testing

Ok, I got the new service up and running...hopefully this looks nicer, and will allow people to leave comments :D

Unfortunately, it's going to be a little bit still before I get all the pictures back up, so for right now, they're all dead links. Hopefully not for much longer however.

Lot's more very soon, stay tuned....

Wednesday Dec. 01/04

I have decided that the way to go is to find a woman twice my age. That's right, 44 or older. For some reason, they're the only females who find me attractive. I was looking through my past year of journal entries today, and found this one:

"Apr.03/04 - 4:08pm
I have determined that girls don't like me. This is not an absolute rule, but more of a general guideline (although even as a guideline, it's pretty accurate). And when I say "like" I mean "are attracted to." At parties and various other social functions I always see girls flirting with my friends, but never me. Y'know what though? I'm ok with it. I think. It sure would be nice for the ego to have girls fawning over me, but that can also be dangerous too."

That being said, I went to help out for a couple hours in the village primary school on Tuesday morning, and when the (middle-aged) teacher introduced me, she explained to the children that their regular Tuesday morning volunteer was somewhere else, and that I'd be taking over, and that it was all right because I was much more 'handsome' than the normal helper. It got me thinking back to all the middle-aged women at my mom's various jobs over the years who commented on how 'handsome' I was. So I'm thinking, really, that ought to be my target market! Forget these 20-somethings who don't even glance at me, I need to hit up and hit on the older ladies!

...or not.

In other news, I'm going to see Brian McLaren speak in London this Friday! Brian McLaren is one of my heroes, due to his tremendous writing. Most of his books have to do with reshaping theology and Christian practice in light of the current cultural shift from modernity to postmodernity. He's speaking on Thursday as well, but unfortunately I'm trapped in the village with work on that day :( Oh well, at least I'll get one chance! I went to his church near Baltimore earlier this year, in August, hoping to see him speak, but unfortunately although he was scheduled he had been busy and someone else took over. Oh well, I'm really excited for this time and hope (pray) that everything goes ok. It's going to be tight because the conference ends at 4pm, and I gotta be back in Hartfield to run Roots (the youth group) at 7:30. It only takes an hour and half in theory, but that's assuming that trains and buses are on time, which they never are. So we shall see.

Lastly, I finally caved in and bought a cell phone (or as they call it over here, a mobile). I have it with me almost all the time (it doubles as my watch, organizer and gameboy), and I can receive calls for free, even from overseas. That being said, it would probably cost you more to call me, but with phone cards these days, it's pretty cheap for anything. If you want the number, e-mail me and I'll send it back in a reply.

Ok, that's it for now folks. My mom flies over for a couple weeks before Christmas next (not this) Friday. Then after Christmas I'm off to Rome with Mark for 10 days. Hope life is treating you all well. Good luck with those exams for all you unfortunate saps not lucky enough to be across an ocean ;) God bless

Thursday Nov. 25/04

Oh my, it's been an exhausting week. And it doesn't look like things are going to let up until early next week. In case you missed it, my entire SPAIN trip has been uploaded here.

That's all I have the energy for now folks, more earlier next week.

Sunday Nov. 14/04

Allow me to expound the brilliance of the cinematic trilogy...it is quite simply this: time.

There is time to fully develop the characters, time that is not avaible in a standard 2 hour (or even 3 hour) film.

There is time to fully develop and explore the diagetic world - this especially holds true for the genres of science fiction and fantasy, in which the world(s) often differ from our known one.

There is a superior story arch which encapsulates the three individual story arches - the beginning, middle and end of an overall beginning, middle and end.

Speaking of which, there IS a definite ending, concluding with the finale of the third part. This separates the trilogy from its close cousin - the series film - avoiding their possible pitfalls of repetition, boredom and obsolescence.

Needless to say, I'm suffering a bit of withdrawal from my film education, and am on a bit of a trilogy kick lately ;)
I'm starting with the latter-day ultimate trilogy, The Lord of The Rings (which is in fact one trilogy, all though it is the length of two!) and then plan to move on to the original Star Wars trilogy (TRULY original, pre-special edition crap). After that, I am undecided...possible contenders include Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, The Godfather and the Matrix (although that last one is really more like a single movie with two sequels :P) I'm tempted to include Harry Potter as well since there have been 3 released so far, but it is actually a series, and NOT a planned trilogy, and so the feeling is a little bit different...maybe I'll save it for the end then.

Well, if anyone else has any other recommended trilogies, I'll be glad to add them to the roster...sorry about the pictures from Spain taking so long to upload, but that's how it happens when you only have dial-up. Believe me, it's worth the wait!

Until then...

