I am so sorry I've been so absolutely atrocious in responding to your individual emails this past month! Adjusting to my new job has taken more out of me than I anticipated. However, I'm getting into the routine now, so if you do write, hopefully I'll be better at responding! Finishing teaching didn't feel odd, it still hasn't actually hit me that I'm not going to go back to teaching for a while. It feels as if I'm just occupying myself until schools start again. I had a nightmare the other night - that I was teaching again, and teaching Afrikaans (of all things), German and English! I woke up thinking about how glad I was to be out of teaching. Working for the church has been wonderful in the sense that I've only had to deal with adults, and for the most part, I've been left to get on with my work with a minimum of distractions - very different to teaching! It's also been good to be able to see the effects of my work immediately. With teaching, you might never see the effects of your teaching! But more on the job in a bit. The churches in our borough (like a suburb, but in the city; in centuries past, it was a nearby village to London) have been working on a musical called "Hopes and Dreams". It's billed as a new musical for a new millennium. Essentially, it's based on the Lord's prayer, and is a series of sketches intermingled with songs and dances. The idea behind it is that it encourages people to put their hopes and dreams in Jesus. One of our friends (Ros Lonsdale) was involved, so we went to see it. Very good and very enjoyable. At the end of July, we went to a joint service with the other churches in Balham. The guest speaker was a minister from Cali, Columbia (one of the Transformation ministers). It was EXCELLENT!!!!! The minister didn't really talk about Cali, mainly because so many of us had seen the video. Rather, he spoke about what God wanted to do in London. His message hit the nail on the head, I think. Essentially he said that he received three words for London (I can only remember one at the moment: conformity) which were spot on. Then there was a time of ministry where the leaders of the various teams were asked to stand together in unity, by confessing their sins to each other and praying for each other. It was amazing to see! Then there was more ministry and prophecy, and I met with God in a powerful way - it was like water to a dry land! Anyway, I could go on for hours, but I'll stop there.

In the middle of August, we hosted a Princess Bride evening. AWESOME!! Even though I'd seen the video 3 times in the last week of school, and was feeling a bit sick of the movie, watching it with friends was just brilliant! We had a bring and share supper, and I discovered, to my horror, that the Brits don't know about "as the Spirit leads" meals!! The number of phone calls I had from people to establish what they should bring!! Clearly this is another South African cultural experience I've been taking for granted. All in all though, it was a brilliant evening, with excellent company. Last Sunday was a biggie for me, as it was the first time I led worship here!! Needless to say, I was nervous (then again, if I wasn't, I wouldn't rely on God, so I suppose that's a good thing). Well, God did it again, and all went well. His presence was very evident, very tangible, to me. It was such an encouragement to me that God chose to meet with His people while I was leading. As with any job, there is more work than hours, so I'm continually busy. I'm nearly finished sorting things out, although my office still looks like a bomb has hit it - which isn't good as it's the reception area for the church! But I'm getting there. (As the little train said - I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.)

Graeme's job took a downwards turn this month - he had about 3 bad days! It was one of those situations where the people he needed to consult were away on holiday, and he couldn't really continue with his work, so sat twiddling his thumbs. Not great. But now things are much better. He's working actively on the website side of things too, which he finds interesting. On the personal side, he's been struggling a bit this past month. Not quite homesickness, but more loneliness. It takes time to make the sort of quality friends we have back home. I mean, we've built up friendships there over years, and we've only been here a matter of months. There's no way we could expect to have the same depth of friendships here, but it does get lonely without them. G's been taking strain as a result. He's turned the corner, but please continue to pray for him in this regard. Please pray for both of us, that we will continue to make good friends and feel at home. On the lighter side of life, we went to a Salsa class (EVENTUALLY) the other night. What fun! It works out quite expensive for us, but this is something I think I'd really love to spend money on. We don't know anyone, so it's another case of getting up the courage to introduce ourselves and meet more new people...but I really enjoyed it. Of course, for those who have done it, it really stuffs up your jive, so I was thoroughly confused in the beginning - what with all this left foot first thing, and forwards on the right foot! (But at least it HAS footwork, unlike Ceroc!) Other news is that it looks like I'm going into business with my dad and step-mom. They're starting a business selling honey, and want to export it to the UK, so I'm going to help set it up and run it from this side. Of course, the details have yet to be discussed and ironed out, so when I know more, I'll let you know.

