england: coventry, nottingham and a toilet
just before the sign language assembly we got the chance to meet up with moira in coventry (approximately in the middle of england).
since moira got off work at 3pm, we had a few hours to look over coventry. they had a quite pleasant little shopping centre, with a huge courtyard dominated by a statue of a naked lady on a horse. not that i was looking real hard or anything, but in passing i happened to notice the little plate: lady godiva. now i had heard the name before so i checked it up.
turns out that lady godiva actually did live in coventry. legend has it that she begged her husband to lower taxes on the people and he steadfastly refused, saying he would only do it if she rode a horse through the town naked. he probably didnt intend for her to actually do it (as many statements by husbands are) but she had everyone stay inside and shut their shutters, and did so. and her husband subsequently lowered the taxes. a happy ending....except for one tailor, named tom who couldnt resist and bored a hole to watch the show and was struck dead. hence, a 'peeping tom'. sadly this highly entertaining story is unlikely to be true.
off this same square was a church. we wandered in to have a look see...
it was quite pretty inside. it dates from the 12th century and the stone work was pretty fancy. in general i was quite pleased with finding it, until a few minutes ago as i was writing this blog and had a look at google maps and discovered an even more awesome ruin right behind this building and i didnt even know it. keep this in mind if you ever find yourself in coventry.
by this time i was moving pretty fast because i had to go to the bathroom, and i was hoping to find one in our next building, the 6 story colossal primark - kind of walmart for clothes. after spending half an hour with sandi looking at 5 billion pairs of socks, i realised that i had better abandon ship and find a bathroom. sadly the primark with its 5,000 customers hadn't thought that any one of them might ever need a bathroom (even though the staff kept on directing me to a corner of the building that definitely had no doors). so i left the building and tried a different mall. turns out that all the bathrooms in coventry were destroyed in 1940 by the german luftwaffe, along with the st marys cathedral that i didnt see.
fortunately i did find the only bathroom left in the city before i exploded, and we were able to meet up with moira, an old friend from kenya and her mom. onwards to nottingham! nottingham, and the famous sherwood forest, home of myriad poems, books, movies about robin hood. the forest is indeed there. it is a really beautiful area of england. specifically we were going to mansfield, which is where wee maria lives.
you might be wondering, has musa gone a little bit crazy? why is he posting pictures of admittedly delicious looking strawberry cheesecake, and apple pie and ice cream in his blog? well this was only a small part of the humungous feast that wee maria whipped up for us. wee maria is a missionary who graduated gilead the year i was born (1975 in case you were wondering) and served faithfully in seychelles and kenya ever since. we were in the same congregation when i was younger and then we were sent to bethel around the same time, and just this year she had to go back home to england to care for her wee mum. wee maria is actually scottish, and because after 38 years in africa she still has a strong scottish accent, we always call her 'wee maria'. wee maria is five foot tall and comes from a tough family - her aunt beat up two thugs who tried to rob her once. her wee mum, also five foot tall, remarried at the spritely age of 68. wee maria is not lacking in spirit.
its such a privilege to know her and it was a highlight of the trip to see her. and not just because of the pizza, and chicken, and two amazing salads and cheesecake, and, well you get the picture.
we left much weightier than we arrived and ready for...the sign language assembly.
since moira got off work at 3pm, we had a few hours to look over coventry. they had a quite pleasant little shopping centre, with a huge courtyard dominated by a statue of a naked lady on a horse. not that i was looking real hard or anything, but in passing i happened to notice the little plate: lady godiva. now i had heard the name before so i checked it up.
turns out that lady godiva actually did live in coventry. legend has it that she begged her husband to lower taxes on the people and he steadfastly refused, saying he would only do it if she rode a horse through the town naked. he probably didnt intend for her to actually do it (as many statements by husbands are) but she had everyone stay inside and shut their shutters, and did so. and her husband subsequently lowered the taxes. a happy ending....except for one tailor, named tom who couldnt resist and bored a hole to watch the show and was struck dead. hence, a 'peeping tom'. sadly this highly entertaining story is unlikely to be true.
off this same square was a church. we wandered in to have a look see...
it was quite pretty inside. it dates from the 12th century and the stone work was pretty fancy. in general i was quite pleased with finding it, until a few minutes ago as i was writing this blog and had a look at google maps and discovered an even more awesome ruin right behind this building and i didnt even know it. keep this in mind if you ever find yourself in coventry.
by this time i was moving pretty fast because i had to go to the bathroom, and i was hoping to find one in our next building, the 6 story colossal primark - kind of walmart for clothes. after spending half an hour with sandi looking at 5 billion pairs of socks, i realised that i had better abandon ship and find a bathroom. sadly the primark with its 5,000 customers hadn't thought that any one of them might ever need a bathroom (even though the staff kept on directing me to a corner of the building that definitely had no doors). so i left the building and tried a different mall. turns out that all the bathrooms in coventry were destroyed in 1940 by the german luftwaffe, along with the st marys cathedral that i didnt see.
fortunately i did find the only bathroom left in the city before i exploded, and we were able to meet up with moira, an old friend from kenya and her mom. onwards to nottingham! nottingham, and the famous sherwood forest, home of myriad poems, books, movies about robin hood. the forest is indeed there. it is a really beautiful area of england. specifically we were going to mansfield, which is where wee maria lives.
you might be wondering, has musa gone a little bit crazy? why is he posting pictures of admittedly delicious looking strawberry cheesecake, and apple pie and ice cream in his blog? well this was only a small part of the humungous feast that wee maria whipped up for us. wee maria is a missionary who graduated gilead the year i was born (1975 in case you were wondering) and served faithfully in seychelles and kenya ever since. we were in the same congregation when i was younger and then we were sent to bethel around the same time, and just this year she had to go back home to england to care for her wee mum. wee maria is actually scottish, and because after 38 years in africa she still has a strong scottish accent, we always call her 'wee maria'. wee maria is five foot tall and comes from a tough family - her aunt beat up two thugs who tried to rob her once. her wee mum, also five foot tall, remarried at the spritely age of 68. wee maria is not lacking in spirit.
its such a privilege to know her and it was a highlight of the trip to see her. and not just because of the pizza, and chicken, and two amazing salads and cheesecake, and, well you get the picture.
we left much weightier than we arrived and ready for...the sign language assembly.
