Lawn Bowling and Other Random Ramblings

Doesn’t lawn bowling sound like such an old-school, quintessential British leisure activity? Well, it is! We’ve found a fun activity we can add to our future retirement activity list! (Or maybe we’ll have to start our own club if they don’t exist in the U.S.)

Our local group of senior missionaries planned an evening outing to visit the High Wycombe Lawn Bowling Club, established in 1902. (Click the link and check out their website, it’s adorable in its earnestness to invite new members. And they make sure to note they have a defibrillator, which is an important detail for us old folks haha!) We were greeted by a group of members who welcomed us, shared dinner with us, and then taught us the etiquette, rules and mostly the fun of lawn bowling. We divided up into groups of 3 + one “pro” assigned to help each group. Our pro, Dave, was cheeky but kind and definitely a pro at lawn bowling. They take their lawn bowling seriously, but they also know how to have fun. We all had a great time and I think we’ll go back and hang out with them again. They loved having us, but were only disappointed that we didn’t join them at the bar afterwards. ;)

Jon and I went on another Saturday outing, just the two of us, to a nearby place called the Chiltern Open Air Museum. The area where we live is called The Chilterns, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and we can definitely agree with that! The museum is a charity that rescues threatened historic buildings, which would otherwise be demolished, and rebuilds and preserves them in this beautiful landscape. We love learning about this area and the amazing history that has taken place here over the years.

We also have occasions to go into London for various appointments now and then and were finally able to visit a museum we’ve been wanting to see—the Victoria & Albert Museum, known as the V&A. It was absolutely lovely, with a wide variety of art, and beautiful architecture.

These were interesting tombs—if the person had been a soldier, their tomb effigy was positioned with crossed legs to show strength and motion.

I also loved these various sculptures of women and their lives. I've been like the woman on the left and middle, and now I aspire to be the woman on the right--sitting peacefully reading a book.

And finally, we had another outing with the bigger group of senior missionaries from the England London Mission, called The Ramblers. We visited Windsor Castle on the official “King’s Birthday”—though it’s not really his birthday, they just schedule the festivities sometime in June to hopefully have decent weather. All of the big events are held at Buckingham Palace, most importantly the Trooping the Colours. But we did get a little flyover of the royal “Red Arrows” and the usual guards marching about. And of course, Jon had to give his birthday wishes to the King. :)

Happy birthday (whenever it is) to King Charles, from Dutch. :)

Again, our time here often looks like we are having the holiday of our lives. And on some days or hours, we are! You can’t come to England and not venture out to see all the amazing places. But on most days, we’re in the office doing our missionary work/legal work (and it is work!) and serving in different ways in our local congregation.

One of the highlights of this past week was participating in the baptism of a new member, whose name is also Jon. We had the opportunity to meet him a few weeks ago as the missionaries were teaching him and then I was able to speak at his baptism. It was a joy to witness his willingness to be a follower of Jesus Christ and see how he radiates goodness.

As we’ve rubbed shoulders with the good people we work with and go to church with, we feel like they have become a part of our lives as if we have always known and loved them. We feel so incredibly blessed to be here and serve and love the people. Already we feel that we will never be the same for having had this experience.

♥ Until next time, we love you! Cheerio! ♥

---

Words of the Week:

(Words or phrases we hear “on the street” that either delight, confuse or amuse us.)

Let’s talk about food for a minute. You’d think there aren’t too many differences between American food and British food. And in many ways, there aren’t. But there are definitely a few things that are different:

Rocket = arugula (this is the “lettuce” that is found on pretty much everything)

Aubergine = eggplant

Coriander = cilantro

Chips = fries

Crisps = potato chips

Biscuit = cookie

Courgette = zucchini

Ice lolly = popsicle

I’m sure there are more, but this is a good start. And a few things we’re really missing that we can’t seem to find:

Good Mexican food—they add some weird seasonings to Mexican food here, so it just doesn’t taste the same. We’ve heard there are a few Chipotles in London, so we’re anxious to try it there.

Trader Joe’s - I just miss the staples I like from TJ’s, like their salads and bread and frozen stuff and their dark chocolate (85% chocolate lovers bar!). But thankfully I can find lots of other good chocolate here!

And speaking of salads, finding good salad dressings we like has been hard. Everything is very vinegar-y—I usually like a good balsamic vinaigrette, but the ranch is vinegar-y, caesar dressing is vinegar-y, everything seems to have lots of vinegar.

So if you come visit us, we’ll have you bring TJ’s dark chocolate and ranch seasoning packets. ;) As they say, these are first world problems!