Week 4: A Cold and The Cold

Hello once more!

This past week marked one month of living and working in the UK. It truly is hard to believe it has been a month already! I looked up how much longer I have, and looking at those numbers is quite sad. While I am not even a third of the way done with my time here, it's sad to know that the time is coming, and if the rest of the time goes by as fast as the first month, I will be back in the USA before you can say, "Top of the morning!"

England appears to be mourning the fact that I have a limited time also. The passing of time also appears to have brought with it more typical English weather. After nearly a month of warm temperatures, mostly sunny skies and all around pleasant weather, this week a cold front moved through, the temperature has dropped and it has been rainy and cloudy for almost 48 hours now. I think England decided I couldn't spend this much time here without getting a taste of good ole English weather.

So that was "The Cold,"  but additionally, this week I came down with a nasty cold, that set up shop in my chest and head. Monday and Tuesday nights were rough sleeping because I couldn't breathe. Andrew and Grace gave Olbus Oil, and boy, that stuff works! Your eyes start watering from sniffing just one or two drops of that stuff! It is potent.

The work is continuing to go along, fairly steady. We are still meeting and having good discussions at our Tuesday night Bible study, there are 3 moms that come steadily to Tots and Toys, but there has been at least one other mom the past three weeks. We had another Explorer's Club this week. I was in charge of the craft. It went fairly well.  We talked about Noah and the Ark, so for the craft we took paper plates, cut them in half, then cut out the middle. The outside edge was the rainbow, which we decorated, and we even have clouds made of wool balls (cotton balls in America). We took the middle part we cut out, flipped it upside down, and made the Ark out of that. Finally, we punched holes in the rainbow and the Ark, and tied them together with string! All in all, I was proud of the craft, especially since I came up with the idea. Here is an example (my example), excuse the coloring, being color blind, coloring in rainbows aren't my specialty.

I also had the privilege of leading the older youth at Connected (the weekly Bible study for Harby youth) last night (Friday). Despite it being myself, and 8 girls, things went pretty well. Everyone got to hear my "American" accent last night when I said the word "ham," apparently it sounded a whole lot different from how they say it.

Next week's blog will definitely be delayed, if not cancelled, as from Thursday through Saturday of next week I will be traveling with Andrew to and from Scotland. Someone else is joining the team (permanently) from Scotland, and we are helping them move! I'm excited to see Edinburgh, try Haggis, and see the Highlands. I feel like I will be following the trek that the Granthams made in the final episode of Series 3 in Downton Abbey.

Speaking of Downton, here in the UK, the season started the Sunday after I arrived. Grace M., kindly recorded them, and so I saw the first two episodes of series 4 Thursday. I'll do my best not to spoil it, but in the first episode, a long time member of the house leaves, and a trouble maker returns. Hope that whet the appetite of everyone who watches Downton.

One final thought. Sunday at church, we always have tea and cakes after the service. This past Sunday I was on tea and cakes duty. So I helped boil the water in the giant pot (as big if not bigger than the ones at the BSU). Unfortunately, I didn't know there was a switch on the bottom side of the pot, to prevent the boiler from burning itself out when there isn't any water in it. So, when we went back after service to get the "boiling" water, it was cold. The water was just as cold as when it came out of the tap, if not colder. Clearly, I need to work on my boiling water skills. Along those lines, I would love to get a house water boiler when I am back in the States. They are quite handy, they look like a kettle, but you plug it into the wall, and it boils water in a just 3-4 minutes. When I saw boiling, I mean boiling. I guess this means I'm starting my Christmas list now, haha. I'll save the rest of my list for Santa. I wonder if there is a different address for Santa over here?