Going Back in Time

On Friday we took the tube to the Tower of London, an ancient fortress turned prison. (Turned tourist attraction. -Eric) We started out with a tour by one of the Yeoman Warders, one of the Royal Guards to the Queen who actually lives at the tower. He told us lots of stories, the tower wasn't a nice place to be if you were a prisoner. Then we went into White Tower, the main tower right in the middle. Inside was the Royal Armory as well as other artifacts collected over time. After that was a real cream tea, consisting of real English tea, Devonshire cream, and a fresh scone. We had planned to see the Crown Jewels, but the line was hundreds long, so we figured they weren't that special. We were able to walk around on top of the walls, which gave us great views of Tower Bridge. (When we were walking by Tower Bridge a boat was going through that required the bridge to be raised. So that was neat to watch. -Eric) We left the compound and walked the short distance to London Bridge. I need to clear up some confusion here, the famous picture you always see is Tower Bridge, the one from the song is just a concrete structure. After that we ventured down to Oxford Street once more. (We were trying to get home at about 6. But it was very very crowded on Oxford Street on a Friday evening so they were actually closing down some tube stations because there were so many people! So we walked a lot further than we planned to and got home about an hour later than we were supposed to. -Eric)

Finally Get to Do Something!

All the go go going once again hit us on Thursday, so we took the time to sleep in a little.  Doug had given us some territory(one street) the night before, so that was the plan for the afternoon.  We walked out to the Hanger View Lane, which took us 30 minutes, and set to work on the 60+ residences there.  (A nice thing about this territory is if you start off with street witnessing you can get at least a guaranteed hour of service just walking there and back. -Eric)  The first group was 25 or so flats in a locked complex with intercom.  Fortunately right we arrived someone was leaving and let us in.  We went through the building, leaving invitation in the mail slot if they weren't home.  After that there was a stretch of individual houses, and we were able to find a surprising amount home.  At one of them we met a Polish brother doing construction work.  At the end of the road was another group of flats, but this time we were unable to access the building. There were 30 flats to do, so we started to work on the intercoms.  Finally, once we had done about 15 someone left and we were able to get in.  To our dismay each level also had a separate security layer, so we were still unable to reach the doors although we were in the building.  However, the first floor door was left partially open, so we could do those flats.  Then it was back to the intercom to finish the flats we still didn't have access to.  One number that we rang actually invited us up, which we were pleasantly surprised about, so we went upstairs.  The man was initially cautious, calling through the door, and then opening the door with the chain still on, but finally he not only opened the door but invited us in!  He asked us why we were there, and then told us he was a Muslim but didn't really believe it.  We were able to have a thirty minute discussion with him, and although he didn't accept what we had to say, it was at least nice to have a real conversation.  He did commend us for being young and actually having faith and trying to do good, and did take the convention invitation.  We then finished the rest of the flats in his corridor, and headed for home.  When we arrived for dinner Doug told us that many of the brothers would be gone for their listening conventions, and asked if we would like to do the number 3 talk.  I eventually volunteered, and set to work on the talk.  At meeting we realized that he was right, as some of the brothers has 2 or 3 responsibilities.  To help out, Eric read for the book study, and did a very good job I might add.  (Thanks Blythe.  It was so nice to get to have a privilege during the meeting.  Doing commenting is fun but I don't know how you sisters can do just commenting all the time. -Eric)  Then Doug had the Bible highlights and did the school, where I gave my part.  Thank goodness for the Watchtower Library, I was able to pull very good, relevant material without much difficulty.  (And he did really good too.  He even used real English terms that you Americans wouldn't get. He also barely looked at his notes which is always good for a speaker. -Eric)  The rest of the meeting was entertaining as usual, such as a little brother who whispered "YES!!" rather loudly when he was called on to comment.  (For some reason meetings are really entertaining.  Sometimes i think me and Blythe are the only ones laughing but we laugh quite a bit.  Doug talked about Solomon's 1,000 wives and made a few hilarious comments even though i don't think he meant to. -Eric)  It was a nice day overall, not to busy but very productive.

