Our first house guest has arrived! Cathy C. was able to get a flight at the last minute and will relive her trip of 30+ years ago. There wasn't much time to do anything except have some tea, walk over to Kensington Gardens for a bit, and then hit the Marks and Spencer for provisions.

Gord and I had tickets to see The Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare's Globe so we left Cathy to sleep off the jet lag. It was wonderful to see Shakespeare performed in that setting (and performed so well) although I was wishing I had worn warmer clothes. At least the heavy rain of early this morning had turned into a clear but crisp night. It brought me back to my ninth grade English class and my teacher Mr. McCarroll, who also directed all of the school plays of which I played no part (literally). I only mention that last part because he conducted his classes in the same animated way he directed the plays. I must have been animated in that class too, because it was the only class I've ever been kicked out of (but that's another story).

We walked across the Thames via the Millenium Bridge to catch the Underground home. The bridges over the water were beautifully lit.

We caught the 8:00 train to Bath Spa, but the normally 90-minute journey took 2-1/2 hours because they were doing some work on the tracks and we had to take a bus from the Swindon train station--one of the disadvantages of traveling on a weekend apparently. We had to wait on the bus about ten minutes before we left Swindon, with the motor running, exhaust fumes filling the air, and the radio playing George Michael's Careless Whisper on the British equivalent of Casey Kasem's Top 40 show. Fortunately the noise of the bus drowned out the sound of the radio and we were in Bath about an hour later.

We just missed the 10:30 walking tour, but were able to catch the 11:00 Jane Austen one led by knowledgeable and entertaining Glyn. His "West Country" accent was immediately apparent, quite different from anything we had heard in London. Bath is a beautiful city, with its signature Georgian buildings in yellow limestone. We learned how Jane Austen disliked the city (as did Queen Victoria who apparently, on her only visit to the city at the age of eleven, overheard some disparaging remarks about her ankles and vowed never to visit the city again). But two of Jane's novels are set in Bath (Persuasion and Northanger Abbey) and the city has claimed her as their own, although she only lived there eight years. Glyn pointed out different places that were mentioned in these novels and gave us an idea of what life was like in Bath in the late 1700s to early 1800s. Although the hot springs were what drew people to the area, for their suspected healing properties, the 2,000-year-old Roman baths were not uncovered until the late nineteenth century. We caught the first half of the 2:00 walking tour where we learned about architect John Wood and about Beau Nash (until it started overlapping with the previous tour) and then visited the rather disappointing Jane Austen Centre. Finally we spent about two hours in the Roman baths, listening to audio guides and catching yet another, shorter tour by another lively docent. The rain throughout most of the afternoon did not dampen our spirits, but I must say that we were glad to catch an earlier train home, the sooner to rest our weary feet. It was a very pleasant but long day.

I'm excited to reread the novels of one of my favorite authors. I think I'll start with her last two, those set in Bath. But first I'll finish the books from my latest visit to the library.

Reading: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson

The lesson for today was "What is a constitutional monarchy?" Gord and I took a tour of the Palace of Westminster/Houses of Parliament, led by a very entertaining docent. We learned about Gothic revival architecture and the young 23-year-old designer Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin who was selected by the architect Sir Charles Barry to do the interior design of the new buildings after the original Palace was destroyed by fire in 1834. (My designing daughter who just happens to be 23 might find this particularly interesting, right Katie?) The interior is just amazing, possibly even more so than the exterior, from the floors to the ceilings. We started from Victoria Tower to the Queen's Robing Room, through the Royal Gallery, the Prince's Chamber, the Chamber of the House of Lords, the Central Lobby, House of Commons, Members' Lobby, St. Stephen's Chapel, and Westminster Hall (which survived the fire), all the while learning about how a bill is passed; the Hansard Reporters who document everything that is said each day and have it printed up by early the next morning; the role of the monarch and her once-a-year speech from the elaborate throne in the House of Lords on the first day of the new parliamentary session (November); the ritual of the Black Rod who goes down the long hallway through the Central Lobby to the House of Commons to summon the members of the House of Commons to this speech, only to have the door slammed in his face and not opened until he knocks on it with his staff of office, all this to symbolize their independence. (Now that was a long sentence!) There was a lot more but I'll spare you.

I keep thinking that the days on our roof are coming to an end, but today turned out to be beautiful and I spent an hour up there reading and taking these pictures.

We had planned to go to a free concert to see Amjad Ali Khan at Queen Elizabeth Hall, but we have a big day tomorrow and we decided to pass on it. In case you're wondering, he is a master of Indian classical music who plays the sarod, a type of lute. Correction: In doing this blog I was checking my Time Out magazine and just noticed that this concert was LAST night. It's a good thing we decided not to go tonight after all.

I went to the Victoria Miro Gallery to see an installation by contemporary American artist and MacArthur Fellowship recipient Sarah Sze. Now I don't begin to get it, but it certainly was interesting and fun. She creates these intricate sculptures out of everyday materials: water bottles, push pins, paint sample cards, string, salt, toothpicks, fans, light bulbs, stepladders, the list goes on. Yet some pieces had some aspects of it that were quite simple, like the body of water she created using blue string and part of a plastic water bottle that appeared to be floating on top of it. (I didn't explain that very well and of course I didn't take a photo of it.) There were two floors of her sculpture, with two themes, A Certain Slant and Tilting Planet. The information sheet explains it thus: "In this new body of work Sarah Sze organizes space as if it is a remnant of human behaviour discovered by accident. The formal construction of the pound-store objects as rafts, nests, tents, and escape routes mimics the necessities that emerge from various survival mechanisms and states of refuge. Like an entire ecosystem, these individual objects participate in larger systems of interaction performing a role beyond their commonplace function." So there you have it.

