Boo

As someone who has baby-sat since she was twelve (well, baby-sat other kids since she was twelve, I've been baby-sitting my sisters since I was about eight), it's always amazing to watch kids grow up in front of your eyes. The one that I've been the closest to lately is Miss Bailie. I baby-sat her when she was really little (we were talking about it yesterday and I've known her since she was 4) and for the last three years, I've been able to watch her grow, mature, change, figure out who she is and what she wants to be. Sometimes, like all little sisters, she drives me crazy but other times, she is so much fun to hang out with. I feel really lucky to have been witness to her growth and change, from little kid begging me to watch Jurassic Park, to budding artist that uses my legs as a canvas, to pretending that we're sisters when ordering dinner at Disneyland, to loving Empire Records because she wants to work at a record store, to playing with crazy wigs and loving anime, to learning piano and guitar and loving choir and singing, to making it through some really really rough times, to being a caring kid who thinks about others. I cannot wait to see where life will continue to take her!

Miles and Miles and Miles

I had gotten all of my work done so that I was able to show Valerie around both London and Oxford over a two-day stretch. She had done a lot of museums and indoor things in Paris, Prague and Budapest so she said she was fine to just wander outside. I never need to be asked twice to wander about London so I came up with a suitable route that would take us back some of the highlights of London. Here's what we hit up, in route order:
-Harrods
-Green Park
-Buckingham Palace
-St. James' Park
-Westminster Abbey
-Houses of Parliament
-Horse Guard Palace (both the front and back- first time for me seeing the Olympic Volleyball courts)
-Scotland Yard
-Trafalgar Square
-National Portrait Gallery (I asked to pop in there to see the 1900s gallery- I ended up seeing the portraits of Mosley and Nancy Mitford, as well as a few other folks I'm studying. And we also saw a great exhibit of Native American portraits)
-Covent Garden
-the Strand and Fleet Street
-the Old Bailey
-the City of London
-St. Paul's Cathedral
-Guildhall
-Museum of London (it's finally completely re-done and SO wonderful, plsu there was a fabulous exhbit on Michael Caine)
-The London Wall
-Tower of London
-Tower Bridge
-Jack the Ripper tour

For this last one, we met up with Niki, grabbed some dinner and then met the group in front of the Tower Hill tube stop. The tour was led by Molly, the same lady that led the tour Shiri and I were on years ago. She was still wonderful. I know that Niki and Val really enjoyed the tour and I was proud of myself for still remembering all 5 of the victims in order. I just wished it had been darker- it's much more exciting when it's dark and there are creepy alleyways to walk down. The night finished off at a local pub in the East End that had delicious Aspall and some super cheesy garlic bread.


The second day, we hit up Oxford. It was not as sunny as it was when I was there with Niki but it was still warm and, Oxford could look gorgeous even in the rain. Again, here's what we hit up.

-Carfax and the old Roman intersection
-ChristChurch (Val paid to go inside and I walked around the meadow to the High Street so I could wait for her in Oriel Square)
-Magdalen College
-Cowley Roundabout (which basically means the BALLROOM!)
-Teddy Hall
-The Bod Magic Exhibit
-the Sheldonian Theatre
-Covered Market for lunch (and of course shopping about, enjoying the cakes and getting some Ben's Cookies)
-Cornmarket
-the Eagle and Child (and the Oxfam bookstore)
-Uncle Pitt's House of Weird
-Walton Street (to get some coffee and rest our tired feet for a little bit)
-Jericho
-the canal path, all the way up past the old house to the pub
-St. Peter's Church near Godstow Road
-both Woodstock and Banbury Road
-Summertown all the way down to city center again
-the Turf Tavern for dinner

We literally walked all around Oxford and it was beautiful. Already can't wait to go back!

And let's be honest, at this point, I could totally be mistaken for a "local". I didn't have to use a map ONCE both days. Who wants to give me a visa?

TKAMB

The first time I ever read it was when I was in 5th grade. I'm not sure I got all of it. When I was in 7th grade, I came back to visit my 5th grade teacher and while helping her organize bookshelves, she said if a book was ripping, I could have it. So I took the ripping copy and gave it a home on my shelf. I read it again a few more times and slowly started to understand more and more. In 9th grade, we read it in class and I gained a deeper understanding of the symbolism, allusions, geography, historical relevance. It was the first time I watched the movie, even as a fourteen-year-old, giggled at how goofy Dill was, how idealistic Jem was, and how amazingly wonderful in every way, shape, and form, Gregory Peck was.

Over the years, I read the book again and again. The book started to fall apart, the spine broke apart, leaving it in two nearly attached pieces. The front cover and the first several pages of dedications and title pages came off and I made sure to read much more carefully to make sure nothing else tore off. The insides are marked up with highlights and underlines, doodles and notes in the margins. At this point, you can tell me a part and I can find it within five seconds. It is hands down my favorite book in the whole wide world.

