Jonathan’s school term started on the 3rd of January, and after a week back he seemed to be getting into his stride.  He’s not complaining about how long the days are (like he was this time last term), and aside from his, er, lively personality, which keeps the teachers on their toes, he seems quite interested and engaged most days.

The college students, on the other hand, only start back for their Spring Term tomorrow, having had a full month-plus off.  This generous block of time is slightly illusory though, because for many of them the assignments for next term are all front-loaded (i.e. due in the first few weeks back) so they’ve been having to commit significant chunks of “holiday” to writing essays.  Tom is no exception with 4 assignments due in the first two weeks (then another 4 due, 4 weeks later), and he’s been back in his office at college since Jonathan went back to school.

The holidays have been enjoyable but there are perks to college going back.  Personally, the biggest one is the free meal provision which tends to cut down our grocery bill as well as cooking effort!   By June last year, our weekly schedule (charted in some detail here in November 2010) had been extended to include as many as 4 evening meals in college a week!

Unfortunately, with the whole school bedtime thing, we’ve had to scale back to just Friday night, but nevertheless, it does make Fridays feel more special! Of course Tom still gets all his lunches there, and we all get up super-early twice a week to rush in for breakfast.

Our schedule is also expanding this term to include a weekly half-hour swimming lesson for Jon, and a separate Mums-and-baby weekly swimming lesson for Jessica and me.  So overall, while Spring is making its slow but steady progress to Durham, our respective Spring Term activities have us all going full speed from the outset!

The run up to Christmas has felt fairly chaotic for the last month or two, although Jonathan’s first term of school finished a week ago, so we’ve enjoyed some time being free of that routine at least.  Finally I feel like I can relax a bit and let Christmas happen without any more interference from me!

This Christmas, our lovely friends in York have offered to host us once again.  They’ve multiplied since we last did this though (in 2009), so while we’re really looking forward to spending time together, we’re only staying over for one night and hoping not to cramp their style too much.

Tomorrow then, we’re driving down to York laden with goodies for our much anticipated Christmas get-together, then rolling back to Durham in the evening on Christmas Day.  And then on Boxing Day, we’re driving across to the other side of the country to spend time with Tom’s cousin and extended family.

We’d really hoped to visit London as well this holiday, but once we’d pinned down York, we realised that there really wasn’t enough holiday left to fit in a week in London too.  The County Durham schools all broke up last week (16 Dec) and go back on the 3rd of January – this turns out to be different from a lot of other counties, and is surprisingly inconvenient where holiday planning is concerned.

Anyway, the end result is that instead of cramming in three trips away, we’ve all had a fairly relaxed week at home.  We took Jonathan to see the local “Jack and the Beanstalk” pantomime last Sunday (which went well), and we took the train for another little jaunt around Newcastle yesterday.  Other than that, it’s just been getting through our Christmas to-do lists, enjoying the Christmas season bounty of mince pies and mulled wine, and spending time with friends.  All good.

All that remains then is to wish you all a very special Christmas and may you know the peace and joy that Christ’s arrival brought into the world at this time.

Possibly one of the hardest aspects of coming to Durham for Tom’s training was leaving the community we had been a part of in our church in London.  Not just the aspect of people knowing us, but the opportunities to be involved in groups and ministry which isn’t always an option when you’re a transitory member of a congregation.

As part of his college placement requirements, Tom was assigned a church in Chester-le-Street, a town just to the north of Durham.  He had to be there on Sundays for the first two terms so we took the decision to go together.  In many ways it was very different to the church we’d been a part of in London, but folk were friendly and slowly we got to know faces and names.

Although Tom was only obliged to carry on going until Easter, we were feeling settled there – differences and all – so carried on going, uprooting ourselves from a church not being something that we undertake lightly.

However as the end of the year approached, and discussions about next year’s placements progressed, moving on started to feel inevitable.  Tom was hoping for a placement at a local prison and would potentially need the car on a Sunday.  With this in mind, I thought it sensible to use the summer break to integrate ourselves into a more local church so that when we had to go without Tom, it would at least feel familiar enough to make it easier going along by myself with the children.

