Your Love Goes Further Still: 2011

This week was pretty uneventful- just work, writing, that kind of thing- and we stayed here this weekend and just relaxed. Here are a couple of the blog-worthy things we did:

Tuesday

Tuesday was my families last night, and we all went to see Les Miserables. It was incredible! It is by far my favorite show, and it gets better every time I see it. The music is so amazing, and Anna and Andrew wanted to kill me because I was singing along to every word the whole time. The cast was so good, the little kids in it were unbelievable, and I absolutely loved it! I’ve been listening to it ever since- Get ready Alexandra, we’re adding the music to our Phantom of the Opera performances.

We had to go straight from work to the show, so we didn't have time to eat dinner. We snuck in KFC and almost got busted. It was so awkward because they kept asking us if we had just gone to McDonalds because they could smell it. Once we got it in we had to eat it in the bathroom as fast as we could. Gross, yes. But if you know me, you know I don't skip meals.

This is for you Emily.

Obsessed.

The Weekend

It finally got hot outside, and it was SO nice! It was the first time we’d had really nice weather, so we did a lot outside. We spent a lot of time just sitting in our courtyard reading- we loved it! I got to catch up on Leaving- Ali, I’m on pg. 258, and we really have so much to talk about…We can’t slack on Karen’s Klub just because I’m over here!

I switched from Hot Chocolate to Frozen Hot Chocolate. Stil, so good!

Sunday

Today we woke up and went to the Changing of the Guards. We almost missed it, because they like to shut down every tube line on the weekend, but we made it just in time!

Before they came out.

The gates to Buckingham Palace.

Their march out.

After that Grace Ann and I went to Hillsong Church. It was SO good! They have it in an actual theatre, so it was huge. There were so many people there who were so excited about the Lord. We haven’t seen much church involvement here so far, but it was so good to be around so many people who were so happy to be together worshipping and learning about the Lord. The pastor from the Sidney church was there today, and his sermon was so good. He spoke on Matthew 2:19-23, and it was exactly what I needed to hear. He talked about learning to trust the Lord when he is “generally specific.” He said that when God tells us something that seems general and vague to us, we need to trust without trying to fill in the specifics on our own. He talked about so many people in the Bible who had to act on God’s call without knowing anything about where it would take them. He told us this was tweetworthy- he was quite a humorous guy- “You will never get to where God wants you to go if you don’t go because you don’t know where you’re going.” The point was that listening for God’s voice and following his will requires action, traction, and leads to satisfaction. The whole service was such a blessing!

In the theatre before the service.

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Tuesday

Tuesday at work I got to write a story about Marks and Spencer! It’s my favorite grocery store here that I talked about in one of my first blogs!

Here it is: Marks & Spencer defy the downward sloping market as profits rise to £714.3m

My family is coming to visit this weekend, but my dad had a conference, so he got in today. He met Grace Ann and I for dinner in the Spitalfields Market area. It was so great!

Thursday

Thursday is the last day of our working week, and as great as it’s been, it’s exhausting, so I was looking forward to the weekend, weekend… Sorry, had to.

Anyways, they gave me an extra article to write today, and it was on the homepage of the website! So exciting! For anyone interested in Ratko Mladic, here it is: Ratko Mladic's arrest ends "a very hard chapter in Serbian history"

A group of us went to eat dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Soho. They gave us two baby-sized bowls of chips-there were 7 of us- AND chip refills weren’t free. They obviously have not figured out how to do Mexican here yet. But other than the chip fiasco, it was really good!

We stopped at The Crown on the way home, and we hung out there for a while. They had a fantastic music selection, and we sang every word to Say My Name. Just when we thought it couldn’t get much better than that, Sweet Home Alabama came on.

Friday

On Friday Grace Ann and I woke up and went to Crepe Affaire for breakfast. It’s a cute little crepe place like Crepe Myrtle right by our housing. It was so good! I got a Chicken Supreme and an I’ll Have What She’s Having, which was a desert crepe with Belgium chocolate, strawberries, and whipped cream. Yummm!

We made a little pit stop at the market, AND we found another market. These things are really bad for my newly found frugality.

After that we met up with my Dad and went to the train station to catch our train to Edinburgh, Scotland!

We stayed at the cutest Bed & Breakfast called Dorstan. We had the whole first floor to ourselves, and half the time I forgot we weren’t staying in our own little house.

The man who owns it lives next door with his family. He was so sweet, and he cooked us breakfast for dinner even though it was like 10!

My mom, Anna, and Andrew got in later that night, and it was so great to see everybody! We got little breakfast menus to fill out with our orders for the morning- they we’re so great!

Saturday

In the morning we woke up and went to the Breakfast Room and got what we ordered the night before. I got grapefruit, poached eggs, bacon, and toast, and it was all so good!

After breakfast we walked around town. I mean ALL around town. We took a cab back later and were shocked by how far we had walked-this was partially because we started out in the wrong direction for at least 25 minutes before we turned around-but it was cool to see everything. Scotland is beautiful, but the weather is SO weird. It would go through this cycle of sunny and pleasant to sprinkling to hailing and pouring down rain with wind that could blow you over about every 15 minutes.

The most amazing candy shop we stumbled upon.

Don't we look impressed?

Scottish lambs!

Wouldn't be the first time Andrew's worn a kilt!

Proud member of the MacDonald Clan!

We walked down the Royal Mile, which is just a stretch of old cathedrals and other historical structures mixed in with some new shops and restaurants.

The Mile ends with the Edinburgh Castle. We took a short tour and then looked around a little bit. The whole area was incredible, and it was really interesting to learn about some of the big parts of Scotland’s history.

In front of the Edinburgh Castle!

Beautiful.

We enjoyed the gift shop a little too much.

After that we went back to the B & B and watched Braveheart. Yes, we watched Braveheart in Scotland. Cheesy, I know. I had never seen it before though, and it was so good! It was cool to watch it there for the first time.

Sunday

On Sunday we took a train to St. Andrews. After the usual amount of Bonner family travel delays- a tree fell on the train tracks when we were one stop away- we got there and it was SO beautiful.

Waiting for the train to St. Andrews with Andrew!

Punny, right 219?!

First we went to the golf course, and it was incredible! Cody, good thing we watched the entire British Open last summer-I’m sure that really gave me a whole new appreciation for the place. We all got to hit a little bit, and Anna, Grace Ann, and I were absolutely terrible. Still, it was cool!

Such a pro.

Not quite there yet...

...

...And neither was I...

...And neither was she.

So we just decided to watch.

After that we walked into town and got their famous Fish and Chips for lunch! So good!

Yummm!

We decided to walk down to the Castle Ruins after lunch, but on the way we passed an interesting little coffee shop.

Some people probably don’t know about St. Andrews because of the golf course, but because of the college where William and Kate met. The coffee shop had this huge sign on the window.