Transport Troubles

Moving to Southern London has not been without it's troubles. Overall it's easily a better fit for us... not having a kitchen was getting old. There is, however, something Northern London has that the south side of the Thames is still lacking- the tube. The Underground is a fantastically frequent and conveniently commonplace method of travel throughout London, mostly because of the fact that it's, well, underground. No traffic, no pedestrians, and no weather means the trains can run almost seamlessly year round. The trains in Southern London, however, are mostly on the National Rail system which is almost entirely aboveground. The National Rail is notorious for it's tardiness and tendency to cancel routes altogether without much warning. Additionally, the stops are often miles apart instead of a few city blocks which means getting to one often requires taking a bus. This weekend somehow seemed to be particularly challenging for our travels...

Thursday should have been a typical work day. Worship practice at Wood Green is on Thursdays so Jodi will usually bring Alexa home so they can bake something- and I never complain about that. Last Thursday, however, I wasn't needed at rehearsal so we decided to go to Chipotle in Oxford Street for dinner with the Boundless 8 and a new guy from the International Audit Department, Jonas. After dinner Jodi and I went to Starbucks with Alexa and Cameron where we chatted until about 7:30. We took the Victoria line to Brixton as usual but when we came out of the station, we saw that our bus was already at the stop on the next block. We ran to the bus and got there as the last two people in the queue were boarding. The driver, however, didn't think our sprint was worthy of his time and he closed the door before we could get on. We ended up having to take three buses to get home. Stress.

Friday we decided to have an impromptu family dinner, which ended up actually being most-of-the-family dessert. We stopped at Denmark Hill, where the others live, because some of them wanted to change before heading to our house. The bus ride from Denmark Hill to Upper Norwood is usually about 30 minutes. For some reason, on Friday it was 75. Strike two, London transport. Strike two.

Saturday was both fantastic and awful. We had decided a few months earlier to help out our territory at the Camp America job fair here in London so they had more people to operate the booths and didn't have to send as many from the States. But this meant waking up at 5:30 for me and Jodi. We usually wake up at 5 for work, though, so it wasn't terrible. The commute there was easy, too, so all was well. For a while. The fair itself was a lot of fun- it made me miss working at camp but we were able to find some quality staff members for several camps in the West. After the fair we started home but only made it halfway. Trains to our neighborhood were all cancelled because of a "problem on the tracks". We managed to make it a few more stops on another line but then got stuck in New Cross Gate. I still have no idea where New Cross Gate is. Fortunately, we have apps that tell us what to do in these situations but the bus route it put us on took us right into the heart of the only area in London we were told to never visit at night. And it was definitely after dark. We never actually felt in danger but we've also walked the streets of Tunis with armed military police (as in M16 armed) so we are considerably more seasoned travelers than we used to be. Ha. Yeah right. Anyway, we got on the wrong bus, switched back to the right one, transferred to our homebound bus, and then finally made it home 90 minutes later. Strike three, London transport.

By Sunday transport had already struck out so we were good to go... or not. We got to church fine and after church we had a lovely lunch and chat with some new friends from the corps. They also lived conveniently close to a National Rail Station that could get us all the way home with only one transfer at King's Cross! We made it to King's Cross just fine but when we checked the prompter, there was not a single southbound train leaving the station. Now, King's Cross is not exactly a small station by any standard. There are 27 platforms if you count the international platforms and NONE of them were going south. We live in the south. We decided to take the Victoria line (one of six tube lines through KC) to Brixton again, despite the poor luck we had with it two days before. The bus driver was insanely fast this time, which kind of made up for the whole we-aren't-sending-any-trains-through-Farringdon fiasco.

On Monday we were back to our typical travel schedule. No more weekend random maintenance and closures, no more transport issues. We got to our train station and when we got to the platform noticed that they were still announcing issues with Farringdon. A few minutes later, a Tulse Hill employee came onto the platform to tell us there weren't any trains going into London from our platform. This wasn't the end of the world... there is one other platform that goes into London. When we got to that one, however, the train due to arrive at 5:56 wasn't there yet. It was 6:45. It ended up coming only 5 minutes later so we weren't delayed by much but we still had to walk about a mile to work when we got into the city. Fun times.

Today's travels were normal and only one train was a little late. While these situations were all pretty terrible, they are usually few and far between. I'm just funnier when I'm annoyed at something. This week should be good as far as transport goes but there's snow in the forecast for Thursday which the trains dislike...

We didn't take any photos this week but here's a tube and rail map!

