We will be leaving London in about 5 hours. Flights west make for long days. As we fly through the time zones it keeps getting "earlier" and "earlier." We will land in Chicago at about 3:30 PM - about 3 1/2 hours "after" we left London BUT the flight time is 8 hours 35 minutes. Hence the 30 hour day.
When you go on a monthlong vacation or workation (what we have been on). There comes a time about a week before it ends (for me at least) that your thinking shifts from "this is fun" to "its time to go home." The two day pause in London to visit Hazuki and Dmitri has been really nice, but it all fell into the "IT'S TIME TO GO HOME" portion of my psychology.
We love you all - fans, addicts and casual browsers of www.jitrekking.com. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he cause his face to shine upon you and bring you peace. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen. Lord, take us back to Indiana safely please.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
"What do you mean I'm a genetic freak?" or "o/`o/` I'm 'Enery, the VIII, I am o/`o/`"
For they sow to the wind, and they shall reap the Whirlwind (Hosea 8:7)
Our whirlwind tour of London with our able and capable personal tour guide (our daughter Hazuki) is over. Thanks to her for all the time, effort and energy she put into making our 2 days here a memory not to be forgotten (at least until the first signs of dementia surface).We began the day with a trip to Saint James Park. This is a park owned personally by the Queen which she provides for out of her sizable personal fortune. It's a lovely park. Simple, open and peaceful. We saw some Horse Chestnut trees in full bloom. A "Cotswold" style house for the gardener (see below):
Next was a trip through the Ancient Middle East portion of the British Museum. It would literally take WEEKS to see everything on display in the British Museum. Since we only had a single day I decided to limit our search parameters to the Assyrian, Babylonian and Hittite Displays. Needless to say we were impressed. They have the ORIGINAL gates to the Assyrian Palace of Nimrud:
These beings have the head of a king, the body of a bull and the wings of an eagle. (Hence the "genetic freak" of the post title).
The tile mosaic of a lion below is from Nebuchadnezzar's Gates at Babylon:
If you want to see an EXACT, FULL-SIZED replica of the complete Nebuchadnezzar gates you have to go to the Berlin Museum in Germany.
Another item we saw at the museum was the "Rosetta Stone" - as in the ORIGINAL one, not one of the modern "learn a language" yellow boxes. Below is a picture of it and the explanation of it:
This stone has the "Ancient" Egyptian Hieroglyphics, the "New" Egyptian Hieroglyphics and GREEK. The Greek was the key because we KNEW the meaning of that. From this stone they were able to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The third place we went to was "Hampton Court" which was the "Palace" of the Tudor, Hanover and house of Orange Kings. It was pretty interesting. It was more "modern" even in the "older" Tudor section than I thought it would be. It was also less "Castle-like" and more "Manor-like" than I thought it would be. Joshua dn Joel and I had spent 2 weeks after they graduated High School touring Scotland and seeing MANY castles (like Huntly the ancestral Gordon family castle). Those were very castle like. Here are some pictures of Huntly:
I can only assume from Hampton Court's structure and appearance that even by the time of the Tudor kings the idea of a single monarchy was firmly established in England and the monarch didn't need to have a defensive castle.
When Henry VIII first took possession of the estate from Thomas Wolsey who was one of Henry's closest friends but in his newly appointed by the Pope position of Cardinal in the Catholic Church would NOT give Henry permission to divorce Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. He died on his way to London to be charged with treason and upon his death Henry seized his estate and made it his own.
In the two photos above only the darker red center portion of the palace existed when Henry took possession. It continued to be a "summer palace" through the Tudor, Hanover and House of Orange monarchies the other portions of the estate were added over those years (1530-1830). To read more about Hampton Courts history click HERE.
We leave London to fly home tomorrow afternoon at 12:50 in the afternoon.
