MrsHughey.com

What a week!

Well, this is going to be one of those "Erin tells us about what she did this week" entries. A long one, too. If you're not into those, move on with your web browsing. It's been a busy and fun week and I know my family and some of my lovely readers will have fun reading about it. For those who prefer insightful (ha!) commentary, maybe in a few days when I've caught up on my sleep! :-)

Let me break this down into days for ya.

WEDNESDAY

Worked in the a.m. (although, at this point, I couldn't tell you a thing about it!). After work, changed clothes and walked to the train station. My older sister (and only sibling), Kim, had already arrived on the London train and was waiting for us at the station. Unfortunately for her, she was wearing rather high-heeled boots. She must have forgotten my Oxford Oustiders Guide regarding shoes (just teasing, Kim!). Anyway, we walked back into town, showed her a bit of Hertford, introduced her to Simpkins, and then went to a sandwich shop for lunch. We go take-away so we could eat in the Hertford tea room. During our brief tour, we got to introduce Kim to several friends including Rich and Mindy.

After munching, I took Kim on the official MrsHughey Bodleian tour including the underground and such. This time we got a special bonus, too. My boss took us up onto the roof of the Radcliffe Camera! He's technically not supposed to, so don't tell! I don't like heights or stairs, so I must admit I said a few naughty words on the way up the tiny, old, spiral staircase that leads from the Upper Reading Room to the roof. But once we were up there, it wasn't scary. The view was terrific and we got to take some nice photos. Very cool! Andrew went along for that part of the tour, too.

After the tour, we went back to Hertford and I introduced Kim to Simon (college chaplain and our friend). We sat in his office for a bit and talked. He had just returned from Cambridge, where he had attended his VIVA (dissertation defense) and did spectacularly. Yay, Simon! I told him about going up to the Camera rooftop and he, in the middle of a sentence, absolved me for the cussing. It was funny.

Then we walked to the bus stop and took the bus up to our flat. We'd intended to walk and I was going to give a bit of a walking tour of Oxford, but Kim's shoes were hurting. So we went up to the flat, packed our remaining toiletries, and then headed back to the train station and then London.

After a crowded train and then a crowded tube ride, we arrived at a very nice hotel where my sister and her husband were staying. It's directly across the Thames from the London Eye and very close to the Millenium bridge. Big Ben is also just a few hundred yards from the hotel. Prime real estate! My sister's husband, Ron, put up for a room for us for the night. It was quite posh, although small, as pretty much all European hotel rooms are.

The only complaint we had was that our lights in our room didn't come on. It was so frustrating! The fuse blew when we hit the switch. The TV still worked, but it was very dark in the room and the lights just wouldn't work, so Andrew called and told the front desk. A little while later, we left and went out to dinner.

The Indian restaurant they wanted to take us to was either no longer in business or the concierge couldn't find it, but he booked us at another Indian place and we took a cab there. It was called The Red Fort and it made me laugh. It was SOOO snooty! LOL. The food was good, but it was very clean-lines and huge plates with teeny portions and that sort of thing. Instead of bringing the food out on trays and stands a guy came out wearing all black, carrying a huge silver tray in front of him with both hands and another person distributed the food. It was all very, very rehearsed and fancy. I can't even describe how they poured the water we order. Classic! Anyway, the food was superb.

After dinner, we took a private hire car (slightly different from a taxi - I'll tell you another time) back to the hotel. I was ready to crash, as was Andrew, but we were annoyed to discover our lights STILL hadn't been fixed! ACK! So Andrew called the desk AGAIN and this time they came up. A few minutes later, the lights all came on. A guy just had to change the fuse (which we TOLD the person on the first phone call!) and could do so from the hallway.

THURSDAY

We got up and had breakfast around 9 at the hotel. The food was good - nice combo of traditional English and American fare including cereals, juices, eggs, yogurt, fruit, bread, etc. A nice spread.

First, we headed for Westminster. We walked this time, despite Ron's great dislike for foot travel. On the way we went by Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment. We saw lovely statues and a big area with lots of anti-war protest signs. Westminster is very closeby, so we walked over there and went in. Andrew and I sprung for the £2 per person audio guides. They're like telephone handsets and you press different numbers to have them tell you about the area of the abbey you are in.

I was thoroughly impressed with Westminster. Not surprisingly, Poet's Corner was my favorite. I found myself crying over Tennyson's marker there. He's right next to another favorite, Robert Browning (who, incidentally, shares my birthday - although I was already well aware of that fact). I was most impressed by the monuments for Tennyson, Browning, Dickens and Wordsworth. Not because of the monuments so much as the feeling of being in their presence (some are actually buried there, some are not). I am a huge fan of the Romantics, so this was amazing and moving.

After the Abbey, we took a cab (Ron's legs were tired) to St. Paul's. My main reason for wanting to go there is sort of odd. The teacher who replaced me at the school where I taught last year is writing a book about England. We've remained friends and in pretty close contact since last summer when we met (via this web site). She asked me to write down the names from a couple of burials should I ever be at St. Paul's. Since I was in the neighborhood, I figured I'd oblige.

Unfortunately, St. Paul's is undergoing serious cleaning/refurb right now. So a lot of the neat stuff was hidden behind barriers and stuff while it was being worked on, and a good part of the cathedral wasn't visible. However, what we could see was breathtaking. The ceiling really is incredible, as are many of the tombs and memorials. It's a lovely church, although rather imposing and impersonal. But the artwork is breathtaking. I did manage to find the tombs and write down the info for Lynne, too.