Back to Blogging

So it's been a while since we've posted a blog. Like, a month. Lots has happened but we won't go through it all here. I basically decided that while we were on holiday, we wouldn't blog. And then that continued for another week. I doubt we'll keep up the weekly pace.

Anyway, week one of our holiday. The cruise. We took a Mediterranean cruise through 6 cities and 4 countries and I'm going to limit myself to one sentence for each. We first flew to Genoa, Italy, which was pretty uneventful. We had to take suitcases on buses which is not fun but if you're going somewhere cool, like Italy, it's worth it. Our first city on the actual cruise was Rome. Rome was Jodi's favorite city and the only city where we paid for a full tour. Our tour, as you can see in the Facebook album, included most of the typical touristy sites including the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Vatican City. After Rome was Palermo on the island of Sicily. The port was conveniently close to the main part of the city so Jodi and I explored on our own and managed to get some fantastic photos and gelato. No wifi, though. Even in restaurants that said they had wifi. We then crossed the sea to Tunis, the capital and port city of Tunisia. some words of advice: if you travel to Tunis, have transportation ready or be prepared to walk through gauntlets of taxi drivers that are NOT afraid to literally run after you in search of a fare. After Tunis we had a day at sea where we officially grew tired of our ship's entertainment amenities. We decided it would be a good idea to visit the outdoor jacuzzi when it was 40º F and ridiculously windy. Then we realized how terrible that idea actually was. We were happy to leave the ship the next day when we arrived in Barcelona, which was my favorite city. While Jodi was hoping to exercise her Spanish here, we learned instantly that locals speak Catalan in Barcelona. Neither of us speak Catalan. But Barcelona is beautiful and clean and full of artsy, food-loving culture so I was okay with that. Our last city was Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. It was probably the coldest city but there was something incredibly homey about it. It felt like a movie. I was able to use my painfully rusty French and we found a cafe that served crepes and espresso so, naturally, we indulged. We then returned to Genoa, spent way too long in their tiny airport, and returned home.

Our time back in London was short. Three days after we returned from our cruise, we left again for Los Angeles. Our friends Sam and Leah were getting married and we were frankly growing homesick. a welcomed retreat. Fun fact: the couple that got married met at our wedding. It's kind of our fault. Anyway, we paid visits to old friends and bought more American things than we should have at superspeed because we only spent 6 days in LA. And one of them was reserved for Disneyland. Unfortunately in all of this haste, we forgot to take any pictures of anything ever. So enjoy the cruise photos.

Last week we were at work catching up on everything we missed the three weeks preceding. Exciting.

Click here to see our cruise album.

Safety drills...

When in Rome...

Tuning a tuun in Tunis, Tunisia.

Dodging Devilish Donkeys

So the last week and a half was spent without internet. That's why there wasn't a blog last week. Also, losing internet for two eventful weeks might make for a long blog. First things first: new house. Jodi and I have moved to Norwood in South London for more space and a real kitchen. We will be here until we finish our positions at IHQ in July. We could pretty easily fit 3 of our old flats into the bottom floor alone. The commute isn't as convenient but it's worth the extra effort. Before we moved, we would take an Overground train to the Tube in Whitechapel, which run every 7 minutes and 3 minutes, respectively. Now we have to bus to a National Rail train which leaves every 15-30 minutes and transports Londoners at about 241% capacity. At least, the normal train does. Jodi and I have decided to not have our faces shoved into strangers armpits every morning and take the train an hour earlier, even if it means waking up at 5 am.

On Thursday we went to Trafalgar Square for the Christmas tree lighting which was, frankly, underwhelming. Maybe I've been to Disneyland during Christmas too many times. The tree is interesting because it's a gift from Norway, which has been a tradition since WWII. Apparently the first tree was given to the UK as like a thank-you-for-helping-us-during-the-war-here's-a-tree. And they keep doing it. Touching.

Saturday was easily the most interesting day of the last fourteen- we planned to do all the things in a matter of only a few hours. The first stop was Denmark Hill to meet up with Alexa. Uneventful. We came, we saw, we gathered, we moved on to Stepney City Farm. Stepney City Farm is exactly what you pictured in your head when you first read the phrase 19 words ago. 19 if "Stepney" counts as first. Literal literary humor. Wut. ANYWAY, Stepney City Farm is a farm in the city. We weren't really sure what to expect but the Stepney Salvation Army, who was hosting the event at the farm, is known for being lively and exciting so we were optimistic. And rightly so. The people from Stepney were incredibly warm and cheerful, despite the near freezing weather and curious smells emanating from nearby pens. Our job was to lead the crowd from one area to the next and play carols with a brass band as they watched different parts of the nativity unfold right in front of them. The crowd was led by a toddler dressed as a star and carried on her dad's shoulders. Adorable.

