Bodhisartva ..... Art/Spirit/Life

One Year Anniversary!

It really snuck up on me!  I'm about to start my second year of blogging.  I'd like to post more often and with more art.  That's my resolution, anyway.

So, it's another Halloween.  I've been so busy at work and traveling that I wasn't able to do it up as exuberantly as I like.  I did do one fun thing.

 
I love this black feather wreath, so this year, I balanced it on the candelabra with some orange candles. 

My daughter thinks the jar of skeletons is creepy.  Good. I have succeeded.

Last Day in London; Ready to Go Home

The bells of St. Pancras church are tolling and I am relaxing before heading out to a pub with my colleagues.  The meeting was very productive and, even better - it appears I will be back in London in a few months!  This is a wonderful group of people, truly dedicated to helping those with vision loss and eye disease.  I'm glad to be a part of it. 

The only "touristy" thing I did was one for which I will always be glad.  I took a private tour (well, there were 19 of us) of Westminster Abbey, with an hysterical verger who was, I swear, Mr. Bean.  No kidding.

 

It took over 90 minutes and then I went back in and walked through again.  The sense of history and the shadows of all the people buried there, crowned there, married there...it was palpable.  Of course, there are a lot of quite unpleasant stories that go with most of these kings and queens and statesmen as well and there was a bit of an ick factor.  You know, things like beheadings and locking little princes in the Tower and what happened to Cromwell's corpse.  But.  I digress.

I will never understand how these edifices were built hundreds of years ago without our modern tools.  The height of the ceilings and the complexity of the design are mind boggling and awe-inspiring. 

Dashed around the area for a few quick sites but did not have time to linger.  But, now I can say that I saw Big Ben, Parliament, Whitehall, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, the Queens Horse Guards and Victoria Station.  Whew.

 

 

So that was my touristy few hours in London.  My favorite part of the trip was just walking around and one magical serendipitous experience which I will share later.

The joys of travel

Egads and gadzooks!  I am in London.  How did that happen?
I arrived at my lovely hotel around 3 p.m. yesterday via Kings Cross Station and no, I did not see Harry Potter nor his luggage cart.  I walked and walked and walked the neighborhood to stay awake for London time.  By 8 pm, I needed this bed.

I had the whole next day free and wanted to see the sights.  Alas, the first sights I saw were not the ones I had hoped to see.

Stopped to get some pounds and my ATM card would not work - in several places.  Hmmm, well, that could be inconvenient. I had a few scary hours while I waited for Los Angeles to wake up.  Finally decided to place an international call to the Credit Union and indeed they had blocked it. Problem solved and thank the lord.

 I bought a voltage converter in the US.  I brought the UK one with me.  But there was no USB end to stick in the magnetic slot.  Figured I had left it at home, so off to Apple at Oxford Circle for a replacement.  Wandered the wrong way, asked directions and couldn't understand them, finally found it and a lovely young man who listened to me v.e.r.y...h.a.r.d. and looked exceptionally confused.  This dumb and jetlagged American woman had completely confused him because it turns out that I had exactly what I needed all along but didn't know it!  Problem happily solved; hours sadly wasted.  Next stop...

The Apple converter only works for the computer, so I had to find one for my curling iron.  Last trip over, mine sorta sparked and melted, so something may have been wrong?  Decided to get one here to be safe.  I have not tried it yet, but I will let you know :0}  Had to search through three Boots before I found one; fortunately they are all over. 

At last!  Time for fun.  Wandered through Covent Garden and found 2 bead stores and some lovely people.  Had fish and chips for lunch in this cool/funny place and watched the world go by.  The London Bobbies set up a metal screening station right across from me and were stopping passersby to walk through it.  That made life interesting. I think they were training and using pedestrians as guinea pigs.  I walked in the other direction.

I'll tell more later, but for now, I leave you in Covent Garden and a special treat for my daughters and a certain niece of mine.  I did not, repeat, did NOT go into this store.