Thursday Nov. 11/04

Shout outs today go to BURNIE for being the first Canadian who didn't give birth to me to send me mail! I'm not quite sure what the deal was with the fish on the front of the card, but inside was a 2 1/2 page letter! And on top of that, she even sent me money to pay me back for a concert that we went to at the beginning of May. MAY! I didn't even remember that she owed me money, and would have been happy to let it slide, but not good ol' Burns! And on top of THAT, she sent the money in British Pounds! Most people would have just sent Canadian dollars, if anything at all, but not this ISTJ! She went out of her way to get currency that I could actually USE! Now THAT'S friendship! To be honest, I don't even really care about the money...the fact that she just put the thought and effort into mailing me anything is what I most appreciate...she will DEFINITELY be getting a cheapo Hartfield postcard in reward for her efforts! If any of you would like a cheapo postcard from Hartfield, then e-mail me your address and I'll send you one. Better yet, mail me something with your return address on it, then I'll send something back. I don't want to put my address on the Web, but if you e-mail me and ask me for it, I'll tell ya...I'm always glad to get mail, of either the "e" or "snail" variety.

Now, as for this elusive big update that I keep promising....the problem is that it's, well, big!...as in, many megabytes. Queen's only gives me about 20MB to host my site and I've more or less filled it up with the text and pictures so far. I'm looking into getting more webspace from somewhere else, but I don't want my site covered in ads. But in order to whet your appetite, and for those who don't already know, the big update consists of Sarah, Cassie, myself and a couple wild apes, in a European nation which the locals refer to as España



Stay tuned....

Friday Nov. 05/04

Had an awesome walk on the way to Roots tonight...the stars were out and the temperature was perfect - cool, but not cold. Listened to my all-time favourite album, Wooden by Drew & Duncan, and during that half hour it was just me and God...awesome. Only 3 girls showed up to Roots tonight, because Nov. 5 is fireworks day in England (apparently one year on Nov. 5 some English chap tried to blow up parliament with gunpowder, so now they celebrate that fact by having fireworks every Nov. 5...??) It was good tho...since it was small we just got to hang out and chat and laugh. It was a really good time. On the walk home I got to watch the fireworks too ;)

Just thought I'd share that...be on the look out for the big update still...I plan on going for a bike ride tomorrow, but if it's rainy I'll stay inside and work on the site...so until then!

Thursday Oct. 21/04

This update is gonna be a bunch of random thoughts strung together. Been busy this week...was in London on Tuesday and then Tunbridge Wells again on Wednesday. Tuesday night I went to a church housegroup with Caroline (the daughter of the folks that I'm staying with) and then Wednesday I met with Anthony, a youth worker in Tunbridge Wells that I met through the course in Cambridge. We had lunch at this pub which was actually converted from an old opera house. Pics are to the right. Paul was in Oxford today which left me to run the whole service for the school. My part went just fine, but the head teacher (principal) kept yelling at all the kids to be still and keep quiet. No wonder no one wants to go to church any more, especially if they were forced to go to church as children and then yelled at for not being still and quiet and boring. I can't help but feel like the message gets lost, or at least pushed to the backburner, when half the service involves telling the children how rotten they are...and on that sad note, here's another good parody to cheer you up.

PS: Enoch had a particular fixation with the 3 wheel car I posted about earlier, so I promised her I'd take more pictures so that she could get a better idea of it. Again, pictures are to the right, but nothing quite beats the 3D experience!

Opera house / pub:

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3 Wheel Car:

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Monday Oct. 18/04

Hmmmm....Monday's and Wednesday's are apparently becoming my regular update days...interesting. Anyhoo, I felt very English today...I spent the afternoon out in the garden enjoying the sun, listening to BBC Radio 4, and sewing my hat - sure it doesn't look very good, but at least I did it myself...I'm quite independent! It's been falling apart for a while now, and was in need of a good stitching. At the same time, Radio 4 had some great programs on, including one entitled "Microsoft, PowerPoint and the Decline of Civilization," as well as a radio drama about poetry "slams" in Bristol -- poets who enter contests and perform their poetry publicly...à la 8 Mile only cooler and more European. If you have realplayer installed, the direct links are here and here. The links are only good for this week tho, afterwards you'll have to search the BBC Radio 4 Website. Anyway, it made for a lovely and relaxing afternoon. Here are some shots of the garden (albeit through the window, so they're a bit flared): 01 - 02 - 03 - 04

