Spinster Aunt

Dreaming of East: Western Women and the Exotic Allure of the Orient

2009-05-26T03:10:38Z

Dreaming of East: Western Women and the Exotic Allure of the Orient
by Barbara Hodgson

(Same author as “No Place for a Lady: Tales of Adventurous Women Travellers”, which brought Isabella Bird to my attention. A woman who journeyed to the east with revolver and a tea-making set holsters.)

I grabbed this from the library after I got back from travel. Didn't dampen the wanderlust, but then it wasn't designed to.

The Allure of the East
P17
At first, women could but dream of this kind of travel; it was not only alien to them but morally unacceptable and, so they were repeatedly told, beyond their physical and mental stamina. But many, by journeying on the Continent, proved to themselves that they were capable travellers. And when they heard reports of women who ventured farther afield, it seemed possible for them, too.

The average woman still needed meaningful reasons for travel, as escape or wanderlust only drew criticism. To excuse her whim, she might claim that her health forced a change of climate or that she had to follow her husband or chaperone a young lady. She could point out that a pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a duty, profess a desire to help her Eastern sisters, or express a wish to learn.

The Liberating Veil: Harems & Eastern Women
P109
For the nineteenth-century Western woman, a visit to a harem, the secluded women of a Muslim family, was de rigueur, as it was one of the few things that she could do that her countrymen could not. Better yet, unlike other activities limited to women, harem visits were something men wanted to hear about. Firsthand knowledge gave travellers authority; this, harems became a dominant motif in many women’s accounts.

Readers and reviewers eagerly anticipated all details, especially those confirming their beliefs that harems were hotbeds of vice. But society disapproved of overt mention of sex, parts of the body, even undergarments, so such references had to be couched in innuendo to obscure them to all but the most astute reader.*

* Certain male authors – Richard Burton, for example – rendered delicate passages of their books in Latin for the benefit of learned men (and, inadvertently, learned women).

Western Women, Eastern Men
P141
Through travel, a woman might escape her society for perhaps a month, perhaps a year, but at some point she had to return home. Belgiojoso knew that readjustment to European life would be difficult, if not impossible, and that a young woman faced unhappiness at resuming her restricted life or would be compelled to defy her society and live as an outcast. Isabel Burton agreed, saying, “The Orient life unfit[ted] yourself for that of Europe.”

P142
Valérie de Gasparin wrote:

For myself, who has the happiness to be short sighted, I’m perhaps a bad judge of this business. However, I find that modesty suffers less to see a totally black Nubian in the water than to contemplate one hundred suggestive statues dazzling in their whiteness, lined up in the full sun along the galleries of Rome or of Naples. And yet, those women, who will swoon over a Nubian swimming, I’ve seen walking about with their eyes fully open in the middle of the Academies!

P148
Lucie Duff Gordon overhead her dragoman, Omar, praising her and her daughter Janet Ross – then the London Times correspondent in Alexandria – to another Egyptian, Seleem Effendi:

By my soul, [Janet] rides like a Bedawee (Beduin), she shoots with the gun and pistol, and rows the boat; she speaks many languages, works with the needle like an Efreet, and to see her hands run over the teeth of the music-box (keys of piano) amazes the mind, while her singing gladdens the soul... And as to my lady, there is nothing that she does not know. When I feel my stomach tightened, I go to the divan and say to her, “Do you want anything, a pipe, or sherbet, or so and so?” and I talk till she lays down her book and talks to me, and I question her and amuse my mind, and, by God! If I were a rich man and could marry one English harem like that I would stand before her and serve her like mameluke.

The Eastern View
P151
I have devoted much time and many journeys to working for the Arabs. Therefore, a number of their wise men have received me, pitying y sex, but willing, temporarily, to ignore it. – Rosita Forbes, 1928

The Journey’s End
P 171
[Louisa] Jebb was about to resume her “trammelled” life, but she realized that she would never be the same. She wrote, “Thes essential facts of [desert countries] sink into you imperceptibly, until at the end they are so woven into the fibres of your nature that, even when removed from their influence, you will never quite lose them.”

P173
The Illustrated London News declared Ida Pfeiffer, for example, to be “one of the most remarkable women of this or any other time. The record of her adventurous career reads like a story in the Arabian Nights.” Blackwood’s in 1896, critiquing Pfeiffer, Isabella Bird, and Alexine Tinne, to name those of interest here, remarked, “In such an age as this we need wonder at nothing that women will dare.”

(Italics & underlining mine. You know why.)

Lyon, Part Dieu*

2009-02-05T19:45:45Z

*This is a pun. The train station at Lyon is called "Lyon Part Dieu"

I've had a very full day in Lyon. Unlike Paris, where I had a lot of time and really got to drink in lots of museums & galleries in full afternoons, I'm doing Lyon on a city card and cramming in as many sights as possible. So.

Yesterday wandered around some of the different squares and quarteris, and finished the day by going up to Notre Dame de Fourviere. Like Notre Dame de la Gard in Marseille, it's right up the top of a hill/mountain overlooking the city and affords spectacular views at night. (Photos of these things do exist, but the internet connections I'm using are so slow and unreliable that trying to upload photos becomes a source of stress for me. So I'm postponing the activity.)

The YHA Hostel in Lyon is awesome. It's halfway up the same hill as Notre Dame de Fourviere, and to reach it you have to take a funicular! How cool is that!?! There's also a photo in existence of the view out from my dorm room. Direct view down on to Place Bellecour, with its lit up ferris wheel. Fantastic.

Today I started by going to the Musee des Minatures et Decors de Cinema. I had no idea such a place existed in Lyon! Silk textile manufacture, yes. The set decoration from "Perfume: Story of a Murderer", no. It's actually a very well presented museum - full size set dressing from Perfume, about a hundred minature sets as diaramas, and further displays of individual minature objects, at 1/12 or 1/24 scale. Quite fantastic. I always admire such displays of skill and dedication - some of them really are a sight to behold. My favourites would have to be the decoupage pieces. Two different artists, one who does paper cutouts of cursive text laced together with flowers and vines to keep it as a single sheet. The other does the finest tree silhouettes I have ever seen. The thickest parts would be no more than 1mm. Very impressive stuff.

After that I got rained upon. A lot. Accidentally found two textile/knitting shops, but bought nothing. (Don't want to carry the extra weight.) Got rained on some more.

Went to the Musee des Beaux Arts, where I dried off while looking at a pretty impressive gallery. Stuff on display from antiquity all the way through to modern pieces, but I managed to spend most time with the marble sculptures and Italian paintings. This is not terribly surprising.

Then I hit the Musee Lumiere, about the history of cinema. "Lyon, ville d'invention du Cinematographie Lumiere". The museum is set up in the villa of the Lumiere brothers, which is a pretty spectacular villa in and of itself. Three stories, servant's quarters, winter garden-viewing-conservatory room, showpiece staircase, etc. All art deco-ish style. Lots of old movie cameras, the technicalities of which were entirely lost on me. I had a couple of favourite bits - a few years ago they did a tribute film/doco to celebrate 100 years of cinema "Lumiere de (??) compagne". They loaned a bunch of directors one of the old tripod cameras and had them shoot something. And they were big names - Spike Lee, Merchant/Ivory, David Lynch, Peter Greenaway etc. They'd show the footage they shot, which has that same scratchy halting quality as you get from the old silent pics, and also some wider documentary footage as to how each director was approaching it. Spike Lee just set the camera rolling and tried to get a kid to talk. Others went all the way, using cranes and tracks to get the right shot with this very old camera. Quite interesting to watch. They didn't have the film on sale in the shop, so I'll have to see if I can track it down on youtube or something.

The other incredibly cool thing they had on display were the acoutrements for Andre Lumiere's Legion of Honour award. Including the gold embroidered tailcoat and trousers!! And they weren't behind glass! I was able to get some really good closeups. Very impressive work.

I rounded out the day with a trip to the Musee de l'Imprimerie, celebrating all things printing. The displays are rather fun (but I suspect their periodic ateliers are *more* fun), but the temperorary exhibition was extraordinary.

"Un Homme de Lettres: Roger Druet, Calligraphies & Typographies". Large papers and canvases playing with letter forms & art - a series of 25 sheets of paper, each focusing on repititon of a single letter. ("m" was not on display) Incredibly beautiful stuff. Could easilly have some of them hanging on my wall. Really lovely.

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<i>*This is a pun. The train station at Lyon is called "Lyon Part Dieu"</i>

I've had a very full day in Lyon. Unlike Paris, where I had a lot of time and really got to drink in lots of museums & galleries in full afternoons, I'm doing Lyon on a city card and cramming in as many sights as possible. So.

Yesterday wandered around some of the different squares and quarteris, and finished the day by going up to Notre Dame de Fourviere. Like Notre Dame de la Gard in Marseille, it's right up the top of a hill/mountain overlooking the city and affords spectacular views at night. (Photos of these things do exist, but the internet connections I'm using are so slow and unreliable that trying to upload photos becomes a source of stress for me. So I'm postponing the activity.)

The YHA Hostel in Lyon is awesome. It's halfway up the same hill as Notre Dame de Fourviere, and to reach it you have to take a <i>funicular</i>! How cool is that!?! There's also a photo in existence of the view out from my dorm room. Direct view down on to Place Bellecour, with its lit up ferris wheel. Fantastic.

Today I started by going to the Musee des Minatures et Decors de Cinema. I had no idea such a place existed in Lyon! Silk textile manufacture, yes. The set decoration from "Perfume: Story of a Murderer", no. It's actually a very well presented museum - full size set dressing from Perfume, about a hundred minature sets as diaramas, and further displays of individual minature objects, at 1/12 or 1/24 scale. Quite fantastic. I always admire such displays of skill and dedication - some of them really are a sight to behold. My favourites would have to be the decoupage pieces. Two different artists, one who does paper cutouts of cursive text laced together with flowers and vines to keep it as a single sheet. The other does the finest tree silhouettes I have ever seen. The thickest parts would be no more than 1mm. Very impressive stuff.

After that I got rained upon. A lot. Accidentally found two textile/knitting shops, but bought nothing. (Don't want to carry the extra weight.) Got rained on some more.

Went to the Musee des Beaux Arts, where I dried off while looking at a pretty impressive gallery. Stuff on display from antiquity all the way through to modern pieces, but I managed to spend most time with the marble sculptures and Italian paintings. This is not terribly surprising.

Then I hit the Musee Lumiere, about the history of cinema. "Lyon, ville d'invention du Cinematographie Lumiere". The museum is set up in the villa of the Lumiere brothers, which is a pretty spectacular villa in and of itself. Three stories, servant's quarters, winter garden-viewing-conservatory room, showpiece staircase, etc. All art deco-ish style. Lots of old movie cameras, the technicalities of which were entirely lost on me. I had a couple of favourite bits - a few years ago they did a tribute film/doco to celebrate 100 years of cinema "Lumiere de (??) compagne". They loaned a bunch of directors one of the old tripod cameras and had them shoot something. And they were big names - Spike Lee, Merchant/Ivory, David Lynch, Peter Greenaway etc. They'd show the footage they shot, which has that same scratchy halting quality as you get from the old silent pics, and also some wider documentary footage as to how each director was approaching it. Spike Lee just set the camera rolling and tried to get a kid to talk. Others went all the way, using cranes and tracks to get the right shot with this very old camera. Quite interesting to watch. They didn't have the film on sale in the shop, so I'll have to see if I can track it down on youtube or something.

The other incredibly cool thing they had on display were the acoutrements for Andre Lumiere's Legion of Honour award. Including the gold embroidered tailcoat and trousers!! And they weren't behind glass! I was able to get some really good closeups. Very impressive work.

I rounded out the day with a trip to the Musee de l'Imprimerie, celebrating all things printing. The displays are rather fun (but I suspect their periodic ateliers are *more* fun), but the temperorary exhibition was extraordinary.

"Un Homme de Lettres: Roger Druet, Calligraphies & Typographies". Large papers and canvases playing with letter forms & art - a series of 25 sheets of paper, each focusing on repititon of a single letter. ("m" was not on display) Incredibly beautiful stuff. Could easilly have some of them hanging on my wall. Really lovely. <a href="http://images.google.fr/images?hl=fr&q=roger%20druet&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi" google="Google" images="images" brings="brings" some="some" stuff="stuff" up="up" here.</a="here.</a">

Didn't get to the Roman Theatre/Archeological museum, so maybe tomorrow.

Orange & Marseille

2009-02-03T15:32:05Z

I really do know the most extraordinary people.

Okay. Picking up last year's theme of "Sunk costs are sunk" and jainamsolo's fantastic Con Amnesty idea, I'm going to delay a full write up of Paris until I have some time to really go back though what I did (and the tickets I have collected). For the moment, suffice to say that Paris was awesome and my affection for the city has done naught but grow in the last month. I was very sorry to be leaving. But bittersweet, as I was to be staying with dear friends in Orange.

Mum & I met A&A when we were in France together through the most tenuous of connections (think six-degrees-of-separation kind of stuff) and they must be among the most hospitable people on the face of the planet. I was very pleased to be seeing them again.

