Off to Edinburgh... and beyond

The east of Scotland has been in the grip of snow for some time now. Flights to Edinburgh airport have sometimes been cancelled (fortunately my flights are to and from Glasgow this time) and my mother hasn't taken her car out of the garage since back in November. But things have been slowly thawing a bit since Christmas, and most of the roads are clear now - even though there's still snow lying on the fields and on the footpaths. The car will be coming out of hibernation this morning, as I need to drive through to Edinburgh to get a yellow fever vaccination for the trip I'll be making to West Africa at the end of January.

Our more local travel clinics are closed over the Christmas and New Year holidays, so that's why I'm having to go through to the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. (That's the hospital where my Dad twice had brain surgery after a brain haemorrhage just two Christmases ago. We drove there every day during Christmas 2008, so we won't have any trouble finding our way there!)

Seems like travelling to Africa has become an expensive business: I couldn't believe it when they told me that the yellow fever vaccination would cost £55... and the prescription for malaria tablets will also cost more than £60. More than a hundred pounds for medication, and that's before I even leave for my one-week trip to Senegal! The good news is that a Christian businessman has paid for our plane tickets for this trip, which is for the purpose of investigating some future outreach possibilities. So, apart from paying for the yellow fever vaccination and malaria pills, I'll only need to pay for my visa, as well as for my food and housing in Africa, and not for the cost of actually getting there. Four or five of us will be making the trip together. (I'll write more about this next week... and in my January newsletter. Or, if you're too curious to wait, you can check the latest post on my barbinafrica blog.) For today, though, I only need to travel as far as Edinburgh...

Snow and squirrels

Someone gave me a £50 note for Christmas; I think it's the first time I've ever seen one, and I was surprised to discover that it had a picture of the Falkirk Wheel on it. This local landmark is kind of a boat "lift" that raises a barge up from one canal to another. Recently, though, the canal has been frozen and the Falkirk Wheel, like most other places locally, has been covered with a layer of snow.

Today there was some rain, so I'm hoping it's a sign of a thaw; I need to go through to an Edinburgh hospital this week to have a yellow fever vaccination (for an Africa trip in January) and it will be difficult to get there if there's still a lot of snow around. Our garden still has plenty of snow, though, and we've enjoyed watching two little grey squirrels scampering around in the trees there.

Scottish snow

Well, it's good that I was flying to Glasgow this week (I usually fly to Edinburgh) because many flights to Edinburgh and London were being cancelled on Monday. But my flight took off with only a slight delay and reached Glasgow without any problem. It wasn't snowing when I arrived, but the cold weather was a bit of a shock to the system. It had been around 15 degrees and kind of sunny when I left Malaga; it was minus 8 and horribly chilly when I got to Glasgow.

Christmas is almost with us, and my parents haven't had their car out of the garage since November; most of the people in their street are elderly and retired, so it seems no one thought it worth the effort to clear away all the snow and try to get their cars down the hill. The truth is that most of the main roads are clear now, and it's only the smaller roads that are still covered with snow. It's not really deep snow - not by Canadian or Scandinavian standards - but the UK is never particularly well equipped to deal with snow when it comes.

My brother is on holiday this week, so we were thankful when he phoned to offer his services as a taxi driver; we were able to go yesterday to a special Christmas service at my niece's school (she was singing in the choir) and today he took us to do some Christmas shopping in Livingston.

Have you any room?

I'm writing this post in Malaga airport - where I'm waiting for the flight that will take me to Scotland for Christmas. It's been pretty rainy here and we had to drive through a flooded road on our way to the airport.... but I'm hoping that there won't be too much snow waiting for me when I arrive in Glasgow this afternoon.

Last night we had our special Christmas service at church. A number of families presented Christmas songs and music, and the youth group did a skit that showed how young people were so focused on the celebrations that they were actually ignoring Jesus at His own birthday party. The children had prepared a cute and funny nativity play about a little bull who was very possessive of his manger and wouldn't allow the other animals to eat from it; what a shock he got one day to discover a newborn baby in his precious manger! But when he understood that this was the Saviour of the world, he made room for Jesus in his manger and also in his life.

Meanwhile, as I threw a few things in my suitcase this morning, it seemed that the cats were also asking, "Don't you have room for me?" I opened the drawer to take out my computer, and there was Tobi lying among my stuff. I went to the wardrobe to pack some jeans... and there was Teddi, looking at me as if to say, "Don't forget about me." And when I got back to the suitcase, I found that Tobi had already settled down on top of it. Tamba, in the meantime, was just lying on the bed and looking at me accusingly with her big yellow eyes: "So you're off and leaving us again, are you?" Little do they know that they'll be better off in Spain, with Gabriela looking after them, and no snow to deal with!

Ambling to the ambulatorio

I have to confess that I'm getting rather tired of hanging around the ambulatorio (our local health centre.) After being there every single day for the past week, I feel that I've spent more than enough hours in waiting rooms and doctors' surgeries this month. Anyway, this morning was my last appointment of this year - to get the results of all the x-rays, etc. Turns out that the "verdict" is pretty simple: the doctor says it's just severe degenerative arthritis, and that it can actually be seen on both feet - not just the foot that's been causing me so much discomfort.

To be honest, I was hoping that it was going to be something "treatable" rather than something that you just have to put up with, but the doctor says there's not really much that can be done. I have another appointment when I get back to Spain in January and, if we're not making much progress with managing the pain, they might need to look into fitting me out with special shoes - or implants - so that my feet can bear my weight without hurting all the time.

It's sometimes hard to plan activities when you're not sure if you'll be physically able to walk around much (for example, I have an Africa trip planned for the end of January - to investigate some outreach possibilities) so I'm just hanging on to a promise that's found in the Old Testament. Somewhat cryptically, Deuteronomy 33: 25 says, "Your shoes will be iron and brass, and as your days are, so shall your strength be." Well, I'm not sure about that iron and brass footwear, but I'm trusting in God's promise that there will always be enough strength for the things I need to do.

Christmas preparations

Alhaurin is gearing up for Christmas; there are wise men and angels along the main road, a Christmas tree in front of the town hall, a lifesize stable scene in the pedestrian street... and even one of the roundabouts is wearing a santa hat! There are also some Christmas lights in the little park in front of our house... but as it's a popular dog-walking area, I can see that they're being watered rather regularly.

This time last year we were still house hunting, because the lease was about to expire on our flat. It was the third year running that I was beginning the new year without knowing where I would be living by the end of it. It will be so nice to start 2011 knowing that we'll be staying in the same house for a change.

Despite the recent cooler weather, the jasmine is still flowering in front of our house, but it will soon be time to cut it back for the winter, so that it can reflower and bring its wonderful scent again next spring. This week's temperature's have been slightly milder again, and so we've enjoyed a final few days of its perfume around our doorway.

I have just a few more days here in Spain, and then I'll be heading to Scotland for Christmas. More snow is forecast there for this weekend... so I'm not sure what sort of weather will be waiting for me when I arrive at the airport. We'll see...

December news...

For those of you who asked about my December newsletter, here it is again. Just click on it to enlarge it.

And thanks for your prayers.