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:

• 01
• 02
• 03

3 Wheel Car:

• 01
• 02
• 03
• 04
• 05
  

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.