Cassie's Cuddles

We have done quite a few things in the last couple of days. We walked around Paris. Everyone eats out on the street, squashed together in some cases. They kiss three times when they greet, it would take a while to get through everyone, lol! There are many places where gypsies? beg for money. Most are young and able bodied, I don’t get it. A lot of the gypsies have dogs next to them. Speaking of dogs, everyone seems to have them, there is also doggy doo everywhere, argh! It was very noticable on Sunday, that no one seemed to go to Church…..neither did we. They only one we saw had a big statue of Mary out the front. We saw where the Hunchback of Notre Dame lived, and walked along the siene river, and saw the markets. Yesterday we went to Avigion, Loved that. Avigion is a walled city with a real castle , the castle of the popes. Interesting history. The pebbled roads that are common in Paris, are very pretty, but must be difficult for some people to walk on.  We had a proper tea at an Irish Pub! Jared says that I am very brave asking for things in french. I feel very nervous, but I would not like to leave without giving it a go. It really isn’t that difficult, I have surprised even myself..

Already I am looking forward to going home, I have stayed away from my children for too long.We speak to them daily, and they all sound very happy, afterall it’s an adventure for them too eh?

We are now in Paris. After a two and half hour trip on the Euro train we arrived. The trip didn’t seem that long. I enjoyed a little nap, lol. We tried to book into our motel, but we were half an hour too early, so we were told to come back. We walked around a bit and came back. We have a very tiny room, but that is nothing compared to the lift! She asked us if we were afraid of small spaces. I went in by myself, and I felt like I was in a coffin! Later I went in with Jared, it is better to be in a “coffin” with someone.

We walked around for about  five hours, then came back to our room. The food is three times as expensive as London, we are now on a diet! Jared got me to ask for tea. Jared was a little surprised, that I asked in french, boy, was I nervous. The girl looked very impatient with me. Most people seem to speak some English, but I at least like to try.

We are having a full day out today, we might even hop on a bike. You can hire a bike in a few streets. The bikes are attached to a pole, and you use your credit card to detach them, cool hey?

Jared is not keen on the desk lady, she told us that we could not have a bowl and spoon for breakfast in our room. Breakfast downstairs is 12 Euro, about $20! We are using the sandwhich container, and a little fold up spoon that I have in my luggage, we are such rebels!

I am typing on the bus, on the way back to the city of London, from Oxford. we just spent three hours walking around the colleges. It is so big, with many individual colleges. did you know that the people who study there do not have lectures, but teach themselves, and only meet with their don once a week for about an hour! You have to be the best of the best to go there. some great history there, we even saw a marker on the road to mark the death of the three protestant martyres, no plague, just a cross on the road. I’ll show pictures when I download them.

Yesterday we went on a bus, it cost 3.80 pounds for an all day ticket. We got on, got off, walked and walked. We saw Westminster Yesterday, I was impressed seeing Queen Elizabeth and Mary’s tomb. Do you believe that they put them together? There were priest everywhere. It made me a little sad seeing rosary beads for sale in the shop etc. We were not allowed to take pictures, because it is a house of prayer, but they charged about $40 to enter, and then there is the café in the crypt!!! We then went to  Westminster chapel, past Scotland Yard.  Then off to St Pauls. Very impressive, how did he paint that high? We actually climbed right up to the top, lots of stairs. That probably explains why my ankles have swelled like neverbefore. I’ll be honest, I am a little concerned. Then off to the Tower of London. An awesome castle, my boy’s would have loved to have seen that. We saw the spot where Lady jane Grey was be-headed. Then we saw Tower bridge. Off on a bus again (Jared has done very well followint the great bus system), then to see or find where Wesley was converted. Off again to the metropolitan Tabernacle (Spurgeon’s old church). I was surprised to see the suroundings of this church to be in the heart of a Poorer?? Place. Now to put a cold can of coke on my legs……

 I woke up this morning, although my legs feel ok, they have not gone down. Now we are of to Oxford today and….

