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Return of the Hedgehog August 15, 2008

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Hes the cutest little hedgehog ever! I had to keep mum from poking him with a stick.

He's the cutest little hedgehog ever! I had to keep mum from poking him with a stick.

So he ran under the grate. haha

So he ran under the grate. haha

We’re back in Manchester. August 15, 2008

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I swear, only one of those bags is mine.

London August 10, 2008

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Some people might think my mum is creepy for taking pictures of me when Im not looking, half hidden behind a sculpture. But I know better.

Some people might think my mum is creepy for taking pictures of me when I'm not looking, half hidden behind a sculpture. But I know better.

London was a highlight on Friday, and the fact that we made it home without having to detour in unplanned cities was only a plus. We left at 5am and got home at about 2am, and the coach wasn’t all that bad. At least on the coach you’ve got leg room, which is more than i could say for my most recent plane journeys.

The first thing we did was take the city bus from Victoria Station to the British Musuem, and spent the entire morning there. The place is staggering in terms of collection, giving the Metropolitan Museum of Art a run for it’s money. At least it does it terms of size, but I think I will always prefer the staggering buildings filled with art. Anyway, the mummies were excellent. The whole section was really impressive, with huge pillars from temples, statues, and others. The Greek and Roman sculptures were also a big bonus for me. They just breathe with past life, whether they are missing arms or heads or noses. haha. I always wonder how accurate they are – how much likeness there is to a person from another time.

Later, we hopped a bus to somewhere else, stopped at a place called the Japanese Centre so mum could take a LONG look and finally buy some bowls (more…)

We took a Bath. August 1, 2008

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(july 26)

We hopped a train back to England at 7am, officially disembarking on our day trip to Bath. I saw the river Avon for the first time – sparkling and reflecting a cloudless sky and even a touch of midsummer heat. Just a touch. For the sake of time economy, here is a list of our pit stops:

  • Victoria Art Gallery - Only 2 floors, two galleries, but nice. There was an exhibition on English landscapes through the ages.
  • Jane Austen Centre – We bought tickets into the house (it was in the same area and restored to look like how she would have lived), listened to a talk, and poked around the museum on the ground floor. Mum wasn’t really into it, but I enjoyed the original movie costumes and film.
  • Asian Art Museum – it was eh. Mum’s idea. There were nearly 10 flights of stairs and the inside was really stuffy and over heated.
  • Antiques Centre - Mum is still in her antiquity craze. This building housed half a dozen independant dealers, and I saw everything from furniture to thimbles to old photographs.
  • Roman Baths – My favorite spot! We spent nearly two hours inside taking photo’s, an excellent audio tour, and admiring Britan’s only natural hot spring. It was like taking a step back in time; hard to believe that that real people used that place and walked the same floors nearly 2000 years ago. There was a woman that kept walking into my mum’s pictures, and she got really steamed. Get it? Steamed?!

After all this, we caught dinner at Mai Tai, a wonderful Thai resturant, strolled through Parade Gardens, and caught the late train home. After reaching Cardiff an hour later, it was so late that a big section of the city centre was blocked off for Saturday night clubs and pubs. Basically, there were no buses. haha. So we walked three or four blocks away, caught the bus home and collapsed.

Last Week: Dunham Massey July 21, 2008

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I never got a chance to post these, but i just want them to be up…Dunham Massey is the now public house, formerly owned by the last Earl of Stamford. It’s now in the hands of the National Trust. I had an excellent adventure that day, but I dont feel the least bit inspired to write anything about it becasue it’s been so long ago. Shame, really.

A Secret Garden July 17, 2008

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Whenever we walk to the city centre in Manchester, we pass this very long wall with gardens on top. Some days I hear kids laughing up there and I see wildflowers swaying in the breeze. It’s so tall, but in a certain spot where the road rises, i can just see the top of a basket ball hoop. There is a plaque on the wall that says the city of Manchester paid to have the land enclosed and the places where stairs used to reach the sidewalk have been bricked over…sealed. I Just want to go up there and see what it is and  walk in some grass. I need to find a way in.

It’s a hard knock life. July 14, 2008

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11 July, Friday, 5:01pm

 

 

Mum and I spent the entire day rearranging the flat, clearing out her bedroom, packing Henry’s things for China, washing clothes, and other exciting things. It’s rained very regularly for nearly three days, so the air feels damp from where I sit. In the last week or two, the repairman for our washing machine has been called three times, showed up twice, and actually worked on it once. Sadly, the contraption is still broken. ha. So it’s back to the tried and true ‘wash in the tub, since there’s nothing else we can do’ method. When we are in Cardiff next week, the plumbers from Urban Splash (construction co. that built this place) will come and replace the bedroom carpeting and some of the woodwork, because it’s all quite moldy from where the sink was leaking. This includes Joe-the-cute-plumber-repair-guy, whom I’ve had the pleasure of consorting with all too often and who got semi yelled at by my mother today, because she was upset at our washing-machine-less-damp-and-moldy-state. When did this trip get so complicated? I feel like it’s a circus.

 

 

 

On the ebook front, I have read 6/8 books from the Oz Series. I suppose they are actually children’s books, but I enjoy them as much as someone who is 12, and at least half as much as someone who is 8. Oz is much more wacky and whimsical than what made it into the movie – that’s all I have to say on the matter. I haven’t done too much writing lately and even less art, but hey, new places give new inspiration. We have another day trip planned with Ruth’s family to see a Duke’s house or something, I will be staying in a different country by monday (Cardiff is in Whales I think), and there is bound to be more strange people that i can report. From what i’ve heard, mom rent’s just one room there and shares the kitchen, bathroom, and living room with other people. This is going to be like an episode of Hey Arnold!, except that I’ve promised to keep my Casey shrine private ;) (Honestly Helga, the closet is so obvious).

