Lessons from the Brits Week 8 June 29th to July 5th

This is for me probably more than anyone but a few have acted interested in hearing of our mission experiences and someone out there may actually be reading them.  Considering that, I wondered whether I should write this week or not.  While the week had some nice experiences, it had a bad downer that will cause considerable venting so you have been forewarned if you choose to proceed.

Words:

Gammon             Ham
Jolly him along- kindly hurry him up
Cheeky                 They call me cheeky over here and when I keep asking what it means they say saucy.  I asked what saucy means and they say cheeky.  The closest they explain is that it is a little bit naughty and a bit funny in asking people for things.  I am still not quite sure.  But they smile when they say it so I assume they are not angry with me.

 

1.  Painful Sleep and Pot Luck
This morning was just a bit hard to get up for as my body is aching from head to toe but mostly toe.  My feet are just killing me.  My shoes are a bit too wide and my feet are sliding in them and then that kitchen detail after the baptistery all morning was tough.  I took ibuprofen again in the night which helped me get to sleep but then the problem comes in our wonderful new bed.  There is a four inch crack in the two mattress (twin beds being pushed together to make one) and that is where I lay.  When we got here it was all pushed together and fit except one was higher.  When weight goes on them, they separate.  In the other place we stuffed them with towels and blankets but these mattresses are higher so I don’t have enough to stuff.  This is going to take some adjusting or mattress removal!
Church was good and we drove rather well to and fro.  We fixed a small lunch and then I made a casserole for the high and bye.  I swear Anderson’s left rice but I couldn’t find it so I substituted.  I thought I had a pepper and didn’t and the neighbors didn’t either.  Oh my!  Then we couldn’t get that oven to start.  We have already been over to the neighbors twice to find out how to run things so Brad just took it to the other place to bake.
The ‘hi and bye’ was very interesting.  There was tons of food and it was pretty good (not impressed with my own).  Then we had 2 byes that were very sweet and well done – Sister Edwards and Sister Pemberton.  Our first hi was a new Sister George that said she had no idea how to speak 5-7 minutes and then took about 20.  The next hi was the Ibbotson’s from Australia and Barry was sick so she did it alone.  She did a good job but it was not short either.  Then the Roger’s from England spoke and they had amazing stories as they quit their jobs and started being foster parents for over 70 people.  Brother Roger’s has a great wit.  He started with “I am not going to tell you about the first 30 years because if the Lord can forget our sins once we repent, there is no sense bringing them up to you.”  They were great but now that I know, I wish I would have taken long enough to talk about Brad.

Sister Renowden and Sister Pemberton.
You can tell who the clown is.

Sister Edwards, will get better picture this week.

2.  Sunburns and Maps
Monday we took our first van trip to Brighton which is south of here on the ocean front.  The ride wasn’t too long and was filled with talk and chatter.  We walked out on the pier that is filled with all sorts of carnival rides and shops.  Then we walked up the street forever to find were King Peter lived to decide it was too much money so we weren’t going in.  We (the Mulholland’s and us) then headed to find something called regency.  We got all confused about where we were and I kept pointing to the map to tell them we were here.  They wouldn’t believe me until I showed them the name of the shopping center across the street.  As we were looking at that here comes a double decker coach with an open top.  Right in the front seat is Sister Marsh.  Brad gets the biggest kick out of her.  She just takes off by herself and does what she wants.  Our feet decided that bus looked a lot more fun than what we were doing.  Sooo- how do we get on it?  We went across the street to a bus office but no one was in it.  Someone said you catch the tour bus across the street so we went back.  We asked bus driver after bus driver and person after person but could not get any concrete directions.  We had this little map that said pick up 5 was ‘here.’   Still up and down the street we go.  Brian is saying we need to go back across the street because the map shows it here.  I then took the map and turned it around and said but now it says here.  He was not impressed that I was right.  I then went up the street, found the pole with our 5 on it and waved till they saw me.  We finally got on the bus and went around the town a couple of times.  As you on the blog will notice that was the best sleep I have had in days!
We just walked around after that and then I found a big screen playing Wimbledon so I walked down a bit and watched it.  I enjoyed myself but didn’t please everyone.
Then home and stories of everyone else having lots of fun!