Boy, were we tired yesterday. after a very long flight we arrived in London at 5am. we caught the train to Paddington Station. We walked through Westminster, through Kengiston Gardens.  Lovely gardens, squirrels (one actually climbed up my leg, argh!). Harrods…I don’t think I gel in that place. Big Ben (impressive), Churchill’s bunker (fascinating), Parliment house, Number 10 Downing St. Trafalgar square. We are next to Northcuberland, on the strand….I’m living the game Monopoly!!

After a nine hour flight, 4 movies, and many hours staring out the window at the amazing views, we are finally here. Pictures are not loading from Hong kong airport, so they will have to wait.
Jared and I were very adventerous, and caught a train to the city. Jared insisted that we walk up every step and hill (and believe me, there are a lot of them). It is so humid here, so we both looked like hot tomotoes! There are so many buildings, some look very poor, but they are surronded by amazing mountains. The people have been very helpful. One lady in a takeaway asian shop, came to stir my drink. I had ordered lemonade, but we both recieved a very big iced tea with heaps of lemons in them. I nearly gagged. The cleaner came over to me, grabed my spoon, and started to smash the lemon into my drink, I was just staring….It still tasted gross, but I made a friend;D.
see you later.

This Monday morning we are heading off, on our way to The Calvin 500 conferance. Check out this website if you would like to see the details  http://www.calvin500.org/index.html We will first be going to London for a couple of days via Hong Kong. We will be having a 7 hour stop over in Hong Kong so that will be an interesting stop by itself. I am having a little trouble fitting all of my goodies (clothes and other needful things) into my little back pack, argh!

This afternoon I went shopping with Steph, and look what I found. I begged Steph to go back into the shop to take a photo of it for me. $30 for the apron was a bit steep for me just now, especially when I know how to make one.I also found this great book, how cool is this? I just had to buy it, after all history is an important element in any child’s life …..cough, cough.This book cost $18 from Big W. I have some of the real bits and pieces from the space mission when I was in the U.S, Washington D.C. I so enjoyed that. We saw “Night at the Museum 2” the other week (stupid), but I did get to see the items again. Emilia Earhart’s red plane? Saw it! How blessed are we, that we get to see all this history?Tonight Lachlan and Cassandra are having a sleep over (poor Lachlan), that means he will be pushed out of the bed, at around 2-3am when it is the coolest.

Today the girls in the Keepers at Home course attempted to make a Gratitude Wrap. The pattern is found on www.soulemama.com . I was impressed with the girls trying to do everything really neatly. They all finished but one, but she was busy looking after her little baby sister, doing a great job.I didn’t take a photo of the final product, but here they are cut before hand.Look what Jared recieved in the mail today, his cloak for his Westminister masters.We insisted that he put the hood on…Last but not least, my daughters told me that I looked younger and preetier cross eyed!! What do you think, should it become my new look?Speaking of new looks, my husband wants me to dye my hair blonde, agh! I will try maybe a lighter brown. Ellie our 10 year old neighbour will cut my hair and then dye it, how trusting am I? It might end up blonde after all!!

Tonight the kiddies watched Pilgrim’s Progress on DVD with Jared. The movie is a modern take on it, it had moments that were a bit scary. I climbed into bed with Cassandra tonight, and she said “are we all christians in this family?” I said that if you ask Jesus to forgive you, He will save you. He died for sinners. She started to cry and say “but I’m so naughty”. I gave her a big cuddle and said that Jesus forgives all of our sin, and that everything good that Jesus did, God sees when He sees us. I asked her if she wanted to ask Jesus to forgive her, she said yes. She bowed and prayed, “Jesus forgive me, thank you, Amen”. Wow, that wasn’t expected. She then ran off to tell Steph, Lach, Camden and Daddy. She went to bed happy. Just a simple prayer, but life changing. Camden went to bed thinking heavily..It’s that time of the year again, time for cutting, laminating and cutting again, agh! I have just run out of ink on my new printer again, oh man, another couple of hundred dollars. I really wanted to have these cards printed out before our trip, but it doesn’t look like it now. In the meantime this is what our floor looks like.Here is a little picture of Jared and I, photgenic aren’t we?