Monday, June 9, 2014
Not Our Cup of Tea
We got up at 4 AM yesterday to be ready to drive to Cape Town International Airport by 5 AM. Our flight to Johannesburg was leaving at 7:30 AM. We are making our trip this time based on cashing in a great deal of our "Frequent Flier Miles" on American Airline which partners with British Airlines in flying to South Africa. The "price" for each of our business class tickets was a reasonable 80,000 miles PER PERSON in each direction for a total of 160, 000 for me and 160,000 for Irene per round-trip ticket. The unfortunate thing is that you are at the airlines mercy about WHEN you can fly. They only set aside "X" amount of frequent flier seats on any one flight. This meant that we had to be on this 7:30 AM flight because it was the only one that had any seats available on it EVEN THOUGH we ordered these tickets 11 month in advance. So, that means we were stuck with an 11 hour layover in Johannesburg. Oh well. The REAL problem was that when we got to Jo'burg at 9:30 AM we found out that the British Airways Business Class lounge didn't open until 3:00 PM. This is because BA only has the one flight a day from Jo'burg to London at 7:10 PM. So we got to wait in the airport for about 5 1/2 hours until the lounge opened. Irene got some shopping done. I got some walking in.
Our flight out of Jo'burg was on an AirBus 380. It's a monstrous plane. It's a double decker. The first time I've ever been on one with 2 decks.
I don't sleep well in planes so I mainly watched the video player at my seat. First off I watched "Live Free or Die Hard." Formulaic to the Max, but still worth the watch. Then I watched the 3rd "season" of the BBC "Sherlock Holmes" series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. All told that totaled up to a bit more than 7 hours of the flight. You throw in another 2 for dinner and breakfast and I got about 1 1/2 hours of sleep. There was a great flight attendant onboard that was taking care of our aisle. She was an Irish girl name Sinead from Dublin. A good flight attendant can really make a flight and a bad one is a drag. So - Thanks to Sinead.
We got into Heathrow at about 5:00 AM and with virtually no one there, immigration and customs went really quickly. We were out and in a cab by 6:00 AM to travel to Dmitri and Hazuki's apartment and arrived at 6:30. Irene and Hazuki talked (Irene had gotten about 3-4 hours of sleep on the flight) and I grabbed a nap until 8 AM.
We decided to do a little touring of London today. We went past parliament and past #10 Downing Street. Well, actually, you can't even get in the same postal code as the prime minister's home anymore. With all the terrorist fears they have the whole block of Downing Streent behid 1 1/2" high tensile strength 10 foot high fencing with many, many, many police with fully automatic weapons in tow. SO, that was a let down. Next up Trafalger Square, Hall of Justice and Fleet Street (the old "newspaper" publishing street), White Chapel area (Jack the Ripper territory), 221b Baker Street (Sherlock Holmes Address) and finally the Thames River Cruise from the London Eye (a monstrously large ferris wheel) to the Naval College at Greenwich (as in "Greenwich Mean Time"). Here's a short video of part of our River Tour:
One of the buildings we walked past today was the old "South African House." Since countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand are technically still part of the United Kingdom and the "Commonwealth of Nations" they don't have "Embassies" in London they have "Houses." South Africa USED to be part of the United Kingdom also but was given its freedom in the late 50s. So it's "house" now is essentially a South African information center. Here's a couple pictures of it:
The last place we went today was the British Naval College. Below are a couple of interesting pictures. The first is one of the buildings at the college. I'm pretty sure it says "King George III king and regent, 1814."
I had to take it because King George III was King of England during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Considering we defeated the Brits twice by that time, I'd say they sure did NEED a better college to train their naval officers. Good decision "Georgie Porgie Puddin' Pie" (YES, that Mother Goose rhyme IS ABOUT HIM.)
The 2nd picture below was pointed out to me by an elderly "usher" at the Naval College Museum.
There were 21 men from the United States that entered the British Naval College between the beginning of the war in 1939 and America's entering the war after Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. This plaque remembers their service. Thank you sir for making this known to me and thanks to Great Britain for honoring this valiant men who came to their aid in that time of need.