So tomorrow, we’re all going along to a church just down the road from where we live.  Another fresh start, more people to get to know.  Arguably not a bad thing.  It’s just the thought that in a year’s time, it will be our turn to leave again, which will bring with it a whole lot more goodbyes.

[Background: As part of the training program, the college mandates 8 weeks of placements over the summer break which runs from early June to the end of September(!).  There are 2 weeks right at the beginning where there are only two options to choose from, but after that, the students are encouraged to fill the remaining 4-week and 2-week sections with work at somewhere that either fills a gap in their experience or will be relevant to their future ministry.]

Tom’s first choice, which would have seen the whole family down in London for two weeks, fell through a little while back.  This was disappointing but we resolved to take a holiday in London for part of that time regardless, since we’d already pinned down our accommodation with some generous friends in Shepherds Bush.

Then, in almost back-to-back news, we heard that Tom’s second choice of placement had fallen through, and his parents needed to change their plans too!  That was extra disappointment because as well as the excitement of having a family visit, I’d been looking forward to having help with my two weeks of childcare while Tom went off to do his placement.

So while Tom pondered his options, and I mused over how easy the other spouses have it with parents who live in the same country, it suddenly occurred to me that with our original summer plans scuppered, Tom could be looking for placement opportunities in South Africa!

We had our first serious discussion about it last week Tuesday and Tom set to work on it the next day.  He had his invitation from a church in South Africa by the end of the day, collared the (busy) warden on Monday at breakfast to see if the college would approve, and by Tuesday’s supper we were in possession of 4 tickets to SA!

Looking at the itinerary, it’s going to be quite a different sort of trip to the ones we’ve been used to.  We’re flying out of Newcastle not Heathrow for starters, and instead of the usual 10pm-ish departure, arriving around 6am, we leave at lunch time and fly via Dubai landing at midnight.

If we’ve remembered to collect our hotel vouchers in Newcastle, we’re then granted two free hotel rooms to (hopefully) sleep in, and our next flight leaves around 10h00, landing in Durban about 17h30.  All in all a lot longer (26 hours vs 11 hours) but a lot more time flying during the day which relieves the stress of trying to sleep (and keep children quiet) on the plane!

As it happened, they called the day before with the bad news that their water supply had been frozen in the cold!  Which admittedly is no fun at all to have to live with (even with very helpful, unfrozen neighbours) so we could hardly add our family to their complications.

Other arrangements have been made though.  We went searching for a Christmas fowl in the market yesterday and managed to acquire a good-sized duck, as well as the last normal (i.e. not sponge / luxury / extra apricots) Christmas pudding in the local Tesco.  And we had already done all our decorating at home, so now it’s just a matter of organising a Christmas dinner for our little family tomorrow, going along to Tom’s placement church for their Christmas service, and then sitting back and relaxing for a bit while Jon plays with new toys.

From Boxing Day, our Christmas plans are back on track.  (Weather permitting!)  We’re heading on over to the other side of the country to have a Boxing Day dinner with Tom’s family, and the next day we’re travelling down to London for a week – hopefully catching up with lots of old friends.  Lots to look forward to, not least of which is the celebration of the coming of Emmanuel.

So to all our family, friends and interested readers – we wish you a joyous and peaceful Christmas!

I mean, it doesn’t always snow in London, right?  Okay, yes, it “snows” most years, but often it’s not very much and you can hardly count a centimetre or two as proper snow.  So perhaps there are years where it does that in Durham too.  And this could be one of them.

Or maybe not.

As a consequence of all this head-burying, I was rather surprised when more and more people started to talk about snow being forecast in the weather reports in late November.  It wasn’t that I didn’t believe them, but the weather people get these sorts of things wrong so often.  And this is still November, it’s not really going to snow.

But it did.

And it went on, and on, and on some more.  Snowfalls most days and every other night.  Until cars were getting stuck trying to get in and out of the courtyard of our complex, and we’d get woken up at night by loud rumbling and scraping followed by a series of wet thuds as the roof’s latest snow blanket succumbed to gravity.

