wanderings.: London bridge didn't fall down... and other stories

During an a stroll through the English countryside.

I'm actually posting on my blog! We are currently staying in Edinburgh which is ridiculously cold for being winter! We got down to 14 degrees Celsius which is shocking. To be honest, someone should come fix Scotland. Before I get to our shenanigans in Edinburgh however I believe that London should be covered, as that was an adventure all in itself!

But before London, I should say a little something about L'abri. *Sniff sniff*

My experience at L'abri was hard to describe. It was amazing, challenging, fun, painful and so many other emotions that seem to conflict, but, as I found out, you can actually experience simultaneously. So what was the big thing that I learned while at the Manor House. I have been taught by God that loneliness and solitude are different things. That even if something is resolved from your childhood that there are still consequences that need to be examined. I learned the Norwegian card game, which I will take back to my homeland and spread through the colonies! I learned that time isn't always necessary for intimate friendships to be established, and I learned that living in community is hard.

On a lighter note; my last night at the Manor House was wonderfully fun! We had a game of rugby (State of Origin rematch: Queensland won...) in which I accidentally bit a small child (sorry Ned), a lecture about Cheese and Epistemology, a night out at the Greatham pub, a not quite PG rated story from Daniel, and potentially some shenanigans on the Manor House roof. In summary, a pretty good send off.

I am so loved...

But onto the story of London! So I headed off to London Waterloo where I was to meet Amelia and her friend who we were staying with. So with sad heart but still excited about seeing Amelia I arrived at Waterloo where I eagerly waited in the proposed meeting spot, sending messages about how I was there. 12:30 came around and still no Amelia when the thought hit me like a ton of bricks... Amelia flew out on the 25th of June, and arrived on the 26th of June in London. Today was the 25th of June, I had arrived a day early. I had no where to stay, I didn't have Amelia's friends number to call, I was stuck. I sat down a corner of the airport my mind becoming very dramatic. Would I have to sleep in the train station? What if they kick me out of the station and I have to sleep on the street? What if while sleeping on the street someone steals my stuff or worse... what if they kill me? After getting to the point of death in my mind I then calmed down and thought. In God's wonderful provision I had met some wonderful ladies at L'abri a couple of weeks before. Nicola and Amy stayed at L'abri for four days but I had got Nicola's contact details. At that time she gave me a phone number which I thought was funny considering that I would never use it.... wrong. With her number in hand I marched out to a phone booth where I inserted the last pound coin I had in my wallet into the phone. When Nicola answered I felt my heart leap and when she said that I could stay with them I was floating with relief. She had just finished giving me her address when the phone went dead, I was out of coins. So armed with an address I marched back into London Waterloo and bought a ticket to a suburb not knowing where I was going. I got to the suburb fine and dropped my bags off in the front yard behind a hedge. I was walking down the road towards town when I thought that I should probably check the number of the house again. Sure enough I had got 55 rather than 50. Yay Erin! Way to go! So then I lugged my bags down the street in the plain sight of a car which circled around twice to see what I was doing and dumped them in the front yard, praying that it wouldn't rain. After that it was pretty smooth sailing, it didn't rain, I bummed around town until the girls got home from work, I was treated like a queen at there place and I met Amelia the next day at the right time in the right place.

But London... oh my London! The history of it is almost too much to be believed and the beauty of some of the structures is hard to comprehend. On the day of Amelia's arrival we walked for about 4 hours around London getting pictures of Monopoly streets. We walked across London Tower Bridge and wondered what the really old building at the end of it was, taking pictures as we went. Got to the middle of the bridge when alarms start going off! The bridge was opening to allow a ship to go through. We dashed to the other side and kept going. Turns out that really old building I was talking about was the Tower of London. Yeah, we're pretty intelligent I know... try not to let it intimidate you.

London-1 Australians-0.