Poundland,Carlisle

Before I came to Carlisle, I thought this city will be something like a Tintinara. Where is Tintinara? I am here to talk about Carlisle, go look it up in the internet. To my surprise, it is bigger than Tintin. It's more like Ballarat or Geelong for those who came from Melbourne. For those who are not, go look it up in Google. This is a city in the county of Cumbria in UK. It's a city with a lots of history. Carlisle used to be a Roman station in 875AD.

The city has got one MacDonald Restaurant, one KFC and too many, really way too many mobile phone shops. I was told KFC just came in not too long ago. And apparently, it's one of the favorite restaurants in town. So I thought I checked it out. I could not believe that the waiting time is 20 mins. There's a queue at the door. You're kidding me? Oh, come on!

There's a what we called in Australia the $2 dollar shop. Right here in Carlisle, you have the Pound Land. Everything here is 1 pound. Yes, that's right, 1 pound. Very cheap, in fact I actually bought an umbrella here. So far, it is still working well. When I walked out from the shop with the umbrella and I walked past next door, the shop was selling it for 99p. DOPE! ... Just kidding it was selling for more than 3 pounds or something. I also bought my coat hangers there for 1 pound. I don't think I need a Prada coat hanger, so they are just fine. This is suppose to be an easy job for the shop assistant at the check out centre. But they still scan the merchandise, why border? Everything is 1 pound. What's else is in the shop? Things that you would expect to see in a 2 dollar shop. Not sure, what else I am going to get from Poundland. One thing for sure, there's no Prada, Chanel or Armani.

Aira Force, Lake District

Okay, from Matterdale the Hebron families went to the Tea Room for afternoon tea. We the OMers chose the cheaper alternative, we went to Aira Force. We parked our car in the next free parking area and walked to the Aira Force. This is not the "May the force be with you" kind of force if you are wondering. It is a waterfall. The place was owned by a rich guy in 1780's as a hunting lodge and planted a lot of native plants. The walk in the park was totally different experience from the Matterdale one. It was like walking in the woods that was described in some books. It was equally beautiful. Some of the plants are very unique, here are just a few of them.

What does this look like to you? ->

Face of an old lady? Go Figure.

<- In order to survive you need to stretch a bit. As a result of that, it gives you a bit of character - persistent, patient, perserverance. If you are under a bit of stress, hang in there.

Matterdale, Lake District

The weekend just past, I was invited by one of the OMers, Timotheous who attends the Hebron church here in Carlisle for a family hike around Lake District. I have not been exercising for the past few weeks, I figured out it would be a good start for me in this city.

Matterdale is located in Lake District 30 minutes away from Carlisle. The track was an easy one since it was a family walk, it should not be difficult for the kids. Friends you see on the picture are Christian and Daniela K and Timotheous P. They are from the OM office, Chris and Dnaiela are from Austria and Timo is from Germany.

The country side is just so beautiful and it's green all over. The weather on that day was perfect, not too cold, may be it was because we were constantly moving and had warmed up.

The houses along the walk still retained their original state when they were first built. It was just beautiful. We stopped over at a few places, one of them was the Matterdale church. This church was built in the 1573, that's what they told me. It was just amazing. Inside the church building, there's no electricity and therefore the candles were used for meetings at night. Must be interesting to meet under the illumination of the candle light. As I walked through the door, there are some new song books. Someone told me that there are still people who meet here on a regular basis. The door of this church is never locked to allow people to visit. To visit a historic building like this always makes you feel surreal. You think you probably in the movie, Braveheart. I am so glad that this part of the history is kept and maintained so that the future generation will appreciate more of their heritage. As Australia is a very young nation, there's not such building of this age.

The walk/hike took about 2 to 3 hours walk. The scenery was just spectacular as oneof the friends told me that it has one of the most beautiful countryside in England. You would probably start asking question about wehre is the Lake? I asked them as well. The lake is acutally at the side or behind the hills. We did not get to see it because the track did not lead us to the lake. I enjoyed the walk very much as much as I enjoyed the scenery.

Broad St, Carlisle

I am currently staying with an American family serving with OM here in the student ministry, Tim and Linda Wright and their 2 kids. The house is about 10 mins walk from the current OM office. OM will move into a new place in November. The house where the Wrights are staying is a typical English town house, beautifully located on Broad St. As you can see, the street is not that broad, only one car can go through. The street signs on this part of the town, is quite hard to see. Most of them are on the actual building at the corners of the streets. Some of them actually faded away. How to get around in this part of the town in Carlisle? Oh well ... You adjust.

I will stay in this beautiful town house for couple of weeks before OM finds a more permanent accommodation closer to the newer office.