From magic to mayhem!

Christmas greetings!

I’m sorry this post is quite long, but you have my permission to skip some or all of the Eurostar part if you want!

Magic show

So when Christmas comes around, that gives rise to different things happening in schools. I had the pleasure of not teaching for an afternoon and accompanying pupils to a magic show in Armentieres. It was very enjoyable and fascinating. The magician turned silk handkerchiefs into long sticks, doves into cats and put lots of separate pieces of sharp metal into his mouth for them to come out on a string! But my favourite trick was when his beautiful assistant was all tied up (neck, hands tied twice behind her back and legs too) and the magician got a teacher up onto the stage. There was a curtain on a frame which came round in a box shape and the assistant went in and so did the teacher, but his head had to poke out from the curtains, then after three seconds she was wearing his jacket, inside the tied ropes!! Amazing, and the teacher on stage couldn’t believe it either! Sorry I probably haven’t described it adequately…it’s hard to describe.

Christmas party

I had my little Christmas party with my English club on the last Friday of term after school. We pushed tables together and firstly opened crackers, which they loved. Then I gave them a taste of cheddar cheese on a cracker (the edible variety). After that I started playing Christmas music and set them to work on a Christmas word search and picture crossword to give me a chance to cut up mince pies. Half of them gave mince pies a try and then I showed them a chocolate orange (which I have discovered is very novel in France!) and gave them a piece each. They gave cheddar 10/10 and also said the chocolate orange is very good, but weren’t so keen on mince pies! Then I got them to pack up and gave them a Christmas card and further chocolate treat on the way out. I found it hard controlling so many excitable French schoolchildren, but I think it was a big success.

Eurostar chaos

As many of you know I was one of the thousands of travellers who got caught up in the Eurostar disruptions. Thankfully I was not in any of the trains that broke down. I was supposed to travel home on Saturday in the early evening. On Saturday morning I spent a couple of hours at Lille Europe station trying to work out how to print my ticket and what was going on and what I should do as I’d heard there were disruptions. When I got there they had decided no Saturday trains were running and were putting people in hotels overnight. I knew from my Dad that it wasn’t worth trying to go to Calais for the Eurotunnel or ferry at that point because there was chaos there too. By the Eurostar desk, I met and chatted briefly to two British middle-aged ladies, and just after I said goodbye to them and wished them well on their journey home I thought ‘Maybe I should swap phone numbers with them; I might be able to give them updates’ as I had access to the Internet and they didn’t (and Eurostar said they were putting information up online). So I turned back and they were happy to swap numbers.

I was disappointed but I decided to hold out for Monday, hoping things would blow over by then as I didn’t want to wait in large queues of people in a freezing cold station on Sunday for hours on end, so I got my ticket stamped for travel on Monday. It got to Saturday evening and I knew Eurostar was cancelling all trains for Sunday too. I went to Church on Sunday evening and people were discussing Eurostar and it became apparent that the whole thing was bigger than I thought it would be. I was not the only one there that was hoping to go home by Eurostar. Some said they didn’t think it looked hopeful for getting home for Christmas and it might be worth getting a ferry.

On Sunday after church I rang home and Mum told me that Eurostar had just released the information online that no trains would be running on Monday either! At this point I started to get a bit more stressed out. We decided that the best thing to do was to ring the ferry company when their lines opened in the morning (9am) and check they were taking foot passengers who hadn’t pre-booked, and try and go home via ferry and trains.

On Monday morning at 6.43am I got a text message which woke me up. It was from one of the ladies I’d met on Saturday at the station, saying Eurostar were laying on a train at 8.22am and I should try and get to the station for 8am. I was lying in bed and really wanted to stay there but I thought to myself ‘What have I got to lose?’ so I sprang into action (actually…’crawled into action’ would be more appropriate!) and got myself and my case to the station just in time for 8am.

The train went to Calais, then we got on a coach through thick, thick snow to the ferry port (Praise God for the French drivers who were willing to do that!). We got on the ferry and found out that trains weren’t running from Dover to London so we had to take a coach the other side, so we took a coach which got stuck in a huge traffic jam and eventually made it to Victoria where Dad surprised me and came home on the tube with me. Then a final walk through the snow and into the family home, 14 hours later than I’d set off from my flat, and exhausted but with a smile on my face.

The two ladies I’d met on Saturday became my travel buddies (one of whom is a Christian I discovered on the way), as well as a 65 year-old French lady we met on Monday (who I was able to help out with translation sometimes). One of my friends from church also travelled with us some of the way. The two ladies had originally only come away for a one night break, but it turned into 4 days! There was so much uncertainty along the journey. I’m very glad to have made it home this Christmas time.

The very lovely thing is that I know I could have invited myself to at least 3 homes for Christmas had I been stuck in Lille on my own, even though I’ve only lived there for 3 months…isn’t God good?

Fiona x