Yesterday I did some shopping and worked on packing, and that was about it.

Today I headed over to the institute where Gord teaches to hear Phyllis give a brown bag presentation on Jane Austen. I most definitely have to reread Austen's works and will work on that when I get back home. I think I'll read them in the order they were written this time. Gord had to meet a couple of students and so I wandered over to a small shopping street nearby to wait for him. There I found an eyeglass store and I left with a new pair of frames! I just need to get the lenses when I get home. (I hope I still like them when I get back.)

Tom and Jill and Jess came over for some wine and nibbles and then the five of us went out to an Italian restaurant down the street. Tom and Gord wanted to take Jess (the RA) out to thank her for all that she had done this semester. We had a nice time. Jess headed back to the residence hall for Wednesday night study break--tonight they were going to make gingerbread houses. The rest of us went to our pub, the Elephant and Castle, for a last drink.

The rest of the week is supposed to be rainy. Good packing weather.

I was at King's Cross Station at 8 AM only to discover that a round trip ticket to York would be 185 pounds. If I waited until 9:30 it would be 75 pounds. My book said it was 9.50 each way so I was not expecting that news. I was told that if I had booked it three weeks in advance it would have been much less. Well, I just couldn't justify that kind of money. So I will go to York on another trip to the UK. A little disappointing, but I got over it. :)

I looked in the WH Smith bookstore at the train station and then walked around Islington for much of the morning, looking in stores, making some small purchases. I talked to this old tailor for quite a while, while looking at the scarves he sold in the shop that he has had for 36 years. We talked about retirement. He doesn't know what he would do if he retired (and I'm sure he was eligible about 15 years ago!)--he works seven days a week. He thinks people are very lazy nowadays and rude to boot. Not like the old days.

I then went to the British Museum to try to get down to their basement rooms but they were closed again. I talked to some guards who said they would be closed until February. A little disappointing, but I got over it. Took some final photos of the Great Court.

I then went to the Portrait Gallery to see the Photographic Portrait Prize 2007 exhibition. This annual exhibition presents sixty photographs by amateurs, professionals, and photojournalists whose works were selected from 7,000 entries in an open competition. It was quite good and definitely worth a visit (and the price was right, too--only one pound).

I stopped at the Gloucester Road Waitrose for some supplements to the dinner I had planned, because I thought Debbie was coming over, but then she had to cancel at the last minute. I don't know how we're going to eat all the food we have accumulated. I wonder if the landlords, who arrive two days after we leave, like oatmeal and rice and tea?

Man, I've done a number on my feet and joints this trip. I wonder if orthotics and glucosamine are in order. . . .

Today Gord and I went to the "Sunday Morning Coffee Concert at Wigmore Hall" where we heard the Arcanto Quartet. They played Puccini's Crisantemi, Beethoven's String Quartet in F minor Op. 95 "Serioso", and Bartok's String Quartet No. 6. And they played beautifully. The Bartok was particularly difficult, but the performance was wonderful (perhaps because they recently released a recording of it?). I was not familiar with this, his last, string quartet, but it was very recognizable as Bartok. And what an interesting ending--so quiet, not your typical, obvious ending. For the after-concert refreshments, we opted for the sherry instead of the coffee or juice. After all it was past noon!

We spent the afternoon quietly at home, Gord marking papers and me back working on the inventory list which I had put aside weeks ago. See? I'm taking my new approach to my last week very seriously. I don't have to see everything. I'll be back someday. Relax, enjoy, reflect.

Then Jo, down from Manchester for a seminar, came over for dinner. We had a very nice visit. I am regretting that I never got up to Manchester. But, I WILL get back someday.

As I sit writing this, I can hear the wind picking up outside. It's actually quite loud. But tomorrow is supposed to be the nicest day this week, cold but partly sunny. Cold, I suppose, is a relative term to those of you in the northeast. You would probably enjoy some weather in the low 40s about now.

My plan for tomorrow is to take an early fast train up to York. It's 195 miles north of London, about the same distance as Saratoga to NYC, but you can get up there in two hours--an easy day trip. And it is still consistent with my plan to relax a little (although Gord isn't quite convinced!). I will have four hours of reading time on the train and another four to six hours exploring this medieval walled city and its Minster. It sounds perfect to me.

This morning, Phyllis, Gord and I took a train to Orpington, then a bus to Down House, the home of Charles Darwin. He and his wife Emma lived in the expansive home for forty years, and they raised their family there, eight of the ten surviving to adulthood. This is where he wrote On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man, as well as his other books. The rooms have been nicely restored and, with the help of the audio guide narrated by Sir David Attenborough, one got a good sense of who Darwin was, including as a father. (I can't imagine his children running throughout the house and interrupting him while he was trying to write and do research.) The grounds were beautifully maintained and I only wish I could see it again when the flowers are in bloom and when it wasn't so cold. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

We returned back to London and parted company with Phyllis at Victoria Station. Then Gord and I went out to Hammersmith to meet up with Jen et al. at the Riverside Studios to see a Butoh piece called Bye Bye Reflection by one of Japan's leading physical theatre companies. I'm not sure what to say about it other than it was very powerful and violent. I was unfamiliar with Butoh as a form. This piece was billed as a critical portrait of war, violence and prejudice, inspired by 9/11. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I heard rumours of rock music and strobe lights, none of which happened in the 70-minute piece. In fact, it was quiet for most of the performance and the performers moved very slowly and precisely. Occasionally a performer would emit these powerful cries of anguish from their very depths that were quite disturbing. I went with it, not truly understanding it, but it helped to hear the discussions afterward by Jen, Josh and some other theatre aficionados who were in attendance.

