Charloween

This town has the best graffiti:



(I've been trying for months to remember to take a picture of this. Luckily today was sunny enough, the top front seat on the bus was free, and there was time to take the picture while I was on the bus. \o/)

Home from Ireland (yay!). My pictures are slowly uploading, but for now I'll offer this:

The Guinness Storehouse (factory + museum) is like a Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for adults, and with beer. And it only smells a little like chocolate. Mostly it smells of roasting barley.

Yes, there's even a waterfall (of water, not stout):

I've been a bad blogger - I did Something Interesting a few months ago (ie went to Chicago, briefly) and never posted the pictures. This is all the more embarrassing because the lovely talitha78 was kind enough to show us around and I never mentioned it again. D:

So.

Glowing balls:


GIANT BEAN:


( And a few more shots )

As always, the ol' bank account is the big limiter. I mean, I want to go. ( warning: boring )

In the interests of being less boring: pictures from my cell phone!


( a signpost in an Icelandic bus stop )

( a dune on the Aberdeen sea shore )

( an Ontario Heritage sign in the middle of Warwickshire )

( a cat who would like me to stop taking her picture )

( a street in Warwick )

( a bit of Warwick castle )

( taken from the train as we passed through )

( Southampton )

( a view from the medieval city wall in Southampton )

( more of the same )

( the Southampton Maritime Museum )

( my latest half-knit Dalek )

( the lace scarf I'm working on )

On Saturday my parents and I went to the African Lion Safari (bored animals!) and the Halton County Radial Railway (streetcar museum!).

The African Lion Safari was worth it to see the elephants hanging out in their lake, swimming and playing. I guess I'm really not an animals person: watching animals sit around and eat gets old pretty quick. That doesn't mean I wasn't duly impressed by the various kinds of deer (or stop me from wondering if they breed one particular kind of deer as lion food).

But.

Let's be entirely honest: I was more into the streetcar/tramway museum.

( Pictures! )

( Pictures of elephants! )

( Pictures of beautiful old streetcars! )

( Picture of my father looking at things! )

Once upon a time, four grad students went to DC... ( clickez for fotos )

It was a phenomenal six days. Two of those days were spent driving, but we had the audiobook of Dreams From My Father for the way down and the audiobook of America: The Book for the ride home. Many thanks to our lovely hostess for the fantastic bed, the warm reception and the chauffeur-to-Metro. Everyone we met was kind and wonderful (except for the waitress from hell, but even she was comically horrible), and it seemed like the entire city was made up of ridiculously happy people. We made new friends, remade old friendships and had a darn good time.

I'll have more pictures when I meet back with the other four and we exchange photo files. But no pictures can really replicate or even hint at what it was like to be there. Pictures can't replicate the feeling of sunlight (finally peeking out from the clouds) warming your face after 6 hours of sub-zero windy weather, knowing it's another two hours before Obama is even supposed to arrive.

Pictures can't tell you what it was like to hear the middle-aged black women behind you in the crowd of millions repeating over and over again, "We did it, I can't believe we did it, praise the Lord we did it," and knowing that you have no way to understand - being too young, and too white, too Canadian, even - the magnitude of what you're witnessing.

Pictures can't describe going to someone else's county to watch their leader take some ceremonial oath of office and being moved to tears by politics. Of all things, tears of joy over politics.

The entire thing was equal parts surreal and fantastic (but more on that later), and I'd never been witness to so much unbridled Americanism. We're so lucky that we had this chance to head down there, and to be a part of it all. I'm going to sleep for 36 straight hours now, and leave my email for the morning...



(a woman and her niece were collecting signatures on a bedsheet to take back home)


Edit: score one for women in academia, 'cause Jill Biden was introduced not as Mrs. Biden, but as Dr. Jill Biden. I looked her up on wiki, and they say she earned her doctorate in Education.

As promised, here are some more pictures from the trip to Wales. I'm home now, and I think I might be on Eastern Time again. Maybe. It sucks that I'm not in Denmark right now as the original plan had it, but you know, maybe next time. (sigh)

( Pictures! )

The flight home was entertaining. I was sitting with two guys (both in their mid-30s) who're both travelling because of job interviews. The British guy was moving to Canada to be with his wife, and had a job interview or two lined up for when he arrived. The other guy, a Canadian, had been at an interview in the UK somewhere. The thing was, the British guy totally had his shit together and the Canadian guy was well on his way to being a whiny loser. He wasn't a full-on complainer just yet, but he was getting there.

