UK tour 06

17jun: Glasgow after 25 years

17 June: Flew in to Glasgow and were met by Kwong Ming and our Daniel (who'd mistakenly arrived a day earlier from his Sweden holiday) at the airport. Really touched by KM and Linda's hospitality, fetching, feeding and housing us! Upon our arrival, we trooped off to University Gardens to show Daniel and Andrew where we'd studied, stayed at and sought fellowship. First stop was the campus to revisit its awesome Gothic (now then notice lah:)) architecture. Next was a walk to the 21 Huntley Gardens basement flat, our first matrimonial home. The place looked the same albeit with back garden spruced up (see pix below showing kitchen window, meaning that the kitchen is none the worse, even after Alan Tan nearly burnt it down 25 years ago!) After some fish and chips along Byres Road to assuage HL's craving, we popped over to the Botanics across the road to rest and work off before our dinner date with the Chung folks at Wilton Street. And nobody should find the doorway to 2 Melrose Street unfamiliar!

Mr and Mrs Chung were thrilled to bits that we'd visited although there was some confusion with dates and they'd ordered pigs' lungs for the day after (hing ah!). They are such dear folks who'd rented a room to HL in his first year. It was good to see them still sprightly even after retirement. Pity all their 5 kids (now adults with their own kids some more) are now based in other cities and countries. KM and Linda, who joined us later, did renew friendship and invited them to the church fellowship. Dinner was a grand feast as they fussed over us.


18 June: The next day, a Sunday, we joined KM and Linda to attend both the Cantonese and English services, located a stone's throw from GCCF centre. The Chinese church there has grown by leaps and bounds. Now it's the English-speaking service that's the smallest group as there's a core group of Cantonese and a growing Mandarin-speaking community of believers. Chi Khen, Anita, KM and Linda have really been stalwart in serving the Chinese church in Glasgow. Do continue to support them in prayer, especially as they seek His will concerning buying their own church space.

The worship for the English service was ably led by Nora (Chi Khen's daughter), Wayne (Kwong Ming's youngest son) and Oswald (Meng Yin's son). Praise God for how the next generation have been blessed and love Him wholeheartedly.

We next went to Baird Hall (it's being turned into a hotel!) for a lunch meeting with Moira Tierney followed by a walk around Sauchiehall St and St George's Square.

In the evening, KM and Linda hosted a potluck gathering in our honour. We had great fellowship with the families of Chi Khen and Anita, Leong and Fiona, Meng Yin and Choi Chun, Mr and Mrs Lo, Leslie, Tricia MacGuigan, Susan Leitch, Mrs Chung, and many others roped in to cook up another grand feast. The house was abuzz with the thick Scottish accent ...what nostalgia! Here are shots of some of those present:




19 June: After spending 2 nights at KM and Linda's, we rented a car to head north through Fort William right up to Inverness to find Nessie. Here she is!



After that it was southeastward towards Edinburgh. But we made a stop at Aviemore where Daniel and Andrew did some claypigeon shooting at 30GBP each (everything's quite ex in the UK now!). Alan, the instructor, was quite impressed with the boys' shooting skills, thanks to NS training.

After a pizza lunch stop at Perth, we reached Edinburgh but not before we got lost until my Google map came to the rescue. 'Auld Reekie', Scotland's capital city was colder (to me at least) than Inverness as the winds sliced through the Royal Mile and Princes' Street. Here's a collage of shots of the Edinburgh castle, Holyrood and Arthur's Seat.

22 June: We left Edinburgh to visit Mrs Vera Anderson at her beautiful retirement village at Auchlochlan but not without a stopover at Rosslyn Chapel which turned out to be just a tiny quaint building undergoing renovations now to cope with the Da Vinci Code fever! Anyway, Cheapo us didn't pay to go in but just got some shots of the exterior and a CCTV capture of the interior below.
Where Mrs Anderson is putting up, a small self-sufficient flat that has a chapel and club-like facilities, is really paradise! Here are shots showing the cafe where we had lunch and her flat. BTW, when I tried to pay the lunch bill, we discovered that it had already been settled by one of her friends from another table whom we discovered later, to be an admirer of her godliness. Isn't that awesome?

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR...
22-23 June: Ambleside, Lake District.
24-25 June: Bath and Stonehenge
26-29 June: Cambridge (& London)

posted by joy lee @ 9:54 PM