Grace has been on the Wolfson Cricket team all year and they had their first game last Tuesday. I was there, taking the pictures. Here Grace is, going out to battle, first batter up for the game. She had an amazing performance scoring more runs than anyone else and giving up the least runs while bowling.
Cricket sounds funny if you don't know how it works:
Grace and her teammate went up to bat. The other team didn't get a single wicket and Grace and her teammate scored something like 30 runs before she was retired after avoiding getting caught out for 7 overs! Grace also knocked two balls out of the pitch's boundaries, so that was four runs each!
After Grace was retired the next batters came up and, oh no!, two wickets! The bails were flying! Sigh. Still, Wolfson managed 75 runs (after the -15 from a third wicket). Churchill was up to bat next and the tension was high after the first 10 overs. They were rapidly catching up. Wolfson got two wickets but in the end, both teams tied. Then they all had tea and biscuits together.
A little context now. Cricket can go on for five days in big matches, but this was just a friendly one so they played 14 "overs" per side, where an over is six bowls (and where bowling is the Cricket equivalent of pitching). The goal is to score as many runs as possible while your team is batting. Then, you switch sides and you try to prevent your opponents from scoring runs. So each team is up to bat once, and in the field once.
There are two batters, each standing near a set of wickets, wooden poles with little wooden tops tenuously bridging between them. You want to hit the ball and then run to the other batter's wickets, while she does the same. If you both get to the opposite teammate's wickets before getting out, that's one run. You can go back and forth as many times as you dare.
To get out, someone either catches your hit (like in baseball), or they knock those little wooden tops (called Bails) off the wickets while you're running, but before you get to them (sort of like touching a base while you have the ball in baseball, only it's much more satisfying because you hear the ball knock the wood and send the bails flying). If you get out, that's a -5 penalty, but it doesn't affect your teams batting time. The next batter just keeps coming on until you go through all 14 overs.
And there are traditionally tea breaks, but this game was so short they just had tea at the end.
On a further note, Grace and I have been looking for a cricket set for our own. We thought it would be a great souvenir. I was shocked to see they're really expensive. Forty pounds for the wickets and between 45 and 300 pounds for an adult cricket bat. We bought a kid's set for 8 pounds, and a proper cricket ball for another 3 pounds. We were pretty pleased with ourselves until the bat snapped in half. I guess it wasn't meant to hit the real thing (it did come with a rubber ball). So now Grace is going to see about getting a used bat from the team.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Tidbits
Good God, did you know there is a Daily Show, International edition? We stumbled upon it one night at one of our friends' house (he has cable). It's like the daily show, but with a smaller set and no studio audience. Imagine the daily show if every joke Jon Stewart said was met by deafening silence. That's the Daily Show International edition. It's broadcast on CNN international or something.
On a completely different tack there's this phrase the British use that I really like. Here's some examples:
"I might go for a run today if I can be bothered."
"I wanted to do my homework last night but I just couldn't be bothered."
"Wanna go to dinner?" "I can't be bothered."
It doesn't have the same meaning as it would in the States. It basically is used in reference to something you probably ought to do, but you don't and you don't really care that you have no good reason not to do it. You shrug off the entire guilt complex associated with neglecting to do something you ought to.
Example: I should say more on this blog post but I can't be bothered.
On a completely different tack there's this phrase the British use that I really like. Here's some examples:
"I might go for a run today if I can be bothered."
"I wanted to do my homework last night but I just couldn't be bothered."
"Wanna go to dinner?" "I can't be bothered."
It doesn't have the same meaning as it would in the States. It basically is used in reference to something you probably ought to do, but you don't and you don't really care that you have no good reason not to do it. You shrug off the entire guilt complex associated with neglecting to do something you ought to.
Example: I should say more on this blog post but I can't be bothered.
Speakers
Did you know Grace and I went to see the Philip Zimbardo speak last Monday? Well, we did. Also, Greenwhich is apparently spelled Greenwich.
Zimbardo - what a name. I keep wanting to write "The Great Zimbardo," and I just did. It's like the name of a circus ring leader, or maybe a slightly evil magician.
Anyway, we saw him. He's the Stanford psychology professor who ran the infamous Stanford Prison experiments back in the 70's. He was also an expert witness for one of the Abu Ghraib prison guards, arguing that the man's actions were the product of the terrible environment he was in, and it would have happened to almost anyone in that place. He's written a book called, "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil," and he gave a two hour lecture/presentation on Monday as part of the promotional tour for the book.
