"I can stop any time I want to" OR "What should I watch next?"

There are many things you miss when you go to do mission work in many parts of the world:  

1. Good WiFi 

2. Being able to walk into a store and having 20 of one item on the shelf - 15 of another and EXACTLY what you need because of competition filling every niche of the marketplace; 

3. Fox News (CNN is everywhere)

But more than anything is TV from the present season. Thank the Lord for DirecTV and DVRs.

While we were gone I had our DVR recording away.  Since we left in the beginning of May (the 7th) there was only a couple more weeks of this season's programs still to show.  Thank goodness the DVR had enough space to record them all and didn't get knocked off-line somehow while we were gone.

Trying to figure out what to watch first to last is the hardest part.  I started by watching stuff that Irene at least has the slightest interest in.  I thought she'd tolerate Mentalist; Person of Interest or Elementary best.

She opted for the Mentalist.  Then Person of Interest came next (last night) we watched Elementary.  That was about it for what Irene has any real level of interest in (and I think even that's feigned for my benefit).  Next I watched what I had the least interest in: the season finale for Hawaii 5-0; an episode of Unforgettable;  Now I'm moving on to the heavy hitters - NCIS:Los Angeles and NCIS.  That will be it for tonight.  Tomorrow (Lord Willing) I will get to finish it off with Bones and the Coup de Grace Criminal Minds.

Irene calls me a TV-aholic.  I know it isn't true, but I'm having a hard time collecting ANY evidence to counter her claim.

2 for 3 isn't bad if you play baseball, right? or Meeting ourselves coming AND going

We arrived home late Wednesday night.  Unfortunately, one of our suitcases didn't.  You don't care nearly as much if you don't get your luggage arriving back home though.  You've got lots of extra clothes at the house and the suitcase is going to get a comfortable chauffeur driven ride to your house when it gets in.

Thursday was wash clothes for Irene day (A women's work is never done) and a finish getting the garage cleaned out for me day.  Because .... on Friday we closed on the sale of our house.  We got finished with our tasks and had to drive the Trekker to our next Sojourn.  It is at the Franklin Road Church of Christ in Indianapolis, IN.  The rig had to be off the property by the close of the house sale, so it was best to get it out Thursday night, because .... you can't have gain without pain - On Friday morning I had an appointment at the retinologist.  I knew I'd have to get an Avastin shot in my eye and I wouldn't be able to drive the Trekker to Indianapolis after closing on the house in the afternoon.

So, at least until we finish the house in Mission, TX in September we are officially homeless.  Yes, the Obama Economy (actually the lack of economy) has even thrown us to the curb.  (I figure that EVERY homeless person in the USA was blamed on "the Reagan Economy" for 30 years, so I'm blamin' Barach - [YES, this has been a paid advertisement of the limited government movement]).

Friday evening - as we are won't to do when I've been a good little patient and let the big, mean doctor stick a needle in my eye - we went to ColeStone Creamery.  Then, HUBBA, HUBBA to celebrate the sale of the house we went to Tokyo Buffet on Emerson in Greenwood IN for their terrific sushi.

Saturday I had a bored meeting, er uh, board meeting for a charity for which I serve on the board  .  I'm trying to figure which is more masochistic - the whole submitting to getting a needle poked in my eye or being on ANY board of directors.  Irene had stayed in Indy at the congregation because they were having a VBS prep meeting.  That's what this sojourn is all about - helping this small congregation with there VBS.

Yesterday, was father's day.  After morning worship we met Kazumi, Steve, Neo and Kendra for brunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  Then Steve and I went to see the newest X-Men movie.  It was pretty good.  After evening worship a bunch of us from the congregation went to dinner @ Cracker Barrel.  A good time was had by all.

We finished the night watching the last 2 episodes of the season for "Elementary" - the US version of a modern Sherlock Holmes (as opposed to the BBC version with Benedict Cumberbatch).

So, we bid you adieu.

"Do You Remember Tennessee Tuxedo" or " o/`o/` Memories, light the cormers of my mind o/`o/`"

Now it's time for a little catch-up blogging:

Last Friday Irene and I went down to Simonstown, to "Boulder Beach."  It is the location of a Penguin Colony.  The penguins there are called "Jackass" Penquins because their call sounds very much like a Donkey's bray.

Irene had never seen penguins in the wild before - only in zoos.  So she was very excited about it.  In fact, I think it was the thing (other than teaching and doing church-oriented things) that was the thing that she enjoyed the most.  We got a lot of pictures some of which I'm including on this post

The reason it's called "Boulder Beach"

We saw virtually every stage of the penguin's development:

An Egg - it had rolled out of nest and is assuredly dead

2 babies with downy (non-waterproof) feathers.  They can't swim yet.

A "teenager" - with its waterproof Juvenile Feathers and Colorization.  

It CAN swim now.   These are called "Baby Blues"

Adult with adult colors.

These penguins nest in grass, holes, under roots in special plastic huts 

made for them by the wildlife department

"And so it begins" or "You to can you squeeze 30 hours into a 24 hour day"

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.

"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.

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).

Head WEST Lad and Lassie

We are in the Johannesburg British Airlines Business Class Lounge awaiting our flight to London which leaves in about 1 hour.

This is dedication to our peeps out there.  I squeezed one in for you so you don't got through JITrekking.com withdrawal.