Not quitting my day job. . .

I have made a monumental life decision today. If I intend to continue paying for the things I enjoy in life, like electricity, my car insurance, groceries, I can cross "photographer" off my list of career choices. Basically, when it comes to photographs, I stink. I can do the basic stuff, sure, here's where we were today, this is what we saw today, but when it comes to pictures that make people go "Wow – what a great shot" that will never be me. I'll stick with my day job.

Today, we had the opportunity to take fantastic pictures. We began in Regent's Park in the Rose Gardens. I have never seen so many roses in my life, I actually didn't even know that there were this many different kinds of roses. We wandered through, taking pictures of one gorgeous rose right after another. According to the Royal Parks website, there are over 30,000 roses and over 400 varieties. There were red one, white ones, yellow ones, and pink ones, some that were an orangey color. My favorite ones are pink and yellow together. I think they are called Fulton MacKay roses. My other favorite is the Nostalgia, which is white, but has pink or red just on the edges of the roses. I didn't see any that were ugly. The grass is perfectly manicured and it is just amazing to look at the ocean of roses. Today was a nice sunny day, and the only mar in an otherwise beautiful morning was the man sitting on a bench in just a Speedo swimsuit. I guess he wanted to enjoy the roses and the sunshine, but it wasn't such a pretty sight for the rest of us. . .

We wandered through the park some more, and ended up on Primrose Hill, which apparently is one of only two hills in all of London. (One of our Blue Badge guides told us that - the other is where St. Paul's is located, I think.) Climbing to the top was not easy – my calf muscles were NOT happy. But the view from the top was worth it. We ate our lunch with London spread out beneath us. Then we flew kites, just like they did at the end of Mary Poppins. It was very difficult to keep from singing "Let's Go Fly a Kite" but I managed to restrain myself after only one round. Actually, climbing to the top, I didn't have enough air to sing anything. I forgot my kite, I remembered it in the check in line at the Orlando airport, so Andrea let me fly hers, and Dr E offered to let me fly hers, but hers was inflatable and I was worried about popping it. We had an amazing variety of kites, an owl, a ladybug, Dr. Seuss, Dr. E's blow up Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty, and two other Winnie the Pooh kites, and Linda's dragon, which was seriously cool. Linda's flew like a dragon, swirling and diving. The wind was pretty strong and it was pretty to see all the kites in the sky. Of course, my pictures of the kite flying turned out awful, as it was hard to see what I was aiming at. One more reason I won't be opening up shop as a photographer. After we flew the kites, everybody gave them away to children nearby, so even after we left, Hello Kitty, and the owl, and some others were still flying.

We went back down the hill, which was MUCH easier, to the London Zoo. We went through the Zoo backwards, so my first glimpse of animals was some sort of predatory bird (the cage said Golden eagle, but I'm not sure!) carrying a chick in its beak. I'm not sure if it was its own chick or a chicken chick, but he/she/it was carrying the poor dead chick, and then it took it over behind a bush and ripped the chick's head off and ate it. That was my introduction to the London Zoo. Let me say, the PB and J from lunch was not sitting so well. We wandered on past some kind of vulture, who was enjoying some small furry creature for lunch. He was pulling out entrails and seemed to be enjoying his lunch very much. Second glimpse of animals in the zoo. Yay. We moved on to gorillas, and couldn't figure out why the water in their water bottles was brown. We watched the keeper hide their food out in the grass, so they could forage. We went into the petting zoo part, but didn't pet anything, even though there were sheep. I think I caught a glimpse of a roadrunner, but could never get to it to see if that is what it really was. We spent lots of time at the penguin pool. I love penguins. I think they are so cute. None of the penguins would swim for us. Two or three kept teasing us, walking right on the edge, and I would swear to you one stuck in his toe to test the water and then walked away. One was posing, so we could get great shots of him. Okay, other people may have great shots of him; I have pictures of the penguin.

Tomorrow early, Katherine and I leave for a weekend in Paris. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures when we get back. Right now, I'm just worried about being carsick on the coach. I do have some great herbal motion sickness medicine that Andrea gave me, so 5 hours on a coach, let's hope it works. We leave from Dover, so we will get to see the "White Cliffs of Dover", which I'm pretty excited about. I also can't wait to get pain au chocolat. I did check out a French English dictionary from the library. I think I'll mark the word for bathroom ahead of time.

Avebury, Lacock, Salisbury

Today was a busy, busy day! Today, we started out our day on a coach trip to Avebury. Avebury is a stone circle that is older than Stonehenge, and the big plus about Avebury, is that you actually get to walk among and touch the stones. It is fascinating to be among things that are so ancient. It really made me feel kind of insignificant and puny. Another really cool thing, at least for me, was the sheep. Apparently, the National Trust, who is in charge of this henge (as all stone circles are called, according to Hugh, our fantastic Blue Badge guide – more about that later) allows some farmer to let his or her sheep graze among the stones. We wandered in-between a whole flock of sheep. This is good, because it keeps the grass down. This is not so good, because it requires you to do some sort of weird poo-poo dance as you walk through the grass. It's hard to look at the stones while you are watching where you put your feet. There is a big hill that the ancient people built with the dirt they dug out of the ditch that surrounds the circle and from the top of the hill, the view is just incredible.