Thursday we're off to see another speaker, this one with a much less exciting name, Rupert Smith. Still, I'm excited - he was "Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe" during the Kosovo bombing campaign. Is there a cooler title? His talk is all about how we're in a new paradigm of war, and that's why all the great industrial states keep failing to achieve their goals in war (America in Vietnam/Afghanistan/Iraq, Russia in Chechnya/Afghanistan, France in Vietnam/Algeria, etc.). I read his book on the topic, so I am pumped.
Zimbardo - what a name. I keep wanting to write "The Great Zimbardo," and I just did. It's like the name of a circus ring leader, or maybe a slightly evil magician.
Anyway, we saw him. He's the Stanford psychology professor who ran the infamous Stanford Prison experiments back in the 70's. He was also an expert witness for one of the Abu Ghraib prison guards, arguing that the man's actions were the product of the terrible environment he was in, and it would have happened to almost anyone in that place. He's written a book called, "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil," and he gave a two hour lecture/presentation on Monday as part of the promotional tour for the book.
Thursday we're off to see another speaker, this one with a much less exciting name, Rupert Smith. Still, I'm excited - he was "Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe" during the Kosovo bombing campaign. Is there a cooler title? His talk is all about how we're in a new paradigm of war, and that's why all the great industrial states keep failing to achieve their goals in war (America in Vietnam/Afghanistan/Iraq, Russia in Chechnya/Afghanistan, France in Vietnam/Algeria, etc.). I read his book on the topic, so I am pumped.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Greenwhich
So, Grace and I went down to Grenwhich on Sunday, home of the Prime Meridian and Greenwhich Standard Mean time. We went with my London relatives, who recommended it highly.
We had to get up painfully early to catch the train and we arrived in London around 9:15 am. We were trying to meet my relatives at the Tate Modern so we took the tube down to the nearest stop, across the Thames at St. Paul's Cathedral. As we walked down to the Millenium bridge we started seeing people in T-Shirts with some TV station on them. And cameras. And lots of people inflating those giant rubber balls you sit and bounce on (while holding onto a handle). All these giant rubber balls were gold and people were standing in line and signing a petition or something to get them. We also saw TV cameras.
As we got onto the bridge we stepped into a strange world. People on top of bouncy gold balls had taken up the entire bridge, from one end to the other. There wasn't a lot of room to move through. As we got to the middle of the bridge one or two people began telling us to stop, but Grace ignored them and I followed. By the time we reached the other side of the bridge we heard over a loudspeaker an announcement to all the bridge bouncers. Apparently they were setting some kind of bizarre world record courtesy of the TV station. Whatever. We found my relatives on the other side of the bridge and took the long walk down to the Tower of London.
We were going to the Tower to meet up with a tour group that would then take a boat down the Thames to Greenwhich, a town or something that's not really distinct from Greater London. We walked about between half an hour and an hour, and by then we were beginning to feel the sun. It was the hottest and clearest day I've seen yet in England. The sun just beat down on us relentlessly all day from up in the completely cloudless sky. I was actually worried about getting a sunburn.
So, we met up with the tour and walked down to the boat, learning a little about Roman London, William the Conquerer and so forth before getting on board and setting sail. Naturally, since the weather was so nice we sat on the top deck with no roof and a bird dropped a poop that somehow managed to hit Grace, one of my relatives and me in one go.
The rest of the trip was nice but so bright. There was an almost there headache all day. An old captain type person gave us a tour on the way. We learned that wharf got it's spelling from Ware House on A River Front(!). We learned about pubs, saw one where Charlie Dickens wrote Great Expectations (it's the Grapes, by the way). We saw lots of new luxury condominiums, one built to look like a sailboat(!). There was one point when we passed a luxury condo and there were some elderly people standing on the balcony and they waved. The announcer said, "They must have a couple of bob to live there," sort of like he resented them.
We made it down to Greenwhich and disembarked. We still had some touring to do though. Greenwhich has, among its myriad attractions, the Royal Naval Academy buildings, an old Observatory, the Naval Museum, a former house of the Queen (which now houses an art collection), the highest hill in London (a staggering 183 feet above sea level!), and markets.
