Phew, I am have in the eye of a hurricane for the last few days, and now am quite ill.

Returned home from Sweden on Wednesday, having got caught in Stockholm’s crawling, bumper to bumper traffic on Tuesday, and missed our flight. Slept in the airport’s very expensive Radisson, and caught the mornings 7 a.m. flight (just!!).
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Zoe’s GCSE results the next day were good, all A*s and A’s. She was disappointed as she had wanted all A*s, the highest possible grade. She missed her Greek A* by 2% on a translation paper, and feels sure they must have inadvertently skipped a page or something, so we are going to get it re-marked. I am pleased and relieved at her results, though she is disappointed.

It struck us that we are going to have girls taking public exams every year from now to 2017, with just a break in 2013 when Irene is in Year 10. 2017!! 2017!!
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I was so looking forward to the Greenbelt Festival, but I seem to have picked up a cold, cough and mild flu. I even got into the car, and drove till the end of the lane, but then found I was coughing and my eyes were closing. One of my life verses is

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel,
 “In returning and rest you shall be saved;
 in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
 But you would none of it. Isaiah 30:15.


This verse has saved my physical and emotional health so many times, and contributed greatly to my happiness,  and general sanity. There must have been scores of times when I pulled out of doing something because of this verse.


In returning and in rest, you shall be saved. So since I was physically exhausted by illness, sleepy, with a bad chesty cough, I turned right round, and returned home to my laptop. I will still have three whole days of Greenbelt, and will enjoy them thoroughly for being less ill.  
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And my daughters are in…..India! We arrived home at noon on Wednesday, and they left this afternoon. I was too ill to help them pack, so I just hope they have remembered everything, like cameras!! I fear they have not, alas!! It is traditional to give lavish presents when you return to your hometown, but I was far too weak and ill to contemplate shopping, so sent Zoe and Irene to shop–with a budget. They bought lovely stuff, including a beautiful red cashmere sweater I nearly captured, and they kept within budget, by dint of removing stuff at the checkout. That was good as I never manage to keep within budget when I go present shopping. Nor do I shop as carefully and thoughtfully as those girls did!! (They did buy £150 of boxes of chocolates to give as gifts, but they are just 12 and 16 after all!!) 


I was dreading the busyness of that 48 hour period, but being ill I found almost everything could be delegated. Yay! The stress of the break-in to our campervan and the stolen iPad, iPod, and two laptops, wallet, credit cards etc caused a white streak in my hair to appear overnight!! Gosh! I really cannot go white before I turn 50, so did manage to drag myself to my Iranian hairdresser for an application of natural Iranian henna. I now have coppery-mahogany streaks in my hair!! Roy was a bit amused and incredulous at my vanity–and so was I!! Especially since that seems to be the only thing I have achieved in the last two days!

The break-in to our motor home was a bit of a shock. I suppose we were very trusting/careless. Roy wasn’t sure if he locked the motor home. He left the two laptops on the bed, with just a towel over them, left Irene’s ipod touch charging, and left my iPad, in a backpack in the unlocked cupboard. All very professionally taken in the hour we left the camper.

We probably will travel with laptops again–we are digital citizens after all, and the internet–researching things, checking things, blogging, running our business, reading news, writing to people, being wired–is +part of our lifeblood!! However, we will, almost surely, carry them with us in a backpack, and not leave anything valuable in the car!!
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The rest of the holiday, however, was tranquil. I enjoyed lolling seal-like on the rocks on Lake Vanern, the largest lake in Sweden, four times the size of greater London. Irene and Zoe and  Roy swam out to islands, and I joined them a bit but sensibly desisted when the water felt so cold that it was as if I was being bitten. Lake Vanern stretches as far as the eye can reach. It’s like an inland ocean. I had two days praying on the rocks while the girls swam, made barbeques and explored. I feel all prayed up, and envisioned, and have a clear vision, purpose and direction for the year to come.
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Yesterday: Vadstena on Lake Vattern. The Klosterkyrkan was grey, imposing and “humble” on the outside was built according to the specification of Saint Birgitta, Patron Saint of Sweden and Europe (a Swedish Joan of Arc) who saw the yet unbuilt church, abbey and monastery in visions. Inside, like a Tardis, it has rich, colourful medieval art.

The Palace nearby is on the shores of Lake Vattern. We walked by it and enjoyed a most beautiful sunset.

Had a lovely day canoeing on Stockholm’s archipelago today.
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But, but, but…somewhat embarrassed to admit this…. We really are experienced travellers, and generally come to Europe 6 times a year, in every school half term. However, we totally underestimated Stockholm traffic. Thought we had left plenty of time to get to the airport, but the traffic at 5 p.m. was  a nightmare, we crawled at a snail’s pace, and missed our flight!!

So are flying out tomorrow! Spending the night in an expensive 4 star hotel. Disorganization is expensive.
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I have another prayer request, PLEASE, dear blog readers. The first 48 hours in England are going to be super challenging. We arrive at midday on Wednesday (rather than 10 p.m. Tuesday). Zoe and Irene leave for India on their own midday Friday to visit my mother. It’s their second time flying alone to India.  We leave for the Greenbelt Christian artsy festival on Friday evening.

In those 2 days, we have to get lots of present shopping done for their India trip, get badly needed haircuts for me and Zoe!!, get packed for India and Greenbelt, wrap up business stuff, run laundry, report losses to insurance, all while keeping the house tidy for our wonderful friend and housesitter! And Zoe gets her GCSE (national schoole exams taken at 16) results, which might determine what she chooses for her A-lovels. All doable with prayer and keeping on an even keel. Please pray for us.

Enjoyed the Domkyrkan in Uppsala, Scandinavia’s largest cathedral, built in competition with the people of Trondheim, Norway. Very pretty, with flowery paintings on the noble stone.

It had a shrine to Dag Hammarskjold, the noble Swedish politician, who was in secret a committed evangelical Christian and a mystic.
Dag Hammarskjold–son of a Prime Minister of Sweden– was interesting: His vivid and intense spiritual life was kept secret while he ascended politically–Chairman of the Reserve Bank, Cabinet Minister, Secretary-General of the United Nations. After his probable assassination while trying to broker peace in the Congo,his journal, Vagmarken, Markings, which he had written since he was 20 was discovered–and published.
And here are some reflections from Markings

For all that has been
 — Thanks. 
For all that shall be
 — Yes.
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours. 

 
Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.
I don’t know Who — or what — put the question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone — or Something — and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.
Never, “for the sake of peace and quiet,” deny your own experience or convictions.

The longest journey
Is the journey inwards.
Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.