After Avebury, we moved on to Lacock. Lacock is this town with an abbey that used to be a nunnery that has been standing for hundreds of years. Hugh told us that this is one of the few remaining really old manor homes that remain, as the stones for some were used to build other things. He showed us the "ha-ha" a ditch dug to keep the grazing animals away from the front of the manor house, I guess so the lord and lady of the manor didn't have to do the poo-poo dance. (Funny, I wouldn't have realized how important the ha-ha was, if we hadn't been to Avebury first.) The Cloisters of the Abbey were used in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which over here, was called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. On the way back, we watched the movie in the bus, and it was really cool to see them walking in places we had just walked. I found this room called the Warming Room, which is the only place the nuns were allowed to have a fire, and it has a big rectangle tank in it, that they think may have been used to hold fish to eat on Fridays. Pretty cool stuff. We had lunch at the Red Lion, which is a bed and breakfast, and the people sitting next to us asked us what part of the States we were from. What is it, do we have a sign that says "Hey look, these are Americans?" When we told them we were from Florida, they asked if we knew Placida, which is near Englewood, which is where my family is at the beach this week. We have both eaten at the Fishery, which is this great restaurant in Placida. How cool is that? It really is a small world.

Last but not least, we went to Salisbury, to the Cathedral. Salisbury Cathedral is celebrating is 750^th birthday this year. Go ahead and do the math; that means it was built in 1258. Now, I learned during Dr. Kotrla's class that I am innumerate, that I have basically no concept of numbers, but that completely boggles my mind. It is just hard for me to comprehend that I was standing in a 750 year old building. They are working on it, refurbishing some parts, but still . . . 750 years is just beyond me.

We have had several tours now with Blue Badge guides and of course, being the nosy, or rather, the curious person that I am; I have had several questions bubbling through my head about the guides. So today, poor Hugh was the recipient of my questions. So, here goes, way more than you probably ever wanted to know about Blue Badge Guides. First of all, to be a Blue Badge is not just any old guide. They are recognized as the best guides around. Each guide chooses, based on their own interest, sort of a specialty, some things that they are really interested in, and has to study to know all the big facts but also the little bits and bobs that make a tour really interesting. They have to take a really big exam, and do practice tours. I also think that they practice an authoritative tone, so even if they are making something up, it sounds really good and they make it sound like they know what they are talking about. We have had fantastic guides, Hugh and Brian are both fantastic. I have no idea how anyone would get in touch with them, but if you ever need a Blue Badge guide, try and get one of them. They even satisfy my curiosity, which sometimes is not an easy thing, since I want to know everything, and sometimes have some pretty weird questions flying around in my head.

National Portrait Gallery and the British Library

Today we explored the National Portrait Gallery, well, there's no way we saw everything, we zipped through the National Portrait Gallery. It sort of overwhelms me that there are enough portraits of important British people to fill up an entire gallery. We commented on how so many portraits of certain time periods, all the people looked alike. We also wondered how many people really looked like their portrait, or was the painter being kind. One guy whose name I can't remember had a black bandage to cover a scar on his nose. Wouldn't the scar have been a lot less noticeable than this big black gash across his nose? And why didn't he have the artist just paint it out? I don't get that. I examined the picture of King George lll; he didn't look like such a bad guy. We've always learned how mean and nasty he was, I guess I expected him to look like the devil or something. Some of the portraits are so massive; we wonder how anybody could get the people to sit still that long. One picture was monstrous, it was some other guy I can't remember, his wife and their five children. I don't believe for one second those five little ones stood still for any amount of time. Maybe that's why they all look alike. . .

We also saw some really great photographs. There is an exhibit of Black Film Actors that is awesome. There are people who have been actors for years, and some just starting out, and they are all in different clothes and poses and attitudes, but all of the pictures are looking right at you. It was incredible.

After that, we went to lunch, and then back to St. Martin-in-the-Fields for a lunchtime concert. This very young guy, not even 20 yet, played the harpsichord. I was fascinated by the harpsichord and actually wanted to look at it much closer but a big crowd gathered around it and I think some part of it hit the floor. I heard a big crash. I wrote myself a note to figure out the difference between a harpsichord and a piano. The man next to me kept taking pictures, even though the paper said not to and the lady at the beginning said not to. I was getting irritated with him. The teacher in me wanted to make him stop. His wife was studying her map of Harrods's the whole time. I'm not even sure why they were there. One time the man fell asleep, I think. He certainly did the whole head bobble thing that happens when people fall asleep in church.