Brighton, England

 

 

 

 

 

And you are serving a mission? 

Finally comfortable sleep!

 2.  Not just names!
We got up and exercise, had lunch and we off to the afternoon shift.  We had 2 groups coming in for baptisms so that kept us a bit busy.  Both groups were great but the missionaries brought a young man from Malaysia that had been baptized in April.  He was holding his little blue card like it was pure gold.  I asked who he was being baptized for and he held up his card and said, “My father.”  He was so happy.  It was a great day. 

The kitchen! 

Our kitchen sink -- a double sink! 

Still a tiny fridge.

3.  Calmness.
Brad headed down to exercise but all I wanted to do was the bike so we would have to take turns so I stayed upstairs and worked on the blog.  I called Sister Freeman to ask a question and we ended up going out for a walk.  Come to find out there is a great walk around the whole temple gardens that is way better than following the sidewalks.  She came over and saw our mansion and compared to the even smaller squeeze the single sisters get, it truly is a mansion.
We ate and got ready for the temple.  We didn’t have any baptisms scheduled but a sister came and wanted to do 30.  She had done 70 that morning and wanted an even 100 for the day.  Other than that we had a very calm day. 

Reading in the living room.

 4.  Around the globe.
After another long night of trying to figure out how to sleep on this bed we got up and ready to shop.  We hadn’t been to the store forever so we were low on food.  We stopped off in the middle of town and headed to Clark’s shoe store.  It is still so fun to shop over here.  They haven’t got a Walmart in every town (or any for that matter) so there are card shops and shoe shops and flower shops all over the place.  I found a great pair of Clark’s (a shoe I have always looked for in America made here in England) and they were on sale for £29.  I saw the girl marking some shoes down and asked if these would go any lower.  They rang them up at £19 so I was thrilled.  We bought our food and headed home. 
We had a great day in the temple with 2 baptisms groups.  The first was a family that had brought in 163 names of ancestors their 14 year old son had found.  They were so happy.  We let them do 90 that night and they said they would be back tomorrow for the rest.  Then a beautiful young lady came in from Zimbabwe holding  2 names so tight I thought her hand would go into cramps.  “These are my grandparents.”   She was so thrilled to do their work (baptism and confirmation of the Holy Ghost [she was baptized and confirmed for the grandmother and a young man did the grandfather for her]).  Then a young sister and her father came from Norway.  A young man (12ish) came from France that couldn’t speak a word of English but his mother was with him.  When I went to greet the last part of the group they were 4 tall young men.  One was a recent convert and he had his uncle’s name to do.  It was a really fun night. 

I am arranging the ranch dressing mix for the final picture of
episode one.  That is for Karen Lynn Davidson! 

We actually have a storage room.  I was going to get

it organized before the pix, but energy ran out. 

 

Wahoo!  a laundry room with a freezer twice as big as the fridge.

There is a coat closet but this is a heat closet.  Remember

how I told you the water is so hot.  This is the hot water heater

and they store towels, etc., here and then they are warm

when you want them.  It is very hot in there. 

