SUNday

This morning went into Uni cos wanted to try out the Lutheran service at the Chaplaincy. Traffic was much lighter on Sundays and I took only 20min to get to Uni from my hse! Once again, very small congregation..only had 16 people today! Most from Tanzania (who are students)...everyone was very welcoming especially Rev John Evenson, also Uni's Lutheran Chaplain. Order of service was the same as back home but without organ or piano...not sure if it's just cos today but I don't see any organ or keyboard or in fact, any musical instrument ard! So in that instance it felt different from BLC. Joined them for refreshments after which was pastries, yummy scones and drinks. Found out from a member (Richard who is originally from NZ and wife is Indian) that this is the largest Lutheran congregation in B'ham! He said he and his wife attends the Selly Oak Methodist Church (which he says has the largest Methodist congregation here) on Sundays that St Marks do not have services..I did mention that I attended the one near my place and it was v cosy. Anyway, St Francis Hall building which we were at is where the Multi-faith Chaplaincy is so there was a group of Romanians having BBQ..

Uni clock tower again..love the clouds!

What the locals call beautiful day! Sunny but cool winds

Having gone to two congregations now, I start to wonder if all the pretty church buildings I see along the way were all sparsely filled on Sundays? Where have the people of God gone to? I doubt it's because of the many churches around that people attend different churches. Or maybe the population of B'ham is small..actually I haven't checked what is the population size before. Ok, just checked..

Birmingham (ⁱ/ˈbɜrmɪŋəm/, locally /ˈbɜrmɪŋɡəm/) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London with 1,074,300 residents (2011 census), an increase of 96,000 over the previous decade.^[2]

Ok, so maybe it really is a small city. But also, I think people are not going to church much these days - rather do other things on the weekend. I always thought the Christian population in western countries is much higher than in SG so expected to see crowded churches..or at least filled..like those I went in Adelaide. Today Rev John was just saying about giving to the poor and disadvantaged..when we get more well-off, we seem to forget that.

Oh yes, Richard was giving homemade apple sauce to the new students after asking if we cook..haha! He said their fridge is full of apples from their apple tree!!! I'm sooo blessed. I was telling him I just had pork and it would've gone well with apple sauce!

Homemade apple sauce in a 450g tub!

After church went to Bearwood and yes, I got my calculator I reserved online within 5 mins!! The concept is v cool I find..I just had to make payment and wait for my turn to collect my item. SG should consider such shops!

My calculator

Went to Aldi which was also along Bearwood and bought iceberg lettuce (45 pence), broccoli (55 pence), a loaf of bread and a bag of conference pears (99 pence). Wanted to buy apples, rice and oil (yes, I haven't bought oil yet) but too heavy. Things seemed cheaper there but had difficulties finding UHT milk and canned coconut milk (to cook my Panang curry). Shall come back again some time next week. One thing that is unique of Aldi is cashiers sit, not stand..and you are expected to self-pack cos they just scan the items and collect payment!

After I reached home, continued to work on my assignment. Was getting sleepy with the stats and journals..so in between played some hp games. Then made dinner. Wanted more space in the freezer so thought I should just cook the ready-cooked lasagne...then added some veges to go with it.

my "salad" with apple sauce

dinner for today! Kept half of it cos couldn't finish

this evening was quite funny..i became L n T messenger. It started when L called me on my mobile to open door for T..then we exchanged no.s else he couldve called me directly..then i asked hw to spell his name n realised i got it wrong! Shld be C..hah! N learnr tt he is a Muslim but dun pray..nt long after he came home n i was watching tv downstairs while having my dinner, i went bk my rm. Then he called out to me saying i can feel free to watch tv downstairs. He must hv thot i came up my rm cos he came home. But is cos the show ended n i wanted to shower. Then not long ltr L called my mobile again..this time to ask C to ans her call..haha

I'm left with last section of my assignment - shall continue tomorrow. While I was at it just now, got msg from A. saying he managed to find the ebook that I wanted (Dr Steve had recommended at the start of our course and I thought of buying liao)!! Was so happy..hehe..saved me $ and luggage space (later on when I go home..hehe!) He's very tech savvy!! So lihai to look for ebooks and will share info/resources. So I guess it's a blessing to be in the same programme with him so can help one another. For those who may be thinking about something else, no, we're just classmates.