home phone

Well we actually have a home phone now. I have sent it out via email to most people I know who would want it. If you don't get an email, and you aren't a telemarketer you can email me to get the number. We decided to switch over to Embarq as we thought we needed a home phone with the baby coming.

Also we were able to get Dish Network, High speed internet and many more channels for a lot cheaper than Charter. So this is my first post via DSL. So far it seems to be working. Other than that I don't have much to say. Cheers.

dissertation blues...

Okay I have been told that apparently since I have been back from London, I have not posted enough as some of my readers have become accustomed to reading about what is going on. So here is an attempt to catch you up to speed.

I am working on the dissertation today at Milligan trying to see how Elizabeth's speeches in Parliament compared to those of her contemporaries. She usually chose a style that was either Senecan (brief to the point) or Ciceronian (complicated and adorned). I am trying to see if she tended to model herself after male contemporaries to show how she projected her power using their language. It is a bit slow going as you can imagine. What I really need to find is some contemporary speeches of Parliament. I am not sure where to look currently. I have interlibrary loaned a few books. Sadly most the books I need seem to be hard to find or out of print.

In other news, we are having a Johnson City baby shower on August 9th at 2--4p.m. at First Christian Church in Johnson City. We are excited. And we are having a Lee County shower on July 25th 5-7 p.m. I think at the Methodist Church Patton goes to (Can't remember the name).

Eliza seems to be doing well. Kristen is too. We are so excited to go from two to three. Well actually 4 to 5 (if you count the dogs and we do). In other news we are getting a home phone number as Kristen is convinced we need one with the baby. This way we should always hear the ring if we are home. Well back to work. Cheers.

Eliza's room..

Angie asked if I could post some pictures of Eliza's room online. We are done with it except for some pictures on the wall. So here are some pictures. Here is a picture from the doorway. The walls are hot pink and the furniture is all black.


This is a shot of her bookshelf and changing table near the doorway.


Of course this is self-explanatory.


And here are some flowers arranged by Kristen and some stuffed animals all from England arranged by me.



We are so excited that she is coming. I know everyone tells me how much it will change our life and cause disruptions etc. But I think having another family member will make vacations more fun, Christmas a blast, and life in general awesome. So i am pumped.

baby stuff

Well we had yet another doctor appointment today and they said that Eliza was 2 pounds 15 oz and was doing awesome. We go back in 2 weeks. I think since Kristen had gastric bypass surgery we are considered "high risk" so they see us a lot even though everything looks really good.

We officially registerted at Wal Mart and at Baby's R Us. I think we are going to have a shower in JC given by my mom and sister, and at least one in Lee County. Picking out items was hard. There are a million different types of bottles alone. Which one is best? Or even things like pacifiers, they have all slight differences. So we tried our best to find what was good. I kept wanting to register for toys in the 2-4 year old range. I guess I get excited about playing with her.

We did get to talk to Crystal a bit tonight and of course it made us miss them.

Pregnancy...

We are in Lee County today. Last night we visited Teresa at the ER (she is a nurse) and got to get a free ultrasound from her friend Pam. Little Eliza was doing great. She weighs about 2 pounds 8 ounces and had her head right in mommy's belly button. I could actually feel it. It is so wild to see a little face in there and know that she is our little baby. I feel like I know her already so it is wild when I think I will get to meet her and hold her and watch Braves baseball with her and teach her about history. I think that her mom will want to go shopping with her instead. I love spending time with Kristen more than anything else but I think it will be so much fun to have a third person in our little family (which includes Elvis and Maybelle--dogs). I can't wait to take that little kid places, see her splash on the beach, and chase after our little dogs. I am excited.

Allergies...

Today I get some allergy testing done. I think they are considering putting me on shots. I have never been on allergy shots but always wondered why I was not. In other news, I have whip lash. Apparently Teresa, (mother in law) asked Kristen if she had "whip lash" from her flight across the Atlantic. Finally Kristen realized she meant "Jet Lag." Apparently it can take a little while to get over. Who knew? In other words it is so nice to see my beautiful wife each and every day.

La Campina...