I then met up with Gord and together we went to the Groucho Club and spent a relaxing couple of hours talking with Mitch Murray, a former songwriter whom Gord had interviewed for his book. One of his daughters plays Killer Queen in the musical We Will Rock You; it would be interesting to see her perform, but I'm not sure I can stand another musical based on the songs of a rock group (excluding Mama Mia of course!)--I'm thinking of the Billy Joel one, Movin' Out, and the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations. But we'll see.

For dinner, Gord and I ate at a nice restaurant with the not-so-nice name of Ooze (they were listed in this week's Time Out magazine as a runner up in their Best Cheap Eats category). They specialize in risotto (serving about a dozen different varieties) which seems to be one of Gord's favourite dishes these days.

Today I walked over to Kensington Palace. I spent a lot longer than I planned in their special exhibition on Princess Diana (five rooms, lots of video, photographs, interviews with dress designers and photographers, gowns). I don't know why but I was drawn in. The rest of the Palace was interesting--the apartments of King William and Queen Mary, Queen Victoria's bedroom. I also got a sense of our neighbourhood in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a nice little village outside of London with clean air.

After a dinner of leftovers, we went to see another play, The Enchantment, by Swedish author and playwright Victoria Benedictsson. I love those small, intimate theatres "in the round" where you feel as though you're on stage with the actors (although I think it must be much more difficult for the actors). Not a happy play, especially given its autobiographical aspect (for one thing, the script was found and published after Benedictsson's suicide) , but I thought it was good and well acted for the most part--I wasn't so keen on the lead male though, and I felt there were a few problems in the first half with setting up the hopelessness of the relationship. Curtain calls are much simpler affairs here, no calling people back a second or third time, and, for these plays anyway, all actors (no matter how big their roles) take their bows together.

Reading: Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureishi

Okay so I finally succumbed to the temptation of our downstairs bakery. Yesterday, Gord suggested we go downstairs for breakfast. Gord had eggs benedict and I had a nata tart which is a Portuguese pastry, basically egg custard in a little shell. But even worse, we had some of the students over for dinner tonight and we bought a beautiful strawberry tart from downstairs, also with a custard filling. So two days in a row. Not a good trend. I should have taken a photo but now it's too late. :-)

Today I did nothing outside. Once I finished uploading photos from yesterday and doing my blog, there was really not enough time to go out before starting dinner for the students. I think they enjoyed themselves. We walked them to the subway afterward. It had been cold all day; the night was cool but not too bad. Then we stopped in at the Elephant & Castle. I opted for a final gin and tonic of the season instead of a pint. Wouldn't want to get malaria.

The BBC has a documentary series called Storyville and yesterday it happened to be on Thomas Lynch, a poet, essayist, and funeral director from Michigan. My parents and his parents were very close friends, so much so that we called his parents Uncle Ed and Aunt Rosemary. Now I have watched very little television here, but I just happened to look at the listings in my Time Out magazine the night before. How fortuitous!

Today was absolutely wonderful. I went out to Kew Gardens to the Henry Moore installation of twenty-eight of his sculptures. It was perfect sweater weather, a few clouds, crisp fall chill to the air but warm in the sun. I walked for hours, except during the one-hour film, The Art of Henry Moore. This was a nice introduction to the artist, the narration was all in his words about his works. He said he prefers to see his sculptures out in the landscape rather than inside, so I think he would have been happy to see it here. Did you know that he thought the head (of his figures) was the most important part and that's precisely why he made them smaller--to accentuate the other parts? He also apparently spent lots of hours at the Wallace Collection looking at their armor (maybe I'll have to go back and look because I never fully appreciated that part of the museum--or maybe not), and at the Natural History Museum looking at bones, and at the Science Museum for his string pieces. I took about 100 photos (going through two sets of batteries). I've put them online at kodakgallery.com (which took forever to load for some reason and that's why my blog is late). If anyone wants to see them, let me know and I'll add your email address to my viewer list.

For the next six Wednesdays, we are having small groups of students over for dinner. Gord and I shopped in the morning at M&S, but it reminded me of Price Chopper because they didn't have a couple of basic items that were on my list. So when I got back from Kew Gardens Gord met me at Waitrose where we got a couple more things, but they didn't have yellow squash there either so we then had to go to Whole Foods. Whew. That was a lot of work for a simple meal.

Maybe I'm looking at things more critically here, but it seems that there is a lot more waste in regard to packaging in this city. So much of the food, both fresh produce and prepared, comes in plastic containers, or plastic trays with plastic wrap over them. I guess the focus is on easy, ready made meals. You can buy little sets of everything you need for a stew, ready to drop in the water, or for a stir fry, all packaged neatly together. There are also lots of dinners for one or for two with a lot more variety than we get, but with equal amounts of packaging. I just keep thinking of all the garbage this generates. And I used to feel guilty about buying the washed spring mix in its plastic container back home; well multiply that by five or more.

Oh, and those thin women I envied so much? I see many of them buying cigarettes. I guess I wouldn't trade places with them after all.