Old Dart #5 - More Caledonia

Dundee/St Andrews:
Sydney Uni EU people will remember Doug Forbes, the very popular Scot who came over to Sydney on exchange back in 2001/2. Since then Doug has married Hannah, and has settled in Dundee where he is doing a PhD while Hannah works as a physio. It's been good to see them, especially to finally meet the woman (Hannah) who was causing Doug so much heartbreak while he was in Oz. Full marks for persistence Dougie, she's an absolute gem!!!

St Andrews is a lovely town, one of the highlights being the ruins of St Andrew's Cathedral:



Embarrassingly, over-zealous reformers turned this magnificent and massive structure into the ruin we see today. Very sad. Points for the name of the very famous sporting club seen in the photo below, and points for the famous movie scene which was shot on this St Andrews beach.

Old dart #4 - moving north

Sheffield:
Sheffield is crazy about cutlery. It's a town famous for it's steel, and part of that industry is devoted to the manufacturing of knives and forks and the like. I even went to a cutlery museum. Anyhow, it was great to hang out with old friends such as the Reeses:


Andrew has just started as associate vicar at Christ Church Fulwood and I had the privilege of seeing him get licenced at the evening service. He even had to swear allegiance to the Queen. HAHAHA!!!
It was also great to spend time catching up with Izzy Brook, pictured here (on the right) with her flatmate Carol. After spending 6 months in Oz back in 2005/06 Izzy went to Lebanon where she was duly caught up in a war zone as Israeli forces bombed the daylights out of the country. Her escape back to the UK makes for a hair-raising story!



Wales:
This was an attempt to trace what little UK heritage I have. My Mum's ancestors came from the North Wales coast, so I hired a car and set out to see what I could find.

Rest in Peace Thomas Thomas (1816-1875):
First stop was Rhyl, where my Great Great Grandfather (Thomas Thomas) fell off a bridge to his death while returning home from a drinking binge. I tried to find the bridge. Here it is:



According to the newspaper reports of his death he hit his head on the concrete slab seen here just above the slope before being found on the waters edge:



A sad way to go for a lonely widower.

I also drove around the Isle of Anglesea in an attempt to find the graves of further relatives, but found no tombstones that I could positively identify. Although I did find this neolithic tomb in the middle of a turnip field:



My base for the Welsh leg of my trip was a B&B in Bangor (a town known as 'Banga' to the locals), the owner of which is a lovely 73 year old Welsh lady. She was most hospitable, even to the point where she invited herself into my room to have a chat while I was wearing a towel. She then she asked to borrow £5 to pay some workmen who were doing some repairs. She paid it back. Welsh hospitality at its best.

Edinburgh:
Love it. I reckon this trip has taught me that I'm a big city kind of guy. Edinburgh has just the right amount of charm and pace. Not so big that it's pretentious, but not so small that its totally predictable. Had a fun day with MTC buddy Lynne Wilson as we checked out the vista from Calton Hill:



Terry and Ruth Johnston have warmly welcomed me into their home, which is nice given that I'm almost a stranger to them (I met Terry once in Sydney five years ago).

Tomorrow I'm heading to Dundee to see Doug and Hannah Forbes. Less than a week to go before I'm back. Getting very tired now.

Old dart #3 - Britian's other side

Earlier this week, before leaving Oxford, I was stopped in the street by a beggar. It was the usual request which you get in Sydney; "Can you spare a couple of coins..." Out of habit I said the usual "sorry", but then the woman said "Can you buy me some groceries?" Now it's a common thing for us Christians to have the policy of saying "No money, but food is ok" so I said "ok". The woman called her sister who was standing over the other side of the street and the five of us (me, two women, their two kids) went to the supermarket. Then they filled up their trolley with the absolute necessities (milk, cereal, bread) and I thought "gosh...they really are in need". I asked what the story was. Bridget said that she and her sister (Margaret) had just left their abusive Father, and were living in a one room bed-sit; seven of them in all. I looked at one of the kids and saw that he had a bath towel for a blanket. I asked what they were doing for rent, Bridget said "I don't know". So I gave them some cash to get them by until the end of the week.

Now this whole thing got me thinking about how screwed up people's lives can get, and how we can so easily walk by a beggar and think "they're a professional beggar, they don't really need this" when in fact they might actually be really desperate. As I was buying the groceries I was shocked to feel myself constantly thinking "They're ripping you off", when a sober judgment of the situation lead me to conclude that they were genuine. Now it might be possible that it was just an elaborate con to get me to buy groceries and then to get some cash at the end...but I really don't think this was the case. So what about all those other beggars who we brush so easily? Maybe it's better to risk getting conned for the sake of grace. Is this a way we can live out the Biblical concept of grace triumphing over evil? I think it might be.

Please pray for Bridget and Margaret, that they will somehow get things back on track.

Old dart #2 - I know the weather is usually bad, but...

Today 8 people died in Britain because of massive winds. I drove from Sheffield to Bangor (NW Wales), right through the worst of it. Outside Manchester this semi-trailer had been blown off its wheels and crushed a hatchback. I drove right past it; it looked really nasty. I also visited the town my ancestors came from (Rhyl on the Northern Welsh coast). It was literally too windy to get out of the car for fear of being blown into something or of having something blown into you. On the news they said that Rhyl had winds of up to 82 mph. I don't know what that is in kmh, but I know its a lot. Tomorrow should be better. And I thought Oz was meant to be a harsh environment...