Tonight we went to La Campina with our very good friends Larry, Christy and Karisse. It was so good to see our friends and get to hang out with them at one of our favorite restaurants. It won't be too much longer till Callie is born and joins our group. Then will come Eliza. It will be fun to watch these girls grow up together.

Home at last..

Well I am back home in Johnson City at last. We went to church with our good friends Charles and Nancy Harris and their boys and then came home. We stopped by the Christian Camp to see my friend Aaron and our good friends Christy and Larry. It was nice to see friends again. Now we are back at the house and the dogs were excited to see me. Elvis has not left my side. Tons of unpacking to do but for now I am just going to relax a bit, on my couch, with my wife, nice.

So long for now...

Well this is my last post from the Mother Country. The Booth's did come from Yorkshire England way back in the 1600's. We were Quakers and came with William Penn. I actually was the first Booth at least of my clan to return to Yorkshire which we stopped at on our way to Edinburgh. But here are a few observations from my time as expatriot.(That's a word which just means someone living in a country other than their own--don't read anything into it)

1. I love England. I really love Scotland.
2. There are people here who really love Jesus whether it is in a Cathedral or at a Big church that meets in a Theatre. We don't have the market on loving Jesus as Americans.
3. I have grown and matured a ton as a historian. Looking at history first hand up close in person whether it be where it happened or reading about it is truly amazing and confirms to me my calling.
4. I am ready to come home.
5. I love my wife only slightly less than Jesus and miss her terribly. I will be glad to be back at home with her. I am truly a blessed man with my family (Kristen, Eliza, the dogs) and my extended family.
6. The world is interested in America but they do not live and die by us so we need to not take ourselves so seriously.
7. I think this election, sorry to bring in politics, will heal a lot of the anger that Europe has against our government.
8. And many will say what do we care what they think??? Which I believe is a lot of our problem. We have an arrogance that no matte what we are always right. Take those odds to Vegas and you will lose every time. I am rarely right in my life so how can our country always be right?

I am stopping with 8 for no real reason. I love my home and my country but I think I have realized even more how much of a world is out there that needs Jesus' love more than America's form of government. Cheers.

My last day in London....for a while anyway

Well i got up and went to the British Musuem because it's free and I thought I would spend some quality time in the medieval Europe section. Just concentrate on one section since the Museum is so huge. But that section was closed. So I looked at some mummies and then decided to leave and see what else I could get into on my last day. This is picture of the front of the museum. Picture it about three more pictures on the left and three on the right to give you an idea of how HUGE that place is. It used to be the old British Library.



So I got on the tube and thought I will go to Notting Hill and see what is up there. Anyone seen the movie? I got off the tube and didn't see anything that spectacular but saw a sign that said Portabello Market this way. So I thought that must be it. Well I walked forever till I came upon their world famous street market.

I Feel guilty about going because it went on for a mile or more. And I know that Kristen would've loved it. But it was pretty cool. Kind of like the Blue Plum on steroids. They had antiques, jewlrey, books, clothes, fresh fruit, fresh fish (smelled really bad), and even fresh pork and chicken. It was a street market with food vendors, souvenoirs, and groceries. Strawberries, Plums, dragon fruit, fish heads, you name it, it was there.




So here are a couple of shots for you. Most of the prices seemed a bit negotiable as well unlike most London areas. So eventually I came back to the room to try to pack my bags. I am excited about seeing Kristen and my good buddy Charles and his wife Nancy and their young-uns. Cheers

My little girl...

Okay so I guess I am winding down my trip and thinking about how I get to tell it to Eliza one day. I have gotten her several souveniors and for a child that is not even born yet she has quite a collection. I want to bring her and her momma back to England with me soon so she can learn to share my love of this country. But not just that I want her to feel love for all people, not just those who are Americans. Living in another country for 5 weeks is just a tiny dip, but it does make you feel less like "America right or wrong" and more like "why can't we all get along." I see Indian, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Asian, Hispanic, African, French and German and an occasional English person every day. A lot of people are afraid of the term multi-culturalism but I just wonder if God sees all his children like the colors of the rainbow.

But back to the gifts for the kid..The first is a loch ness monster bought in Scotland. Kristen picked it out and with all the kinds to choose from it is no secret that she picked the fashion monster.

