Slowing Down

The longer we’re here the more free things we look for to do and the more we are trying to cook in. Yesterday morning we got off to a slow start but in the afternoon decided to take our first trip to the National Gallery. As it is free, I anticipate we will make many trips in the future. To get there we took the tube to Leicester Square. It is interesting in itself. It has a lot of restaurants and a couple of theaters. We were there on a work day so there were lots of people on their lunch break. I got excited when I saw the Haagen-Dazs Café that I had gone to when I was here at 17. I had tried to send Trey when he was in London last summer but we couldn’t find the listing online and I couldn’t remember exactly where it was. We had been keeping our eyes out for a place to stop and have a snack after the museum so it was perfect.

We then walked to Trafalgar Square. It was our first sighting on this trip so we gave it the obligatory look around. It was about to rain and I keep thinking of all these places “I’ll go back and take pictures when the sun is shining” but we did take a few. When we got inside the gallery we grabbed a map and worked out our strategy. The museum is divided into periods and as it was free we decided to look at it progressively over time because who has time to do stuff like that right? We picked our favorite period to start with (18th through 20th century) and worked our way around that corner o the museum taking our time. We noted our favorite paintings all the way through and have determined to go back and see various periods on various days then rent those audio tours and hit our favorites as there are 40 plus hours of commentary available. We toured it and it was wonderful just to walk around for free and take in all those famous works of art. We followed it up with a brownie ice cream dish at the Haagen-Dazs café. We split it because it was a whopping £7.10. We then hurried home in the rain. After a bit we went to the grocery store. We had intended to make sandwiches, however, bread here molds quite quickly and we were dismayed to find our loaf had been lost. We were starving and after wandering around finally decided on a bag of microwave risotto from Uncle Ben. All I knew was that I knew the name and wanted something familiar. We then watched a movie (Gosford Park) in the T.V. room downstairs then went to bed for a fitful night of sleep.

Today we woke up by the skin of our teeth and had a big day doing things for the house. There were several things we had collected that we needed, lots of dishes, replace a molded shower curtain, a step ladder, etc. We went to a store called Homebase. It was like Home Depot meets Home Goods. They had everything from cleaning supplies to lumber to bath tubs to bedding to furniture to picture frames. It was wild to be in a shop like that after all the small shops we had been in. It was only two miles away but we took the bus about a mile then walked about a mile. By the time we left we had acquired so much there was no way we were making it on the bus. We had 6 tea cups and saucers, 18 mugs, 24 place settings of dinner ware and an assortment of other household items. Apparently this is a common issue at the Homebound store because they have a phone that directly rings a car service. You just pick it up and it dials. A car was there fairly quickly and the driver even helped us unload. I rang the doorbell several times and got the students downstairs to help us carry everything… very nice… and we had it all downstairs in one trip. We spent the rest of the day washing all the dishes in the dish washer, so far we’ve done three loads and we’re not completely done! We walked, in the rain, to a closer grocery store which has better meat for dinner. It is called Waitrose. It is a little more expensive but sometimes worth it for the freshness. We got a whole chicken, some lemon and rosemary rice and found these bags of fresh cut vegetables ready to steam for about £8 plus we have leftover chicken to use for dinner tomorrow. I am still freaked out about how much more expensive everything is but I am getting adjusted.

One thing I am not getting adjusted to is living without our dog. I miss her terribly even though I know she is in good hands it just really gets to me that we can’t tell her why we left her or that we’re coming back. So, for those of you who pray for us (and we greatly appreciate your prayers) pray for me because I am missing her really badly and am a little homesick in general. I know we’ve only been here a week but we haven’t met any couples our age. It is great to have the socialization in the house that we have and it really helps, however, I miss the friendship of people in the same phase of life as we are. I am also eager to find a church home. Also, we found out they were looking for a Biblical Perspectives professor for next semester which is something Trey is qualified to teach so he has asked to be considered for that if you could pray in that area we would be so grateful.