Knackered in Nottingham

 
 
 
 

The photos never seemt to publish in the order I choose them, so select the appropriate caption for the photos above:

1. Stephanie learns how to play snooker (like pool but not) with new friends Alex, Kristen, Tim, Laura and Ruth after a glorious dinner party that she hosted. No, Stephanie, you do not hit the red ball. You hit the white ball to knock in a red ball, and then you knock in a colored ball. And there are points depending on the colors of the ball. Oh, and if you fault, the other team gets four points, only more if it's a different colored ball, and so on. But my team won! (thanks mostly to Alex and Kristen, though I did knock in one red ball and one pink ball, I must add).

2.Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem is one of the several pubs claiming to be the "oldest inn in Britain" but this one, from 1189, truly is old. It gets its name from being a wayside stop where Crusaders would rest on their way to Jerusalem back in medieval times. It's built into the bottom of Castle Rock, a natural sandstone hill in the center of Nottingham upon which William the Conqueror built Nottingham Castle in 1068. Which brings us to ...

3. Nottingham Castle. Except, as any true Nottinghamite will tell you within about five minutes, the once grand castle that every royal from William the Conqueror to Henry VII stayed in and was a major military force is now gone. Despite the fact that William (forget which one, but the one who started the English Civil War in the 17th century) raised his standard there and began the war at that spot, the castle fell into disrepair and was torn down. Then, also in the 1600s, the appropriately named Duke of Newcastle bought the property and built himself a nice little palace. The interior of the palace fell into ruins but the shell is still there. Nottingham folk bemoan the loss of their true castle, but part of the original castle gatehouse (dating from the 1300s) and the bridge that led over the moat is still there, as you can see in this photo. The moat is long gone but you can see where the arches were that people crossed under.

4. And, of course, what is Nottingham and Sherwood Forest without a mention of one Robin Hood? Yes, he really lived around here (in whatever form he did live, but that's another story) and the Robin Hood statue on Castle Rock is proof of that. As you can see, I biked up to the castle (about 20 minutes from home) and posed for a shot with my old friend Robin. Apparently you can go into what remains of Sherwood Forest and sit at the old oak that Robin reportedly sat under (it's probably just a stump now) but the closest I've been is the neighborhood of Sherwood, on the other side of Nottingham, where I attended a pub quiz. Well, it was supposed to be a pub quiz but not many people turned up, so there was no taking sides and answering questions in order to win the kitty. So, instead, I had my own pub quiz with the friends I came with, playing 20 Questions. We had fun.

Today I am quite knackered (tired). It all began with my morning bike ride along the canal. I'm getting used to this ride and it's normally a pleasant 20 minutes, but there was quite a wind and I was fighting it the whole way. So when I arrived at the Arches, I sunk into a sofa and didn't move for about 20 minutes. Luckily my friend Robin (Staple, not Hood, though he wouldn't mind being mistaken for Robin Hood, his wife tells me) brought me a cup of tea.

I was assigned to the hospitality team at the Arches today, making tea, coffee (instant coffee, which is what they mostly drink here), and toast with butter and jam for the dozens of folks waiting for help. The Arches is, once again, a center where we provide clothes, furniture, household items, food and social services to the poor and downtrodden. So I started out on hospitality but there were so many clients they needed more project workers, which is a job I've become comfortable with. Project workers do interviews with the clients, finding out what they need and reading their files, then take them to the clothing arch, the furniture arch and other areas of the center. It can be tricky as we have limited resources and have some rules about what people can have.

