Changing of the Guards

We took Ed's parents, Frank & Erica to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. It takes 42 minutes to change two guards positions. There were two bands playing great marching music. If it wasn't for the music, I doubt I would have stayed. We all decided that we could have done the same thing in a lot less time. It was great to see although I doubt I would do it again.
Bear skin up close!

Visitors from Swenden

One of the highlights about being here at The London Mennonite Centre is that we get to meet so many people from all over the world. This is a group of young adults from Sweden who wanted to come to the Centre to see what we do. There were about 8 of them and of course they all can speak English quite well. We had tea for them and Vic, our director, then gave them the history of the Centre and what we do now. Listening to what they do is always an interesting thing.

Once a driver always a driver

I just found out that in the U.K. once you obtain your drivers license you have it forever! You never have to retest. No further written tests, driving tests or eye tests. At around age 70 they send you a form to fill in asking if you have any vision problems but until then you can drive on!

Ed has been able to drive on his US license for the first year but has to take a written and driving test to get a UK license. After that he can come back anytime and drive legal!

Ed's parents are here for a week and we are having a nice time visiting with them. We went to Central London on Saturday evening after they rested up and walked around a bit. They went to church with us on Sunday and stayed home and played cards. Today, Monday, Ed and his folks went on a bus tour of Central London. Tomorrow we will see the changing of the Guards at Buckingham palace, then Wednesday we will go see Les Miserables. I hope to have some pictures in the next couple of days.

U S Thanksgiving in London?

The UK doesn't have a "Thanksgiving" in the way that the US does but since Sharon, Ed & I are US, we decided we wanted our Thanksgiving. Sharon's parents, Phil & Irene Kniss are visiting plus there is another US person living at the Centre for the next month. So we put on a supper. We couldn't do it at lunch since it's a regular Thursday here. Here is Sharon trying to find a good Thanksgiving story to tell after the meal. I had a 10 question quiz about the pilgrims I found on the net. The winners guessed six out of the ten correctly, one being British and one being a German!
We had about 16 all together around this table. A few are up getting the dessert and coffee and not in this picture. Things missing are watching the parades, college football, board and card games.
Sorry no wonderful pictures of London sites. We haven't been out much.

And the winner is......

Last blog entry I asked for guesses as to what the blob in the first picture might be. Diana B emailed me with the guess of plum pudding which was half right. Then my oldest daughter, Emily guessed Christmas pudding which is the correct answer. However, I feel that they both should claim the first prise as Diana's was her own guess and Emily did a bit of googleing. So Diana will get the mug and Emily the t-shirt. Depending on the shipping charges, you may both have to wait until we visit in May.
We have been here for nine months now. I'm not sure if I feel that is has gone fast or not. Many things have happened and to think back on some of them feels like a long time ago. Yet in many other ways it feels like it has gone quickly. I will save any serious reflections when we hit the one year mark.

Church Day Away

Every year the church here does a 'day away' where they go to a nice retreat centre and do different things. Often some spiritual input along with free time, a meal, games, hikes, etc. This year I (Phyllis) couldn't go as the CCND (Christian Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament) was meeting at the Centre so someone had to stay behind. The retreat Centre is in South London called All Saints Catholic retreat Centre.
Here are a few that went on a hike through some woods.

Of course Ed took way more pictures than this of the building but I decided to just include two.
I thought these windows were especially beautiful.

What's that blob? & Sharon's birthday

Okay, I've talked about house meal before. Here is a picture of the dessert or pudding as the Brits call it. Anyone who can guess what it is will receive your choice of either an LMC mug or tshirt. Hints: Served up at a special holiday & this one we poured some brandy over and lit it up. Unfortunately my camera was running low on battery power and I didn't get the shot of the flames. Another hint: I wasn't particularly fond of this dessert......not nearly as much as the Brits at the table were.
Sharon turned 23. She is the one on the far left. She works under Mennonite Mission Network with the Bridge Builders programme. She seems more like 33 with the way she carries out her work and juggles all the other things she does. She is in a choir that she had to audition for and they practice for several hours every Sunday evening. They have put out several CD's and have done numerous concerts. All these things mean many hours on top of her usual practices. Nine of us went out for her b day to Leon's, a mid Easternish type place in Central London. Then we went to the ICA (Institute for Contemporary Art) to see the foreign film 'Blame it on Fidel'. I would recommend anyone to see it. It's in French with subtitles. Usually it is hard for me to follow the story because I am too caught up in reading the titles. But for some reason it was not a problem. The film was superbly done. The ICA is in Central London very close to Trafalgar Square. Being in Central London at night is so electric. I was just starting to feel like things were familiar, then times like last night being around all these magnificent buildings and such made it feel surreal.
Ed and Nina were at the other end of the table so I needed to get a picture of them in here. Will was along too but was always hidden.

Highgate Woods & Guy Fawkes Day

Last Sunday we went for a walk in Highgate Woods which is the route we take when we walk to Muswell Hill for groceries that I can't get closer by. It is very peaceful and remarkably quiet given the fact that this path follows the busy road to Muswell Hill.

