Walking London's Walls

The students have started their walks class and we took the first walk too. We started at the Tower of London and walked the perimeter of the ancient Roman London walls and saw many of the bits that still remain. The Tube strike ended yesterday, but as those of you familiar with London will understand, the Circle Line was struggling to get up and running.

A short pause in a green and leafy church yard along
London Wall Street

The walkers checking the map - the Barbican is seen in the distance

Me with a chunk of the London wall

Postman Park with its memorials to young heroes
who died saving others

A poignant example of one of a few hundred plaques

This walk was fun because I even encountered some new places, like Postman's Park, a small pocket of green in the hustling, bustling City. Today we will walk through Southwark on the south bank of the river.

A Day on the Heath

So, it's 11:00 P.M. and we just got home from the Magalhaes where we had family home evening. They are our Brazilian friends that we met three years ago in church. We had a delightful time, but transportation is a little wonky because the Tube went on strike at 6:00 P.M. We managed on the buses and all is well. The strike is scheduled to last 72 hours, so will be done by Friday Maren - lucky you.

Today we got our travelcards and to celebrate we tubed and bussed up to Kenwood House and Hamstead Heath. It was lovely: art, architecture, beautiful views, great weather, and the blackberries are ripe.

Bartons, Ringers and Kris on the eastbound platform at Queensway

The view of the City of London from Hamstead Heath

Enjoying the view from Kenwood House

Some prefer a bench to the grass

Kenwood House

The wild blackberries are ripe

The forest primeval on Hamstead Heath

The students arrive tomorrow (Tuesday) and so the present round of fun will end (sort of).

Good night. We love you all.

OXO

D&K

Nest Building

I promise, I won't do so many posts in the future, but we are trying to stay awake and I wanted to show you the digs.

We dragged our luggage up 48 steps and unpacked a tiny bit. We went to get some lunch at Tesco on Queensway w/ the Ringers and Bartons and met up back in Kensington Gardens for a little picnic.

We returned to Queensway to buy some supper and food for Sunday and then came home to settle in. We moved the furniture around, put everything away, and cleared out some junk. It makes it feel more like home once you build your nest. Here are some photos of the flat. It is like the back half of the flat we have stayed in before, so just imagine that part of flat 4.

Stairs to our flat in #29 Palace Court

View into Flat 2 from the door

Our cozy kitchen

Our bathroom with an even cozier shower

Our bed practically fills our bedroom

Lounge (living room) with Ossington St. out the window

Kris, learning her way around the new computer

This is the view of Ossington Street from our window.
It never changes much --it is still very cool.

So now you know where to imagine us when you read our meanderings from London.

OXO

D.

We Have Arrived

We have arrived safe and sound. It feels good to be back in London. We did not take the Gatwick Express; Jeff had arranged for two minivans to pick us up and they brought us straight to the centre.

Gatwick was a bit of a nightmare: the lines to clear customs were huge and when we got to the luggage halls there were no trollies. Other than that, the trip was uneventful. I had forgotten how tight tourist-class seats are -- sleeping was difficult, but we managed.

Waiting for departure in SLC

So we will be in touch again soon, but for now we are here safely.

OXO

D&K

We Are Off

The day has arrived and we are off to London for three and one half months.


We are flying Delta from SLC to Cincinnati, and then on to London's Gatwick Airport. It isn't entirely clear how we will get into London, but I suspect it will be on the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station, and from there by cab to the London Centre. We'll let you know how it all plays out.



I have mixed feelings again this time (as I did three years ago). I am excited to be able to be in London again, but both Kris and I hate to leave the kids and grandkids. We will have a good visit from Maren, Gavin, and the boys as well as from Emily and Madeline. Katy will join us for a little while after she finishes her mission in Washington. Stephen and Ann together with Hank and Colette will be in London for a bit, although they have rented their own digs due to our very reduced flat size. We will be living in the tiny flat on the second (European second, American third) floor of the BYU Centre. We have been using the stair master to get in shape. We will also have Rob's parents with us for a few days, and it wouldn't be a trip to London without a visit from Debra Sue Darling Gibbs later in the fall.

When we arrive on 1 September, I will post a blog letting you know how it went (if I can handle the new computer). My good intentions are to blog at least once a week. We'll see how that goes.


So here we go on another great adventure. We will miss you all but will do our best to have a good time. Wahoo!

OXO

D.

London Calling

The time is getting very short; we'll be on our way in less than a week!

I am scrambling to get my lecture notes finished so I won't ever have to sit in the flat preparing for lectures. We still need to clean and pack, but I think we'll make it. Even if we don't get everything done, we will go anyway.

OH MY GOODNESS!

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! What a week this has been. You may have noticed that I haven't been blogging or commenting on your blogs. Well, last Friday I tried to connect to the net and received a message that the computer was not connected to the internet. I tried a new ethernet cable, had Jayson mess with everything he could think of, and nothing resolved the problem. I hauled Katy's iBook out of storage and hooked it up to the net and it worked fine except that I couldn't log on to blogger. I could read, but not create or comment (and I hate the touch pad mouse). So it was a computer problem. I had been thinking that it would be nice to have a newer computer and Anna had said a while ago, "Why don't you get a new computer and give us your old one?" So Kris and I talked it over and decided to get a new iMac, which is spectacular. They say bad luck comes in threes. Number one was a defective computer.

Number two was losing my wallet. Sunday I went to grab my wallet, which isn't a proper wallet at all, but rather an Oyster-Card holder from London. It is just right for carrying about 6 cards. It was missing and nowhere to be found. I envisioned a nighmarish week of canceling and replacing cards.
We drove off to church without a drivers license and I kept trying to think where the wallet might be. The last place I remembered having it was at Costco, so after church I called them and they didn't have it.

Number three was a flat tire with a large screw in it that we discoverd when we came out of church. We drove home ever so carefully and parked in the driveway, hoping to be in time to call Emily for a ride to Anna's for Sunday dinner. We had already seen Phillip and Meagan heading to SLC on our way home, so Emily was the last hope. But, as luck would have it, Emily was already half way to SLC. Stehpen was kind enough to lend us his Jeep. We loaded up and checked the fuel gauge which was on empty. The Jeep takes biodiesel fuel which is hard to find on a regular day, and this was Sunday. Fortunately, we learned that it also takes diesel which we found fairly easily at Crest. We were in such a dither that we forgot Kris's wallet so we raced back to the house. She couldn't find hers, but she DID find mine. So now we were back down to two pieces of bad luck.

Monday Costco brought four lovely new Michelins into our life, but we were still waiting for the new number three.


On Tuesday, Debra Sue Darling Gibbs came into town and she and Alison spent the night. The next morning as Kris and I were ready to leave for work, the toilet went "glub, glub" and the new number three made its entrance. Kris called me back in and told me the toilet was clogged. I plunged the heck out it and nothing happened -- except that everything came up in the shower; I mean everything! I sent the Gibbs to Stephens for their toilet/shower needs and called Rescue Rooter.


They came quickly, but after removing both upstairs toilets, trying to clear the line, and making an enormous mess, they were stumped. They called in the big guys who scoped the line and discovered that the sewer line had settled where it connected to the house and was blocked at that point.


They dug up the connection and determined that it would cost $5,650 to rework the line. I picked myself up and said, "We need a sewer so I guess you'd better do it." They were to come back the next morning. Before totally abandoning hope, however, we called our contractor who put us in touch with our excavator who came by at 5:30 and said he could fix it the next day for about $700. Done deal! It was fixed by noon the next day and we are free-running, sweet-smelling, and very happy.

So that's why we have been absent.

OXO

D.