the voice comes on every time we approach a new station, just before we are about to stop and the doors are going to open, asking very politely that we remember to obey the gap. sometimes when i come here i wonder if i might be able to get a job in retirement - teaching english as a second language to the people in this part of the world. as far as i can tell, very few of the folk here can speak our great tongue.
yup, you guessed it. thanks to the generosity of one of our mcc families, brenda and are in london for week #6 of our 3 month sabbatical. we just completed a wonderfully refreshing two day conference at holy trinity brompton (the church that started the alpha course) and tomorrow (saturday) we're headed out to the cotswolds with pastor friend kim swithenbank. some of you may remember kim from the two times he's preached at mcc in the last few years. he'll be driving us tomorrow so brenda can give me a minitour of some of the high points and places from the "100 mile spiritual pilgrimage hike" she took there last year. our hope is to end the day praying together for our families and our church family in bath abbey. then we'll head back to muswell hill and cook dinner together for the swithenbanks at their home. we'll probably just stay with them that night since we're worshipping there that sunday morning and evening.
speaking of sunday, it's a day we're ESPECIALLY looking forward to this week since two mcc friends (bob parker and olivia capra) will be coming up to north london to meet us for worship and an afternoon meal. sure will be rich to see those guys and get caught up.
monday, of course, is valentine's day. walking home from the tube here can take you through a rather expansive underground mall. while holding hands and and passing various store windows en route back to the apartment this evening, brenda reminded me of the upcoming "holiday." "you don't have to get me anything for valentine's day this year, honey," i said as we strolled along. "we'll just give each other the gift of a day of study and writing on monday."
my generosity didn't elicit the hoped for response. "ok. that's fine. but you're not off the hook! i still expect a valentine's gift." looks like i'll soon be making my way back across the foot bridge and into that mall again. otherwise it could be a very long plane ride back to sfo. and i just don't want to chance that. :-)
writing: have focused on editing the three chapter drafts i completed up to this point. draft of chapter one was sent to the publisher two days ago.
eating and exercise: doing pretty well. light meals during the day and an occasional full dinner with friends here this week. no junk food and precious little sugar. sit-ups, weights, and push-ups in the mornings and walking (lots of it) during the days. not sure i've lost any weight, but i definitely do feel better and have had to tighten my belt a bit.
marriage: brenda and i haven't had this kind of uninterrupted time together since we were blessed with kids. aside from the fact that she can do twice as many sit-ups as me and has been hit by a significant case of jet-lag, all is good.
bless you. can't wait to see you all again in april.
art
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