Journal 13 Aug 2011

Since President Shamo said that Staines was one of the places he might send us, we thought we’d explore it. It’s so far west (still in the greater London area) that our Freedom passes don’t go that far for train travel. This trip involved taking the usual bus to the train station and getting off at the London Bridge Station. Then the subway to Waterloo Station where we boarded a train heading west toward Reading. Although the train continues to Staines we had to get off at Feltham and take 3 different buses to Staines.

The Staines area is almost rural compared to where we live and we liked what we saw of it.

ASDA is what Walmart is called here so we had to check it out. I noticed there was a Jamaican food section and saw canned Ackee. It has to be properly prepared to get rid of a poison that can sicken or kill. One of my memories of visiting Jamaica is learning about ackee which is their national fruit. We certainly didn’t buy any but we did buy some corn tortillas which we haven’t been able to find here. ASDA has flats above it, definitely a set up we don’t see at home.

Although there are numerous Indian restaurants (East India) we spotted a western Indian-themed restaurant and had lunch there with feathers, arrows and hides on the wall and carved wooden Indians around. Sadly the food was uninspired.

I guess Kentucky was already taken!

Honoring carpet installers?

Walking toward the train station we noticed the LDS chapel and walking down the sidewalk were two elders. One used to be in Welling and it was good to see him. They of course wondered what we were doing there.

We headed home taking the three buses again, although ₤3 would have gotten us a ticket from Staines to Feltham where our passes would be good again. But had we taken the train we wouldn’t have run into a man named Joseph from Ghana who spoke to us since he’s a member that hasn’t been active for 3 years. We visited while waiting for the bus and now there are so many things I wish I’d have said to him.

We were home in time to grab a bite to eat and change clothes for a YSA service project at the library of the Orpington chapel. We helped them pack up the VHS tapes as well as cassette tapes since nobody uses those anymore.

Before we got started we were standing by the glass front doors when a young woman came along wondering if we had a church service starting soon. We explained that we were doing a service project and invited her to join us. She did! While we sorted books and things we talked to her about the church. Bill got our cell phone and went out in the hall and called the elders to come over. Soon they arrived and gave her the first discussion! Wow!

This morning started out with a corn flake incident, and now we’ve got to shop and cook and clean because we’re having the elders over for dinner tonight.