They met me at the station, and first things first: Lunch. I had forgotten how long a family lunch goes for in France. And for how many courses. The first lot of plates being cleared is just the beginning. More food, followed my more food (fruit) and then more food (cheese). It truly is an event. And then I brought out a packet of Tim Tams to have with les cafes. And yes, we did the Tim Tam Slam, the Australian contribution to world cuisine. Something only ever done among friends, it strips the last vestiges of false dignity from any gathering. Went down very well, even if we did have to wipe down the table afterwards. Met with general approval.

Then we went up to see the top of the Roman Theatre in the centre of town. Just take a moment to think about that. We went for a stroll, taking about the same amount of time as it takes me to get to Penrith Plaza at home, and instead of Big W and Supre I was looking at Roman ruins. (One of these things is not like the others...) It's still in use for music festivals and two operas each year, and recently had a new roof fitted. It was necessary for conservation as the rain was becoming destructive to the stone work. The big gates fitted to keep people out seemed to be designed for climbing over and I didn't believe either A or A when they claimed never to have attempted it.

Went for a wander through the town with little market stalls all over the place & picked up some bread for dinner. We stopped at a stall selling metalwork which had the most extraordinary fire screen. I didn't take a photo for two very good reasons. 1) the batteries in my camera had died. 2) The fire screen was so extraordinary that mum would kill me if she saw it and I hadn't bought it. Either one of those reasons would have been enough. For the record, it cost €50 and was a metal fire screen that I really couldn't imagine lugging around for a further two weeks. The written description will have to suffice.

Black iron, square, about 50-60cm, with text punched out all through the sheet. Couldn't make out a lot of it, but most definitely text. Each letter 1-2cm high. Very very cool.

Dinner - more food, more courses, more fruit, more cheese - followed by a bingo ("loto") night at the local school, which was both hilarious and terrifying. Hilarious to see teenage boys win assigned prizes like 5kg of dog food and a barbie doll, and terrifying because I still get French numbers wrong and need to concentrate so as not to confuse 15 with 16, the 20s with 30s and 50s with 60s. All I have to do is repeat the two choices in my head to figure it out, but it's never become automatic and I need to really concentrate. Mercifully the lady reading out the numbers was clear and paused between each one, and I've never been so releaved to NOT win something in my life. (If you claim victory, your numbers are announced for the entire room to hear. It would have been dreadfully embarassing to mistranslate "24" and have the whole hall full of people know about it. Still, it was very effective in sharpenning the mind.)
Back
home for desert (MORE food) - the Gallete des Rois of which we consumed half. No fevre/santon was found so the household remined a republic for another day. (Mother, I have more crowns and three more santons to bring home, one in my pocket as I type this.)

Turned in for a very comfortable night's rest with a room overlooking the countryside. ::sigh::

Sunday morning breakfast, followed by a trip to the market. The one we went to was both a flea market and a food market - many people out and about, but I am told there are many many more in summer. I rather liked some of the collections of Moroccan Tea glasses, but managed to resist the lure of teapots and tea trays from the "tarnish resistant" collection ;-) On the way back (or there?? I don't remember) we took the scenic route which unexpectedly turns into the Roman Arch in the centre of town. I remember seeing it last time, but this time it was covered in scaffolding! They tried to surprise me with their back roads but were equally surprised themselves ;-)

Lunch (more food).

In the afternoon we went out to see the Pont du Gard, the Roman aquaduc(t). SO COOL. It was raining a little bit so there weren't many people there, but you get to walk on the new bridge which is built directly beside the original aquaduct - all rather fantastic. Roman engineering had a lot going for it & it's a very impressive sight. From the right angle you can see the slight curve built into the structure to protect against strong currents from the heavy rainfall in the area. Smart cookies.

I was very sad to be leaving Orange after such a short time, but such time with good friends is always too short. I hope to see them again soon.

Arrived safely in Marseille and am staying with P&M. More fantastic people! More food! Having a very quiet day today as the weather in Marseille is not condusive to being anywhere other than indoors and all the museums are closed on Mondays. So I had a lazy sleep in, a lazy breakfast, a lazy lunch, and now I'm catching up on some blogging in the lounge room. The wind is blowing very strongly. You can hear it howling around the building. There are strong shutters on all the windows. It's strange, being so high up, you can hear the wind but not see any of the affects. No trees being blown about or umbrellas turning inside out - just the sound of air moving very fast. Again, I'm glad to be inside.

They have a fantastic apartment, filled with shelves and shelves of books and a view out to the Vieux Port and the Mediteranean. Incredible! And there were many dictionaries brought out at breakfast this morning, making me feel very much at home.

Now I am contemplating the virtues of an afternoon nap. I haven't had a proper rest day probably since London, and a bit of downtime will do me good I'm sure.

moorina @ 2009-01-14T20:11:00

2009-01-14T19:21:00Z

BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVER.

I have Versailles & the Louvre to update from the weekend, but this will do for this evening:

1) Found out this morning that I got full marks in last week's French quiz. YAY.

2) Had my French class sing happy birthday to me - in French.

3) Picked up my Birthday Cake Substitute. (See #10)

4) Ascended the Eiffel Tower. (Third floor closed, so only to the 2nd). Still, magnificent. I keep thinking I've reached the stage where I'm used to the new & brilliant & amazing - and then I see the view out over Paris and that ear to ear grin returns. Yeah, it was raining a bit, but who cares?

5) Dropped into La Droguerie. Didn't buy anything, but nice to browse.

6) Walked down the Seine. It looked like this.

7) Had dinner at a quiet vegetarian restaurant in Ile St Louis and the most amazing sorbet afterwards. Berthillon Framboise avec Petailes de Rose is DIVINE.

8) On the way back, there was a guy at the metro station playing the waltz from Amelie. On the piano accordion.

9) Picked up a baguette on my way back for lunch tomorrow. Because that's the sort of thing I do now.

10) Returned to my room. Turned on BBC World News to see a clip of Ben Bernanke speaking at the LSE. Only a clip, mind you. Not the whole thing. (How dare they ruin my birthday by cutting it short?!) Will have to download later.

11) Opened & partially consumed my Birthday Cake Substitute. Because, truly, how many times does one turn 30 in one's life?

12) Alors, j'ai besoin de faire mes devoirs.

13) Because I was uncontactable by phone today, it made for a very quiet, peaceful, calm, tranquil day. See subject line. Brilliant start to my 30s. I wasn't being interrupted every 5 minutes but what I did get were many emails, LJ comments & facebook notes from people with much the same sentiment, but without demanding my attention at a time of their convenience. YAY. Love you all.

30: I'm not the only one.

2009-01-12T07:27:50Z

Early in 1785, [Marie Antoinette] had announced to Rose Bertin that, as she would be turning thirty that November, she intended to “reform her accessories and adornments, which were better suited to a younger woman, and to stop wearing both feathers and flowers.” Duly Marie Antoinette renounced her whimsical coiffures in favour of what Antonia Fraser has described as “more matronly” headdresses made from gauze, satin, and velvet, and trimmed with fur or regal jewelled aigrettes. The Queen modified the rest of her wardrobe as well, leading the contemporary chronicler François Métra to observe at the end of February “that Her Majesty’s approach to dress has altered, that she no longer wants chemises, or redingotes, or polonaises, or lévites” (all of which had once predominated at Trianon) and that she “has taken up again the more serious” robes à la française. According to the Baronne d’Oberkirch, Marie Antoinette required the ladies of Versailles to do the same and “to abdicate, like herself, plumes, flowers, and even the color pink” if they were thirty or older.

Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution
Caroline Weber

I love Paris in the spr....why the hell do I keep going on holidays in the middle of bloody winter?

2009-01-11T18:34:38Z

My last entry finished with "Arrived safely in Paris", which is true. I did indeed arrive safely in Paris...to experience the kind of cold snap that stops flights from taking off in major airports. Yeah, we got snow, which I am singularly ill-equipped for. Direct quote from yesterday: "It's only minus one this afternoon. I might go for a walk outside before it gets cold again." This from an Australian who usually thinks sixteen is unbearably cold and worth moaning about all day! I am much grateful for my thermal leggings and Kathmandu jackets. That's right, jackets: plural. My day to day outfit is: underwear, singlet, thermal underwear (long sleeve t-shirt and leggings), jeans, turtleneck, Kathmandu wind-proof polar fleece jacket, Kathmandu wind-and-rain-proof hooded outer jacket, thick socks, walking shoes, scarf, flippy mittens, hat. When I'm inside I remove the mittens and unzip the outer jacket.

My room has been a pleasant surprise. I've been getting used to Hostel accommodation, which is fine. I don't mind the bunks and the shared facilities when I'm on the move all the time. But for Paris - particularly for an extended period (relatively) in one place and for study - I wanted a bit of my own space. I got the accommodation deal through the Alliance Francaise, where I'm studying for four weeks, and was expecting essentially hostel-style digs but with my own room. That was what I expected for what I paid. Nope. I have a lovely double bed with night stands, two tables & chairs (presumably one for eating and one for working), a built in wardrobe, a kitchenette, an entry foyer and my own bathroom. ALL MINE. Mwa ha ha ha ha! I feel so decadent. Oxford Central Backpackers it aint. The only complaint is that their definition of "high speed" internet access differs somewhat to mine. It's almost like being back on dialup. Oddly enough, that was one thing the hostel at Oxford did really well. Free, fast wifi and two free terminals for those who didn't have their own laptops. Brilliant service.

The eurostar journey across the ditch was everything it's touted as being. Soooo nice not to have to get to/from an airport, rather conveniently being picked up and then dumped unceremoniously in the middle of the city. Not even any passport control on the French side. I just walked right into the train station. How bizarre. We were delayed a smidgin by two au pairs with a young family who were trying to cram about 20 pieces of soft luggage into all the available space in the luggage racks, ignoring both the overhead luggage storage and the 7 other people waiting to get on who had large bags that wouldn't fit in the smaller spaces. Way to go, girls! Even better, they and their charges were blocking the aisle while they were doing this, so no one could get in the carriage while they were going at it. Eventually a eurostar guy came down to see why there was a crowd of people milling around carriage A without getting on. He took one look at what they were doing and started removing all their faux-fur bunny rabbit backpacks to the overhead racks. Thank you eurostar man! The children then proceeded to speak very loudly during the three hour journey. I'm glad I had my iPod. Thank you Steve Jobs!

My priority on arrival was finding enough food to last me 'till Monday, since French shops aren't open on Sunday. It's weird, the things you get used to. At home I know I can always but always duck over to the 24/7 Coles around the corner if I desperately need something. Found the local supermarket and stocked up on pasta & instant soup. Also things like "washing up liquid" and "sponge" because the room, while having a furnished kitchenette with things like "corkscrew" and "bread basket" doesn't have washing up liquid. I bought the smallest and cheapest one I could find, and it's doing double duty as clothes washing liquid too. My singlets smell like lemons.

Metro tickets were different to what I expected. They've just finished phasing out the Carte Orange which I used last time. I even brought my original Carte with a photo from five years ago to get my new one. Not so any more! They've switched over to the NaviGo pass, similar to the Oyster card in London. Easy enough to use, but the card costs €5 to buy straight up! Grrrrr. Not so good for short stay tourists. Anyway, I sucked it up and have yet another transport smart card to get around.

So. I've come from London, where the museums are free but the churches are paid entry, to Paris, where the churches are free but the museums are paid entry. Heh. I'm sure that says something about the respective national psyches, but I'm not sure what.

I went for a wander on Sunday - through some of the parks (Luxembourg gardens! I didn't get there last time) and around the streets. I eventually made it over to the Louvre and discovered it was their free opening day of the month. Whohoo! Went up to see Napoleon III's apartments, which I didn't get to last time. They really are spectacular - designed to daunt and intimidate, I dare say. There could be no doubt as to who was the guy in charge. The actual throne was there too, all blues and golds and circles. Very swish. Also wandered a bit through the Objets D'Art and the sculpture galleries. It was nice to see so many people milling around, doing the culture thing. Yay Paris! It was near closing time so I did a quick ultra-highlights tour. Hit the Italian paintings corridor and the bajillion people around the Mona Lisa (I think I'll go back one of the late opening nights when there are fewer people to see it again properly), the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Cupid & Psyche, & I couldn't find the Venus de Milo! The Louvre is not an easy building to navigate, especially if you're not leaving from the central court. Trying to figure out which staircases lead to which floors can be a bit of a task. Obviously not initially designed for the job.

Monday morning was enrolling at the Alliance Francise. WHOHOO! Relatively easy process, the most arduous part being waiting in line for 20 minutes to do so. There was no opportunity for me to enrol earlier, so I really had to take my chances on day one. I was just a couple of minutes late for my first class though, which wasn't as bad as it could have been.

My teacher seems very nice and competent and I'm really really really enjoying tackling a subject again. Even if it's stuff I've already been taught but had forgotten some time in the intervening twelve years. (Yikes!) I have textbooks and homework and verb tables and pronunciation drills again....bliss.

Then: SNOW. It hit on Tuesday and I am singularly ill suited to it. The "magical winter fantasy-scape" idea wears off after the snow seeps into your shoes and your right sock gets sodden and you're walking around with damp feet for the rest of the day. Not so fun. Then there's the next day when you're slipping on the ice. Also not so fun. And then the bit a couple of days later when you look in the mirror and realise you've got mild sunburn from the UV bouncing off the snow. And then there's the traditional "torture yourself by looking at smh.com.au and seeing the weather report" daily ritual: 38oC in Sydney yadda yadda yadda. Even more than London, I'm now considering anything above zero degrees to be relatively warm.

