TheLionRampant.net

First off, we’re back from our weekend away in London. It was wonderfully fabulous and if you’re not interested in hearing more, I suggest you come back another day to read other things we’ve written (or take a browse through our archives). A few pictures are located here for your enjoyment.

We hired a car for our trip and left early Friday morning. We drove over to Glasgow and south on the M6 and rather than spending a few short hours in London before we had to arrive at the peoples’ home at which we were staying, we decided to spend those few hours in Oxford. This is exciting for me on so many levels and caused me to clap for excitement when we made the decision. For those not in the know, I spent three months there on an exchange programee (the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies), and had the time of my life; I still keep in touch with the 6 women with whom I lived, who now live in the States, UK and South America. I guess the travel bug bit us all! Anyway, we had a lovely time although I had to feel my way around the city, not having a map with me. And as Bryce says, neither of us had a ’staging area’. Whenever travelling, I need to mental prepare (or stage) myself for the experience and since we made the decision last-minute, I didn’t have the opportunity. He also didn’t have the opportunity to be led slowly up to all of these Oxfordian monuments (the Bodleian library for instance as you quite regularly round a corner and find it in front of you). We had pasties in the covered market followed by Ben’s cookies, which are heavenly. We also enjoyed the 2nd hand floor of Blackwell’s Bookshop. It was fabulous.

We then drove down to Ealing, a borough in west London, to stay with some lovely people, Graham and Katie Weeks. They graciously put us up for the weekend and fed us some lovely food! It was great to meet and be with Christians and find an instantaneous ‘comfortability’ with them. Saturday, Bryce went off to a presbytery meeting with Graham and I went into London. Having forgotten my tourist book, I acted even more touristy by asking everyone where certain things were! My first stop was Portobello Road Market, where I picked up a fabulous silver candelabra, a funky skirt and a cute silver sugar spoon for my mom. I then went to the Victoria and Albert Museum; I loved the feel for the time that you get when there and enjoyed the flattened musical instrument decorations. I then found my way to a Wagamama’s where I immersed myself with my ramen and a book, to avoid looking like a complete loner eating by myself. I then went to the National Gallery, where I’d spent some time before. I love their collection of Dutch master and impressionist painters. Van Gogh’s Farms near Avers is one of my favourite pieces there, by far and I was disappointed the gift shop didn’t have a print of it. My feet aching, I enjoyed a cup of tea until meeting up with Bryce for a fab dinner in China Town.

Sunday, we went to IPC Ealing, which both Bryce and I found extremely refreshing. The congregation was so very welcoming and they had a lovely service. We particularly enjoyed the strength of the singing and speaking with people from all over the world who attend there. It was great to meet the pastor, Paul Levy, as well and hear more about the IPC. We had another lovely meal after the service with the Weeks and then headed back to Edinburgh; we then decided last-minute that it’d be nice to visit Grace Church Hackney as we had heard good things about it. It, too, had a lovely service and we again were encouraged. We left London around 7 pm and rolled into Edinburgh in the wee hours of the morning, with several stops for caffeine, sugar and cat naps. All in all, a fabulous weekend and I hope we can quickly get back into the swing of classes and studying!

*I realise of course that our Scottish readers will probably never read this blog entry due to its title. It comes from a hilarious song that Graham Weeks played for us called ‘a song of patriotic prejudice’, whose chorus begins with the title of this blog entry. It of course was as tongue-in-cheek as most good English humour and we quite enjoyed it. This, of course, does not mean that we necessarily agree with Flanders and Swann’s song, but being that we were in the south of England this weekend, it seems only fitting to use it as our title. (End of disclaimer).

