July 6: Church, Sunday Dinner, & Interesting Conversation

On Sunday, Cathryn was going to church, so she invited us.  Tim was itching to go on a lone ride, so he went riding and I attended church with Cathryn.  It was a wonderful experience.  We haven't found a church we like yet in our new area, so it had been a while since I'd been in church.  I realized just how much I missed it.  All the people were so welcoming and friendly.  The service was much like the ones we attended in Greensboro when we were going to Westminster Presbyterian.  After church they had tea in the fellowship hall and I had the chance to talk with a few of Cathryn's friends.  Cathryn is very invested in her church and community.  I really like that about her.  She is very much a soul like me.  I even went with her to check on her teen group who were camping this past weekend.  After church we went back to the flat and met up with Tim.  We wanted to take Cathryn to lunch so she chose a place in town.  We had a typical English Sunday Dinner of assorted meats, potatoes, pudding, and tea.  It was wonderful.  After dinner we went back to the flat and relaxed and just talked with Cathryn.  She has many of the same books in her book shelf as I have.  We also did laundry, and I did some work on my online class. I learned so much from talking with Cathryn.  The Isle of Man is a separate country and is a protectorate of Great Britain.  It has it's own government, laws, economy, currency and culture.  A person has to have 4 Manx grandparents to be considered native Manx.  The Manx tail-less cats are bred here, and ONLY here.  We learned that it is quite difficult to get permission to live on the island.  Cathryn is not native Manx and had to have a job request her in order to move here.  There is hardly any crime here.  The biggest crime they had last year was when a woman had a garden sculpture stolen from her yard.  It was returned to the police station a week later with a note of apology !  It is even more expensive to live on the island than in the UK as a whole as everything not produced here has to be brought over on the ferries.  The government owns the ferry lines and has a monopoly on it, the electric service, internet, and phone services.  So, they can charge what they want, and do so !  While some building of new homes happens, the new homes are made to look like the older ones.  More to learn tomorrow !