More About Church

So I've been hearing that people want to know about church, so I will attempt to fill you in.

We found Lifegate Baptist Church pastored by Colin Pavitt our first Sunday here. We had intended on going around to a few neighboring churches - some we had seen on the internet, but basically really liked this pastor and church in Corby, so have not done that. Other churches are in neighboring cities - Kettering, Peterborough, etc, but without a vehicle, it is fairly prohibitive for us to get there.

Things are different here - it is more difficult to travel around - even on more major routes, so it's not the same as a 35 minute trip 25 miles on the relatively easy roads of NH. 25 miles is more of an undertaking here.

Anyway, we have, through the last few weeks, asked many questions of the Pastor and his wife about them and their work here. Bill also had the opportunity to ask questions after our dinner with them last Sunday.

The conclusion of all that is that their stands reflect our position very closely, as do their practices.

The church is very small and has only a few faithful members currently - John, Rosemary, and Meghan, senior age and very faithful. Another 6 to 8 people we have seen at various services - whether just a Sunday morning, or just midweek etc. On Sunday mornings, children from age 17 to 6 come in from some neighborhood families. Rosalind, the pastor's wife, runs a Sunday School (what we call Bible Club) time for them in the back room. There are about 8 to 10 of these children that come in. This morning I started helping with them by sitting with two adolescent girls in the service to help them keep quiet. : ) Most of these kids come from difficult family circumstances and the church service is perhaps a time of refuge for them.

Rosalind plays for the hymns and will do a solo on Sunday nights a capella, and that is the sum total of their music program so far. On Wednesday night, Jack, another member, did a song with the pastor and his wife from the Kettering church.

Pastor Pavitt is considered a missionary pastor, in that he is not supported by this church here, but is helped by a couple other churches. He goes completely by faith in his income and support and has done this for years. He has pastored here for 14 years I think. He goes around to other churches and helps pastors do evangelism - door to door or street preaching or tract distribution. He also runs a British Pastor Preacher Training Unit - training other men to become pastors. He has in recent years done some studying at Emmanuel's seminary in Ireland and knows of Dr. Strausse. He has a schedule of each week day - the places that he goes out to do evangelism and witnessing and other area pastors will join him in this. His preaching is strong and he says things very reminiscent of dad like "we need to read fewer of the books about the Bible and just read the Bible" things along those lines. He was saved in the Brethren Church and eventually became Baptist.

He has a compassionate heart to reach the lost and strong preaching, the combination of which has drawn us to feel like we should serve in this church and be what help we can.

So we intend to join this church soon and although we miss our Calvary Churches in NH, it seems like there is a need here. I guess you have to be here to understand what things are like, but there are tough struggles here, and our churches in NH, despite having gone through huge upheaval and trial in recent years should know that they are indeed VERY blessed. Calvary has a great pastor, nice buildings, faithful members, piano players, singers, deacons, other teachers, cleaners, nursery workers, generous givers, and so on. These things aren't everywhere and should never be taken for granted. If nothing else, getting outside of our little box is a reminder of all the bounty we take for granted in the US.

Our First Driving Episode

So last weekend, we rented a cargo van in order to go and get the piano that I bought off of ebay. I bought this Clavinova from someone in North Wales - pick up only, no delivery. Since the van had no windows, we quickly discarded the idea of combining the trip with some North Wales sight-seeing and decided instead to leave me and the kids at Damian's house while Bill and Damian went the rest of the way to get the piano.

So we started off with me driving - so that I could get some practice in. I didn't do too badly at all with the stick shift on the left and was reasonably smooth starting out. The whole being on the right of the vehicle on the left of the road actually wasn't that bad. The things that threw me at first were the round-abouts. I had to decide which lane to be in, hoping I was getting the correct one for where I was supposed to exit, and then figure out where I supposed to exit on the round-about. My road sign vision is not the greatest, so I was depending on Bill to tell me where to go at first. Also, the whole not having a clue where I was going thing made it a little harder. We finally made it onto the M1, then the M6 - major motorways. Of course, by then it was pouring rain, to make things a little more difficult.

