End of an Era

Wow. December the 12th was a big day. Who noticed? Well, yes it was the day that we finally finished our training at Wycliffe UK. But while we were doing that, in fact at exactly the same time as we were having our closing ceremony in the UK, 9 time zones away on the other side of Asia, CESA English School in Japan was closing its doors to students for the last time. 

We both worked at this school for nearly six years. Some of the students I taught every week during that time. It was an amazing period for us. We learned so much and now have a deep love of Japan as a result of the opportunity to teach there.

I wrote to the owner and asked why it was closing. It seems that student numbers have been dropping consistently over the last few years and it just isn’t viable as a business any more. It would need a huge injection of cash to keep it going. That’s cash the owner simply doesn’t have any more.

Sob…

A Weekend Away

It was a few weeks ago now that we had a long weekend. We decided, very much on the spur of the moment, to head back to our honeymoon location, a tiny village by the name of Salwayash in Dorset.

It’s a lovely place to explore and, as far as we know, there’s only one place to stay in the village itself. We can’t stay where we had our honeymoon because it’s now a private house. Not for sale though unfortunately!

So, we stay in a cottage attached to a farm crawling with animals of all sorts and nice couple who are happy to let it to us out of season at a moment’s notice. It’s the second time we’ve been there since our honeymoon.

To get to the farm though, you have to ford a stream. At least, it was a stream when we went to bed on our final night. The next morning, it was a raging torrent after a night of rain.

Knee-deep, there was no way our car was going to get through it without serious risk of stalling. The thought of water seeping in through the doors was enough to put me off even trying.

We waited all day and, by about 3 in the afternoon, we thought it had gone down enough to brave it. Here’s a video…

All I want for Christmas is…

Okay, this is it, the definitive final word on Christmas from John.

Why?

Frankly, when did it become popular to be asked what you want for Christmas? I was never asked in my childhood. I never had to. People knew me then

So, now that no one actually knows me well enough to know what to buy me, I’m going public with what I want. Here it is [drum roll]…

Books

Books

Books

That’s it.

No chocolate, no socks, no stocking fillers, no stationery, no computer gadgets, no music, no cruises to Hawaii, no underwear, no guitar strings, no gimmicks and absolutely no small furry animals.

So, if you’re stuck to know what kind of books I like, you’re in the right place.

By clicking HERE you can download a Word file of nearly a thousand books arranged alphabetically by author. Any one of these I’d be happy to read and none of which I’ve got yet.

Now there is a slim chance that someone will buy the same book as someone else. It’s incredibly slim but it’s a chance nonetheless and one that must seem extremely probable to any anti-creationist. So, here’s a suggestion: Pick a letter to have exclusively for yourself. It could be your initial. It could be mine but pick it and comment on this thread to tell me and others which letter you’ve chosen. If you want to see what I’ve bought already but haven’t yet read, visit my TBR page on my book blog. 

Once you’ve done that, make it your personal mission to track down something obscure, something bizarre, something unreadable or something cool. It needn’t be new. In fact, I’d prefer it if not. Keep the list with you in charity shops. Buy it used off Amazon. It just needs to be legible.

By the way… this also works for birthdays, Easter, Boxing Day, New Year, Yom Kippur, Eid al Adhr and Septuagesima Sunday so you’ll never be stuck for what to get me.