Lots of fun was had on the local hillsides as adults and children tobogganed wildly down them and everyone in town pulled on their Wellington boots (wellies) before venturing out.  Everyone that is, who owned wellie boots and hadn’t been thinking that perhaps it might not snow this year.  (I did get some in the end – once we were a week into it, and local stores had had a chance to re-stock – and they helped a lot.)

In the end, it wasn’t the cold that was a problem, so much as the immovability of the snow.  It got so entrenched and packed down in the areas where it wasn’t cleared that it became really hard to drive on.  Under the surface centimetre or two of powder, was a thick layer of very hard icy stuff that car tyres battled to get a grip on.  The council applied grit but only to main roads (not even the pavements) and everywhere else people had to make do.

Most schools were closed for a week and this exacerbated the problem to some extent.  It meant that cars and minor roads got used even less, and the snow got even more chance to build up.  At Jon’s nursery, we found that the two parking areas which usually see a flurry of activity several times a day, were under a layer of snow about 10cm deep.  Only the local farmers with their 4×4′s were nonchalantly swinging in and parking there.  The rest of us were battling it out for the severely limited number of remaining parkings in the surrounding area.

(As mentioned, the courtyard of our complex’s parking area and the road leading up to it were examples of seriously entrenched snow.  A posse of residents got out one day and spent several hours breaking and levering up the icy layer covering the paving, and that made a big difference to us getting out the next week when schools re-opened.)

Taking out a pushchair was also a whole new challenge in such a hilly city.  From scaling the hard, snowy hillocks that had formed around our front doors (with narrow access trenches dug in them), to forging a path through the thick layer of loose snow on the path down to our closest road – and that was just to get to the point where you could join a road (with the cars) to avoid the icy churned-up slurry on the pavement.  It definitely made one think twice about going out.

As I write, snow is hitting a lot of the southern counties quite badly, but there’s none falling in Durham.  There’s been some predicted, but they seem to have got it wrong this time. So perhaps we won’t have a white Christmas after all, but I can’t say that I’d be unhappy. I’ve seen my winter wonderland for this year; been impressed with snowmen, igloos, and huge snow drifts (took lots of pictures – see here), and would now be just as happy with uncomplicated Christmas travel!

In the little map above, I’ve drawn in the 5 main routes for getting us from home (A) to college (B).

To start with, we kept trying different approaches in the hopes that they would prove faster – but however you want to cut it, the long and short of it (or maybe just the “long”!) is that with Durham’s tricky landscape and the river to cross, there’s never going to be a direct route.

Of all of them, we tend to use (1) the most often.  This is a lovely walk taking in a tree-lined avenue along the river bank.  The pros of it are that it is reasonably direct, and it’s very pretty.  Cons are that there is a flight of stairs to navigate to get from the bridge down to the river path (and of course I’m hardly ever without the pushchair), and at night time, there’s a stretch along the river which is can’t-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face black…

For walking at night or early in the morning when the streets are quiet, (2) is the best.  Pros are that there are no stairs.  Cons are that the streets on the west of the bridge are hectically busy during the day and the council are in the middle of an intensive lot of roadworks on these same streets.  (Scheduled to be finished in 2011.) As a result, pedestrians tend to be channelled into narrow, hard-to-navigate walkways and the going can be tortuously slow.

(Central Durham is full of mysterious little alleyways containing flights of stairs up or down.  Adventurous students have discovered one of these just east of the bridge that can lop off the top bit of route (2) if you don’t mind a lot of steps and have a torch to see your way when it’s dark!)

At times when (2) is going to be busy and steps are undesirable (e.g. when pushing a sleeping baby), (3) is a good route.  Lengthier, and lacking pavements for the first bit, but generally smooth and uncomplicated.  (4) takes in the other side of the river and, with some detouring, is also step-free but it’s altogether far too close to the water for comfort when walking with an unrestrained 3-year-old!