I've hit some of the churches - went to Montmatre, where the steps outside Sacre-Coeur were closed because of the snow. Not just the steps, but the entire park. Went up by the Funicular to the top and very gingerly walked up the remaining steps to get inside the church. I'd been there before, last time I was in Paris, but I had forgotten just how much the mosaic ceiling dominates the space. It's immediate and massive. And because it's not a long nave (relatively speaking), your attention is claimed and held through the whole thing. When they're lengthened you end up looking down towards the end but because the nave is so short and it's designed around domes, it looks almost like the mines of Moria. If there were giant stone angel statues coming down from the top instead of mutated cockroaches.

The church of the Madeleine is very different. Outside it's all very Greek and brought to mind the presentation of the friezes from the Parthenon in the British Museum. Lots of columns, very rectangular, pediments, the works. The big feature inside is the huuuuuge marble statues above the altar - Mary Mag surrounded by intimidatingly large angels. By their very size they passed my angels-depicted-in-art test: Would the first words out of their mouths legitimately be "Don't freak out"? Definitely.

Then on Friday afternoon my plans were again ruined by the snow (damn you! ::shakes fist at the heavens::) when the raised park on the old train route was closed. GRRRRRR. So I went to Notre Damme instead. Took lots of photos, none of which I can upload on this ridiculously slow wifi.

I usually don't go for this kind of thing, but I have to give credit to Notre Dame for the most beautifully designed and brilliantly executed nativity creche I have ever seen. Notre Dame has a carved wooden frieze around the back of the church depicting scenes from the life of Jesus. The nativty creche is set below the parts surrounding Jesus' birth. The figures are set in the dark among a series of white LED lights on dark stands of various sizes so they appear suspended. The entire effect is like standing on the edge of a galaxy. There is a large flat panel behind showing real life footage of clouds moving across the screen. Up in the wooden carving frieze, three projectors give a pinpoint-accurate light display highlighting sections of the carvings, leading the viewer through the nativity account. Everything starts out dark before being spot lit, object by object, and decoratively lit with every piece of gold paint getting its individual moment ot shine. As I said, beautifully done. If you're in Paris or know someone else in Paris, do encourage them to go along to see it. It's the sort of thing I was greatly surprised by but am glad I had the chance of seeing.

Oxford, martyrdom & train dramas

2009-01-03T18:36:00Z

Pics up on flickr.

Decided on a whim to go to Oxford, the idea being that if I was this close and didn't go, I'd regret it terribly. Booked tickets & accommodation online (yay laptop & wifi!) and arrived with a day and a half in the city.

Not much was open on New Year's Day (don't people know there are tourists out there, demanding to be entertained & cultured at every available moment?!), so I went on a guided walking tour from the tourist office. It was nowhere near as good as the one at Bath - also not free, unlike Bath, but I suppose it will always come down to the quality of the individual guides and the dynamic of the group. (Mini lecture on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? With no reference to Oxford? For real?!?) It was nice to go past some of the major landmarks, though, so I ignored the commentary and took photos.

The best part, and also the part where I left the group, was Magdalen College. Took some photos of amazing looking buildings & scenery. Pixels on flickr don't do it justice at all. Took a long walk around the gardens by the river where my feet nearly dropped off from being frozen. I'd turn a corner and see some remarkable view of a well trodden path lined with ancient trees along a stream. With ducks. You don't think scenes like that exist in real life. They're all stage managed by a set designer for a film or something. But there it was, in the freezing cold winter, these picture perfect paths.

The two pieces of information I did value from the guide were the locations of both Oscar Wilde's and C S Lewis's rooms while they were at the college. There are photos of both up on flickr.

And yet again, everything is so green! They have lawns! With grass! No level 3 water restrictions in Oxford, obviously.

This morning I went to Christ Church College & cathedral - equally picturesque. I started by taking a stroll down by the river, by the boat sheds, where two complete idiots were on the river doing rowing training. Honestly. I thought Oxford was for smart people!

Then I walked around the college. Highlights were: The Dining Hall with the unbelievable fluted ceiling, used for filming HP:PS and HP:CoS. I was going to stand outside the doors and pretend to be McGonnagal, but I could never convincingly pull off Gryffindor. (Ravenclaw. It's all about Ravenclaw. These are my people.) This is also the Lewis Carol college, so there are lots of little Alice in Wonderland bits. One of the stained glass windows has little pictures of the Alice characters in the corners! So cute!

Through to the cathedral, where there was the usual cathedral-y sort of stuff (how quickly one becomes jaded about such things), but I was very interested to note that it was the place where John and Charles Wesley were ordained! Very cool. I hummed a bit. Also interesting that they get a stone in the floor (getting one of those in a cathedral is rather like getting a star on the Hollywood walk of fame thingy) considering the C of E wasn't too happy with them at the time.

Massive courtyard/quadrangle which was apparently originally going to be covered as a cloister but never got finished. At this point the sun came out and I got some photos that didn't need the flash! Yay!

Moving through to the end of the visitor's walk, there was some looked-like-it-was-semi-officially-sanctioned chalk graffiti on the walls of one of the residence buildings. It was the only graffiti I've ever seen that involved detailed heraldic arms and Gothic fonts. It seems that whenever a college sporting team wins something major, the results and the crest go up on one of the panels for all to see. The most faded ones I could make out were from 1999.

Turning around from there you can see the college library. Well, I say you can see it (which is true if you're there), but even if you stand back to the wall there is no way it can be entirely captured in a camera viewfinder. I have a photo of a section of a college library. Would that all libraries were such palaces! But I could do without the "no visitors" sign at the front.

Took afternoon tea at one of the tea shops outside the college, next to "The Alice Shop" which stocks all manner of Alice in Wonderland merchandise. It's always so nice to use a teapot!

The afternoon was spent up two towers. Firstly Carfax tower, which has great views of the very many other towers and steeples in the skyline. There is no towering centrepiece to the Oxford skyline, just lots of similarly scaled magnificent points of interest.

Then I wandered around for a bit more & saw a sign on St Michael's church & tower saying that they had the door behind which Cranmer, Latimer & Ridley were imprisoned before their martyrdom. I had no idea such a thing still existed! (And I confess I had completely forgotten it had happened in Oxford). So up the tower I duly went, but spent most time on the platform now housing the door. I considered taking a self portrait to prove that I had indeed touched the door that held them, but decided that treating it as essentially a relic would be too ironic for words. It was a powerful reminder that these things I've learned in history - general history and church history - aren't just stories in books but actually happened to real people. And while they're not William Tyndale, these are my guys. Reformers who died rather than recant the protestant faith, the five solas. I can only hope and pray that I will stand as firm for that same gospel they died for.

It also reminded me that two days into the new year and I still hadn't read my Bible. So, St Michael's being a Church of England building, I took advantage of the regulation that states that all Anglican churches have to have a readily accessible Bible on display at all times. I read Galatians, keeping in mind the scandal of grace and the freedom I have in Christ.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1

Then I went to Broad Street where the place where they were all burned is marked on the street. There's no plaque or anything, just a cobblestone cross in the centre of the road. People walk & cycle over it every day. I suppose it's a good reminder to be had at Oxford, for those who care to remember it, of the radical and dangerous nature of what Jesus came for and the apostles preached. Come, Lord Jesus!

Then I went to pick up my pack from the hostel for my train back to London. Went to the station, got my ticket - dramas aplenty! There was a signal failure AND a plane crash on the train line. No trains were going through Oxford. After an hour's wait and nearly heading for the bus station, they started diverting London passengers on trains going to Birmingham! So now instead of getting to the hostel at 8pm I'll probably make it at 11.30. But at least I'll make it, and at least I'm not going to miss the connection tomorrow. I'm being thankful for such mercies.

ETA: Arrived safely in Paris. YAY!

Photos uploaded

2009-01-01T23:25:51Z

Got a big batch of photos uploaded. Salisbury, Winchester, Stonehenge, Bath & Oxford.

Roman Baths, Fashion Museum & adventures in the Bath YMCA

2009-01-01T08:13:22Z

Public holidays are such an inconvenience when one is travelling. They disrupt one's schedule and nothing is open! What I had thought to take two days has now happened in one.

Last night ended rather annoyingly by being hit on by a drunk, obnoxious guy who smelled of smoke and didn't want to watch Stephen Fry on TV in the YMCA common room. Unfortunately that was also the only place I could charge my laptop. GRRRRRR. My finely honed expertise in ignoring people was put to good use while I checked my email for the first time in days. DAYS. It was the lesser of two evils (and I completely get how tragic it is that I am desperate enough after being without internet access for 72 hours to put up with that).

The two girls I was sharing a room with last night were great - one American and another Aussie. We discussed everything from the relative merits of living in Canberra to the homoerotic subtext in Top Gun. A night of general hilarity, once I got out of the common room with obnoxious!man.

There's a lovely Chinese lady tonight who has been such a darling. She's a Christian - got baptised two years ago - and has been very kind and friendly. And also hasn't been pressuring me to do anything for NYE besides sleep. Brilliant roomie!

The day started inauspiciously when I slipped getting out of the shower and landed rather heavily on my bottom. Not fun and I wouldn't recommend it. I don't think there's any structural damage but I'm going to be stiff and sore for a bit! Rather unfortunate, as I'm going to be shifting my pack every day now until the 3rd of Jan. I'll just have to allocate extra time for wincing.

I did not, however, lose a glove (as I had feared) and I found my SD memory card which I had misplaced last night. Two day's worth of photos were on it, so I was very pleased to see it again!

I went to the Roman Baths in the morning, which is kind of the point of Bath. As with every other puddle of water I've encountered so far this trip, people are moronic enough to toss money into it. In this case it was the frigidarium, and people were even more moronic than usual and had tossed in paper money. Seriously. I decided I was not going to make offerings to pagan deities (which I know at least some of you will be glad to hear) and went past that bit. The guy on the walking tour yesterday said that the temperatures of the baths range from mid to high 40s as the water comes up from the ground. Apparently they deliberately cool it in parts of the new Thermae Bath Spa complex. I had actually considered going since I fell over, thinking that the spa would probably help with the discomfort somewhat, but they didn't open on NYE at night.

As you leave the Roman Baths you come out into the Pump Room, where you can still actually take the waters. I did - drank a full glass - and it was rather disgusting. I'm assured it won't do me any harm, but I think the ancient wisdom was based around the idea that something that tastes that awful must be good for you.

In the Pump Room there's was an unexpected pleasure - seeing a modern textile wall hanging of all the monarchs of England. It was really striking. Combinations of embroidery, patchwork and applique, I think. Couldn't get back far enough to take a proper picture so I went back to get the postcard. I find some modern textile work to be a bit of a cop out, but this was beautifully designed & constructed.

Then I washed away the taste of The Water by going to Sally Lunn's for tea. I was told it was The Done Thing. I ordered the bog standard "Sally Lunn Cream Tea" which comes with tea (duh) and a "half a Sally Lunn bun with strawberry jam and clotted cream". I thought half a bun was being a bit stingy. I had visions of a demi-scone sitting all alone and forlorn on my plate. Then I saw the bloody thing and it was HUGE. Two inches high and the size of a small pizza. And I must say, it was light and delicious. And I was again reminded of how lovely it is to be travelling alone. With a queue reaching out the door we were told there was space for one more person upstairs, if anyone didn't mind splitting up. I raise my mittenned hand: "Single?" and am served within 5 minutes of entering the shop. Whohoo!

Then up to the Bath Fashion Museum (formerly the Bath Costume Museum). I thought I was getting used to this. I didn't think I was going to get so overwhelmed by things as I was in that first week in London. But I started making the noises again. (You know the ones I mean, hannawy!) I'd be hard pressed to choose between this and the V&A for awesomeness. It's a lovely museum, set in the basement of the Assembly Rooms. They take great pleasure in juxtaposing the old with the new and picking out the similarities, which are often striking. Garments separated by decades or even centuries could almost have come from the same collection. A particular shout out again to Vivienne Westwood, whose hours and hours spent at the V&A looking through their archives come through really clearly in the pieces from her that I've seen. She really knows her stuff.

Men's suits elicited the usual swooniness on my part, but even there they had a woman's suit cut on hyper-masculine lines by Ralph Lauren to make you look twice.

And I have a special treat for mum - just after I texted you to wish you a happy new year back in Sydney, literally the moment I hit send, I turned around and saw a case with a single dress in it. Black, strapless, asymmetric in both the cut of the skirt and the bodice decoration with a big bow to one side. This was a dress worn by Margot Fontayne after a performance of The Sleeping Beauty. I took many photographs for you! Purely out of the goodness of my own heart, I assure you ;-)

I'm always intrigued by the underwear displays and this certainly measured up to the V&A. Two wonderful corsets - a black, woven silk with front opening busk, basic flossing and (I think) hip gores, and a faded lilac one with more elaborate flossing. Very cool! In the next room they had a brilliant interactive section for people to play dress ups with corsets & crinolines. The corsets were really well constructed for the purpose. All the boning channels & reinforcing tape were done with seatbelt-type straps, the front busk was replaced with a row of those clippy things I have all over my rucksack (I don't even know what they're called, but it was sheer genius!) and the tightened lacing was held in place with grip toggles like I have on my parka. It was very well thought out. I took photos of the classic "corset over jeans" look, then the "corset over jeans with crinoline" look. I skipped the Tudor style corset because, hey, been there done that ;-)

Then moving through to a temporary exhibition (no photos) of very old embroidered gloves. Exquisite work, all very fine. Given the number of times I have lost/have nearly lost gloves in the last month, I don't think I'd be keen to spend so much on such a utilitarian object, but perhaps that was the point. Such a display of ostentatious wealth and status, for they were not the hands of a labourer. None of them were.

