A break in the heat
It rained nicely (we SO needed it). It's only in the 70's, lovely. Now for more gentle rain and we'll be good.
Hey guys, I'm having an author's chat on Goodreads tomorrow. It's for The Darkest Midnight in December. If you have a goodreads account, I would love for you to join me. You can find more info HERE They sent out 1000 invites and 7 people said yes (which is about par for the course, I believe they invite everyone who has a DSP account). I really wish there had been at least one review of the novella.
Speaking of novellas, if you have the Scarred Soldier one and mean to read it, I'm getting ready to do the next level of edits on it.
I have fridays off in the summer. That doesn't mean I accomplished anything I wanted to. I DID get to set up the new drying rack I got at costco's. it's enormous but at least it folds easily once I figured out what I was doing. Kanda thinks it's a place to hide under.
He's not happy. He had his nails trimmed and got furminated. Soul is still at the vet's. If she thinks I'm paying for him staying again, she's wrong. For that matter, I never signed off on ANY work. She ought to get on and tell me what she thinks is wrong (they keep telling me they can't find anything. He's bleeding. It's NOT the food. So you tell me, doc.)
Bob_fish and I headed out to see some of the other London sites, namely Highgate Cemetery, a taphophile's delight. She also wanted me to see Highgate Village. I really liked the village. It's cute. ‘It's just a short walk from the tube,’ she tells me. I may have a slightly different definition than Bob_fish, i.e. the pathetic and whiney definition. Once we got to town and I saw the hill down to the cemetery, I wasn't sure how I'd get back up it.
The tour was great. The guide was entertaining. We had two Goth-Loli girls on the tour. havocmangawip would have loved them. I was stunned how overgrown it is. It's like a jungle with headstones in it. I'm not sure how they can stop it from losing it without a lot of money. He explained all the Victorian symbols. Ivy being both pagan and Christian, every lasting and ever green for the former and three pointed for the latter, the upside down torches for life extinguished, hands pointing up to the heavens (or down there from). They even had a couple ouroboros on some. The egyptianesque lotus walk was really neat and the rows of mausoleums were fantastic. Radclyffe Hall's mausoleum was there.
They did let us into a mausoleum where the coffins were still exposed in loculi. Some of them are falling to pieces, but you could still see the fancy outer coffins used to show just how much money the family had. There was also the Julius Beers mausoleum made for the man's eight year old daughter to the tune of 3 million dollars in modern terms. Sadly when Highgate fell into disrepair, kids busted out the windows and the birds used it as a roost. They had to repel inside thru a window and clean out six ton of bird poop. They let us look in. The ceiling was gold gilt but we couldn't go in because the acidic bird poop weakened the delicate flooring.
There was a cool lion headstone for a guy who started his menagerie as the story goes by poking around at the docks and seeing two boa constrictors in a box. He bought it for a large sum of money and charged people a penny a peek, making enough to eventually get his traveling animal menagerie. Nero was his favorite lion and Nero's likeness remains with him in death. There was also one with a dog, the faithful companion of a bare-knuckle boxer so popular that over ten thousand people attended his funeral.
We decided to skip the self guided side of Highgate (with Karl Marx and George Elliot's graves) and go to Westminster. I had to stop several times going up the hill. Between anemia and asthma, I don't get a lot of oxygen to my muscles so they cramp. We took a side tour to wander by Terry Gilliam's house and topped into a Georgian inn, the Flask (very cool).
welcome to Highgate
jungly
recently cleaned
overgrown
This would have been done up in Egyptian coloring, reds and blues
through the Hall of Kings (or whatever it was called. There were large wall crypts in this)
just past the Egypt Tunnel a rotunda of mausoleums with an enormous tree in the donut of the ring.
Radclyffe Hall
Nero
Julian Beers (the 3 million dollar tomb)
see what I mean about I have no idea how to save this place from utter destruction? However, it looks cool.
I’ve never seen a sleeping Angel in all the graveyards I’ve been in.
the doors have lots of the aforementioned symbolism, circles of life, extinguished torches, ivy etc.
Never seen an Ouroboros before either.
We caught the bus to Westminster Abbey, got the prerequisite picture in front of Big Ben. The Parliament building is fantastic. However, what we didn't know was that Westminster Abbey closed to visitors in the early afternoon (I mean who would think that?) I was terribly disappointed but such is life. I got to see the outside of it which is stunning enough. I suppose I should have looked it up before we left but it never occurred to me such an important site would roll up the sidewalk so early. We did wander through the St Catherine Cloister which was very neat. As we were deciding where to go next, the Necrobus passed by, a double decker bus done all in black and tricked out like a hearse with red velvet and little lamps. We looked it up but it was expensive and it would be more fun to walk. Too bad I didn't have another night.
