October 12, 2006
no flood can drown nor fire blacken purest longing
10/12/06
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I'll wrangle my other family members to do more blogs while I'm gone, but I just got the internet working here in London and wanted to send out a quick missive from your friends over here in Merrie Olde Englande! None of us slept more than 45 minutes on the red-eye over, including Lucy, which has been a serious drag, but it's so wonderful to be here that none of us care. Except Lucy, I guess, who keeps waking up every hour wanting to know where the hell she is.
The flat we Craigslisted came "with internet," but it's a curious sort of "British internet" that spouts via the end of a misshapen USB cord. USB is notoriously unstable, and besides, the Mac can't support it anyway, which meant a jaunt over to the Apple Store in Oxford Circus for a new modem. Hours (and hundreds of BT.com tech details you don't want to know) later, we are finally beaming wifi to the ancient Carmelite church next door.
We're staying just off High Street Kensington, in a neighborhood that corresponds roughly to Prince Street in New York, the Marais in Paris, and, I guess, the Ped Mall in Iowa City. If my childhood memory is correct, we lucked out on the weather: it's been low 70s and sunny. When I was a kid, there were so few sunny days in London that we treated them like manna from the Gods of Fun.
Tomorrow is the wedding at the Houses of Parliament and then we're on a train to the border of Scotland for the reception (all paid for by the lovely bride and groom!) And for those who were wondering, we've offset the entire trip via CarbonFund.org, because I know some of you take special interest in my carbon consumption.
Back next week with more pictures. Have a great weekend and be sure to comment on all the American gossip I'm missing.
Please post some pictures of the wedding, especially the hats worn by the women. I love to see the crazy things British women wear on their heads.
I wanted to take a second to tell you about one of my favorite shops on earth. It's called The Map House, and it's in Knightsbridge near Harrods. They sell antique maps and prints from around the world. I have bought antique maps from there several times and they are some of my prized possessions. If you have any interest in old maps, check it out. They do have a website, themaphouse.com. You can spend $25K or $250, but the experience of going into the store is awesome if you appreciate that sort of thing.
I’ve enjoyed reading the posts by your brother and mom, and hope that Michelle is up next!
[I go crazy wondering what there is to really see
Did the night just take up your time, 'cause it means more to me
Sometimes I forget what I'm doing, I don't forget what I want
Regret what I've done, regret you? I couldn't go on]
Dude, lay off Ian's mom. I won't warn you again.
Ian, if you have a second between all the cavorting from Westminister to Scotland, you should check out my favorite book store in all of London. Daunt's Books is one of the last few independent booksellers in the city and has an amazing array of wonderful travel books and literature (second only, perhaps, to the travel bookshop featured in the movie "Notting Hill," though that place is always jam packed). Daunt's also has a wonderful kids corner, which I am sure Lucy would enjoy. The store is on Marylebone High Street in what we neighbors call 'Marylebone Village.' The whole are is worth exploring - have an eclair at Patisserie Valerie or Breakfast at Pain Quotidien. Buy Lucy a little cuddly toy or new PJs at 'The little white company' and have a great family meal at the Giraffe (Blanford Street) the most kid-friendly place in town (it's a chain - you'll find others around..but Blanford Street is the BEST.)
Enjoy my second home town..it's a wonderful, wonderful place!
During the summer of 1991 Emma and I lived off Gloucester road (off Kensington High street at the Gloucester road tube stop) and worked near there at a cheesy restaurant called the Lone Star cafe (Texas themed - played the same 60 minute recording of cheesy country music over and over again!). Anyway, if you happen to be in that area I'd love to know if it's still there.
I hope you are having a wonderful time! I'd really love to go back again to walk down memory lane too (this time I'd have more than 2 pence of spending money which would be exciting).
Royal wedding...yada yada yada...
Dude - UNC BASKETBALL PRACTICE STARTS TODAY!!
Thanks for going to all the trouble so that you can blog. I am looking forward to lots of photos!
Not much is new here at home. Madonna adopted a boy from Malawi. Bono and Oprah are trying to save the world -- I love them so! Dooce revealed that she was sued recently, and I wonder what corporate jerk would do such a thing.
Enjoy your trip.
"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford." - Samuel Johnson
I am very envious. I hope that the three of you have a great trip. And if you check on the Lone Star (from Neva's comment), just see if it is still there, don't go in as the food is not real good (and in the summer of 91, the service wasn't great either:) .
It took me well under an hour to find JBooogie's name and address, by the way. Great invention of Al Gore's, these internets.
When you get a chance, Ian, let's compare my info to the IP address you have for him. In the meantime, he's fairly close to getting the Class A misdemeanor of aggravated harrassment bumped up to a felony. Please save copies of his posts before you edit them. Screenshots would be best.
For the record, I'm still not him.
Lindsay, I have saved everything, and have a parcel of IP addresses as well. Thanks for helping on this.
Mmmmmm......readily-available Cadbury bars.
Lovely pic of Tessa.
Missing you guys. That's all, really. We're all rather scattered right now, aren't we? Can't wait for Thanksgiving.
And Tessa is so beautiful it hurts.
Man, nice filter. I tried to make a joke about how I was secretly the bad guy, and the blog wouldn't post it, even when I tried changing it.
We really should discuss our family's weight problem. It's very important.
Not a stalker here, just a cheerio and shout-out across the pond and hope the royal wedding is blissful. Here's reporting that the UNC Homecoming was competitively abysmal on the pigskin front, but many managed to enjoy a fine tailgape, hiccup, and sum BBQ. Oh, and speaking of delicious journalism, a hearty hip-hip-hoo-yeah for what I'm thinkin' has to be yer LIndsay's wife's Fri. NY Times article on porking and corkage in NC's wine and swine belt. Soo-ie!! Have a jolly holiday.