The hill was a really idyllic scene. It's in a big grassy park with one or two trails going up it and on the top is a whimsical structure, the old observatory (formerly the best observatory in England, I think). On top this observatory there's a ten foot tall pole. A giant red ball goes up this pole at five minutes to 1 and then drops at 1 o'clock sharp. It has done this once every 24 hours since the 1800s so the sailors can set their clocks properly. The weather got bad one day though and the ball came off and rolled down the hill and now it doesn't fit so nicely, so on hot days it gets swollen at the wrong parts and doesn't work. Oops.
Anyway, the hill is idyllic with this Seussical building with a giant red ball and everything. Coating the hill are hundreds of people on blankets, sunbathing and tossing frisbees or "vortex" footballs around. It reminded me of the national mall only with nicer grass, more trees for shade and a hill with a nice view (one of the best in London).
We climbed the hill after lunch. We had lunch in the market and we were sitting on plastic chairs and I was leaning back in mine and the leg busted and I fell over. So, two embarrasments, getting pooped on by a bird and falling over in a public place.
But yes, we went up the hill and saw London spread out in it's sprawl. The city is so big. It just goes and goes. The tallest buildings are on Canary Wharf, which we passed on the way to Greenwhich. It's called Manhattan on the Thames, because there are five or six "sky scrapers" there, the only ones in London. The tallest building in England is there, some whopping 38 stories or so (higest building in Ireland - 8 stories).
From on top the hill we could also see the Millenium dome, a gigantic white dome with a hideous crown of jutting supports. They make it look like it's a permanent construction site. Apparently it's one of the only man made structures visible from space, and it is one of the first things you notice if you look at London with google earth.
While on top the hill Grace and I went over to see the Prime Meridian and get a picture straddling the Eastern and Western Hemisphere. We had to wait in the line twice because the first time someone took our picture he didn't include the meridian, just Grace and I from the torso up. Idiot!
Why is Greenwhich the seat of TIME ITSELF, you ask? Apparently just because they really wanted it and they argued well at a big conference in DC to establish world time. Oxford still feels slighted and keeps it's own time, which is five minutes different. Tools.
So we went down to the Queen's old house and looked at the Navy's art collection, which, surprise surprise, features lots and lots of ships, at least half of them on stormy seas. By now we were totally exhausted with the walking and the sun so we cooled off in the Naval museum cafe and checked out some exhibits there as well (all admission is free).
Afterwards we headed off. There's a pedestrian tunnel at Greenwhich that goes all the way under the Thames river so we took that (it was, as you can guess, a very long tunnel. You couldn't see either end when you were in the middle). We then took a train to Canary Wharf, were our relatives are thinking of moving.
Canary wharf is completely different from the rest of London. My relatives think it feels like America but that's not really it. It just doesn't feel like Britain. It feels like any other clean, brand new, high rise and shopping district. There are wide open expanses of that nice sand colored pavement, tons of high end chains, lots of nice, new aparments. There's not a lot of greenery and the little there is has been brought in to add some cheer, though it's confined to little hexagonal garden-parks or running down the middle of two way major streets. It's sort of the post globalization planned city. It reminds me a lot of the design aesthetic of somewhere like Jordan Creek Mall, only applied to everything.
I make it sound drab and soulless, but my relatives liked it a lot. It is bright, safe and nice. As they put it, they would take sterile over dirty. And it does have lovely views of the Thames.
We walked through here looking for a waterfront pub, but everyone in the district had the same idea and no seats were available. Eventually we ended up at a restaurant instead, but the cold peroni beers were just the right thing to end the day on. We parted and barely caught the train to Cambridge.
We had to get up painfully early to catch the train and we arrived in London around 9:15 am. We were trying to meet my relatives at the Tate Modern so we took the tube down to the nearest stop, across the Thames at St. Paul's Cathedral. As we walked down to the Millenium bridge we started seeing people in T-Shirts with some TV station on them. And cameras. And lots of people inflating those giant rubber balls you sit and bounce on (while holding onto a handle). All these giant rubber balls were gold and people were standing in line and signing a petition or something to get them. We also saw TV cameras.
As we got onto the bridge we stepped into a strange world. People on top of bouncy gold balls had taken up the entire bridge, from one end to the other. There wasn't a lot of room to move through. As we got to the middle of the bridge one or two people began telling us to stop, but Grace ignored them and I followed. By the time we reached the other side of the bridge we heard over a loudspeaker an announcement to all the bridge bouncers. Apparently they were setting some kind of bizarre world record courtesy of the TV station. Whatever. We found my relatives on the other side of the bridge and took the long walk down to the Tower of London.
