At the beginning of the summer Roseanne and I were ready to hop on a plane and come to Macedonia to get the house ready. The idea was that we ‘moved in’ straight away.

However, there was a slight hiccup.

It seems that it is tradition to have your house blessed by the local priest before you move into the house.

The majority of Macedonians are Orthodox Christians and follow the guidelines laid out by the church. It plays an important if not in our eyes rigorous role in their lives. There are many traditions which are seemingly followed without anyone questioning why. Maybe that is not a bad thing, accepting that is the way it is and not always wanting an explanation.

Maybe a good lesson for all those (read: me) ‘ over thinkers’ !

Anyway we had a discussion about this; is it following a superstition or is it ‘when in Rome do as Rome’. We decided that considering my husband is part of the community here that this would be good to do.

Actually it was a ‘coincidence’ (?) that the week before we were in our local church and there was a discussion about asking God to Bless what we do instead of just running headlong into everything. Years ago this happened of course but now we seem bent on having total control of our lives… until it goes wrong then we ask where God was …

Anyway we invited people who had helped with the house, some colleagues of Johan, there was the standard bottle of Rakja, wine and enough food to sustain all during and after the service.

As people came into the house they threw money on the floor.

Roseanne and I being obviously more British than we realise looked awkwardly away!

” In all things give Thanks”

1 Thessalonians 5:18

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The priest walked around the house blessing every room, he said to Johan you have plenty of space I hope you are blessed with many grandchildren. We said could you put a p.s on that request and ask it to be put on hold for a couple of years… thank you.