Not long after getting on the motorway, the kids had to use the toilet, so we pulled off into a Service Plaza - although that's not what it's called here - can't remember what it is - where we resisted the urge to buy Starbucks. I'm not sure why we felt the need to resist, maybe we were trying to be frugal. Then it was on our way again.

Arriving at Damian's, we settled in after introductions. Ruth Ann and I had tea and chatted while the kids attacked the toys with great enthusiasm. Damian and Bill took off for Mold, Flintshire. Dakota is Damian's 3-year old son, so he and Philip had a great old time beating up on each other and fighting over toys (just kidding - they actually played nice some of the time). Damian Jr helped Joseph with the Wii some of the time and we did get a brief respite from the noise when Dakota and Philip napped. The guys meanwhile were off partying, in the guise of picking up the piano, but it took them so long to do that, that we know they were up to something....

When they returned, we scarfed down huge quantities of fish and chips, then the adults geared up for a game of Carcossone, the Castle. Damian won this game, but at the advantage of actually knowing how to play and perhaps cheating!!!!!!!!!!! OK, not true, but I can still say it. We are awaiting a rematch at our next get-together. See, gamers everywhere you go in the world!! Then it was back home to unload the piano.

Sunday, we were able to drive to church, and went over to Pastor Pavitt's house for dinner after morning church. We were able to get to know them and vice versa, and Bill had an opportunity to go through our pastor's questionnaire with him to get a good view on his stands.

Monday, Philip and I decided to take the van driving for some more practice, since we had it until that evening. We went randomly driving around our area, practicing reading the signs through the round-abouts, which I got pretty good at after a while. I have figured out that it is easiest just to read the signs on the round-abouts instead of following directions. (GPS or map) We toured through Kettering and then some random quaint thatched villages and back roads and then returned home for school pick-up time. I even got so good that I snapped some photos on my iphone of quaint thatched cottages and tree-canopied roads while driving, but I haven't gotten around to down-loading these onto the computer yet.

Rockingham Castle

Bank Holiday - August 25th

We woke up the morning of the holiday and decided to go see Rockingham Castle that day. Fortunately on holidays, the Corbystar 10 runs a route, and we could see that the route took us pretty near to the castle so we could be within reasonable walking distance.

Rockingham Castle is just a few miles away from where we live, and was built on the instruction of William the Conqueror following his 1066 invasion.

The Great Hall was put up, as well as many other parts, and for the next 450 years various kings made improvements and changes. In 1485, Henry VII abandoned the castle, and the Watson family subsequently bought this property. The Watson family has owned and lived in the castle for the last 450 years - currently it is James Watson, his wife and three children.

The castle is surrounded by 18 acres of gardens, all of which you can tour through - we did part of them throughout the day.

On Bank Holiday, the local Vikings of Middle England group was there doing a show and battle and all that. The best thing I can equate this to is something like living history towns - Jamestown, etc, where they are dressed in period costumes, or perhaps a Renaissance fair. They had a show put on in three parts throughout the afternoon - based from events 952 - 954 - battles between Saxons and Vikings I believe. The main jist is the Wessex King of Eadred, Dagmaer had expelled the Norse King Olaf and made himself king of York, but some would seek to restore Erik the Viking to the throne. The last scene they put on was a battle where Erik 'Bloodaxe' is killed off.

In between scenes, they had tents set up around the lawn displaying their weapons, clothing, trades, and crafts.

They also brought out Icelandic horses to show their special training. It is a particular gait that they teach them and was very neat to see - the person riding the horse is hardly bounced at all, so it looks very regal, I guess, is a good way of describing it.

The gardens were gorgeous - especially my favorite - the rose garden. Pictured here is the extremely cool elephant hedge. This hedge has been in existance for 400 years. This picture is from the battlement, so is not close up enough, but the hedge does very much look like elephants pushing up against eachother.

We toured the castle, the gardens, and watched several of the Viking shows before heading back to the bus stop. Philip was 'to tired to walk' at this point, so I was carrying him. Once off the bus, Bill took Joseph and Abby to get pizza from Pizza Hut, while Philip and I strolled down Butland Road picking all available blackberries before reaching home.