Having walked, bussed and subwayed around a great deal of "downtown London" today it reminds me how little I like B-I-G cities. I got nothing against London in particular - New York, Chicago - they ALL fit the bill - TOO many people; TOO much traffic; TOO much concrete; not ENOUGH green space; not ENOUGH fresh air. It just isn't our cup of tea (British Pun fully intended).
Our flight out of Jo'burg was on an AirBus 380. It's a monstrous plane. It's a double decker. The first time I've ever been on one with 2 decks.
I don't sleep well in planes so I mainly watched the video player at my seat. First off I watched "Live Free or Die Hard." Formulaic to the Max, but still worth the watch. Then I watched the 3rd "season" of the BBC "Sherlock Holmes" series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. All told that totaled up to a bit more than 7 hours of the flight. You throw in another 2 for dinner and breakfast and I got about 1 1/2 hours of sleep. There was a great flight attendant onboard that was taking care of our aisle. She was an Irish girl name Sinead from Dublin. A good flight attendant can really make a flight and a bad one is a drag. So - Thanks to Sinead.
We got into Heathrow at about 5:00 AM and with virtually no one there, immigration and customs went really quickly. We were out and in a cab by 6:00 AM to travel to Dmitri and Hazuki's apartment and arrived at 6:30. Irene and Hazuki talked (Irene had gotten about 3-4 hours of sleep on the flight) and I grabbed a nap until 8 AM.
One of the buildings we walked past today was the old "South African House." Since countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand are technically still part of the United Kingdom and the "Commonwealth of Nations" they don't have "Embassies" in London they have "Houses." South Africa USED to be part of the United Kingdom also but was given its freedom in the late 50s. So it's "house" now is essentially a South African information center. Here's a couple pictures of it:
I had to take it because King George III was King of England during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Considering we defeated the Brits twice by that time, I'd say they sure did NEED a better college to train their naval officers. Good decision "Georgie Porgie Puddin' Pie" (YES, that Mother Goose rhyme IS ABOUT HIM.)
The 2nd picture below was pointed out to me by an elderly "usher" at the Naval College Museum.
There were 21 men from the United States that entered the British Naval College between the beginning of the war in 1939 and America's entering the war after Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. This plaque remembers their service. Thank you sir for making this known to me and thanks to Great Britain for honoring this valiant men who came to their aid in that time of need.
Having walked, bussed and subwayed around a great deal of "downtown London" today it reminds me how little I like B-I-G cities. I got nothing against London in particular - New York, Chicago - they ALL fit the bill - TOO many people; TOO much traffic; TOO much concrete; not ENOUGH green space; not ENOUGH fresh air. It just isn't our cup of tea (British Pun fully intended).
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Head WEST Lad and Lassie
This is dedication to our peeps out there. I squeezed one in for you so you don't got through JITrekking.com withdrawal.
Friday, June 6, 2014
How lucky can y'all be - a 2fer day!
Yes my friends, loved ones, compadres and all around smart pipples that follow WWW.JITREKKING.COM website's blog - TODAY is YOUR LUCKY DAY! If you remember at the end of our last post I left you craving for seeing Irene's "Wife of Manoah" powerpoint presentation. I had to get a better MOV ---> mp4 converter to "git 'er dun" but now here it be:
For being such loyal treksters I'm giving you the bonus below at ABSOLUTELY NO additional charge to you.
For being such loyal treksters I'm giving you the bonus below at ABSOLUTELY NO additional charge to you.
Yesterday it was a cold, rainy 45º day in Cape Town. The above picture is Irene "worshipping" the "Radiator God" in our little room last night. They do NOT have central heat or air here. Furthermore the wall are made of cinder (conic) blocks with NO insulation. So our room is only about 5º warmer than outside IF not for this radiator which gets the room up to the low 60ºs range.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Two more "Newbies" or "Warning: The Surgeon General....."