(5) uses an unpaved path through the heavily forested riverside.  Scenic, but with some nasty stairs to get back onto the road.  Lastly, there’s a variation on (5) that I haven’t drawn in because we’ve only taken it once.  It is more direct, and unencumbered students use it to make quite good time.  It involves a public footpath which goes through an old cemetery and then runs beside the town’s allotments.  Not a great route for pushchairs – quite steep in places and very muddy after every rain shower.

My best time with the pushchair is 16 minutes on the college-bound journey.  The way home can take longer because the worst of all the up-hills is on the homeward journey in all the routes except (3).  Referred to as “Cardiac Hill” by some of the students, it’s definitely a challenge that lets you feel you’re burning off some of the excesses of the last meal!

In case you’re thinking that this looks like a real drag, I should mention that (i) all the walks are very pretty, (ii) you always get to your destination glowing pinkly no matter how chilly it is outside, and (iii) having done it regularly for the last 6 weeks, I’m definitely finding it easier these days!

Since Cranmer is a college primarily for students going into the ordained ministry, there’s a big focus on Community – particularly eating together and worshipping/praying together.  To foster this spirit, the Anglican ordinands are all required to attend morning prayer in the chapel at 08h30 each weekday, eat at the college at least 8 times during the week, and attend an afternoon/evening prayer service at least 3 times a week.

Fitting this into our daily life has meant that we come away with a week where no two days are the same.  All in all, not a bad thing, and I find the pleasantly busy and enjoyable days fly by.  For those who have an interest in how we’ve arranged things, here’s a sample week:

Monday:
Breakfast at the college at 08h00 (for which we need to leave home with Jon and Jess in the pushchair at 07h45), then Tom heads off to chapel.  In between lectures, Tom spends his time in his shared office or carrell (university jargon), and he eats lunch at the college every day.  Tom’s Mondays are pretty full, including afternoon prayer at 16h30, and I often walk in with the children to have supper together at the college at 18h15.

Tuesday:
Breakfast for us all at the college again (Tuesday’s breakfasts aren’t as exciting as Monday’s “continental” spread, but we get by with our standard fare of cereal that we would have had at home.)  At 10h00 on Tuesdays, ACCESS (the group of college spouses) have their coffee mornings usually at the home of someone in the group, to which I go with Jon and Jess.

For Tom it’s another full day ending with the much-loved “Gin with the warden” before supper.  On Tuesdays they do a special family meal and many spouses and children come in for that;  it’s followed by an evening communion service to which everyone is encouraged to go.  At the moment, Tom and I are taking turns to go to these, while the other goes home with the kids (usually in a big group with others who live next door) to do the bedtime routine.  Drinks at our local pub are a popular way to end the evening.

Wednesday:
Breakfast at home today so we can move the alarm a few minutes later.  Tom dashes off to chapel at 08h15.  For us at home, it’s just a few hours before Jon needs to be at nursery (12h15), and the morning seems to fly by with Jess feeds, Jess’s lunch, prep for Jon’s and my lunch, eating lunch, grabbing everything and out the door by 12h00!

The time after dropping Jon seems to go just as quickly and by 14h30 I need to be waking Jess to feed her before racing out in the car to get Jon at 15h15. We’re home by 15h30 and then if I’ve got supper to prepare, I start that early as it takes forever with my two little distractions underfoot.

Tom’s Wednesdays are a bit freer lecture-wise and, if I can, I try to drag him home a bit earlier than his usual 17h45 finish especially if I need to head out straight after supper.  And that’s because  Wednesday evenings are reserved for ACCESS (the spouses’ group).  They have a varied and interesting program from movie nights to cheese & wine evenings, and it’s a great mid-week break for me while Tom does the baby-sitting.  Yay!

Thursday:
Thursday and Friday mornings are tight as Jon’s nursery starts at 08h40 and the traffic is quite bad at that time of day.  We have breakfast at home, then Tom does as much as he can to help with getting us out the door, before he has to rush off.  I have a 10 minute window after Tom leaves which is usually consumed with finding Jon’s shoes, brushing his teeth and dragging him and Jess out to the car.