There are four other major castles in this Midlands area. Grimsthorpe Castle, Belton House, Belvoir Castle, and Burghley House are all open to the public during parts of the year. Admission to Rockingham was £28 for the family, and we now have a discount voucher for a visit to another castle, but still, we will have to space these out over the course of time.

Bill Starts Work and Other Realities of Life

(a page from our A-Z Map)

Just to show you around Corby a bit:

Brooke Weston CTC is located down at the bottom of the pic and our bungalow is the little pink speck there at the bottom of Coombe Road. You can trace our walk up to Morrison's supermarket.

Then up where the roads intersect is Town Centre - the Swimming Pool is there to the left of all the store and so forth.

Here's the inside of our Corby bus as we travel around Corby. This costs £1.50 for a day.

So it was off to school for Bill on the 18th. This left me to find activities to keep three kiddies occupied.

So, one day we walked up to a playground in Oakley Vale where the kids played for a long time. Wednesday, I received my first delivery of groceries to my door - ordered online from ASDA Walmart. Then in the afternoon, a very nice lady who Bill met in the grocery store took me and the kids to Town Centre, where we had coffee and cakes; then she drove me on a tour around our area. This was a really nice thing to see what was around the town of Corby. Thursday, we took an outing to Town Centre to do some shopping and go to the library. This was also my first stop in Costa Coffee for a triple chocolate muffin and a mocha. Friday, it was another outing to Town Centre for some things for the kids this time, and then on to the Swimming Pool for an afternoon swim.

Meanwhile, Bill went to lots of meetings and learned all about how England does assessment and so forth, got his schedule, and met lots of fellow staffers.

Saturday, it was a morning run to Town Centre for a few more errands, and then back home to do some random household things.

These are various housing developements in Great Oakley. This one on the bottom is the view from Coombe Road. The others are nearby on Lyveden Way.

London Day Two!

What is inevitable when taking a family trip somewhere? Those of you who have participated in various of our family trips will surely come up with the correct answer: puking. It is also inevitable that at some point during our various family get-togethers, the conversation will eventually come around to all our previous hilarious stories on puking. “Hey, remember Siesta Key 2006? Who DIDN’T get sick? Remember the Isle of Shoals?” - followed by great hilarious laughter over the poor unfortunates who spent part of their vacation puking their guts out. Understand please, these are not necessarily hilarious at the time, (except for the filming of Bill over the side of the boat at Isle of Shoals) but only afterwards.

Friday night, we ordered Pizza Hut delivery, and during the meal, Abby mentioned that her tummy didn’t feel well. I was a little concerned, but not overly, and she ate up, even finishing off with some Oreos. We then sent the kids off to bed at their usual bedtimes so they could get enough rest for our early departure the next day. About an hour later, I heard crying from Abby’s room and when I went to investigate, I was in no way surprised by the pizza/oreo puke all over her and the bed. Poor Abby - she picked up a bug somewhere, and puked off and on for hours. Each time she would finish, Bill would hopefully say something like “I think her color’s better; that will be it” and I would shake my head and say “Nope” or he would say “Her eyes are looking better; her cheeks and forehead are the same temp now” and I would shake my head “Nope”.

Inside, I was groaning, knowing what kind of night was ahead and, of course, we had to get up early to go to the train. And of course our tickets were already purchased, so we couldn’t waste them. I was actually doubtful as to whether Abby could even go. We spent a weary night getting up with Abby each time she got sick; fortunately there was nothing left in her much so they became dry heaves (much less messy). At 5:45 am, I asked Abby how she felt and if she thought she could go to London, to which she replied that she felt fine and she really wanted to go to London. Every time she would finish puking, she would seem to feel just fine, so I believed she had a shot at getting through the day, so we prepared to go. I think her big motivation for wanting to go was knowing that we were going to Buckingham Palace - she did not want to miss that.

It was an early trek to the X1 bus stop. We had to catch the 7:00 am bus at Morrison’s. This was NOT my doing, but rather Damian’s, making us take such an early train to get to London so early!!!!! Our train was the 7:48, but there wasn’t another bus that would get us there before then, groan, moan.