We were going to the Tower to meet up with a tour group that would then take a boat down the Thames to Greenwhich, a town or something that's not really distinct from Greater London. We walked about between half an hour and an hour, and by then we were beginning to feel the sun. It was the hottest and clearest day I've seen yet in England. The sun just beat down on us relentlessly all day from up in the completely cloudless sky. I was actually worried about getting a sunburn.
So, we met up with the tour and walked down to the boat, learning a little about Roman London, William the Conquerer and so forth before getting on board and setting sail. Naturally, since the weather was so nice we sat on the top deck with no roof and a bird dropped a poop that somehow managed to hit Grace, one of my relatives and me in one go.
The rest of the trip was nice but so bright. There was an almost there headache all day. An old captain type person gave us a tour on the way. We learned that wharf got it's spelling from Ware House on A River Front(!). We learned about pubs, saw one where Charlie Dickens wrote Great Expectations (it's the Grapes, by the way). We saw lots of new luxury condominiums, one built to look like a sailboat(!). There was one point when we passed a luxury condo and there were some elderly people standing on the balcony and they waved. The announcer said, "They must have a couple of bob to live there," sort of like he resented them.
We made it down to Greenwhich and disembarked. We still had some touring to do though. Greenwhich has, among its myriad attractions, the Royal Naval Academy buildings, an old Observatory, the Naval Museum, a former house of the Queen (which now houses an art collection), the highest hill in London (a staggering 183 feet above sea level!), and markets.
The hill was a really idyllic scene. It's in a big grassy park with one or two trails going up it and on the top is a whimsical structure, the old observatory (formerly the best observatory in England, I think). On top this observatory there's a ten foot tall pole. A giant red ball goes up this pole at five minutes to 1 and then drops at 1 o'clock sharp. It has done this once every 24 hours since the 1800s so the sailors can set their clocks properly. The weather got bad one day though and the ball came off and rolled down the hill and now it doesn't fit so nicely, so on hot days it gets swollen at the wrong parts and doesn't work. Oops.
Anyway, the hill is idyllic with this Seussical building with a giant red ball and everything. Coating the hill are hundreds of people on blankets, sunbathing and tossing frisbees or "vortex" footballs around. It reminded me of the national mall only with nicer grass, more trees for shade and a hill with a nice view (one of the best in London).
We climbed the hill after lunch. We had lunch in the market and we were sitting on plastic chairs and I was leaning back in mine and the leg busted and I fell over. So, two embarrasments, getting pooped on by a bird and falling over in a public place.
But yes, we went up the hill and saw London spread out in it's sprawl. The city is so big. It just goes and goes. The tallest buildings are on Canary Wharf, which we passed on the way to Greenwhich. It's called Manhattan on the Thames, because there are five or six "sky scrapers" there, the only ones in London. The tallest building in England is there, some whopping 38 stories or so (higest building in Ireland - 8 stories).
From on top the hill we could also see the Millenium dome, a gigantic white dome with a hideous crown of jutting supports. They make it look like it's a permanent construction site. Apparently it's one of the only man made structures visible from space, and it is one of the first things you notice if you look at London with google earth.
While on top the hill Grace and I went over to see the Prime Meridian and get a picture straddling the Eastern and Western Hemisphere. We had to wait in the line twice because the first time someone took our picture he didn't include the meridian, just Grace and I from the torso up. Idiot!
Why is Greenwhich the seat of TIME ITSELF, you ask? Apparently just because they really wanted it and they argued well at a big conference in DC to establish world time. Oxford still feels slighted and keeps it's own time, which is five minutes different. Tools.
So we went down to the Queen's old house and looked at the Navy's art collection, which, surprise surprise, features lots and lots of ships, at least half of them on stormy seas. By now we were totally exhausted with the walking and the sun so we cooled off in the Naval museum cafe and checked out some exhibits there as well (all admission is free).
Afterwards we headed off. There's a pedestrian tunnel at Greenwhich that goes all the way under the Thames river so we took that (it was, as you can guess, a very long tunnel. You couldn't see either end when you were in the middle). We then took a train to Canary Wharf, were our relatives are thinking of moving.
Canary wharf is completely different from the rest of London. My relatives think it feels like America but that's not really it. It just doesn't feel like Britain. It feels like any other clean, brand new, high rise and shopping district. There are wide open expanses of that nice sand colored pavement, tons of high end chains, lots of nice, new aparments. There's not a lot of greenery and the little there is has been brought in to add some cheer, though it's confined to little hexagonal garden-parks or running down the middle of two way major streets. It's sort of the post globalization planned city. It reminds me a lot of the design aesthetic of somewhere like Jordan Creek Mall, only applied to everything.