After that, we went to the British Library, after a quick trip to King's Cross for a group picture at Platform 9 ¾. As we walked up to the British Library, the massive statue outside caught my eye first. Then I noticed, thanks to Andrea, Anne Frank's tree. It is a tree planted in her memory, and to the memory of children everywhere who die in wars. I think I got a picture of the tree, I know I did of the plaque. We went inside and explored a bit. It is a massive building, and we went first to the exhibit, Treasures of the Library. This was the coolest thing ever. We certainly did see some treasures. I looked at the journal of Captain Cook, from his trip on the Endeavor, where he landed in Australia, and Admiral Nelson's logbook of HMS Victory, from October 21, 1805. I also spent time looking at a Gutenberg Bible and one copy of the Magna Carta. There was a letter from Florence Nightingale, and Lewis Carroll's diary. There was a whole section on lyrics from Beatle's tunes, and Mendelssohn's sheet music from the "Wedding March." It was just incredible. We wandered around some more and just saw so many things. It was just incredible. The whole building is unbelievable. It was a fantastic day.

Tomorrow we are going to the Avebury Stone Circle, and to Lacock and Salisbury. I'm hoping for no car or bus sickness.

A weekend in Scotland!

On Friday, Katherine and I, along with Pamela and Linda, our other flat mates, went to Scotland. We had to get up really early, and take a cab to King's Cross to get on the train to Edinburgh. While we were waiting at King's Cross, we wandered down to Platform 9 and 3/4. There is actually a blank wall with a sign that says "Platform 9 ¾" with half a luggage trolley sticking out. That was very cool. Of course we all took pictures of ourselves pushing the trolley on our way to Hogwarts. We got on a very crowded train, and began our trip. The train trip took about 5 hours and then there we were, in Scotland. We ended at Waverly Station in Edinburgh, and were met by a guide in full Scottish regalia, kilt and all, who led us to our bus playing bagpipes. It was seriously cool. He drove us around town for a couple of hours, showing us Old Town and New Town, and things all around town. We actually only got off once at Holyrood Palace, because it was raining. It was raining and it was cold. I had to keep reminding myself that it was July, because it felt like our coldest days in winter at home. We got back on the bus and it dropped us off at our "guest house." It was a little different than we expected. We ended up all sharing a room with another student from London named Birgit. Our room had 5 single beds, a wardrobe, a teensy tiny TV that we never even turned on, and an en-suite bathroom, which I think may have been a closet at one time. We were in room 3, which is on the second floor, which is really the third floor because the first floor doesn't count. We went to find some dinner, and came back to our room and crashed. We laughed and laughed for a long time. It was like a slumber party.

On Saturday, we got up early, breakfast was at 7, and Birgit, Katherine and I headed off on a bus tour of the Highlands. The bus was again very crowded and we ended up in the very back seat. I was seriously thankful for the motion sickness medicine that Andrea gave me. Even with the crowded bus, I think next to Oxford, this was my favorite thing we have done so far. Our driver and guide, Fred, who was also wearing a kilt, kept us in stitches. I don't even have the words to say how beautiful the Highlands are. Every new corner and turn (and there are lots of those) is just one more beautiful view after another. Especially for me, from flat Florida, it is just spectacular. I have been to a little part of the Rocky Mountains and my family has vacationed in the mountains of North Carolina, but I have NEVER in my life seen anything like we saw in Scotland. We saw snow on the sides of mountains on July 19^th. SNOW!!!! We stopped for a restroom stop at this little tiny place, I don't even know the name of, and they had a Highland bull named Hamish that people could feed. Those are the funniest looking things I've ever seen. In the very next field were sheep, and of course I took pictures of the sheep. As we rode along, Fred played mood music for us, bagpipes and songs from movies like Braveheart and Rob Roy and Last of the Mohicans. It was fabulous, just fabulous.

We passed Ben Nevis (4,406 ft above sea level) which is the highest mountain in Great Britain. According to Fred, no one needs to climb Mount Everest, they can just come climb Ben Nevis, which skips the pesky bottom parts and gets right to the top. We stopped for lunch at a place called Spean Bridge. We drove on, again past the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen in my life towards Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness. When we got the castle, the views again are just incredible. Urquhart is a ruined castle, but while we were there, a couple was getting married in part of the castle. We watched men in kilts walk down the hill for the wedding, and we all had to clear the path as the bride and her father walked down the path towards the castle, with a bag piper playing in front of them the whole way. It was fantastic, although a bit creepy to think that we were spying on their wedding. I guess that's part of the deal for getting married in such a public place. At the castle, we got onto a boat for a ride across Loch Ness. It was simply amazing. Fred told us and I agree, that Loch Ness may be the most famous body of water in the world. It is so deep and so big, that all the water in the rest of Britain and Ireland together wouldn't fill it up. There is enough water in that loch alone, to serve the entire population of Scotland for 60 years. As we rode along in the boat, we could see mountains on the sides, and the loch was disappearing behind us in the mist. It was incredible. No sign of Nessie, although we did see a odd spot, where the water was moving in a weird pattern, unlike the rest of the loch. If something would have popped up, we probably all would have had a heart attack on the spot. It was very mystical.

That wasn't our entire trip to Scotland, but it's enough for now and enough for this post. It's already too long!