While in London, I found out that the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre was staging a production of TKAMB and there was the added bonus of Robert Sean Leonard performing the role of Atticus. How could I not at least investigate tickets? The online store was being fussy so I took an afternoon one day and walked over to the box office. It was lucky I did because I ended up getting the very last ticket for my last day in London during the matinee performance. Perfection.

The production was incredibly unique. The stage was a large open area with no background and no curtain. The show began with the actor scattered throughout the audience, standing up and reading lines from the first few paragraphs of the actual novel. They would essentially form the narrators of the story, "reading" from their copies of the book in their normal accents. As their characters, they would put on a very costume pieces and speak in the typical Southern accent befitting Maycomb Alabama. When not playing a character or narrating, the actors would sit on the sides of the stage, observing the action. The three children playing Scout, Jem, and Dill were adorable. I'm not posting any pictures because I can't find any of my Scout and the ones I found show the girl wearing a terrible wig so there you have it. Scout was truly adorable- she was so young that her accent was this hybrid Southern/British accent but she was so innocent and loving and loveable and precocious and pugnacious at the same time. I just loved her.

And then there was RSL. He was perfection. My favorite line in the whole novel is "Thank you, Arthur. Thank you for my children." He gave me shivers saying that, which is a true sign of amazingness. I have nothing bad to say about him.

I'm so grateful that I was able to take the opportunity to see this incredible show. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that it's given me a whole new appreciation of the original novel.

And here are some pictures that I took sneakily!

A Very English Weekend

Our last weekend in England was very much the definition of an English weekend. On Saturday morning, Sarah met me and Niki at the Tube stop and we headed out on the Circle Line to get to Borough Market. Unfortunately, a train was stuck on the tracks so we got off at Westminster, crossed over the bridge to the London Eye and walked. It was the same trail that Shiri and I had walked on our first day in London several years before and we walked past the same book market we had seen last time. We also passed the Globe, the Millennium Bridge, the Tate Modern, St. Paul's, the London Bridge and Southwark Cathedral before arriving at Borough Market. We picked up some lattes at Monmouth Coffee, which were delicious, and then headed into the market to enjoy the sights, smells, and sounds. In the end, we decided to pick up some foccacia bread, cheese, salami, and grapes for lunch and ate with a beautiful view of the Tower of London and the Thames. The food was delicious and the dessert we picked up afterwards was nothing to be snide about either.

From Borough Market, we headed up to Hyde Park. I had read in the incredibly highbrow "Metro" paper that there was an IF Rally in the park to show support for the fight to end hunger around the world, especially in light of the G8 Conference the following week in Ireland. I was already familiar with IF and the Hunger Problem because of Charlie McDonnell's videos and I read on in the article to see that he would be at the rally. Natrually, I had to go to try and find him and make my sisters jealous. As you can see in the picture below, I did. He was lovely- sweet, adorable, very kind, and fully supportive of making the girls jealous. Just a wonderful kid (and yes, he's a kid...)

 The videos won't embed right now so click here and here to go to the videos to learn more.

The rally was huge. There was so much support, so many great speakers including Angelique Kidjo, who sang a beautiful song, Danny Boyle, James Purefoy, this amazing man who walked from India to the UK and gave a resounding speech, Bill Gates, and more. There was a flower field where people constructed paper flowers and planted them to create a huge symbol of the IF icon. It was so great to be a part of something huge and inspirational.

On Sunday morning, Val,  Sarah, Niki and I headed up to a little Anglican Church near Regent's Park called St. Marks. It was very simple inside- and very much a little parish church. I loved the ritualistic nature, with the vicar in his long robes, little girls carrying the incense, the reading of the Word from a huge Bible and a choir. The choir was magnificent- there were only five of them but they had such amazing sound. So powerful. The funniest moment of the service was when they asked the children what they learned. A little girl was explaining about how they were making bread but couldn't bake it "because the oven was dodgy." She was hysterical. I got to speak to the vicar before leaving and he was very kind.

We grabbed some lattes at a little coffee house outside Camden Market and then hit up my favorite place in London. We could a delicious lunch (everyone got something different- I got a parma ham and pesto Italian flatbread sandwich), managing to keep everybody together in the huge throng of people. I then immediately lost the girls, when I went to go find the pub sign area. It actually ended up being a blessing. As much as I love Camden, I didn't need three hours there and wasn't there to shop (although I did end up picking up a few books at a shop, naturally...) The girl were there to explore, shop, pick up gifts, etc., so it ended up being great that they stuck together. I finished wandering the market about an hour earlier than we had planned so I sat on the end of the canal and read my first ever Colin Dexter novel. Bliss.

 

 I led the group back through the market and Regent's Park up to Primrose Hill where you get the best view ever. I love being able to point out the non-so-famous buildings that you can see from the top of the Hill. As an added bonus, there was a singing group from Hungary? Poland? Eastern Europe? We're not sure but they sang and danced and wore ethnic costumes and were all around adorable. They added a little bit of excitement to the top of the hill. The night, as all nights in England should end up, concluded with drinks and dinner at our "local", the Stanhope Arms. Perfection.