The past week has been pretty uneventful. At work, even though I’ve techincally been promoted, I’ve still been doing the old customer contact job. It’s been at my new pay rate, so at least that’s somthing, but I still really don’t like it. New duties start Monday and I’m hoping that it’s a bit more my speed. Kyla had her first night shift, which she didn’t know she’d have to do until a few weeks ago. She survived and I got the whole bed to myself. The girls are plugging along at school and seem to be enjoying it.

Today, though, we did a bit of celebration for Lizzy’s birthday. It’s actually next Sunday, the 10th, but Kyla works next Saturday so we decided to give Lizzy a treat today. One of the things she’s been wanting to do since we got in country was go to King’s Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4. They’ve got a Harry Potter store there that is simply amazing.

King’s Cross, get it?

First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a store where people line up to get inside, but it’s that popular. We waited in a line about 10 minutes just to get the privilege of buying stuff. I will admit, though, it’s pretty cool. We went when we were over on holiday a couple years ago, but it’s even better to see it though the eyes of the girls. They were wide eyed at every display table. We saw magic flying snitches. Olivander’s wall of wands, from which Lizzy got herself a Luna wand, and all kinds of other stuff we didn’t even know we needed.

I won’t say how much money we spent, but Lizzy got a wand and a pair of Luna’s signature glasses, while Molly got a stuffed Hedwig, which she promptly renamed “Snow”.

After that we walked around the St. Pancras area for a bit and found a place advertising “California burritos”. It was basically a Qdoba or Chipotles, but oh, my stars and garters, did it hit the spot. I’m still wanting a Los Bravos style burrito, but this definitely helped scratch the itch a bit.

Outside of King’s Cross. It’s a giant bird cage with a swing in in. No, I don’t know why.

After that we took the underground to go see the Museum of London. As we were approaching the building, I realized we were on Aldersgate Street, the street where John Wesley had his “heart warming experience” that began the Methodist movement. After a detour of trying to find the place, we stumbled upon it, right outside the Museum. I’ll admit that I got a little emotional standing in that spot, both realizing what happened there and how it played such a huge part in my family’s history, and bookending that with what happened in St. Louis this past week. Although I saw the writing on the wall a few years ago when I left the Methodist Church, I still got choked up thinking about how much good it’s done, and how many people it hurt at General Conference.

The actual spot of John Wesley’s heartwarming experience.

Not the actual spot, but an older memorial nearby.

A TARDIS with a really small door.

St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The muesum was good, but we were feeling a bit tired by the time we got through. We caught a bus back to Waterloo Station and headed for home.

I’m looking forward to church in the morning. A chance to worship and refresh sounds great. However, I’m hurting and praying for all my UMC clergy friends that are facing tough services tomorrow. While I beleive that General Conference 2019 marked the beginnign of the end for the United Methodist Church as I’ve known it, I hope that something better comes out of it. Whether it’s a new denomination or just an influx of progressive Christians into the UCC or Presbyterians, or whatever, I pray that too much damage has NOT been done to American Christianity this week.

Ah well, I’ve been sitting at the pub enjoying a Guiness while I wrote this and apparently it made me a bit maudlin. Enough of that. Next Saturday, while Kyla’s at work, the girls and I get to go to a Skittles Evening at church, which apparently does not involve rainbow colored candy. Unless something interesting happens this week, my next post will tell you all about it.

-Adam