Wednesday Oct. 13/04

Caught the final train into London from East Grinstead last night (the 22:37) then took the tube to Bayswater (well actually, Notting Hill Gate, since Bayswater was closed for construction) Walked around for a bit and eventually found the Astor Hyde Park youth hostel. Checked into an 8 bed dorm (for £15) and then waited until these chicks showed up! They had just gotten back from a pub, but claimed they still had energy (despite having been up for 36 hours straight!) so we went out again! The closest place that was open late on a Tuesday night was this random Egyptian restaurant on Queensway, so that's where we went! We hung out for about an hour, and then decided it was time to get some sleep, so we headed back to the hostel and said goodnight. We got up the next day around 10am, checked out of the hostel, and decided to hit London. Before hopping on the underground however, we decided to go to a local cafe and get some breakfast. We ordered take-away (aka 'takeout') and mine was given to me in this very European-looking bag, which I tried to incorporate into every photo thereafterwards (as seen above and to your right). We got an all day pass for the underground and saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben/The Parliament Buildings/Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and Picadilly circus. We tried to hook up with Leslie, but we weren't very well organized, and in the end it fell through. Oh well, there's always next time, and nevertheless it was a fun day. It was hard to say goodbye, but we had to since Sar and Cass were flying to Paris later this evening. They'll be back through London in December thought, so hopefully I'll see them again! That's about it, enjoy the pictures.

• From right to left: Me (and my bag), Sarah, Russel (the "Big Gay Texan" whom we met at the hostel) and Cassie in front of the Victoria statue across from Buckingham Place
• The statue
• The Palace
• More Palace
• The Full Palace
• Cassie, trying to be like Batman and scale the Palace gates!
• Me, admiring the anatomical correctness of a lion statue near the palace
• A pillar from the Canada Gate, near the Palace
• Beautiful gardens near the palace
• Gardens, cont'd
• Sarah and Russel in a brush with the law!
• Big Ben
• Bigger Ben
• Big Ben & Friends
• Just the Friends
• View from across the Thames
• The London Eye (which is, in fact, a ferris wheel NOT an eye...)
• Sar, Cass and Russ on a bench near the Eye (what's so funny Cassie?)
• Me and the gals (and the bag, again)
• Picadilly Circus (which is also misnamed, as it's really just a bunch of giant ads for American and Japanese products...with no circus-like qualities to be found)
  

Monday Oct. 11/04

Some excerpts of a sermon I recently read which was orginally given by Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

The Jesus I worship is not likely to collaborate with those who vilify and persecute an already oppressed minority. I myself could not have opposed the injustice of penalizing people for something about which they could do nothing - their race - and then have kept quiet as women were being penalized for something they could do nothing about - their gender, and hence my support inter alia, for the ordination of women into the priesthood and episcopate.

And equally, I could not myself keep quiet whilst people were being penalized for something about which they could do nothing, their sexuality. For it is so improbable that any sane, normal person would deliberately choose a lifestyle exposing him or her to so much vilification, opprobrium and physical abuse, even death. To discriminate against our sisters and brothers who are lesbian and gay on grounds of their sexual orientation for me is as totally unacceptable and unjust as Apartheid ever was.

...
God will not heed your worship, your beseeching, for your hands are full of blood, the blood of your sisters and brothers killed in wars that were avoidable. Demonstrate your repentance by how you treat the most vulnerable: the orphan, the widow, the alien. When you are king over this people, and this God gives you God's righteousness, it is so that prosperity will prevail, will prevail because as king, you judge rightly, you judge rightly especially the poor with equity, you give justice to the poor, you deliver the needy when they cry and the poor man who has no helper. You will pity the helpless and needy and save the lives of the poor. How many of our governments would pass this stringent test: "how did you deal with the poor?"

Wednesday Oct. 06/04

Ran into a fellow Canadian in Brighton today by the name of Hayden. I had to pay 6 quid to hang out with him, but then he played a few songs for me. In fact, they were:
1. Dynamite Walls
2. Back from Texas
3. Home by Saturday
4. All in One Move
5. My Wife*
6. Killbear
7. Woody
8. Bass Song
9. Wide Eyes
10. The Hazards of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees
11. Between Us to Hold
12. Holster
13. Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay
14. Carried Away
- Encore Break -
15. Stem
16. I Should Have Been Watching You*
17. We Don't Mind*

I got crappy little videos with my digital camera of the songs with asterisks(*) beside them, but they're too big to put on the site here...I'll try and find some other space to post them from however

I met one other Canadian (from out west) and an American (from Illinois). Everyone else seemed to be British. Except for the opener, who was Australian. His name is Toby Burke and he was pretty good too. I picked up one of his discs, "Winsome Lonesome" - If you're a Hayden fan then I'd encourage to try and find some of Toby's stuff. After the show, I was walking along the seafront road when a 27 year-old French man named Vincent saw my Nalgene hanging from my backpack and asked if he and his girlfriend could have a drink. I told him that it was only water, but that he was welcome to it. He gave some to his Spanish girlfriend, Patricia and thanked me. We walked along together for a little while longer and then they invited me out for a drink, so we went to some swanky bar on the waterfront with a huge line-up, but Patricia knew the guy working the door, so we got in right away. Inside were very fashionable people, listening to trendy, underground dance music....oh, and then there was me. Vincent and Patricia were very nice however, and we had a great long discussion about religion and politics and the world. I had quite the international evening!