It seems forever since I broke my arm patting myself on the back. (Isn't THAT a shameless attempt to get our readership numbers up?) It has now been clinically proven that having us as visitors in your home is hazardous to your health! This past Tuesday (after visiting with us on Saturday), Vincent Walters was admitted to the hospital with a kidney stone. He had it removed earlier this morning. The South African equivalent of the Surgeon General has given us cards we are required to hand out to all of our hosts: "WARNING: Jim and Irene Gordon have been determined to be hazardous to your health." Think about it - I'll bet almost everyone of YOU has been sick in one way or another since you saw us last. I know I get sick every time I look in the mirror and Irene is sick of listening to me. HUH! Maybe it's just ME and not Irene. Or maybe she is the social equivalent of Typhoid Mary. Hmmmm. Well, on with our post. Vinnie, here's your card! Get well and we are praying for you.
Sunday we spent the day in Hopefield. It's about 110 kilometers NNW (66 miles from Cape Town). The church there started about 30 years ago. It was the first time that we had been there for services although 3 years ago we did stop to see the little building they have there. Here's a picture of the building the church worships in:
Notice the main door is recessed and the window on each side of the front of the building. The bathrooms are outside the main building - one on the right and one on the left - immediately BEFORE you walk into the building.
I taught a class in the morning on "Living By the Spirit." My sermon in the morning was on "Keeping in Step with the Spirit." My class in the afternoon (at 2:00 PM) was on "What does 'Grieving the Spirit' (Eph 4:30) mean." (Notice any kind of "theme" to the day there?). Irene's afternoon class was the lesson she has on "God's Anger Management Course." At lunch we had some wonderful food provided by the members of the church there. It was all soooo good. There were 7 men and about 14 women there.
Then, this past Tuesday night we went to Piketberg. It's about 1 1/2 hours from Cape Town on the road to Namibia. Its a congregation that began about 13 years ago. I actually spoke there about 10 or so years ago. At the time they met in a local community building for services. Now they have a small building they've built. We went and there were about 15 of us. It was a cold, miserable, rainy evening. So the building was cold but that didn't stop these brothers and sisters in Christ from coming for this time of study, singing and fellowship. Here's a short video of us all singing a song:
My lesson that evening was on "Our Covenant with God." I spoke about 1 1/2 hours and compared God's covenant with Noah; God's Covenant with Israel and God's Covenant with us in Christ. We spoke about the Parties of the Covenants; Terms of the Covenants and Blessings/Curses of the Covenants. It was a wonderful group to study with. Some of it Rohan had to translate into Afrikaans as we went along because "technical stuff" isn't easy to follow in what amounts to the 2nd language for almost everyone that was in the class.
Wednesday evening I spoke at the church in Gugulethu. The church meets in one of the members homes. I spoke about the 10th plague God brought against Egypt (the death of all firstborn of both man and beast) but "passed over" the Israelites in Goshen. I also touched upon the "Law of the First Born" and redeeming the first born required under the Law of Moses and finished with the New Testament's teaching that JESUS is our "passover Lamb" that was slain and whose blood redeems us. Also, in all this I touched upon the passover's requirement for unleavened bread (bread without yeast) and the requirement that the Jews remove the "Old Leaven" which included scrubbing down the walls to assure there was none left. Then went to 1 Cor 5 and our necessity to get the "old leaven" out of our life - ungodliness, etc.
Here's a video of the group that was with us there that night:
Today it was Irene's turn to swing for the fences. She taught the Ladies class from Bonteheuwel (although this week they met at Sandra Jones' house not at the Bonteheuwel building). There were about 12 ladies there Irene told me. She taught a lesson on the "Wife of Manoah" (that would mean she was the mother of Samson). I haven't been able to get her PowerPoint lesson to load as a movie yet.
