trip to England
May. 31st, 2005 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelseagirlwaaay behind. We got back Friday night but because we came home to the midst of a holiday weekend, and didn't *have* to jump back into things, we succumbed to the most serious case of jetlag either of us has ever known. I'm still waking up at 8:30 am, UK time, which is about 3:30, but that's progress from what it was. I did have a Memorial Day overnight barbecue thingy at a friend's house but so many people cancelled that she called it off -- not sure if that would have jumpstarted me (to be around the non-lagged) or if I would have been totally zombified.
Everything was lovely (except, possibly, the British train system . . . and, come to think of it, traffic on the M4 and M25 on our way to Heathrow, so transportation issues generally), particularly the cottage, which dates back to 1650 and is in the most charming little village, and is all irregular and interesting (steps down from the upstairs to our room, interesting configurations generally, a staircase that seems to have confused itself with a ladder -- yipes!). I fell hopelessly in love with the Norfolk countryside where you practically trip over Norman churches, and hedgerows, and wisteria-covered houses, and it was a great time of year for wildflowers. Susan took us to a couple of different seaside villages, Cromer which was a bit rinktytink, where we had good fish and chips on the pier and M. won me a stuffed animal from one of those claw-grab machines (Susan won herself two, she is the master of the claw-grab) and one that was on an estuary and very posh. Peter took me to Blickling Hall, where Anne Boleyn was born, though it was very much the stately home and little of the Tudor left about it. Got lovely exterior pictures there and also at Norwich Cathedral (where I saw a Green Man that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
silme sometimes uses as an LJ icon!); Norwich Castle on the other hand was pretty much for schoolkids. And Susan treated us to quite a bit of shopping, which was awfully sweet of her, as we are intensely budgeted right now and she feels it's just not a holiday without shopping.
Had one day of Bad British Television Events, which started out with the Big Brother tryouts at Karen and Stuart's flat (we stayed there the first night), continued with the FA Cup at Peter and Susan's house, and concluded with the Eurovision Song Contest at Alister's (I went back down to Herts. in order to get a better start into London the next morning). Also, I will never hear the two words "Crazy Frog" together ever again without shuddering. (Of course "Axel's Theme" pretty much already made me shudder, but this adds new levels of horror.) The one thing I *didn't* get to see was Doctor Who (!) as we were in transit at the time, though luckily, I saw it taped atsilme and luis_mw's house later.
Packed in a fair bit in a very brief time in London; I got to half a service at St. Paul's Cathedral Sunday morning (the organ! the choir! the building -- even though they had scaffolding up in the Dome) before ducking out to meet up with silme and luis_mw at the New Globe to see a well-acted but annoyingly clever production of The Tempest with only three actors in all the major parts. I can philosophize on why this actually *worked* in interesting ways, but as I teach the play every year and know it very well, and still took a minute to catch on to who was who and what was what if my mind wandered for a moment, I'm not entirely convinced. We decided to do the Tate Modern since it was next door and though I'm glad I saw it, I'll have to agree with somethingqueenofthorns said about London museum choices -- there wasn't much there I couldn't have seen parallel (and probably stronger) works to at MOMA, and in future I'll choose other museums to invest my limited London time in.
Got to see Silme and Luis' new house and say good bye to their very dear cat Jeremy, who despite the terrible tumor on his face and his weakened condition, insisted on much petting from me while I (finally!) sat on the couch to watch Doctor Who. Then back up to Norfolk the next day for relaxing and sightseeing and overall being treated awfully well by the inlaws. :-)
I had decided the one thing I wanted from a trip to England was a pair of DM boots (I had DM shoes some years back and loved them), as I figured even with the bad exchange rate they'd be cheaper there. I don't know that they were, but I got 14-hole ones in a wonderful teal color, which Susan insisted on treating to -- now, alas, I won't be able to really wear them until fall, but I've never seen ones like those here. And picked up a couple of books that aren't in paperback here yet, most notably The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, which I thought beautifully written. I wasn't quite as engaged with the main character by the end as I was in the early section, but the ending was devastating and melancholy and very true to the period -- as a coming-of-age novel featuring a young gay man in the time of AIDS is likely to be.
Oh, yeah, one of my disseration advisors was on the same flight over, as he was going to do research at the British Library. It was cool to see him; we managed to chat and catch up, and today I shall find out how his trip went.