Nathaniel Hawthorne spent 7 years abroad, most of which was spent in England and Italy. The end of his last major novel, written with his ‘abroad-ness’ fully in view, is The Marble Faun (1860), a novel that concerns the nature of art, representation, and a fall from grace, all within a prose which delights in the ambiguities inherent in life and art. (Coincidentally, if you’ve only read The Scarlet Letter, give this book a shot for a totally different Hawthorne). On the last several pages, the narrator makes his presence known while telling the story of two American expats who return home. I think it is an apt, although certainly melancholy, understanding of the phenomena of being ‘transatlantic’:

‘And, now that life had so much human promise in it, they resolved to go back to their own land; because the years, after all, have a kind of emptiness, when we spend too many of them on a foreign shore. We defer the reality of life, in such cases, until a future moment, when we shall again breathe our native air; but, by-and-by, there are no future moments; or, if we do return, we find that the native air has lost its invigorating quality, and that life has shifted its reality to the spot where we have deemed ourselves only temporary residents. Thus, between two countries, we have none at all, or only that little space of either, in which we finally lay down our discontented bones. It is wise, therefore, to come back betimes—or never’ (357-8).

Sadly, our red umbrella finely bit the dust this morning after two and a half years of faithful service, due to heavy rain and winds. There will be a memorial service for the remains of the umbrella this weekend, Sunday at 4pm. This event will be held in our living room. You are cordially invited to attend. The remains of the umbrella will be laid to rest in the bin in Ashley’s office, today, 20th January.

First I shall ask you to try and name that above quotation? (I’ll give a clue: it’s from a relatively recent movie with some great actors in it).

In list form here are a few things about us as of late:
1. I shall be published! An essay I presented at a conference this summer is going to be published. This is exciting and although my advisor says encouragingly, “an illustrious career beckons…”, I’m not so sure it’ll be illustruous. But it shall be a career of some sort.
2. I’ve decided after to-ing and fro-ing quite a lot, that I like the academic life. Of course getting one’s first real publication helps. But additionally, tutorials went very well today. I think the students are really feeling more comfortable with me and we had a lot of laughs. Other things that went well are that I helped a number of students individually with their essay-writing and close reading: two things I really enjoy.
3. I had a lovely lunch date with Neyir and we chatted about loads of future possibilities, which is always fun to discuss.
4. Bryce is regularly making dinner and after being out of practice on that front for quite a while, he’s jumped in well! Dinner has been yummy each night. Well done!
5. My head is clear. After being home just over a week we’ve nixed the sleeping pills and although we’ve either not been able to fall instantly asleep or sleep all through the night, I can think clearly all through the day!
6. My friends here think I’m tan after being in California. Now that’s funny.

Now, I also have a mission!
De-lurking.
If you tend to read this blog now and then, or compulsively, and we have no clue that you’re reading because you rarely, or never, comment. I’m inviting you to make your presence known. Take off that mask!

Good day all.

Here’s a great quote from Rick Phillips:

…it reminds me of yet another reason Lewis’ presentation of Christ through fantasy is so much better than Gibson’s portrayal of Christ. Aslan does not purport to accurately portray our Lord, but rather to depict allegorically what our Lord is like and what his great saving work accomplished. As such, Narnia does not compete with God’s Word for our image of Christ the way The Passion did, but rather complements the biblical portrait. (This is why, having publicly urged my congregation not to attend The Passion, I urged them to see Narnia.)

from ref21

After 3 flights, we have arrived safely back in chilly Edinburgh. Friday I got sunburned while sailing in the 75 degree California sun; today I had to put on a coat and beanie to go outside. Our day’s worth of travel has left me with a headache, serious jet-lag, and a number of questions: 1) why is there never enough seating in the airport lounge? 1b) Why does the PA system in the airport lounge only work within close enough proximity to the person speaking that you could hear him/her without the PA? 2) Why do I always seem to get stuck in the most obscure corner of the airport–the part that looks like the meeting place for the jedi council during the 1970’s? 3) Are the people that work at JFK airport representative of New Yorkers as a whole? That’s all for now. Further reflections on our trip may follow.

We leave the land of excess in 24 hours and 45 minutes. I will spend today attempting the magical feat of cramming all the stuff we are bringing back into the allotted number of suitcases. We’re also going out to dinner for the 83rd time. That’s all for now.