The Stages of Dan

We have really been enjoying watching filming for Balcony TV over at Yumchaa. Last night Somer and I went with her mom to watch, and we realized that the girls would enjoy it as well. They did an extra filming session tonight, so we took them over to watch. They did great. Jodie got on really well with the presenter, who chatted to her in between takes. The highlight for me was one of the bands that played last night. Their name? The Stages of Dan.

Bond Street Lights

On Thursday night, we met up with a few other World Harvest folks down on Bond Street. They were turning on the Christmas lights, and had shut down the whole street for pedestrians only. Snow machines blew soapy 'snow' all up and down the street - it was beautiful. The kids are here between two guys juggling.

Slack Top

Went to Slack Top Christian Retreat Centre a few weeks ago. It's up in the wild Yorkshire moors. We had a really nice time walking in the woods, listening to the wind howl at night, and worshiping God. Here the girls are leading all of us in worship through a dance the kids put together with Fraggle, one of the leaders at the weekend.

World Record Attempt

Last week while walking to our prayer meeting in the market I ran across this attempt to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. The record? Longest lineup of pizzas, edge to edge.

Snowing

Just a quick post to say it's snowing in London!! Yep, it's October 28 and it's snowing. Won't last long, I know, but let me revel in it anyway! There's gotta be some upside to the sun going down at 4 PM.

[Update] Just got back from heading down to 55. It was snowing pretty hard, and we now have a layer of slush on the streets and sidewalk, with parked cars covered in white. It was Tom's birthday down at the bar. He was working, so a few of his family and friends came in to celebrate with him. I brought him the first snowball of the winter w/ a birthday candle on top. It didn't last too long...snowballs and candles don't really mix.

Frieze Art Fair

We've had another glorious fall weekend in London. Yesterday the family took a walk through Regents Park and checked out the sculptures from the Frieze Art Fair. This one is my favorite (or maybe it's just the only one I managed to pull my camera out for). Anyway, it was fun seeing the park we love transformed into an open art gallery. We walked through the free section - we weren't about to pay £25 each to get into the main exhibit.

Art Show Update

The Shelter Art Show has been open since Wednesday evening. We had about 40 at our opening night, and it felt quite full in the side chapel at St. Michaels, which we had filled with artwork during the previous two days. The Mayor of Camden even showed up to help us officially open the show.
Tomorrow the exhibition will be open in the evening, and I'll be doing a few private viewings in the afternoon. Not to potential big-spenders, though. A couple of the classes from St. Michael's school will be coming down for a look around the gallery. I have to come up with something interesting for the kids to do - I may have them draw based on the theme of the show.
I'll try to get a few good pictures up tomorrow. Not too good, though, since many of the artists rely on selling their originals and prints. Having high-quality jpegs on the web would kind of defeat that purpose.

Balcony TV

Just got back from watching fliming for Balcony TV London. Balcony TV is musicians playing on a balcony. Started in Dublin, now happening also in London. As it happens, the London balcony is just across the canal from us. Our friends at Yumchaa tea shop invited us to come over and check it out - the balcony in question happens to be theirs. We've had a leak in our flat, so I had to wait until the plumber sorted it all out (turned out to be the toilet above us...supply, not waste, thankfully for the cleanliness minded among us). So of course I was a bit late, but did manage to catch the end, hear some really good music, and chug a quick Red Chai. Now it's off to bed to rest up for the opening of our art show tomorrow.

Canal Concert

We've been having some great weather over the past few weekends. Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. During the afternoon we heard some live music drifting over from the canal/market area, and we went to investigate. A band had set up shop on top of a canal boat that was moored in the lock. The girls danced around in any open space they could find, which was hard to come by given the number of people who packed the bars, bridges, and walkways around the lock.

Football

Prior to a tragic loss to Hull over the weekend, Arsenal dismantled Sheffield Utd. 6-0 in Carling Cup action last week. As it was Carling Cup, tickets were only £10, so I went with a couple of buddies. Tom (center) got the tickets, and we managed to sit 11 rows from the pitch! We saw Arsenal's first three goals up close, but then were far from most of the second half action, as they switched halves and Arsenal continued to dominate.
You may notice that I'm getting more pictures up these days - thank Virgin Mobile for that. They just sent me an upgraded phone with a better camera. Sorry about cutting you out, John, my self-portrait skills aren't that great.

Religion is Stupid

We went for a walk along the canal this weekend and stumbled into an area of Camden we'd never been to before. It's hard to get to and feels quite isolated. We realized we had looked at a place to rent in the area when we first moved here, and are glad we didn't like the flat. I saw this stuck up on one of the signs by the canal.

Long Walk & Camden on USA TV

Yesterday we went for an afternoon walk outside the city. We hopped on the train for 40 minutes and half-way through the ride, Andi says 'This looks like America!' Translation: 'I can see green grass and trees!' The plan was to walk a little bit, stop at a pub, and then finish the walk back at the station. However, shortly after leaving the pub, we missed a turn somewhere and ended up wandering around these fields for an extra hour, so by the time we got back to the train station we were exhausted.