I make it sound drab and soulless, but my relatives liked it a lot. It is bright, safe and nice. As they put it, they would take sterile over dirty. And it does have lovely views of the Thames.
We walked through here looking for a waterfront pub, but everyone in the district had the same idea and no seats were available. Eventually we ended up at a restaurant instead, but the cold peroni beers were just the right thing to end the day on. We parted and barely caught the train to Cambridge.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
English Money and Weather
The English like to go for walks in the countryside. They do it today, they did it in Jane Austen's day. A walk around the garden is a lovely activity. Why?
The answer, I think, is that the British really appreciate good weather, because it is so rare. They just want to be out in it. And that, I think, is one reason long walks in the country are so important that you can legally cut across people's property if a path goes through it.
Second point of the day. In America, 50% of the populace thinks the world is less than 10,000 years old and that man was created pretty much as he is today. In the UK, Charles Darwin is on the back of the £10 note. And Adam Smith (father of economics!) is on the back of the £20 note. How sweet is that.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
So many updates
Whew! It's late and I haven't had a moment to sit down and write. Hopefully there'll be time to come back and flesh things out a little, but for now, here are some facts about the last week:
1) A friend from Washington DC came to town on Wednesday and we showed him around. There were ancient colleges, pub quizes and punting until...
2) Friday, when we departed for Bournemouth to spend Easter with Grace's relatives down there. We spent the weekend with the kids and family, enjoying the warm weather (and playing Cricket in the garden!) before returning to Cambridge on Monday.
3) Summer plans are getting very set all in a rush. It looks like Grace and I are going to India for about two months. Our time there will be divided between visiting relatives (there's a wedding!), sight seeing and possibly teaching english at an orphanage. There's even a scholarship for UK University students to visit India that I'm applying for!
4) We'll probably be back in the USA from Aug. 11th to September 10th, when class starts again.
5) I removed my computer hard drive, received a special enclosure from the states and tried to recover my data. Failure! It's gone!
Like I said, there's plenty that could be said about most of those things. But I don't feel right sitting down and drafting long posts before I finish my assigned essay up. This weekend we're planning a possible double feature of a trip to Hampton Court and a walking tour of Cambridge. We feel like losers when people come to visit and we can't give them the proper history of the place.
1) A friend from Washington DC came to town on Wednesday and we showed him around. There were ancient colleges, pub quizes and punting until...
2) Friday, when we departed for Bournemouth to spend Easter with Grace's relatives down there. We spent the weekend with the kids and family, enjoying the warm weather (and playing Cricket in the garden!) before returning to Cambridge on Monday.
3) Summer plans are getting very set all in a rush. It looks like Grace and I are going to India for about two months. Our time there will be divided between visiting relatives (there's a wedding!), sight seeing and possibly teaching english at an orphanage. There's even a scholarship for UK University students to visit India that I'm applying for!
4) We'll probably be back in the USA from Aug. 11th to September 10th, when class starts again.
5) I removed my computer hard drive, received a special enclosure from the states and tried to recover my data. Failure! It's gone!
Like I said, there's plenty that could be said about most of those things. But I don't feel right sitting down and drafting long posts before I finish my assigned essay up. This weekend we're planning a possible double feature of a trip to Hampton Court and a walking tour of Cambridge. We feel like losers when people come to visit and we can't give them the proper history of the place.
Monday, April 02, 2007
London AGAIN
Do we ever stop going to London on the weekend? So old. But, amazingly, there's always new stuff to see.
We've been meaning to go down for the last few weekends to visit our relatives and we didn't have any other plans this weekend because we thought it was Easter weekend until a few days ago (we seriously did - we were like, "Grace's calendar that she bought in Paris for cheap must have been on sale because it's inaccurate and lists holidays at the wrong time." It wasn't until I googled "Easter 2007" that we learned the real date.). For the real Easter (which is definitely next weekend) we're going to Bournemouth to be with Grace's relatives.
Anway, another one of our friends was also in London this weekend visiting his girlfriend, so we had twice the people to see.
