BNG - 13

Today in Tallinn the blue skies returned! Everywhere always looks that little bit better on a sunny day, and our new home city is no exception!

This photo was taken from outside our flat - it's also the view from our kitchen window - the Swissotel is one of the tall hotels that make up the skyline of New Tallinn, or the City Centre. In front of the hotel in the photo is the building next to us, with it's tall Soviet Era symbols one of only a few that remain in Tallinn, as most were removed in some way in 1991 when Estonia regained it's independence.

This morning we heard back that our lorry had cleared the border and was due to arrive at customs here in Tallinn tomorrow morning - we'll then be told the custom's amount we have to pay (hopefully not too much as it's not worth that much!) and then, according to the guy in charge of this end of things, we might receive our stuff tomorrow as well....so we'll see. Rachel is going to the school tomorrow, something arranged last week, to talk with the Director and meet the new Director who starts in the summer. So please pray for that - and maybe by the time she arrives home again after that, we'll have a lot of boxes here!

Walking to the bus station today on our way to show my mum our new flat, I took some photo's of various buildings, the one on the right looking rather good today! Under that is a photo of the Viru Keskus shopping centre, keskus being Estonian for 'centre', but Viru is Finnish for 'Estonia'....so it's the Estonia Centre, but in two different languages!

Walking up to what will soon be our flat, it was great (and strange) seeing people in what will be our bedroom and the kitchen working hard at getting it finished for us. May God bless the work of their hands!

At the beach, which is now sandy again with so much of the snow now melted, the more urgent situation, and cause for an ambulance to race past us and two fire engines (rather dramatic, maybe, as you'll see) was that with the melting conditions, clearly some children who'd gone out walking on the frozen sea (as we'd done about two weeks ago when it was colder) were now cut off and therefore needed rescuing, the firemen carrying them to safety one by one.

We'd also come here to film our 'Intro' video for this US TV show that had contacted us. Being too windy by the sea, we went back near to our flat, and after a few goes, got something on film, which at 36 seconds, isn't going to win any Oscars, but has been submitted and received very positively, so we'll await more news on this most interesting side show.

And yet more interesting still, when reaching the bus stop to get the bus to town, was the lady we 'bumped' into, again! For those that have read all 12 entries so far (well done for that!) you may recall us referring to a restaurant that we like, and we'd been there on Sunday for Mother's Day, as we'll as for Anya's birthday. Both times we were served by Laura, an Estonian lady who is very good at her job! Now, these two times we'd seen her was the other side of town, way up near Pirita. And yet, at the bus stop, miles from the restaurant, suddenly she is standing there and actually says hello to Rachel first! And better still, when Rachel said where we'd just been, she said she lived nearby - and we said the street (the new development, ours being the last two of 16 apartment blocks being built) she said she lived there too! We know this will not be the last time we see Laura....what God has in store for her life, we look forward to finding out!

And I just had a call from Leo, asking how things are and saying that we just need to let them know when the four (therefore the 6 of us!) can get a coffee together.

So it's been a day of different things - out there a US production team is considering whether to use our family in a Tallinn episode of their relocation show. Elsewhere, more local, these dozen or so people that we've met in the last three weeks are moving around, getting on with their lives and connecting with us at random times, as today's encounter shows.

Another refreshing day in Tallinn....and tomorrow (maybe) our furniture arrives, but prayers needed for favour on Rachel as she visits the school the girls are hopefully going to in August!