 

Who knows when this post will make it to cyberspace, but rest assured, I’m ever observing. Stay dry!

Wrap your Scarf Tight July 8, 2008

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This, my friends, is a Raspberry Peach Muffin from Starbucks. This, my friends, is one of the most delectable muffins i have ever consumed. This, my friends, was Sunday’s breakfast. It immediately put a Miss Tia in my head, because she love peaches, me, and called me a ‘mango peach cookie dough’, which is a compliment in all respects. If only i could buy these muffins in a box!!!

Now that I’m through with that, I have to report my latest craze and not so mindless entertainment. A few weeks ago, I found a 3×3 rubik’s cube in my bathroom. The stubborn thing has been tormenting me ever since. I am determined to solve it, and promise to do a follow up picture when the deed is done. I am so focused on my goal, that it can only be a matter of time, and i have recruited renforcements to ensure my success. It just warms my heart to know that I have people rooting for me.

Other recent entertainments include: hours and hours of DVDs, writing in my notebooks, compiling and scaveging for artifacts for my new memory book, freecell with actual playing cards, downloading ebooks and other somewhat sad pursuits. It’s quite cold today. The last few days have been nothing but contant showers, and of all days, this is the one i forgot my coat, but brought the cheap umbrella (when the wind blows, it turns inside out and crumples, and often, the handle falls off. Great peice of merchandise). Also, survey says that we are going to Scotland in the second half of July sometime, and i wish it were right now. So that’s that then. I’m off.

Travel Lull July 4, 2008

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The last few days have been uneventful, but i’m sort of grateful for the rest. There is talk of going to see Shakespeare’s hometown, York, London, or possibly the Chatsworth House in Derbeyshire, even though my mum has seen it before. This means that in the coming week or so, we’ve got some options, so perhaps i’ll have more interesting stuff to post. For the moment, however, my photo well has run dry – the camera battery was dead and i only found the charger last night. I couldn’t even snapshot my every day sort of adventures. I’ll correct this soon.

In the meantime, my summer holiday has made the gears crank in my head. What’s the difference between an actual home and ‘just visiting’? Every summer, I take a couple month vacation with my mum, but don’t consider those places where I actually live. Inevitably, i get homesick and end up hanging around the house all day. Is home really just where you hang your hat? I think not.

I think the main difference is how you spend your time. When you are at home, people don’t need to arrange things to keep you from being bored, or have some sort of trip planned out for you every weekend. You dont search for landmarks to visit or museums to goto everyday, becasue there are ordinary amusements like going to the movies, bonfires, house visits, and trips to the grocery store that serve this purpose. I think my point is that relationships – the ordinary friendships we have everyday – are the factor that turn a place into where you want to hang your hat. I miss those already.

Liverpool July 2, 2008

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(actually from June 29)

It’s an ever gray day here in the damp city of Manchester. My mom came home friday night, so things have been busier. Our day trip to liverpool on Saturday was hardly gray at all – the weather was beautiful, the air was relatively fresh and the sun shone brighter that I’ve seen since ninety degree days of an Ohio summer. It was a great trip, I saw Ruth’s family again, and we managed to see and do quite a bit:

  • First stop, Merseyside Maritime museum – five floors of fabulous exhibits, including the International Slavery Museum and an entire floor dedicated to The Titanic, Lusitania, and Empress tragedies. I overheard this guy talking to his wife, and he said that he was surprised at how much he learned there. “I mean, you’d expect to learn some, but not every single time you turn a corner.” I wish we could’ve spend more time there.
  • We walked back toward our next stop and had lunch, grabbing a couple sandwiches in the city centre and scarfing from a park bench. There was this really great street musician hooked up to a travel amp and playing acoustic guitar. He was wearing a cowboy hat and combat boots, and his singing was all right, but i liked him anyway. He had guts. It made me laugh when he did some Snow Patrol like i heard last time, but i winced when he butchered “Hey There Delilah.” We dropped some change in his guitar case.
  • Shopped for a little bit, collected a new pair of shoes, then moseyed on over to the Walker Art Gallery and World Museum Liverpool. The art gallery had a special exhibit about the steam age and trains. I got to see a couple paintings that were in an art book i read a couple months ago. It was cool! I did some quick sketches of some of the paintings and drooled when i saw the classical sculptures downstairs. We only spent an hour in the World Museum, because it was nearly closing time, but i saw the aquarium, ancient civilizations, and the world cultures stuff. I wish I could say that i had the time of my life there, but that would be a lie – by then i was dragging my heels and ready for dinner. Oh well.

Of course, there was more stuff that happened in between, but those are the basic highlights. The train ride was over an hour, but the countryside views were cool. I drank a smoothie that was actually good, rode the liverpool underground, had dinner at a cantonese restaurant, and finally parted with my beat up gold flats. =[ They got a crack clear across the soles, one on each foot, and were looking pretty rough. RIP shoes, I will always love and remember you!

Well it actually looks nice out right now...it was raining earlier, but that goes to show how wacky the weather is here. We've got to buy groceries at some point, so perhaps we'll get out there and enjoy it before a tornado hits or something. I hope everyone else is staying warm and dry! (I guess i'll be posting this later)