Avocado, Australia and memories...

The Birthday Boy with Andi, Ben and Libby

Hillsong Conference

The Birthday Breakfast

Do you ever look back at your life so far and are thankful and amazed at the people met, communities part of, friends made, experiences had, cities and countries visited, some mistakes made, some great choices/decisions or a life you may have impacted in some tiny way..

Risks taken (including for me jumping out of a plane!) opportunities, career developed, funny memories, sunsets, crack of dawn moments.. Times you have laughed so hard your side hurt, cried so much your eyes could hardly open, celebrated birth and celebrated the lives of those you've loved and lost - asked yourself and God so many questions and sometimes got answers...

Well I have (Andi) and at this privileged and happy point in my life with my husband in India one of the world's most colourful, rich, poor, generous, tragic, beautiful, unjust and amazing countries, I was reminded of a period in my life as I watched a travel programme the other day. I love travel, history, biography or nature programmes!

The programme was showing St Patrick's Day in Dublin, Ireland this year and I sat there feeling so nostalgic, I could almost smell the air and the atmosphere as I was taken back 14 years to when I was 19 and doing part of my degree in Dublin. I was involved in a local church who that year were part of the annual parade past St Stephens' Green and down O'Connell Street, and there was a group of us taking part.

As an English girl I was dressed in green with Shamrocks all over me and a painted face, belting our hearts out waving flags and banners and walking alongside a float. It was such a great day despite the dismal weather and I made some good friends there during that time. I also got the chance to go to the Trinity University Ball, a famous event which goes through the night and ends up with breakfast, a big greasy fry up at a local caf'.

Though I was studying at DCU I had many friends at Trinity Uni and was formally invited by a guy to the event and even given a corsage, which I pinned to my gown not always a norm in the UK, more American Proms I think.

Why am I telling you all this, I don't know really! Maybe I'm just thinking about the past few weeks and events in our life here and how much has changed and yet how much remains the same. In the sense of friendships, community, church involvement, love, food, laughter, dancing, great cities etc, etc.

These last few weeks we've celebrated a number of events some of which were birthdays including Gareth's. One birthday for a friend Rajiv was great fun and involved a game of football boy/girl mixed teams. Only four-a-side we were all shattered at the end, but took me back to high school when I played in a girls side and we won the Yorkshire schools championship. I felt I played ok after so many years, and even managed to score past Gareth twice, though his version of events may include the comment, "I let her" . That is blatantly untrue.

I had a women's' church breakfast one Saturday morning, which was a great way of getting to know many of the women in the church better most of whom are Indian and just two of us expats and hear more about plans for community work etc. Plus as per many women's get togethers, it involved a lot of good food including homemade banana and toffee muffins!


Gareth's birthday was also lovely. As is our tradition for each other I planned a surprise day for him prior to a dinner in the evening with friends. I had a cake made with the MK Dons (football or Soccer for you Yanks)logo on the front, which was a bit of surprise. The evening dinner itself was held outside, candles burning we had our own 'tent', and despite the high winds that night we had a lovely meal with good friends.


Part of the birthday day itself rained as we are in monsoon season, which means lovely cool weather and rain which cleans the dusty roads. After a special lunch I had then planned for a swim in the hotel pool, secretly packing our cossies and then next driving onto one of the palaces in Hyderabad we had not visited. Well with lunch done and the rain still coming down we discussed our options and thought why should the weather stop us, hey we're British after all!

So as the only ones in the pool we hopped into the cold water and in the rain had a game of volleyball, well as much as you can with two of you and me being 5ft 2". Was so much fun and a great memory of the two of us - when Gareth lost his wedding ring... for the third time.

Yes, that's right while hitting the ball over the net the water had loosened the ring which came flying off. This then meant we had to borrow goggles from the hotel (who thought we were mad swimming in the rain) and spend a little time underwater 'Lord of the Rings' style hunting for the ring. Eventually we found it glittering in a corner, Gareth was extremely relieved and will never wear it while swimming again!

Currently he's in the States with work for the last week of two weeks away before returning home, having experienced eight flights in total. The week before he was at the Hillsong Church conference in Sydney. Has been an exhausting but rewarding time for him.

Also while in Sydney he got to spend time with my brother and sister-in-law, Matt and Amanda and their son Noah. They were visiting the conference and know Gareth enjoyed catching up with them when he could. While at Hillsong he had a number of meetings and was also asked to speak at one of the conference seminars, focusing on digital music.

I miss him terribly and can't wait for him to get home, but thankfully the two weeks have managed to fly by with work and time with friends, church.

This is so sad but I got excited about lettuce and avocado being on sale again (well in one grocery the other side of the city!) When I say 'on sale' I mean 'now and again', but for the first time in a long time I made myself a tuna, lettuce, avocado and tomato salad and for those who know me well they know this is heaven with a bit of sweet chilli sauce dressing on the side!

I've also worked out or been given recipes for some new dishes inc using some favourites such as courgettes, kiwi and sweet potatoes plus how to make a chicken and herb lasagna, great mexican salsa and a prawn Pad Thai dish, and all comes off the microwave or the four top gas stove.

We are planning ahead for a number of visitors.. Our friend from London, Pete Garratt is coming for a night and day while in India with work, so will be lovely to have him stay. Then literally three days later one of my best friends and bridesmaids Rachel is flying in for a week.

Later in the year we may see my sister Debs arrive and then Gav and Natalie from Glasgow come for New Year, 2008. Is always fantastic and special to show those we love our lives here and be able to share some of India with them.

I (Andi) am also heading to Australia with work in August for 10 days and will give you more of an update soon.

So a longer blog this time as know we've been very slack over the past months. Pix will be downloaded and added to this blog update soon, when I/we have a chance or the time to save them to my laptop! Hope you're having a good week...