6.  4^th of July Bombs!
Our son has been trying to find a job for ever so long and applied last week for a dream job at BYUI where I worked and his grandfather worked.  We have been calling every day to find out if he got the job.  At just 15 minutes past midnight we got the text that he didn’t get the job.  Our hearts just feel.  We called him and there were a few minutes of venting and disappointment being stated and then we tried to go to sleep.  Bad idea.  I got up and had some hot chocolate but that didn’t help much.  At 4 a.m. I got up and worked on the computer cleaning up emails and all.  I went back to bed about 6 and slept for about an hour.  Getting up was almost impossible as I had already determined it was a very bad, awful, terrible bad day!  I won’t say all my venting but this one hurt badly because of a lot of circumstances involved.  We are very proud of our son and the life he has lived.  Why this is happening to him is beyond us.  We hope his self esteem hangs in there and have to believe something good will happen for him soon!
Our shift finally started and we had a very busy day indeed.  At prayer meeting they announced that it was Independence Day in America so we American’s could all be proud.  The temple president then said it was ‘good riddance’ day in England.  (In my mood I was ready to play good riddance and fly away.) Sometime during the day my trainer came down and said that the lead mare had checked on how we were doing at stocking the towel cabinet and we had piled the towels so high that when she opened the door they all fell on her (the big issue here is that this is none of her stewardship – she just thinks she has to make sure everyone is doing it up to her standards).  That was the last straw on my very bad day.  I told Brad and he said it was his fault as he had too many towels in his hands and didn’t know what to do with the others so he just stacked them up to his 6’ 2” height on the top shelf.  I asked if they could have fallen on her and he said no that she probably tried to make them neater and when she did they fell on her.  Then we got laughing about our booby trap for her.  That helped a little. 
We finished 2 really nice groups of baptisms and did the laundry.  I wanted to leave notes all over for the lead mare but I didn’t have time.  We got home and had a very bleak 4^th of July night as the Brits were not letting off any fireworks at all for their ‘good riddance’ day.

The Bed from ****

Our bedroom furniture.  There were 2 chairs in here also,

but with them we couldn't open the closet.

New bathroom with a high rise tub.

7.  Real Saturday’s and broken lifts.
Saturday started rather early for us.  We got up and headed to the temple.  The entire parking lot was full of coaches and more were on the way.  The lifts had broken and all the wheel chair people had been to be taken up in some sort of a mechanical chair that went up the stairs with the people almost laying on their backs.  That was exciting to get them up and then down and keep the device charged.  I went to help in baptistery and the sister on the early shift had youth and family name cards everywhere.  We got them all white clothing and organized best we could.  The day really went very well but of course everyone wanted to be first so they could catch their coach.  Finally the last youth was finished and all that was left was laundry.  I was bound and determined to have the closets better than the lead mare could ever do them.  She thinks she is OCD – well I can beat her at that game.  I saw her and she asked if I needed help restacking the closets.  I told her I had done it as well as I could but after she checked them she would have to tell me whether it was good enough.  She kind of looked shocked and said she wouldn’t check if I said they were done.  I gave her the look and she sweetly went away.
I came home and watched the Byron twins loose but I was thrilled for Jack Sock winning doubles.  We were going out to eat but Mulholland’s had us over for yummy chicken.  We took some of Brad’s amazing brownies.
The rest of the night was spent in trying to find the sharing time material I was to teach the next day.  I finally gave up, went to bed and tried to think of something else.  I was still pouting as I felt this had not been a very fun week. 

Gatwick taken from our bedroom window.

Great alarm clock!

Week 8 – great and not-so-great.  A mother’s heart is very tender and she will always hurt for her children.  Still, it is a very good idea to count the many blessings given to her and her family.  My family and friends are absolutely wonderful and there are so many blessings it would take me several notebooks to list them.  Soon, I will be in the mood to do just that!

Your ancestors are more than just names on a page!

Exercise and enjoy the summer!

Our love is with you!

The Parkinson’s

Lessons from the Brits Week 7 June 22nd to June 28th

For anyone that knows me in the slightest degree – and of course I must assume that you do or you wouldn’t be reading this – you would understand that if the word Wimbledon was spoken my brain would be fried.  After all, it has been said that if you opened my head up you wouldn’t find a brain but a large yellow/green tennis ball.  Well, the Wimbledon dream come true happened this week and that is all I can connect with.  If you follow the blog, you know that it is already posted in and of itself, but there were also other days in the week so I will try to set aside Wimbledon and focus on them just a bit.