London Bethel

 Doug had arranged for us to visit his sister at the London Bethel, and we decided to go on Wednesday.  We were a tad slow in the morning, and finally left around 10:20.  We had to take three different tube trains, and the last one was delayed.  We were trying to get there for lunch, but the last one didn't even leave until 11:53.  The train arrived a few minutes later, and we still had a mile walk up a steep road to get there.  We powerwalked up the hill in our suits, and when we got to the top we saw Bethelites streaming to the main buildings from all directions.  This was a good sign, hopefully lunch hadn't started yet.  We blended into the flow, and cruised into the main entrance.  (Actually we went in through the entrance that only Bethelites can use. Guess we already look the part. -Eric)  We met Doug's sister Gwen in the entrance, where she informed us lunch wasn't till 12:15.  We could breathe a little easier, and signed in at the front desk.  We sat down to lunch, which was English roast beef, homemade chips(generous cut french fries to you Americans :P), salad, and grapes.  We ended up sitting right next to one of the sister we were supposed to look for, the fleshly sister of the sister from Ealing we sat in front of at convention in Sweden.  We can't get away from this family!  After lunch Gwen showed us her work in the book repair/bindery shop, which was very interesting.  Then we walked across the street to the IBSA House for the official tour.  We saw most departments in the building, including the 2 presses that are crammed into the little space they have.  After that we walked across the street once again, to meet a few of Eric's friends and friends of friends.  One of them, Jonathan, works in the metalwork shop, and was able to give us a tour of the whole maintenance department.  (Private tours are the best. Where we got to go isn't even on the official tour guide and most people aren't even allowed back there. -Eric)  They have many many project planned, and desperately need help.  They had just finished a 5 day concrete pour, and one of the managing brothers we talked to was disappointed when he found out I had concrete experience from RBC, they seriously would have used us.  That was definitely an opportunity missed, but I guess the lesson learned is make yourself available if you will be somewhere for an extended time.  We left Bethel late in the afternoon, and spent the rest of the day looking at suits on Oxford Street.  They actually have suits here made for slender guys, what a concept!  We found out the hard way that everything closes at 8 as the gate came down right in front us at the last store we wanted to go to.  (I had already bought everything I wanted to for the day. So i found great humor in the store closing as we were walking up to it. -Eric)  With nothing left to do we found a subway stop and came home, once again tired from a long day.

