Don’t
know why exactly it took me so long to finally figure it out: yesterday afternoon and evening I really
wasn’t feeling like my usual ebullient self:
kind of down and low in the category of hope – what had been set, seemingly
in stone, was starting to fall apart concerning my plans of going to Amsterdam
to visit Andrew; plus the dark and cold, and then the feeling of being pretty tired
of what seems like my landlady scrutinizing every single itsy-bitty thing –
what I cook, say, do, and even think! Leah seemed to notice immediately – from
my countenance and also from the sound of my voice – I’m SO oblivious, I
honestly wasn’t aware of how it all was affecting me. (Byron discerned it, as
well, in our phone conversation last night.) As I was preparing for bed, it
came to me, ‘ya know, I don’t think what you’re having (respiratory-wise) is
allergies at all – rather, you’ve got a full-blown cold!’ (I guess you finally
have to admit it when you can’t stop blowing your nose and the bin won’t take
one more piece of wadded tissue. For one
thing, my room is FREEZING* – pretty much all the time! (But this is coming to
an end soon . . .) I am on the top floor (2nd or 3rd floor,
depending on what country you ascribe to) and with radiator heat, the old adage
that ‘heat rises,’ does NOT seem to equate – plus I have a BIG expanse of
windows. Brrrrrrrrrrr!)
Seems
like this very same ailment occurred close to the time I first arrived in
Birmingham, packed to the brim in the Wards’ van, four eventful months back. In
fact, it must have been the VERY first night we pulled into town from Grimsby,
because I remember we stopped by the little Tesco Express, where you can also
buy gasoline, (a common landmark in my world now at this point), to get me
something for my discomfort. It was a Sunday, I recall, late in the afternoon –
everything so brand new to me. (You can imagine how poorly I was feeling, due
to the fact that we all considered it acceptable to transact business on a
Sunday.) Martin and Leah had recommended this cold & flu powder stuff you
dissolve in hot water and then drink down. I thought it was ger-oss (so gross I
used it only that once) – they said they loved it (obviously there’s no
accounting for bad taste!), but I must admit it does the trick for sending you
off to a blissful sleep. I ended up taking some again this last night – though
admittedly only half a sachet. (Downing it again shows just how desperate I was!)
The symptoms and how they feel – the slowness with which they develop – just
are not like what I am used to when having a cold backhome – so it fools me.
Once again the conclusion: there must be a different set of bugs here! Anyway,
helps me understand better about what the heck’s going on with me – and that’s
a comforting thing. (Sometimes you just think you’re losing it!)
*[It
is frigid in my room – especially during those precious daylight hours when the
radiator is turned off (that’s how they do it here – to save on funds. Besides
Myfanwy’s used to students who are gone all day – not like me, around much of
the time!) Mornings and evenings – that’s all you get, so you’d better make the
best of it! I wear gloves, a sweatshirt AND a heavy bathrobe – I’m not kidding
– and a lot of the time It’s STILL Siberia time.]
And
then, right when it felt like I was abandoned, I realized that once again the
Lord was by my side – just as he has been all along this journey I’m
undertaking. He lets me blunder along, making my own best decisions, gaining experience,
falling down, and then reaches down and picks me up, placing me gently on a
better path. Take my trip to Amsterdam, for instance – I made my best stab at
when seemed the best time to go (fitting it in closely amongst the many things
I need to do and commitments I’ve made before I reassume my journey in a
different location towards the middle of this month.) Didn’t work out – Andrew
hasn’t received his passport yet. Plan A wasn’t necessarily the best plan – I
was flying into Amsterdam the evening of the morning Andrew was to arrive, just
having barely gotten situated. I would have gotten there at night – not my best
time for being on top of my game. (I much prefer daylight and time to figure
new things out.) I was just trying to maximize the days we would have to be
together. Now with the change of itinerary (and a little change fee – don’t ask
to know the amount of Andrew’s!), I have made better overall arrangements – for
later in the week, and now, in fact,
will get to spend a Sunday there in Amsterdam with him. A much more
doable plan! Thanks to the One who knows me better than I know myself.
