Journey mercies

I've been under the weather the last few days with an irritating cold. Spending two days resting in the flat makes me feel restless! So I was very glad I could go to church this morning.

At 2am this morning, we lost an hour due to the adjustment to British Summer Time (BST). Good thing EugeneKueh sent an email to remind on the change or I might have been completely late for the morning service.

I, however, the ever prompt and punctual person that I am, despite having woken up nice and early, still managed to find myself late for service. When I walked in, I noticed AC, Chris and Martin sitting in the last row of chairs, which meant all three of them came in late together because they would usually head to the front of the church. I sat at the pews beside the entrance behind them because I was afraid I might need to get water from the kitchen.

5 minutes later, Anna A, a German girl I'm close with, walked in and we snickered at each other for being tardy. 20 minutes later, Ako, a French girl who I'm also close with walked in whispering fiercely about how she didn't know the time changed and the three of us sat at the back of the church snickering at each other. Somehow, as I sat between the two of them, I felt a warm glow in me, because being there in that moment, among friends where time and effort was invested in and the harvest of it is the bond shared, is irreplaceable.

And I don't think it's just something I'm contriving in my mind, because at the end of the service, Emmanuelle walked towards us, saw the three of us sitting at the back of the church and she paused for a while, smiled, and made a gesture of taking a picture of us.

It's funny, there are some Sundays when it feels as if there is a race between different families to 'snap up' lunch guests to the point that there is 'pre-booking' (where they invite the lunch guests days ahead of Sunday). And then there are some Sundays when quite a number of us aren't invited for anything and we're left with an empty Sunday. It was such a Sunday for a lot of us today.

I wasn't feeling altogether well, so already made up my mind to decline any invitation before I went to church. When I found out that a few of us were lunchless, I suggested for them to accompany me to the Chinese supermarket because I wanted to get some stuff from there. So 5 of us got into Marianne's car and happily headed to the supermarket. After that, Martin had the brilliant idea of buying frozen dumplings and have a Chinese banquet at his flat.

It was quite fun, as everyone bought different types of food and I attempted to explain what they were.


In the Chinese supermarket...


German Anna & French Fred: EW!! What's this!?! *Holding out a tin*

Sick thus not very bright EW: RaMBuTaN!!

German Anna & French Fred: -_- We can read that. What is it?!

Sick thus not very bright EW: Err... fruit with hair??


Later...


German Anna: What do you call this again? Ran dan dan???

French Fred: Rambadandandan...


After lunch, seeing the promise of summer finally on us with nice, warm sunny skies today, a few of us went to a park for a walk.

I've learnt that even in our lives, we undergo different seasons. No matter how dark and cold or bright and sunny the season that besets us, it passes. The trick is to appreciate what each season brings into our lives in its appointed time, make the most of it and when the season passes and a new one comes along, we roll with it. Moaning or spending our time wishing for a better season to come is wasteful energy.