Big Ben
Parliament
Westminster
details of Westminster
cute little dragon
neat
Inside St Catherine’s. I just liked the details
Since we now had time to kill before Dr. H joined us for the ghost walk, Bob_fish showed me some other London communities, like China Town. We had dinner there and I got to try Xiaolongbao for the first time, little soup filled dumplings. My eggplant and garlic sauce was yummy. We also went to Trafalgar Square then to Soho. Soho was far too crowded for me. I'm not into packed bars any more (Had I been 20 years younger...okay they still weren't my thing but I'd have done it). We did have coffee at the Cafe (bar?) Italia which I guess is a bit of a landmark.
The Ghosts, gaslights and Guinness tour was great fun. I had a bit of trouble hearing sometimes because of road noise (I have hearing loss so...) but it was fun, very good guide, very informative. I particularly liked the story in Lincoln Fields park at the pavilion of a botched beheading. Supposedly the man being beheaded gave the executioner 6 guineas to kill him in one blow since the man had botched it on someone else recently. The first blow barely hurt the man who had something to say about it. It took so many blows that the executioner gave up until the angry mob inspired him to finish the job with a knife. The beheaded man haunts the pavilion area.
The pavilion where he was beheaded.
There was a haunt of a student at the housing for law students. This student would rather gamble, drink and whore than study but one night he was haunted but the face was his own only horribly beaten. He shaped up but it didn't last and his creditors did beat him to death.
I also like the Drury theatre which had an underground tunnel over to a house across the street where Nell Drury lived. The king (one of the Georges I think) would sneak under the street to Nell's for some loving when he was supposed to be watching a play. The Drury had Shrek the musical going on and we were set free for drinks at Old Nell's. Afterwards, the guide told us about the haunt who liked to propel people into the spotlight in the Drury Theatre. During this, someone stumbled out of the pub, puking his guts out. Whee.
Nell’s.
There were more piles of puke outside of bars on the way to the next destination. There was the Old Curiosity Shoppe of Dickens fame (I think this was actually before the Drury) and it ended at Coventry Garden. He told us about two other haunted pubs. We went to the Lamb and Flask but since it was late, I decided not to stay, figuring we'd been out all day and Dr. H had to work so I thought it was time to go. The really cool thing was they do TONS of walks, literature, historical and ghosts. It would be fun to do more of those. It was a nice way to end my vacation.
Speaks for itself
Hey guys, I'm having an author's chat on Goodreads tomorrow. It's for The Darkest Midnight in December. If you have a goodreads account, I would love for you to join me. You can find more info HERE They sent out 1000 invites and 7 people said yes (which is about par for the course, I believe they invite everyone who has a DSP account). I really wish there had been at least one review of the novella.
Speaking of novellas, if you have the Scarred Soldier one and mean to read it, I'm getting ready to do the next level of edits on it.
I have fridays off in the summer. That doesn't mean I accomplished anything I wanted to. I DID get to set up the new drying rack I got at costco's. it's enormous but at least it folds easily once I figured out what I was doing. Kanda thinks it's a place to hide under.
He's not happy. He had his nails trimmed and got furminated. Soul is still at the vet's. If she thinks I'm paying for him staying again, she's wrong. For that matter, I never signed off on ANY work. She ought to get on and tell me what she thinks is wrong (they keep telling me they can't find anything. He's bleeding. It's NOT the food. So you tell me, doc.)
Bob_fish and I headed out to see some of the other London sites, namely Highgate Cemetery, a taphophile's delight. She also wanted me to see Highgate Village. I really liked the village. It's cute. ‘It's just a short walk from the tube,’ she tells me. I may have a slightly different definition than Bob_fish, i.e. the pathetic and whiney definition. Once we got to town and I saw the hill down to the cemetery, I wasn't sure how I'd get back up it.
The tour was great. The guide was entertaining. We had two Goth-Loli girls on the tour. havocmangawip would have loved them. I was stunned how overgrown it is. It's like a jungle with headstones in it. I'm not sure how they can stop it from losing it without a lot of money. He explained all the Victorian symbols. Ivy being both pagan and Christian, every lasting and ever green for the former and three pointed for the latter, the upside down torches for life extinguished, hands pointing up to the heavens (or down there from). They even had a couple ouroboros on some. The egyptianesque lotus walk was really neat and the rows of mausoleums were fantastic. Radclyffe Hall's mausoleum was there.
They did let us into a mausoleum where the coffins were still exposed in loculi. Some of them are falling to pieces, but you could still see the fancy outer coffins used to show just how much money the family had. There was also the Julius Beers mausoleum made for the man's eight year old daughter to the tune of 3 million dollars in modern terms. Sadly when Highgate fell into disrepair, kids busted out the windows and the birds used it as a roost. They had to repel inside thru a window and clean out six ton of bird poop. They let us look in. The ceiling was gold gilt but we couldn't go in because the acidic bird poop weakened the delicate flooring.
