London Calling: Day 2
Note: I've been doing a lot of ongoing Tweeting about my time to and in London, so I highly recommend watching my stream at @ariedana if you want to know what I'm up to all the time. Or at least all the time six hours ahead of you. It's weird to think that the main part of my day is over before most of my friends and family have lunch. And the rest of this post is pretty much a straight reposting of something I wrote on Facebook awhile ago, but it's here so everyone can see it. ;)
Today I got off to an later start than I wanted (knocked out for about 12 hours) but I still made it to Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, H&M (very dangerous store), and Boots megastore (ditto). Women of the world who love places like Bath & Body Works but can't afford to spend much time in Sephora - Boots is your Kryptonite. Oxford Street's H&M makes any of their American outlets look like crap. I'm now afraid to visit M&S.
Then did a great tour of Westminster Abbey, which will be closed the rest of the week and was extraordinarily moving. Nothing like visiting the tombs of about a dozen British monarchs and then the monuments and resting places Shakespeare, the Brontes, Samuel Johnson and Jane Austen. And it's relatively tiny! No wonder people were annoyed that William and Kate chose it for the wedding - I'm wondering if guests are going to be hanging from the rafters. But I literally sat in a chair right next to the main altar and got to imagine what it will look like from there on Friday. Also went to a prayer service at a shrine at King Edward the Confessor's tomb and lit some candles.
After, I walked around the Abbey (setups for media underway) and juiced up the iPod at a pub in Westminster before going to the Churchill War Museum, which is in his wartime bunker. Lots of pictures of that for Anglotopia (you can't take pictures in the Abbey, although I got a lot outside). Then I walked past the Houses of Parliament, visited yet another pub for iPod juicing and my first Pimms (yum!) and Whitehall to Trafalgar Square. That place has terrific energy. Finally walked back to the Carling Cross station, discovered the huge charms of M&S Simply Food's marvelous takeaway selection and then headed back "home" to Tooting.
It's hard to encapsulate everything about the London experience. I love the tube - yes, it's convoluted but you can literally go anywhere. I love the weather. I don't hear the accents at all - I already knew I didn't on the telly I was watching back in the US, but I don't even hear them here. People are very reserved but nice. And I'm not feeling the least bit overwhelmed by the city or the bigness of everything. Which is quite odd in a way. I kinda feel at home here, even moreso than I expected I would.
- Posted from London, United Kingdom
It's been awhile since I've seen a Glee flash mob...
This one is particularly awesome because it has two Warblers songs in it. I have a thoroughly inappropriate crush on Darren Criss at the moment, because he's killing me with Blaine this season. Don't judge. Credit to @ProducerMatthew for Tweeting this.
Everything you need to know about Doctor Who in a single page | Blastr
I need to print this out and put it on my wall at work so that I can just point at it when they want to know who the Companions are on my desk, or about my sonic screwdriver. Media folks aren't as geeky as you'd think.
A 5-minute lesson about UK geography
My dog watching @pierstonight with a stuffed animal
Sent from my iPod
- Posted from Bettendorf, IA
Crossing something off the bucket list, with extras
Goodbye, Elizabeth
I first met Elizabeth Edwards at the North Carolina State Democratic Convention when her husband was running for the nomination for the US Senate. At the time John was a longshot to even do that, much less go on and defeat the incumbent, and the thought of anything more was seemed like fantasy. But there was something very special about both of them, something that made you want to go to the ends of the earth to tell people about the things they wanted to do to help all Americans.
I'm not the only person who felt that way, and that's what made so many particularly angry about what John subsequently did that ended both our shared political dreams but also their marriage. Because where we all found that John was not who we thought he was as far as being an honest and moral person, Elizabeth was. She never suffered fools gladly, but she was also fair and kind. She never pretended that she didn't suffer and react to the horrible things that happened any differently than anyone else would have, but did it gracefully and as tactfully as is possible when the world is judging you. I am so grateful that I saw Elizabeth again in Nashville in 2007 and was able to thank her for everything she had done to inspire me. And to me she will not be a victim of either a disease or a horrible scandal, or as someone who has lost a battle. I had worried so much that John's indiscretion would be what she would be remembered for, but I am now seeing that instead she has become such a huge inspiration. So she has won so much.