Cath and Rob (Graeme's brother and sister) were out here in the same week, so we had a chance to have lunch with them and catch up. It was really good to see family again, particularly Cath, whom we haven't seen in what feels like years! Then Jane (his mom) was over for a week again on her way back to RSA from the USA. I think I mentioned in the last update that G's folks were out here over July so we saw them then. In a way, seeing the (nuclear, Cape Town, Broster) family has only made things worse, as now we're really missing them all! Peter - your email was wonderful, and made Graeme realise how much he misses you. Please keep those letters coming as they are always a good start to our weekends! Speaking of emails - a special thanks to family at this point. You have no idea how lovely it is to hear from you - even the wacky Clyde emails are devoured with glee (not literally, Clyde!) It is so encouraging to get home after a long day to find news from home, or an anecdote about some family member's day...it's the small trivia things that count the most I think. Thane and Ruth - seeing those pic's of Cape Town were definitely a sight for sore eyes! Thank you. And Sue/ Margie, we have the technology on our PC to watch video clips, so please forward us whatever it was you said you had. Just please send us an email first to let us know when it will be coming - it will take quite a while to download, so I want to make sure we do it at an off-peak time when the phone costs are less!!! Last weekend was interesting - I was sitting in the lounge writing and working, when I heard this plop sound. As the pipes here are very noisy, I figured it was just the pipes again. Anyway, when I eventually got so sick of this irritating noise and bestirred myself to investigate, I discovered (to my horror) that water was leaking out of the ceiling - all along the joists and studs, and down the walls...turns out that the toilet cistern upstairs sprang a leak, and the water was eventually almost pouring out the ceiling! We had to move all the electrics (TV, sound system, etc) and furniture, and put towels and buckets all over the place...the moral of the story is - DON"T BUY A NEW HOUSE!! Of course, it would just so happen that the neighbours had an all night party that same evening. (not joking!) They were still talking loudly enough to keep me awake at 5am the next morning!! Graeme and I were taking Cathy (Broster) to the coach station, so that she could get to Luton in time for her plane, so we were up at 3.30am. When we got back, the neighbours were still at it, so I went across and asked them to pipe down. It took them about an hour to do so - or an hour till I fell asleep from exhaustion, I'm not sure which!

At the same time, it turns out that Graeme's great aunt has had to go into hospital for a spine operation, and Sean had his op on his hernia. Then, a woman from our church had a heart scare (eurythmia) so she's also gone into hospital. I'm beginning to wonder whether there's a conspiracy at hand...(grin!) Anyway - hope you folks are all feeling MUCH better now! I've also been keeping out of trouble by doing a bit of housework. Yes, 'our' maid is on holiday so Therese is paying me to do her job. It's a nice bit of income, but the work is hard...then again, at least it's not as bad as the men's urinals I've had to clean in years gone by!

And finally - PARIS!!! For those who haven't been, it's beautiful, especially when the Parisians are all on holiday! Seriously though, we had a wonderful time. Obviously, in just 2 days, you can't DO Paris, let alone any city/ town. Still, we saw a lot, and walked a lot. For all the rumour that Parisians are rude and arrogant, particularly toward English speakers, we found that most French speaking people were quite willing to serve us/ talk to us/ help us, etc. One of the major attractions, is the lack of the pub culture. In the UK, people go out to the pub, drink themselves silly and then become these obnoxious pigs (of course, this is a generalisation, and so I ask to you please take it with a pinch of salt!!!!!!). In Paris, there is this lovely culture of coffee bars, and people sit out on the street talking and drinking coffee till late. Very laid back. As a pedestrian, it felt like being at home - you know, where you have to wait for the cars to go past before venturing across the pedestrian crossing? (smile) The Metro (Underground) is great, and feels far less claustrophobic than the UK equivalent. There's also a huge culture (on Sundays) of rollerblading/ cycling/ walking alongside the river, and various sections of street are closed to motorised traffic to accommodate that. In many ways, it felt like being at Seapoint Boulevard...except without the smell of the sea. Unlike London, you can actually get right down to the river level in Paris, which is nice. Apart from anything else, Paris is far more beautiful than London!! There is an obvious lack of high rise buildings, for a start. Also, many of the flats have window boxes, so there is plenty of colour and plant life around. All the flats have these huge balcony doors (but no balconies and no burglar bars) that look out onto the street, so there's a feeling of openness/ freedom/ airiness/ light that I really like. And of course, there are crepes (pancakes) of all sorts (both savoury and sweet) - Nutella and Banana is REALLY nice! As far as doing stuff is concerned (in no particular order) (please take no notice of my spelling if it's wrong!), we went to Notre Dame, Arc de Triomph, Champ d'Elysees, Place de la Concorde, Eiffel Tower, La Defense, Le Louvre, Musee de Orsay, Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, Pompidou Centre, a boat trip on the Seine, a quick whip round car tour of all the major sights by night (Thanks Paddy!!!!), had supper in a lovely cheese speciality restaurant (ie you have a variety of cheeses, with wine and bread, for your entire meal; thanks again Paddy!!!) and had our portraits drawn (charcoal and chalk). OH! And of course, we almost missed our train leaving Waterloo so nearly didn't make it to Paris at all! OK, I could go on for hours, but I won't. Needless to say, we had fun and the weekend was truly wonderful. Anyway, I hope you're not all bored to tears by now. I pray you are all well, and that we'll hear from you soon.

Lots of love
Nicole and Graeme

You never can tell with bees