Words:
Queue                  Line – to stand in line – for hours at a time.  The Brits say it is their favorite thing to do.  If they see someone standing there, they rush to them and stand behind them.  These two darling women in the queue line at Wimbledon with us joked and joked about it, until the 3^rd hour and then they had a queue official by the neck demanding explanations on why they were standing in line. 
When you go to the Dr. (surgery), or pharmacy, or whatever needs a line, it says: Queue here.

1.  How funny can a couple be?
Sunday started out as an ordinary Sunday.  We got up and drove to church without incident and had nice meetings and lessons.  We came home and fixed dinner, had a nap and then headed to a little party for Sister Renowden who is leaving and getting married.  She is Cornish and has explained that the Cornish and the Whales DNA goes back to the ice age but the rest of England is all mixed up with the Romans, etc..  Sister Renowden is also a hoot or very funny.  It has been a pleasure to work with her.
At the little party Sister Curley fixed scones which we were to eat Cornish style and British style.  Cornish style puts the jam on in huge mounds and then tops it off with clotted cream.  Yicks!   You say!  Well, not so.  They take whole, rich milk and boil it hard and then cool it and that becomes clotted cream.  It is just a very soft butter and not squite as salty as I would like.  But to see them pile a scone almost makes me ill as I am not much on that much sweet.  Now the British put on the clotted cream first and then the jam.  We all had to try it both ways.  Then Sister Mulholland had everyone give Sister Renowden marital advice.  That turned into a huge comedy.  Brad said not to put the Preparation H by the toothpaste.  The total winner was Sister Murdock when she said that if your husband is pushing the car trying to start it and you asked him if the key should be on and he says, “No, why would you want the key on to start the car,” that he really meant yes.  I guess she asked him and he said no so she didn’t turn it on and he pushed it about a half mile and it wouldn’t start and finally realized she hadn’t turned the key on.  We have laughed about that all week. 
We also learned that Brother Whitehouse is a top comedian.  He had us just rolling off the chairs.  Goodness, how we laughed.  It was wonderful to be able to make a little noise.

Sister Curley's scones, jam and clotted cream.

The Cornish Way!

Sister Renowden with her pure Cornish DNA and her smile!

Sister Freeman (Salt Lake) taking a pix of Sister Pemberton (Whales),
Sister Renowden (Cornwall)  and a bit of Sister Pilgrim m(Belgium).

The Mulholland's (Canada) and the Rouse's (England).
She is my dishwasher partner! 

Sister Mulholland with Sister Freeman and Sister Renowden.

This is Duck's Gutts, Barry Ibbotson from Australia. 

The true Duck's Gutts, Sister Adreene Ibbotson.

Sister and Brother Whitehouse (England)

 with Brother and Sister McClellan (from LaBelle).

Sister Pilgrim, Sister Curley and we always get Brother Curley's bald spot. 

 

Sister Marsh is tatting everywhere she goes.  She makes Christmas tree ornaments.

The story winner, Sister Murdoch (Logan, Utah).

Brother Murdoch after pushing the car for half a mile!

2.  The long awaited day!
Wimbledon, Wimbledon, Wimbledon.  What a day, what a day!  I couldn’t believe how close you can be to some really great matches.  I do have the blog post which is as many pictures as it is words. 

Center Court!