I should mention that I was sitting in the front row right up against the stage, and probably could have reached out and grabbed his shoe at any time during the performance. These pictures are not zoomed in one bit! Also, I know that some of them are a bit blurry, but I kinda like the artsy feel it gives them...

• Hayden Live at the Hanbury Ballroom, Brighton England, Oct. 6/04
• Hayden 02
• Hayden 03
• Hayden 04
• Hayden 05
• Hayden 06
• Hayden 07
• Hayden 08
• My Brand New, Autographed Poster

Me and the Man Himself!

Saturday Oct. 02/04

I was waiting for a cross-town train in the London underground, when it struck me that I've been waiting since birth to find a love that would look and sound like a movie....well maybe not, but I was waiting for a cross-town train the London Underground today!

A Chronological Timetable of my Adventure To and From Cambridge:
07:01 (GMT) - My alarm goes off
07:17 - Paul picks me up and drives me to Cowden Station (label 1. on the map)
07:29 - My train leaves Cowden
07:54 - I switch trains at Oxted Station (label 2. on the map)
08:32 - I arrive at London Victoria (label 3.), and switch to the London Underground, taking the Victoria Line to King's Cross (label 4.)
09:15 - I get off the underground at King's Cross and switch to my train to Cambridge (label 5.)
10:05 - I arrive at Cambridge station and find that all the taxi's are taken. I consult my map as well as the posted one and decide to walk, as I'm told the station is only about a 15 minute walk from the building that my course is in
11:02 - After getting lost and asking for directions TWICE, I manage to find the course and walk in, an hour late. The course is great however, and I meet another youth worker named Anthony (pronounced an-to-nee since he's english) who's in his 40's and from Tunbridge Wells. We exchange ideas and contact info, and he offers to give me a ride next time
16:03 - The course ends and I decide that rather than get lost again, I will take the bus shuttle to the train station in order to catch my 16:45 train
16:35 - I arrive at the bus station and find that the shuttle is packed to the brim and cannot take any more passengers. Me and another girl are told we have to wait for the next shuttle. This means I miss the 16:45. I think to myself that I probably shouldn't have spent so much time looking around HMV...
17:32 - I take the shuttle to the Cambridge station and hop on a train back to King's Cross
18:37 - This train is not an express, unlike the one to Cambridge, and it makes several stops on the way back. I arrive at King's Cross and take the tube back to Vicoria
19:23 - I am sitting on the train headed to East Grinstead, when suddenly I see a ton of security/medical personnel run past on the platform to my left. Over the next couple minutes, more people in uniforms run past, as well as a golf cart-turned-ambulance. An announcement is made to the whole Victoria station that an 'incident' has occured and that platforms 12-15 are closed until further notice. Additionally, I overhear a conversation between another passenger and an official who said that the driver of our train was a witness to whatever happened, so our train wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon. I'm told to take the next train to East Grinstead, the 19:53, from platform 18.
19:53 - Our train to East Grinstead leaves London Victoria
20:17 - An argument that occurs in our car (albeit the other half, so I didn't see any of it) escalates and becomes physical, so someone pulls the emergency stop cord which causes the train to come to a screeching halt in the middle of nowhere. The conductor and various security personnel proceed back and forth through our car to sort it all out
20:54 - The train starts moving again, however it is still a long way to Oxted, and the last connecting train to Cowden leaves at 21:04. We do not make it in time, so I decide to stay on until East Grinstead (label 6.) Even though this is technically illegal since my ticket says "Cowden," I figure that given the extreme circumstances, I could persuade anyone who hassles me about it
21:43 - My train arrives at East Grinstead station, and I call Hananja to come pick me up
22:32 - I return to Hartfield.

