farewells and welcomes

I join a group of mum's for bible study every Thursday morning in the Canary Wharf area. It has only been running for about 6 months but we've all benefited immeasurably from the group. Sadly one of the girls is moving back to Australia with her husband and little girl. Last Thursday was their last time with us, so we had a picnic in the park. As tends to happen, Cindy and Kelvin were at the doctor on the morning of the picnic because Esther was running a temperature. You wouldn't guess so from the photos...


cindy and little esther at their farewell picnic


the gaggle of mums and tots in Limehouse Park

Zack's great uncle Derk Jansen was passing through London on Saturday morning, en route back to Vancouver, so we drove out at dawn to meet him. We spent a good 4 hours just hanging out and talking about his trip to SA with the family (who are still there for another week or so). He also showed us his grandfather's passport which he'd got from Keith's mum while in Johannesburg - this is Keith's great-grandfather, so Zack's great-great-grandfather. He was born in Rijsenburg which is just outside (south-east) Utrecht. We were interested to see the vital statistics - height, eye colour, etc. I must confess that it's the first time I've seen a strong resemblance in the eyebrows... Keith and grandpa have an eyebrow thing going on.


a piece of family history


Uncle Derk and Z get acquainted