Helloo all!

It has been a while since I am made a typed post, as opposed to a photo post. I have been caught up with Scott's sister Kim being here and playing Tour Guide Barbie - see above. Kim was here for only 6 days, but we tried to squeeze as much in as we could without tiring us out completely. With only six days in a huge city like London, there is no way you will be able to see it all anyway, or even worth trying. You have to be realistic and figure out what you want to see, or what the guest might like to see. :-)

This was the itinerary for the week:
Monday - pick up from Heathrow, lunch with Scott near his work, walked around St Pauls, went to Harrods, Natural History Museum, barbeque for dinner.
Tuesday - British Museum, tour of Egyptian gallery and funerary traditions, shopping in Oxford Street, dinner in Brick Lane
Wednesday - Westminster Abbey, lunch in pub, Cabinet War Rooms, walk to Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, London Eye, dinner near Waterloo station.
Thursday - I went to work in the call centre, but Kim and Scott came to my museum to have a look around then went to Greenwich, went to see The Producers in the West End.
Friday - I went to work again, Scott and Kim went to Canterbury.
Saturday - we went to the Tower of London, to Greenwich on a boat, then had pie and mash for dinner.
Sunday - Took Kim to Heathrow.

So there you have it. A busy week, but it was lovely to see Kim. I know it was a little odd for both Scott and Kim as they don't really know each other much anymore. But the week together was a good start in the process of getting to know each other again. I hope they can maintain whatever they got out of the week.

In other news, I am going to be a mentor for one of the new staff. Should be interesting!

In a moment of homesickness, I was thinking about how blessed I am to have parents who love and support me. It doesn't matter how far away they are. I miss them, but I know they are only a phone call away, etc.

:-) Not much else to say really. I am waiting for my contract to turn up in the mail. I have to wait a month or so to get paid, which should be interesting!! ;-)

xxx

Recent photos

This is a view of Trafalgar Square down towards Whitehall. Between the buildings on the left you can see Parliament House.
The London Eye from below
The Horse Guards palace.
A horse guard.
Kim and Scott in front of a giant pipe near Scott's firm's new building. The building is built over an archaeological site, as is most of London! They have archaeological finds under glass tiles so you can see them, and walk on them!!
Westminster Abbey, the tourist entrance.
RRAAAARRGGHHH!! A dino in the Natural History Museum
A disposable barbeque we tried. Pretty useless actually, but only £1.97. They don't get hot enough. Next time I think we will try adding matches underneath to light other parts of it.
These are puppets a colleague of mine Jo and I made one boring day at work, last weekend. She made me and I made her. I am the blonde one, obviously!! I am very impressed. I gave her a towel, a sarong and a reversible handbag. Can you tell it was a quiet day at work?!!

Portsmouth Photos #2

Southsea, the town next to Portsmouth, has a hideous fun fair that looks tired and a bit sad.
Bill and Ben, the creepy children's ride men.
Bunny!!
Guinea pigs in a city park.
View of Portsmouth Harbour from the Spinnaker Tower.
Again from the Tower
My feet walking across the glass floor at the top of the Spinnaker Tower.
The Spinnaker Tower.

My obsession with sad old cranes is still hanging around. :-)

Portsmouth photos #1

This is one of the views the naval dockyard. I loved the number of cranes.
This is the Spinnaker Tower on the right with the mast of HMS Warrior.
HMS Victory, most of her.
This is rigging which seems to allow sailors to walk on the outside of the ship, but I am not sure what it is called.
HMS Victory in dry dock.
The masts of HMS Victory
The Mary Rose, showing the shape of the hull.
The delightful Mary Rose. Otherwise known as "half a ship in a car wash"
The stern of HMS Victory, the oldest commissioned ship in the world.

This was the view we had from the railway station.

It is Monday, a bit chilly outside and I had a great weekend.

Friday after work, I met Scott at Waterloo station and we took the train to Portsmouth. It took an hour and a hlaf to get there, so we arrived about 9.15ish. Daylight saving is great for that, as it was still light when we got there. We found the hotel we had to pick up our keys from then found the hotel we were staying in (about 300m apart). We stayed in a place called The George. Cheap, not too cheerful, but good enough and cheap enough not to worry.

We got some dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. It was the best Chinese food we have eaten since leaving home we think. Then we fell into bed.

