« July 2007 | Main | September 2007 »

August 08, 2007

Post Wedding Update

Brief roundup of events since I last posted properly:

1. Got married as planned (see photos). This (on balance) has turned out to be (in 1066 parlance) a Good Thing. Hooray.

2. Went on honeymoon to Scotland - a nice town in the highlands called Pitlochry. We walked and went horse riding and ate salmon and saw Pitlochry's famous fish ladder.

3. Went to Lowestoft for a church week away. Swam in the sea (brrr) and learned this wonderful worship song and this one, and enjoyed a talk by Major General Tim Cross on the subject of courage. He said that courage is not bravado - it is like a reservoir that you can only fill up by prayer.

4. Family visits: Chichester, Abingdon, York. Walked around this scenic village whose name makes me laugh: Hutton le Hole.

5. Now we're back in London - living in Battersea High Street, looking out over tangled rooftops, listening to the traffic, painting (walls), writing (Timbuktu Enigma) and settling into married life. I like London very much, and just know that our month here will fly by.

6. Went to Andersen Press tonight for a drinks party and came away wholly unexpectedly with a contract for Sophie and the Pancake Campaign. So Sophie is now a trilogy! But it won't be called the Pancake Campaign - apparently children don't buy books with pancakes on the cover.

7. We've set a date for going back to Burkina Faso: Saturday 27 October. Apparently, rainy season in Djibo is going well so far. We continue to pray for our co-workers there and for the Precious Girl team in Cambodia.

Posted by sahelsteve at 11:25 PM

The Yellowcake Conspiracy Extract

It is now less than a month until publication of The Yellowcake Conspiracy. Here is chapter one as a taster.

(Free copy of the book to the first person to point out the accidental continuity error on page 6! - luckily it was spotted before the book went to print - submit answers via 'comments' below)

Continue reading 'The Yellowcake Conspiracy'...

Posted by sahelsteve at 11:32 AM

August 07, 2007

Wedding Photos

Sorry to those of you who have had problems accessing the photos. I realise now that not everyone is on Facebook. Here is a batch of them. Click for full-size.

--- -- -- -- -- --

Posted by sahelsteve at 04:03 PM

August 05, 2007

Fish Ladder

I wrote this poem for Mum's birthday. It's about the fish ladder in Pitlochry, which she visited as a child and which Charlie and I visited on honeymoon.

Intuitive as Solomon Inquisitive as Sheba Potent as Samson Wily as Delilah Salmo salar coming Lithe pisces freerunning Reckless rough and Tummel-ling Parkour par excellence Jump Scotland. Fins set like flint For the Firth of Faskally Fully immersed Shundai! Mouldy and mottled Saltwater-sozzled Scaly-necked salmon Battling the torrent Scaling the ladder Hookjawed, abhorrent Hunchbacks of Pitlochry Dam! "Salman Rushing, why the fuss?" "It's just that I'm anadramous: It is my wont I must confess, To live in salt but breed in fresh. The salmon hen has made her nest Among the pebbles of Loch Ness So onwards as to war I press Iron-willed and gaping-gilled Acutely aquastressed. Our steep ascent of river-rungs Is neo-gnostic fishy-fun In thirty-four degrees of rise We flee the violent flow. The twenty-ninth is glamorous With salmon-clocks and cameras Big Breeder, Changing Chambers I'm anadramous, get me out of here! Two thousand miles of H20 Then half a mile of sloshing slope We salmon whisk and reel and risk On carousels of hope. Riding the disc of history To breed where we were born We crossed the sea With our family trees To find a spot to spawn. If you ask the ancient secret That inspires us Faskallywags It's just that dear old Mum and Dad Skedaddled here a while back. They climbed this ladder to the top And didn't ever think to stop And so we know our climb's not done: Our parents swam this way And won."

Posted by sahelsteve at 11:12 PM