The changing world (243) Feb 2001

Feb 2nd Bill N, NP and I examined AR and PB who have not studied the WMC, and WL who has. All approved by session but they have a lot to learn as elders.
3rd        Session. Wells to dinner. Helen is coping well with schizophrenia diagnosis. Strange she is the second missionary daughter we know so diagnosed.
Days with no diary entry indicate depression.
18th      Larsons with us after pot luck lunch.
19th      To Jonathan who took us to Stanstead for the flight to Germany.
20th      Charlie and Angela drove us to the Rhine valley, Lorelei high cliffs above the river narrows. Limburg cathedral. Charlie's driving is mad professor style. We found teenage Albert's driving more comfortable.
21st      To Saarlsbruck Roman fort with statues of Roman emperor and Kaiser Bill. Frontier of the empire as portrayed in the film Gladiator. Charlie took us to his housegroup and they amazed us by conducting it in English too. It could not happen in UK switching to a second language.
22nd      Wellburg castle. Angela talking more. She was asked about Chinese nurse rhymes. She said they were lost in the cultural revolution under Mao. But when Katy hummed Frere Jaque she remembered Chinese words to that tune. Charlies \'s father had been a nationalist imprisoned by the communists. So he grew up in the countryside away from the urban effects of the cultural revolution. His father was not released until after the death of Mao by which time his mother had died. But Charlie was so clever he was able to enter university on a master's course skipping a first degree.
23rd      A friend of Charlie's drove us to the airport in a Mercedes with 600,000+ Km on the clock.
24th      Adrian's parents to dinner and the visitors book says they are looking forward to the union of the two families. So somehow I failed to enter Rachel and Adrian's engagement in my diary. Must have been depressed at the time or were we in Germany?
25th      Sharon Wells with us for two weeks' placement. She is a dietitian who can advise on diet. Liss for meeting with elders and three L'Abri men who are prospective elders.
26th       Start diet at 21 stone. It was not very effective but got me off full fat milk, butter and sugar.
27th       Foot and mouth spreading.
28th       Lunchtime Speedwell journal club. Housegroup, Luk 4. First varifocals, £425. Now in 2018 I pay just over £100.