Then through to the collection of historic dresses, from Georgian to Victorian. Oh. My. Goodness. Such beautiful outfits, such expert craftsmanship, so lovingly displayed! Two sack back dresses started it off, at which point I already desperately wanted my sewing machine. Then a formal court dress with the wide panniers, which is always impressive. But they always seem to be for short people. I'd need at least an extra foot of material in the skirt all 'round to reach the floor. It would have been like a mini wall walking around the palace. The end of the room had the Regency outfits, early to late, including one man's ceremonial outfit (clerk to the privy council??) for the coronation with that wonderful gold embroidery I love so much. Then it went into early Victorian dresses with severe cuts and crinolines through to late Victorian with the bustles.

The highlight was the dress ACTUALLY WORN BY QUEEN VICTORIA. It was one of her mourning dresses - severe in cut and colour, but with rich detail in the trim.

More themed collections - day wear, evening wear, swim wear, photographs of weddings from one family from the years 1880 to 1930, documenting the rapid changes in fashions over that short period. Displays from a few designers from the seventies & eighties. Then finishing up with a series on accessories (windows of bags, hats and shoes), men's shirts & ties owned by the former director of the V&A, the influence of high end designers on high street fashion over the years and one final display of Oasis dresses inspired directly by gowns in the collection. The modern interpretations were placed alongside the inspiration, providing a useful exercise in compare and contrast.

The books in the gift shop were fascinating - wanted to buy many of them but am acutely aware that I have to carry everything I buy, so restrained myself to a couple of postcards.

Then I nearly got locked in, which I would not have minded at all, but unfortunately a very helpful museum guide let me out again. Meh.

Wandered for a bit, went back up the Royal Crescent and The Circus. Wandered back. Tried to find something savoury to eat, eventually settling for a tomato, basil & mozzarella panini from a coffee chain. I'll leave the heavy duty celebrating of New Year to others. I saw Queen Vic's dress, and other marvels of apparel. That's enough for me.

I really do love this stuff. I like art on canvas and I appreciate other forms & mediums, but looking at some of the dresses on display I realised that I would fight to protect these things. Actual punching. I might not do it for a Rembrandt, but probably for a Worth.

2008 year in review

2008-12-31T21:23:17Z

This year, I have (highlights):

Graduated from the Diploma of Biblical Studies with first class honours

Done a corset making class at NIDA

Attended a lecture about Hand & Lock embroidery at the Powerhouse

Joined a new church where I knew no one

Won the Freakonomics haiku competition

Made listener feedback on Filmspotting - twice (Best Dressed and Girlcrushes Top 5s)

Joined a gym, attended regularly, and ended up being able to run for 2 consecutive 8 minute stretches

Touched my toes (without bending my legs) for the first time in my life. Also broke my toe for the first time in my life. Both attributable to the gym.

Didn't get flu this winter. I also attribute this to the gym.

Travelled. Which is a whole list unto itself, but you've all been hearing me blather on about it so I won't give a recap.

Knitted an entire entrelac stole in the 17 days of the summer olympics

Heard Don Carson and Mark Driscoll preach in person at Engage08 up at KCC.

Decluttered, like woah.

TV Shows new this year:

The Hollowmen

30 Rock

The Gruen Transfer

Top Gear Australia (which didn't end up being as awful as it could have been)

Docos on Savile Row and British Style Genius

Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog (which isn't strictly TV, but I've nowhere else to put it)

ETA: Underbelly. How could I forget?

TV Shows continuing:

Top Gear

Ugly Betty

Boston Legal

Spooks

Doctor Who

Books:

Freakonomics

Gang Leader for a Day

Down and Out in Paris and London (would be a good double feature with the above)

Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution

Various Lonely Planet guides

Plus many more that I can't quite recall at 8.30 pm on NYE.

2008 Motto:
Sunk Costs Are Sunk.

2009 Motto:
Do Hard Things.

Stonehenge & Old Sarum. Who? What? When? Why? How?

2008-12-30T20:37:10Z

Spent all day today at Stonehenge and Old Sarum freezing my proverbial arse off. It was brilliant to see, but I did have to periodically go into the gift shop to defrost my toes (SOOOOO COLD) before heading out to brave the weather again.

I must say, it ended up being smaller than I expected. Don't get me wrong, it's still an impressive sight, but the entire sight is more compact than I had thought. I suppose I expected the space between the stones to be bigger, but they are all closely packed. They're about as tall as I had imagined, but I hadn't expected them to have exposed joints that used to keep the cross beams in place! Very cool.

It doesn't take very long to walk around the whole thing so I did it a few times, but only once with the excellent audio guide provided. Then I went back into the gift shop and pretended to be interested in buying a Stonehenge Snow Globe (oh please please please no). Then I went back out again. Walked around a few times. Pulled the toggles on my hood for the first time this trip. Wondered if blood would ever reach my toes again. Went back into the gift shop and pretended to be interested in a “Stonehenge Rocks!” t-shirt (again, no). Went back out again, and the sun came out! I found my sunglasses. Got some shots with the sun in them (for proof), but with the sun and the increased temperatures, the frozen-mud started turning into actual-mud.

The surrounds of the site are a bit of a surprise as well. The road runs right past it. If you don't want to pay the admission charge, you can see it all rather closely through the chain link fence. The chain link fence only covers one side. The other sides are protected by a mid-calf height rope and an inoperational electric fence. That one reaches about knee height. It's hardly Fort Knox. And just like I had various flashes of “I can't believe I'm in London”, I had random moments of “I can't believe these are 3500 years old”. And yeah, I quoted Spinal Tap. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to youtube and search for “spinal tap stonehenge”. Thank me later.)

The tour bus also stops at Old Sarum, which was the town before Salisbury itself got a Cathedral. With that major attraction so close by, Old Sarum gradually fell into disuse and was deserted, and eventually all the structures were ruined. Instead of sensibly following the road up, I followed some walkers in front of me who I later found were taking the long way around. Looong. Muddy. Narrow. Slippery. Steep. Think the kind of slope that goes with the line, “Oh my sweet Wesley, what have I done?!”

I walked through the foundations of the old cathedral. The grass really does go right up to the edge of the ruins, just like on TV! Walked around the edge of the old castle but didn't go in as I didn't want to miss the bus. And I was cold. This may be a recurring theme.

Arrived back without incident, but ran into the fire brigade in Salisbury on the way back to the YHA. Couldn't quite tell what was going on, but there was a street entirely blocked off and two hazmat teams and an incident control unit stationed on the market side. Don't know what it was all about, but I promise you it wasn't me. Honestly!

Off to Bath tomorrow.

Winchester: Universally acknowledged...

2008-12-30T20:29:15Z

Miss Kunze had the great pleasure of traveling by rail coach into Winchester, _____shire earlier today. The journey was tolerable, especially as some very obliging servants of South West Trains rendered assistance at both South_____ and Winchester itself. The mention of Lady Catherine's name inspires no end of devotion in that regard, or so she would like to think. Unfortunately Lady Catherine's influence has yet to extend to the weather, so I was forced to endure temperatures as high as three degrees in the heat if the afternoon. Fortunately the day cooled quickly and such overbearing warmth was not our lot for long.

My primary purpose in Winchester was to visit my old friend, Miss Austen. We met in school through a common acquaintance though we never took classes together. We have kept in touch ever since. It remains a great and noteworthy occasion when Miss Austen is presented anew in our homes!

Before I met my friend, I spent some time wandering in the village. The Great Hall had an authentic Round Table from Camelot, featuring the names of Arthur's knights and done in the style of the great forgers of the 1300s. The attached garden, named in honour of two Queen Eleanors was a very pleasant place to spend a few minutes. Perhaps even more so, had more of the fountain been frozen over.

The walks around the district were an unexpected pleasure, passing between quiet streams and playing fields. Had I greater time (and greater footwear) I should have liked to pursue them further.

I stopped by Miss Austen's house but found she had already departed for the cathedral. I was to meet her there. Along the way I stopped at the Winchester City Museum on a whim and I'm so glad I did. Among the Roman mosaics and Edwardian shop reconstructions there was some writing from my friend in her own hand, and even an example of her needlework in the form of a beaded purse she had made herself.

I wandered the cathedral grounds for a while, encountering many children and families on the ice skating rink. I considered joining them but considered discretion the better part of decorum and left the gliding to those who didn't have as far to fall.

The cathedral proper is a pretty enough prospect, and not in the least lacking in windows. It is light and airy at the entrance with new banners hanging from the walls depicting the creation account in Genesis. I found my friend easily enough and we spent some time sitting together in quiet and mutual solitude. I have decided I quite like having dead people in churches. In buildings largely designed as testimony to the grandeur of God, the presence of the dearly departed is a sobering reminder of mortality, the wages of sin.

Having delighted in her company for a while, I attended services in that same church. Evensong is not quite the same without the song, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the sermon. The Bible is read, Christ is proclaimed, the Creed is recited, and prayers for the Church throughout the world take on special significance when so many of the siblings in Christ I know are so far away. So to those absent friends gathering together for corporate worship in so many different time zones, you were very much in my thoughts and prayers today and I think highly enough of myself to presume to be grateful for yours.

Tomorrow: Stonehenge, which will be an altogether different experience, I'm sure.

NB: While the obnoxious people are still here (as dear Jane says, she doesn't like people to be too agreeable as it “...saves me the trouble of liking them very much.”), I have spoken to a family staying here – who are not only Australian, but live in Epping and work in ministry. And I said I wouldn't think about work! (If any work people are reading this, this is not an invitation to talk to me about work. Standard rules still apply.)

Salisbury

2008-12-30T20:23:57Z

I'm posting some updates from the days when I didn't have internet access. All behind cuts.

I've arrived safely at Salisbury YHA, where there is no wireless internet (no wai!). It does, however, have 5 old people in the common room watching Foyle's War (yay!) with emphysema chest coughs that sound disgusting “I'm going for a smoke” (boo!) and are apparently deaf (yelling through the ads – boo!) On my sliding scale of sociableness, I've done exceedingly well over the last 3 weeks and I may have reached my limit.

The journey from Lewes to Salisbury was uneventful, which was good. I got to the YHA easily enough and headed straight to the Cathedral.

Salisbury Cathedral is magnificent. It has so much space around it – set in the middle of a very flat park rather than the clutter that's often around grand churches. The nativity scene in the church was one of the better ones I've seen. The angels – always a sore point with me – actually looked like creatures so otherworldly that their first words would always have to be “Don't be afraid”. They usually end up looking like the kind of creatures to whom you end up saying “Would you care for a cup of tea” or “Who does you drycleaning?”.

The cathedral also has one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta, so it was nice to see yet another after the British Library. I've been so entirely spoiled with what I've seen! Whohoo!

It also has two beautiful modern pieces in the grounds. The first is a large font in the centre, towards the entrance. It's only recently been dedicated and you can still see the oil markings where the cross has been made on it. The surface of the water is completely still, acting as a mirror, while there is a continual flow down from the four corners. The words of part of the baptism liturgy are engraved on each side – it was lovely to see things like “I have called you by name” written with such care. So wonderfully true!

The other is a series of sculpted angel heads, carved from rough stone. These were to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the cathedral this year. There is one for each century of service. Four massive heads (and when I say “massive” I mean “weighing 1 ton each”) surround the font, two smaller ones are in the back of the building and a further two are outside in the cloister. They really do look intriguing. Worth the visit, I daresay.

Tomorrow to Winchester – I hope to see the cathedral there, then Monday to Stonehenge, where I will no doubt quote something deep and profound...like Spinal Tap.

Christmas at Lewes

2008-12-30T20:05:23Z

Photos will go up in the usual place once I get them sorted - I need to first of all organise them then find somewhere to upload them. No wifi at the YHA Salisbury! Woe!

Christmas was spent with Clara's family in Lewes, and they have been truly amazing to me. They have a more active program of events over the Christmas season than I'm used to at home - more "power walks after lunch" than "power naps after lunch" type of family - but I find in spite of the differences we all got on splendidly. I met various grandparents and aunts and uncles and one cousin, and had to suffer the great indignity of being the youngest person at the table for Christmas lunch. (I was, thankfully, not sent to the children's table.)