Old dart

Since late Dec I've been in the UK. Here's the low down on the past couple of weeks, along with a couple of photos (and with a tip of the hat to all the fun and games which happen over at Byron's blog, I've decided to award points - see text for details):

The flight:
Flew to Tokyo then over Siberia into the arctic circle then down again into the UK. Amazing scenery. I had a stop over in Japan, and on the morning of my connecting flight I was having breakfast in the hotel (wearing my free RICE t-shirt ... thanks Steve!) when an Australian woman and her husband started looking at the logo and asked "What's that about...is it Christian?" I said "Yeah I'm studying theology etc", then she said "my son went to Moore...you might know him...Justin Moffatt!!!" Crazy small world we live in. The Moffatt's were coming back after visiting Justin in NY. So it was nice having breakfast with them. Jet lag was minimal. But I did crash at 10pm on NYE. Bummer. First points will be difficult...Appoximately where on the north Russian coast was this photo taken? Hint: it's near a coloured sea.

London:
What a town. I could definately live in London. The buildings are big, the pulse is ... pulsating (?!), the pace is frantic. It was cool to see some of the stuff that I've studied at uni and at college; codex siniaticus, various paintings from the old masters etc. People really know how to dress here...everything is very stylish. People also seem taller. Is that beause all the short convicts were sent to Australia? Saw Henry VIII's suit of armor. He was a fat dude. Only disapointment was the Wimbledon tour. No access to centre court (they are rebuilding) and limited behind-the-scenes moments. I was also soaked.

Old friends in London:
Had a fun afternoon and evening with Erin King And Fiona Macfarlane (Evan's sister for all you MTC people), two old friends from Sydney Uni BA days. Erin (she's the one on the left) is in publishing and Fiona is a Cambridge PhD grad in English currently working on her first novel while living in a writing commune in the US . We had really bad chinese food, but lots of laughs.

Church:
I have been to church 6 times since arriving (Gosh...that's a lot!). Maybe its because I have deliberately sought out some different experiences while over here but the English church seems to be a much more complex beast than I originally thought. An extra element which we don't seem to have a lot of back home are the charismatic evangelical Anglicans. They seem to be really moving and doing impressive things. When they find out that I'm from Sydney they all ask about Hillsong. Some even think it's an Anglican church...HAHAHAHAHA!!! Hillsong...a Sydney Anglican church...oh stop it!!! Notes on my church visits are as follows:

All Soul's Langham Place (2 visits): Rico Tice spoke both times, he's really good. Music was very professional with strings and brass sections. Perhaps a little too reserved? But I liked it nonetheless.

St Nicholas' Tooting: Smaller evangelical church in the south west of London (Erin King's church). Incredibly warm welcome. Nice mix of nationalities and ages.

Holy Trinity Brompton: The famous HTB. High energy with a real buzz around the place. I was impressed with the amount of different ministries that they carry out and the high level of lay participation throughout the church in all their activities. They also produced a very slick information brochure.

St Paul's Cathedral: Attended evensong on NYE. An unusual experience to say the least. The worshippers were at the front, while at the back many many tourists would wander in and out as the service progressed. The sermon was on the incarnation, and had a discernable evangelistic tone ("This Jesus has come into our existence to lift us out of darkness") So that was refreshing. Unfortunately the moments of clarity were accompanied by more unhelpful comments: "As Jesus came into the world in weakness, we search for him in the weak things of this world." Hmmmm...not sure those two dots are connected. Aside from the service, the building is absolutely breathtaking. This left me in two minds. Sure God is worth our architectual best, but is such building a distraction???

Oxford:
At first Oxford seems a little disapointing. Sure there are lots of old buildings but if you walk around the main streets no great vistas jump ot at you. To see the charm of Oxford you have to go searching a bit and hear some of the stories. To this end my old friend Tom Hanna wasa great help (see next section). Oxford is also a little creepy. The church were Cranmer was tried was a little sobering. It's quite dark and cold looking, and when you know that evil things transpired there it kinda gives you the creeps. The colleges look really old and in disrepair. One thing I have noticed is that in Australia we are quicker to restore our physical heritage. Perhaps we take it less for granted? More points...and I'll make you work for 'em. Which two Oxford collages can be seen in this photo? Hint: the photo was taken from Christ Church meadow.

Old friends in Oxford:
Tom Hanna (pictured with his girlfriend Sophie) gave me an entertaining and and informative night-time tour of the centre of town. It was good to see him and experience his humour again. We also had some Chinese that was much better than the stuff I had in London. Mike and Catherine Jensen have also been very hospitible. On one occasion I went shopping for long sleave shirts with Mike. HAHAHAHAHA, that's so metrosexual of us (those who know MPJ will know how funny that is, he is a well dressed man).

Cambridge:
Cambridge is much prettier on the eye than Oxford, and smaller too. The evangelical heritage in Cambridge is much more prominent than in Oxford; the Round Church have a display which focuses on the reformers and later evangelicals and they also run religious history tours around the city. The people also seem to be more relaxed. It was fun to ride a bike around the city, but my bum got really sore. Points for this famous Cambridge landmark

That's it for the first half of my trip. The second will see me move further north into Yorkshire, Wales and Scotland.

As a postscript here are two signs which I found on St Edward's church in Cambridge, a building which served as the cradle of the English Reformation. The first one shows how far we've come. Also I would have loved to have attended the 'Goth Eucharist'...how very emergent!