[Heard
Christmas music broadcast in the grocery store for the first time today. I’m
not sure how they gauge exactly when to start that around here (maybe that it
was December 1st today), but I’ll tell you one thing, I don’t think
it’s Halloween like it practically is back home . . . !]
Tonight
in the church cultural hall, the Amisons had a small farewell get-together of
friends for their son, David, who leaves on a plane for the MTC in South Africa
next Wednesday. More goodies! (Let’s see – that’s four days in a row with
activities involving yummy food (with
the exception of Thursday) . . . but why stop there, when there’s another
function tomorrow night!) The pretty astonishing thing about the refreshment
table was that each of their three older sons who live at home (one is married,
one presently serving a mission) prepared a different one of the treats. (No
‘Sister Costco’ here!) I was really impressed. They were really tasty and
turned out great – as good, or better, then any woman could make. I told Jane
that her future daughter-in-laws were going to shout out her praises!
Gordon and Jane have six boys – here Jane is, an
only child, and a daughter at that, and then she goes on and has six sons! I understand they met in a nursing course, and that her
dad wasn’t too keen on the idea of them courting, as Gordon is seventeen years
Jane’s senior (you would not necessarily pick up on it if you met them,
surprisingly), and as she was their only child. Things seem to have turned out
okay, though, because they have a strong, faithful family. Speaking of Jane’s
dad, he delivered a chronology about David he had written. With his fairly
thick accent and old-fashioned phrasing, you would have thought you were
watching an old movie or something. He sat upfront with the mic (or is it
‘mike?’
From the New York
Times: grumbling over use of
the word,
mic,
emerges from its seeming violation of
English pronunciation rules. Bicycle is abbreviated as bike, after all,
not bic.
But we do occasionally allow a mismatch between the spelling of an abbreviation
and how it looks like it ought to be pronounced. Vegetable is shortened to veg, and Reginald to Reg, but the final g is not a ‘hard’ one as
in peg or leg. So let the musicians and
broadcasters have their mic, but as for me, I still like mike!)
and read the lines he had prepared. His voice was pretty faint and
droning, and truly it would have been more interesting and understandable if
you’d been there through the years – which the majority of us had not. Anyway,
it was kind of curiously wonderful. Gordon also did a slide show and reading –
it was a LITTLE better, though also quite honestly, it was so lengthy and
personal that it kind of lost your interest. But, don’t get the wrong idea – it
was great being asked to be a part of this special commemorative occasion. I
have grown very fond of David and am excited for the adventures that await him
as he serves the Lord in far off Africa.(On
Sunday when Gordon caught me in the hallway, and knowing I was leaving soon,
said, ‘you haven’t been here long, but you've really made a difference. You will be
missed.’ That was awfully nice, wasn’t it!)
[Here’s
a humorous thing: I was chatting with the stake president over the refreshment
table this evening – confirming the rumor he’d heard that I was moving. Him: ‘So
down to Weymouth? That’s where you were at the convention, yeh – where you’d
ridden the coach down and then Andy (Leddington, from our very ward) showed up
at the same place?’ Hahaha. Me: ‘Well, yeah. Wait - you KNOW that story?!’ Whoever
would have imagined your august stake president would be aware of a random,
insignificant incident like that?!!]
Photos_
1- what
the uncertainty of the last few days has favored me with, along with the
grimace - plus the grief of this whole cold thing!
2- the cold culprit – my north-facing bank of windows
3- it
only comes once a year – so you’d better enjoy it! (private joke)
4- me
and the Amison family (minus the youngest, deacon-aged Josh, playing around with
friends off in the building somewhere – as well as the older two, further out
and about)
5-
Jane and sons (soon-to-be-missionary, David, the darker-haired one - Timmy, my bud, on the right)