The walks we did take were quite spectacular. I saw some of the White Cliffs (but not from the Dover side) and stood at the edge of the English Channel. I got the soles of my shoes wet but didn't go any further because a) I didn't want to get my socks wet and b) I'm quite attached to my extremities and hypothermia/frostbite/pneumonia was definitely an option. None of the beaches I saw had any evidence of sand. It was all rock - very difficult to keep your footing and not something I'd ever be inclined to lounge upon on a towel. On the way down, we passed through the place where Virginia Wolfe committed suicide by walking into a river with stones in her pockets. If I had tried to do the same, the number of batteries I had in my pockets would have provided the weight but I would have been electrocuted before getting much more than waist deep in the water. There were also hikes to be had up over the "Downs". Yes, one has to go up to get to the Downs. It's a Lewes thing. There was a view of the Downs from the kitchen window - it was really lovely, and made washing up a bit more bearable. Just a bit. I also learned a few more new words:

Twitten: a pokey little laneway with enough room for two people to walk side by side, but not much more. Some not even that.
t'internet: I'm told it's a Yorkshire way of saying "The Internet", but what anyone's connection with Yorkshire was I cannot begin to imagine. Someone from British Telecom must be from there, though, 'cause all the email addresses end in btinternet.com (Mwa ha ha ha ha)

I bought a new pair of jeans, since the ones I've been wearing had started to develop holes in places a lady wouldn't blog about. (Comparing Savile Row with walking through the playboy mansion is apparently fair game, though. Who knew?)

Everyone arrived in dribs & drabs over the week. I was the first to show up, which actually suited me rather well - gave me a chance to meet people as individuals rather than being thrust headlong into the middle of a family unit, which is never something that I find easy. Christmas day itself started with the grandparents and I heading off to church (St Annes, Lewes) which was again a much more ritualistic church than I'm used to. And I have to keep reminding myself that embroidery is not a good enough reason to change my ecclesiology....it really isn't...truly...

Christmas lunch was a multi-course affair that extended from the time we got back from church to well into the evening. There were breaks for everyone to wallow in a veritable orgy of wrapping paper. The food was delicious. Chris did a sensational job of catering to a sole vegetarian. I have to give her a shout out for going well above and beyond the call of duty, always making sure I had an appropriate started and selection. She's an absolute darling. Thanks, Chris! And everyone! You're all fantastic.

Incredibly stupid games were played over the week - I became quite the expert in Granny Racing (which is like a motoring racetrack set up on the table, but with grannys instead of cars), I disgraced myself completely with the find-the-ring-on-the-string game (they were all mocking me behind my back. HOW DARE THEY!? I would never do such a thing. Well, maybe. A bit.) and managed to survive 2 out of 3 rounds of Murder Wink, mainly by not looking at anyone. Wind up horses were raced (mine went in a circle - thought he was still training), the LSO now lives in fear and trepidation of the Davidson Family Carol Whistlers coming into town (it's like the Von Trap Family Singers but without the curtains), I was accused of grand theft of cracker presents (I maintain my innocence and offer as proof everyone else's guilt), by an absolute fluke I managed to get the high score in Christmas Table Ten Pin Bowling (with the cutest skittles set ever painted - the bowling balls were puddings!) and we all generally ate, drank and laughed ourselves silly.

I taught everyone the Tim Tam Slam, which always sends any remaining scraps of prevailing dignity scurrying for the exit, and we had another great Australian moment on Boxing Day (with a bit more decorum) drinking the wine that Andrew & Clara had sent over - the same wine that our family had shared on Christmas day. It was a lovely touch.

I had a brilliant time,ss and I hope everyone else's festivities have given them as much pleasure as these did for me. Thanks again to my wonderful and generous hosts! Can't wait to see you again!

Glory To The Newborn King!

2008-12-25T22:15:12Z

Christmas greetings, all! I'm having a wonderful day and hope everyone else has too. I loved singing the carols at church this morning, I've had a fantastic breakfast/lunch/supper/extended eating session, and am thoroughly enjoying myself.

And just so I can say that I've blogged the word, I'm doing all this on t'internet. (See, Pete? I've posted it.)

Say it with me: It belongs in a museum!

2008-12-23T19:21:03Z

And I hit most all of them. Well, the ones I cared about, anyway. I really did save the best 'till last, even revisiting some of the things I'd done early on in the trip when I was still both a) jet-lagged (falling asleep at the National Portrait Gallery, anyone?) and b) so overwhelmed with the amazing stuff I was seeing I was liable to burst into tears upon entering a room (hellooooo British Museum). Saving them all for a big finale meant I was able to really appreciate what I was seeing as individual objects rather than just the initial ZOMGLONDON squeefest I was at the beginning. Not that squeefests are without their own special charms ;-)

Photos, as ever, HERE.

In the last week I hit:

British Museum

National Gallery

National Portrait Gallery

Tate Britain

Savile Row

Carnaby Street

Covent Garden

Tower of London (only the outside and only at night - I went back to get the Crown Jewels guidebook which has the only photo known to man of the awesome coronation stole)

Cabinet War Rooms & Churchill Museum

Bank of England

(I'm typing this on the train between London & Lewes, and the trolley service is coming through! I'm almost tempted to ask for pumpkin juice. :-D I've never experienced a trolley service before, not outside of planes, anyway.)

The Cabinet War Rooms were the only other ticketed destination I had any interest in seeing this time around, so I did them first up. Very difficult to take any decent photos, so I mostly left my camera at home. It's interesting to see the conditions under which they were working, and the rooms that have been recreated. The most interesting part to me was the cabinet room itself, the most cramped and confined space you can imagine for the war cabinet & military brass to meet in. You can almost imagine it working if everyone had everything they needed on a laptop, everyone got on very well, the room was equipped with wifi and no one prattled on. How they did it with with papers (!) I have no idea.

It made me tink of a sermon I heard a while back by a military chaplain, who said it's amazing to see how much extraneous work gets dropped once you go into operational mentality (I think he called it??). You get a sense of how much was done away with during the blitz.

The Churchill Museum had two highlights, one was finding out that he won a Nobel Prize for Literature (I had no idea!) and the other was audio excerpts of his speeches. Once I get home I'd like to read some more of hsi stuff - he certainly did have a way with words.

The Bank of England was just a quick stop off, but I did want to see the place and duck into the museum. It's a very imposing building - the kind of edifice designed to impart confidence that your money is in safe hands. The museum had a display on the history of inflation in Britain. There was a funny "interactive" part for kids, which was a large ball bearing in a tube which you had to keep in the "target zone" of 2% while the spring loaded other end delivering "economic shocks". It was also interesting to see some real life examples of the development of currency - some very early bank notes, among the first to include the phrase "or bearer" - the forebears of our modern notes & coins. (Yeah, I went to London and saw a display on inflation. The geekiness, it knows no bounds. None whatsoever.)

Covent Garden, Savile Row & Carnaby Street were all things I did once I had been kicked out of the various museums.

Savile Row was le sigh amazing. My tailoring fetish made walking up and down the Row something like what I imagine wandering through the playboy mansion must be life, for those that way inclined. So much talent and craftsmanship concenttrated in such a small space! The most incredible part was peeking into the basement workrooms where you could see some of the cutters and tailors working. (I did wait until after closing to take photos. I'm not *actually* stalking them. At least, not individually.) It was another one of those moments where I encountered names & companies I've known for so long - I've read books, seen docos, admired their work for so long - and then to actually be at the shop front of Huntsman! Dege & Skinner! Henry Poole & Co! Henry Poole & Co Court & Livery Department! And Welsh & Jefferies (by apt to HRH The Prince of Wales) even had a Christmas card from Hand & Lock visible from the window. Just standing there made me happy.

But then there is the utter travesty that is the presence of Abercrombe & Finch at 1 Savile Row. It is an outrage. OUTRAGE, I tell you. Not only is there a shirtless model in the entrance, but it's ready to wear! Oh, the horror. I weep. I truly weep.

Carnaby Street is right around the corner, so I ducked around just to say I'd been there. Like Savile Row, a street noted for its impact on British style that spread all over the world, but there the comparison ends. The whole area is blocked off as a pedestrian market an had lots of people buzzing around, so it wa a nice place to spend an evening just wandering.

I had planned to spend the time at the big museums in the final week, and they did not disappoint! The V&A is a wonderful place to simply wander. It's a very easy place to get lost in, but if you're not looking for anything in particular getting lost can be delightful. I took a wrong turn straight in from the tube and ended up in the French galleries. I meandered for a bit before coming across two ladies doing conservation work on an old French desk. They had opened it to pull out the interior casing and examine the internal mechanisms. The interior casing was a unit of six drawers and was truly something to behold. Because it's never on display, the paintwork and colour hasn't faded like the exterior. It gave me a real sense of how damaging light and exposure can be.

I went into the exhibition they've got on The Magnificence of the Tsars which was, yes, magnificent. The embroidery! The cut of the jackets! The braiding! Oh, there was so much to swoon over. It was interesting to see the trends and variations over a number of variations - some had much more western influence and some were very determined to be Russian, and be seen to be Russian.

The jewellery displays were another stop. I managed to headbut one of the cases while trying to get a closer look at the setting of a diamond ring. OUCH! No permanent harm done to either myself or the case, I'm glad to say. I've always been of the professed opinion that ostentatious displays of wealth in jewellery were de trop, and that small and simple strands of pearls were more my taste. But...I have to say, spending time in that room with the work of master craftsmen from ages past on display, setting off collections of stones from history and empire...should the occasion demand it, I may deign to grace such settings with my décolletage. Maybe. If pressed.

More time was spent in the fashion displays and textile study rooms. I got kicked out at closing time twice - the guard was very kind and offered to shut up all the other cases first, leaving me a bit of extra time to finish going through the pieces.

The study rooms are brilliant. The individual pieces/examples are all mounted on vertically mounted glass display slides, arranged in cabinets. You can completely remove each one and prop it up in the study table area to really examine it properly. They're all catalogued thematically so I limited myself to the English & European embroidered textiles. So cool! Such a delicious geek out. I could imagine spending many many happy hours doing nothing but counting stitches, given the chance.

The English galleries were really engaging. They seem to be arranged chronologically rather than thematically, so walking through them is like walking back through history. (And skipping from one floor to the other is like being in the TARDIS.) The Norfolk House Music Room was a definite highlight. The house was to be demolished, so the walls and ceiling were entirely removed and reconstructed in the museum. It's a tight fit - apparently 10cm of blank space was removed at the top of the walls! It's an extraordinary space, and very few people passed through it (while I was there, at least). I had wild fantasies about bolting the doors and playing something in there, but as before, contented myself with humming. The rest of the gallery spaces had some decent interactive spaces for kids, including one where you could input your own initials and get personalised monograms based on designs in the collection. Then you can email them to yourself! (There was no defined age limit to "kids", it should be noted. And I already decided up at Hardwick Hall that I need a new embroidery pattern for personal branding :-) )

The plaster casts were as impressive and eclectic a collection as I've ever seen. Such a mish-mash of styles and cultures and eras all jammed into two towering spaces, every part of the floor and walls filled with copies or ornate carving from somewhere or other. Trajan's column was split in half on one side. By the time the casting process for that had finished, they must have been real Trajan Pros. (See that? See what my life has come to? I now make tortured puns based on the names of fonts. Why do I do this? Why?!?)

The silver gallery was intimidatingly shiny. As you walk past it you see the glitter coming through the clear cases - very eye catching down the hallway! And on the final day I took another wrong turn and discovered a massive room dedicated to Raphael's cartoons for the tapestries in the Sistine Chapel. As you do.

The British Museum is another one of those places you could easily spend a couple of months just browsing, learning more about absolutely everything as you go. There is just so much in there! They run various talks and tours during the day on general and particular highlights - I caught ones on Captain James Cook (there is only one artefact from Australia in the entirety of the museum. ONE!), The Parthenon Marbles (awesome), and Roman Emperors (accompanied by a multitude of marble busts). It's all very well done and they seem eager to get people interested and engaged in what could very easily be an overwhelming collection. I'd highly recommend it to anyone. At least check out the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon Marbles. They're something you should see at least once in a lifetime.

And on my final day I did a quick recap of the Tate Britain before heading back to the V&A, and on my way up the Thames to Westminster I discovered the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst outside the houses of Parliament! Delightfully unexpected and entirely appropriate. Votes for Women! (step in time).

Am now down in Lewes with Clara's family for Christmas. They're lovely! And generously hospitable! I know such lovely people. YAY!

Four full days in and around London, and one rest day where I did nothing

2008-12-17T11:46:48Z

V&A, Kensington Gardens, Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, Brick Lane, Westminster Abbey & St Paul's Cathedral.

Photos here.

Had a brief visit to the V&A on Thursday 11th. Will be going back! I only got a bit of time in the Fashion exhibit, and then got lost trying to find the embroidery! The fashion was brilliant - so many names I recognised, so much audible squee. An evening gown by Worth! A Tommy Nutter suit! Vivienne Westwood evening dress ! Mary Quant dress! Pucci suit! All Very Very Cool.

There was Hunting Dress, which they said was made in Savile Row in 1975, but something had obviously happened to it since because it did have 1996 Atlanta Olympics buttons on it. (Don't know if they show up in the photo, but they were there, I promise!)

And the two corsets: A late 1800s "Ventilated" corset, which was made entirely of bone casings and tape. ('cause, you know, for health reasons...Riiiiiight....)

Thee other one was late 1700s, but someone's done something weird with the lacing. I don't know how they display these things, and maybe it's some legacy issues, but the offset eyelets clearly indicate single strand spiral lacing (DUH!) rather than double strand cross lacing. Honestly.

