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Dispatch from London: test
Sep. 18th, 2002 11:54 amHi folks, Elizabeth here,
I'm trying to find out if my webmail address book works. Bear with me! and sorry
if you get the same news more than once.
Updates:
After much stress, I've found a place to live, starting 28th September, with three lovely women flatmates, 3 mins from Oval Tube station, and a modest cycling distance from work.
It's a 'maisonnette' (3 floor apt) above a pharmacy, as roomy as they come, with 4 bedrooms, 1 1/5 baths, kitchen and living room. I discovered that some advertised 'flatshares' do not actually include a living room - a smart thing to ask about!
The next challenge is...where to stay in the meantime? I'm booked at a hostel, but may well take up an SCA offer of floorspace extended through Thamesreach, because the hostel doesn't have a curfew(!), and apparently caters to partygoing backpackers. Stay tuned.
Work is beginning to pick up, with crises unfolding in Ethiopia, Southern Africa, Angola and Cambodia, where CARE is doing work. Read about any of them yet? Didn't think so - little seems to be able to 'beat around the Bush' at the moment.
On the sightseeing front, I walked around downtown City of London (the core square mile still referred to as The City) on the weekend, and was amazed to discover...a ghost town, abandoned to the rather bemused tourists, with very few shops open - evidently they're only interested in weekday trade.
With the exception of the area around the Museum of London and a few other tourist traps, you could shoot a cannon down Threadneedle Street, and only hit the occasional pigeon - which are, incidentally, even fatter than the ones in Ottawa.
The City is depressingly modern, glass and steel, and aside from the left-hand drive, you might as well be in any North American downtown. All the enticing street names - Threadneedle, Pall Mall, Poultry, London Wall Road, Cockspur Lane - are now exclusive banking and financial institution addresses. Bo-ring.
Only rarely do you see an occasional chunk of history - a piece of wall that stands alone, surrounded by modern building, a plaque and paving stone with a dedication to a past monument.
Somehow, after reading dozens of historical novels from Roman to Regency, I'd thought that London would retain more of its history, so that I could better picture my medieval characters in this place.
But instead, most buildings are 17th c or later, because of the great fire (1666) that cleaned out most of the city. Many sites have had structures in place for centuries, but you're not seeing the original building.
I walked round the Globe theatre (have to go back for a tour, available before noon), crossed on the Millenium Bridge (fancy-schmancy modern footbridge) and arrived... be still my heart, outside the gates of the College of Heralds!
Face pressed to the iron gates, I read wistfully that they keep only weekday bankers hours. I'll have to visit on my first weekday off. Sigh.
Took another London Walks tour, this time the ghost walk, to learn of the ghosts that continue to haunt The City - at St. Paul's, at St. Bartholomew's hospital, at the Old Bailey (site of the Newgate prison, which you read of in Sherlock Holmes and Thomas Pitt novels), among others. Excellent entertainment for £5.
This weekend, the London Open House is on, with many less public buildings open all weekend, to show off. Have to check the schedule to see where to visit for the most medieval bang for my buck...um, pound.
Well, all the clever things I wanted to pass on have fled my brain for the moment, so I'm off for dinner, and an unplanned evening.
I'm not terribly homesick yet. I'm waiting til I settle in with my stuff, to have time to get really nostalgic. But I am thinking of you, and trying not to be a 'in Canada we do X' bore. :-)
Regards,
Elizabeth
I'm trying to find out if my webmail address book works. Bear with me! and sorry
if you get the same news more than once.
Updates:
After much stress, I've found a place to live, starting 28th September, with three lovely women flatmates, 3 mins from Oval Tube station, and a modest cycling distance from work.
It's a 'maisonnette' (3 floor apt) above a pharmacy, as roomy as they come, with 4 bedrooms, 1 1/5 baths, kitchen and living room. I discovered that some advertised 'flatshares' do not actually include a living room - a smart thing to ask about!
The next challenge is...where to stay in the meantime? I'm booked at a hostel, but may well take up an SCA offer of floorspace extended through Thamesreach, because the hostel doesn't have a curfew(!), and apparently caters to partygoing backpackers. Stay tuned.
Work is beginning to pick up, with crises unfolding in Ethiopia, Southern Africa, Angola and Cambodia, where CARE is doing work. Read about any of them yet? Didn't think so - little seems to be able to 'beat around the Bush' at the moment.
On the sightseeing front, I walked around downtown City of London (the core square mile still referred to as The City) on the weekend, and was amazed to discover...a ghost town, abandoned to the rather bemused tourists, with very few shops open - evidently they're only interested in weekday trade.
With the exception of the area around the Museum of London and a few other tourist traps, you could shoot a cannon down Threadneedle Street, and only hit the occasional pigeon - which are, incidentally, even fatter than the ones in Ottawa.
The City is depressingly modern, glass and steel, and aside from the left-hand drive, you might as well be in any North American downtown. All the enticing street names - Threadneedle, Pall Mall, Poultry, London Wall Road, Cockspur Lane - are now exclusive banking and financial institution addresses. Bo-ring.
Only rarely do you see an occasional chunk of history - a piece of wall that stands alone, surrounded by modern building, a plaque and paving stone with a dedication to a past monument.
Somehow, after reading dozens of historical novels from Roman to Regency, I'd thought that London would retain more of its history, so that I could better picture my medieval characters in this place.
But instead, most buildings are 17th c or later, because of the great fire (1666) that cleaned out most of the city. Many sites have had structures in place for centuries, but you're not seeing the original building.
I walked round the Globe theatre (have to go back for a tour, available before noon), crossed on the Millenium Bridge (fancy-schmancy modern footbridge) and arrived... be still my heart, outside the gates of the College of Heralds!
Face pressed to the iron gates, I read wistfully that they keep only weekday bankers hours. I'll have to visit on my first weekday off. Sigh.
Took another London Walks tour, this time the ghost walk, to learn of the ghosts that continue to haunt The City - at St. Paul's, at St. Bartholomew's hospital, at the Old Bailey (site of the Newgate prison, which you read of in Sherlock Holmes and Thomas Pitt novels), among others. Excellent entertainment for £5.
This weekend, the London Open House is on, with many less public buildings open all weekend, to show off. Have to check the schedule to see where to visit for the most medieval bang for my buck...um, pound.
Well, all the clever things I wanted to pass on have fled my brain for the moment, so I'm off for dinner, and an unplanned evening.
I'm not terribly homesick yet. I'm waiting til I settle in with my stuff, to have time to get really nostalgic. But I am thinking of you, and trying not to be a 'in Canada we do X' bore. :-)
Regards,
Elizabeth
