April kicked off with a visit to St. David’s Ty-Sign in Risca. This was a bittersweet visit, as it represented the ending of a Methodist Church, but the beginning of an amazing community-run volunteer space. The building used to be a church, but when the worshipping community ceased, a volunteer community group rented the space to run a variety of community-oriented initiatives. Over the past couple years they have worked hard at fundraising and getting grants so they could buy the building form the circuit, and this day was a celebration that their funding had come through. As one of my circuit stewards said as we toured the place: “this is what we wish the church could be.” The legacy of the Methodist Church will live on, even if it looks differently than we might have wanted.
On the second, we picked my brother up at Heathrow airport! This was the start of a whirlwind visit where we did a lot of things, so hold on to your hats!
On the third, it was Good Friday so I attended one service and led another in the morning, then in the afternoon we went to see The Super Mario Galaxy movie in 4DX.
On the fourth, I took my brother for a tour of Caldicot Castle, which is always fun. We also had sausage rolls from Greggs for breakfast (a British classic) and a chippy takeaway for dinner (another British classic).
On Easter Sunday, Matthew went with me to Rogiet Methodist Church, though he stayed home with Joel for my afternoon service. We also had an Easter lunch consisting of ham, deviled eggs, asparagus, and carrot cake cupcakes from Costco!
On Monday the 6th, we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon to do a Mystery Guide. (LINK). On the way, we stopped at Gloucester services because they have an amazing Full English breakfast that also includes black pudding and haggis - two of Joel’s favourite British foods. Matthew was game for trying everything, though I don’t think he particularly liked it.
We were blessed with an absolutely gorgeous day for our wander around Stratford-Upon-Avon.
On Tuesday, I had to get some work done, but in the evening we took Matthew to Caerwent for a wander around the Roman ruins. Here we are standing on an ancient Roman wall, and you can see that the weather continued to be stunning!
On Wednesday the 8th, while I did a communion service at a care home, Joel and Matthew went to Chepstow Castle. Joel captured the standard “senior picture” we love to take of people at this particular castle window.
Then we all went to Tintern and admired the Abbey from the outside. Matthew’s favourite part was this old tractor we found near one of the cafes!
On Thursday the 9th, our plans didn’t go quite to plan. We started with a roast at Toby Carvery, which was delicious, of course. But then our plans to do the underground tour at the Big Pit were thwarted by it being the school holidays and everything being fully booked. So we swung by Keepers Pond, Waitrose, and Raglan Castle on the way home.
On Friday the 10th, we took a long-awaited trip to Swansea to check out the water park at the leisure centre. It was not quite as nice as I had hoped (the lazy river was particularly disappointing) but Matthew had fun and that’s what counts!
On Saturday, the 11th, we had a mostly chill day. The guys helped me set up for cafe church the next day at Caldicot, and we took a lovely walk around the castle and enjoyed the bluebells.
On Sunday, the 12th, we made Easter bunting during our cafe church service.
Then, while Joel played Magic in Newport, Matthew and I explored the Roman Baths in Caerleon.
It was also perfect weather for seeing the amphitheatre! (Many a time we’ve tried to see it, it’s been closed for weather.)
On Monday, the 13th, we had breakfast and lunch at Tim Horton’s (what can I say, we are bit obsessed) and we enjoyed a walk around the Clevedon Marine Lake and surrounding areas.
On Tuesday, the 14th, things really picked up and we headed to London, via Stonehenge! Joel and I had never been there before and it was well worth it (especially since we got in for free via being Cadw members for over a year which gets you into English Heritage sites.)
Then we went on to London and tried to see as much as we could! We took a bus to Buckingham Palace…
Then we walked to Big Ben…
Then Matthew and I rode the London Eye…
And then we tried to walk even further to get to Tower Bridge, but we were exhausted. So we stopped for a snack of some very British toasties…
Then went back to our hotel to enjoy the KFC pickle menu and get a night of sleep before taking Matthew to the airport the next morning. After all that, (doing more in a couple weeks than we usually do in a couple months!) I had to spend a lot of time catching up on work. Thought we did make time to do the Secrets of Strixhaven pre-release with Amy & Ben.
On Friday, the 24th, Steve came to visit with his new campervan! It is so cool and has ignited an extreme desire in Joel and me to get our own campervan. However, we want to stick to electric, so it’s going to be a couple of years before the technology catches up with our budget. (We could get what we want right now for £70k, but we don’t have that kind of money!!)
The rest of the month was truly just catching up on work, though I did squeeze in buying a new book (with some Waterstone’s credit, so technically free.) I snapped this photo for my friends when I realised that the cover matched my dress.
April was so much fun but also a lot, so I’m looking forward to a milder May!
XOXO, Bethany