By the wonders on modern technology I'm at the Teenstreet 07 program meetings in Houston, this weekend, while still sitting on the couch in my apartment in London beside Paula who's watching TV. If you check out the MacBookPro on Deb's lap I'm on video chat on Skype watching the proceedings.
Thankfully it's been a very short journey for us in terms of finding a church to go to here in London.
We thought it might have taken us ages since there are so many but I'm glad to report that wasn't the case.
It was a God thing that brought us there, so that's good... but that's quite a long story. Too long for my head space to try and type up right now.
http://www.greenwichvineyard.org.uk/
GVC is where you will find us on Sunday mornings. Great people, great venue, great vision & passion..... I'm sure there will be more stories to come.
Ages ago I said that I was writing an article for our friends over at yo-ho.net
I did and here's the link to it...
Yo-ho article
Tino Sehgal link at the ICA.
One of the reasons I wanted to resurrect the blog was the think and process all the different and crazy things we've seen and experienced here in London.
Yesterday we cycled into town for petit dejeuner in Le Pain Quotidien (oh my goodness it's good food). P had to visit Regent street to change something she bought and then she brought me to the Institute of Contemporary Arts on the Mall. I didn't get much information on what it was we were visiting and if you have a look at the link you can see it is suitably vague.
We got there, paid our money and were ushered into a large gallery which had about 15 kids running around playing, so I asked the attendant was it through here.... "No, that's it" was the response. After a minute or two of standing awkwardly up against the wall one of the boys in his blue school jumper came over and explained the rules of the game they were playing. There was nothing for it but to join in .
First up it was a chasing game that left you standing on the spot you were caught with your arms out until you 'freed' someone passing under your arms.
This was pretty hectic partly because I was wearing my cycling shoes with a metal cleat on the bottom so I didn't have much traction.
The second game was much more my style 'sleeping lions' and it was who could stay lying on the ground with out moving for the longest.
After that ended and before 'bulldogs' kicked off we had a quick word with one of the attendants, before we left, who explained that the vision for the work was to see allow kids to play without any objects. There were mixed school groups rotating every 45 minutes between playing and art exploration in the upper gallery, which we couldn't visit.
It was an interesting experience but Paula's question when we left said a lot about what I was thinking: 'Was it art?'
In fact it has been way too long even for apologies. So in my best attempt here's some excuses.
I tried to move my blog to our homepage but it got hacked in August.
We upped sticks and left Swansea for the bright lights of London in September and we've been doing our best to settle in here.
John Ryan was round here for a beer last Sunday night with Will McGarry and he was wondering what ever happened to the blog...... John, this one's for you.
More to come
love ya,
come drink beer/coffee/wine with us in London
Check out the news on rolandandpaula.com there is info about our recent trip to a Festival in Germany. Also a link to a video...
I don't know what the story is but we can sort out swapping our phone line over to the new house but we can't swap the Broadband over, high tech eh?
What am I to do?
It might be a little while before I'm back on line but you can still get me on email.
See you all back online soon, I hope!
Ouch, Paula and myself just had all the fun of moving house! Oh the joys!
Thankfully our friend Peyton had dropped his wife Andrea off to travel to the States and had some time to help us with the move. He was amazing and wasn't prepared to quit until it was all in, even though he had to be up at 4 a.m. to get Andrea on the road to the airport.
We had to contend with the 68 steps up to out front door on the house that we were leaving but that made the moving in a doddle. Right in the middle of moving all the stuff we had, what was meant to be, a quick pit-stop but we got on to the subject of church and gifts. It was dark and raining by the time we got back to moving any more gear but it was great to chat, the pizza was good, Paula's homemade spicy veg soup was great and the conversation was stimulating.
Paula is amazing at packing up stuff and getting on with it all. Our transition this time has been frustrated in the fact that I have been on the road so much recently and we couldn't get a good run at it to get organised. Paula none the less got down to it and made it all happen. I have an amazing wife.
I had a solid nights sleep even though we didn't quit till nearly midnight and I had to be on a train to London first thing in the morning.
Now we have to get on with the settling-in process. It's no fun living in a maze of boxes for too long, although we have plenty of room in the new place so it might be possible to just locate them all in one room and we can lock the door and ignore it! Which reminds me of what a terrible procrastinator I am! Which leads me nicely on to the fact that I'll have a room to myself as a studio, sweet, so I'd better get on and make some tunes.
Better go finish cleaning the Oven!!! Again Big thanks to Peyton for the help, you rock, brother!!
WOW,
I've just woken up in Seattle, it rocks. Starbucks central. I was just in one and it's 5.30 am nice and early, a great destination for a jog!
Went to see the Sonics beat Utah Jazz last night.
It is going to be coffee, coffee, coffee all week. I'm hoping to learn loads more! It has already been an education being in Seattle, it is the city of coffee.
Off to grab a shower and head to SBUX HQ.
Love ya all.
Roly
I've been asked to write some articles for Young Hope (www.yo-ho.net) so I'm doing some mental processing for that right now.
I was running up and down to Cardiff & our local Boarders for training over the Jan/Feb, so I've been pretty wrecked and haven't had very much head space to get anything down on paper.
I have had to prioritise other (more important) stuff up till now this year so... I'm getting started again at the moment.
Seattle this weekend to visit coffee heaven, Starbucks HQ, the first store in Pike Place and the roasting plant. To me it's like a visit to Willy Wonka's. So as I'm excited as Charlie and Grandpa Joe rolled into one! The down side is that P's not coming.
Off to Birmingham for more training when I'm back from Seattle and on to Dublin for a Young Hope Vision meeting.
On the road I am going to try and keep my thought processes going so that I'll be ready to blurt it all out on return to my little Powerbook.