Then I picked out a Henry VIII little bear for her.

And of course the truly English Paddington Bear, named after Paddington Station. I also got Eliza several English story books about Paddington and other things.

Hopefully she will grow up saying words like "brillant" and "gorgeous darling." I love the way the British speak. But my little love will always be bested ever so slightly with my first love--her mom. That is the woman that truly holds my heart in her hands.

Thursday...

I went back to Lambeth Palace today and looked at few things. I mainly looked at Elizabeth's 1569 prayer book and tried to compare it to one that was published in 1579. They were totally different which was interesting. What was more interesting to my ends is that in the 1569 prayer book which supposedly (pronounced with a hard d) was for her private devotions and composed by herself expressed a really Calvinistic and reformed view of the saving power of God's grace. THe idea that we cannot do anything good without the mystical action of God first. Most people take more of a free will approach. I think I am more in the middle.

I also saw a book from 1543. It was authored by Henry VIII and was "In Defense of the Seven Sacraments of the CHurch" written as an attack on Martin Luther which earned Henry and all the subsequent monarchs of England, the Pope's designation, Defensor Fidei (Defender of the Faith). So Here I am mostly done. Not sure what to do tomorrow. Cheers for now.

the rest of Wednesday...

Okay I finished up most of my work at the Public Records Office in Kew. I noticed that there were several letters right in a row in the printed edition of Elizabeth's collected works that I had not seen. They all said Lambeth Palace library. Well I had just kind of dismissed that, because I am sure as you know, Lambeth Palace is the London home for the Archbishop of Canterbury. If that does not mean anything to you, he is the head bishop of the Church of England. A very bright guy too. I figured it would be impossible to get access to that library. But I thought I would look on their website and see if they let people in. And they do.

So I hopped my train back to London and showed up on the doorstep of this place.



It's right by the Thames river. I then went to this door.



rang the door bell and they let me in. I showed them my credentials. I have two letters of introduction one from Milligan and one from UT telling about my research and soon there I was in the reading room looking at 16th century letters of Elizabeth I. OH MY GOSH.

The very cool thing is that this is the library for the whole Church of England and they had a private prayer book of Elizabeth I that was printed in 1569 which I got to look at. Here's one of the first pages.



IT was something she composed for her own private devotion and included prayers in English, Italian, Spanish, Latin and Greek. I am going back tomorrow to look at it more closely. To give you an idea of the magnitude of this stuff. It is kind of like you walking into the National Archives in Washington DC and asking and getting to see the original Declaration of Independence.

Plus the Lambeth library is smaller, they get you your manuscripts in like 5 minutes, compared to 70 at the british library, and they have a place for you to have tea or coffee and relax. It was so exciting. Plus when I got back to the room I had an email from the Journal of British Studies, it is the most prestigous journal for British studies there is, published by the University of Chicago..well they asked me to review a book for them for their Fall issue. I had my name on a list ages ago but finally they found something. This is another big deal. Not trying to brag but I am excited. It is getting published in one of the premier scholarly journals. Plus I get the book I review for free. AWESOME>

But I am still ready to come home. If you know the song CC RIder start playing it at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday because that's when my plane lands and Ted has definitely left the building...Cheers and thank you very much...

Wednesday..

Well I am back at the National Archives in Kew. It is really nice and has free wireless which helps so much with my research. I am just kinding finishing up a few things and trying to at least lay my eyes on everything I can. So probably not going to make any monumental discoveries today. Cheers.

the end of Tuesday..

Well after a few hours of hard work in the library I decided to get off the tube an exit early and look around. I saw Piccadily Circus. Which is kind of like their version of Time's Square. Here's a picture. It looks cooler at night.

Then I walked up to China Town and ate in a different Chinese restaurant. It was pretty good. China town is definitely another world within a world.

Then I walked down to Trafalgar Square and tried my best to be some kind of photographer and took some pictures of the fountains.

Well other than that it is hot here. It is almost 25 degrees Celsius here. Cheers. 4 more days.

what reading sixteenth century documents will do to you...

