Wandering the mean streets of Lincoln.

After a looooooong day at work (I swear Bill and Kim couldn't have moved any slower) we finally got back to the Hotel after dark. I gave Jessi a call since she got out of class earlier and I’m a lot less cranky at 7:00 pm than I am at 9:30 pm. After we talked I met Bill and we went out to scour for food. The funny thing is Major Kim (our British Contact, seen pictured in his Military Garb) is always complaining that Americans eat too early! We eat breakfast too early, we eat lunch too early, we eat dinner too early, etc! Well we go to find some nice fish and chips and every pub we go to has stopped serving food and is only serving Alcohol! We went to 3 or 4 places all of which stopped serving food. Finally we found a place but alas, no Fish and Chips. Oh well, I had a very delicious club sandwich.

After that Bill went back to the Hotel, while I spent a few minutes exploring around the very dark cobbled streets of Lincoln (at least the parts around the Hotel). I also walked around the massive Lincoln Cathedral in the Dark. My it is an Impressive structure, even more so when you consider it was built between 1072-1092 with none of the technology we have now and in my opinion it’s beauty dwarfs that of any thing we have currently built in this day and age.

As I looked at it I couldn’t help but think of an American Literature Professor I had in college and something he said that has always stuck with me. He said “You have to realize that from about the 1500s on back all art (Literary, Paintings, and Architecture) were built to express man’s amazement at the concept that God could be born through a woman.” And I think most all art since then has been used to express man’s amazement with himself. As a matter of fact most all art, science and everything else has been dedicated by man to man. I think if anything should be dedicated to men it should be the front page of the newspaper which testifies very well the true nature of man, but that is for a different blog at another time.

I had a nice time last night, I read some when I got back to my room and slept well. Had a Smoked Halibut for breakfast this morning, which was interesting and other wise I have been working feverishly here. I’m very sad to report that I am unable to get the stream of “Heroes” here in the UK from NBC’s website, I don’t know why.

Anyway before we left this morning I got a clear shot of the Cathedral in the “daylight” (at least what passes for daylight in this country) . Enjoy. I sure miss everybody, hope to see ya soon.

Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape

Somewhere over the rainbow . . . .

Well here it is lunch time on Day 2, and I'm here at work trying to enjoy a nice mug of hot soup that I brought with me. It cost a pound fifty to eat at the canteen here on the military base and that equates to just under $3. I brought a bunch of stuff from the LA diet plan I'm on and I try to make do with that for lunches at work. I figure if I'm gonna spend some pounds eating I'm going to do it at a real English restaurant and not at a military base.

Bill and I still haven't worked out what to do about that meeting next Tuesday, but whatever happens I don't plan to miss MY flight! I needs to gets back to my woman!

I wanted to post some daylight pics of the castle and Cathedral today but alas the batteries died in the camera this morning before I could take a pic. So I'm posting a picture I took yesterday on the drive Bill and I took from the Manchester Airport to here in Kirton. There were at least 6 sets of these groups of 8 cylindrical containment buildings (the kind of things you picture when you talk about Nuclear power plants) that you could see on the way to Kirton. There were an awful lot of them, this must be the power hub of all England. I think they burn coal there or something because there were a lot of coal excavation pits beside the road too. Anyway there was a rainbow out over a couple of the power plants and I thought it would make a neat picture.

Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape

The End of Day One.

Well today is the end of a very rocky day. The full spectrum of emotions was experienced by yours truly. Mostly i was bored and tired. I am looking forward to a nice comfy night of sleep. One curve ball that was tossed my way was that my travel partner needs to be at a meeting Tuesday that could possibly delay our trip back by a day. I don't like that at all. I'll have to wait and see how that turns out.

After our work day we came to our hotel in Lincoln, the White Hart Inn. It is old and quaint, but the rooms are actually really pretty nice (by English Hotel standards anyway). But i have to say i love it! The Hotel is on the edge of Lincoln and it is practically sandwiched between an Old Castle and an Old Cathedral. My Window has a gorgeous view of the Cathedral. And you can walk to any number of really great places in minutes. I look forward to the day when i can have some time for myself and go exploring.

Well it is time to call my Claire Bear, so this ends my post. We got to the Inn late this evening so i will have to wait until tomorrow to get some great daylight photos of the surroundings.

Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape

P.S, The pictures included are pictures of my room and my view from my room at night. Pretty sweet.

Death Defying Flight!

Okay, everybody whoever made fun of me for being afraid of flying: "You're an idiot! I was right!"
My traveling buddy, Bill, and I boarded the tiniest little Delta commuter jet i have ever been on. Now to be honest, it may not have been the pilot's fault, It was real real windy in both Huntsville and in Atlanta. As we came down to land in Atlanta, we were dropping out of the sky in very quick bursts, not the slow and steady descent that one usually gets, finally the back left tire of the plane hit the airstrip and instantly the aircraft started to roll to the left very very sharply! Now i am a little afraid of flying, but i play it up more around friends and family because i think it is funny, but as the plane rolled all i could think was, "This is just a Nightmare, this CAN'T really be happening!" It wasn't just me, other passengers on the flight started yelling and screaming and i think that the flight attendant put her hands over her head and pulled her head down between her legs. I was sure we were dead.
Some how the pilot got control and he managed to stop the roll and slammed the right tire down onto the airstrip (How we kept from burying that left wing into the ground i will never know). The plane bobbed back and forth and weaved frighteningly from side to side until the pilot got the nose down. When we stopped, everyone was a twitter talking about how frightening that was, and Bill relayed to me how unattractive i look with all of the whites of my eyes exposed.
The flight attendant still shaken came on the speaker and apologized for the "Terrible Landing" and my traveling Buddy (a veteran of thousands of air trips) exclaimed to me that he was scared and that that was easily the worst landing he had ever had. Thus, I have decided to cancel my flight back to the U.S. and take a rowboat instead.
The rest of the trip over was great, the big planes aren't thrown around as easily by bad winds. The flight was bumpy but not disconcerting. Bill and I slept the rest of the way and got to Manchester at 9:30 AM UK time. with 2 hour travel time we are now here at the work site with not a ton to do on our first day. I took some photos of our drive here and will try to post them later. Until then I bid you good journey.

Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape

My Dear Wormwood,

Well here it is, my first blog. For the uninitiated the title of this blog is a play on the C.S. Lewis book "The Screwtape Letters" in which a devil in hades is writing and encouraging his nephew, a devil on earth named wormwood, who is trying to tempt a mortal man from becoming a Christian.
My friend Peter started doing a blog of his own this week, chronicling his vacation in Hawaii. It has been a fun read and since i am flying off to the UK tomorrow for work i thought it might be a great way to keep those who care about me informed on what is going on with me. I hope it is entertaining for anyone else who happens to drop by. I have included a pic of myself for anyone who cares to know what i look like and doesn't already know me (I'm the guy in the Red coat, not the good looking green guy).
Well there was my first blog post. hopefully the next one will be a lot more entertaining.

Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape