Universities

September saw us visit various Universities with Hannah. We went to Lancaster, Liverpool & Manchester on 3 consecutive Saturdays. It was hard work & we were there nearly all day on each occasion. One of the problems we have is that Hannah is undecided which subject she wants to take, so we were visiting Biology, Chemistry, Geology & Geography departments. So far Hannah has ruled out Chemistry. Lancaster, which is a campus university, is currently top of the list. We will have another look around next spring.

Hannah is going to take a year out. Hopefully she will earn some money and also do some kind of missionary work.

The Credit Crunch

Well, first week back to work in August after our holidays and I had to review the staffing in my Department. My Director asked me to make some cuts as the level of work through the business had slowed down significantly due to the down turn in the housing market. I had to assess the current & future work load & then decide how many staff I could let go. I had already had a couple of staff leave earlier in the year which I had decided not to replace, so I only needed to let one person go. For the next stage I had to conduct a review for each member of staff to be able to come to a fair decsion on who would be made redundant. I was a hard few days. The total number of staff who were made redundant was significant. But it was absolutly necesssery if the business is to survive the credit crunch.

Olympics, Rugby, Christianity & Eric Liddell

This is an extract from the worlds best selling rugby magazine Rugby World (Sept 2008 page 88).

"Immortalised in the Oscar winning film Chariots of Fire, Liddell is best known as a devout Christian who won the 400m gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics in a world record time of 47.6 seconds. Ironically, the 100m had been considered Liddell's strongest event but, with the final scheduled for a Sunday, he withdrew at the start of the Games because he considered the sabbath as a day of rest.

One aspect of the Scot's life omitted in the film was his rugby career, which was brief but brilliant. First capped against France in 1922, Liddell scored 4 tries in 7 Tests, including 3 in the 1923 five nations when, but for an 8-6 defeat to England would have won their 1st Grand Slam. Two years later the Scots achieved that distinction, but Liddell was no longer part of the team having settled in China as a missionary. He was still there in the early 1940s when the Japanese invaded the country during World War 2; Liddell was interned in the Shantung Compound and died of a brain tumor in 1945 aged 43.

A fellow internee wrote later that throughout his incarceration Liddell was 'overflowing with good humour and love for life...it is rare indeed a person has the good fortune to meet a saint, but he came as close to it as anyone I have ever known'."

Eric Liddell is also the subject of a new book by Gordon Keddie called "Running The Race" (published by Evangelical Press). I am currently half way through and thoroughly enjoying it. I hope to finish it before New Year.

This will be our last holiday blog

This is our last holiday blog from Hawes in beautiful Wensleydale. On Sunday we went to the evangelical church in Leyburn as we did last week and had a good time. It is a very warm and friendly fellowship. Today (mon) we went to the castle at Middleham where king Richard III lived. We have had 4 very hot days with lots of sunshine. Some in the family have got sunburned! Tomorrow is market day in Hawes.

Hannah & Esther posing with the locals.

Hannah & Esther posing with the locals. This was the best day so far (monday). Tuesday we walked to Ingjeborough cave & had a tour of the cave which was so fascinating. We went on a bat walk late last night (wed) with a bat expert - complete with bat detectors.