My first week

My first week in East Leake

The last days were full of activities. I already wrote something about the pudding party and it really was a big success. We served more than ten puddings and it was not a hard job, because I knew nearly every single guest from my last visit and therefore it was more like being surrounded by friends. I think the best puddinng was J's Pavlova and the Lemon Passot! Paul even got a cake in form of a car from one good friend!:D He loves all kinds of cars but his favorite car is, funnily enough, a German VW bus. I gave him a card (All people from England love cards and they display them in their living-room) and a little present and he was so happy about that.

Here is one photo I took at the pudding party

They day went over so quickly, I helped P&P to clean up their kitchen and then we went together to the 8 o'clock service. There is a service every day in the Holy week and these services are more like a mediation. The vicar plays a song and there is often a period of silence when you can pray by yourself. The next day was a relaxed day, I read a lot, watched with J the series "Countdown" which is a Quiz show, we went for a walk in the park and had a really nice dinner. J made Jacked potatoes with Chili con Carne and I must say that this is my favorite dish! She is really a very good chef. For pudding we had the leftovers from the pudding party and that was in this case "Lemon Passot". We went to the 8o'clock service again and we hoped that next day's weather will be alright because we wanted to take part in the Good Friday walk.

It's a common thing to go for a long walk with a bigger group and one member of the group carries a small cross with him while walking.

 This is a photo I took when we arrived in West Leake ( at around 10o'clock)

 

We went from East Leake to West Leake, then from Stamford to Rempstone, to Costock and than back to East Leake. In every village where there some community members who served drinks, biscuits and cake and therefore it was not to hard to go the whole walk. In one of the breaks a helper showed us the way to the top of the roof of one church. The view above was absolutely stunning. I made some photos and here is one from the top of the church:

 Dogs were also accepted and therefore we took Patch with us. He really enjoyed the walk and we were sooo lucky because the weather was absolutely fantastic! The sun was shining for the whole day and it was fun to go with all the people I know. We started with a group of 25 people and some dropped out, and others joined us in between so it was just a perfect day. I chatted with many people and I was glad that I had the opportunity to experience a day like this.

The last service took place in East Leake and afterwards they served "Hot Cross Buns". That's kind of a sweet bread roll with raisins and it is a traditional Easter bun.

When you have the chance to be in England over Easter you have to try those!

Jackie (the 19 year old girl I met last year) came for dinner and we intended to play board games but we had so much to talk about that we stopped playing and just chatted for the rest of the evening.

It was so nice to see her again and talk with her about school, university and things like that. She wants to study Physics in Durham or Bristol and we needs to make her decision soon so we talked a lot about that. Because I gained the experience of an English secondary school we could talk about the differncies in the school's system and many more. 

It was nice to talk to somebody in my age again!:)

I went tired but very happy to bed and today it's raining again, but nevermind!

We have already been to the coffee morning and we did some grocery shopping so now we just want to go for a walk with Patch, and I have some time to write something while J prepares desserts for tomorrow.

After the service we will enjoy an Easter lunch at B's and her two daugthers, her son, her husband and some more friends will be around, too.

I'm really looking forward to see how the English celebrate Easter and I'll keep you informed, as always.

XXX Antonia