Charles and John Wesleys Church

It is work this week and needless to say we haven't much to report. It is day 3 and both Harry and I think that temp admin work is not quite up our alley in the long term anyway.

Our bus trips have taken about 20 minutes longer than scheduled all mornings - needless to say we have been late so far even though we caught an earlier bus today. It is amazing how many regulars (well appear to be regulars) pay by cash every day rather than buying a cheaper weekly or monthly bus ticket. You get a free newspaper on the bus each morning which is handy.

Coming home tonight we decided we didn't need to watch any 'soaps' all we needed to do was catch a 89 every night. Today, a woman got on with a child, pushchair and two long mops sitting in the pushchair rather than the child. It was so humorous watching her trying to negotiate the pushchair around shopping trolleys and another pram. What was even funnier was her partner then got on with only two little shopping bags!! She then proceeded to say 'sorry' every time someone needed to get off the bus (there is only one door on the buses except for the emergency door) and got into long conversations with strangers about shops closing down etc. Harry and I smiled to ourselves all the way home.

This afternoon after work we went to see the Wesley church - the oldest methodist church in the world. We arrived at 4.45 and it closed at 4.00. I stood mournfully looking through the gates (I felt a bit like Oliver Twist asking for more) and an elderly gentleman took pity on me. He is one of the many volunteers there and he let us in. I think he assumed that we were kiwis staying only a short time in Bristol!! We got a guided tour of the church, rooms where the Wesleys slept and wrote sermons etc - I was hoping he was going to play the little organ for us but he didn't. It is so spartan compared to the Anglican cathedrals we have seen. The photos are a statue of Charles and a view from the pulpit. A couple of really interesting things were the chair and the picture. The chair was carved from a hollow elm - quite fascinating. The other one was the picture of Wesley (can't remember if it was John or Charles but it was likely to John) all done in calligraphy. The picture is tiny words that tells of his life, starting with where he was born, the fire in the house that nearly killed him and his missionary work. We took the photos specially for Ken our friend who does calligraphy. The writing was so small, and not in modern english so was very hard to read but brilliant. We then went to the park across the road with one grave stone on in memory of Charles, his wife and 6 of his (I think I should say her) children.

One of the really uncanny things here in the UK is that you can park on either side of the road. During our travels we have come down a narrow lane and on the left hand side cars are parked facing us. We think we have gone down a one way street the wrong way, but then realise we haven't. The roads are so narrow that if we came on a car going another way we wouldn't be able to pass. Great fun driving around!!