connection unavailable to blog; streets of london may 9th

this is london; phone booths a-la harry potter, and the queen victoria memorial...

...buckingham palace at night --the guards, who weren't changing, can be seen at the bottom of the picture on the right...

...a double-decker bus!

and of course, street art.

well, i tried to post this blog early this morning so that i could let you know i arrived safely, but, alas, i did not have the 'code' to log onto the internet; so, after a wonderful 'english breakfast of tomatos, beans, eggs, bacon and sausage (for the non-veg among us), plus, of course, TEA!, i have 'got the code' and i can play catch-up before i hit the streets again -- hum...that doesn't sound very pastoral, but, i hope you get my meaning.

to fill you in, life is a series of adapting to change, and so instead of being at my b&b by 5 pm, i arrived safely on sunday evening at 8:30 london time; was warmly received by mark, and set off to find a pub for 'english tea' (well, it was brown, anyway, and hit the spot!), and a bit of evening sight-seeing.

i do want to share an insight about my long flight first, however. as i was the last to board -- british airlines wanted to make sure i was me; perhaps not the queen's english, but i ended up boarding last anyway -- i noticed three posters, with picture of those modern energy-producing windmills. the first one said "ugly" the second one said "future" and the last one said "natural". i think that might be a sermon illustration sometime, don't you? as we "re-think church" some may say 'that's not how it sould be/how it use to be' and some might say 'progress and change is good/vital or we'll die' and still others might say 'every day god created something new; god continues to create "all things new" everyday!'

the flight, while long, was delightful; i saw two movies -- 'a single man' which i highly recommend (so much more than a story of a gay man who has lost his partner suddenly and is grieving; it is a story of what happens to us when life changes everyday -- re-read the windmill paragraph above), and 'it's complicated' -- well, just plain silly, but good for the trip. i slept some (thanks jim for the suggestion to get my internal timeclock in order), drank lots of water (thanks gwen for the suggestion on how to prevent jet lag), and chatted up my neighbors (thanks jesus for reminding me to love my neighbors, since economy is "so close").

i got to see london time and time again, as we circled the airport for an hour before landing. and after 2 1/2 hours through customs -- 'i have nothing to declair!' -- i found my way to this great little b&b where the shower is tiny, as is the room, which makes me glad i celebrated Lent before i traveled!

so with the suggestion that i can sleep when i come home (thanks to my traveling consultant colleen!) i went walking in london and got lost several times (i'm not so thankful to charlene who made THAT suggestion, but i'm fine, thanks!) and took some night pictures as you've seen above.

now, i'll be off now to get a one-day bird's eye view of london; i won't see it all (ya think?) but i will enjoy every moment, because, well...that's why i'm hear; so glad you could join me!