Happy Thanksgiving!

My favourite holiday – it is tied with Christmas. I’m not quite sure if there is a specific reason that Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving, but I love it nonetheless. Turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, stomach aches... it’s glorious. I successfully made my first pumpkin pie yesterday – from scratch! Pureed a pumpkin, made the pastry dough (with help from the lovely Sarah Spender) – the end result was that I converted a pumpkin pie hater. That’s a success in my books. I should have known that one pie wouldn’t go very far, so I’m making a second one tonight. Thank you to my lovely Grandmom for sending me the top secret family recipe! I’m thankful for too much to list, but I will just offer thanks to the Lord for His protection, guidance and providence of a church and friends!

This week has been quite average in terms of work. I’m not feeling very challenged in what I am doing, which in itself is quite challenging. So I think I need to start pushing for a bit more responsibility and ownership over the work I do. But the girls are absolutely lovely. If you are ever feeling down, go spend an hour with 10 five year old girls. It’s very affirming – they love you no matter what.

But my week outside of work has been fantastic. I finally got to Skype with my favourite Robyn, and it’s wonderful to know that we are just as goofy together when the Atlantic Ocean is between us. Tuesday evening was Bible study – I love it more and more with each passing week. I am very uncertain about a lot of things, but I know that I am supposed to be here each Tuesday night. We are still reading Genesis, and following the life of Abraham. We had a very interesting discussion after, covering everything from Noah’s Ark to women in leadership in the Church of England. This topic came up about 3 different times throughout the week. Different people at work and at church and at the pub have asked me what my views on women in leadership are. It’s definitely been thought-provoking. I’ve had a lot of people asking me about my religious beliefs as well. I’m definitely someone who processes by thinking aloud. So it’s been really good for me to have time to try and articulate what I believe and why.

Thursday evening was just hilarious. Ashley and I went down to the Wine Vaults for a glass of wine (I feel like this may become a bit of a tradition). After having some deep and theological conversations (regarding the above), we decided to call it a night. But as we were leaving, we saw a woman lying on the floor of the pub surrounded by people. The first aid responder voice in my head said “Go over”.  So I did – which is actually a big deal for me. I always assume that since there are people around, I don’t need to help. But this time I went over and offered my help – which they gladly took. It freaked me out a bit – I thought it meant something was seriously wrong. But oh no. It turns out this woman was named Leslie, was 52 years old and was on a blind date with a man 20 years her junior whom she met online and who had flown down from Northern Ireland to meet her that night. She had proceeded to get so hammered that she had fallen over and passed out. She came to after a few minutes, and then I spent about 30 minutes on the ground with her while she held my hand and wailed. “ I just love Darren (Irish man) so much, and he doesn’t love me and I just want him to hold me in my bed even though he just wants to use me and I F***ING HATE HIM and I love you (me)....” It was about now that I realized how absolutely Canadian I was being – no person in Portsmouth would be doing this. Finally, the bar manager called the paramedics, who came over, took one look at her and called the cops. The good news is – I get free drinks next time I go to the Wine Vaults! Ashley was the picture of patience during all of this!

Friday night – Curry night! It was the social night for Bible study. Once a month the group meets up on a different night to go out, and we went to Akash Indian House. I never, and I mean NEVER, eat curry back home. But I’ve now had it twice in Portsmouth and I’m absolutely hooked. There were 17 of us there, and we stuffed our faces with papadoms, naan bread, passandas and balti. It was fabulous. Ashley and I did a late night chocolate run after we left Akash at the 24 hour convenience store. The best part of that – my dear friend Leslie from the night before walked in. I slipped out of there as fast as I could!

Saturday: WINCHESTER! The most perfect day I’ve had in a while. Ashley, Tahnee and I took the train up to Winchester, and it is absolutely lovely up there. We caught a 9am train, and arrived just before 10am. We started the morning off by going to... STARBUCKS! There is only one Starbucks in Portsmouth, and it is 30 minutes away from where I live. Ashley practically accosted a man on the street in Winchester who had a Starbucks in his hand. Once we got our drinks, we began to explore. We went everywhere. We walked up and down High St, which is a pedestrian street filled with shops, bakeries, and a wonderful farmer’s market. We had an amazingly sunny walk down the River Itchen. It runs under a mill house built in the 1700’s, along a garden and past the remains of Wolvesley Castle. The river canal was originally built in the 4^th century! We walked past the remains of Roman walls surrounded Wolvesley Castle – of course, when we finally got to the entrance, it was closed. We walked to the Cathedral, which was beautiful. Ashley and I didn’t go all the way in – we didn’t want to pay £6 – but Tahnee did and was richly rewarded. As she was walking through, the choir began to rehearse songs like “Hallelujah” etc. We went to the house where Jane Austen spent her last few months (Sarah Eng, I took pictures just for you!). We went to Alfie’s pub for lunch and i had my very first fish and chips experience in England. Very greasy – very good. After filling ourselves up, we climbed up a mini- mountain to St. Giles Viewpoint. It was amazing. We had view of the entire city, including the Castle, the Cathedral, the College (Winchester Boys College is the one of the oldest colleges in England, running since the 1300’s), and the hospital. We discovered a teeny church on a side street – the Church of John the Baptist. Another ancient building – it is built over a 4^th century Romano-British cemetery. The church was built in the 1100’s! We went to a little tea shop for cream teas, and then finished off at the Westgate Museum. The museum is in the archway at the beginning of High St, and it was a former debtors’ prison. On some of the walls, you can see the graffiti scratched in by the prisoners of the day. We tried to see the Great Hall with the Round table, but it was closed. We were happy, but absolutely exhausted on the train ride back. However, Ashley and I ended up going out with a friend from church and his friends, and we had a lovely evening.

Sunday was a bit more relaxing. Church in the morning, lunch at church, pie making at Sarah’s and spent the evening at the Coxes (some of my favourite people!) playing Bananagrams and watching Downton Abbey. Seriously, if you haven’t started watching this show – do it! Sarah Eng, you especially!

Again, I wrote too much – someday I’ll get on board with this whole nightly blogging. But until next time – Happy Thanksgiving!!