In an earlier entry MB asked in her comments if we celebrated fireworks day. I was surprised that an American knew of fireworks day. So for those of you who don't as I didn't, I will give you a brief abridged history lesson. It's actually Guy Fawkes Day. It celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder plot in which a group of Roman catholic conspirators of which Guy was a part of, attempted to blow up the Palace of Westminster to kill King James I of England and destroy Protestant rule and aristocracy. This was 5th November, in the early 1600's.
Fireworks were going off for at least a week and huge displays were all over. We could easily see one from our back balcony of our bedroom that was at a local sports field. These mushrooms were growing on a tree on our walk through Highgate Woods.

Islington: The 'off-Broadway' of London

It's Sunday 4th November and the sun is out so we are going for a walk. We reach into our city walks of London pack given to us by Karen and Dick Aldis before we left for England and decide on this one. We take the tube to Angel and start out on a nice Sunday stroll looking at small theatres. This first one is mostly comedy showings.
This one is called the Almeida Theatre which is written about: 'always a showcase of today's more challenging playwrights'. It has been restored. Ed and I both decided it is plain compared to the other buildings. This one, the Kings Head Theatre is more impressive when standing in front of it than the picture shows. It has seen the likes of Kenneth Branagh on its stage.

This is the Little Angel Puppet Theatre tucked away in an alleyway and is the home of British puppetry.

Highgate Autumn

London has Autumn but doesn't have the color that is found in most parts of the U.S. I really miss that. Even the color in Kansas where I've lived most of my life and thought was usually a dull place for autumn color outshines London for color. The past few days have been outstanding as far as weather though. We had coffee breaks out on the patio it was so nice.
Friday 2nd November, 2007: No groups today so I did some spot carpet shampooing and guest laundry. Ed is busy raking leaves. It must be done at least every week or we would be buried in them as we have so many trees. We heard from the new young Mennonite church in south England that I had talked about before that has gone from a group of 8 to 30 plus. They meet 3 times/week in a small flat and the neighbors are complaining of the noise as it is in the evenings. So now they have to find a place to worship. They are mostly immigrants from all over, but the instigators are originally from South America. The main family whose father does the pastoring had to flee from Columbia as they feared for their lives due to their beliefs. They are in contact with the LMC and Urban Expression in London for ways of developing the church. It's exciting.
Sharon, the 23 y.o. on the top floor invited us to supper and we had a wonderful vegetarian curry. Reminded me of when we were early married as we ate with a mis-matched set of dishes, in her tiny room and helped to clean up in the tiniest of kitchens that is actually in the room of the other young girl on the top floor. Community living has it's upsides. She had the day off and felt like cooking so around 4:30 asked if we wanted to come up for supper.
Ed was able to call through to Barry Bontrager in Wichita where he is regaining strength at a rehab hospital following a heart attack with a few complications. It was good for Ed to get to talk with him. Praise God for his miraculous recovery.

Today we have three guys and two girls here staying in the guest rooms who are taking a little holiday from Europe where they are trainees. They are all from Canada, at least the guys are.
We also had the Bridge Builders advisory board here for lunch and their semi annual meeting. We also had a birthday tea. Whenever a worker at the LMC has a birthday, they get to choose what they want at tea. Today it was Alistair McKay's 44th bday and he chose scones with clotted cream and jam. The other part of the tradition is that of course we sing happy birthday to the tune they choose. Alastair chose the second half of the doxology, formerly known as 606. Then someone reads the same chapter in Psalms as they are old, so Psalms 44 was read. Then they recount on a special birthday memory.

Halloween party at the LMC

We, or Ed I should say, cleaned out the garage/carriage house to have a halloween party. We invited the house, the church, and some neighbors. The first picture is of the neighbors' kids Devonte and Destiny. Destiny refuses to acknowledge you if you call her Destiny as she has decided to be called Amolia.
We ended up with 28 people there at one time or another. We bobbed for apples, played charades, did the monster mash, except for Ed who says he is not opposed to dancing but just doesn't know how, and watched the animated films Charlie Browns The Great Pumkin and Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Since it was a week night most went home fairly early.
Even Frankenstein enjoyed bobbing for apples.
Elvis decided to show up for a bite of apple.

LMC Happenings

I realized that I put things on the blog that are mostly not related to our work at The London Mennonite Centre. So I am going to try to journal a little more about what is going on at the Centre and things that we and the others that work here are involved with. The picture is just for something to jazz it up. It was taken on Portobello road market.
Today, Kathy Thiessen is going to a Friends Meeting House where she was invited to talk to them about the Mennonites and our peace & justice stance. Ed is busy putting together the reports that the workers at the LMC are writing about their last six months here for the Board and Trustee meetings coming up next week. Vic is busy trying to nail down future seminar dates and have finalized two more for May and July.
I have done a variety of things like laundry and cleaning of guest rooms, answering email and inputting new and revised info into our data base. Tonight our church is meeting at the centre for supper, communion, and prayer. We have a new young married couple attending as well as two young girls. The attendees vary often as there are those who come during times of attending University in London or on a short work term, etc.
Ed and I have started to attend one of the home groups that meet every other Thursday evening, or once a fortnight as they say here.
It has been a beautiful two days here with lots of sunshine and mild temps.

