weekend wanderings

do any other bloggers get tired of making up titles for your posts? i think i might revert to a number system...

this was my second weekend in Northern Ireland. on Saturday afternoon i met Jayne, who lives about 30-40 minutes away from Ballynure, in a city called Ballymena. Jayne is Hillary's friend; they met in Toronto while working for UrbanPromise. Jayne and her sister Vicki came to pick me up and drove me back to Ballymena. we went for a bite to eat and then walked around the shopping mall for a while. i enjoyed meeting Jayne very much - she reminded me of Hillary and i can see why the 2 of them would like each other! it was fun to talk with someone who knows some of my family - Jayne had met Auntie Barb and Unca Ray when they visited Hill in Toronto. so in a country where i only know about 5 people, it felt wonderful to meet someone like Jayne!

this morning (Sunday) Joanne drove the girls and i to her cousin Julie's house. Julie and her husband Roy have just had a "wee baby", Lily, on August 14 (what a darling). and seriously, people here say "wee" all the time. i thought that was just something in books, that stupid authors put in to make things sound more authentic, but it's actually how they talk. so anyway, Julie is close friends with Claire (i met both of them the first Friday i was here) and Claire is a wonderful Christian girl. so Claire met me at Julie's house and took me to her church (Joanne and the girls just visited at Julie's house). It was a Presbyterian church, but much different than the one i visited last week. this one was not so traditional - it was much more casual and easy going, which i really enjoyed! the pastor was a bit hard to understand, he talked quite quickly, but i enjoyed the atmosphere of it! there weren't too many people my age there, although there were lots of young families. after church, Claire and i went out for lunch in downtown Belfast, to a restaurant called The Other Place. i ordered a chicken salad sandwich (very strange for me), but it was not chicken salad like we know it...instead of just chicken and mayo, it was chicken, tomato, green peppers and...kernel corn! it's always interesting to go out for lunch in another country! anyway, Claire and i had a nice time together and i am so glad to know her.

during lunch, a group of 4 teenagers came in and ordered breakfast. Claire and i both noticed that they got up and left quite hastily after they finished their meal. we made a joke that they left so quickly they probably didn't pay...turns out they didn't! we heard the restaurant staff saying, "what happened to table 9?" a few minutes later, Claire and i were driving down the street (in her Austin Mini - very cool) and we saw the group of 4 kids walking down the sidewalk. we were going to yell at them, but then didn't.

tomorrow is Monday and the start of my first full week of taking care of the girls.