A day out with my daughter

Yesterday Ally and I had a day out travelling to Canterbury for a look around and to have a squint at her accommodation for the first year of university. We had a few jobs to do on the way, involving collecting tickets for her expedition to Paris in a couple of weeks time. 

The wonder of the internet is that she was able to book everything online and then collect the tickets using the machines at the station. The only problem was that the machines at St Pancras didn't seem to recognise her Amex card. Still we managed to get the tickets and she now has 12 bits of varying shape and sized ticket and receipt for two people to travel to Paris and back. I wonder if a day will ever come when we can do without paper.

In Canterbury we walked up to where she will be living for the first year. The house looks like it's being renovated at the moment. A considerable amount of building has been taking place nearby on the site of an old warehouse and the drive of the house looks like its been relaid by the developer.

From there we walked back into the city. Canterbury looks like a city in change. Lots of new development work and renovation going on, although I guess that will all be slowing down at this time of credit crunching recession (are we allowed to use the 'r' word yet?).

From Canterbury it was back to London and St Pancras to wait for Anne so that we could all travel hone together. She was delayed a little, so that meant Ally and I had time to explore the new station. I remember the days when I was a student and would inevitably arrive at St P's station just in time to miss the train home to Nottingham. This meant a two hour wait for the next train and the station was somewhat rundown and with very little to do but find a bench and try to get comfortable for an hour or so.

Now, St Pancras is a bustling international terminal with lots of shops and cafes in which you can lose yourself for an hour quite easily. We usually end up in the coffee shop upstairs. Yesterday Ally took her nice new MacBook with her and discovered St Pancras wi-fi. It's the best sort of wi-fi, it's free!

Things are going to be very different for Ally as a student compared to the 70's when Anne and I were at university, and, I suspect, it will be very different for us as parents of an undergraduate too!

A long and busy day

So, we went to the Christian Resources Exhibition which entails walking up and down a seemingly endless array of stalls collecting information you want, information you don't want and information you didn't know you wanted until someone thrusts into your hand! I didn't find anyone who was talking about missional church or conversational evangelism but I did have one or two helpful chats with a few folk, especially about data projectors with long throw lenses. I'm sure you find that fascinating!

Having been quite regularly over the last few years, it's quite interesting to see how things appear to have changed. At one time there were a lot of photocopier suppliers demonstrating their wares. Now it seems as though there are more banks, ethical investment and insurance companies, and fund raising advisors. Some of the big exhibitors have cut down their presence and I didn't actually come across one theological college. It was noticeable too that there were fewer technical stands dealing with PA and AV equipment, lighting and stage stuff.

Perhaps it was just the way I approached it all this year that I missed some organisations that I expected to see, but then again maybe things have changed and this kind of event no longer serves their needs. I think for some sadly, the event has become too expensive to justify being there. Still there was a lot to get around and, armed with my trusty Ikea bag I set off in pursuit

of information and inspiration. This year for the first time, I took advantage of the seminar programme and attended a seminar on All-Age Worship. 

Suitably tired I returned to the Bible Society stand to buy some books that had caught my eye and then wandered back to our agreed meeting-point to drive home. The M25 was gloriously slow as usual and we turned off early to avoid the trauma that is the M1 at 5:00 in the afternoon.

Now all that's left is to go through everything I've accumulated and decide what is worth keeping and what needs to be recycled, but that can wait until tomorrow when my aching shoulders have had a rest. In the meantime there's a website for an organisation, the founder of which I know, and who planted an idea in my head for something I might do during my sabbatical. Very interesting!

Been away

The reason things have been quiet is because we've been away at Spring Harvest and beyond the reach of the internet. 

I wrote something for the blog each day, which I'll post over the next few days. Next time maybe I'll have an iPhone!