Then I wandered up to the upper levels trying to find the embroidery archives - got lost. Instead found the Booker Prize Bookbinding exhibition - where each of the shortlisted titles have custom couture bindings commissioned by the Booker people. Each bookbinder gets one month to read the book, design and produce custom binding relating to the story. It was really interesting - no photos, I'm afraid. Both the technical skill of the binders, and also their explanations for their design choices. There is so much talent out there in the world, in so many things. It's fantastic.

Then I hit the "English Galleries" (again, accidentally). They have a music room that was entirely taken from a house that was being demolished - wood panels, plaster decorations, everything - and reconstructed in the V&A. I took video of it - will put it up when I am able. It was just so peaceful, actually. Even in a room that was highly decorated with gilt walls/ceilings/the works - to be completely alone in this former music room was rather peaceful. I started humming, and didn't really stop until other people came in after about 5 minutes.

Kensington Gardens

Very pretty, very cold. The first thing I saw was the Prince Albert memorial, directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall. The memorial is unbelievable - this huge, gaudy, guilt monstrosity. Apparently the poor man wanted nothing of the sort, which makes it even sadder.

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain is much more tasteful - again, a very peaceful area. Also very user friendly - it would be lovely to dip one's feet in during summer. (Not so much when I was there. Did I mention the freezing?! 'Though I am becoming aclimatised and now consider anything above 5oC to be "not that bad".) This was also the first time I saw squirrels. So many of them! There was a guy feeding them at the fountain. They were running up and down the trees, darting here and there. So cute!

I had only planned to spend a couple of hours at Kensington Palace, but I ended up spending the better part of a day there. It houses the Royal Dress Collection and I hadn't quite realised how magnificent they would be.

(No pics within the palace, I'm afraid.)

The first room reconstructs dressing rooms for ladies attending court in the ~1920s. The ladies had the obligatory white ostrich plumes (which were getting more and more difficult to place in increasingly short hairstyles) and trains on the dresses - also compulsory, but again, less practical once the hemlines shot up. One of the dresses in particular was white/cream, with a blue train extending *under* the lace from the shoulders, down the centre of the back and through to the floor. Lovely!

The second room was my favourite - a reconstruction of a court tailor's shop, with swatch books and bolts of fabric you could feel as you went through, and examples of court and livery dress. SO COOL. Each level of the diplomatic service has its own width of embroidery (eg: Consul-General 2 inches, vice-consul 1 1/2 inches, consul 1 inch), and the patterns are all mandated. They had two English diplomatic coats next to one from Greece - the Greek one incorporates the olive leaf motif all around. It looks fantastic! You can also see up close the bar tacks across the chest, for attaching military/civilian decorations to the jacket and, strangely, one of the English ones has two sets of press studs on each tail of the coat?? Don't know what that was about.

There was also some official robes for the peerage on display - not quite as cool as the diplomatic service, but nicely done all the same. (Would it be wrong to go into diplomatic service just for the uniform? It would be a perk, I'm telling you.) There was also a red-bound book out on display called something like "The Lord Chaimberlan's rules for court dress" which was all text and no pictures and contained a great number of archaic regulations. They did not have a copy for purchase in the gift shop. I checked.

Then through to a women's seamstress' workroom, which contains many of the things that my sewing room does today. Except I do it as a hobby, rather than being worked to the bone for a pittance in horrible, dank conditions.

Some examples of very old court dress - the gentlemen with the white silk stockings and elaborately embroidered waistcoats and jackets (I'm always impressed by the embroidery on the pocket flaps - they take so much care with them), and a woman's silver gown with those horizontal panniers that triple your width as you walk.

The state rooms were interesting too (and tastefully decorated for Christmas). Interesting to see the room where Princess Victoria found out she was queen, which is never described in the tourist literature as "the room where Princess Victoria found out that her father had died". Grief doesn't play so well with the masses, it seems.

They also had an exhibition on of "The Last Debs", the last group of debutantes presented before the queen in...1950something. It looked like such a surreal experience. And expensive! They had calculations of what it would have cost in today's money to do "the season" with all attendant costs - clothing, parties, transport, events etc. £130,000. One hundred and thirty thousand pounds. One hundred and thirty thousand pounds! To do it well. Crazy people! There was one quote I was particularly drawn to:

"Not everyone enjoyed the experience. For shy girls, being thrown into the dizzying social scene of The Season could be a stressful experience."

No kidding.

Went to the exterior of Buckingham Palace, which is all I really wanted to see. It is a magnificent building, not as big as Chatsworth, with truly impressive gates. Seriously, the gates surrounding this place are terribly imposing. I came back the next day to see the changing of the guard (which is only every second day in the winter months) and took the opportunity to stroll through the parks. They're so pretty! And squirrels! The changing of the guard was packed when I did see it - I was quite surprised that something that happens every second day gets such a crowd (though I suppose I wasn't helping matters by being there at all). My favourite part was hearing the troops in the yard before they marched out. I was walking through the park and heard something familiar...hang on, I know those chords...and the brass section...It's John Williams! Yes, they were warming up for the changing of the guard by playing The Raiders' March! Hehe.

On Sunday I attended holy communion at Westminster Abbey, which was cold and very liturgical and robey, but nonetheless the scriptures were read and Christ was proclaimed, which made me happy. Sunday evening was catching up with my friend Sarah and her friend Marc - we went walking around her stomping ground at Spitalfields Market and had dinner on Brick Lane. (Mind that they give you the discount you're entitled to! Double check with a calculator and send it back if you're not happy with their calculations.)

Monday was back at the two churches, this time as a tourist. Westminster Abbey is magnificent, and thoroughly cluttered. It's as if my mother (I love you mum, but you know it's true!) was put in charge of arranging a bunch of marble memorials. When you get to the little side-chapels, you almost have to climb over one memorial to get to another. And the free audio tour is hilariously narrated by Jeremy Irons(!!), which left me cracking up in the entrance.

Lots of very cool people buried there - I visited:

Elizabeth I

Mary I

Mary Queen of Scots/Marie Stuart

Henry V (at which point I recited some Shakespeare, BECAUSE I COULD.)

Edward the Confessor (but only the top, because the construction is very fragile and you can't go in to that area)

The coronation throne (which is, yes, hilariously battered and covered in carved initials)

Edward Bulwyer-Lytton (and yes, I did stand there and say "It was a dark and stormy night", BECAUSE I COULD.)

Half of these poeple are so much history to me that they may as well be as fictional as Camelot. It's still a bit startling to see history being made so real in my mind. Startling, but fantastic!

Poets Corner was more overwhelming than I expected it to be. So much talent represented in such a small space! Laurence Olivier, Kipling, Tennyson (where I recited some more BECAUSE I COULD) - so many people I've admired for so long.

And then to see the Shakespeare memorial, and to each side there were very plain and simple ones to Jane Austen on the left and the Bronte sisters on the right. It was lovely to be able to sit there and think about their incredible body of work. (It may have gotten a little dusty in the room...but I admit to nothing.) Opposite them is the one for Handel. His statue is holding the manuscript for "I know that my redeemer liveth", and they played a bit on the commentary, which was nice.

Through to the gardens and the museum - there was a fantastic and eye-catching memorial to Haley (as in the comet) and some further beautiful war memorials, which always remind me how ugly humanity can be.

Down in the museum was the unexpected gem of the visit - they had recently discovered the original corset used for Elizabeth I's funeral effigy! It was under some damaged stuff and they discovered it while remaking the clothes or something (??). I got very frustrated with the "No Photography" rule (because no, they didn't have a postcard of this in the gift shop. I checked.) So, for reference:

Front single strand spiral lacing, 30 holes each side.
Princess seams down the back. Two side/front panels.
Back panel ends in two tabs.
Front/side panels have three tabs each, two regular size and one large one coming down to a point at the front
Shoulder straps coming in from an angle from the back panel, starting wide and coming to a rounded point.
Looks to be strengthened with reeds.

SO VERY UNBELIEVABLY COOL. And no photos. GRRRRRRR.

The end of the tour (and te front of the building) with the scientists memorials (Darwin & Newton, where I giggled over the Da Vinci Code - mwa ha ha ha ha), lots of PMs in the floor and a touching permanent decoration of poppies for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Up on the side is the Congressional Medal of Honour that one of the US Presidents (don't remember who) had placed on the tomb.

Outside the building is a very touching reminder that there are many people in the world who are still victims of oppression and injustice, and directly judging people who walk past without caring. It's a good thing to have out there.

There are also statues of Modern Martyrs over the exit - there are photos of all these things because they're outside and they couldn't stop me - including Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King. A good reminder that the message of the gospel is still as radical and dangerous as it ever was.

From Westminster Abbey I went straight to St Paul's Cathedral - doing the two churches in one day!

Where Westminster Abbey is cluttered and close, St Paul's Cathedral was open and light. All white marble and high, open ceilings. It was almost a relief after the confines of the Abbey. I did the trek up to both the whispering gallery (which is very high up, and I kept imagining falling to my death over the railing. I don't *think* I'm scared of heights!?!) and then up to the Stone Gallery, which is outside, and cold, and offers spectacular views across London...if there's no mist. Guess which weather pattern I had. The way up to the Golden Gallery, which is even higher, was blocked so unfortunately I didn't get up that far.

Then from those heights I descended into the depths of the crypt, which was again filled with tombs and memorials to many people I have known and/or respected & admired. The two biggies are Nelson and Wellington, who have MASSIVE tombs in marble in the dead centre of the place.

Others include:

Christopher Wren (who has one both in the crypt and in the centre of the marble floor under the dome - Reader, if you seek his memorial, look around you)

Arthur Sullivan (I hummed)

John Wycliffe (my favourite: The morning star of the reformation)

Florence Nightingale

Laurence of Arabia

The soldiers who fought at Gallipoli

William Blake

William Turner

Then I stayed on for Evensong at St Paul's (prompted by hollywdliz - thank's, hon!) which was nice too. It was nice to recite the apostle's creed together with people, and the music was lovely.

Anyway, yesterday was the V&A again, as will be today. My darling hostess is back from her trip to Barcelona and we've been chatting this morning, I've been typing and messaging with my parents, and I think it's about time I had a shower! I'm glad to be at least somewhat caught up on my writing.

Three Half Days in London

2008-12-10T23:47:55Z

Monday morning was spent in transit from Derbyshire.
Monday afternoon/evening was spent at the British Museum.

Tuesday morning was spent sleeping in. Because I'm on holidays. And I can.
Tuesday afternoon was spent on the London Eye and at the National Gallery.

Wednesday morning was spent on webcam with mum & Dad.
Wednesday afternoon was spent at the Tower of London.

Also, I have a camera now. I went into the shop and said, "Hi. I'm a tourist from Australia. A couple of days ago my camera stopped working. I want something small and cheap and basic to get me through the rest of my trip." £48 pounds later I walked out with something or other that used an SD card and AA batteries (damnit). But hey, it's a camera and it works.

So, pics here as usual.

I'm finding transit days quite useful. They give me a bit of rest from the overwhelming nature of the things I'm seeing. Sometimes I just need to stare at a blank wall - or the back of the seat in front of me - for a couple of hours to get back to equilibrium.

So. The British Museum. Only spent a couple of hours there, while I was waiting for Rush Hour to pass on the Tube. I'll have to go back now that I have a camera again. 'cause, you know, all I got to see was the Rosetta Stone (!) and the Elgin Marbles (!!). Barely worth mentioning.

The National Gallery. I tried to go through chronologically, but starting with the earliest art meant I was a bit pressed for time in the later works. The early stuff was all religious art, which just made me want to dress in blue velvet. I overheard one guided tour/student group being lectured on the composition of the various pigments in the artwork. Arsenic, mercury, lead etc. "So if you've been thinking about licking St Thomas, definitely don't lick St Matthew." Sound advice indeed.

I was quite impressed with the entire hallway of Rubens paintings. I particularly enjoyed his depiction of Minerva fending off Mars. Wisdom, Arts & Crafts and protective armour REPRESENT. Then the full sized equestrian portrait of Charles I - the sort of thing I've seen in history texts for years, and now suddenly I'm in a room with the original portrait. And Madame de Pompadour. And the Gainsboroughs. And Van Gough's Sunflowers. (Though I confess I was rather more taken with his landscapes than the sunflowers, but that's just a preference of mine.)

Again, it was all a bit overwhelming. Any one of these paintings would be the feature of a special exhibit at the National Gallery of Australia, and I would take a trip to Canberra to see it. And here they all were - together - and people aren't spending their whole lives packed in to catch a glimpse. Something about familiarity, I'm sure.

The London Eye was brilliant. I took advantage of some rare sunlight to go up. It's an amazing sight, and the guidebook is dead useful for telling you where things are ("So that's Buckingham Palace"). Very useful for getting one's bearings.

The Tower of London was also really good. I went today because I missed the first train (to Victoria Station) and caught the second (to London Bridge), which is pretty close to the Tower and the Tower Bridge. I thought I'd take advantage of the not-rain to spend some time wandering. It was so much fun! They do bits and pieces of living history (which is way less embarrassing than it was at Old Sydney Town).

There was a commemorative sculpture on the place where the executions were carried out - picture up at flickr - with a glass pillow. It was beautifully done.

Had fun in the armouries in the white tower, but once we got to the interactive thing I left the weapons to the boys (and yes, they were boys - it was a school tour behind me) and went for where the *real* power is: The Royal Mint. They had a small display of old coins and the new designs with the "broken up" arms (I don't know how else to describe it). Very important stuff, currency.