I'm going to be perfectly honest. I had a lovely day, a wonderful meal, drank a little too much wine, and I'd love nothing better than to go to bed right now because it's 12:40AM and I'm tired and I have a full day tomorrow. But there's this darn blog. . . ! So instead I'm going to spend at least an hour cranking out an entry. (Do you sense that I'll be happy to be done with it?!)

Anyway, today I took a train out to West Dulwich and then walked to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, which has been on my list from the beginning. I was excited to see it because The Hyde loaned a Winslow Homer painting for an exhibition here a couple of years ago (I mistakenly thought it was Hassam's Geraniums when I mentioned it in an earlier blog entry), and also because Sir John Soane designed the building, and also because they have some Rubens and Rembrandts and van Dycks and Gainsboroughs and many, many more artists' paintings in their permanent collection. They also had a special exhibition, The Age of Enchantment: Beardsley, Dulac and their Contemporaries 1890-1930 about the Golden Age of illustration. Did you know that Aubrey Beardsley died at the age of 25? Just think of how much more he could have produced had he lived longer. This exhibition had 145 pieces by artists with whom I was familiar as well as new artists, and it was much more interesting than I was expecting. The works were displayed in such a way that you could get up very close to most of them, many of them very detailed pen and ink drawings, or watercolours. In addition to Beardsley, the artists who were represented here included Kay Nielsen, Laurence Housman, Charles Ricketts, Edmund Dulac, Sidney Sime, Harry Clarke, Jessie King, Annie French, Arthur Rackham, Charles Robinson, Willy Pogany, Alastair, Daisy Makeig-Jones, and the twins Charles Maurice Detmold and Edward Julius Detmold.

I met my friend Jen in their nice little cafe where we had a leisurely lunch. Among other things, we talked through my need to complete my list, my fears that I won't have the opportunity to get back here very soon, and Jen convinced me that of course I'll get back and that I should just enjoy my last week here, and do fun things. I suddenly got what she was saying! With the visit to Dulwich, I've basically covered all of the most important items on my list. I'm not going to finish and IT'S OKAY. It was very liberating. Thank you, Jen, for that. I needed someone to point the obvious out to me.

When I went to get my coat to leave, I discovered a little chapel attached to the museum that hadn't been open earlier. It was called Christ's Chapel and I just had to go in and have a look. We then walked to the North Dulwich train station, stopping in some little shops along the way, and parted company. What a nice little village...so different from London and yet so close. Jen also mentioned how nice York is, and I think I may just do a day trip there next week.

Home at 5:30. Phyllis, visiting from Skidmore, came over for wine and cheese and the three of us went to dinner at a wonderful little Italian restaurant, Timo, down 3/4 of a mile on the High Street. I only wish we had discovered it sooner. (I think we might even have closed the place!)

Tomorrow we had planned to go to Hampton Court Palace, but after talking to Jen I decided it could wait. Then at dinner we found out that Phyllis was headed out of town in the morning to visit Darwin's house and decided she needed company. We made plans to meet her at King's Cross station. And so it goes.

It's after 1:30, and I'm off to bed. 'Night all. Sweet dreams.

And wedding congratulations to Thomas and Annie!

Went to the Benjamin Franklin House and booked the next tour. I had about forty minutes to kill so I walked over to St. Martin-in-the- Fields. The outside, of course, is still covered in scaffolding, but the inside is beautifully restored. It was designed by James Gibbs and completed in 1726, but the first church on the site was built in the middle ages over 700 years ago. I had been in the crypt many times, but walked through it again on my way out.

Benjamin Franklin House was restored and opened to the public in January 2006, on the 300th anniversary of Franklin's birth. It was built in 1730, and Franklin lived there between 1757 and 1775. The Benjamin Franklin Historical Experience, as the 45-minute tour is called, combines a live actor with state-of-the-art sound and visual aids, bringing history to life in a unique and enjoyable way. Interspersed throughout the rooms were some of his famous quotes. An introductory piece talked about Franklin as scientist and inventor, but the main focus was his time in London, the Stamp Act, and his role as mediator between Britain and America.

I then walked over to Leicester Square to see about getting some discount tickets for a play tonight, but they were not offering tickets for any shows that I felt compelled to see. (I suppose the really good plays aren't discounted.)