3.  New jobs and rude drivers!
Tuesday started a new experience for us as we were trained for the baptistery.  Remember the baptismal font on the twelve oxen where we do baptisms for the dead.  This week we are in charge of setting it up, getting the youth organized with their family file names (names they have found in the ancestry),  getting them white clothing to be baptized in and confirmed in, and then organize who will do what.  It takes a bit of work and it is very hot down there with the wonderfully warm baptismal font radiating heat.  They usually come in a ward (how we divide up our members) group or a family group with up to about 20 youth to be baptized and confirmed.  Then after that group is all done, everything needs to be cleaned up and the laundry done.  Each shift can have 2 sessions but usually it isn’t that busy on weekdays.
We had a grandfather bring in two grandchildren from America.  It was wonderful to have a small experience to learn how to do it all.  After they were finished a young man from Romania came and asked to do 10 baptisms.  Then a lady came and needed 3 women's names done that morning so I decided I would give it a go.  It was a very nice experience. 
Just as we said the blessing on the food the phone rang.  It was Sister Palett, an English Temple worker than comes 2 weeks and then is off 2 weeks.  She said that she just got an email from their American friends and they knew us – R and Eddie Hamlin.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  Then she explained that they had worked at BYUI with me.  Still I was clueless.  As she went for the email I yelled Edith, you mean Edith Hamlin.  Yes!  I am not even sure she knew that but come to find out that R, Edith’s husband, had baptized the Palett’s on his mission to England when he was 19.  This world just gets smaller and smaller.
Anderson’s (from Lyman, WY) told us they had found some tennis courts real close.  We called them and jumped in the car to find them.  BAD IDEA!  We never found the tennis courts but we found a few drivers that had some rather naughty words to say to us for driving too slow.  As we were turning around a biker came around the corner very fast and he nearly hit us.  He was a bit angry too.  Brad and I were both upset and we did not sleep well at all.

A happy field of cows near by.  They are happy because they are not driving!

4. Who needs sleep?
 Wednesday was a calm day.  We studied and practiced all the things we should be doing to run the baptistery.  We were so tired from not sleeping but we exercised a bit and made a few calls home about Wimbledon.    Neil was headed to Idaho and was going to stay in our house.  That made us real nervous because we have turned off all the water and hot water so I had to stay up till he made it.  That was around 9 PM Idaho time but 4 AM London time.  I am not getting much sleep this week.

5.  Happy Ancestors’ and Quick DR’s.
We had a wonderful family come for baptisms today.  Their 17 year old granddaughter had been working on family history for years.  The grandparents had promised her if she kept it up they would bring her to England for her high school graduation present where the grandparent’s families had come from.  The young girl held true and has found over 150 family names for baptism.  She organized the youth in her ward and they baptized over 900.  She had found 15 more names in England.  It was a joy to work with this family.
After that was over I had a heart to heart with Sister Marsh.  I explained all my fears and sorrows and just sobbed for about an hour.   Women are like that especially when you want good things for your family.  Sister Marsh has a wonderful shoulder to cry on.
It was shopping day but I needed to get a renewal on my prescription that didn’t make it to me in Idaho on time, so I had a DR appointment.  Wow, a new experience – going to a DR in England.  You check in on a computer when you enter by putting in your birthday.  While I waited I was talking to a darling lady about living and working in London at the temple for 18 months.  She got really excited because she said that every time she drives by she feels like she should stop.  That was a fun conversation.  Then the DR called me back – get that – not the nurse but the DR.  I showed him my pills explaining why I took them and within a minute he had a form for me to take to Boots (remember that is a pharmacy or drug store here).  That was the entire appointment.  And by the way, his office was very small with a lot of stuff everywhere.  I asked the ladies out front how much I owed and they said nothing.
We went over to get the pills but we had to wait for them to be ordered so they wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow.  I asked how much I needed to pay and they said nothing.  Wow, and I don’t even pay for social security or Medicare over here. 
We bought a bit at the little grocery there and headed home.  I meant to do this for our Father's Day Dinner but I couldn't find anyone to take the picture.  I wanted to show how we always had dinner with the family.  Almost every meal Brad would look, stare and then laugh a little.  We sure miss those kids.  (If you don't blog, we have a pix of the kids over our table.)They had told Brad we could move into our BIG flat so he went and got the key.  We took one suitcase over and all the stuff from the freezer.  Our new flat is right across from the TV room so we sat down to watch Federer play – he won!  We stayed up to talk to Neil, Becca and the boys.  They told me that they had slept at our house but that when they drove in I didn’t come running, yelling and waving and they missed that a lot.  That didn’t bring too many tears.

Dinner with the family.  We love you!

6.  First day/Last Day and Sam Robert's Horror Bathroom is no more!
This morning we had to be at the temple very early for another family from America.  We jumped up early and put in the toast.  I pulled it out and it was burnt black.  I showed it to Brad and the alarm went off big time.  We called and fanned and did everything we could but the alarm went on and on.  The man came and said he tried to fix it but it didn't clear.  Come to find out another man burned his toast even worse than us and we let him take all the credit for the fire alarm.  It is just funny to us that it happened our first morning in the squeeze and our last morning in the squeeze.  A grandmother had brought 8 grandchildren to be baptized.  That was a really great experience which we really enjoyed.  They were a very cute family that was truly enjoying the temple and one another.
It took a while to get that one cleaned up and the laundry done but all went very well.  I am glad I wasn’t tired because they came running to the laundry to tell me they needed me in the kitchen.  Good Grief!  I worked in there doing dishes for about 2 hours until I could hardly stand on my feet. 
Since I was so fresh we finished the move.  Brian Mulholland helped us and the new couple, the Roger’s, offered to help as well.  We got nearly all of our belonging over to the Lodge as it is called where I collapsed into ---- TA DA ----- a bathtub.  Life is always better when there is hot water involved.  The water in this flat is even hotter than the other so we are learning not to burn ourselves all over.
But the new bathroom and bathtub offer far more to this little lady and would offer even more to our dear friend, Sam Roberts.  I mentioned before how in the squeeze flat there was just a little door that said push to open between our bathroom and the outside world.  That literally put me into fits.  I would rush in and think I needed to go to the bathroom when someone in the hall would start to talk and my body would literally go into contortions.  Sam would understand, wouldn't you?

Love those fire alarms!


The bathroom with than tiny door saying push to open,
which does open really easily! 

I was trying to make the point of how the outside world could suddenly
be the inside world.  We thought the shower would be better than the toilet.
Brad got us laughing, I was suppose to be in shock.

7.  Oh, this is a Saturday!
Saturday started bright and early with a ward group coming in very early.  The new bed is not so great so I had not slept too good, plus my feet hurt so bad I had to get up and take ibuprofren in the night so another night goes without much sleep.  The ward showed up and we got things under control and going rather well.  We had a lot of walk in people that needed a name or two done which added to our organizing but we managed.  It was a rush clean up and before group one was out group two arrived.  They had so many kids and so many names to do that we finally had to just tell them we couldn’t do all their names.  It took a bit longer than we should of but we made it.  We grabbed a quick bite and I told them I was on my way to laundry when they said they needed me more in the kitchen.  When I saw the trays filled to the top with dirty dishes I just grabbed a handful and headed to the sink.  Sister Rouse was also helping and the two of us got a system and we worked ourselves silly for 2 hours.  We got it all caught up but we were two tired ladies with red hands from drying scalding hot silverware.  And sore feet.
We came home where Brad collapsed and I watched Wimbledon for a few minutes.  The Mulholland’s had been helping us all day.  We couldn’t have made it without them.  We decided to take them out to McDonald’s in England to thank them.  She swore she wouldn’t go to McD’s without a grandkid but we went and we all loved our food. 
Home again to grab a few cleaning supplies so we could starting cleaning up the squeeze.  We got it about half done before the movie.  It was ‘Remember the Titan’s’ so I loved it.  It was a long walk home as I was just too tired but hoped this would mean I could sleep that night.  WRONG!  I am going to have to figure out something to fix that bed.  I may mention that Brown’s got it first and refused it so Cooper’s got it second and refused it and we are just plotting our time.

There you go then with the wonders of week 7.  WOWSIE!  It was quite the week indeed.  Lots of new experiences of which Wimbledon will be the memory of a life time.  Well, perhaps just a year as I will be back next year, won’t I?  So cheerio and bless you!

Families are eternal,

Floss your teeth and eat your roughage!

Our eternal love,               

The Parkinson’s