The Long Day

I shouldn't really be writing about Tuesday, it was Eric's show, so I'll just say what I did.  I met the group in the morning, and we walked to one of the farther territories to do the invitation work.  While there we had an extended discussion with a Buddhist, met plenty of atheists, and also met a brother from a nearby Spanish congregation.  We finished the whole area, and stopped around 12:30.  I had no one to work with in the afternoon, so I went home to blog and watch some boring British TV.  In the evening Eric was back, and we went to Subway for a quick bite, and met Dawn and her daughter Jade at the bus station.  We rode a bus that was filled to capacity for about 45 minutes, down to a town called Southhall.  This area of London is called "little India" and you can definitely tell why when you drive through.  We met the group at a brothers house, there were about 12 of us.  We went to the territory and just blitzed the neighborhood.  We were done an hour and a half later.  We took the bus back home and watched a few episodes of an old British comedy call Fawlty Towers with Doug and Kam.
(My day was a little bit longer. I am a regular axillary pioneer now so i am attempting to get my hours in even though we are on holiday. I am not quite sure if i will make it but i want to try at least and i do enjoy doing service with the friends here. They are fun.
Well i started off service with Michael D at the unholy hour of 8:00. It was slightly raining and slightly more freezing but doing street witnessing warmed us up quickly.  After walking to Chiswick, which took about 30 minutes, we did some large loops around the hall until we were on our way to meet the group at 9:30.  On the way i stopped a man and tried to give him a tract about the Bible.  He suddenly started to go on about how we shouldn't trust the Bible, because it was written by man and how the Bible contradicts itself and Jesus even said it did.  So i asked where it said that and so he told me to turn to a scripture in Mathew. I did and read it out loud.  After i finished he said how its so obvious and it is black and white.  Then he went on about how we shouldn't listen to him though, so we thanked him for talking and went on our way to meet the group.  Like Blythe said the territory we were going to do is one of the furthest, but an elderly brother that was out needed a ride to get there and somehow i got to be in the car too.  We did invitation work for about an hour. I had plans to work with Estera at 12 but her partner had to leave an hour early so i started to work with her at 11:00.  We finished the road that was assigned at the meeting for field service, then moved on to finish a road that she had to do.  We did one side of the street then after some pleading and begging i convinced her to go get some lunch.  I had been walking since 8:00 see so i was very very hungry.  Then we walked to an area in south Acton that some new blocks of flats had just been built.  It was our job to map out the new area.  After that we did some of her calls.  We went to see a young woman she and another sister had meet in street work and they were able to get her address to call back.  The woman was Turkish so Estera brought her a Bible Teach in Turkish.  Arrangements were made for some Turkish brothers and sisters to return and have a study with her.  Kindly her roommate suggested that a specific time and date should be set up too.  Those calls and talks with people make the whole day or week of service worth it.  It was a little before 1400 and she was supposed to meet another sister then.  So she asked if i wanted to do street witnessing until we got to the next sister's house.  I said sure so we did.  The three of us worked together and we took the bus back up to finish the other side of the street that Estera and i worked on earlier that day. For those of you keeping track that's the 3rd time that i went all the way across Acton in just a few hours.  After finishing the side of the road the other sister said she just wanted to work for an hour and so she was done.  So we street witnessed down to Morrison's and the other sister went home.  After thinking for a few minutes of what to do next we decided to go work the new block of flats that we had previously just mapped.  There were roughly 65 flats to do.  Some we used the intercoms, and others we were able to get in.  It was unbearable hot in there though so it was very draining.  I did see a Muslim woman with no head covering on, which was very brief though because within a split second she shut the door and then reappeared with a head covering on.  Oh and for you sisters, if you ever are going to talk to a Muslim man try to have a brother do it instead.  They can get very mad sometimes if a woman tries to just talk to them.  Anyway though we did door after door and floor after floor and on the last door we placed our last tract.  (Yes it was crazy)  Then we were done so i walked home and rested for less than an hour.  Then it was off to Southhall. I worked with a young sister named Leah.  We did blitz the territory and quickly did several streets.  It was nice to work in service in new places other that Acton.  Well my day was pretty busy and in total i probably did 150 flats/homes and placed over 100 invitations.  But it was fun and its a good tired after a long service day. -Eric)

Doing the Tourist Thing

We are realizing that there isn't much time left to do the famous things here, so we decided to knock a few off the list on Monday.  During the summer the changing of the guard happens once a day at 11:30.  We were a bit lax on the timetable that morning, but still managed to arrive at 11:15.  (We've been on the go for over a month and a half, we are a little tired some times. - Eric)  The crowds were incredible, but we still managed to find a spot with half a view. The ceremony started with a lot of shouting from the captain followed by a lot of stomping and gun clapping by the guard.  Then we heard the band off in the distance and they marched in followed by the new guard.  They all marched around and stomped and yelled for awhile.  Then the band set up in a semicircle and played for 10-15 minutes.  This was all concluded with more stomping and yelling and the old guard marched off.  It was interesting to see once, but the whole thing is quite ridiculous.  That's ok though, standing on your tippy toes sandwiched next to a smelly tourists for an hour made the whole experience worth it.  We left in search of food, which led us by the guards quarters.  We stopped to watch for a bit, but they weren't very still, even talking to each other.  (And drinking water. -Eric)  Maybe they're the new guys in training, who knows.  We found a bridge over the Thames, and on the other sides there were street performers all down the paths.  (There was this guy, least I think it was a guy, in a Spiderman suit bending all around in every direction.  He kept looking at me weird... -Eric)  We got some Chinese food and ate watching the river.  Afterwards we got in the queue for the London Eye, which is a big Ferris wheel with bubble things attached so you have 360* views.  The line for tickets alone was 10 minutes, and afterwards we got to see a 4D movie about what to look for.  Then we had another 10 minute wait to get on the attraction.  The view from the top was really neat, and it took about 30 minutes to get all the way around.  We grabbed an ice cream afterwards, and then walked the the other side of the river to see Big Ben.  Eric wanted to find some shops to look for clothes, so we wandered aimlessly all over the city till we found a store.  That's not really fair, I think he knew what he was doing, but it was a lot of walking. (I so had everything under control. I knew exactly where we were. We were just supposed to be some where else. -Eric)  Found a nice store and got some ties, and then finally went home.  (I got a cool shirt too. But wait til you all see Blythe's new tie. It's awesome.  -Eric) As usual here is the picture reel, I tried to edit out some of the changing of the guard pictures, got a little camera crazy there. 