I walked next to Covent Garden and the newly reopened London Transport Museum. They have a beautiful building, some wonderful trains, buses, and carriages on display, and a lot of information in the form of wall text and flat screen televisions and computers, but all in all it was very disappointing. The layout of the museum was very confusing, one did not know which way to move throughout the displays, and many hands-on activities were difficult and sometimes impossible to figure out. It wasn't just me, either. I struggled with a game wherein you try to beat the computer as you both drive an underground train to the next station. I could not figure out how to get it to work. I thought I was driving the train but the screen indicated I hadn't even left the station! A young fellow came by and, thinking he would know how to operate it, I quietly stood back and watched him. He couldn't figure it out either. At another area, an older visitor showed me how to make the controls work, but there were no instructions posted anywhere. You could tell that they had spent a ton of money, so it was doubly sad that the design was so poor. I happened to run into Jill and Tom and they were equally disappointed. There were a lot of displays that were not operational. I think they must be working out some very major kinks, since they've only been open two weeks. But I would not recommend rushing to see it. It's really a shame, because it has the potential to be very good. If they simply improved the trail guide/map it would help immensely. And the museum shop was horrible too!

Dinner at home with Gord.

Two plaques today:

The goods news is that I've managed to visit twenty-one sites from my list of November 8. The bad news is that there are fifty-four places left on that list! (I admit that I added a few since the original list.)

So I'm officially removing the following: National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Chelsea, Oratory Catholic Church, Bethnal Green Museum of Children, Science Museum, Museum in Docklands, Kensal Green Cemetery, Florence Nightingale Museum, HMS Belfast, Museum of Garden History, Bramah Museum of Coffee and Tea, Royal Albert Hall tour, Winston Churchill's Britain at War Experience, Bank of England Museum, Dr. Johnson's House, St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Hunterian Museum, Museum and Library of the Order of St. John, Cartoon Museum, St. Pancras New Church, Theatre Museum, St. Margaret's Church, Westminster Cathedral (as opposed to the Abbey), Highgate Cemetery, Keats House, Vinopolis, Clowns Museum, Old Bailey, Sherlock Holmes Museum, The British Postal Museum & Archive.

That leaves twenty-four, but only nine days in which to do it. Still not looking possible. I'll just have to whittle it down some more. And I suppose I'll have to spend some time packing. . .

It took me an hour to get there by a combination of tube and bus, but I finally made it to the Geffrye Museum in Shoreditch this morning (and it was well worth it). Founded in 1714 by Sir Robert Geffrye, the museum buildings were originally almshouses for about fifty pensioners, each of whom lived in one room. Shoreditch became one of the most densely populated areas of London and in 1912 the pensioners were moved to a new location. The museum then opened in 1914, with a focus on furniture and woodwork. It evolved to its current focus on interiors and gardens of the urban middle classes from 1600 through the 1990s. There are about ten beautifully presented period rooms, taking you through the main living room/parlor/drawing room of a typical middle class family beginning in the early seventeenth century through to the present day. It was very well done. Unfortunately this was not the time of year to see the gardens. But there was a very nice special exhibition, Home and Garden Part 4 (1960-2004), of about 60 paintings of twentieth century urban interiors and gardens. It really was a very lovely museum, with a nice shop and what appeared to be a very nice little restaurant, as well as lots of special activities, talks, and workshops for adults, teenagers, children, and families. And what a bargain! Admission is free and the audio guide is only one pound. They also have a restored almshouse that is open about three times a month.

From there I went to Hyde Park Corner to Apsley House, the home of the first Duke of Wellington (and his successors). The house, designed by Robert Adam in the 1770s with additions by Benjamin Wyatt fifty years later, was pretty amazing, as was Wellington's illustrious military career, but I was most interested in the paintings by Goya, Rubens, Steen, Brueghel, Correggio, Lawrence, de Hooch, Velazquez, Maes, Tenniers, van Dyck, et al. The only unfortunate thing was that there were scores of schoolchildren visiting today and nobody seemed to have told them about good museum manners. The very informative audio guide was difficult to hear over the cacophony of voices. I went in the opposite direction to avoid one group only to come upon another group! But I got through it.

I then went across to the Wellington Arch and took some pictures from the top (not great ones, but that's okay). There were three levels inside, one with a history of the arch, another devoted to an exhibition on the nearby New Zealand War Memorial, and the last was an exhibition on the blue plaques.

I raced home to get ready for tonight's reception. The London-based parents of a freshman at Skidmore hosted a party for the Skidmore students who are studying in London (along with the Skidmore faculty and spouses). They very generously opened up their beautiful home to all of us and it was a lovely catered affair.

So I may steal an idea from a relative-in-law of Belle (who reads and sometimes comments on my blog). This relative lives in London and for Thanksgiving started an ABC list of things to be thankful for in this fair city. This was her list.

• Albacore tuna in cans for 99p at Whole Foods on Ken High Street.
• Borough Market
  
• Camden Passage Antique Markets
• Diana memorial in the summer
• Eaton Square
• and so on and so on.....

I'd love to do my own, if I can find the time. It may have to wait until I get home. Hmmm, something to do on the plane!