Saturday morning we got up early, had breakfast and went to the Historic Dockyard. We started at the far end and worked our way back towards the entrance. So we began with HMS Victory. We could climb pretty much everywhere on the ship. It was fantastic. Really interesting. It is the world's oldest commissioned war ship (it still has a small crew and a captain). We saw the spot where Nelson fell, and where he died in one of the rooms below deck. I had seen pictures and illustrations of the ship before, but when it comes to life before you, and you can really see and understand how life was like back then on such a vessel, it is quite amazing. It was fun to be able to wander all over the ship. We had to bend quite low in some places, as the lower decks, especially where the guns were, were very low. Not good if you were tall!!

We saw the Mary Rose as well. The remains of the Tudor war ship were raised from the sea floor 2km off Portsmouth in 1982, and they are now housed in a special room. The hull, or half of it really, is constantly being sprayed with something called PEG - Polyethelyene Glycol (hopefully I can spell it). This effectively replaces the water in the wood with a waxy substance, which will preserve the wood. In 2011, they will start drying the ship, which will have been kept damp in the conservation process for 30 years. they hope to house both the remains and the 19,000 artefacts recovered in a combined museum, as currently they are in two separate places. I was truly taken aback by the Mary Rose. She is lovely. The graceful curving lines of the hull are clearly evident, as are the 5 levels of the ship. I heard someone describe it as "half a ship in a car wash". I guess that's true, but not a very romantic way of looking at it!! It is truly an amazing and exciting experience to be able to see something that had been lying on the sea floor for so long, and is now up and out of the water for all to see. Quite breathtaking.

We had a look at the Mary Rose Museum as well, which houses the artefacts from the ship. There were canons, a full medical kit, clothing, weapons. An amazing array of things you would not think would survive being on the sea floor for some 400 years. But silt is a wonderful thing if it allows no air and no sea bugs to get to the atrefacts.

After the dockyard, we took a boat cruise around Portsmouth Harbour. It was amazing to see the extent of the naval area. There were plenty of warships in the harbour that day - from France, Russia, the US (called USS Barry, which made me smile).

Then we went over to Old Portsmouth, where all the prostitutes and the like used to hang out. We had a drink in the sun, then had some dinner in the Spice Island Inn. Then it was off to the Spinnaker Tower to admire the views from 100m above sea level. We were lucky to have a nice clear evening. The sun was on its way down but there is plenty of light over here until about 9.45pm.

Sunday I had the day to myself as Scott had to go back to London in the morning to go to work. I went to Southsea which is the next town. Had a look at some markets, the seaside and the Castle. I was a bit disappointed with the castle, but it was still interesting. It was from there that Henry VIII watched the Mary Rose sink. I was back in London by 6pm.

I promise to post photos shortly!

Friday!!

Scott and I are heading towards Portsmouth for the weekend. I have always wanted to go there. We are staying in a cheap hotel, which is very central. It is a 17th century building. It no longer has a bar, as the owner let the licence lapse. But it is very handy to Old Portsmouth which is where we want to be. And they don't do breakfast, but it's a cheap place, and who needs a fancy breakfast anyway, right?

Scott thinks he will have to go to work on Sunday sometime. If I am enjoying myself I think I might go back slightly later than him. Poor thing, they won't leave him in peace! He was supposed to have a big deadline today, but they have pushed it back to early next week.

So, hopefully on Monday or Tuesday I shall update you all with our adventures in Portsmouth. Keep well. xx

Photos galore

I am now up to date with photos. These are below.

If you have any requests for photos, let me know!!

Orlaith. She's so cute!!
Orlaith and Sarah on the hunt for some booty.

Find of the day!!
Orlaith passed out in the pub.
A slime covered walkway near where we went mudlarking.

More York Photos

A treasure we found in the open store area - it's a model of the Victoria line tube system.

For all those Harry Potter fans...
View from the York wheel to the York Minster.

More photos from York

Thsi is inside the NAtional Railway Museum. Lots of shiny locomotives to oggle at. It was funny to see them from ground level, as we normally see them from platform level. So they seemed extra huge.
This is a view of the city wall from the Richard III Museum
I saw this old painted sign from the wall - "Nightly Bile Beans Keep you Healthy, Bright-eyed and slim". Really? Sounds good to me!! ;-)

This is York Minster, a medieval cathedral of gigantic proportions. It is visually stunning inside and out, with lots of gargoyles leering at you.
Best street name ever.
This is inside the Castle Museum. I am very fond of reconstructions, because then at least you can see how objects were actually used, rather than just seeing them in glass cases.
I really loved the juxtaposition of the modern sign and the medieval city wall behind it.
Sunset over York.