Music And Our Weekend

The Kids in front of the Lord Mayor's Coach. I am such a bad photographer.

This coach comes out once a year for the Lord Mayor of London's Show. And it pops out once in a while when we have a coronation in Britain. Otherwise it lives here in the Museum of London. It was built in 1750. It's covered in gold, though you probably can't see that as the photo is so bad!

Here's some more info and a better pic:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/london/5415792.stm




Grace and Jack at the concert in the Barbican. The logo you can't really make out is for the London Symphany Orchestra.

Grace is wearing her Remembrance Day poppy.

We had a very musical weekend!

Saturday Afternoon
All afternoon, Jamie and I spent studying the Bible passage, praying and choosing songs for next Sunday's service. After 2 1/2 hours we had a great list of songs lined up which reflected the theme of the sermon. We had to sing them all through to see how they connected, worked on musical links, prayers (Jamie is leading worship) decided on keys, looked for music etc. Then Jamie rang the pastor to see if he had any prefereces for a song for after the sermon and he told Jamie that he'd completely changed the Bible passage and the topic of the sermon. Sigh

We had no more time left that day to do the work, so I suppose time will have to be found later this week to go through the whole process again.

Saturday Evening
Jamie and the kids went to a barn dance. It was the birthday party of a friend. I was too tired to go and wasn't feeling too great so I stayed home in the house alone, something which does not happen very often and I enjoy the space. The kids had a great time, enjoying the live music and the dancing. Jack was 'asked out' for the first time by a girl from church and had to tell her no. That was hard for him, so see her disappointment. I told him to blame it on us next time and tell her that we believe that dating is 'just practicing for divorce'. Fortunately, at not quite 13, he couldn't care less yet.

Sunday
Drove to London. Got to the Barbican, an area of the 'city' district of London, near one of the famous gates in the old Roman wall, in 1 1/2 hours. Met friends W and family whose GPS had got them there after 3 hours. We felt for them. It had taken them through the West End of London, the shopping areas of Kensington and Knightsbridge, from the sound of it. Exactly what Americans are warned NOT to do, to try to drive around central London. I don't know why it happened. Maybe their GPS hates tourists! W, positive as ever, found something to be grateful for: At least she got to see Harrods!

We walked to the Museum of London and saw some cool things, like the above badly photographed Lord Mayor's coach, Lord Nelson's Sword, the Cheapside Hoard (Early Stuart gold and silver) and lots of other stuff. It was great to hear W's little one running around shouting, "Look Mamma! Come QUICK!" and to see the museum through her enthusiastic eyes!

Back to the Barbican Concert Hall for a family concert along the theme of 'Going into Space'. We have been coming to these concerts for about 6 or 7 years now and we LOVE them. Jamie's father was a violinist with the London Symphany Orchestra for many years before his death, so we have an affection for them and this place. W and her family seemed to enjoy themselves too, though the toddler was a little frightened by the LOUD percussion instruments and had to be taken out. Some of the pieces we heard were: Also Spracht Zarathrustra (sp?), Holst's planets, Mars and Venus and the LSO's 'own' piece, the theme from Star Wars, of course. Grace and Jack's grandad played the music for the films, so it was fun for them to hear it in the concert.

Then we all trooped off to an Indian restaurant in Camden where they cook South Indian Vegetarian food, which is our favourite. It also has an all-you-can-eat buffet on Sundays so we ended up paying less than we would have done in MacDonalds for all of us.

I have to hand it to W (and not just because she might be reading this blog!) that she and her family are game for anything! Traipsing across London with us, getting lost with us in the Barbican, eating strange new food! They are great ambassadors for the US air force. We only have them for another years or so, so we have to plan some more outings like this before they go!