Greetings gentle reader, hark unto this literary effort which I endue with my most simple yet adorned prose. For it is in these very verses that I, like some Homeric epic, tell you the tale of an adventurer far from his beloved Penelope searching the seas for knowledge and wisdom. Yet perchance as if the Fates themselves had peradventured my own lot in life, I too having descended into the underworld now see the fabled land of Ithaca before me. The gentle rider Apollo shines his morning light on to my quest leading me back to family and friends. Alas, what wonders I have seen and must tell when I am at home. But for now I drink of Lethe's waters in attempt to forget that my morning is not yet nigh.

back to the library

Well hopefully today I take everything I need with me. I need to look at some more manuscripts and hopefully do a little writing as well. I will let you know how it turns out. Here's a picture of the outside of my home away from home. Cheers.

The rest of the day...

Well I decided to go to Westminster Abbey for evensong. It was packed. The service was mainly sung by the choir and included several readings from the Old and New Testament. We had a time of group prayer where we confessed that we were sinners and prayed the Lord's Prayer together. The choir sang some Psalms. Their harmony was so good and it boomed inside the cathedral. I wish I could show you how cool it was. It is like the roof is 6-7 stories above you and the walls reverberate with the harmonies.

Also when's the last time you went to church and the minister led you in prayer because we were all admitting how sinful we are. Not often. I really love the services of the Anglican Church.



After that I did my usual walk around till I get tired and then ride the Tube to my hotel. So if some of you are out there saying, "How could he be tired of London?" I am not really. I am just a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of people here. To show I took some pictures of what I have to deal with everyday several times a day to go anywhere.





When I was riding the tube today I was cramped in all sides by people. Hot sometimes smelly people. So I just yearn a bit for a little less crowds in my life. And of course the company of my beautiful wife.

today so far

Well it was a bit of a bust today. I left the room and forgot my handy dandy adapter for my laptop and so I didn't stay long at the library. I did see a few documents one that was an original speech of Elizabeth's in her own hand. Her spelling is so difficult. I went ahead and ordered documents for tomorrow and will be better prepared. I also think i need to go back to kew to the National Archives and see a few more things.

Today my mood is a bit better as the week is easier to deal with than the weekend. I feel bad being over here with Kristen working so hard without me. I miss feeling that baby kick. I almost bought ELiza a few more stuffed animals but I think I might be passed my carry on allowance. Well sorry this is boring but I am not doing much.

Another day in the Library...

Okay I am off to the British library to try to finish up some things this week. The day goes much quicker when I am out and about and have things to do. Cheers for now.

blogging FYI

For those of you joining late to the program I have a few comments. First of all welcome and second please comment. It is difficult at times to know if anyone is reading my little online diary because few comment. I do welcome the comments as it does make me feel a little connected to the world.

However, if you peruse my earlier posts I had a bit more of a positive attitude. I do this blog for many reasons. I am an historian and thus that makes me a writer and writing helps the mind organize thoughts and stay fresh. It is what I do. It is is part of who I am. Second I wanted to tell people what was going on in my life in England. And third there is a cathartic self-expressive element to blogging that in turn exposes yourself to open criticism but somehow it kind of frees the worries inside of you. Don't worry I don't have any huge amounts of repressed feelings or existential angst but lately I have been a tad tired of this big city and all of its impersonalities.

I guess I get energy off of community. And I have strong community at home with Kristen, my family, my close friends, even my dogs. I have the pack mentality and miss mine. So sorry if you are coming late to the program and I seem a tad weary...yes I am. I am ready to come home. Don't get me wrong London is awesome, its history is sublime, worshipping God in a Cathedral seems the way it shoudl be, getting to see priceless original writings and letters is amazing, but I am lonely. I miss my best friend, my wife, my love and all of our good friends. I miss La Campina on Sunday. So sorry that I am a tad unenergized. Tomorrow I go to the British Library and getting out of the room will help me. I might go to Evensong at Westminster Cathedral. If you don't know what that is, it is the tradition of the Episcopal/Anglican church to have services every day and the 5 p.m. is called evensong. It is the worship service in the early evening that is often sung by a choir. Worship is something that tends to give me some energy back.

