Weekend in London

Tomorrow (Monday) is a bank holiday. Weeks ago we started thinking of some trips - we're interested in visiting Bath and York eventually - but Margo had a hard time finding available rooms. We decided that Sarah and I would take an overnight in London, giving Margo some time to work on a paper for the class she's taking for her job. London is easy since I've got a monthly rail pass, and there's so much to do.

We left for London after Sarah's morning swim class. She's on the left; they're practising the arm motions of a crawl. I don't normally bring a camera to swim classes, but happened to have it for our trip, and I thought the scene was a little silly.



Margo dropped us off at the Ipswich train station afterwards. I'd brought some cards and a little chess set, thinking we'd have the normal trains with tray tables, but because of some engineering work being done, different trains were in use. Sarah asked if I'd brought my iPod, and wanted to listen to music, so we took an earbud each and I got to put on a live DJ set until her attention ran out.

I'd reserved us a family room in a Premier Travel Inn, a fairly bland chain of family-friendly hotels. We stayed in one while in Liverpool, and I remembered it as being convenient with on-site dining facilities, and besides, anything more fancy or authentic would be lost on Sarah anyway.

After checking in and relaxing a bit, I came up with a menu of activities for Sarah, and she chose a walk to nearby Regents Park, so we walked a ways down Euston Street to the park.

It's another massive park like Hyde Park. There are gardens and open areas and lots of paths. This path reminded me of the parks in Paris.



We found a play area and spent lots of time there.



Sarah persuaded me to join her on a ... uh ... spinning-arm-thingie-with-chairs. She spun it and I took some pictures.



Then I remembered I had the power of Shutter Priority and slowed things down to 1/8 of a second.



Soon afterwards, the dark skies started to empty on us a bit, so we made our way back to the hotel, grabbed my brolly, and went one block further to the same old "Pizza Express" Italian restaurant where we had our first London dinner last summer (our hotel was just blocks away from the bed and breakfast we'd first stayed in). Then it was back to our room with plenty of time to catch Doctor Who. Then, while I read and tried not to listen, Sarah watched the latest elimination show where Andrew Lloyd Webber gets viewers to choose his latest West End theatre lead ... this time for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Sarah even called Margo to discuss the evening's contestants since they usually watch it together. But afterward I was pleased to catch a new BBC documentary, The Seven Ages of Rock - the evening's theme, Art Rock, explored the early careers of Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Roxy Music, and Genesis.

Sunday morning we went downstairs to get the buffet breakfast. Then we packed, checked out, checked our one suitcase, and took the Tube to South Kensington, the Station of the Museums, where on a rainy weekend, many of the UK's families and tourists can be found. London on a weekend is hugely cosmopolitan. I heard bits of German, Russian, French, Japanese (I think) and English with Scottish and American accents. On the Tube, and in the underground tunnel from the station to the museums, I kept hearing the same two words that I'd used to entice Sarah to our next destination, the Natural History Museum: "dinosaur bones".

We arrived just before the 10am opening, and unfortunately had to endure a lengthy queue in the rain (thankfully under my umbrella), but were rewarded with our promised dinosaur bones immediately in the central hall - a Diplodicus, no less.



Looking over the map, we first decided to visit the blue whale, but unfortunately that was closed for cleaning until July. (As the signage cheekily put it, "It takes a long time to dust and clean the world's largest animal.") But we did take in marine invertebrates along the way, including an octopus and a giant squid.

Then we visited the dinosaurs. There were lots of bones and lots of very interesting displays. One highlight was the obligatory robotic T-Rex. Though I must say, this one was more sophisticated than most, with blinking eyelids and complex combinations of motion. Say cheese!



Hmmm, perhaps the flash has upset it.

Afterwards, it was about time for Sarah's feeding, so we got tea for two and treats: a brownie for the shortie and a flapjack for me. Watch the terrifying monster attack its prey.



Next we decided to see some earth science exhibits on volcanoes and earthquakes. By the end of that, Museum Fatigue had set in and we decided to head home. It was a longer trip back, there being more of a wait for trains on Sunday, and we were glad to get back home to Ipswich and an early dinner with Margo.

Sarah's Reading

Yesterday I helped Sarah get a new library card from the Suffolk Libraries. I'd already procured one for her months ago but it encountered a mysterious deformation (which may be associated with its having been kept in a trouser pocket during a laundry cycle, but I can't prove it) that rendered it unreadable by the self-help, laser-based check-in/out machines (the same ones we got to know at the Multnomah County Library).


Sarah is very proud of her card. She carried it home herself. Now she's eager to go to the library and find her own books.

This is because she is getting used to reading by herself. In the past she'd choose some library books just to look at the pictures, but now she's able to read much of them by herself.

Yard Work

I've been putting off the mowing for weeks. Our April was gorgeous and spring-like, but during our May, we received all the April showers we were supposed to get last month. I haven't uncovered my bike in two weeks until today.

So this weekend was my first chance to tame our front and back jungles. But I also went a bit further and did some weeding.

We get some of the same weeds that we used to get in our Portland yards. Like the Japanese Kudzu, that viny monstrosity that quickly climbs and covers any vegetation it can find, and if you so much as brush it, you'll get a scratch and cling-on seeds for your troubles.

But we also get some weeds that are new to our vocabulary. My favourite new enemy is the stinging nettle. I can't tell you what a nettle is, but I can tell you that the first part of the term is rather self-explanatory. My first chance to say hello to our little friend was sitting in a lounge chair on our back patio. I noticed an unusual little weed growing up between two paving stones. I set down my pint and reached over to pull it up. It wasn't very obliging, but much of it was removed.

Minutes later I slowly became aware of a minor burning sensation in the flesh between my thumb and index finger. About an hour later I noticed tiny white swelled spots in the same location, and I put two and two together.

Stinging Nettles! I'd expect something like this in Australia perhaps, where there's an abundance of flora and fauna that will gleefully kill you with minimal exertion, but not in Merry Olde England.

Another interesting tidbit I find in our yard is the odd recently-emptied seashell. I think this is because of the many football pitches behind our flat. We often see seagulls resting there. We're not too close to the sea, but close enough, apparently. I'm not sure what the attraction of a football pitch is to a seagull, but it certainly seems profound.

And another tidbit: Have you heard the latest Kate Bush album, Aerial? I got to know it in our Portland living room, and the bits where she blends her voice in with a pigeon's cooing, where there's a pattern, coo-coooo-coooo-coo-coo? One short, two longs, and two shorts? I thought she made it up, since the pigeons I'd encountered didn't sound like that. But they do over here. I hear them in our yard sometimes, with that exact pattern.