We overslept and still, amazingly, caught the 9:30 train to London (I had to bike as fast as I could to stand in line for tickets and then we got on 30 seconds before it left). In London we dropped out stuff off at my relatives, played with the baby and headed over to the Theatre district to grab lunch, meet our friends and try to get tickets to the Blue Man Group. The weather was the nicest it's been yet in London, really sunny and warm.
So Grace and I grabbed lunch at this Indian deli where the guy behind the counter was delighted to see us. Seriously, it was like serving customers just made his day. We knew it was a good choice because the Scissor Sisters' song "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" was playing. Grace was more than tapping her foot to that infectious song and the guy behind the counter said, "Yes, dance, why not? It's sunny!" with a big smile on his face. So things were off with a bang.
We were early so we went in to see about cheap walk up tickets to the Blue Man Group. We couldn't get the student discount because we didn't have ISIC or NUS student identity cards, but there were some 20 pound tickets available. Unfortunately there were only 2 available for the matinee and we couldn't really go at any other time. We told him we would think about it. We came back and asked about the nine o'clock show, but there were only expensive tickets available. So we left. Then we came back and asked about Sunday's show, but again, no luck. Our friends arrived and we went back in one more time to think about going to the 6 o'clock show. We really didn't want to because that was the only time we could see a lot of our relatives. Anyway, apparently our willingness to walk away forced the ticket guy into a tight spot because he called us back with an offer to sell us four expensive seats to the matinee for the 20 pound price. We jumped on the deal.
With the show not starting for two hours we went on a walk around covent garden in the nice weather. The area is not a garden really but a big, open air pedestrian mall with lots of performers. Living statues were all over. One poor guy covered in bronze paint was suppossed to be a frightening murderer or something - he had a creepy face and he would freeze in a position like he was gesturing you to come closer. If you did, he would reveal a bronze painted plastic butcher knife. Anyway, a pack of kids were trying to take his knife but he managed to ignore them and keep his knife close I think. There were other performers on the guitar or performing skits. One was hilarious.
We saw this huge crowd of people around a wide open circle. Inside this circle a performer was pretending to throw knives at a blindfolded volunteer. The volunteer was against a big foam wall and he had some kind of bucket over his head. This volunteer didn't realize then that the knife-thrower had an assistant (another audience volunteer) who would stand behind the victim's back and stab knifes into the foam wall as the performer pretended to throw knives. So the audience knew what was going on, but when the guy took the bucket off his head he saw that he was surrounded by knives which had "missed" him by inches.
Anyway, before the final throw, which was to be between the victim's legs, the performer, knife in hand, got a big speech going about how he needed the audiences support for this last trick and if he didn't get it, well, he turned around in a flash and pointed his knife straight at a little girl sitting in her mothers lap: he would kill them!
The little girl broke out into tears and didn't stop crying for several minutes! The knife-thrower ignored her.
Anyway, we got some ice cream, some tea, a pint and then it was time for the show. I've seen Blue Man Group in New York when I was maybe 14, and again with my family a few years ago. It was the same bizarre show as always with percussion and deadpan humor and blacklights and a sea of toilet paper. Unfortunately all the jokes were kind of old for me, but everyone else really liked it.
We went for a long walk after this, through Trafalgar square, along the bank of the Thames, next to the London Eye, across from the Parliament building. More living statues, more tricks. Who are these living statues who consent to being covered from head to toe in metallic paint again and again? What kind of routine do they have? How long does that stuff take to put on and take off? What's the ride into work and the ride home like? How do people break into that scene? We speculate that the minor leagues of the living statue circuit is Cambridge. We've recognized one guy, but most of our street performers were not as elaborate as the ones in London. Not as nice props or costume.
We parted after that and Grace and I went to meet our relatives. We had dinner with them and then hung out with them the rest of the night.
We got up early the next day and attended church with them. It was our first UK mass and it was a bit depressing. The cathedral was mostly empty, the people were mostly old, the reading was slow and without energy, there was no singing. I get the sense that Christianity is merely holding on in Europe whereas it is a living, vibrant force to be reckoned with in the States. Only some 6% of Christians in the UK regularly attend church.
Later that day we headed over to the Royal Academy of Arts where one of my relatives works. Attending with someone who works there was the greatest. She let us into the member's only cafe, with it's lush couches and statuary. We got 50% off the museum food, bringing it back to normal prices. And, best of all, we got into the main exhibit for free and with those little headphone audio tours.