Then last night, I watched the Ravens game. Here's the crazy part: There's a new advertisement for Windows called "I'm a PC". On the one that aired last night, there are lots of people who say 'I'm a PC, and I wear a suit' who are wearing all types of specialist suits. Then one guy says 'I'm a PC, and I don't wear a suit'. Behind him is clearly visible the pub that's around the corner from our flat! He's standing on the pedestrian bridge that crosses the canal and leads into the West Yard of Camden Lock market. I was so excited I stopped the game and rewound it to make sure.

Shelter Art Show

Our annual art show to raise money for the homeless shelter we work with is in advanced planning. We have a venue (St. Michael's again), artists (currently six, we'd like a couple more), and plenty of enthusiasm. What we don't have is great marketing/advertising skill. How do we actually get the word out so that we get people actually coming; and not just people, the RIGHT people? Those aren't rhetorical questions...anybody have any suggestions?

Market Prayer

This morning we met for prayer at Yumchaa in the Market. It was only two of us, so quite tiny. Spent half-an-hour praying for our friends and naming the things that we see in the market and in our own lives that call us to turn our attention and our hope away from God. Our hope is that as we name these things, the resurrection of Jesus will cause these things to lose their power over us and our city.
For those of you who follow our lives closely, you may notice that we switched the morning of prayer from Tuesday to Thursday. While Tuesday was good for the tea-shop because it was so quiet, we found that it's been TOO quiet in the rest of the market, and so we've opted for Thursday when more people are around.

Bowling

We took the girls bowling this afternoon. We were intending it to be a family thing, but they each really wanted to bring a friend. So in the end we took four kids bowling. It was a blast. The lane has these ramps that let you put the ball on top, take aim, and then push the ball to send it flying down the lane. It was fun taking the girls and sharing the experience with their friends from school.

Harrison's Rocks

I went to Harrison's Rocks in Sussex yesterday afternoon with my friend Dave. It's a popular climbing destination, and our first trip out of London for some 'real' outdoor climbing. The rocks are Sandstone, which makes for messy holds and slippery shoes, so not the best experience from a pure climbing standpoint. BUT, the weather was absolutely perfect, and it was great to get out of the city. We said "The Climber's Prayer" that I had written (i.e. stolen from the psalms) and then hiked about a half-mile into the woods to get to the rocks. I could have stopped without even climbing, the scenery was so beautiful. But the climbing was fun too. Some pictures:

Dave setting up our top rope on our first climb

Me and Dave (squinting into the sun - yes, it is sunny sometimes here in England)

Me jumping a small chasm to get down after a bit of bouldering

Dave flying above me

Dev Meeting

"The Dev" is our local goth/alternative pub, serving Hobgoblin beer. Hobgoblin's tag line on their poster is "Afraid of the dark, lager boy?" with a picture of a mischievious goblin holding a pint of the redish drink. I had my first 'meeting' in the Dev a few days ago. One of the artists who is doing work for our art show in October agreed to meet there to discuss the details. Here's a pic of the sign above the bar. It reads:
No Smoking
No Drugs
No Younguns savvy?
The Staff are the law
Do not startle the trained monkeys

First Day of School

The new school year started today, and the girls were very excited about it. Andi couldn't sleep last night - at one point she came out and asked if she should start getting ready (this was at 11 o'clock at night, mind you). This morning they woke up early and got their new uniforms on. They especially love their new shoes that we got at Target while we were back in the States.
They packed their lunches while I made breakfast, and we even had time for a few pictures before we all made the 10-minute walk to school. Jodie had made a card for her new teacher, and Andi made a few for some of her friends. When we got to school, Jodie wanted someone to walk her to her new classroom, but Andi said she would go up by herself. The halls were crowded with kids and parents trying to get settled into the first day. Here are a couple of shots from the morning:

The Eye

I'd say my new profile picture is appropriate - seems my eyes are always wide open these days. It's 1:45 AM and I'm still awake. We arrived back in London on Monday, but I can't get seem to shake the time difference. Feeling very tired during the day and wide awake at night. The girls have been staying up really late too. Hope they adjust before school starts.

In the USA

We've been traveling around the States for the last few weeks, telling stories from Camden and spending time with family and friends. I've spoken at six different churches so far, and have one more to go this coming Sunday. I'm totally exhausted.
But, it's been really good for us to be here and reconnect. It's also a good reminder of how far we've come since moving to Camden two years ago. It's hard for us to see it sometimes, because of how close we are to things, but to get the perspective of people who care about what we're doing and are observing from a bit of distance has been very encouraging.
I'm hoping to start blogging a bit more this autumn. I'll try focusing on pictures more, as lots of people have said they appreciate even little snippets from our life in London. We'll see how it goes - I can't promise anything grand.