Dodgy cabs and scary cycling

After living a bit like a hobo for the last few weeks I decided I needed some proper furniture so dragged myself along to Ikea last weekend. I wandered round the rather gigantic store as quick as I could, dodging people spending six hours deciding what colour they want their new bookcase and somehow managed to choose a few bits of random furniture that will hopefully last for the next 10 months without collapsing. Thus I purchased the items and headed outside in the hope of finding a taxi to take the furniture back without breaking my back. Unfortunately because the Ikea is in the middle of the Brooklyn wilderness there aren’t many NYC taxis going around. There were some rather dodgy looking private cabs but common sense told me to avoid these like the plague.
However after waiting 20 minutes with no sign of a yellow cab I decided that rather than wait around for what could be literally eternity I’d risk my life and approach the dubious cab men. I made sure I arranged a reasonable price beforehand but even so, as one of the men led me to a car located down a side road with a number of scary looking men hanging around, I began to think that the cab fare may not have been the main concern…
However, despite my fears it was in fact fine – the cab driver was actually very friendly and got me back to the apartment in one piece. That said I’m not sure that getting in a cab that I was unsure about from the offset would be something that I’d wholeheartedly recommend.

In other news I went to Governors Island a couple of weeks ago…it’s a small island off the southern tip of Manhattan that was deserted for a number of years before being opened up to the public last year…(I think).
Arriving on the first ferry at 10am was ideal – it was deserted and peaceful – we hired bikes and started cycling round, enjoying the space and the sound of silence as opposed to the constant hum of the city.
After exploiting the free space for a couple of hours the island began to get busy as more people began to arrive onto the formerly peaceful entity. This certainly made cycling quite interesting…there was no clear division between cyclists travelling one way and the other so quite often I found myself travelling at speed towards someone else travelling at speed – it seemed that horrific accidents were only seconds away before one person made the last second decision to divert away. Fortunately nobody died but it was a close call.

It was an absolutely stunning day yesterday so decided it would be a good day to try and combat my recent lack of proper exercise. One of my friends from church mentioned that he played pickup soccer (aka football…) on Saturday afternoon so thought I’d tag along. The fact that I nearly died was a wakeup call to try and make this exercise lark more of a regular slot in my existence.
However despite my lack of fitness it was well worth it. I’ve played on some pretty good pitches but the one I played on yesterday was probably one of the best. It was on the roof of a sports complex meaning that whilst playing we had the view of the Empire State Building on one side and downtown Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty on the other. It wasn’t half bad.

I’ve also discovered that the British phrase ‘washing up’ (i.e. washing the dishes) in fact translates in America as washing yourself…so when I asked someone a couple of weeks ago if they wanted help washing up I think they were slightly concerned…

So that’s some of the story of the last couple of weeks.

As a postscript the longer I’m here the more I’m getting to realise just how in control God is. Every situation, good or bad, is guided by him. Some situations can seem pretty tough but again and again God has shown me the depth of his love by being there each and every time. Things can turn out differently to the way I expected/wanted them but at the end of the day I trust that he is in complete and utter control and that through this I strive not to fear or worry because he is there and he will never leave.