The coolest thing about the tower is the Jewel House. Not because of the Jewels, which are indeed impressive if you're impressed by such things - largest diamond in the world, second largest diamond in the world yadda yadda. The weirdest thing was the skeletons of former crowns, which have been cannibalised for their jewels. They look really odd without the sparkle - a bit like empty oyster shells on a wharf. And there's nothing regular about them any more - I presume they get mongy while the stones are being removed from their settings.

But the coolest thing - the most squee-worthy thing - was the coronation robes. Especially the Coronation Stole - my little textile geek heart was quite content to let others have the moving walkway along which you see the lumps of carbon - I spent much much time crouching down for a better look at the stole. (How is the best information I can find on this thing on a Geocities site? Surely that's an indication that someone broke the interwebs).

The stitching on this thing is MAGNIFICENT. The other parts of the robes had been used by other monarchs, but the stole was new as at 1953. While the mantle has the emblems of the big three - Rose, Shamrock & Thistle - the stole is a bit more inclusive with the Commonwealth being represented. I picked up the lotus of India, the protea of South Africa, the fern of NZ, the wattle of Australia and the maple leaf of Canada. Further, there were badges of the four evangelists plus the keys of St Peter, the flags of England, Scotland and Ireland, the dove of the Holy Spirit, the imperial crown, and further floral emblems: Rose, Shamrock, Thistle & Leek. The stitches were perfect. So tiny, so even, so neat. Really and truly squeeworthy. I was asking the guy questions about it, but I think they're more used to people asking about the shiny stuff because he couldn't tell me much more than I'd figured out myself. (In fairness, I had missed the leek.) Not even the guidebook has much on it (I checked).

Google is failing me! I can't find a picture of it. GRRRR. It's really incredible work. I'd be proud to have done it. And that's the beauty of travelling alone. I don't have to be impressed by the shiny because everyone else is. I can appreciate the shiny, but still spend the bulk of my time with the embroidery and have a fantastic time because of it.

Playing catchup: Derbyshire day 2

2008-12-09T20:49:47Z

hannawy's internet has been on the blink so I'm typing these posts offline andwill update when I can – maybe back in London.

Sunday was spent at Hardwick Hall, home of Bess of Hardwick, second most powerful woman in Elizabethan England (after You Know Who). While she didn't quite start from scratch, she did use successive marriages (four in all) to amass land, wealth and power. Hardwick Hall consists of the Old Hall and the New Hall. To give some sort of indication as to the resources of this woman, how about this: She completely remodeled the Old Hall in its medieval style. Then she decided to build the New Hall in a modern style (and it really does look fresh and new in comparison).And then she started building works at Chatsworth. (Yeah, THAT Chatsworth. The one from yesterday.)

Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth had been, until recently, owned by the Cavendish family. Once death duties of 80% on the estate came in a generation ago, the family sold off a bunch of land and gave Hardwick Hall to the nation in lieu of taxes.It's now a national trust property.

She had marked every part of every building as her own – from the plaster relief in the top rooms in the Old Hall, celebrating her life by depicting the triumph of Patience over Fortune, to the huge stone “ES” monograms (Elisabeth Shrewsbury) up on every side of every tower in the New Hall, plainly silhouetted against the sky. Inside the buildings, everything is branded with the Stags or Snakes which were part of her family arms.

And when I say everything I mean everything. Every room, every hall, every tapestry, the servants' dining hall, all the bedrooms, everything. We think it was so people who got smashed at parties could look up at the walls and figure out whose house they were in.

Apparently a rumour persisted in the 1700s that Mary Queen of Scots had been imprisoned at Hardwick, so things have been very well preserved down the years – especially the textiles.

For a textile geek like me this place was brilliant. Lots of woven tapestries hanging on the walls, lots of embroidery and applique work in frames, but my favourite part was the way there was a family embroidery pattern which had been passed down through the generations, to be adapted for various initials and crafts. The same design had been done in cross stitch, embroidery, applique and needlepoint, with minor variations. Really beautiful stuff – made my fingers itch for a needle again.

While the Christmas decorations at Chatsworth were lovely and tasteful, in Hardwick Hall I'm sorry to say they were inappropriate and tacky. Inflatable Santas in the fireplaces etc. Itwould have been better left alone, I think.

There are people who live on the estates and in the houses, including the Duke & Duchess at Chatsworth. As brilliant as that would be, I can't help but think it would be difficult to have so many people trailing through your space. There are sections marked off as “Private”, but I also know there are people who think that if you can step over a barrier it doesn't really count ::ahem::dad::ahem:: so even the private parts of the gardens would have random interruptions from intruders. It would be trying to have so much of your life on public display like that.

Other things I've noticed: The Dursley's house? Not that uncommon. There are entire streets of identi-brick houses with no personality and no distinction.

The houses are also really square. Not in proportion, but they don't have bits sticking out of them for shade or outdoor living like we do in Australia. Makes sense, I suppose, but it's something new and different for me.

Hanna & I have had such a brilliant weekend together we've decided that next time I'm in England she's going to take a week's holiday and we're going to do some proper touring – houses, castles, abbeys, the works. I can't wait! The offer is of course reciprocal – you're more than welcome to stay with us in Australia, but I'd recommend you avoid summer so as to not die from the heat.

Hanna also taught me some Swedish words, which I apparently pronounce like a Norwegian.

Tomtenisse = fairy/pixie/elves. Live inthe garden and must be appeased with rice pudding at Christmas.

Lagom = Just the right amount.

Eg: How much squee can you handle in one weekend? Largom (= just the right amount of squee, no more, no less) A thoroughly useful word.

Derbyshire: Exceeding all remaining squee quotas

2008-12-08T14:27:49Z

There is a distinct ~~possibility~~ certainty that I'll become incoherent with squee in a minute, so I'll take care of some housekeeping first.

I made listener feedback on Filmspotting again. Yay! Top 5 Girlcrushes. It's 44.30 minutes in, here: http://www.filmspotting.net/2008/12/fs-237-milk-australia-top-5-biopics-wed.html. There's also some love for both Aragorn and Nathan Fillion as mancrushes earlier in the segment.

I was so taken with the British Library, I bequeathed them a glove. It was not so well thought out as some of their other endowments, and it may not have been entirely deliberate on my part, but at the British Library it remains. I got some replacement gloves - fingerless gloves with flippy mittens - which look stupid but are more useful than they seemed to me at first.

My camera is still dead (GRRRR). Need to see about fixing/replacement when I get back to London. The two Hanna(h)s have been very kind in supplying me with temporary solutions, but unfortunately I just don't think I can do justice to Derbyshire with a cameraphone. (There will be more of this below, but I'll hold off for a bit because once I start on the subject of Derbyshire I won't be able to stop).

While on the subject of the Hanna(h)s, I need to give a public shout out to them for their exceptional hospitality. You've both been so kind and generous - I truly appreciate the way you've put yourself out on my account. I hope to be able to repay the favour one day.

Pics here, as usual

So I arrived in Derby on Friday afternoon and met hannawy at the station. We've known each other since old school XPFC days so it was lovely to finally meet in person. We sorted out some early cultural differences. She's Swedish and thinks it doesn't begin to get "cool" until it's -10oC. I'm Australian and so think "warm" starts at 30. We do, however, share a love for teh pretty, so we're spending the weekend tripping around the countryside looking at historic houses. (Hanna is also old. oooooold. She no longer watches Home and Away and has a membership to the National Trust. That's the new standard for a seniors card, I think.) She also understands that quiet doesn't mean upset, tea is lifegiving, and blogging before breakfast is socially acceptable. We're getting along splendidly.

First port of call on Friday was the grounds of Kedleston Hall (sp??). The house was shut on Friday, but we were able to walk through the park. We started by walking back down the driveway. Which has a bridge. With three arches. And a waterfall. (My driveway has none of these things.) They have their own river. With an island. And more waterfalls. And a boathouse. Made out of stone. This is the kind of scale of this place. Alas no pictures, but very pretty.

On returning to Hanna's home I discovered what all the great heroines do while touring Derbyshire. My petticoats were six inches deep in mud, if by "petticoats" you mean "jeans" and by "six inches deep in mud" you mean "six inches deep in mud". We had tea and facebook updates in front of an open fire (we were sparodically successful in getting it up and running)

Hanna's place has a really beautiful view - from the bedroom it looks out over green fields with sheep and cows. There are lots of sheep in Derbyshire. And then there's the milk hanging out over the windowsill, because the fridge is busted and it's cold enough outside to keep milk drinkable. That's how cold it is. Colder than the fridge.

As I type this it's 8.30 on Sunday morning, the curtains are open and I'm in bed looking out at sunrise over the hill. Apparently horses occasionally go past from the two farms at each end of the road. I would almost be content never to move again, except that I know there are places in the world like the British Library and now...Chatsworth. Yeah, that Chatsworth. And that Chatsworth.

I'm going to put this under a cut because, well, if you thought I had exhausted all possible squee at the British Library, you are sadly mistaken.

“Will you tell me how long you have loved him?”...“I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.” P&P, ch 59

First there's the driveway. This driveway not only has a bridge and arches, it has signposts so you don't get lost. Seriously. There is a chance you'll lose your way on the driveway to the house, so they give you arrows. I don't generally have that problem at home.

Then the outer grounds, which are very pretty. Very green. Lots of sheep. (Which occsionally cross the road in front of the cars - dumb sheep.) Lots of grass. As-far-as-the-eye-can-see fields and grass. And the stone pavillion - Queen Mary's Bower - which is apparently a surviving viewing platform from the Elizabethan Water Gardens. As one does.

Truly, the views of this place are (I'm going to use that word again) unbelieveable. You start to understand how Lizzie Bennett could legitimately have started changing her opinion of Darcy upon seeing Perberley. Even just the outside is quite overwhelming. It's so well ordered and maintained, and at such an enormous scale. We later learn that this is no accident. One of the dukes decided to improve the land, making it appear "more natural", by major earthworks - moving hills, diverting the river (yes, they have their own river), and moving the local village a couple of miles so you didn't have to look at it from the house. Would that we could do that to all our problems.

As for the interior, you enter the house through a side door (which has a doorbell the size of my fist) and you're greeted with: humungous art on three walls, three marble statues, and a scale model of the house. In the first room. I bought a guidebook.

The whole place was decorated for Christmas, which was beautifully done (cf Hardwick Hall, which was...less so). Going down the halls and into all the rooms there were huge arches of evergreens, white twigs, lights and the sweetest pompom strings. Each major room had a wood silhouette tableau based on "The First Noel" in red and white. They were quite lovely and tastefully done, but I must have missed the parts of the nativity accounts in the New Testament with the cats and the bunnies. Maybe it's a new translation I don't know about.

The first room is the chapel. Such intricate wood carving on the walls - one photo of that did come out nicely - art painted directly onto every available surface, with mirrors kindly available in each room so you could look at the ceiling without breaking your neck. I'm a bit squicky about religious art that depicts Jesus, but I did love the twin marble figures of Faith (with a cup and Bible) and Justice (cup and sword) at the front. The chairs were also...a bit different to the plastic stackable ones I've come to know and love at Emu Plains Anglican & NVWPC. None of ours have needlepoint of the Order of the Garter, for instance.

That room also had a standalone piece of some amazing wood carvings - just a small cabinet, but carvings that were strikingly realistic depictions of a lace cravat and a dead bird. I was really impressed with the skill of that - to so accurately represent one art form in another is quite a feat.

Then through to The Oak Room, which was set out as a small(ish) dining room set with contemporary silverwork. It was a bit startling to see some of the pieces set in a room with carved busts of bishops set into the walls and painted wood panels. (Art painting, not roller painting). There was also a stunning view out to the lake and some of the outdoor sculptures through one of the side doors. (Yeah, they have a lake. 'cause the river wasn't enough.)

Through the corridor with various Egyptian antiquities (for real), where Hanna & I had fun playing What Would Amelia Say? There was a display of china of the various generations, all of which had the double intertwined "DD" monogram of the family. Both Hanna & I chose the same one to steal, so rather than going all Solomon on the teapot, it looks like we'll be taking tea together. (You don't mind sharing, do you?)

The corridor also has views through to the courtyard, where there were modern sculptures of dogs on display. I later learned that the current Duke had come across them in his capacity as Deputy Chairman of Sothebys. As you do. The Duke & Duchess also have a keen interest in contemporary ceramics and had some instillations commissioned for the fireplaces along the corridor. I know bugger all about contemporary ceramics and therefore notthing to say about that.

Then through into the...um...I've forgotten what this one was called so I'm just going to call it "The Great Hall". 'cause it's massive. And hugely impressive. Under our stairs at home, we store suitcases and unused sporting equipment. Under these staris, they store a giant marble bird bath that's almost as big as my car. Again, art on every available surface, marble sculpture, a fireplace big enough to roast a small cow, wrought iron balconies with the intertwined D monograms again (and the twirly snake, which is also one of their symbols) and a freaking massive christmas tree decorated with a sheep theme. There were multiple shepherds crooks as decorations. Life sized. And life sized sheep down the bottom. Overwhelming in scale.

At the top of the stairs (in the private non-accessible part of the building but still on view) was the modern sculpture "The Carefree Man". It's a large-ish piece that looks to me a bit like Gene Kelly dancing.