Did I mention that I was supposed to be back for Harvest Supper at 7:30pm (19:30)? Harvest Supper is this big community event that's organized by the church and happens in the village hall every year around this time. After I missed the shuttle to Cambridge station however, I pretty much wrote it off. It was all right anyhow, after doing a lot of walking around Cambridge and taking in information from my course, I was tired and not exactly looking forward to an evening full of more people. And while the train story may sound like an ordeal, it was an adventure, and I had some great fun with the people who were stuck in the same car. I wouldn't change a thing if I had to do it all over again to be honest. Also as a footnote, let me just say that Cambridge is beautiful...too beautiful for my small camera to contain. That being said, it's not exactly like I had a lot of time to take pictures...maybe next time I go (in a month or two) I'll see if I can spend an extra day and grab some shots for you folks. I will only be able to provide you with a glimpse of how wonderful it is, unfortunately. In other news, I'm moving on Monday and hopefully staying there for a longer stretch of time (a month or two). That means I should have a more permanent phone number for people who are interested in hearing my voice (rather than just reading this drivel). Speaking of drivel, I'll end it here.

Friday Oct. 01/04

Random update:

Roots is on tonight...7:30pm - 9:00pm (so about 2:30 - 4:00 for you folks at home) at the church/rectory. I'm gonna try and get them to think/talk about the whole idea of 'faith.' I'm introducing the subject with a clip from the movie Contact. I'm using the scene where Jodie Foster and Matthew McConahdufdjkrehwhatever are at the party in Washington and they go out on to the balcony and talk about their belief in God and Occam's Razor and all that good stuff (it's chapter 21 on the DVD for anyone who's keen...) The kids tend to be a bit quiet and shy when it comes to bible/christian stuff, but I'm hoping the use of Hollywood actors might draw them out a little bit. In a related note, here's a flyer I designed for the month of October today. I'm quite proud of it!

In a totally unrelated note, I found this on the Internet the other day and thought it was quite humourous! Just wanted to share the wealth.

Ugh, I still haven't planned anything for Sunday school yet, and tomorrow I'm off to Cambridge -- which will be exciting, but which also means that the day is a write off -- and then I'm going to the annual Harvest Supper in the village hall. I gotta go to bed early tonight too cuz my first of three trains to Cambridge leaves the station at 7:30 in the morning. Maybe I can get some work done on the train (it's 2 1/2 hours each way). Well that's it for now...I'm off to dinner and then Roots. Hope you're all doing well!

Wednesday Sept. 29/04

Went into East Grinstead today and took some pictures (posted below). It was nice and historic, but not very big...I certainly don't have any strong desire to return any time soon. I went to my course yesterday in Eastbourne, but didn't have any time to snap pictures. I'll write more about that sometime later...maybe. Not much else to say...tomorrow is the Harvest service for the school, then Roots (the name of the youth group, which is based on the name of the magazine that the Church of England puts out with ideas for leading events for kids/youth) on Friday night. On Saturday I'm off to a different, one-shot course in Cambridge, then Sunday is the harvest service at the church, and Sunday club (Sunday school) for me to lead...it's mostly the same kids from Roots, with just a couple younger ones. Anyhow, I'll try and get some pics of Cambridge this weekend, assuming the weather is nice (which is a fairly lofty assumption, actually). Here's East Grinstead:

01 - 02 - 03 - 04 - 05 - 06 - 07 - 08

Here are some pictures of me that I took in my room, in case you miss my mug: 01 - 02 - 03

Lastly, you're damn right that this is a car with three wheels! Good ol' Peugeot...

Sunday Sept. 26/04

It never ends around here! Today it was off to the sea for a taste of Brighton! And this time I've included a picture of myself there, just in case you all thought I was hiding somewhere in Ontario and paying someone to tour England and take pictures for me. Mind you, you have to have been to Brighton to know that it's a genuine photo...and with the way that digital image editing has advanced, even that's no guarantee. But I digress. I said I only got a taste for Brighton because the reason we were there was the Trade Justice March in front of the Labour Party Conference Headquarters. The Labour Party Conference is an event which is similar to the Democrat & Republican National Conventions which recently occured in the US. The Labour Party is currently the ruling party of the UK, and while they're also supposedly the most left-wing of the 3 big UK parties, they fully supported and contributed to the US invasion of Iraq (well, at least some party members did, including their leader Tony Blair... apparently Iraq is a very divisive issue within the party). I'm told that the next federal election is in May, so the purpose of this event (as I understand it, at least) was to sort of rally the party members together, and get them all back on the same page. However, as interesting as UK politics are, that's not really why I was there. The march itself was in support of Trade Justice, which means trading fairly and sustainably with countries who are less affluent then we are in the Western world; and its an issue that I believe all the First World nations need to address. One analogy that was used by a lady I was with to explain the current system was this: imagine a deer and a giraffe competing for the leaves at the top of the tree branches. Who's going to win? The giraffe of course. In fact, the deer is not even going to get anything unless the giraffe helps it in some fashion. This is the current economic situation for many countries trying trade globally, and while the systems are certainly complex and there's no simple answer, it's not fair that we should prosper while others suffer for no reason other than the fact of where we all happened to be born. But enough ranting from me. The march was organized by Christian Aid, an awesome agency here in the UK. It was cleared with the police ahead of time, and well executed by all in charge. We had "ballots on the beach," whereby we all filled out a card, "voting" for trade justice, and then put them in big glass boxes which were spaced along the road we were marching on. We also had 2 minutes of silence to acknowledge those in other countries who feel that they have no voice, and then made lots of noise outside the Bright Conference Centre to get the attention of the politicians inside.