The ACCESS group run a bible study on Thursday mornings and it handily meets in the house next-door.  They often have baby-sitting laid on so I can leave Jess for a while.

On Thursday lunchtimes, Jess and I usually join Tom for lunch at college at 12h45.  (Well, Jess just watches from the pushchair, often grizzling a bit because it’s past her bedtime but she won’t go to sleep.)  It’s a quick walk home after that, to have time to give Jess an hour’s nap before it’s the pre-nursery-run feed-time again.

Depending on what leftovers we have around and how lazy I feel, we might eat at the college again on Thursday.  It’s a little tricky because we have to tell them the day before if we want to have supper there, so I need to be organised and remember to talk to Tom if I feel that I’m not up for cooking myself.

On Thursdays, there’s an optional late evening Compline service at 21h00 in the chapel which Tom rather enjoys going to.  The port and cheese laid on afterwards might have something to do with its popularity.

Friday:
Another nursery morning and this time with nothing scheduled for me except minding and feeding Jess.  (And I’ve put the first two hours of this time for volunteering at Jon’s nursery if they need help.)  We tend to have lunch at the college on Fridays too, although the timing isn’t as good because Tom only gets out of his last lecture at 13h05.

Jon doesn’t really do daytime “naps” more than once a week, so after picking him up from nursery at 15h15, I’ll often plan in a shopping trip to help fill the afternoon, particularly if it’s raining.  If the weather’s good, I let him off from his “quiet time” so he can play with the other kids from the ‘Thill (our complex is called “Brass Thill”) in the large communal courtyard/parking area.

Tom usually goes to the second of the week’s afternoon prayer services on Friday, taking him up to his quota of three if he’s been to the Tuesday evening one as well.

On Friday evenings, the Cranmer dining room is closed so we’d have to eat at the main St John’s dining room if we felt like eating in.  So far we haven’t run the gauntlet of finding out how we’d book ourselves in to eat a meal there, so Friday nights tend to be quiet nights at home.

And then it’s the weekend.  Whew! 

For me, there’s something about leaving a property we owned for a property we’ll be renting that gives the new residence the air of a holiday home.

Combine this with the fact that Tom’s course only starts at the end of September (i.e. 4 weeks with Daddy at home) and it starts to feel even more like a holiday. (Of course there’s very little that’s relaxing about minding a toddler and a 5-month-old. but it is an improvement to feel that our days are mostly our own to spend as we choose.)

So how is Durham then?

Well it’s one of the smaller cities that I’ve lived in, but definitely the most picturesque.  Among other eye-candy there’s the river,

the castle

and the cathedral

which slip into view on any walk through the city centre.

It’s also a very HILLY city and getting in and out of the centre for us involves navigating some very steep slopes.  The last one up to our road is called Crossgate and pushing a buggy up it, loaded with two children and shopping, is guaranteed to give one a good cardio workout!

Added to that, our new house has stairs, so we’re doing a LOT more climbing than we used to.

We live in a complex of 12 houses owned by the college and rented out to married students.  As a ready-made community it’s absolutely great, especially for the children, who have lots of fun playing together in the big open space (which can be enclosed by shutting the complex’s gates) formed by the terraces on two sides of it.  The outdoor fun might be reduced come winter, but it’s brilliant for Jon at the moment.

From where we live, it’s about a 10 minute walk to the middle of Durham where there’s a big indoor market and a lively shopping area.  The college is a bit further away, more like 15 minutes walk from home, near to the impressive Norman cathedral.

I’m quite excited at the prospect of exploring the city over the next two years – I’m sure there will be lots to keep us busy and to write about.  Bit nervous about the winter but I’ll keep you posted on how we fare with that!

Our new home at Brass Thill is wonderful and the neighbours (all college families) are great.

No phone line yet – BT confused us with another address down the road.  But you can call us on Skype thanks to the wonder of 3G internet.

More later from Julie when she’s had a chance to stop spinning.