Then up the oak stars and a painting that looks like a Rembrandt. Oh, wait, hang on. It is a Rembrandt. At the top of our stairs at home we are likely to have a pile of paperwork and used coffee cups waiting to be taken down to the kitchen. They have a Rembrandt.

Also on those walls: A larger-than-life portrait of George VI and another larger-than-life portrait of the Sixth Duke. Hanna and I both agreed that the 6th Duke looked like a very talented young man. It was something to do with the buttons on his waistcoat. And other portraits.

Now here's the bit where I become incoherent with squee, because ZOMG THE LIBRARY

I went a little mental in the ante-room to the library. Wall to wall, floor to ceiling books. All leather bound. All with the Devonshire monogram on the spine. All unbearably old. SQUEE. Thankfully, Hanna had already scoped out the layout of the room and could guide me to the theology section - pictures up at flickr as well as I could take them - nearly crawling onto people's backs trying to get to the top shelves - cursing the Christmas decorations blocking view of the other titles.
eg:

Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Relgion

Calvin's commentaries on the NT

The Venerable Bede

Machiavelli

Da Vinci Codex

and seemingly every multi-volume history of any country/region ever published.

And then there was the library proper. You couldn't get into the room, but there was a view in from the ante-room. This is one of five - FIVE - libraries in Chatsworth. A long room with a balcony, books covering the walls, axeminster carpet woven to reflect the ceiling paintings, a piano (!!) in the middle of one end - lots of comfy chairs and tables - and a Rembrandt. Yeah. Another one.

Then we take a moment to ponder the unbearable unfairness of existence because the family's private dining room is on the other side of the library. They entertain in the library. With the books. And the Rembrandt.

Then Hanna and I came up with the BEST idea for a party in the HISTORY of party ideas:

LIBRARYTHING FLASH MOB CATALOGUING PARTY AT CHATSWORTH

How is that not the most brilliant idea ever?!?!! We'd be so good. No food or drink, just cameras and laptops. It would be BRILLIANT. I asked the room guide about the database they had for the books, but he didn't know and I haven't had time to contact collections. Hanna and I would be brilliant at it - we both have a professional interest in databases, and would have a very useful "Squee" category which is missing from most catalogues. Librarything @ Chatsworth. THIS MUST HAPPEN.

Once we tear ourselves away from the books, it's through to the main dining room. Apparently Princess (later Queen) Victoria dined there when she was 13 - the first time she had eaten at the grown ups table. The room is...about the size of my entire house. Mirrors bigger than our kitchen floor. Portraits filling entire walls. Life-sized marble statues supporting the multiple fireplaces. Even the smallest and plainest of the candlesticks would overwhelm any place setting I could devise at home. This is a whole new scale of interior design.

We were also taken with one of the smaller portraits in the dining room. The guy had such a perfectly arrogant expression on his face, we thought it would be the perfect base for a "Bitch, please" LJ icon. I asked the room guide about it and he told us it was by Frans Hals, but the guy was just a model he'd picked up off the street, dressed up in fine clothes and paid to sit for him. That makes the expression on his face even better - knowing that he doesn't in fact own half of Derbyshire to back it up. Once I have access to photoshop again I'll pull it together.

Then through to the sculpture gallery. You'd recognise it from the most recent P&P - the one with the imposter Darcy. They really are beautiful statues - I was very much taken with the spinning lady (they added a drop spindle to complete the effect!) and the Veiled Vestal. The way you can still see her features under the veil, even in marble - breathtaking.

There's also a massive propeller from a Rolls Royce jet engine made by apprentices at the Rolls Royce factory (somewhere in Derbyshire), which matches the scale of the room if not the time period!

The final sculptures are two lions - one sleeping, one awake - which are, again, not much smaller than my car.

Then through to the shop, which I've noticed is always warmer than the rest of the house, where I bought a string of blue pearls. :-)

I did not, however, buy a notebook with a painted portrait of Colin Firth on the cover. That was a bit disturbing. I mean, he is a Very Talented Actor, but there's something a bit squicky about a painted portrait on a notebook. Just sayin'.

We went and had tea and I tried to process eveything I'd seen - it's an overwhelming experience. I felt a little like in Doctor Who, with Hanna taking me around to all these incredible things that she's already familiar with, but gratuitously enjoying my incoherent squee at seeing them for the first time. And the incoherence, it was rife. I am told there were random squeals, sighs, murmurs, and a constant wide-eyed-open-mouthed expression. I had the only camera (thank goodness) so there is no verifiable record of it.

We spent so much time in the house there was very little time left to explore the gardens & park - the waterfall, the maze, the lake (partially frozen), the greenhouses, the stables. All looked amazing, but it was getting dark very quickly.

We walked out to the bridge on the driveway for one last look at the facade - truly glorious, bathed in blue floodlights at dusk - and none of the pictures turned out. Sorry ::g::

Saturday night was Strictly Come Dancing (a whole new phenomena for me) and Merlin on TV. Merlin is hilarious. Anthony Head as Uther - ROTFLMAO. I am told he sometimes wears a plastic crown, which is even funnier. Arthur has boy band hair, so being the interwebs veterans that we are, we started listing all the inevitable rivalries in a fandom for a band that does not exist.

Arthur is lead vocals & guitar, Merlin is songwriter and bass guitar, Morgana is wailing backing vocals & keyboard and Gwen isn't really into the whole thing but gets roped into drumming. Uther is the evil manager. They're called Excallibur and their first album is called "Whispers of Camelot". Girls under 12 are in love with Arthur. Girls between 13 and 16 have a thing for dark & brooding Merlin. Middle aged women think Arthur/Merlin is the new Harry/Draco. Once the band splits up, Arthur goes into rehab and a year later stars in a new reality TV series called "So You Think You Can Joust", Merlin goes on to a mildly successful solo career, Morgana decides to get serious about teh music and plays folk festivals the world over, and Gwen goes to university to get a degree in electrical engineering and becomes incredibly rich when she develops Camelot's first solar cell. Uther becomes the mean judge on Camelot Idol.

Ah, fandom. Completely mental but you've got to love it. Have I mentioned how much I'm enjoying staying with Hanna?

London Day 4: Further geekery

2008-12-05T16:17:13Z

Photos on Flickr, as usual

I have discovered my new favourite place in the whole wide world. When I set my mind to that final day, after I stand before the judgment throne of God, secure in the knowledge that Jesus Christ has already paid what is owed for my sin and entering into the promised land, what I imagine is remarkably close to what I saw yesterday.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:
The British Library.

It was glorious! Not terribly fancy on the outside (not that I was loitering much to check it out, I must admit. Something about losing all sensation in my extremities makes me want to be inside while I'm in London), but the inside is breathtaking. Beautiful wide open space, with a massive central book stack five stories tall. It has free wifi, so there are people everywhere (cafes, benches, desks) with their laptops out, all being very quiet and doing stuff.

And that's not even starting on the Treasures exhibition. One of my favourite event exhibitions I ever saw in Australia was down in Canberra. It was in the National Library and was called "Treasures of the World's Great Libraries". By the time we got there at the end of its run, queues for same-day tickets started at 4 am, and our timed entry ticket was for 10.30pm. Amazing items - original cover art for The Hobbit, Einstein's handwritten E=mc^2 paper, the first Xerox, that sort of stuff.

But here? At Treasures of the British Library? Comprable permanant exhibition. I took a wrong turn, walked into a room and the first thing I see is the original manuscript for ch 11 Persuasion, on Jane Austen's writing desk. (JANE AUSTEN'S WRITING DESK, PEOPLE!). Next to it was original manuscript of Jane Eyre (JANE EYRE, PEOPLE!). Much very quiet squeeing took place. Then there was the Beatles section, with the original scribbled lyrics to Help, Yesteday & Ticket to Ride. On - literally - the back of an envelpe. And the back of a children's birthday card given to Julian Lennon.

Oh, and the older music section: Original scores written by some guys called Beethoven, Mozart, Handel...you might have heard of them.

I'm not much into maps or illuminated manuscripts, but there were plenty of them to go around. Old stuff on the history of printing too.

Then there was the Shakespeare section. Lord. The mortgage contract for Blackfriars with his (possible) signature. The entire exhibition is dedicated to the two guys, whose names I can't now recall, who compiled the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays. Though they hadn't done the work themselves, they wanted it compiled and preserved for others to enjoy. A noble aim, I'm sure.

Then I went downstairrs where they had a special exhibition on freedom in Britain, where the first thing you see is the Magna Carta. Not a picture or reproduction, mind you, but one of four remaining copies of the MAGNA FREAKING CARTA. I took a moment to ignore the tax instructions contained therein and celebrrate the right to freedom from arbitrary detention, which later developed into Habeas Corpus. It's a mighty thing. Got to love it.

Lots of other goodies in that one - the death warrant for Charles 1 with a bazillion signatures and wax seals on it, prototype designs for the Union Flag merging England and Scotland, and a whole section on women's sufferage. A handwriteen letter from Emmeline Pankhurst. EMMELINE PANKHURST! And one of those beautifully constructed "Votes For Women" banners in purple and green.

Then I went and got what is currently my favourite souvenir from London: A British Library Reader's Card. Very cool indeed.

So if I don't show up at the airport as expected in February, you might want to check there first. I may well be hovering 10cm away from Miss Austen's desk, or pouring over their copy of Aran Knitting, for that matter.

Also: I went to King's Cross Station and bought The Tales of Beadle the Bard. Then I took a picture of it at Platform 9 3/4 (on flickr). Just because I could ::G::

Also also: A quick peak hrough teh National Portrait Gallery - more Elizabeth I, more Shakespeare, more Brontes - where I discovered they had a "no sleeping in the chairs" policy - damn jetlag. And the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at Trafalgar Square.

Now onto Derbyshire for a weekend with hannawy.

Out and about in London

2008-12-04T00:33:53Z

New pics up here

Spent a lovely day out in London. Started by spending the morning at the Tate Britain - Spent a lovely amount of time in front of the loan they have of Burne-Jones' MASSIVE piece of the Sleeping Arthur. Thought of Grandad and recited some Tennyson, just because I could. Couldn't find the Lady of Shalott, but was really impressed by their "Collections" maps, which take you to targeted pieces. (eg: "The First Date Collection" "The I Like Yellow Collection" "The Happily Depressed Collection" "The Calming Collection" "The I've Just Split Up Collection"). Other people have uploaded their own personal lists, which is also rather fun.

Then I went down the road and took some pics of the MI6 building. (This was my James Bond geek-out day). Oddly, you can see through some of the windows and walk closer to the building than I had expected. Less oddly, the entire place is wired with CCTV and sensors, lots of spikes, and what look like catapults on the roof (a bit low-tech, I would have thought).

Then I walked down to the Imperial War Museum (for the history) and saw the Ian Flemming/James Bond exhibition (for the history), where I saw Ian Flemming's desk, original manuscripts of the books, props from the movies, Sean Connery's coat from Dr No, Pierce Brosnan's naval uniform from Tomorrow Never Dies and Daniel Craig's bloody tuxedo shirt from Casino Royale (for the history). I couldn't make out the entire label, but it was "Easy Fit", if that's of interest to anyone.

After standing all morning my feet were aching, so I went and nursed a coffee at Waterloo Station for a bit. (I may or may not have fallen asleep at this point - I admit nothing). Then I went to a talk at the LSE (SQUEE!!!) - Cherie Blair talking about her book and life as a student at the LSE/QC/Wife of the PM. Interesting talk, and nice to note that Mrs Blair is a knitter - she mentioned that she got through her finals at LSE by knitting a cable jumper. Obviously a woman after my own heart.

Now I'm back with Han watching veg out videos on youtube.

Fantastic day! Minor drawbacks: I may have picked up a cold, and my camera stopped working after I took photos of the MI6 building. It may have just been the cold messing up the batteries, but who were those people I saw on the roof over the river? And what have they done to my camera??

Arrived safely in London

2008-12-02T16:37:13Z

Sleeping patterns still completely out of whack. Spent the first day with Han at the Tate Modern. First pics up at flickr here: http://flickr.com/photos/moorina/.

Google heritage: Unusual names beginning with O rising to prominence in the last 8 years

2008-10-03T01:33:21Z

For their tenth birthday, Google have gone vintage and put their January 2001 index back up online.

On a whim, I tried heritage googling "Obama". There are 4420 results, the second of which is a Japanese tourism site for what seems to be a spa in Nagasaki.

The second search of my series-on-a-whim was "Osama", which yields a slightly more respectable 69,600 results in Jan 2001. The first seems to offer a generously sized 6 meg email account: yourname@osama.0me.com. The FBI lists him as "Usama" in the 10 most wanted list.

Now, of course, the results are a little different (just a touch: "Obama" and "Osama"), though Osama seems to have jumped the shark of newsworthiness with three of the first four being for a 2003 Afghani film, and the image results being mostly parody & pop culture references.

Crossover: "Spa" now hits Osama's first page results (but I don't speak any Italian so I have no idea what it says), as does Obama, courtesy of "Obama Girl Kills Osama Bin Laden?" on youtube.

I'd like to thank the members of the academy... (I won the Freakonomics Haiku comp!)

2008-09-05T01:52:26Z

But it's an honour just to be nominated.

I'm having such a squee-full geek-out over this.