Letters from Across the Pond: Part 2

Dear Yas and IQ,

I'm heading for Atlanta tomorrow, so I'll close out my New York portion of this trip. The week has been pretty quiet so far, in large part to everyone else having....you know....a job. So I've been on my own a bit, which I don't mind at all. One of the big reasons I like coming to visit my Dad is that I can catch up on sleep and spend a couple of days just being comfortable and letting my brain catch up with me. I've not been a complete slugabed however, and have gone on a few forays into The City to catch up with friends (or rather just one, the other canceled on me. Twice ;p) and see some awesome art.
First there was dinner with Jen on Sunday night -
Complete with a very nice view of the City on the ferry ride back. I used to take the Ferry in every day when I did a summer internship in the Financial District. It's always pretty to look at, some days more than others. Particularly when it isn't raining (Ferry when it's raining = le crap).

On Monday I went into city to a little gallery in Chelsea to see...well...Legos. But not just *any* Legos. Legos by this guy; Nathan Sawaya. I know I've already raved to you guys in just about every imaginable electronic medium available about this exhibit...but, clearly I have to get this one as well. OH MY GOD, THAT WAS SO COOL! Seriously...beautiful stuff, and I wish I could have some of his art in my house. I never thought of LEGO bricks as being able to communicate emotion (other than frustration when you're missing that last piece in the 3,000 piece LEGO Star Destroyer kit...that was a dark day) but apparently I was wrong....have you ever wanted to hug a LEGO sculpture because it looks sad? Don't answer that...(YARR PHOTO BLIZZARD AHEAD!!!) ( See Flickr for better versions of these photos, it's not nice to kill the blog/people's internet connections by putting these full res, but a lot of them came out really well) .

















Of all the works, I think this one is probably my favorite....not to say the others weren't amazing...but I kept coming back to this one for some reason...If i ever get a spare 10,000 dollars (Lotto anyone) I could stare at this all day...


After that? Well....obviously I had to swing by Times Square. Not much has changed, but it's still nice to take a look at. If only to remind myself why I DON'T want to live here full time.



Tomorrow I'm heading for Atlanta to take a look at Emory....woohah.

Letters from Across the Pond

Dear Yas and IQ,

Because of the time change, I'm figuring this is as good a way to write to you kids and let you know what I've been up to on my trip home. The trip started out with my flight back - which was mostly okay, complete with a vociferously-swearing, dual-blackberry-wielding American Businessman with a cold and a couple of screaming babies. On the whole though, it wasn't too bad, and the sunset we landed in was gorgeous, i just wish i'd be able to capture all the colors. This is the best one I got, mostly reds and blooms, the greens just simply wouldn't cooperate. After getting home from the airport....I promptly passed out. There may have been a brief foray into laundry before that happened, but I don't quite recall. I blame the jet lag.
The next day Mom came in, and we had some amaaaaaazing sushi for lunch, followed by general hanging out and enjoyment of life. There was also a serious amount of cleaning out my closest and room. I know that wherever I end up next year, the reckoning is nigh and I'm going to have to deal with all my crap that is scattered across the 4 corners of the earth. My hope is that I can minimize enough of the other stuff, that when my family figures out just how much yarn I own they won't have me committed. Or drowned.
The day after Mom left, sadly the weather was not nearly as fun. It's so weird waking up inside of a cloud.
Thankfully, the fog burned off (though it didn't on Monday or today) and Dad and I took a trip down the park underneath the GW Bridge. You'd never know it was there if a local didn't show you. Lucky me, I had an in!










































Last but not least....I'm sure I've mentioned "The Dog" .....there are no words, other than "Soda can added for scale"


So that's part 1 of "What I've Been Up To", what about you folks? Anything interesting on your end? In my next letter: Dinner and night shots of the city, and the aweeeesome Lego exhibit.

A weekend in Lewknor/Tetsworth, Oxfordshire

The morning after breaking my toe, I went out to the 'wilds' of Oxfordshire to meet up with my grandmother for a workshop. We spent the weekend doing Cortical Field Re-education stuff, which was awesome...I have totally grown an inch. Or rather, I have regained an inch, perhaps by improving my posture. Fun stuff! We stayed at a B&B called Long Acre in Tetsworth, aka a village seemingly in the middle of nowhere, which was absolutely adorable.The Breakfast room, complete with epic amounts of harness buckle...things. Not entirely sure what they're called, but the lady had some very cool ones. She also made some of the BEST English Breakfast food I've had. Ever. View from outside. I couldn't get a shot from the front, sadly, but trust me, it was a pretty building! It also, as previously mentioned, was in the middle of nowhere, which meant I got an absolutely awesome view of the stars while I was out there. Complete with Milky Way. View of the back garden from our room. :D

Adventures in Sutton

I'm still playing serious catch up on past events, due to injury (see end of the post ;p) which has made my life all kinds of crazy. Anyways! Here we go!
Two weeks ago, after MONTHS of drama and waiting, Yas had her visa hearing in Sutton. Sutton, by the way is in the middle of NOWHERE. Okay, not really...but it was a bit of a pain to get to, you'd think they'd have it slightly more conveniently located. Suffice to say, that at a horrific and inhumane hour of the morning, Yas, Irfan, Phillip and I met up at Victoria and headed off to the countryside (sort of). It was a nice little train ride though, and accompanied by lovely weather. I think Yas was yelling at Phillip about something in this one...not quite sure what. Once we got to the building there were several hours of waiting, and then at last the hearing - which went awesomely. That is one very cool, very smart judge (and not just because he decided in her favor!)