The first few stops were not terribly exciting but it was fun running around the pens and trying to beat the crowds to the next location. The last are was just outside a donkey pen but since we couldn't fit with the crowd, they decided to put us IN the donkey pen. Now, I've never been particularly afraid of animals (much less donkeys) but just before leading us through the barrier, one of the men nearby said, "Watch out for the donkeys- they kick." Awesome. Bucking donkeys. The last thing I need for Christmas is a brass mouthpiece being kicked through my teeth by an irate beast in a country that I'm not sure cares about my insurance coverage. We started playing "As with Gladness" and the first verse progressed without any issues. The donkeys had come over to investigate but I figured they were used to people being around so they wouldn't pry too much. We started the second verse and I felt something touch me. I could see all of the band members in my peripheral vision and there was only one other creature in the pen. I pretended to play as I turned and sure enough, the larger of the two donkeys was uncomfortably close to us. I turned back around but before I could find my place I heard a terrible noise behind me that sounded a bit like an exasperated child that is too cranky to verbalize why he is making the excruciating sound he feels so obliged to exude. It wasn't a tantrum. I'm sure from outside the fence it was a cute sight: Christmas carols played by a band and a donkey walking up to them so he could sing along. From my perspective, it was a battle cry. He was ready to show this braying bunch of brass players whose territory they were invading. I may have had a panic attack. I may have involuntarily cried a little. I don't know what emotion I was feeling but I suddenly was the child incapable of understandable communication.

The song ended eventually. We moved on to the stable. The STABLE. That's where it lives. It already hated me for being near the outermost sanctum of its realm and they wanted me to trespass in its domicile?! Not only that, the entire crowd came into their fenced off field so they could join in the final carols around the donkey house. I was worried. No; I was petrified. A child was going to be bitten, kicked, trampled, and there was nothing we could do. Still they marched. Still they dredged ever closer to their impending death. But it didn't come. The donkeys were fine. We played 3 songs and all the donkeys did was play with the children and shake their long devilish heads innocently. Taunters. They knew that I knew what they were thinking. "Get the baritone player". But again, nothing really happened. We finished the last song and started dispersing and my heart started beating an its average pace again. As we were leaving the pen, however, the smaller donkey escaped. Turns out donkeys are all about companionship. I learned this quickly because as soon as the larger, eviler donkey noticed his friend was gone, he decided it was a good time to start kicking things. My favorite part, in the most sarcastic sense possible, was that Alexa and I were standing right behind him. Naturally, we screamed out of sheer panic. While my being kicked in the face by a rampant donkey makes for a good story, it didn't happen. I saw every muscle on his back tense up as he prepared for the kick but he never followed through. He simply ran around the perimeter of the fence for a while until he was safely reunited with his counterbeast. And I was several large paces away from both of them.

The new house, complete with little English car... which isn't ours, by the way.

 The Norwegian tree in Trafalgar Square.

 Stepney City Farm

Pulling his stupid innocent face again...

Busy Bees

This week has been absolutely crazy at work. Both of us have fast approaching deadlines for massive projects that are significant to Congress. Jodi's main task has been organizing the volunteers we will need and constructing a program that includes roles, project planning, and recruiting. Among a million other things. My main project this week has been organizing the performers that are coming and trying to synchronize 40 schedules across 7 venues and myriad rehearsals. It's fun. Like the stressful kind of fun. Not sarcastic.

This weekend was also packed with adventure. Or at least events. On Saturday we went to Angel with Alexa for Chipotle. Again. Burrito bowls. We then continued up the Northern Line to Camden Town, which is a lot like Pike Place or Fremont in Seattle. Or any other hipster sub-nation. I was really only looking for a new umbrella after mine was tragically retired last week but I was tempted several times by just about everything else Camden had to offer. I didn't actually need any of it and, as John Murray would likely point out, none of it was of particularly high quality. John Murray works at IHQ. He's the one that deemed us Ken and Barbie. Anyway, we had been planning to see Mockingjay in the week but hadn't yet so we bussed to the nearest cinema to watch it. Being volunteers we decided grocery snackage was a necessity. This snackage, however, spoiled our dinner appetites. Nevertheless, we went to Southbank after the movie which is the literal south bank of the Thames. There is a new Christmas village that started earlier this month that Jodi tried to convince me to go to the previous night but I convinced her it would be more fun to go with another person. Southbank was a pretty typical Christmas village aside from a Christmas tree maze, which I don't think I've ever seen before. Exciting as it was, I wasn't about to pay £4 to walk through a fake forest...

