The above photo is the night view from just across the road at St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei. It’s the National Taipei University of Education Museum’s exhibition by Yayoi Kusama, famous for her polka dots! It’s good to go late afternoon, when it’s getting dark, the colours are stunning!

The Kusama exhibition is mentioned in my latest Church Mission Society CMS Link Letter, just published. Please read!

The letter contains news of my visit to the UK for my mum’s funeral in December. Due to limited space in the letter, here’s a few more photos – I took them partly because I wanted to share with friends in Taiwan, and yes, they are very interested! Thanks be to God that everything went very smoothly, and special thanks to those of you who came to the funeral, some traveling very long distances for the day, including relatives from far and wide, and friends from my supporting link churches.

My brother’s friend, Roger Mallinson came to the funeral in his classic Austin 7, he’s quite a character in the Troutbeck area, and is well-known for his work with the steamboats on Lake Windemere – and for being part of the deepest successful submarine rescue in history, when he was one of two men rescued, with only 12 minutes of oxygen left. An amazing story. Check out his car below!

During my visit to the UK, I mostly stayed in Staveley, near Kendal. St. James’ Church, Staveley has some stunning pre-Raphaelite stained glass (some of it identical to the stained glass at Jesus Church, Troutbeck) – mostly designed and made by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and friends, who used to go fishing in the area. One of the blue angels at Staveley was even used for the Christmas postage stamps in 2009….

Check out the windows at Jesus Church, Troutbeck to spot some similarities ….

The Lake District is famous for its rain, and yes, there was plenty! But also some beautiful (if a little wet and muddy!) scenes around Staveley… now of course they’re enjoying a lot of snow!

On one sunny day, I walked over the hills to Kentmere, famous for St. Cuthbert’s Church – with beautiful kneelers on display on every pew, and Kentmere Hall with its pele tower. It’s also the start and end of the Kentmere Horseshoe, which I did on my last visit in 2022…

And on one other sunny day, we went to Manchester by train, and after meeting up with our very lovely family, we enjoyed a visit to Manchester Cathedral. As a child, we lived in Manchester for about 5 years, but I’ve hardly been back, and certainly not to the cathedral, so I was keen to go! The stained glass is stunning and is a much later addition to the building, the original having been destroyed in the Manchester Blitz in World War II; there’s also some newer glass installed after the IRA blast in 1996…

And finally back to Taiwan in time for Christmas (see the link letter for Christmas news) – where most noticeably the brand new 23-storey high-rise apartment block built directly opposite the cathedral has now had its blue plastic covers removed – the big reveal has happened! The photos below, left to right, show the progression from when I first moved to the cathedral in January 2023, to May 2023, then October 2023, and then Christmas 2024 on the right. Lots of small old buildings in the area are being replaced with mighty towers like this one!

So wishing you all a Happy New Year 2025, and a Happy New Year of the Snake 🐍, starting soon! It’s end-of-term school exams here, the holidays are coming! Lunar / Chinese New Year officially starts on January 29, and Taiwan is closed for the New Year holidays all that week, yippee!

Thank you too for all your prayers and support, always much appreciated!