fine...

ok mom, a new post.

uumm...
where did i leave off?
ok--that was thursday.
friday: started at southwark cathedral, then walked past the globe
(shakespeare!), the golden hinde (a ship...real live treasure chest),
and into the tate modern. i really want to paint now.
and then across the milennium bridge to st paul's cathedral, where
we definitely spent the rest of our afternoon, ending in randomly
staying for the evensong service. we sat in the choir section, which
is blocked off from tourists! yeah, teary eyes, lump in throat, all that.
it was beautiful.
and then fruit etc from marks & spencer on the steps of the cathedral
(all the while singing 'feed the birds' from mary poppins in my head!)
after this, we walked around. and saw some gorgeous buildings...in the
business section...like the temple of mithras, the national exchange...,
lloyd's of london, the gherkin...saw a lot of cool places. took pictures of
course.
that's friday in a nutshell.
saturday: um...oh yeah. we hung out with Gord and Eileen all day---best
day ever! (yes, i just sent them the link to this blog...:)) well, it was
pretty cool. lots of walking. lots and lots.
saturday was open house in london---buildings across the city were opened
up for the public to come in and see the insides WITHOUT paying admission.
so we saw marlborough house, including queen anne's pet cemetary..., then
off to the royal academy of arts. before we got there though, we were
sidetracked by london's fortnum and mason----wow...extreme shopping.
and not even--there's so much you can buy for SO much money. insane.
back to the dollar store for me...
ok so royal academy of arts wasn't free...except for the biology building, so we checked out that library, then had an emergency lunch
before splitting
up (gord went to see lloyd's of london interior, while we
saw some architectural
wonders...i forget what that house was called. check brine's blog for details.)
we had some time, so we went to the british museum for a bit... met gord
there and then started our pub crawl. well, more of a pub run. :)
pint here, walk again to north sea restaurant--brilliant fish and chips, and
traditional english desserts like warm custard bread pudding--yum! and
then more pints...and discussions of very interesting things--like how brine
and i are a lot like our mothers...future plans were included---down to the
hairstyles of our future hubbies!
so, just for the record (and based on gord's psychology major background...)
brine will eventually (probably a long time from now) marry a technologically
inclined man, very detail oriented...while i'll marry a very laid back guy with
curly hair. not tight curls, loose laid back curls. and i'm getting married first.
just so you know. it's on the record now. we didn't really bet on it--but it'll
be interesting to see how that turns out!!
uumm...that was a late night. we got home, crashed...and today's been a nice
slow day: late morning, did some laundry, we've got all our hostels figured
out for the next 2 weeks, booked and all! yessir. and then we attended the
evensong service at westminster abbey---wow! the choir boys were being
admitted to the choir today---it was really cool to be there for this service.
and the reverend deiniol morgan talked about how the church and its diligence
in teaching music knows what it's doing, for developing good strong people/leading
christians, etc.
i remember the gist...didn't take enough notes...but as we were walking out
(slowly of course!) the organist crescendoed into this crazy organ recital--
-totally filled that huge space with sound. that, and the choir singing the anthem
(o sing unto the Lord a new song: let the congregation of saints sing praise unto him.
Let Isral rejoice in him that made him: and let the children of Sion for ever sing
Alleluia (thomas tomkins 1573-1656, Psalm 149:1-2) just rolling over itself in
sound---love it.
so...favourite moments so far. :)
after that we walked a bit, had some hot chocolate and walked around more,
and here we are, finishing up our evening of more hostel booking, wine drinking,
underwear folding...and of course blogging. :)

that's all. tomorrow, meeting brine's friend robert, and hanging out in
london--possibly tower hill, hopefully some other things--maybe the
foundling museum, or a boat tour on the thames, or the eye...whatever
we're in the mood for. and then spending the night in the airport before
we leave for barcelona--so this is my last london post till oct.2. next
time you hear from me will be...in spain! or...paris! yaaah
bye