The Royal Academy doesn't have much of a permanent collection and instead puts on rotating collections from around the world. We were there for something called "Citizens and Kings," a series of portraits from between the 1600s and the 1800s. We recognized a portrait of Napolean on loan from the National Gallery of Art in DC and a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington (surely from some nice US museum). They also had the famous painting of Marat murdered in his bathtub. Without context the painting is a chilling visage of death and murder. But the audio guide told us Marat was in the tub because he used to work there all the time, since the water soothed his chronically skin condition. He saw lots of visitors in the tub and that's how someone got in to murder him. Furthermore he was murdered by a moderate of the French Revolution because he was too extreme in his application of the guillotine, one of the chief architects of the reign of terror. Anyway, it's different to know that the dead guy in the tub was kind of a jerk.
We spent Sunday afternoon with our friends again at Spitalfield Market. This was really cool and I don't think we ever would have found it on our own or known how cool it would be from a guidebook. It was just an enormous, gigantic indoor market. It wasn't a place for tourists either - it specialized in the sort of artisan, hand crafted, independent things you might actually want. Grace bought a handmade dress, for instance. You could also get food, purses, clothes, decorations, music, houseware, fur rugs etc. The place was absolutely crammed with booths, overflowing with them. And people were everywhere, forcing you to move in little people trains through the crowded aisles. It was a great atmoesphere though and all the things being sold were actually nice, which isn't exactly the case in Cambridge's market square. We spent the better part of two hours there and most of that time was just spent walking along without stopping to look too hard at anything.
After that we walked along brick lane with it's Asian grocery stores (Bangla-city supermarket) and Halal food. Here there were not booths but people with crap on the street. Half the time it looked like they were selling their old clothes. Here was was were you could get pirate dvds and porno. One of our friends said you usually could come here to buy back your bike after it was stolen. Here there were women in the full veil, which is causing so much debate in the country. We didn't get very far before things started closing up - it was already four o'clock.
We parted ways and went home to a mountain of dirty dishes. I have to do them presently.
We've been meaning to go down for the last few weekends to visit our relatives and we didn't have any other plans this weekend because we thought it was Easter weekend until a few days ago (we seriously did - we were like, "Grace's calendar that she bought in Paris for cheap must have been on sale because it's inaccurate and lists holidays at the wrong time." It wasn't until I googled "Easter 2007" that we learned the real date.). For the real Easter (which is definitely next weekend) we're going to Bournemouth to be with Grace's relatives.
Anway, another one of our friends was also in London this weekend visiting his girlfriend, so we had twice the people to see.
We overslept and still, amazingly, caught the 9:30 train to London (I had to bike as fast as I could to stand in line for tickets and then we got on 30 seconds before it left). In London we dropped out stuff off at my relatives, played with the baby and headed over to the Theatre district to grab lunch, meet our friends and try to get tickets to the Blue Man Group. The weather was the nicest it's been yet in London, really sunny and warm.
So Grace and I grabbed lunch at this Indian deli where the guy behind the counter was delighted to see us. Seriously, it was like serving customers just made his day. We knew it was a good choice because the Scissor Sisters' song "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" was playing. Grace was more than tapping her foot to that infectious song and the guy behind the counter said, "Yes, dance, why not? It's sunny!" with a big smile on his face. So things were off with a bang.
We were early so we went in to see about cheap walk up tickets to the Blue Man Group. We couldn't get the student discount because we didn't have ISIC or NUS student identity cards, but there were some 20 pound tickets available. Unfortunately there were only 2 available for the matinee and we couldn't really go at any other time. We told him we would think about it. We came back and asked about the nine o'clock show, but there were only expensive tickets available. So we left. Then we came back and asked about Sunday's show, but again, no luck. Our friends arrived and we went back in one more time to think about going to the 6 o'clock show. We really didn't want to because that was the only time we could see a lot of our relatives. Anyway, apparently our willingness to walk away forced the ticket guy into a tight spot because he called us back with an offer to sell us four expensive seats to the matinee for the 20 pound price. We jumped on the deal.
With the show not starting for two hours we went on a walk around covent garden in the nice weather. The area is not a garden really but a big, open air pedestrian mall with lots of performers. Living statues were all over. One poor guy covered in bronze paint was suppossed to be a frightening murderer or something - he had a creepy face and he would freeze in a position like he was gesturing you to come closer. If you did, he would reveal a bronze painted plastic butcher knife. Anyway, a pack of kids were trying to take his knife but he managed to ignore them and keep his knife close I think. There were other performers on the guitar or performing skits. One was hilarious.