(sorry for the digression) My preferred worship style is a bit more formal. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be able to worship in a Cathedral all the time. The sounds of the choir boom off of the ceilings and walls. It is awesome. Nowadays, most churches hire an architect who stresses functionality. Thus churches look like gyms or auditoriums. There does not seem to be any difference in sacred and secular space. People like Christopher Wren would be aghast. In the early modern period architects designed houses of worship to inspire awe and mystery and as an act of service and worship to God. Sure the early church didn't have cathedrals but they didn't have fellowship halls either. No one is building cathedrals these days. In humanities that I teach most of the architecture, the great architecture of the middle ages and renaissance is church architecture. 100 years from now no one will be studying the church architecture of our day. Perhaps they will think the basketball goals are some strange instrument of worship.

sorry for the digression. I am sure a few episodes of CSI will cheer me up. Hopefully I can make some more ground tomorrow. Cheers and thanks for listening.

beautiful day..

Well here I am on the most beautiful day of the trip and I am in my room translating Latin. The only problem is that Elizabeth's script is so hard to read and so full of abbreviations. Here take a look for yourself.

See even just writing down the letters is difficult because they had all kinds of little abbreviations for things, you know the way we with things such as & or @. Knowing how to decipher script is another skill called Paleography, it is a skill where I am an amateur on my best day. I have found that this is a letter from Elizabeth to Ferdinand I about a possible marriage to his son. I just haven't quite figured out her response. She didn't marry him but I am curious if she flatly said no or she artfully dodged the question. Back to work. In the meantime anyone who can offer help is welcomed.

Greenwich..

So today I woke up very bored and feeling a tad bit as if John Donne was wrong. Remember he said "No man is an island." I feel very alone over here despite the fact that the city seemed to swell today with people. I walked down to Buckingham Palace and then down to Westminster and hopped a boat ride to Greenwich. It was about an hour trip.

Greenwich is the home of time. Maybe you have heard of GMT, Greenwich Mean Time. It is the home of the Prime Meridan. That is 0 degrees longitude. Remember Longitude runs up and down North and South. Well it has to be 0 degrees somewhere and at Greenwich it divides the world into the Western and Eastern hemispheres.

So here is a shot of me standing in both hemispheres of the world at the same time.



You had to hike up this hill to the Royal Observatory to see the official line. It was quite a climb. I really liked the city less crowded than London and bit easier to move around in. Here's a pic of the Observatory.

after a few hours there I road the boat back to the tube station and then back to the hotel. I am beat. Next week I will get back into research but this weekend makes me want to go home so badly. I am not a good loner. I miss Kristen and my friends.

Saturday..

Well I am bored. Being in a great city is awesome in so many ways but after a while you get tired of exploring it on your own. I am not sure what I am going to do today, I might just go for a walk and see where my feet take me. More later....

One more week...

Well I am back to the room and have one week to go. I did some laundry tonight as I began to run out of clean shirts and it makes me feel normal to have clean clothes. Today at the National Archives, a lady security officer, who does not speak plainly, was hateful to me. The first real hateful person I have encountered. She got mad because I didn't check out right through this little thing that looks like airport security. I said I was sorry but she just was very cranky. I have seen her around the reading rooms correcting tons of people. Oh well.

I did get to see a previously unknown or at least unpublished letter of Elizabeth to a guy named Frederick some kind of German prince. I don't know all of it yet because I have to translate it. BUt here's a look at the signature of a Queen. I miss Kristen.

It says in Latin, your majesties good sister and cousin, Elizabeth Regina (Regina is the Latin word for Queen).

Friday...

Well I have one more week to go. I am doing a lot of research but I am ready to come home. I am at the National Archives today, I like them they have free wireless internet and a really nice place to work. I have been looking at microfilm today which is no good, I like the real stuff. But if its on microfilm you have to look there first. All these places have security too. People in blue coats who walk around and make sure you aren't stealing anything. Well i had better get back to work, I do have one manuscript to see but I am saving it till last.

Evening stroll...

So the great thing about London is you are never very far from a really nice park. I finished early today so I went to the room and was incredibly bored so I made myself take about an hour or more walk around the city up to Buckingham Palace and into St. James' Park. I looked at the wildlife and the trees and felt a bit refreshed. Here are some pics. It is a great place. I would love to show it to my little girl.