As we left the house, I grabbed some plastic ziplock bags to use as puke bags - a very fortunate move! I banned Abby from eating anything or drinking anything other than sprite/ginger ale. Once we arrived at the Kettering train station, we went to Pumpkin coffee shop and got Abby a sprite, of which she was allowed to take 2 sips. She was able to keep that down - very encouraging!! The rest of us got chocolate chip croissants, mmmm!

(some ancient Egyptian stuff; Abby in front of Ramses II's fist)

On the train, Abby had one heaving episode, then laid her head down on her jacket and feel asleep for the entire trip. We arrived at St. Pancras with little event and headed down to the underground. One bright note: Abby’s sprained ankle was mostly better and she had no difficulty walking on it by this time! We ended our journey at Russell Square, where we met up with Damian. Bill had just enough time to zip across the street at our meeting point to Tesco Express to pick up some Krispy Creme doughnuts. Damian met us a few minutes later and off we went to the British Museum - this is the place that collects all the ancient stuff - Rosetta Stone, mummies, pieces of the Parthenon, and all other manner of stuff. We had about an hour total to go through a few of the exhibits; we hit ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, and some other ancient things like Assyria and Mesopotamia. What an incredible collection! Oh, and museums in London are free of admission, a really awesome thing!

(the Rosetta stone; the piece of the Parthenon; some coffins from Egypt)

We rapidly stopped in at Starbucks (across from the British Museum for future reference) to get our caffeine fix, then it was back on the tube to get to Buckingham Palace. Once there, we were told to go back to the Shop area to pick up our tickets (pre-purchased online), so Bill left the kids with me while he and Damian went back to the other end of the block to get them. Joseph started getting very upset - he had to use the toilet VERY badly and so I asked a Buckingham employee where the nearest one was. She had this long elaborate explanation of where to go (down to the light, then left down that street and at the pub, take a right) the last part of which I had to have her repeat. I was very frustrated by this because Bill had told me to wait for him there and I couldn’t just take a ten minute walk down the road and not be there. A minute later, a nearby lady police officer standing in one of the doorway areas of the palace had overheard and told me if I could wait 2 minutes, she would let Joseph "take a wee" behind the shed. She talked to a couple other people asking her questions and when they left, she motioned for Joseph to come in and she took him onto the palace grounds behind some shed or other. I can imagine she saw Joseph’s distress and my frustration and took pity on us. Joseph was back a minute later, a much happier guy!

They gave out audio guides inside the palace, after a thorough security inspection, and we chose the one geared towards kids. The kids immediately got into that and we had an incredible and very enjoyable tour through all the rooms. Photography was not allowed, and there were many employees around to make sure there were no illegal photos - we did get a nice booklet with pics though!!! The ballroom was set up for a state dinner - for 170 people. The sight was incredible, as were many other things inside.

(Abby on the terrace of Buckingham Palace)

Once our tour was done, Damian took us over past Trafalgar Square to one of his favorite restaurants, Texas Embassy. We had a great tex-mex dinner and drank huge amounts of iced tea served there. Soon after arrival there, Abby put her head on the table and fell fast asleep, so she had a nice nap to get her through the day. She had been doing pretty well overall, with very little puking. She had a few moments, especially down on the tube where she would feel sick, but sipping the sprite throughout the day kept her feeling pretty well. On the way to Texas Embassy, she asked for a motrin, and after taking that, she puked it up, but otherwise did OK. We simply kept the plastic ziplock in my pocket, and I would whip it out for her to hold over her mouth when she felt sick. This system worked very well.

After dinner (early dinner, late lunch), it was about 4:30 and we decided to go over to see St. Paul’s Cathedral. We were on the red central line; abruptly at Holbern, everyone was told to leave the train, it was terminating. We all got off, and the board was saying there was an incident between two stops nearby. Since Joseph was again in desperation, we decided to go up to the street instead of getting on another line. We made a pit stop at McD’s for the toilets and to strategize. We quickly determined that St. Paul’s wasn’t going to happen, as the red line was the only one that came near it. It was getting close to Damian’s train home so we decided to take the blue line, where he could go his way to Euston Station, and we could get off at Piccadilly Circus.

