the end?

I don't want to sound like the campaign of a well-known presidential candidate. So I (unlike the candidate) call it a day.

I haven't updated the blog for ages. Time to bow out. (for now... maybe I'll be back in four years time LOL).

Meanwhile, over at my other blog...

PS: thanks for reading,
PPS: the final big news of our move to Bermuda: since April we've got a car! (gas is $2/litre... and we're broke LOLOL)

Merry Christmas

It's around Xmas, and I am in a bedroom, with all the windows open, and I'm sweating!
That's because we went to see my in-laws in Jamaica. Not that Bermuda is not nice in the winter, just a little damp. But the temperatures in Jamaica are far FAR better... I mean 30C!
And SUNSHINE that makes you feel like summer.

Besides the obvious temperature advantages, there's the food. Because in Bermuda there is virtually no agriculture, except golf--those flags in the wholes are not really crops, so really this doesn't even count. And so everything is coming over to Bermuda in a container.
Not so in Jamaica. Although global trade etc. have messed up some of Jamaica's supply lines (importing cheaper milk powder from the US, instead of milking Jamaican cows, e.g.) you cannot beat a fresh breadfruit, or a coconut from the tree in the backyard, expertly chopped so you can drink the water!!!!!

And then there is the driving experience. In Bermuda it's 35 kmh. In JA, well....
It's quite fun driving a car here. It's all a bit more spontaneous than in BDA, Germany, or the UK (exc. maybe London) :-) just gotta look out for the potholes!

So Merry Christmas, a blessed New Year, from sunny Jamaica.

The Empire Strikes Back

The rebel forces had made steady inroads lately, surprising Queen B of Nowshera. And eventually the empire struck back. The rebels may have superior numbers, are well organised, and extremely persistent, but they were no match to the liquid power and destruction of The Terminator. And since ants and cockroaches have no jedi religion and are devoid of midi-chlorians, there won't be a sequel. Eventually, of course they will return, just not as jedi.

Today the guy from Pied Piper (in Anlehnung an den Rattenfänger von Hameln, ein gängiger Name im Angelsächischen von Firmen der Kammerjäger) came by and sprayed the house. Our house is called "Nowshera" and my wife, Barbara, had been fed up with ants and roaches sharing her living space. Yes we know we live on a subtropical island, where humans are outnumbered by ants by about a trillion to one, but, according to her, that does not mean I have to live WITH them. Chemistry was a potent factor in redressing that numerical imbalance. And I suspect we'll be ant-free for a while. (to be continued)

The storm that never came

Just following up on the last entry.
The session came and went, yet without storm. All went pretty smoothly. And the general atmosphere remained spiritual. So overall it was actually an encouraging meeting.

the calm before the storm?

There's been an uncomfortable density of rat-related blog entries.
Of course, our lives have not only been filled with rodent trivia. I actually went to England for 6 days at the beginning of the month. And it was quite an experience. A psychological sandbox--my mind, not England. Very interesting to check one's emotions on such a trip. In the end, I met a lot of people, a good number of friends and family, and I didn't spend a lot of £££ which is good, because I'm paid in $$$ which are not worth as much as they used to be.
And I'm also glad to be back in Bermuda. This is where we live now. For how long? God knows. (literally)
Besides seeing friends, and spending a few pounds, I also briefly attended a church convention/synode/conference session. This will be (hopefully) the only time that I attend two of these things within the same month.
Tomorrow, I'll be attending (as a "delegate at large") the 8th Triennial Constituency Meeting of the Bermuda Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. If my life will be richer for having done so, we'll know in 24 hours...
For now, time to rest. It could be a long day tomorrow.

Rats! -- epilogue

It was the smell that should have told me that something was wrong.
And yesterday, I finally took the courage to check, well actually to confirm what was the source of the odour in our garage.
Behind the old bed that had been in there from before we arrived I saw what can only be described as a fur ball, with a dry bony tail.
Yes, one of the rats (see earlier entry) had found refuge here, and somehow got stuck or whatever. In the end it had died, and now it was really stuck. No really, when I finally entered the garage (again) in a full bio-hazard suit and I tried to scoop the remains up, it was actually stuck to the wall. Yes, very disgusting indeed!

Sermons online

Some of the sermons preached at our church (and elsewhere) are now available online here.

Rats!

Rats!
No I didn't go to see Ratatouille. Going to the movies in Bermuda while being a pastor, that's another blog altogether. Maybe with a false beard and sunglasses :-)

I mean rats. The rodent that tends to live closer to humans than they (the humans) like.
Today is a sunny day (bear with me, I'm going somewhere with this--and it's not the obvious schadenfreude spiel of "I'm in a sunny country and you're not, na na nanana"). And I decided to cut my hair (well, grade 000 cut with the clippers). Sun and scalp don't go together, at least in my case--as I found out the other day, followed by days of peeling, on my scalp. Man, I would've made a good example for a head&shoulders ad.
So I decided I need a hat for today. And I remembered having some baseball caps, from some yesteryear. I'm sure they made the move over from England last year. Hadn't seen them since though. So where are they? Having checked the usual suspects in the house, I thought, maybe the garage (really it's a glorified shed that can hold a bike, or a toy car). There is that big box in there that may contain some long lost items.

So I went in. A big brown spider scuttled for some cover of darkness as I opened the door. Warnings of things to come... (yes, let that creepy feeling build, and let those goosebumps build)
That big box, about 5ft tall stood near the door. It was open at the top, and an old beach mat, rolled up, stuck out the top. I decided to poke with it, you know, to warn the spiders. Instead of spiders running for covers, I heard an old familiar rustling sound. Suddenly, I saw it. It looked at me for a split second. Then it jumped out of the box.
And with a very unpastoral **&% me I was the one diving for cover. For a moment I felt like Neo in Matrix 1 when he sees that the probe that just got sucked out of his guts was real.
So I kicked the box. Bloody hell, there were 3 MORE rats coming out over the next few minutes of kicking, poking, and running. (I just hope my wife doesn't read this LOL)
When I was sure all the rats had vacated the premises, I dragged the box into the open and kicked it again. And there was one last sucker jumping out and running for cover in the bushes. You mean to say that I had five of them squatting in my shed?
I kicked the box over lifted it up, and emptied it out. [bleep], at what I saw.

Rewind a few months--this is the part in the movie when we go back in time. It's winter and I'm looking for my beloved Barbour jacket. My faithful companion that I had bought as a bachelor, on a trip to Scotland with my brother. I couldn't find it. I reasoned that I must have left it in England....
And there it was. At the bottom of the pile. Covered in mildew, rat's liquids, and eaten up. Gnawed by their eager teeth to create a cosy little nest.

I am sitting on the ferry now, on my way to town, a more relaxing way than taking the bus. I can actually take out the laptop and type this. And I'm grieving over the loss of my jacket (ok, no cheesy music, or Teletubby hugs). I liked it. (Addition: it's night time now, by the time I can post it on the net. The jacket is still outside. For some insane reason I hope that the rat smell will dissipate, and that the big holes will somehow shrink over night, and that I can then send if off to the customer service--Barbour is famous for good customer service...)

Recently I heard a very good sermon (see our church website and click on "Sermons" look for Camp Meeting, Henry Wright Friday). We are too much in love with our stuff.
Time to let go, and realise that we don't actually own it, just looking after it on behalf of the Owner.
Hope the rats liked my jacket. But they had to let go of it too, this morning ;-)