We saw this huge crowd of people around a wide open circle. Inside this circle a performer was pretending to throw knives at a blindfolded volunteer. The volunteer was against a big foam wall and he had some kind of bucket over his head. This volunteer didn't realize then that the knife-thrower had an assistant (another audience volunteer) who would stand behind the victim's back and stab knifes into the foam wall as the performer pretended to throw knives. So the audience knew what was going on, but when the guy took the bucket off his head he saw that he was surrounded by knives which had "missed" him by inches.
Anyway, before the final throw, which was to be between the victim's legs, the performer, knife in hand, got a big speech going about how he needed the audiences support for this last trick and if he didn't get it, well, he turned around in a flash and pointed his knife straight at a little girl sitting in her mothers lap: he would kill them!
The little girl broke out into tears and didn't stop crying for several minutes! The knife-thrower ignored her.
Anyway, we got some ice cream, some tea, a pint and then it was time for the show. I've seen Blue Man Group in New York when I was maybe 14, and again with my family a few years ago. It was the same bizarre show as always with percussion and deadpan humor and blacklights and a sea of toilet paper. Unfortunately all the jokes were kind of old for me, but everyone else really liked it.
We went for a long walk after this, through Trafalgar square, along the bank of the Thames, next to the London Eye, across from the Parliament building. More living statues, more tricks. Who are these living statues who consent to being covered from head to toe in metallic paint again and again? What kind of routine do they have? How long does that stuff take to put on and take off? What's the ride into work and the ride home like? How do people break into that scene? We speculate that the minor leagues of the living statue circuit is Cambridge. We've recognized one guy, but most of our street performers were not as elaborate as the ones in London. Not as nice props or costume.
We parted after that and Grace and I went to meet our relatives. We had dinner with them and then hung out with them the rest of the night.
We got up early the next day and attended church with them. It was our first UK mass and it was a bit depressing. The cathedral was mostly empty, the people were mostly old, the reading was slow and without energy, there was no singing. I get the sense that Christianity is merely holding on in Europe whereas it is a living, vibrant force to be reckoned with in the States. Only some 6% of Christians in the UK regularly attend church.
Later that day we headed over to the Royal Academy of Arts where one of my relatives works. Attending with someone who works there was the greatest. She let us into the member's only cafe, with it's lush couches and statuary. We got 50% off the museum food, bringing it back to normal prices. And, best of all, we got into the main exhibit for free and with those little headphone audio tours.
The Royal Academy doesn't have much of a permanent collection and instead puts on rotating collections from around the world. We were there for something called "Citizens and Kings," a series of portraits from between the 1600s and the 1800s. We recognized a portrait of Napolean on loan from the National Gallery of Art in DC and a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington (surely from some nice US museum). They also had the famous painting of Marat murdered in his bathtub. Without context the painting is a chilling visage of death and murder. But the audio guide told us Marat was in the tub because he used to work there all the time, since the water soothed his chronically skin condition. He saw lots of visitors in the tub and that's how someone got in to murder him. Furthermore he was murdered by a moderate of the French Revolution because he was too extreme in his application of the guillotine, one of the chief architects of the reign of terror. Anyway, it's different to know that the dead guy in the tub was kind of a jerk.
We spent Sunday afternoon with our friends again at Spitalfield Market. This was really cool and I don't think we ever would have found it on our own or known how cool it would be from a guidebook. It was just an enormous, gigantic indoor market. It wasn't a place for tourists either - it specialized in the sort of artisan, hand crafted, independent things you might actually want. Grace bought a handmade dress, for instance. You could also get food, purses, clothes, decorations, music, houseware, fur rugs etc. The place was absolutely crammed with booths, overflowing with them. And people were everywhere, forcing you to move in little people trains through the crowded aisles. It was a great atmoesphere though and all the things being sold were actually nice, which isn't exactly the case in Cambridge's market square. We spent the better part of two hours there and most of that time was just spent walking along without stopping to look too hard at anything.
After that we walked along brick lane with it's Asian grocery stores (Bangla-city supermarket) and Halal food. Here there were not booths but people with crap on the street. Half the time it looked like they were selling their old clothes. Here was was were you could get pirate dvds and porno. One of our friends said you usually could come here to buy back your bike after it was stolen. Here there were women in the full veil, which is causing so much debate in the country. We didn't get very far before things started closing up - it was already four o'clock.
We parted ways and went home to a mountain of dirty dishes. I have to do them presently.
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