When we went back down to the tube, the announcements were then saying “due to a person under the train, the red line is closed between such and such stations” - picture this announcement in a polite British accent to get the right vibe.

In general, we have found that the tube trains can get REALLY packed, especially between big traffic areas. But they are almost always clean or relatively clean and there is not much pushing or rudeness.

We didn’t have a ton of time at Piccadilly Circus, but we did do some touring around to see the various shops and what was about. There was a big Gap store having a big sale : ). Then it was back to St. Pancras to catch our train to Kettering. The train home was fairly empty, and the only mistake I made was to allow Abby to have the water she desperately wanted - she promptly puked it all up a minute later; back to sprite for her!


It was an easy ride home and a nice walk back to the house where it was baths and bed for the kids and getting ready for morning church for us.

(Piccadilly Circus)

First Day to London

Off to London!!

So Thursday morning, we got ready and walked up to the bus stop at Morrison's (3/4 mile) to catch the X1 bus to Kettering train station. We got on this bus at 9:30 and arrived at 9:48, barely enough time for us to print our tickets and get to the platform for the 9:59 departure. (some nail biting involved)

Now, an aside to all of this expedition is that, on Tuesday night, Abigail well and truly sprained her ankle running around outside. Wednesday, we took it easy, giving her lots of ibuprofen, and putting on ice packs. Anyway, we couldn't really cancel the trip because Bill had purchased the train tickets online Tuesday (bigger discounts purchasing early), as well as tickets for the London Eye (very expensive) and we were not about to waste that money. So he had to piggyback her up to the bus stop, and around the train station.

We boarded the train - it was PACKED!! We had to walk around a few coaches before we finally figured out our reserved seats were in coach C. Of course when we got there, other people had sat down in them, so we had to nicely ask them to move. For the most part, they did with apologies, except for one older woman who then began a politely toned diatribe on "the old days" not being like that (having reserved seats purchased ahead of time and making people move out of them). Someone gave up their seat for her, but she of course couldn't get past the "old days". Anyway, it is no easy task to travel with 3 little ones, so no one should begrudge us reserving seats. In fact, it seems as though a lot of smart people reserve seats, and folks would do well to do so.

Arriving in London, we got off at St. Pancras, the train stop for all the East Midlands trains, and got on the Tube for a ride to Waterloo station - near the London Eye. Upon reaching there, we stopped in at Burger King for lunch. I can't believe it - here I am in London and where am I eating????? Ah, what we do for our kids!!

We then walked out to the London Eye and took a truly spectacular ride around this wheel to view London. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day - we could see for miles. Abby is pictured above with Buckingham palace above and slightly to the left of her head, and there is also a shot of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey (with slight glare from the glass).

After the London Eye, we sprawled out on the grass of the nearby park for some soft-serve ice cream cones. We then strolled down the riverside walk, looking at all the street performers, many of which were living statues of one kind or another. Then it was over the Hungerford Bridge to the West bank sights. (us pictured on the bridge)

A few blockes later, we arrived at Trafalgar Square. There was a huge festival going on there, with a giant TV screen showing the Olympics behind the column. We decided against going in the National Gallery - lots of famous paintings in there - for time's sake.

About this time, some rain started, clouds rolling in. Until then it had been beautifully sunny and warm. Out came our handy rain jackets and umbrella as we headed down Whitehall.

You can see here the clouds as we approached Big Ben and parliament. The passes to get into Parliament were all out for the day, so we headed across the street to go in Westminster Abbey. This was quite an incredible thing - amazing ceilings, tons of marble on all these tombs - medieval painted tiles, incredible thing after incredible thing. I did not see the no photography sign posted, so this picture was taken before the lady came over and stopped me.

We spent a couple hours in there and walking around the grounds of this very amazing structure. The kids were fascinated by the many tombs - the marble likenesses posed just so on top of all these tombs.

After Westmister Abbey, we caught the nearest tube to go to the Natural History Museum. We ate there in the family cafeteria-style restaurant before hitting the dinosaur display. We briefly detoured to the Creepy Crawlies, then went over to the dinosaur section - at the mechanized T-rex, Abby asked, "Is this real?" Fortunately, she was convinced that it wasn't, so no nightmares resulted. Then it was a rapid tour through mammals and into the huge elephant/whale hall before leaving.

