Friday 9th December

Almost had complete panic stations this morning, got up only to find the Internet wasn't working!!!! Thankfully some trusty turning off and back on along with some cable jiggling seemed to fix whatever the problem was.

Adam decided that we should only do a quick trip out today as he had to get organised to head off to Dublin for Dave's stag weekend. So we jumped on a train into London with the plan of checking out St Paul's Cathedral. The crap bit is, its not just 1 train, we had to change twice and navigate our way through the underground with a pram and 2 kids who really didn't want to walk. Unfortunately when Adam had to carry the pram up and down umpteen staircases, they really needed to just harden up and walk. We seriously need to investigate the buses better, there has to be an easier way than all this train swapping.

Anywho, St Paul's is HUGE! Like really, look at moi, huge. The artwork on the ceiling is amazing though. Adam and Stella chose to walk the 500+ stairs to get to the top while Xavier and I sat down in the main area of they church and listened to the audio commentary and waved to Adam and Stella once they got to the top. Apparently Stella walked the first 100 or so steps by herself, then got daddy to carry her the rest of the way. Xave and I did get caught in the middle of the midday Eucharist which was weird.

I attended catholic school until year 8, so am familiar with the receiving of holy communion. For many years now when I have been at church for weddings, funerals, etc I have chosen not to receive communion as I no longer consider myself catholic and feel that to receive communion just to appease family around me would be the wrong thing to do. Today was no different. I sat and listened respectfully (while silently being able to recite word for word what the priest was saying, 9 years of weekly church really does imprint on ones brain), I tried my best to keep Xavier's questioning to a minimum, but despite no longer associating myself with religion, I was still troubled by the number of tourists who were still wandering around during what I know to be a really sacred part of a mass. Although, I guess it wasn't an entire mass either, they do holy communion a few times a day, so perhaps the whole communion things is really just for the tourists too.

Unfortunately there are no photos of St Paul's as you are unable to take pictures inside. But it is an impressive building. Almost too impressive. I kept thinking of how much it must cost to build and maintain such a huge cathedral and then start to wonder, who exactly it is that the church is trying to impress. Its a fine line between building a space to honor your God and just throwing money around because you can. But wasn't that always an issue with religions?

There were more train changes to get back home and a quick supermarket dash to ensure we have enough food over the weekend as Adam is taking the cash card with him. Bought some cordial (or squash as its called here) as despite the water being safe to drink it tastes friggen awful. I plan to spend another evening reading and watching bad TV. I may also have a soak in the bath and my knees are so sore and I don't know why.