Peter

A brief pause in the Shrewsbury Landmark series today to honour Peter Ooi, although it is worth mentioning that we met in the Shrewsbury Coffee House which is one of the town's first independent coffee houses and remains a firm favourite among locals. Peter had been in Shrewsbury for a year and is now on first name terms with most of the staff, such is his love of all things hipster and all things coffee.

I was so glad to be able to grab some time with Peter this morning before he flies back to Malaysia tomorrow. It's been so wonderful to get to know him over the past year and to see him serve alongside us in local schools. He's not just a hipster barista but he's also a big-hearted and fun loving guy and we've been so fortunate to have him alongside us this year. Peter's parents hosted a dinner for us while we were in Penang last year and it's clear that they've passed on their gift of hospitality and generosity to Peter.

I was far too hungry to cycle home so popped into the local vegan cafe where I bumped into an old school friend. I have decided to run the Half Marathon tomorrow so we were both doing that whole 'oh gosh, we're so unfit, it's going to be terrible' thing. The truth is, I've checked out her strava runs and know she'll probably place in the top ten female runners tomorrow. It reminded me of the whole 'I haven't done any revision, I'm going to do so terribly in the exam' dance we all used to do in high school. Only I really am so unfit and really am going to do terribly tomorrow.

At our prayer breakfast this morning, the local URC minister was asking me if I've got any runs coming up and she kind of shamed me into running tomorrow because I know that she'd really love to be able to run Lake Vyrnwy but she can't have too many Sundays off. Plus my friend has made a miraculous recovery. Scumbag.