It Then it was once again back to the Tube for our connection at St. Pancras train station. Once there, we approached the men at the trains with our tickets. They looked at them and told us they were for the 7:25, not the 7:00 like we thought. We were puzzled by this, but took their word for it, and went to sit down. A little later, when we went back to check the board about the train, we started realizing that we MUST have been on the 7:00 because of our seat reservations. When Bill took the tickets over to a different man to ask him, he said yes, we did have seats on the 7:00, but that the top of our ticket said super saver, which was why the other guys thought we were on a different train. He told us to get on the 7:25 anyway and go up to coach B. All of those seats were reserved, but happily, no one was taking them and the train was pretty empty, so we helped ourselves; it ended up working out OK afterall.

(us at St. Pancras train station)

Random Notes On Our Move to England

Things we did that were smart:

A few days before we left, we ordered British Pounds from our bank. Most airports, banks, etc, charge around 3% and we got a slightly better fee % than that. Not only this, but it was one less thing to do at the airport upon arrival and we immediately had pounds ready for taxi and food..

We ordered (from Amazon) some plug adapters for our electronics - camera battery charger, laptop, camcorder - (these already run on both 110/240 volts, so you don’t need a converter) so we were all ready to go without having to go to a store for that. We also bought Joseph a UK Nintendo DS cord (around $4). These were all cheap, and all our electronics are good to go.

We bought a Family Rail Pass. This pass saves you 30% at least on adult train tickets and up to 60% on child fares. We used this the first day of our arrival, and also today when ordering the train tickets for London.

I packed some trail mix and Cliff bars even though I knew we were getting food on the plane. As it turned out, these came in handy during our long morning and afternoon of travels north from London.

Neck pillow - I should have bought this years ago - I would have been much more comfortable on all those plane rides.

I packed our wonderful bath sheets (huge towels) and that was a nice little luxury to have right away.

Things I would Do Differently:

They always say to pack a change of clothes in your carry-ons, but I didn’t do this. Abby and Philip were the only ones with changes. We could have packed slightly better to include changes of clothes, although toiletries are a bit more of a hassle with the 3 oz rule. Still, I will probably do this from now on.

Observations on Corby:

The bus system seems to be very great so far. If you consider the cost of owning a vehicle - payments or maintenance if it’s older, insurance, gas, and general maintenance stuff like oil changes - then paying L1.50 to ride around the town for a day seems to be a pretty good deal. You would probably spend more than that in just gas going around to the different stores. Today I hopped on with my week-long pass right up from our home (1 min walking) rode for about 12 min up to Towne Centre, got off and shopped at TK Maxx for the mirrors I wanted, hopped back on the bus and rode another 12 minutes or so back to the stop with my purchases. I also saw several people getting on with babies in strollers and there is a place on the bus especially for them. There are stops in seemingly every neighborhood so wherever one would live, there would undoubtedly be one close by.

Almost all the buildings in this area are made of brick. Some are stone, but most are brick. Some modern structures are not, and are glass or concrete etc, but as you ride around the housing developments, they are all brick. Here at Brooke Weston, things seem to be made of concrete block.

EVERY intersection in Corby is a roundabout. The only stoplights are for busy pedestrian areas to cross the street.

The weather is very changeable. Sunday it went from light rain to sun about a dozen times throughout the day. Some days it is light rain in the morning, and sunshine in late morning and afternoon. The sunshine will be interspersed with clouds here and there. The cloud systems seem to blow through very fast. It is very handy to have a light rain jacket with you and just take it on and off as needed. So the raininess is not a constant thing, but just something that happens here and there.

Corby is opening a direct train to London on December 10th. Right now we will be taking the bus down to Kettering first, then catching the train. The Corby train will take 50 minutes to London.

Corby already has a large Swimming Pool and kids’ swim playground that we plan to visit maybe today. They are currently under construction for the Corby Cube - which will be an 50M Olympic size pool and sports complex.