I went with a group of 3 old ladies from our church, and it was a blast! There were people of all ages, colours and sizes there. I never did hear a final count of how many people showed up, but I'm sure the Christian Aid site will tell you (I haven't checked cuz I have limited Internet access). After the march, we went to a local Quaker meeting hall for some fair trade food and drink, and then off to a non-denominational service at another church, then sadly, home. It was great tho! In all, we were only in Brighton for 6 or 7 hours, so I definitely need to go back and spend some time looking around (Hayden is playing there on the night of Thursday October 7th, so I might try and skip down there for that...) Anyway, enjoy the pictures to the right, and await my next update with fierce anticipation ;)

Here's pictures of me at the Brighton pier, as well as the old pier that collapsed, and a couple other random shots of the city, grafitti, and the sky:

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• 07

Here's a ton of shots from the march. Someone got up onto some local scaffolding and hung the sign in picture 7. At first I thought it was a shame that they misspelled it, but then I realized that it was probably a play on words, as the simple act of switching those two letters includes "Liar" in his name. Pictures 11 & 12 are of the front of the march on its way back.

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And these are pics of the police guarding/scowling at/supervising the demonstration. Everyone in bright green is a cop. Picture 3 is of all the police vans ready to haul us away, and pictures 5 & 6 show that apparently we were important enough to get helicopter supervision! Of course the march was peaceful and none of this was necessary (mind you, security for the Labour Party Conference would be strong whether or not we were there).

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These are the dudes whose attention we wanted to get! Tony Blair was in the building, tho I don't think he was on the balcony...

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Lastly, as a bonus for Matty, Sherry, Sar, HJ and anyone else who was at Phat Factory this summer, I got some pics of the public skate park in Brighton down on the beach, near where we were protesting! A girl came around asking for donations to keep it running because apparently the city gave money to build it, but refuses to run/maintain it. Big surprise! Anyways, it certainly isn't as good as our's was, but I still donated a pound because I believe in the principle of it. Skate on, youth of Brighton!

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Thursday Sept. 23/04

Went with the minister for lunch at the neighbouring Buddhists' house today, who then got me drunk before the children's service at 2pm. That's all I'm gonna say about that, write me for more details ;)

Anyway, here is the "Holy $#*! I can't believe I'm living in Europe!!" collection. Most of these shots are from Tunbridge Wells, but a few are from the surrounding area. The UK is beautiful, as particularly evidenced in picture 6...
(I'm also fairly positive that they guy in picture 5 ISN'T peeing, although I'm not 100% - I didn't really see him until after I took the picture)

01 - 02 - 03 - 04 - 05 - 06 - 07 - 08 - 09 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17

And here are a few shots of my new place:
This is a shot of the outside. And here you can see where it is in relation to my old place (once again using this map as a reference). This is what my room looked like before I moved in, and this is a shot of a garden in the backyard.

Tuesday Sept. 21/04

Back in Tunbridge Wells for the day, seeing as I have the day off. Weekend was pretty exciting...read Saturday's entry below for more details. Sunday was the service and then the community sports day. This basically consisted of all the local sports club (football, cricket, stoolball, tennis and volleyball) members getting together with the kids in the village and playing all of these games on the field in the middle of the village. Sorry that I didn't take any pictures, but it really wasn't that exciting. Slept in on Monday and then met with Paul for 2 hours in an 'official' manner and talked about a schedule for the year, etc. Had dinner with the family and then I moved out of their house! Actually, I'm just down the road. I'm staying with a wonderful lady named Rose who lives right beside the gatehouse (see previous map for details). She is alone in a big old English house, but often rents rooms for lodgers, boarders or people who need a retreat. She doesn't attend the church because it's style is too old and stuffy for her, but she is a committed Christian who cares about the environment, world peace, and other important things. We've had some good chats already! I think the parish is paying her for me to stay there, so I'll probably only be there for a couple weeks (until one of the other families is ready to take me in), but it's quite lovely, and nice to have some space to my own, away from noisy children ;) I might get some pictures of the place up soon, but who knows.