For example, I worked today with a young woman who is a refugee from Eritrea, and she was very unhappy that she's come three times and there haven't been any single beds. She really wants a double bed but our policy is that only couples get doubles, as we don't receive many. But when I offered to pray with her she was actually very excited and even asked for an English Bible. I also helped a domestic violence survivor who simply wanted a chair, and got it. Another single mom came with her 3-year-old son and wanted furniture. We didn't have much, but her son saw a stuffed dalmatian toy on the shelf and, when I took it off the shelf and put it in his arms, I was nearly blinded by his overwhelming smile. Then I worked with another single mom who has three little kids and needed clothes and toys. Her 3-year-old boy was so excited when we got to the toy area. He found some plastic animals and happily made himself a little jungle, moving the animals around from table to chair to floor, lining them up and talking to them. We were able to give this family quite a few toys and some useful winter clothing items, and, of course, I packed up the plastic elephant, cheetah, dinosaurs and palm trees for the little boy. Since they'd already received so many toys I wondered for a minute if I should also give the animals, but we had plenty of toys today and I decided that anybody who takes so much joy in a few pieces of plastic absolutely needs to take them home. It's just amazing how little it takes to bless someone sometimes. And, I reminded myself, wrapping the animals, books, used games, coloring book, video and wooden puzzle in secondhand bags, when a mom is struggling to make ends meet it's the little things like toys that kids often miss out on.

After the Arches closed, my fellow disciples Robin, Alex and I cleaned the place (our normal job) then I was on my bike to church, where I wolfed down a sandwich and apple before meeting up with Jida (Robin's wife--a delightful young woman from Nazareth, Israel...she, Austrian-British Robin and I are all internationals, which is unusual for the locally designed Discipleship Year program, but they say they're happy to have us). Jida and I were meeting John, one of the pastors who heads up the poor ministries at Trent Vineyard. He was taking 10 of us on a visit to a local prison. We got to the prison, got through security (no mobile phones allowed) and were met by the head chaplain, who gave us some tours, introduced us to some prisoners and explained a lot about the need for volunteers within the prison. The prison itself was a stark, cold, place, although they're building new facilities to double the size. The number of prisoners in England and Wales is now at 81,000, the highest it's been in history. There's a big need for compassionate people to interact with the prisoners in secure, safe ways. I didn't feel at all threatened while there, since we were always escorted by one of the chaplains. It is true, however, that being a young woman visitor means you get started at a bit. But the few prisoners we did interact with (those who are involved in the chaplaincy programs) were very respectful. I'm not sure if I, personally, will get involved with any prison programs (other young women do, and they are treated just fine) but it was a very important reminder of our brothers and sisters who are locked up. The chaplain made a very interesting point by reminding us that Jesus died as a prisoner and that he told the prisoner on the cross next to him that he'd see him in paradise. God's heart of love and compassionl is for those locked up behind tall, grey walls as much as it is for all of the rest of us.

When I got back to church I hopped on my bike again and met my friend Emma for a game of tennis at the Beeston Tennis Centre. It was the first time we'd played together and were pretty well matched, so it was a lot of fun. Emma also just moved to Nottingham (she's from Portsmouth, on the southern coast) because she married Ade, one of our Discipleship Year pastors. She's my age and a lovely, wise woman. We're hoping to play regularly and have tea afterwards. We're also serving together in the Vineyard Kids church (ages 9 to 11) once a month and want to brainstorm some creative worship ideas for the kids.

It's been a very cold day and I'd spent a lot of it outside, exercising in some form or another, so I was very tired, hungry and eager to get home. Peter and Sue (my host "parents") are gone just now and Julia (27) and Dave (23) are often out so I figured I'd be coming home to a cold, empty house. We were all in together for a few hours last night and had dinner and Jules and I convinced Dave to go out and get us a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, which was all very fun, but they are, of course, busy young adults so I figured they'd be gone. "I need hot food," I decided, cycling up the long gravel driveway to the ivy-covered house. "Maybe I'll make something with chicken and rice."

So imagine my delight to walk in and find Julia and David at home and a big portion of a chicken-and-rice casserole that David had made waiting for me. I poured a glass of the wine Julia shared with us, got my casserole and bread and salad, and joined the others in the lounge where we propped our feet up and watched Friends reruns (the Brits LOVE Friends). Julia then shared some fine chocolate with us (she's a teacher and has a big stash left over from last summer's end-of-the-year presents) and we watched a British reality show called Hotel Inspector. Finally, finally, finally, I had to do a telephone interview for a newspaper article at 10 p.m. (scheduling them back in Chicago can be tricky with the 6-hour-time difference). I had a nice chat with a fertility doc about a new blood test for endometriosis, which reminded me briefly of my old life, and then I got on Blogger. I haven't got off yet, but now I need to because, as previously mentioned, I am knackered. And tomorrow is another fine day.