Plodding along

We're doing ok here in Marseille. We all survived the fast and my eating is now back to normal with no harmful side-effects. We've been going out a bit to talk to people and we visited someone at her home in Aix-en-Provence as well, which turned out to be pretty cool. It's a nice place. Maybe I'll put some photos on here later.

Marseille is an interesting place and there are all kinds of amusing things going on from time to time. I actually forgot to mention before, but I almost got my phone stolen by a couple of pickpockets. I was waiting outside the Jesus Revolution place for someone to come with the key to let me in and two young guys come along asking me the time and starting up a conversation. When they noticed my accent, they asked where I was from and we got talking a bit. They ended up talking to me about Zidane, the French footballer famous for headbutting an opponent in the chest during the world cup.

They were standing beside me, trying to demonstrate a move he does and reaching across in front of me with their feet. I thought this was a bit odd, but put it down to the friendliness of people here and the fact they're a bit more physical than back home. Well, as they were doing this I felt one of them touch my hip pocket with happened to have my phone in it. I instincively recoiled and checked the other one, trying to remember where my wallet was. I remembered it was in my bag and relaxed, realising nothing was gone. After that, they realised they were rumbled, although one of them still tried to show me the Zidane move one last time. When I backed off, they got the hint and left. It was funny, because they were very friendly and polite the whole time. I couldn't help thinking that a similar situation in Scotland would result in a knife being pulled or a bit of a scuffle after the cat was out of the bag but here they just went on their way. I'm now a bit paranoid about my hip pockets, though, and I tend to be a bit suspicious of anyone behind me.

I discovered with great interest that there's a tourist attraction here worth visiting. It's called Château D’If and it features in the story The Count of Monte Cristo which has been made into a film a couple of times as well. I've seen the most recent one with James Caviezel and I liked it. The château is a fort on a an island (called If, as it happens) just off the coast of Marseille in the Mediterranean. It's a short boat trip from the Vieux Port harbour and not too expensive either.

A wee bit hungry

Well, I've been in Marseille for almost two weeks now and it seems like no time at all. I'm settling in quite nicely and the rest of the team all arrived a couple of days after me. I'm staying with a crazy bunch of French young people called Jesus Revolution. They're doing outreach in their own, unique way and they graciously allowed me to stay in their spare room while I'm here.

This week we've been doing a seven day fast to seek God's direction for the outreach. Primarily, we're trying to figure which area of the city to concentrate on. Three of us have been fasting from food and the others were fasting different things. I started off with the idea that I would still have breakfast every day but only drink water the rest of the time. I heard that this was a bad idea, though, as it's important for your body to get used to there being no food in it and frequently introducing some food every day could confuse matters.

With that in mind, after Monday I changed to only water. It was pretty hard going and on Wednesday in particular I was feeling really weak and faint. I've never fasted like this before so I didn't know what to expect. It kind of reminds me of when you give blood. You're just that bit slower and more easily tired. Some of the others were finding it pretty tough as well so we changed it slightly. I'm now drinking fruit juices as well as water. It's made a huge difference. I'm more alert and energetic, although I'd still love to get my teeth into a big steak right now!

Today we were prayer walking around the marché aux puces (or Flea Market to you and me) where they had TONS of food lying out on sale. Man, I wanted to eat EVERYTHING. Ok, so I wasn't too inspired by the squid, octopus and other generally manky-looking fishy stuff, but pretty much everything else was appealing to me. In fact, I even took a photo of a frightfully appetising looking selection of olives on sale. Check it out and let me know if you're salivating too:



The fast ends tomorrow at dinner time. I'm going to try really hard not to eat too much. My teeth are bored, though.

Landed in Marseille

I'm now in France. Yes, it's true. I really am. I had a couple of flights today and arrived in the evening. It's a pretty interesting place already and I'm excited about the next 3 and a half months. I still don't quite know where I'll be staying, but it's going to be fun, I'm sure of it. I discovered they even climb here! How can I not like it?

A spot of New Year climbing

I do like a spot of climbing, I have to say. Thankfully some of my friends do as well. I went yesterday with Stephen and Gillian to the Glasgow Climbing Centre for a spot of climbing.

The Suspects:

Steve


Gillian


Ken



The Videos:
Since I've been getting quite into the whole YouTube thing, I've got a playlist of some of the highlights here.

Corn

A trip to the cave in December

Just a few days before New Year, I went to the cave with Alan to get back to nature and all that fun stuff. There are five videos to choose from here that all contain some of my comments at different points in the trip.

Scare Cut

So it's been a while since I've had a proper haircut and the other day there I was feeling like a change so I decided to get a bit of a chop. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it but it's good to have a change at least.

Heathrow Snack

The last couple of times I've returned to the UK after some time across the Atlantic, this has been the snack of choice I've bought at Heathrow, before heading on to Glasgow.

1. A litre of water is always good to help re-hydrate, and the fact that it's nice and cold is a bonus.


2. A British Dairy Milk is a welcome change after being on Hershey's for a while.


3. Wheat Crunchies are just brilliant. I might be the only person that thinks so, but I really like them.