There was a cool lion headstone for a guy who started his menagerie as the story goes by poking around at the docks and seeing two boa constrictors in a box. He bought it for a large sum of money and charged people a penny a peek, making enough to eventually get his traveling animal menagerie. Nero was his favorite lion and Nero's likeness remains with him in death. There was also one with a dog, the faithful companion of a bare-knuckle boxer so popular that over ten thousand people attended his funeral.
We decided to skip the self guided side of Highgate (with Karl Marx and George Elliot's graves) and go to Westminster. I had to stop several times going up the hill. Between anemia and asthma, I don't get a lot of oxygen to my muscles so they cramp. We took a side tour to wander by Terry Gilliam's house and topped into a Georgian inn, the Flask (very cool).
welcome to Highgate
jungly
recently cleaned
overgrown
This would have been done up in Egyptian coloring, reds and blues
through the Hall of Kings (or whatever it was called. There were large wall crypts in this)
just past the Egypt Tunnel a rotunda of mausoleums with an enormous tree in the donut of the ring.
Radclyffe Hall
Nero
Julian Beers (the 3 million dollar tomb)
see what I mean about I have no idea how to save this place from utter destruction? However, it looks cool.
I’ve never seen a sleeping Angel in all the graveyards I’ve been in.
the doors have lots of the aforementioned symbolism, circles of life, extinguished torches, ivy etc.
Never seen an Ouroboros before either.
We caught the bus to Westminster Abbey, got the prerequisite picture in front of Big Ben. The Parliament building is fantastic. However, what we didn't know was that Westminster Abbey closed to visitors in the early afternoon (I mean who would think that?) I was terribly disappointed but such is life. I got to see the outside of it which is stunning enough. I suppose I should have looked it up before we left but it never occurred to me such an important site would roll up the sidewalk so early. We did wander through the St Catherine Cloister which was very neat. As we were deciding where to go next, the Necrobus passed by, a double decker bus done all in black and tricked out like a hearse with red velvet and little lamps. We looked it up but it was expensive and it would be more fun to walk. Too bad I didn't have another night.
Big Ben
Parliament
Westminster
details of Westminster
cute little dragon
neat
Inside St Catherine’s. I just liked the details
Since we now had time to kill before Dr. H joined us for the ghost walk, Bob_fish showed me some other London communities, like China Town. We had dinner there and I got to try Xiaolongbao for the first time, little soup filled dumplings. My eggplant and garlic sauce was yummy. We also went to Trafalgar Square then to Soho. Soho was far too crowded for me. I'm not into packed bars any more (Had I been 20 years younger...okay they still weren't my thing but I'd have done it). We did have coffee at the Cafe (bar?) Italia which I guess is a bit of a landmark.
The Ghosts, gaslights and Guinness tour was great fun. I had a bit of trouble hearing sometimes because of road noise (I have hearing loss so...) but it was fun, very good guide, very informative. I particularly liked the story in Lincoln Fields park at the pavilion of a botched beheading. Supposedly the man being beheaded gave the executioner 6 guineas to kill him in one blow since the man had botched it on someone else recently. The first blow barely hurt the man who had something to say about it. It took so many blows that the executioner gave up until the angry mob inspired him to finish the job with a knife. The beheaded man haunts the pavilion area.
The pavilion where he was beheaded.
There was a haunt of a student at the housing for law students. This student would rather gamble, drink and whore than study but one night he was haunted but the face was his own only horribly beaten. He shaped up but it didn't last and his creditors did beat him to death.
I also like the Drury theatre which had an underground tunnel over to a house across the street where Nell Drury lived. The king (one of the Georges I think) would sneak under the street to Nell's for some loving when he was supposed to be watching a play. The Drury had Shrek the musical going on and we were set free for drinks at Old Nell's. Afterwards, the guide told us about the haunt who liked to propel people into the spotlight in the Drury Theatre. During this, someone stumbled out of the pub, puking his guts out. Whee.
Nell’s.
There were more piles of puke outside of bars on the way to the next destination. There was the Old Curiosity Shoppe of Dickens fame (I think this was actually before the Drury) and it ended at Coventry Garden. He told us about two other haunted pubs. We went to the Lamb and Flask but since it was late, I decided not to stay, figuring we'd been out all day and Dr. H had to work so I thought it was time to go. The really cool thing was they do TONS of walks, literature, historical and ghosts. It would be fun to do more of those. It was a nice way to end my vacation.
Speaks for itself