My mom has come out to visit for the last week and we've been having a jolly good time. I'v spent most of my time here in the archives so her visit gave me an excuse to get out and see stuff in London. We covered the British Museum, the National Gallery (over 2 days - 2 art historians + incredible works of art + coffee +chocolate = pure bliss), the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Regent's Park, Westminster Abbey, Camden, Harrod's and a play. Harrod's was the disappointment of the week - it felt like an over-priced Vegas, although the experience of seeing fully veiled Saudi women engaged in conspicuous consumption of designer everything and 10s of 1,000s of pounds worth of jewelry was a definitely an experience. The highlight were the relatively cheap theater tickets we got for Billy Elliot. I was absolutely blown away by the production. The dancing was out of this world and the story - revolving as much around the 1984 miner's strike and unions and socialism in Thatcher's Britain as about being a boy who liked dancing - was refreshingly different for a musical. The music was very good (by Elton John), but the choreography and the acting really took center stage. I would see the show again in a heart beat.
Now my mom is headed home and I'm left to battle the archives with a nasty head cold. I'm sick, but fortunately it didn't get bad until her last day and I should be over it by the time L gets here on Thursday. Between then I have a lot of work to do, a seminar to attend, and an old english performance of Beowolf to check out. Oh yeah, and my flat to clean...
I will leave you with a photo I call enigmatically: Slug on Cannon
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