England and Living Today
In 2009, we were so honored to be asked to be guests of one of the colleges at Oxford University in Oxford, England. I wrote a blog while over there documenting our adventures. I thought it might be fun for you to read one entry. This entry was on day 53.
It was such an amazing trip and one that I value more as the time as gone on. Since that was twelve years ago, my grands were all young and very busy. Being a grandma who never misses anything, this was very hard for me to do. At first, I couldn’t imagine missing one ball game or school performance. My husband was so excited about the trip that I didn’t want to turn it down, so I said yes and off we went. Now, twelve years later, I’m so glad we did it. I’m so happy we have these memories together. So grateful we met new people. So thankful we got to experience another culture long enough to understand it better. There are so many things to be thankful for.
If there are things you have wanted to do, don’t wait. Whether it’s a trip or it’s words you need to say, do it sooner rather than later. As they say, life is too short to save the fine China for the perfect meal. At least I say that. Use it today if you want to or save it if you want to, but don’t save because it might break. Yes, it might break, but at least someone enjoyed it on the journey.
Hugs, Chrys
DAY 53
Well, it’s been a rainy and windy Saturday in Oxford. Like Louisiana has just gone through, parts of England have experienced record rainfall this past week. Scenes of flooding and reports of some deaths have been at the forefront of the news here. So far we have been blessed to avoid the worst of the rain.
We stayed one step ahead of the rain this morning and caught the bus to Bicester (pronounced Beas-tah—as all ers are pronounced as “ah”– no “r” is pronounced). Since we have spent the last fifty-two day exploring everything old in England, we decided today to find some new stuff. Bicester Village is equivalent to the outlet mall at Foley, Alabama, except all the 120 stores are designer names. (See the photo above of the line to get in Gucci.) Hugo Boss, Jimmy Choo, 7 for All Mankind, Valentino, Karl Lagerfeld, Dolce & Gabbana are just a few of famous names there. Notice names like Gap, Old Navy, or even, Banana Republic, are not in this list. After about fifteen minutes I knew this would be a “window shopping only” day. The designer names plus the weak dollar meant I was in over my head. I picked up one white cotton blouse that I thought was very cute and it was on the 70% off rail (as they say). But when something is originally 275 pounds, it comes out to $130.00 after the 70% is taken off! Nope–not for me. Oh well, we did find a huge grocery store which was a great find as I’m still collecting food for our Thanksgiving meal. Still, no canned sweet potatoes, but I did find canned fruit to make a fruit salad. Slowly, but surely, my meal is coming together.
This evening we fought the wind and rain and met Kelly, who has just returned from China, for an organ concert and Evensong at Magdalen College and then dinner. Evensong is a part of chapel when the all boy choir participates. This happens every night of a college term except on Tuesday. The choir was founded in 1480 and continues, just as it did then, made up of sixteen boys who are selected and educated at the school and twelve undergraduates of the college. As the young boys walked into this beautiful chapel, dressed in their robes, they looked adorable. I just couldn’t help but think how hard it would be to send a child to boarding school, but here it’s quite accepted. The singing was absolutely astonishing, like you would think angels must sing, so clear and beautiful.
After chapel, we took a taxi to another restaurant we haven’t visited yet. I’m pretty sure this was the fanciest one we’ve been to. A lady was at the table next to us with a cockatoo on her shoulder. True story! She sat there, elegantly dressed, with her pet perched up on her shoulder like she worked at the zoo. We couldn’t help but ask our waitress about it. She said she comes to that restaurant often since they let her bring the bird and other restaurants don’t let her. Oh really–I guess not!
Anyway, we had a great visit with Kelly catching up on his trip to China and all the things we did while he was gone. He’s become a great friend and we’ll miss him when we leave. Speaking of that, we leave two weeks from today. The countdown has begun. This has been an unbelievable experience, but I am eager to see my family. I talked to John Luke on Skype a few minutes ago and loved every second of him trying to be still long enough to talk to me. No one else was at home so he was getting bombarded with questions from me about Jenna’s rehearsal dinner last night and wedding tonight. Needless to say, a fourteen year old boy is NOT into weddings. But, he gave me a few details like my house looked good for the rehearsal dinner last night and he got a big plate of food. Oh well, it’s better than nothing!
The hardest part about being away from home is not being there to help when people need you. I have to remind myself that when I’m not there, God is still on duty and doesn’t really need me anyway.
“Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.” I Peter 4:12
Enjoy your Saturday. Talk to you tomorrow.
Hugs, 2 Mama