This afternoon we went to Sister Lauers home across the street from the Manuel's for lunch after Irene got back from her class. Also invited were Cathleen and Rosanna vanReenen (who is our excellent cook while we are at the Manuel's home) and Roslyn and Phillip Hendricks. Phillip is one of the evangelists at Athlone along with Peter Manuel and Rohan Jones.
Tomorrow we are going to go to a penguin colony along the coast (DUH!) down toward Cape Point. Irene is really excited about it. She's never seen penguins in the wild. After going with Mary and Kazumi to the Antarctic marathon in 2008 I am like "YAWN, I'm so 'been there and done that' " (about six different penguin species too). However, Irene underlines to me that this is a different species than any in Antarctica so I'm obligated to be excited tomorrow too. So I will be. I'm sure.
Sunday we spent the day in Hopefield. It's about 110 kilometers NNW (66 miles from Cape Town). The church there started about 30 years ago. It was the first time that we had been there for services although 3 years ago we did stop to see the little building they have there. Here's a picture of the building the church worships in:
I taught a class in the morning on "Living By the Spirit." My sermon in the morning was on "Keeping in Step with the Spirit." My class in the afternoon (at 2:00 PM) was on "What does 'Grieving the Spirit' (Eph 4:30) mean." (Notice any kind of "theme" to the day there?). Irene's afternoon class was the lesson she has on "God's Anger Management Course." At lunch we had some wonderful food provided by the members of the church there. It was all soooo good. There were 7 men and about 14 women there.
Then, this past Tuesday night we went to Piketberg. It's about 1 1/2 hours from Cape Town on the road to Namibia. Its a congregation that began about 13 years ago. I actually spoke there about 10 or so years ago. At the time they met in a local community building for services. Now they have a small building they've built. We went and there were about 15 of us. It was a cold, miserable, rainy evening. So the building was cold but that didn't stop these brothers and sisters in Christ from coming for this time of study, singing and fellowship. Here's a short video of us all singing a song:
My lesson that evening was on "Our Covenant with God." I spoke about 1 1/2 hours and compared God's covenant with Noah; God's Covenant with Israel and God's Covenant with us in Christ. We spoke about the Parties of the Covenants; Terms of the Covenants and Blessings/Curses of the Covenants. It was a wonderful group to study with. Some of it Rohan had to translate into Afrikaans as we went along because "technical stuff" isn't easy to follow in what amounts to the 2nd language for almost everyone that was in the class.
Wednesday evening I spoke at the church in Gugulethu. The church meets in one of the members homes. I spoke about the 10th plague God brought against Egypt (the death of all firstborn of both man and beast) but "passed over" the Israelites in Goshen. I also touched upon the "Law of the First Born" and redeeming the first born required under the Law of Moses and finished with the New Testament's teaching that JESUS is our "passover Lamb" that was slain and whose blood redeems us. Also, in all this I touched upon the passover's requirement for unleavened bread (bread without yeast) and the requirement that the Jews remove the "Old Leaven" which included scrubbing down the walls to assure there was none left. Then went to 1 Cor 5 and our necessity to get the "old leaven" out of our life - ungodliness, etc.
Here's a video of the group that was with us there that night:
Today it was Irene's turn to swing for the fences. She taught the Ladies class from Bonteheuwel (although this week they met at Sandra Jones' house not at the Bonteheuwel building). There were about 12 ladies there Irene told me. She taught a lesson on the "Wife of Manoah" (that would mean she was the mother of Samson). I haven't been able to get her PowerPoint lesson to load as a movie yet.
This afternoon we went to Sister Lauers home across the street from the Manuel's for lunch after Irene got back from her class. Also invited were Cathleen and Rosanna vanReenen (who is our excellent cook while we are at the Manuel's home) and Roslyn and Phillip Hendricks. Phillip is one of the evangelists at Athlone along with Peter Manuel and Rohan Jones.
