the ‘flavour’ of Antigua

Well … it’s been a few weeks since writing here. Most of you will know this is because of some wonderfully generous friends enabling us to have an amazing holiday in Antigua. This may be my only reflection on my time there, but it may be the first of a few or of many …. I am just not too sure yet!

In a very short space of time I fell in love with the island of Antigua. The island has an incredibly relaxed atmosphere which is difficult for me to explain.  Something can be expressed in the words of reggae and heat. Life has a slow rhythmic style due, I guess, to the heat.

I love to people watch and there were a number of things I noticed when watching the people of Antigua. People there seemed to walk proudly and calmly; due to the climate it was mad to rush about and so everything was done at a pace that seemed verrrry slow and took a little time of adjusting to. Some people adjusted to this fairly quickly and others seemed to have  difficulty with the slower pace.

I also noticed that people were interested in other people and they would chat for ages, no matter what they were doing, and they smiled easily and regularly. (in fact one of the the first things that hit me when we landed at gatwick was that people rushed and lacked a smile). Antiguan people particularly gave loads of time to children and young people, which hit me as a stark contrats to how children and young people are often portrayed in our media. Children were valued and encouraged.

The holiday was amazing and will be our ‘holiday of a lifetime’. The island is a very special place and the ‘flavour’ of Antigua, which I loved so much, has challenged me in how I should live now I am back home.
It has re-challenged my priorities of tasks vs people.
It has re-challenged my speed and aim of life.
It has challenged me to really consider what is important in life.

Now that I am back I am not embarrassed to admit that I am envious of the Antiguan lifestyle and, in many ways,  I wish I could still be there . The people there have managed to maintain something about life, people, relationships and priorities that we seem to have lost in the UK; and I think the most worrying thing is that most of us don’t even realise that we have lost them and are aware that there is an alternative. Although, I openly admit, I am not sure what that alternative is other than slow down, re-think …but our deadlines refuse us that grace!

Sadly I know the feelings and lessons from my time here will fade fairly rapidly as I adjust back to south east England living …. but I pray it does not all go and that I can carry within me some of the islands beauty that simply says ‘I have time ……..’

a mixed day

Today was both a sad and an exciting day.
Sad for the cathedral and for the Diocese of Rochester.
Exciting for Adrian and the diocese of London.
Today was Adrian’s last official day as Dean of Rochester and he really will be very much missed.

On a personal note I could not have asked for a better training incumbent. I have always counted it a privilege to be able to learn at Rochester Cathedral from the whole of Chapter, but it has been amazing to have someone of Adrian’s calibre point me in the right direction, support me, challenge me and simply have time for me when I have needed time. I cannot express in words how much I have learned from this man. I will miss his open door, his wisdom and his sense of humour. Most of all I will miss his leadership example which is one of grace, respect and servanthood – a great example to have as a curate and one that I can only hope to aspire too, but dismally fail regularly.

Ww will all miss him hugely, but we are all immensely proud of him and feel honoured that our journey’s have crossed foe the time that they did.

Adrian moves on to be Bishop of Stepney which is an amazing role for a pretty amazing bloke.

If you are the praying type – please hold Adrian and Gill in your prayers over these next few weeks.

Krispy birthday

Great weekend – the highlight being spending Saturday with good friends to celebrate terry’s 50th birthday …. in Krispy Kreme … different we know – which is why we did it!

I know they are a big company and everything and its ‘in’ now to knock big companies – but the staff, especially Jess, made this an incredibly lovely experience. WE laughed, made doughnuts, drank great coffee,  ate doughnuts and laughed more!

If you want a party with a difference which is well run – try out Krispy Kreme! Also, if you are part of a charity check out their fundraising offer where you can buy doughnuts from them cheap to sell at events and make money.

back to reality

We have said goodbye to Cornwall and now we are back.

To be honest it is hard getting into the frame of mind for work again after having such an amazingly relaxing week with really good friends.