So I'm back in Tunbridge Wells again today, because it's only 4 1/2 pounds for a return trip on the bus. I suppose I should have spent the day wandering around the village and getting to know the place, however there will be plenty of time for that. In related news, Paul is looking at equipping his house with wireless broadband access, so once that is available, I won't have to run off to town to connect and update this site. Another reason that I came is that it's nice to see people closer to my own age, as I spend the rest of the week with adults over 30 and children under 15 (although Rose has told me that a bunch of 20-something South Africans work at one of the Hartfield pubs, so I should go check that out soon!) So there, that's my excuse for taking off again today. I've taken pictures of the pantiles and the town today, but I can't transfer them to my computer yet...I'll do that when I get home and put them in the next update.

Ok, I guess that's it for now...I'm loving the UK and the village is all right too. I'm looking forward to getting into a regular routine and to start actually making a difference. I'm also gonna look up some info on courses while I'm on the net and see if I can get enrolled somewhere soon.

I love you all, and hope that you're doing well. Let me know how you're doing (hint hint) although be aware that it might take some time for my response to get to you (being that I can only connect to the net every so often) God bless!

-Chris

Saturday Sept. 18/04

Today we went to Bewl Water to participate in a dragonboat race to raise money for the church's school. A dragonboat is a Chinese water vessel that holds 16 paddlers, a drummer, and a steering/rudder person. The idea is that the drummer sits up at the front and pounds the drum; the paddlers are then supposed to stroke in unison to the beat of the drum and then the first team to cross the finish line wins. This is all theoretical however, as once you are on the choppy water near the back of the boat and getting soaked by the guy paddling in front of you, it is much harder to hear the drum and paddle in sync with everyone else. There were 57 teams in total, and ours was called the "St. Mary's Marvels." (although the guy keeping track on the scoreboard must have misheard someone somewhere along the line as it was originally written "St. Mary's Marbles") It was a big fundraising event and each of the teams was raising money for some kind of charity, be it schools, welfare programs, aid agencies or whatever. Each team and their supporters were set up in a tent on the field next to the water, and there were all kinds of fundraising activities going on (draws, games, etc.) See the pictures on the right hand side to get a better sense of the carnival-like atmosphere. It's also worth pointing out that each team is encouraged to pick an imaginative team name and related uniform. The St. Mary's Marvels were dressed up like old English women, complete with headscarves and hair curlers!

Every team participated in three races -- with about 3-5 teams competing in each one -- and then a final race for the top 10 placers. Two of the participants on our team were late arriving, so me and the daughter of one of the other members got roped into the first heat! We had a safety briefing and then practiced on the water for a bit before competing in our first race. We cleaned up in our first round, destroying the other two teams! I got completely soaked in the process, however it was quite enjoyable. We completed the race in just over a minute and five seconds. There was a large chunk of time between our first and second race since we had to wait for the remaining 30 teams to complete their first heat and by the time our second heat rolled around, the other participants had arrived which meant that I didn't get to compete again. I didn't really mind though...it had been cold and very wet. The second race was an extremely tight one, with our team and another neck in neck to the end. St. Mary's prevailed, albeit by only 0.4 seconds! The conditions were worse this time around, but with the practice from before, and the two new ringers in, they shaved 5 seconds off their previous time. They managed to take off another second to get it down to 59 in the final race, however this wasn't good enough to beat the team dressed as pirates in the next boat and in the end, the scallywags won. Although they got our time below one minute, many of the other teams managed to as well, and it just wasn't quite enough to make it into the finals. It was only St. Mary's second year in the competition however, and apparently they just keep getting better! Well, it's after midnight now, and I have to get up at 7:30 tomorrow morning to help Paul get his drum-kit from his attic and over to the church. After the service(s), we're going to some community picnic/participatory sporting event or something. I'm still a little jetlagged, and more than a little tired after today, but it was good to hear from my mom on the phone tonight, and I'm still really glad to be here!

I should also note that I expect journal entries to be rather rampant for the next week or so as I experience all kinds of new things, but then to die off a bit once I settle into a routine. It's not that I'm planning to be lazy, but rather that there won't be as much new or exciting stuff to document for you folks. Or maybe there will be....who knows?!? Just thought I'd warn you in advance....

I should also point out that my internet access is sporadic at best at the moment, however I'm supposed to be moving in with some new people on Monday or thereabouts, and that situation may or may not change when I get there.