Well the animals are so tame here because every feeds them. I saw this squirrel run up a tree and I kind of whistled for it, you know I made this mouth noise, and held out my hand. The squirrel reversed its course and came down the tree right up to me. As I had no food and the squirrel was kind of big for a squirrel, I kind of retreated. So that's about it.

thursday...

So here I am back at the British library. I just finished looking at another edition (this one French) of Calvin's Institutes. This one was an edition from 1560. It is weird they let you see centuries old books no problems but sometimes letters they get worried about. To me both are priceless. I don't know French but I could figure out some of it and have asked a good friend of mine to help me translate it. It is because Elizabeth translated some of this when she was 12. I proved she did not use the Latin so I had to go to the French edition and I need some help understanding how good at translation of french she is.

Other news, I thought I dropped my wallet, you know passport, credit cards, money. I panicked and ran back to the room to search for it and on my way discovered that it was simply in my back pocket. I am such a scatterbrain. I am ready to come home but glad that i have gotten this opportunity.

Indian food..

If you know me well, you will know that I love Indian food. Well for some reason London is I guess the second best place, short of India, to get it. There are tons of Indian restaurants. I tried one out tonight it was expensive but it was so good. I had chicken tiki malsala, basmati rice, and sag paneer (a kind of spinach and cheese thing). It was so good. Plus for some reason they gave me a Pint sized diet coke which usually they give you about 6 oz. I guess since so many people over here drink alcohol with meals, no one gets free refills, so why give them on coke products. And almost no one has fountain drinks. They serve them from cans or bottles. Well I am going to relax a bit in the room till it is time to call Kristen.

Wednesday...

I am at the British library today. I am really just looking at some normal books not manuscripts. It is good to get out of the room as well. I am looking at how a 12 year old Elizabeth translated the first chapter of book 1 of John Calvin's Institutes from the French to the English. So I am going to try to compare her translation with English translations of her own day. Sounds exciting huh? What's depressing is that I need to do that and then boil it down to about one paragraph. Can you believe no one has ever looked at her translation of Calvin??

I love this place. Truly. But I am homesick. Bad. I miss Kristen's smile, her laugh usually at something I said not meaning to be funny, feeling the baby kick. Plus If I stay over her much longer I will have so much baby stuff that I can't bring it home. I love her so much, can't wait to see a little girl with big brown eyes who reminds me of her momma in so many ways.

A day at Oxford or Hogwarts???

Okay here I am taking the train at platform 9 and 3/4 to Hogwarts.

And now here is a shot of the Hogwarts dining hall. Actually it is called the Great Hall at Christ's Church at Oxford. I tried to get a good shot but it was dark and I have a wimpy camera. But you get the idea. This is a post for my niece Hannah, so don't be afraid to comment. I love comments. I have no one to talk to over here.

Then this is a picture of the outside of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. I had to say an oath out loud promising to obey the rules, not harm stuff etc, before I got my reader's card. They were so nice. You can see what the library looked like on the inside on my other post about Oxford. Here is what it looks like on the outside. It felt like being in a medieval castle. It was so cool.

And here is a picture of a souvenior for my beautiful wife and baby to be, Eliza. Matching outfits.

A pink hoodie for my love and a little pink onesy for Eliza that says "Tiny Oxford." One day I will take her there and show her around. Can't wait. Cheers.

Back to London..

I am actually on a bus. A bus with wireless internet capacity. I am on my way back from Oxford. I will post a few pics when I get back to London. I talked them into letting me see 2 of the 3 manuscripts I requested. All three were so "select" that you had to have a really good reason to look at them. They both were letters of Elizabeth to her brother Edward VI. I got to see them up close and personal. It was amazing to look at that history in the reading room. I loved Oxford.

I got to walk around the city a bit as I had to wait for them to get my manuscripts and I saw Christ's Church Cathedral. It has the "Great Room" where they filmed the Harry Potter meal scenes. I will post some pictures for my niece Hannah when I get back to London. Now I am simply tired and pooped. I go to the British library tomorrow and back to the PRO on Thursday to see another manuscript.