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The Victoria & Albert Museum

It's Saturday, October 27 and we are not expecting any groups or guests today so Ed and I decided to take advantage and explore another part of London that we have not seen yet.
This takes us to the Victoria & Albert Museum or as referred to here as the V&A. Like most of the other museums, it is free with a few special exhibits that cost extra. The exhibits are usually there for a few months at a time then move somewhere else. We don't too often take in the exhibits as there is plenty to see otherwise, unless it is really intriguing.
This first picture is of the early Europe cast room. It's a huge room full of casts of monuments, sarcophagus', and many other grand archetechural monuments and such that are famous. The shear size is impressive.
The second and third pictures are taken in the musical instruments room. Most all of them are behind glass with special lighting. They had all kinds of woodwind, stringed, and even some brass instruments. There were quite a lot of harpsichords.

This last picture is of a 'choir screen' which of course is where the choir would be standing behind. I couldn't get the entire thing in my camera as there is an arch between me and the screen and I couldn't get in front of it as there was only about 10 feet between the screen and the railing. The V&A building is very lovely but it seems that I didn't get a picture of it.

Portobello Road Market

After the V&A, we took a tube to Notting Hill Gate and followed the crowds to Portobello Road Market which has been in existence since the late 1860's in one form or another. The second hand market is on Fridays, while the antiques market is held on Saturdays. Fruit and vegetable vendors, sellers of knickknacks, antiques shops, and junk shops stuffed with treasures occupy the central part of the market every day of the week.
You may have seen the movie Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant which has greatly popularized this area which has also increased some of the prices! After getting home, we borrowed the DVD from Vic, the director of the LMC, and watched it. It was fun to see the places we had just been to. Plus near the end of the movie when Anna (Julia R) is filming a period piece in London, they are filming at Hampstead Heath which is where we have been frequently and is only about 1 1/2 mile walk from where we live.
The first picture is one of many eating stalls. The huge pans have different kinds of paella (pronounced: pie-eh'-ya). It's a little similar to jambalaya but often not as spicy. The smells are wonderful! This is Potobello Road Market and we walked from one end to the other, then turned around and went back. The length is probably around 1/2 mile. Besides all the stalls in the street, the shops are great as well.

There are many interesting shop signs.
Many of the houses are painted in these bright colors.
Along the way before you get to the market we passed one of George Orwell's many London residences. It's marked with one of those blue round plaques that I talked about in a previous blog entry.

A day at the markets

I, Phyllis, had a long day on my feet yesterday cooking for a group of 22 at the centre and so decided to take Sunday to get outside and visit some markets. London is full of all kinds of them. First I went to Spitalfieds which has a bit of everything. I was able to find a unique gift for my oldest daughter, Emily, for her birthday which was on 1oth of October. Better late than never! Then I went through petticoat lane market which is a lot of textiles. This picture is a book market that is every weekend on the south bank. There are tables and tables full of used books.

Busking on the Thames sound bank

After I was done at the markets, I took the tube to London Bridge station and walked along the south bank of the Thames because even though it was only 58 degrees, the sun was shining and there was no wind. So it was a beautiful day for London. Here were two different buskers along the way. These in the top picture were a country/blues type.
These guys in the bottom picture were definitely jazzy.

New at the Tate Modern

Okay yes, it's a big crack in the floor. This is the latest display in the large area of the Tate which is the museum of modern art in London. I couldn't believe it when I heard the new exhibit was a long crack but sure enough! This is the description: (First off there is a lengthy description of her past work and how it relates but I'll spare you) It is by Doris Salcedo and is called "Shibboleth" (you can look up the word meaning) "Look down into the crack and you see not Tate Moderns foundation but a carefully constructed concrete cast formation, embedded with chain-link wire fence. For Salcedo, the crack reveals a colonial and imperial history that has been disregarded, marginalised or simply obliterated...the history of racism, running parallel to the history of modernity and... its untold dark side.
Ok....enough. It runs about 75 to 100 yards long and it was rather amazing to see how many people were milling around it on the afternoon I was there let alone all the other days!

Backyard activity

Recently, Ed did a lot of trimming/pruning and cleaning up of brush that was laying around in the back yard. We decided to burn some of the old, seasoned wood to clear out some space for the new trimmings. In London you can burn cuttings during the day. I was really surprised as in the States most places ban burning, esp in cities. We had a nice hot dog roast followed by s'mores.
The girl on the right in the picture below is Nina. She is 16, from Germany, and is living with the Thiessens who know her family. She is wanting to improve her English and so is going to school in London. She has a lot of energy and is fun to have around here.

A walk in Highgate

Highgate is one of the many "villages" that make up greater London. We live between Highgate, Muswell Hill, and Crouch End. Highgate is considered posh with a number of famous people living there. Here are a couple of houses that we walked by on one of our Sunday morning walks.