Here is a picture of the crowd and the lake it was on. And here are some more pictures
of the dragon boats themselves (not of our group though). If you look closely you can see the guy with the big oar at the back, and the chair and drum for the drummer at the front. This is an example of what happens when you capsize the boat (though thankfully,this is once again not our group).
Here are some shots of the grounds and various tents and activities (including our own!) that could be found...

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Next we have a fashion show of sorts. First up is Paul sporting a sweet "Taipei International Cricket Club" ringer. Then we have Zamira with her brand new polystyrene (that's styrofoam for you North Americans) hair catcher. Polystyrene continues to be in vogue this season as Prince Sebastian wears the official crown of the Royal Monarchy. His sister is not far behind.

Finally, we have shots of the scoreboard after the first and second heats. Our team improved its speed by about 1 second on the third heat, however by then it was starting to get cold and rainy (cold and rainy in England, can you believe it?) and we didn't place high enough to get into the finals, so we left without any pictures to prove it. Take my word
for it however, everyone gave it their all!

• The First Heat
• The Second Heat

Friday Sept.17/04

A quick update:
1.) I saw this hilarious sign when I was in Tunbridge Wells (again) today. I know what it actually means, but it's funny nevertheless.
2.) I was watching some TV with Paul and Hananja after youth group tonight (which went fairly well by the way) and I saw that Aero chocolate bar commercial that I hate...you know, the one with the two ladies dressed in business suits in the office and the one is telling the other to put the Aero bar on her tongue and just let the bubbles melt.... anyhow, it was exactly the same as at home... same location, same actresses, same everything... EXCEPT, in this version they had british accents! They don't have accents at home! It made me wonder how many other languages the commercial was shot in!

Thursday Sept.16/04

Today I went on a field trip with Ashley's class as an "adult volunteer" (heh, except that I got scolded by Ashley's teacher for having too much fun at lunchtime and "getting the kids TOO excited!") to the Pantiles area of Tunbridge Wells. Tunbridge Wells is a small town which is actually based on a spring which was "discovered" by Lord North (which they all pronounce as "Lawd Nawth") in 1606. The waters were said to contain magical healing properties when you drank or bathed in them (although in actuality, they just had a high iron content, which was apparently something lacking in their diet at that time). Anyway, they built this whole 1600's English-style theme park around this place, with a promenade and then buildings with balconies on either side to watch the people promenading (actually, there's two promenades: an upper and a lower one...the lower one was for the subhuman servants so that they wouldn't get in the way of the aristocrats and their activities....presumably water-drinking). So the promenade was made out of pantiles which were/are clay tiles cooked in square pans, hence "pantiles." I spent the day with Ashley, Tom, Danny and Max. We saw the promenade, the musick gallery, the church of King Charles the Martyr, and the Tunbridge Wells museum. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera along with me, so I decided instead to take some pictures with Ashley after we got home.

I forgot to take one of the Rectory, where I'm currently living, however all of these other pictures are literally within a 2 minute walking distance of the house. So without further ado...

St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church (I couldn't get the whole church in one picture)

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As you can see in the last picture, there's a neat-but-creepy cemetary out front of the church which they all refer to as the "graveyard" which makes it even creepier to me!

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At one end of the church is the rectory, where we live, but at the other end is this small building called the gatehouse.
Again, I couldn't get it all in one picture, but it's old and beautiful...

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At the gatehouse is a simple map of Hartfield, which is the first picture in this next set. I also included various other buildings which are on our dirt road that leads down to the main road.

• Hartfield Map
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• Hartfield 04
• Hartfield 05

Finally, here are some pictures of Ashley and I goofing around, playing in the forest, and climbing trees. Ashley is the youngest of the children, age 7, and he's adorable!
Oh, I should also mention that the last picture is of this neat hole thing he showed me in the forest...I put my foot in the picture to give you a sense of its dimensions...

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Tuesday Sept. 14/04

I didn't actually do a journal entry for Tuesday or Wednesday so here are the highlights:

crime beat 01

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Tuesday Sept. 14/04

• Land in London: Gatwick at 10am after an all night flight
• Meet Paul and determine to try and stay up for the whole day to get my body clock set
• See a little bit of East Grinstead
• Go home, meet the rest of the fam, have dinner, go to bed early

Wednesday Sept. 15/04

• Sleep-in (or "lie-in" as they call it 'round these parts)
• Go with Paul and Ashley to pick up Sebastian after school
• Dinner with the whole family
• Go with Natasha to a book club where a small group of people from the church are reading and discussing "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren
• Power failure (or "power-cut" as they call it 'round these parts) from about 10pm-midnight
• Get home, collapse into bed exhausted, but stimulated by the group's discussion