Sunday, London Day 2-1

Sunday morning I took advantage of the afternoon meeting situation by sleeping, and Eric made me look bad by going out in service.  At meeting we met all our old friends again, and were able to make many plans for service and fun, as they realized we don't have much time left.  In the evening we took the bus to Shepard's Bush, and went to a place called the Green Room.  To our surprise we were met by bouncers and a cover charge, but that didn't deter us after coming that far.  (I'm not sure if its because I had never done it before but I thought it was cool going through the bouncers and having to show proof of age and getting to go inside. -Eric)  We met the brother who had invited us and a few others; we had front row seat in front of a huge screen in the pub.  For what you ask?  The World Cup final of course, get with the program you silly Americans.  The building became more and more crowded, and by kickoff the building was literally packed.  The majority there were Spain supporters, and they were a loud an jolly group.  (They had so much energy that even though at first I was neutral, towards the end I started to root for Es-pa-ña! Watching football games is interesting because there isn't always things to cheer for so the crowd makes up chants so keep the energy high. Such as Es-pa-ña! Es-pa-ña! Es-pa-ña! And Viva something something!, and so forth. -Eric)  The game was tense, no score at all for all of regulation.  Finally in the 116th minute Spain scored, and the place erupted.  I don't think I've ever experienced anything like it, the people were so so happy.  We stuck around a little to watch them all party, and went out to look for a bus home.  We finally found one, and rode it home barely able to hear from the deafening roar of the Spaniards.

Travel Joy, Again

Mariestad is a fair distance, some 320 kilometers, from our departing airport.  Because of this, just getting to the airport was a major part of the travel.  Christer drove us to the train station where we bought our tickets.  While waiting for the train we got to take a ride on the worlds smallest ferry, moved by the operator pulling a rope and at a cost of 1 krona round trip.  (The girl "operating" it had some big arms. -Eric)  We then caught our train, which was a pleasant one our journey.  The train took us back to Orebro, where we caught our bus.  The last bus ride was crowded and hot, so I feared this would be a 3 hour variety of the same.  Thankfully, though, this was a dedicated airport shuttle, which only had about 10 people on it and was completely air conditioned.  We got to Arlanda airport in Stockholm; security wasn't an issue this time but the food selection was less than desirable.  (Actually there were 2 security checkpoints. The first was normal but then after a few stores there was another checkpoints that just checked our tickets and passports. The airport had very few interesting stores at all, and all the restaurants were basically just cafes. -Eric)  Finally around 6:30 we were taxing down the runway.  I was starving already, and the flight attendants finally came with the food.  It was tuna sandwiches, yuck.  So we starved for the rest of the 2 hour flight, landed, and met Doug at the airport.  We finally got back to the house around 9:30, and were about to settle down when we got a call about a party.  We couldn't turn down the chance to meet more people, (And get some barbecued food -Eric)  so off we went and arrived around 10.  We met about 8 people we didn't know from around the area, and were able to make plans for service later.  Finally around 11:30 we drug our weary bodies home and fell into bed.