I miss Kristen so badly. I am so ready to come home. I love England but it is so much better with Kristen. Cheers.

I am at the University of Oxford...

So there are a few manuscripts at Oxford's Bodleian library I needed to see. I thought it would be difficult but they were so nice. I now have my reader's card and am in the Duke of Humphrey's reading room which dates from the 16th century. It is magnificent. tons of old books on the shelves, stained glass in the windows, Latin on the walls, and an ornate ceiling. This is the greatest academic experience of my life. I found a picture online, you can't take pictures in here and plus i wouldn't want to look like a dork. But I am awed by the room.

It is a rainy day in Oxford but it is brilliant inside the library.

walking in circles...

Well I went to the Public Records office and looked at some stuff today. On the way back to the room I thought I will get off the tube a couple of stops early and see what restaurants they have as I am painfully tired of everything near victoria. I did and found this really nice and really good Greek Restaurant. It was awesome. Then I decided to walk a bit to stretch my legs and figured I would just eventually run into the next tube station.

Well I didn't. I followed the signs or so I thought. I walked in circles for about 2 hours. Which I really didn't mind because I like the exercise and it is cool to see different parts of London. But I began to get painfully tired. About half way through I turned around and went towards the station I started from. Eventually with some directions I got there and then rode the tube back to the room totally exhausted. I am on the London fitness plan, it is called walk till you drop.

Tomorrow I am off to Oxford University to see if I can get a Reader's card and look at some of their manuscripts. They are a bit uppity about things so I may not be successful. We shall see.

Monday

well I am off to Kew to the Public Records Office today for more research. Missing my beautiful wife. Cheers.

Sunday morning...

Well I decided to visit a different kind of church this morning. It is called London Hillsong. For those of you who might know the Hillsong movement is the one that has produced tons of worship music such as "Shout to the Lord." It was in a theatre and was filled to the brim with people praising Jesus. I guess it has been longer than I realized since I have been to a contemporary service. They had a light show, everyone was raising their hands and bouncing up and down, and the music and praise was incredible.

Here is their website http://www.hillsong.co.uk/london/home.asp click on the link to the right that says "See church!" It was a service filled with prayer and song. IN between several of the songs the minister actually got up and mentioned a few prayer requests by name (in a church of thousands) and encouraged us to pray for what we were worried about and prayed generally for those who were sick. His prayer was very encouraging and uplifting. I truly felt God's spirit. It was so cool to be with thousands of Londoners who loved Jesus. I usually am partial to a cathedral but I must say that London Hillsong was one of the most uplifting services I have been to. The message was about us being ready for God just like a sprinter has to run at full speed before getting the baton from the first runner. We need to be ready for God to work in us and we do that by acknowledging him as the God who is. I think you can see the message online on their website as well.

Other than that I walked around London a bit and really missed Kristen. Talked to her but am so homesick. I have some research tomorrow which will keep me busy, but I miss my true love so much.

God looking out for me...again

So I rode the tube yesterday, I ride it practically everyday. I rode to a few stations looking for a few souveniors and went to Paddington to get a book about Paddington Bear and then to Leceister Square to visit this one shop to get something for Kristen. I then ate supper at Mr. Wu's again...but then for some reason I thought, I will just walk back to my hotel and stretch my legs. I took the long way I guess and went to Westminster, then west to St. James park and then on to Buckingham palace.


Here's a shot of St. James' Park. It is really pretty. Lots of people out enjoying their Saturday. So then I walk down Buckingham Palace Road, stopping at a few shops along the way and finally make it back to my hotel in Southwest London. I didn't ride the tube on Sat night because I had went back to my room and then got something to eat late 9.30 and talked to Kristen.

Today I read a news article that last night was the last night you could drink on the tube so apparently all the people decided to go out with a blast. They had trains crammed full of people drinking and singing. At first they said it started very dignified with champagne and people dressed up, but unfortunately the bouncing tube led to fights, people getting sick, injured, and even arrested. They shut down three tube stations to stop the ensuing violence.

Thankfully I was nowhere near that kind of stuff. I guess God once again was looking out for me which I really appreciate. Cheers.