As for the food, well... Air Transat's "hot meal" is a President's Choice tv dinner. If you're into that, cool, but if you're expecting food, then you'll be disappointed. It wasn't totally inedible, but I've had better meals in my life. The movies (that I didn't watch because the earphone jack was broken) were: Get Smart and something I slept through on the way over, with Hancock and The Incredible Hulk on the way back. The Incredible Hulk is hilarious on mute, or rather, when the soundtrack is the folk-rock, indie cool and classic metal on your unPod. Some of the green screen looked really bad even on the crappy tiny airplane televisions. Hancock I might go back and watch properly, instead of sleeping through it and watching the rest without sound - but I still can't look at Jason Bateman without thinking "Michael Bluth", which could be a problem.

The flight was good, though. The worst I've ever been on was a terrifying trip from Atlanta to Asheville where even the scary tattooed biker guys thought we were going to crash and die. Air Transat's not spectacular, but they get you where you're going with a minimum of fuss. The strangest thing was that it totally feels natural now. This year I've taken more flights than in the past ten years, combined. It's all rather old hat. I feel so grown-up. :D

Also, back in July and with this trip both, the customs guys at Pearson were super-interested in what I was studying, where I was studying it, making me prove I was a real student, etc. Nothing major, and nothing to complain about, but it's still funny. The complainer from the plane found me again at the baggage return, and complained about the last time he flew into Pearson the baggage handlers dented his luggage. I probably could have cared less. Then he went on about how the customs folk figured that he's dealing drugs and so he always gets hassled. By this time I really don't want to hear him say anything more. So imagine my glee when he gets pulled off for a full search just before we make it out of the customs maze. Karma for being tedious, I tell you.

I bought the Long Way Round book at the Cardiff train station, which means I had to start downloading the series (and the sequel) as soon as I got home. It's quite adorable, and far better than I thought it would be. I also bought-and-read Pratchett's Nation on the way back. Such a good book. No words to describe. Just: good book.

Edit: swapped in the proper photo for a repeat.

The running joke of the vacation was how civilized things were. But then, there was a book vending machine at Heathrow - obviously they know something about capitalism that North America has yet to pick up on. And no, we didn't get to see Hamlet, but it would have cost $500 to get tickets off of eBay and I have my limits.

Anyway. Cardiff was hilarious, London was fantastic and the museums were all a little creepy.

Highlights:
1. Me and piratefanatic outside the Millennium Centre in Cardiff. The picture is wacky-underexposed because Teagan was taking the picture and didn't know how to use my camera.


2. An inappropriate suggestion from an interactive display at the Doctor Who exhibition.


3. Cardiff: A Fine Place to Raise a Family.


4. Look! A room full of bits from the Parthenon! (On Teagan's camera there's a shot of me doing a thumbs-up move in front of the Rosetta Stone. Good times...)


5. Oxford! Just under that bridge and to the left is a fantastic hidden pub.


Gone 10 days and there're lots of stories to tell (and pictures!) but for now this'll have to do. I got back yesterday afternoon and was at work today, so I'll probably stumble around the next few days in a wee haze while I get those residence handbooks completed and printed.

The weather was gorgeous, the food was fantastic, the tea was excellent (they do tea better over there, I don't know what that's all about) and I've got plenty of ideas about what to do next time and how to document it. (MOAR PICTURES and not dropping and breaking my camera would help with that last one...) It drizzled a little on our first day there, but the rest of the time it was lovely blue skies. I got a tan and everything. I also only bought two pairs of shoes, which I feel showed remarkable restraint.

On the bus home from work today, a friend was reading Neverwhere. Amusing, since I'd just spent the last week quietly geeking at the names of the Tube stations.

( moderate Turn Left spoiler )

( same image, after watching an entire season of BSG )

...And then not a macro, but some pre-ep mumbling for DW 4x13: ( Read more... )

Dalek-in-progress photos after the cut: ( Knit, purl, exterminate )