Sunday. We went to church at the usual time and did the usual things until lunch. We had lunch plans with a family from the Wood Green area that sometimes attends the corps but they weren't able to make it that morning. They were kind enough to call a taxi service for us so we wouldn't have to walk through the rain which was pretty torrential that day. The food was fantastic. They're a mix of Jamaican and Trinidadian which we learned is actually a very uncommon mix for marriages. The food was fantastic. I know I already said that. We were supposed to leave by 2:30 to go to a divisional event in Hoxton but the conversation (and dessert) were too good to leave on time. We still wanted to go to the event so we left after dessert. It took us considerably longer to get to Hoxton than we had anticipated and we ended up arriving about 20 minutes late but it was a relaxed event so it didn't seem like anyone cared. They were just happy we were there. Dinner was provided at the event but we had eaten just a couple hours earlier so we didn't actually eat anything.

Oh yeah. And we're moving to South London on Saturday. While it's nice to basically live in a hotel, it's not suitable for an extended period of time and we would like to have a proper kitchen where there's more than a microwave.

Camden.

Us in Camden.

Not Camden. As in Southbank.

An Abbey in Autumn

Autumn has been slowly but surely leaving its mark on London. The trees are turning, the temperature is decreasing, and the rain is getting more intense. I was expecting it to be colder than it is by now but we still have 4 months until Spring... The rain isn't terrible here. After living in places like Hilo and Seattle I consider myself accustomed to rain, though, so maybe it's just me. Never mind. Jodi just said she thought it would rain more too. I also haven't experienced a heavy rain since my umbrella broke yesterday so maybe my opinion will change.

This week was pretty normal. Work, some O2 visits, and then the weekend. I went to worship practice at Wood Green on Thursday and played bass with them on Sunday. That was pretty fantastic because I haven't played in months. We attempted to go shopping on Saturday but ran out of energy almost immediately and didn't actually know what we were looking for.

On Sunday we went to church as usual. This Sunday was one of the days where we have a coffee break half way through the service, which is Jodi's favorite variation of Sundays here. Going to Wood Green has been particularly nice for us because we have had free lunch with someone every week so far! The first two weeks were at the Smiths' house and then this week we went to Steve Burnett's house with Alexa. Steve is Glen's owner- the dog we watched in September. He is actually the person that suggested we try out Wood Green in the first place. After lunch he took us to Waltham Abbey which is just a few minutes from where he lives. I've found that I really enjoy cathedrals, abbeys, and old churches. They're impressively beautiful particularly because when they were built there weren't any design programs or motorized cranes. There was barely geometry. Also, Waltham Abbey is about 1100 years older than the United States of America. That's crazy.

 Orange trees!

 Waltham Abbey.

 A closer view of the end of the abbey.

St. Paul's reflected in the rain. 

Christmas, Coffee, and a Concert

We learned that Oxford Street was turning on its Christmas lights last week and thought it would be fun to go. The reason we originally found out was because someone from the Rink's Songster Brigade had posted it on Facebook so everyone knew to avoid the area and plan ahead but we turned it into a reason to visit the shopping district. Carmen, Jeremiah, Alexa, Cameron, Kersten, and Karl all went as well. While the actual lighting was underwhelming, hanging out with friends in central London is always fun. That was Thursday.

On Saturday we had a concert with the London Central Youth Chorus... also known as Central. The concert was in Hendon but we met up with friends yet again to watch the Lord Mayor's parade in Queen Victoria Street. When we went through our initial tube station we learned that our destination station was closed because there was a person on the tracks. This meant we had to get off at Moorgate and walk the rest of the way. It wasn't particularly far, but because the streets were closed there weren't any cars or people roaming around which made it fell eerily empty. The parade itself was pretty similar to American parades aside from the amount of military personnel and machinery. There were a lot of guns. They handed out everything from candy to lemons to sausages to show how much they supported the new Lord Mayor. There was one band that played on horseback which was pretty much the most impressive thing ever. The parade wasn't quite long enough to warrant going straight to Hendon for our rehearsal so we stopped at a coffee shop on the way there to kill some time. We killed a little too much, though because it started to rain torrentially and it was a 10 minute walk from there to the corps. We were prepared for rain but it was still incontrovertibly wet. After the concert we started looking for food. This always takes ages when we're in a group of 10 because we can never decide or agree on one place. Eventually, we decided on Chipotle because it's delicious and it was on the way to all of our stations.

