Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Coincidence or divine protection?

Since moving to London and riding my bike here there and everywhere, I've had a couple of situations where I've thought and wondered about whether something that has ended up delaying me or getting in my way has been a coincidence, or in actual fact a measure of protection.



About a month ago on my morning ride in, a couple of cyclists were taking up the whole road ahead on a big downhill slope about ten minutes away from uni, causing me much frustration (I don't like to go slow if I can avoid it). I managed to overtake them finally, got down the hill, rode up the other hill, and turned around the corner just in time to hear a big bang. At the junction where I would normally be waiting to cross oncoming traffic, two cars had collided. That delay which probably wasn't even 60 seconds long was just enough to protect me.


A similar thing happened to me again last night as I rode back home from uni. I had just ridden up that hill previously mentioned - a much harder task than going down it let me tell you - and as I was approaching the junction on the opposite side it was all green lights. I thought about trying to power it across and decided against it, as it would probably go orange just as I began to cross. So I stood there on the side waiting for a couple of minutes until it was green again and safe to cross. About 10 minutes later, just before approaching Arsenal stadium I arrived at another big junction to see a collision that must have occurred only minutes previously, as police arrived and the ambulance was wailing in the background when I crossed. This collision looked a bit more serious as well, with a double-decker bus and at least 2 other cars involved. Once again I was protected.

Of course it could all very well be just a case of "what if?"  I'm just happy knowing that there is a God on my side who loves me, has got my back and is protecting me even when I'm not aware.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Buildings and M&Ms





 The weather has picked up so so much lately here in England.. crazy to think that only a couple of weeks ago it was snowing, now there it has been a lovely 16 degrees probably every second or third day. So that is very nice! Even compared to last year when I returned to England, it is much much warmer. I keep hearing rumours of drought in England with the warm weather (which makes me laugh a bit).

in London on the weekend so we took full advantage of the sunny weather, got outside and did a bit of exploring around Grenwich and central London. I wanted to go and see the clock or the timeline where the Grenwich mean time thing is, but didn't really want to pay to go and see a line so we decided to skip that idea! Instead we wandered around Grenwich markets and to the Royal Navy college and checked out the beautiful old buildings there.


One of the buildings, the painted hall is absolutely amazing! The entire inside of the building is painted, floor to ceiling and the ceilings on this thing would be like I don't know, maybe 30 foot high! Apparently the man who painted it, would have been paid about 3 pounds per square metre for the ceiling and 1 pound per square metre for the walls. These days it costs about 300,000 pounds to repair the same area!!


There was a chapel there also which was extremely ornamental and beautiful to look at as well. I absolutely love old buildings.  They definitely don't make them like they used to!


During our wanderings around the city we stumbled across one of Londons 'biggest highlights' - the M&M shop...  It is absolutely manic in there. M&Ms everywhere and people running around like crazy as if they are high on the sweet smell of sugar and artificial colours that envelops you when entering the doors. An experience and something to see, and interesting but very VERY expensive. 100g of these babies will set you back over two pounds, making it more expensive than buying lollies (sweets) at the movies..


Which colour would you like to eat?

Plain or peanut?

Even though I've nearly been here for six months in London, I feel that I've barely done anything much as my uni course is pretty time-consuming. So it was nice to get out and explore a bit, see some new sights and areas. Next time I want to get to Borough Markets! :)