Tomorrow we are going to go to a penguin colony along the coast (DUH!) down toward Cape Point. Irene is really excited about it. She's never seen penguins in the wild. After going with Mary and Kazumi to the Antarctic marathon in 2008 I am like "YAWN, I'm so 'been there and done that' " (about six different penguin species too). However, Irene underlines to me that this is a different species than any in Antarctica so I'm obligated to be excited tomorrow too. So I will be. I'm sure.
Sunday, June 1, 2014
We are Feelin' the Love!
Washington, D.C.
ALL CLAIMS IN THIS POST ARE MADE WITH MY TONGUE DEEEEEPLY PLANTED IN MY CHEEK. I KNOW I AM A LEGEND ONLY IN MY OWN MIND!
Lafayette, IN
Santa Ana, CA
Cody, WY
Baltimore, MD
Houston, TX
What do all of these cities share in common? Give up? They are all named after a person.
Washington - Named for George Washington an American General and 1st President of the United States.
Lafayette - named after Gilbert du Motier - Whose title in France was the Marquis de Lafayette. A French Aristocrat that helped America in our war for Independence from England.
Santa Ana - Named after Ann the supposed mother of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Cody - Named after William "Buffalo Bill" Cody a legendary scout for the Army and then the railroad in its push westward.
Baltimore - Named after Lord Baltimore a Catholic member of the house of Lords in England that petitioned "Mary, Queen of Scots" for a tract of land in America where Catholics could worship God according to their faith and conscience. The city was named for him. The state of MARYland was named for the queen that granted his request.
Houston - Named after Sam Houston the General in charge of the army of Texas in its battle for independence from Mexico. Initially Texas was a sovereign nation (republic) all its own from 1836-1846 when it petitioned for entrance into the United States of America.
My point in this stroll through historical/geographic trivia is that you have ARRIVED when people start naming things after you - cities; states; hospitals; federal buildings - heck even sports move the "Fosbury Flop."
With this fact in mind welcome my friends to:
That's right people. Even as far back as 1773, my ancestor - Robert Gordon - realized I would be such a seminal figure in South African history that he named a city for me 241 years ago! Thanks Uncle Bob! Now, if you read the "history of Gordon's Bay" they will give you some "dog and pony" explanation of his being so arrogant that he named it in honor of himself. I know better. We Gordons do not struggle with pride. They just didn't know that Uncle Bob was prescient. He knew that one day his great-great-great-great-great-great-wonderfully great nephew was going to arrive in South Africa in 1984. That he would be here to usher out Apartheid and usher in the new age of a FREE South Africa. That the mere force of my presence in 1992 would be enough to sway hundreds of thousands of white Afrikaaners to realize the error of their way and vote to enfranchise all South Africans. Only Uncle Bobby knew that I would be here in 1994 and by force of will would lead Nellie (what I called Nelson when we were in a room alone together) to a rousing victory for the ANC and the transition to a peaceful exchange of power to the majority black population. He knew that I, James R Gordon, would be in South Africa when it hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup. They say it aint braggin' if you can back it up. Like old Walter Brennan said "No Brag; Just Fact!" I've got boarding passes and passports to back up every claim.
So, on Thursday I asked Peter to drive Irene and I to Gordon's Bay for one final look at my namesake.
Above, On the way to Gordon's Bay you pass some lovely mountains that are part of the Hottentot-Holland Range
Below - At the Base of the ridge of center of this picture is the city of Gordon's Bay. This picture is taken as we are passing through Somerset West
Above - If you look closely at the diamond on the side of the mountain, it contains the letters G B in to for "Gordon's Bay."
Below is a picture of the Pump Station for the Fresh Water Reservoir that is in the mountains up behind Gordon's Bay.
Above is a beautiful Picture from the ridge that is above Gordon's Bay looking west.
ALL CLAIMS IN THIS POST ARE MADE WITH MY TONGUE DEEEEEPLY PLANTED IN MY CHEEK. I KNOW I AM A LEGEND ONLY IN MY OWN MIND!
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