Sunday was pretty normal. We went to Wood Green and discovered that the second Sunday of each month is done almost in a Bible Study style where everyone sits around tables and works through a passage of scripture together. After church we went to Jonny and Catherine's house again for lunch and, naturally, Monopoly. I managed to beat both Jonny and Gerard (an alleged Monopoly guru) which helped boost my Monopoly ego after painfully losing last week.

Yesterday we went grocery shopping and did laundry. In case you were wondering. Maybe we should blog biweekly.

Christmas lights in Oxford Street.

 The empty streets before the parade.

 A giant fish and a smiling European. 

The Lord Mayor. He was waving to the other side...

Skillz. 

Bashful Birthday

This weekend was my birthday weekend. Now, if you don't already know, I'm not a big fan of making a bigger deal of things that ought not to be a big deal in the first place. Birthdays fall into this category. When you're turning 7, 10, even 16, making it a big deal makes sense to me. Once you've passed 21, though, it's just a waste of energy. Moreover, it's downright embarrassing. The last thing I need is 10 people singing an overly repetitive song at me in public. And that happened.

On Friday, which was Halloween for those of you unAmericans, our department was planning to go to lunch on the roof of a nearby building because it was going to be a nice day. We probably won't get very many more of those. The fact that it was Halloween isn't really important, I just wanted to type unAmerican because it's a real word. Look it up. Anyway, Halloween is the day before my birthday so I was expecting little more than a few costumes and a sunny picnic lunch. Wrong. This is the part where I was sang to in public. Sang at in public. I tried to sing along and make it look like it was actually Jeremiah's birthday but you can't throw fake extrovertism at a real extrovert. It bounces back. We ate some random candies and baked goods we had brought to the office at varying times that week and the Hobgoods gave me a gift wrapped in Harry Potter World adverts. I don't know if that was a really well planned thematic idea or just a fluke, but I was appreciative nonetheless. The gift was a stone plaque with scripture on it and, most importantly, eagles. Birds of prey are my favorite types of animals so I thought at first that was the reason for the theme of the gift. I never actually found out otherwise so we'll say it was true. It's also the first grown-up thing I've owned. As in something that you always have and has a place in your home but it doesn't really have a funny story from college. It's a big step. The only problem is that our bags were already at the weight limit on or way over here.

On Saturday we made no plans. We had breakfast at the usual time, I played some video games, and we eventually settled on McDonald's for lunch. We were going to go shopping with some of the other Boundless 8 but I couldn't be bothered to travel AND spend money. I'm just like my dad in that aspect. I don't like spending my money in general and now it's amplified because I don't actually make money anymore. When I do buy things, however, I'm a quality over quantity guy every time. End of tangent. We decided to go to as-fancy-as-we-can-reasonably-afford dinner in Oxford Street. Our plan was to simply walk from place to place until we found a restaurant that seemed to meet our needs. We got off the tube at Oxford Circus and started the walk east. And kept walking. For a while. We made several detours off of Oxford and into alleys and around various buildings but nothing had the right balance of quality, price, and available tables. We eventually made it to Covent Garden where we ate at a quaint Italian restaurant called La Ballerina. Jodi kept saying "Happy birthday" because it was funny. Ha ha.

On Sunday we went to Wood Green again. I was in a particularly good mood because my birthday was over and I didn't have to relive the trauma of being sung at for another year. Church was different yet again than any format I've been in. We split into groups Bible Study style and talked about a specific passage within our group. There was a set of questions at the end that Jonny, one of the corps officers, then asked with a mic, bouncing from group to group for answers. It reminded me of BSF but in a slightly larger form. We went to the officers' house after church for a proper English roast dinner. We have had several of these and I love them because it's like Christmas dinner but whenever you want because Sunday. They have 2 boys, Samuel and William, who both took a liking to me because that's what young boys do for some reason. It may or may not have been because of my Minecraft knowledge. But don't tell anyone. Anyway, after lunch/dinner/tea/whathaveyou Catherine brought out a rolled pavlova, put a massive candle/firework in it, and everyone started singing. Again. This one wasn't so bad because there were only a few people singing and no strange onlookers to gawk. Also, it was pavlova. With a firework in it.

 On the roof of One New Change, which I just remembered the name of. That's St. Paul's.

Cold dinner in Covent Garden. The food wasn't cold... the night air was.

Birthday/Guy Fawkes pavlova.