. The weather has been great so far, and very warm. There’s nos much planned appart from reading, relaxing and sorting things out. I am scanning old lecture notes and various articles onto the computer for reference. Tomorrow, I’ll be speaking at a Student outreach meeting and on Sunday, I’ll be preaching.

Crossing France on the motorways

France has got a very efficient network of motorways. There are 11 392 km of motorways. About 8000 km of these are toll roads.

Today, we crossed France, from Guingamp to my hometown of Chambéry: 1000 km, 980  of which were on motorways.

I love driving on French motorways. It is a quick way to move around. They are well maintained. They feel safe. There’s not too much traffic if you avoid Paris and the few who have a lot of traffic. Some people think they are expensive. But you get the services you pay for, don’t you? I don’t mind paying if I get a good service. We left at 3am and arrived at 1.30 pm. That’s not bad considering many people were on the roads for their holidays. The only traffic jam we saw was in Lyon: people going towards the south. But we were on a bridge overlooking that road.

One of the downsides is that you don’t see much of the country. On our way, we went through many beautiful and historic places: Tours, the Loire Valley and its castles, Bourges, Lyon… But if we had avoided the toll roads, it would have taken several days for the journey. But we’ve arrived safely and quickly for a bit of holidays in the beautiful Savoie.

It’s always nice to see family and friends from home

On Monday afternoon, we had a visit from Esther’s cousin Gwilym and his family. They were visiting his brother in law who lives in Lannion. His wife Celine is French and the two children speak both Welsh and French (and English). I took the two boys with me to get Maxime and Jean-Baptiste, and I showed them one of the classrooms. There were many differences they said. For example, back in Wales, there are no individual desks in the classrooms, and they use an interactive board while in the French classroom, each pupil has a desk and faces the teacher. The board is still an old fashion black-board.

We had a nice time. And our boys were really excited to see their second-degree cousins.

With the school to the seaside

hillion20130321Today, I went to the St-Brieuc Bay with Jean-Baptiste and his class. We had some rain, but it was a great day. There were 24 children and 3 adults (including me). They were very well behaved and eager to learn, no discipline problem. I admired the way the teacher was relating to the kids. You could sense a real bond and mutual respect.

In the morning, we spent some time on the beach, looking for animals hiding in the sand. The afternoon, we spent a bit of time inside before going out to watch some birds who eat the bugs we had looked for. For lunch we had our picnic. Just after eating I was amazed when the teacher told the children to tale a sheet of paper and draw something while we were waiting for our guide. I was amazed that most of them did it and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

It was a good experience. I am looking forward to the next day trip I can join.

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