Well, I’m back… after a few days of silence!

It has been an amazingly unstressful move. With so much help and an amazingly friendly welcome up here, I honestly did not feel anxious once. However, life with the four children in a new house, and new city with Jon doing busy days on location is a bit tricky at times.

But now I am on first name terms with the man in the DIY shop, (my second home) the Lollipop man in our road (think ‘Joe’ the Next-door-neighbour in the Royle Family) and the school secretaries… all of whom are the salt of the very salty earth round here!

I have knocked on half the doors in the road and met some lovely people. I plan to do the other half at the weekend. God has spoken to me so many times through this move that it is hard to know what to write today. I think I will plump for my story about a neighbour.

One of our neighbouring families are Hindi. They have wonderfully exotic names (I got out my phone and made her spell them all!) and equally exciting smells coming from their beautiful home. As the children played in our garden, I had a great conversation with the mother, who, I suspect will become a good friend. Within a short space of time she recalled for me in total horror, the previous few weeks for her; how alienated she felt at school and how she feels she has been labelled as the typical prudish asian.

Sex education appears to have crept into the syllabus for Year 4 children and she, for one, is angry about how and why it is taught. As she spoke to me concerning this issue, passionately explaining her stance, I felt a kindred sensation. Like her, I want my children to know the ‘facts of life’. But, I want them to discover them when they are emotionally mature enough to understand them.

Apparently her son came home, declaring (in front of Grandma) some rather factual comments about the holes that God has blessed her with and the purposes of these orafices. Yikes! She tried to busy herself by making naan bread, but was mortified. Understandably so. A 9 year old should not need to know these things, unless he has asked.

As we chatted, her eyes brimming and mine locked onto hers, I felt a strong sense that for many reasons we will find shared ideals. Her husband is an eminent neurosurgeon. Her children are bright, sweet, funny and characterful. She is gentle, amusing and empathetic. She is a mine of local information and a mean curry cook. I’ve said it before and I will no doubt say it many, many times more…God is very clever.

I look forward to learning many things from her and hopefully introducing her to Jesus. In the mean-time, I will be VERY careful to monitor the conversations her kids have with mine, or else I may have some interesting conversations at inappropriate moments too!