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It’s been a week since we got back. S developed a terrible cough shortly after we got back into Edmonton. I haven’t kept up with the walking post vacation (I mentioned we walked or took public transit between the majority of the tourist sites, right?) as much I’d have liked, but I’m thinking because winter is approaching I’ll require a couple of circuits around the apartment building using the stairs per day. Have to see if I have the will power keep it up.

The roommate has been out of town this week. It has been a quieter and cleaner apartment as a result. Hopefully now that he’s finally unpacked it will be easier to maintain the clean part of the equation if likely to be impossible to maintain the quiet part.

Other than that we had J and N (of the Edmonton SCA variety) over for food and Settlers. It was fun! If incredibly tiring. We’ve been behaving a bit like an old married couple between the jet lag and S’s illness.

But really there’s not so much to say except that if anyone’s hiring Electrical Engineers S would really like to hear from you. I’m going to try posting whatever vaguely interesting details may occur online at least once a week. But I really find it hard to write an interesting post when the week has been dominated by work and sick partner.

So this morning absolutely sucked. I woke up with the Migraine from hell. Took water and a couple of pills and went back to sleep. Unfortunately that didn’t quite do it. Not at all.

Eventually I managed to get my sunglasses out and just kept them on while we whispered through the packing process. We’d only been able to book a private room at the Hostel for the middle portion and for our last night (tonight) we were going to have to bunk in a shared [dorm style] room so the gear was going into Luggage storage for the day which necessitated the packing.

After that it was some food and back to the South Bank because we’d discovered something called the movieum which was closed after our ‘flight’ on the London Eye. We went back to investigate and despite the migraine it was fun. They had part of the set of star wars episode 4: the corridor of the ship Leia is captured from including the droids - we got to get our pictures taken with light sabers on the set next to the droids and have them made into postcards! Yay! Other than that, I paid to get a picture I had taken in the horror wing turned into a postcard for Scott - it looks so good I’m almost hesitant to mail it! They had a Sherlock Holmes area, 007 area, and an animation/cartoon area. They also had the Tardis and a Dalek from the 60s. The only thing missing that I’d have expected was the serious lack of Red Dwarf. Otherwise it was also interesting to learn about the trends through out the decades as well as which productions were shot where.

After that we wandered down the south bank for a bit trying to find a boat cruise down the Thames that wasn’t going to cost an arm and a leg and failed. So back onto the tube to Spitalfields market. It was quite interesting and S had his hands full keeping me from shopping the place dry. But in the end we couldn’t find the gallery of kinetic and moving art we’d been looking for and decided to head out to the next attraction. Sadly this is when I realized I was down to three more migraine pills and was going to have to ration them. It wasn’t a happy moment.

The Tower of London was awesome except that the camera batteries died and all the Tower gift shops were sold out so I’ve no pictures! S has decided that I am way too much of a history geek. : ) London Bridge was breathtaking, but after the cost of the Tower we just couldn’t bring ourselves to pay the cost of the exhibit especially with no batteries in the camera.

The tube home was a bit of a fiasco because one line was seriously delayed and then when we finally got onto one which served our stop, the stop ended up being closed so we walked back from the next closest.

We’ve now repacked for the trip, had Steak and Guinness pie with a cuppa and a pint so we’re mostly ready for the return trip to Canada. Other than not getting a cruise down the Thames and not finding Kinetica (the gallery featuring kinetic and magnet art) I’m feeling happy with our whirlwind trip. *I* could have done with a bit more shopping, but S is certainly happier for my not having done so.

We’ve agreed that we’re going to spend some time on Sunday afternoon sorting through pictures and creating an album on Facebook which I’ll duplicate elsewhere to link to here. And that’s all for the last blog post from England… Cheers!

Originally we were thinking of Paris because there wasn’t a play we wanted to watch being performed in Stratford this week, but eventually it came up that we preferred to leave Paris for another trip when we’d have more time for it. Just too many things to see too far apart in that city. Anyways….

So we caught the tube to the train this morning and arrived in Stratford before noon.

Then the touring began.

We took the bus around and I took a lot of pictures (where permitted which was not everywhere alas) which aren’t uploaded yet (surprise surprise). We saw the Birthplace, Anne Hathaway’s family home, and lots of the town in general.

The exceptionally interesting thing was at Mary Arden’s Farm (she was Shakespeare’s mother) they’re doing ‘living history’. They have a group of people (4 gents and 4 ladies) actually cleaning, eating, and maintaining the farm stead. We got lucky and caught one between groups and so he gave us a demonstration of starting a fire with a flint and steel to put it into the hearth. He also told us a bit about the construction of the bread oven they built last summer. They have a maypole and he should us the fish they’ve caught and salted. Interestingly enough they’ve a selection of hens and roosters, pigeons, falcons and other hunting birds, pigs, as well as cows. It was quite interesting to watch them work and hear them talk about their experiences.

