Playing Tourist

Hello Dear Readers,

The part Chris ordered for his computer finally came in, and tomorrow is my last day working at the museum so I should be doing a lot more blogging in April.  To catch up, two weeks ago my good friends from high school came over and we got to play tourist with them.

We took the Big Bus Tour around the city which I had never done before, it was a really good way to see all the highlights, some things I hadn't even had a chance to see yet.  We had the obligatory South Bank/Big Ben photo op. before going to Waterloo for lunch at "A Hole In the Wall" restaurant under the tube bridge.

We took a cruise along the Thames to see the stuff that can really only been seen on the river like the Globe Theatre, Somerset House, the Mayor's office, the Shard in progress and lots of pubs.  Simon was our captain, he said he's a 6th generation Waterman.  The waterman have a long history in Putney too as they are the ones that used to ferry people back and forth until Putney Bridge was built.  The above bridge of course is the Tower Bridge, made famous recently in the new Sherlock Holmes movies.

Later in the week Adam, Melch and I took a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.  I was a little worried that I would be disappointed by Stonehenge, but it was totally worth it, I spent the entire hour walking around and had to scurry back to the bus!

We toured around the famous Roman baths and had the obligatory glass of "Bath Healing Waters" which didn't taste of warm rusty nails as much as our bus guide would have us believe.  These are the elegant pump rooms, now a restaurant but used a lot as a plot device in Jane Austin's Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.  We walked around the town a bit which was lovely and sunny in stark contrast to the cloudy morning at Stonehenge.



After this they came to the museum to see behind the scenes where I worked, then we took a whirlwind tour of Ireland!  More stunning photos of that to come (and 2 lbs of raw wool for spinning - win!)

Birthday Round Up

Hello Dear Readers,

I realize it's been super quiet around here, and there are some good reasons for it.  One is that the fan on our laptop has developed a whirr that sounds like a jet engine taking off..... and it's a pain in the arse to do any work on it.  Right I'm hijacking Patrick's computer which has an SD slot for my new camera card, just in time to have gotten a new one as the old camera had a CF and there is only a slot on Chris's noise machine...... The other reason of course was that two Sundays ago was my 30th birthday and I had two of my best friends from High School visiting me for a week.

 On my birthday we went to Kew Gardens to enjoy the amazing spring sunshine and had a little picnic on the river.

 We also spent quite a bit of time walking around the gardens and enjoying the pink flowers, frustrating to no end to Adam who couldn't get a decent shot even with his fancy SLR (according to him anyway, I thought the shots were nice)

After Kew we went to my favourite Vegan place where I always seem to end up for my birthday, 222 Veggie Vegan.  Lots of friend from the museum were there and I played with the panoramic assist on my new camera.  Unfortunately it doesn't stitch the images together, I had to do it myself on PowerPoint, but you get the idea. From left to right is Elisabetta, Olivia, Patrick (English Patrick), Aurelie, Adam, Melch, Sara, Patrick (brother Patrick) and Chris, who got a little cropped out.

Olivia gave me some lovely flowers and gourmet chocolates, I had the flowers in my bedroom which I think is extremely decadent. Patrick gave me beautiful tea flower balls (eat your heart out Cat) and the rest of the girls pitched in to get this amazing gem bangle from Swarovski!  It's probably the prettiest thing I own right now!  I was so touched, for any of you girls who read the blog thank you thank you thank you, it means a lot to me.  I'll think of all the wonderful times we had together at the museum when i wear it, which will be often.

More news to follow soon about Adam and Melch's visit, our whirlwind whistle stop tour to Ireland, and a special surprise visitor from High School - when it rains it pours!

P.S. no news yet on the job front, looking forward to doing a lot more traveling in April since I'll be having a lot more free time....