It’s almost midnight. I’m packed and ready for my 10-day trip to Kansas City. My suitcase is half-full, so plenty of room for bringing back presents. Actually, it feels strange to have a half-full suitcase; I’m so used to packing and re-packing to meet weight and amount limitations. I wasn’t really stressed about going off on this trip. Mostly I was just excited, but now I’m not so sure. No reason other than that it doesn’t feel like a short trip. For me a long-haul flight means Brazil. It usually means heading off for another long period of time, and it usually means setting off to face numerous difficult situations and challenges head-on. But it’s all good. This is not a trip like that. It’s a trip where I hope to meet with God. It’s a trip where I am travelling with a group rather than alone. It’s a trip where everything has been prepared for me and I just have to go along and “enjoy the ride”. I am looking forward to it, and I wish we were on our way already. However, we leave in 4 hours, so maybe I should try to get at least a bit of sleep…
Life is a strange thing. Last week went…not much happened, and then it was over. The weekend was quite calm without too many wild and exciting things happening. Except, of course, a wee outing to watch the National Championship for Veteran Ploughing. Now, like me, you might be sadly lacking an understanding of what this actually means. So I am delighted to be able to enlighten you in this respect. It’s basically (for the “farm-language-illiterate” like myself) a competition where you use old (hence the name “veteran”) tractors and ploughs, and plough up a stretch of field which is then evaluated and the one scoring the highest sum (accuracy, depth, how well the soil is turned is all given points) wins. I must admit that this information I got by eavesdropping on a conversation next to me where a man was explaining to some of my friends how it all works. So that was a fun adventure….although we only stayed for a bit. What is sort of occupying my mind at present is my upcoming travel abr...