I like to reflect on the highs and lows …. but I can’t …. the whole week was simply amazing. We chilled, we ate, we chatted, we drank, we surfed, we laughed, we watched sunsets, we saw seals, we fished (I experienced sea sickness for the very first time … maybe that was a low!), we visited the Eden Project, we wandered around Padstow and my lovely family bought me a painting from Caroline Walker who we met a few years ago. I am now the proud owner of Mother Mary! (although Anglo Catholic friends do not get too excited!!! )

There were some nice surprises and reminders of an amazing God through sunsets and this seal which was a delight to see.

Just such a wonderful week – thanks to the other people I had the delight to share the week with!

Cornwall

just going to spending some quality time here for the next few days
so it will be quiet over here!

new year family style

Christmas and New Year have been excellent friend and family times.

We celebrated the New Year in style …. twice. We started with an amazing meal at Viners Restaurant who did amazingly at serving us all as one large party. The video gives a taste of the joy we were experiencing. (there are other more incriminating videos of celebrations but you will need to look into facebook for them!)

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

Following this we celebrated the New Year early so that the younger children could stay involved with sky lanterns and fireworks. The lanterns looked amazing as they floated above our heads before being caught on the breeze. A good way to let go of one year and welcome in another.

Later in the evening a fewer of us returned to the cliff top at midnight to release a couple more lanterns and welcome in the New Year.

The next morning we celebrated together again at the Beach Hut for lunch before we had to reluctantly pull ourselves away from Cornwall and return to Kent.

Thanks to everyone – my family and friends for making this a very special time!

Proud is too small a word!

I met up with Jen, Paul and Barbara today in Rochester for a little while for a pre-graduation celebration. It was great to see these people and we are all massively proud of Jen. I don’t think I know many other people who have worked so hard to achieve something.

2:1 in Applied Theology …. good on you Jen. You massively deserve this and hope you have had a wonderful day. Proud’s too small a word …. but proud and more we all are!

what makes a good weekend?

The weekend has been a great one for being with friends and spending time with the family.

The weekend got off to a great start with a ‘blokes’ curry night at the best curry house in the world where we ate and drank well. It’s been a while since we have done this and all agreed we need to do it more regularly!

On Saturday we watched Despicable Me at the cinema. A good and funny film if somewhat predictable …  there are only so may different ways to spin the same sort of story of person presenting an evil persona in order to protect themselves from their past. It’s worth a watch.

This morning at the cathedral was tinged with sadness as Dan conducted the girls choir for the last time in the 1030 Eucharist. Dan goes on to new things and I will miss his skill and passion around the place. God’s speed matey!

Watching the football this afternoon was good, even though the result was rubbish! Spending time with other friends later this afternoon was good and mad as well.

What makes a good weekend? Time with God, laughter and chilling with friends and family ….. this weekend had all of that so it was a top weekend!

Congratulations

Yesterday, Sarah and I had the pleasure of joining with others and celebrating the marriage of Chris and Annie in the cathedral.

It was a wonderful ceremony and the reception afterward was a great time to continue the celebrations. There was a lot of joy and unanimous agreement that we had witnessed something both special and significant as these two people, who clearly are madly in love with each other, start this new phase of their life journey together.

Congratulations Annie and Chris!

cornwall space

We have had a brilliant week away with good friends in Cornwall.

We had a wonderfully relaxing time with special people and outstanding views – one such typical sunset in the picture with people silhouettes chatting as we watch.

It’s always great to go away with people you can just switch off and relax with – talk when you need to and sit quietly when you want to.

I have returned again, as we did in January, feeling really blessed and relaxed along with being very conscious of the special people we have around us.

The space has again enabled me to see members of my family and friends in a different way. It has enabled me to gain perspective once again on a lot of things. The space has allowed God to do some stuff in my head too – something there about ideas needing spaces etc etc.

I am back now – and I’ll have to wait and see if the space-idea formula causes anything to emerge!

It was odd this morning, though, waking up and hearing nothing after a week of waking to the beautiful sound of the waves. I realised how much I miss that from my Weymouth days and how I had got to take it for granted and now, more worryingly, how much I’d forgotten I loved the sound.

The bad thing about holidays, though, has got to be the coming back – it is hard getting into the work mode again … but it will come quickly – after all how much does it take to get into my sort of coffee and chat work mode!