Rather sorry we came away so soon, but back now, with lots of work to do, and a meeting with my advisors (apparently they now do team meetings) this afternoon. I hope to start catching up on LJ soon, but if I miss anything important, it's all my fault and you have my permission to think so. ;-)
Everything was lovely (except, possibly, the British train system . . . and, come to think of it, traffic on the M4 and M25 on our way to Heathrow, so transportation issues generally), particularly the cottage, which dates back to 1650 and is in the most charming little village, and is all irregular and interesting (steps down from the upstairs to our room, interesting configurations generally, a staircase that seems to have confused itself with a ladder -- yipes!). I fell hopelessly in love with the Norfolk countryside where you practically trip over Norman churches, and hedgerows, and wisteria-covered houses, and it was a great time of year for wildflowers. Susan took us to a couple of different seaside villages, Cromer which was a bit rinktytink, where we had good fish and chips on the pier and M. won me a stuffed animal from one of those claw-grab machines (Susan won herself two, she is the master of the claw-grab) and one that was on an estuary and very posh. Peter took me to Blickling Hall, where Anne Boleyn was born, though it was very much the stately home and little of the Tudor left about it. Got lovely exterior pictures there and also at Norwich Cathedral (where I saw a Green Man that
silme sometimes uses as an LJ icon!); Norwich Castle on the other hand was pretty much for schoolkids. And Susan treated us to quite a bit of shopping, which was awfully sweet of her, as we are intensely budgeted right now and she feels it's just not a holiday without shopping. Had one day of Bad British Television Events, which started out with the Big Brother tryouts at Karen and Stuart's flat (we stayed there the first night), continued with the FA Cup at Peter and Susan's house, and concluded with the Eurovision Song Contest at Alister's (I went back down to Herts. in order to get a better start into London the next morning). Also, I will never hear the two words "Crazy Frog" together ever again without shuddering. (Of course "Axel's Theme" pretty much already made me shudder, but this adds new levels of horror.) The one thing I *didn't* get to see was Doctor Who (!) as we were in transit at the time, though luckily, I saw it taped at
silme and luis_mw's house later.Packed in a fair bit in a very brief time in London; I got to half a service at St. Paul's Cathedral Sunday morning (the organ! the choir! the building -- even though they had scaffolding up in the Dome) before ducking out to meet up with silme and luis_mw at the New Globe to see a well-acted but annoyingly clever production of The Tempest with only three actors in all the major parts. I can philosophize on why this actually *worked* in interesting ways, but as I teach the play every year and know it very well, and still took a minute to catch on to who was who and what was what if my mind wandered for a moment, I'm not entirely convinced. We decided to do the Tate Modern since it was next door and though I'm glad I saw it, I'll have to agree with something
queenofthorns said about London museum choices -- there wasn't much there I couldn't have seen parallel (and probably stronger) works to at MOMA, and in future I'll choose other museums to invest my limited London time in.Got to see Silme and Luis' new house and say good bye to their very dear cat Jeremy, who despite the terrible tumor on his face and his weakened condition, insisted on much petting from me while I (finally!) sat on the couch to watch Doctor Who. Then back up to Norfolk the next day for relaxing and sightseeing and overall being treated awfully well by the inlaws. :-)
I had decided the one thing I wanted from a trip to England was a pair of DM boots (I had DM shoes some years back and loved them), as I figured even with the bad exchange rate they'd be cheaper there. I don't know that they were, but I got 14-hole ones in a wonderful teal color, which Susan insisted on treating to -- now, alas, I won't be able to really wear them until fall, but I've never seen ones like those here. And picked up a couple of books that aren't in paperback here yet, most notably The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, which I thought beautifully written. I wasn't quite as engaged with the main character by the end as I was in the early section, but the ending was devastating and melancholy and very true to the period -- as a coming-of-age novel featuring a young gay man in the time of AIDS is likely to be.
Oh, yeah, one of my disseration advisors was on the same flight over, as he was going to do research at the British Library. It was cool to see him; we managed to chat and catch up, and today I shall find out how his trip went.
Rather sorry we came away so soon, but back now, with lots of work to do, and a meeting with my advisors (apparently they now do team meetings) this afternoon. I hope to start catching up on LJ soon, but if I miss anything important, it's all my fault and you have my permission to think so. ;-)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 05:18 pm (UTC)I do have pictures, though not as many as I should (I can never figure out how to photograph a room so that you really get the sense of it). Did I mention the fireplace would probably count as a room in a Manhattan apartment?
no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 06:32 pm (UTC)Or if you want to, you know, *see* them, it's been ages since we've gotten together.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 06:36 pm (UTC)For the benefit of others however, to post images to LJ they need to be hosted elsewhere and then linked to.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 01:34 pm (UTC)And I'll find a picture host over the next week or so . . . Are there any you recommend (for the technologically inept, particularly)?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 01:55 pm (UTC)Image hosting sites. I would reccomend photobucket or flikr. I've never used the later but it seems to be growing in popularity. Photobucket used to be free but I'm not sure that it still is. The nice thing is you can load your images and then just send a link to people. This is what
no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 05:59 pm (UTC)And thanks for the site suggestions.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-02 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-02 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 03:03 pm (UTC)You should visit Devon on your next trip here! I'm not just saying that because I live there, it's a beautiful place rich in history and many parts of it are very unspoilt.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 05:27 pm (UTC)Norfolk was amazing. My husband wasn't able to travel back while he was waiting for his green card, so his parents had actually moved from Cambridgeshire since he was last home. So it was semi-new to him and new to me.
Hopefully, next trip will be longer and I will be able to visit more places; this trip was supposed to be both longer and later in the summer, but . . . life happens.
BTW, as I haven't read LJ since before I went away, what's happening with your housing situation? I hope something positive.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 03:58 pm (UTC)I'm glad you and M were able to take this time off, you two certainly deserved to be pampered. M's mother sounds like so much fun, and the cottage sounds lovely.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 05:30 pm (UTC)You should go. It's not that expensive and it's pretty easy to get around.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 05:59 pm (UTC)*sigh*
I'll just live vicariously through pictures... hint hint
no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 06:34 pm (UTC)I have to learn how to upload pictures. I will figure it out . . . sooner or later!
no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 06:48 pm (UTC)You know what? They have weekend airfare sales to New York periodically. Someday I'm going to take advantage of one, fly out on a Saturday morning, invade
I would love to do something like that, I've talked about doing that to visit
no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 01:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 02:55 pm (UTC)Funny thing, I got a notice from Travelocity that the fare to NY dropped to $144! I think that's a weekday fare, though, so, no.
*sigh* I want to do this someday, I've never met
Stop me, I'm getting travel lust and have neither the time nor the money right now!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-02 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 03:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 01:46 pm (UTC)I'll write more about the production in another entry, since
jet lag
Date: 2005-06-02 06:59 am (UTC)Welcome home.
Re: jet lag
Date: 2005-06-02 01:00 pm (UTC)I'm getting there -- I slept until 10:15 UK time this morning -- 5:15 am is still a tad early, but since I generally wake up between 6 and 7 am, not too far offbase.