Otherwise we listened to the tour guides and I mostly just nodded along. I did learn that by law Shakespeare’s wife got the best bed upon his death so leaving her the second best bed (and all the other furniture) in his will may not have been as much of an insult as I’ve heard it referred to. Having a craving to watch Shakespeare in love again for the period.

I did a quick shop for a couple of things and then we had a bite to eat. After which we headed for the train back to London. Going to bed soon feeling a bit dead on my feet.

First let me say that we walked about 6 hours today with a couple of small sit downs for lunch (15 min on a bench), tea (15 min in the National Gallery), and the tube on the way there and back.

In a vague sense of order we saw:

Hyde Park (for an interesting visual, see ‘An Ideal Husband’ (1999) with Minnie Driver, Rupert Everett, Cate Blanchett, etc)
Green Park
Buckingham Palace
St James Park
Pall Mall & St. James Street
Trafalgar Square
National Gallery (gorgeous artwork 1250 - 1700, also amazing ceilings - sadly a no camera zone)
Book Market (I managed not purchase anything, S is very happy with me)
London Eye
Westminister Bridge

I’m not even sure what to write about all of it, but rest assured I took lots of pictures (except National Gallery where it was a no camera zone). We’re hoping to round trip train it to Stratford-on-Avon and back tomorrow and then we’ll finish our London exploration on Friday. Saturday will be consumed with transit back to Canada. Then we’ve thanksgiving in Calgary and settling back into the apartment before work starts to sink it’s claws in again.

So I now own a copy of ‘The Watsons’ which is Jane Austen’s unfinished work. I had a great gander and much excitement at the Jane Austen Centre where we had tea in place of lunch (sadly I didn’t remember to photograph the actual tea unlike the pump room, but I got the room and the servers).

We also walked to the Assembly Room. The upper level is free to the public when it’s not being used for a private function - unfortunately this wasn’t the case so I got to peek around a few corners, but no standing around taking pictures and imaging waltzing there in pretty regency dresses for me. The lower level is now a fashion museum which includes sections on victorian, regency, and georgian! The only shame was that there’s a collection of actual preserved gloves on loan from another institution, but it was a no camera zone. Otherwise I took a bundle of pictures. S has been keeping my spending in check so my wishlist actually has some items on in for the december holiday - aside from a new camera. I’d dearly love one, but given the number of features I’m looking for no one but me should be purchasing it.

We managed to do some shopping for the december holiday too!

We spent our time in transit planning the remainder of our trip. We’re currently thinking Stratford-on-Avon instead of Paris and we’ll see what comes of that. In the meantime, tomorrow will be Hyde Park, Saint James Street, Pall Mall, Buckinham Palace, etc. S is very excited to ride the engineering marvel that is the London Eye.

So today was a good if slightly busy day.

We ran errands in the morning (purchasing lunch, batteries for the camera, towels, and located several things we wanted to see the next day).

The afternoon we did the Stonehenge tour, photographed and had tea *in the pump room* (if you don’t know what I mean by this then don’t worry it won’t be of any interest even if I did explain it). We tried to go on an evening walking tour of Bath, but couldn’t find the starting place so just wandered around ourselves for a couple of hours before finding a little fish and chips shop for a takeaway supper which we ate in front of the telly in the chill out room.

Tomorrow is *cue trumpets* Jane Austen and the Assembly Rooms/Fashion Museum then we’re in transit to London. Still haven’t sorted through enough pictures yet for an album.

It’s been a crazy busy week - after the new Pride and Prejudice play it was all rush rush getting ready for the wrap up in Calgary, KJ’s going away party, and heading off for vacation (yes, an actual vacation. Not a few hours tacked onto either end of a business trip, but a trip designed to be fun without the headache of worrying about being client presentable or anything else)

The rush meant I wasn’t double checking things the way I should and so when we were repacking after KJ’s going away party (btw, his new blog is http://4kconsulting.com/pictoncastle for those of you who want to read about his adventures) at 11 pm - S realized his passport was still in Edmonton.

The 2 (highway between Calgary and Edmonton) is doing night construction. Also 8 am flights with an 11 pm panic suck. We were so tired that the hoped for excursion into Toronto didn’t happen. The exhaustion continued through British customs and the two buses to Bath. Mine evaporated when we arrived.

For those who don’t know Bath features heavily in the works of or about Jane Austen and of Georgette Heyer. If you like Regency anything and haven’t read them - Do It!

For those who know what I’m talking about - saw the pump room, royal theatre, putney bridge, and milsom street. Tomorrow is stonehenge and more bath!

Okay - onto other things… like working on KJ’s blog.