Again, my fear of stairs and heights became an issue. The central area of St. Pauls is a large dome. Visitors can climb up to any of three different levels and look around. The first level, quite a bit above ground level, is called the Whispering Gallery because of its acoustics (I wasn't particularly impressed by the "whisper into the wall and somebody 60 feet away can hear you" trick as I've seen it in several other places), but also offers a nice view of the richly decorated dome and an alternative perspective of the ground level. I got a little vertigo here and there because the walkway was rather narrow and very uneven, but it wasn't so bad. The stairs were okay, too, because they were very wide, but there were a LOT of them and you couldn't see the end (spiral again), so that was frustrating.

Once we were up there, I knew I wasn't going any higher. My sister had already warned me not to, anyway, as she had been up to the top level and freaked out (she's not even afraid of heights!). So I went back downstairs while my brave Andrew decided to go up further. He stopped at the Stone Gallery first, the second-highest level. Unlike the Whispering Gallery, the Stone Gallery is actually outside. You're up on a rather high balcony looking out at the street below. Andrew tells me I MIGHT have been able to make it up the stairs to go there and probably could have handled the gallery itself since it had a nice big walking area and high balustrade.

After the Stone Gallery, he walked up a whole bunch (like 550) more steps to the highest point in the cathedral. If you look at pictures of St. Paul's you might notice a small dome at its pinacle. Andrew climbed up to the dome, which has a walkway OUTSIDE! AAAAAH! Instead of being inside the dome looking down at the church far, far, far below, one climbs up several hundred VERY narrow, scary stairs (Kim and Andrew agreed I would never, ever have made it up those stairs) to take visitors outside to see the street far, far, far below. You also have to walk around the dome to get back inside and downstairs, as the starwells are far too narrow to have people going up and down them. So there's an up and a down staircase. The walkway around the dome is also very narrow (there are several points where Ron had to turn sideways and walk to get by) and tilted out, so it feels like it's about to fall down below you. NOT my idea of fun. But I was safely at the "crypt cafe" - a little cafe in the lowest part of the cathedral near most of the tombs. I didn't eat there. Eventually, Andrew's high-altitude adventure ended and he met us in the cafe. He says he did not find it scary, but I would probably have died. I think that's about right.

By the time we finished at St. Paul's we were all hungry and rather tired, so we took another cab. This one was to Harrod's where we ate at their little cafe. We all had cream teas. Excellent scones, if not very scone-like. Then we shopped for a couple of hours. I love to shop, but wasn't particularly impressed by Harrod's. It was really like I expected it to be as far as the size and style of decoration, but I was disappointed in the clothing selection. I was teasing Andrew that he'd have to buy me a dress for Friday's black tie dinner there, but, frankly, I didn't see a dress I liked enough to want it - even if they weren't obscenely expensive. It was all very haute couture and ugly. Not for me. After hours of browsing, Andrew bought me a box of Godiva and then we left. Again, we took a cab.

We went back to the hotel, picked up our stuff, and went to the Tube. It was crowded, but we didn't have to change trains. It took us to Paddington where we boarded a regular train for Oxford. The London trains are pretty dirty, so it wasn't wonderful, but it wasn't bad, either. It was nice to take the train instead of the coach (bus) which we normally take to and from London. It's okay, but has a funny odor. Worse than the train odor.

So on Thursday night we got in, I added that little entry you see down there, and then we took the bus back to our flat and crashed.

FRIDAY

On Friday I was up bright and early for work. UG. After my shift I went shopping for the elusive dress for the black tie dinner. I was also in search of buff/neutral/brown shoes that aren't huge and chunky and casual. No luck there, but I did eventually find cute, non-leather black shoes and a pretty dress. The dress was on sale for £15 (unheard of here!) and the shoes were only £18. So I got a whole new outfit for the dinner for less than £35. Take that, Harrod's!

We arrived early for dinner as we were to have evening prayers with Simon. Unfortunately, our bus was a bit late and Simon had a dinner, too, so we had to forgo the prayers.

Our guests, Andrew and Dan, arrived right on time for our pre-dinner drinks and meet and greet. They fit in wonderfully with the Hertford MCR crowd (no surprise there). Our friend Emily is in the same program as Andrew (non-husband) and they already knew each other, so they got to chat a bit. The food was even yummy for once! We had a terrific time talking with our guests and the usual Hertford crowd throughout dinner and afterward. We got to show Andrew and Dan around the college and had a great time playing host. Around 11, we left (Andrew and Dan walked us to the bus stop as it was on their way to Andrew's flat - well, that and they're nice guys). What fun it was, really! We have such nice friends.

SATURDAY, ETC.

Today I worked my once-every-three-weeks Saturday shift. I was in the Exhibition Room. I normally like working there, but I was a bit sleepy this morning an almost dozed off a few times. I was much better after my tea break, though. I got quite a bit of reading done (still on The Two Towers but nearly finished). The exhibit was very busy today, so the shift went by quickly.

No plans for tonight, but tomorrow after chapel we plan to have dinner with our friend Emily.

This coming week we'll catch up on Buffy with a pot-luck dinner at Andrew's. YAY! I'm thinking I'll bring mac and cheese.

Posted by Erin at March 1, 2003 04:52 PM