Coldplay

Well my time over here is coming to an end, I fly out of Cincinnati on Monday evening. This past few days have been great, I've been seeing a whole load of friends. Wednesday night was the team get together for the start of the year for the Miami Ohio staff team. It was good to be with them as I have many friends on the team and we had fun over dinner and playing some games in the garden with the kids! Mark Brown the team leader is fond of saying how natural it feels having me around and how much he's looking forward to me being around on a regular basis! There is still much to be done on the matter of whether or not I will come out here although he treats it as done!

On Thursday Jeff (2nd right) and I headed into Cincinnati to spend time with Beth (bottom left), Katie (bottom right), Shannon (centre) and Ashley who were all in Liverpool for the year with Jeff. Katie and Beth are moving in together so we were able to see and do a few things at their new house and all head out for dinner at what I'm told is the best Chinese restaurant in Cincinnati...it was very good. It was so good to be able to spend time with all the girls and catch up a little bit...just like old times!

Yesterday I went over to Indianapolis to have a BBQ at Brad's house, Brad led the Liverpool team this past year. Again it was nice to see him and a host of other friends (including Carl, far right in picture above) and we followed the BBQ with a trip to see Coldplay at the Verizon Wireless Music Centre. They were fantastic and played a really good set, far better than the last time I saw them in Newcastle 3 years ago, a very enjoyable evening hearing quality British music invade America!

It was funny, I haven't felt like I wanted to go home the whole time I've been here, nearly 6 weeks, but last night hearing Chris Martin speak made me really want to go home! It must have been the sound of a British accent, I've started missing the dulcet tones of home!

The next couple of days I'm going to be closing out my holiday by connecting with various people, I've already started saying goodbyes which is hard as it will probably be a full year before I see some people next, I'm hoping the rest of the time will be as fun what has gone before.

Tonight I'm off to stay with Scott and Kristen (left) who got married the weekend I arrived in the USA! I haven't really had chance to see them since they've been away a lot with honeymoon and then another holiday with family so it will be good to spend some time with them tonight!

I probably won't post again before I get back on Tuesday so please pray for safe travel and a swift recovery from jet lag before staff conference begins on Friday...I still have to find time to write a devotional before then!