Lessons from the Brits Week 37 January 18th to January 24th, 2015

There are weeks that float and weeks that grind and weeks that just put you right under.  Under what, I have no idea – but this week put me right under.  Whose fault is it?  Everyone is just pointing fingers so I guess we get the blame.

LIE
Measuring Cups
There are no measuring cups but every kitchen has a handy little scale where you measure all your ingredients to put into your food.  The flour and sugar aren’t so bad, but I am not good at measuring butter and shortening. 

 

1. Sunday was its usual chore to get up and ready.  I believe one of the most important things that I can do each week is to partake of the sacrament, but some Sunday’s I wish I could just roll over and go back to sleep.  Once I get in the car and especially in church it is all worth it.
We went to church in East Grindstead this week.  They were all very nice meetings.
For dinner I made sweet and sour pork chops and shrimp chow mien.  It was actually very good.
There was a fireside that night with a missionary couple speaking and they did a great job.  Then calls home and back to our flat for rest.

2. Monday was a housework day where I tried to get our closet sorted.  I helped Betty (Janet) Crocker do Wii fit and I had a pretty good work out as well.  I also cut my hair a bit more.
Then we got cleaned up and went to Lingfield to the Greyhound Pub with Mulholland’s.  They bought our lunch because we are always driving them places.  It was really good and great fun.  We went over to East Grindstead and did a bit of grocery and other shopping and then went down and met with the travel agency to find something to do during our break.  It was so nice when we left but it got very chilly.  The travel agency was closed for a bit so we went next door to the charity shop and bought Brad a coat.  I love it.
Home again and we finished up the housework and laundry, read our book while I worked on my new project and then went to bed.

Finally getting better.  We take pictures every Monday.

 

Charity shop hat and coat.  Smile is all his own.

3.  Early week so we were up and at it by the crack of dawn.  It was a bit slow but that only means we have to work harder to fill in the gaps. 
After our shift Brad went walking and I did some Wii fit.  We had leftovers for supper and all was well.  Oh, we are trying to eat more fruits and veggies so we are buying fun things over here.  We got a tin of lychee’s so we opened them and tried them.  Brad said they tasted like a grapefruit and a pear committed adultery.  Good laugh with that one.

4.  It was a fine day at the temple.  We hurried home and headed to the travel agency.  We have decided to go on a cruise through the Mediterranean.  They only had 2 plane ticket seats left so in order to hold our spot we had to purchase today.  They were at lunch when we got there so we went down and had a hot cocoa and lemon muffin which we loved.  It took forever to get our tickets but we finally made it back to our flat just in time to have tea with the Blake’s.  She fixed spaghetti bolognaise which was wonderful.  Brad had made brownies so we had them with ice cream for dessert.  So fun – we love the Blake’s.  We set up the Wii and bowled and had quite the time.  Lovely night.

5.  We are coordinators this week so we have to be at the temple very early.  When the other workers came a bit later, they were all excited about having internet.  I was thrilled.  It was an average day but plenty busy on us at the temple.  After our shift we did a session for ourselves.  That was very nice.  We made it home and rushed to our ipads – yepper!  We have internet!!! Of all crazies, for tea we finished the spaghetti I had made the other day for supper.  Brad read and I did my project and of course we had to check our internet every 5 minutes. WONDERFUL!

6.  Again, we started way early.  The recorder in the temple saw us and came with a paper.  He said he was sorry.  We looked down and every single trip for the break was rejected this year.  Brad went completely white and said we had just paid for our cruise because last time they told us no trip had ever been rejected.  Brother Adkins told us to call the President.  We did and while he was just sick for us, he said there was nothing he could do.  We had a break for an hour so Brad ran home and called to cancel the cruise.  They said they could do it but there would be a fee and we would have to call back later to see how much.  Brad came back better but rather ill.  We made it through the day and rushed home to call again.  £500 or $800.  Now we were really sick.  There is absolutely nothing that we can do!
When I was working clothing one day a Lovell came through to get clothing.  He is from the Ririe Lovell’s but his father had moved to California.  Then we realized that his wife is a Benson from Rexburg.  Anyhow, we see each other here and there and they called and asked us to eat.  We had expected it to be great fun but our mood was not up to par but once they showed up we had a great time getting to know one another.  We went to the Thai place and everyone liked their food.
We came home and had ice cream and talked a bit more.  After they left, we called the missionary department number that was on our rejection and asked them why we had been asked to plan and send in a request when they already knew they were going to deny them.  On our denial letter the policy is listed as of 2014.  They said they had sent the updated policy to our temple president in November.  That is not the story we got from them so we don’t understand what is happening.  All we know is that we lost a lot of money to have no fun!

 

Cynthia Benson Lovell and Byron Lovell.

7.  Saturday starts at 7:30 AM and I made it by about 10 seconds.  The day was rather busy which was good because I wanted to think of something else.  The minute my last duty was over I was home and in bed.  I needed a nap in the worst way.
When I woke up I got up and made bread and thawed out our potato soup and we had fresh baked rolls and yummy soup.  They had a great movie tonight but we were not in the mood.  Ty and Gus called us and we had the best time ever talking with them.  I was going through our facetime numbers and saw Annie Hartvigsen.  We have really lost tract of her but I gave it a try.  No one.  Later that night the ipad rang and it was Annie.  She told us she had just got engaged.  We got all excited and she hung up and went and got him and then called again and we talked forever.  It was so much fun and we really needed that.

So we have internet in our flat; unlimited except it is through the church so we can’t do movies and youtube.  Still we are thrilled.  We lost £500 or $800 because someone didn’t send the memo or someone didn’t read the memo and yes, we probably should have waited and not believed what we were told last time.  JOY!  I was furious that all my life I have saved money and gone without or with the cheap one so some travel agency can take our money.  I could see them charging us £100 for us cancelling 5 weeks before the cruise but I was in shock at losing so much money.  But to end the week we talked to our grandchildren and we connected with Annabelle!  She is engaged and is coming to London this summer!!  We are thrilled.  The good may not outweigh the bad, but it sure brightened our spirits.

Never book a cruise early,

Get some sun every day,

Our Love,

The Parkinson’s