Immediately post hearing. Victory!!!!!! From there, we headed to the nearest (and only) pub to celebrate.





























After a quick drink, a call to the parents and some joking around, we headed back to London. There were plans of gathering for dinner later in the evening, but we all sacked out instead. Oops. After that, my day sort of went down hill....i.e. - ended in A & E. As I was preparing my evening cup of tea I was viciously attacked by a doorframe . Dumb....super, super dumb. Also? Super broken. Ugh...after a few (surprisingly pleasant) hours in A&E, I was loaded up with crutches, medical tape, and some industrial pain killers and sent on my way. Irfan, bless him, came and met me at the hospital and hung out with me, and made sure that my (then totally drooling due to said industrial pain killers) self back home, and even went to McDonald's and got me dinner. Dudes, I have the best friends ever.

Cultural Monday's....Topolski's Century and Gabriel's Wharf

Hidden among the arches of Waterloo is Topolski's Century, the artist's 600 ft record of the 20h century. Topolski was an eye witness to many of the major events, including both World Wars, the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights Movement in the US (to name a few). In particular, he was an official war artist for the Brits in World War Two, creating many sketches during the Blitz, and he was embedded with one of the units involved in the liberation of (if i recall) Bergen-Belsen.
In short? Dude's seen a lot, and his art is worth taking a look at. More over, his gallery has free admission on Monday's (2 quid for adults during the rest of the week). So off we went.


















Left: The UN Wheel, Right: World War I

One of the more interesting items for me, personally, was the original door to Newgate Prison, which was demolished in the late 17oos. Now...WHY Topolski had the door to Newgate, and decided that it would be a great piece to display as part of his artwork relating to the Soviet Union and Cold War mentality....I don't know. I can understand the prison connotations etc etc, but why THIS door? There's so much more history related to it! Sigh....silly artists.
History note: The 'original' Newgate was demolished in 1777, but the prison existed, in some form or another from the 1100s through to 1902. Also note that the 'original' as previously referenced, was definitely not the original, if nothing else, it burned down in the Great Fire in 1666. I'm not entirely sure which iteration the door is from, but that's neither here nor there.

After wandering through Topolski's Mural, his paintings regarding the opening of Bergen-Belsen being particularly poignant for me, we went for a walk along Southbank, including a visit to the top of OXO Tower and Gabriel's Wharf.

What's Inside?

Oh the Telephone Box, that bastion symbol of the British Empire.....

This particular box being the one near Big Ben, and in view of Trafalgar Square as well. It's probably the most photographed phone boxes in Britain, if not the world. As such, it's (relatively) well maintained and clean. Shiny, and loved, and not at all scandalous.

Personally, I think it's a bit of a cheat, to lie to all those happy tourists about what English telephone boxes are really like! It's not something I think about all that often, if ever really, but a few weeks ago, as we were walking towards the Museum, I stopped to take a peek inside one of the UKs bits of History and symbolism...it's not that different from Vegas really...























In case you can't read that sign, it says "Amanda: Very sexy genuine Spanish girl, fantastic body"...charming.

Cultural Mondays.....British Museum and Russel Square

It's absolutely disgraceful, that I live in one of the most incredible cities in the world, but I've yet to see much of what it has to offer. As part of my 'must stop being lazy' note to self, I've been trying to get out more and see what the city has to offer. Monday afternoons have been 'Cultural Mondays", the day when Yas and I get out and see what there is to see.

Part One: the British Museum -
Starting with an absolutely fantastic lunch in a little cafe by the Museum.



And then on to the Museum itself.


This year, the Museum, in conjunction with Radio 4 are running a year-long event called A History of the World in 100 Objects, very cool. We spent several hours in the museum tracking down 17 of the first 30 objects that they have released. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, it's year long, so I don't think I'll be here to track down the other 70 in the list that are un-released, but I thought these were a good place to start. I am a big fan of this sort of scavenger hunt approach to the Museum, as typically when people go, they only see the Greek and Egyptian sections, the Elgin Marbles, Rosetta Stone an the Mummies....it's good to see another part of i.

Here is one of my favorite of the objects that we found (and also highlighted all over their website, turns out other people like it too)
# 4 - The Swimming Reindeer, roughly 13,000 years old and one of the oldest items in the Museum (possibly the oldest? I don't remember)


Not on the list of objects, but probably my favorite thing that I saw that day was this guy, an awesome Woodcut of a Rhinoceros - 1515 AD

The Museum gives out a pamphlet that has a list of the objects that have been marked so far and the rooms they are in. but we set a rule, that for every room we went in, we had to actually look at the OTHER stuff in there, as opposed to just going from object to object and ignoring everything else (which we saw several other pairs of folks doing). That's totally cheating, and you won't learn as much that way! The catch as that doing it our way, we missed 13 of the objects, and only saw the top three floors, so we're going to have to go back and find them!

After the Museum, we had a nice walk around the Holborn/Russell Square area...
And followed it up with a lovely cup of tea and some pastries at Patisserie Valerie