london at random: part 2;
Ok, I have a hopeless backlog of photos and blog updates that need to be posted. I might as well make a start. These are all about a week-ish old. So here goes.
Mom and I - yes, my mom's gone back to Singapore, so this really is almost a week old - went into Fortnum & Mason and we found the Christmas decor section. Yes, there are Christmas tree ornaments that entirely gold in colour. Wow.
What your Christmas tree could look like - if you had access to a trust fund or won the lottery, that is. Those baubles cost like £12 a piece. Ditto the reindeer if I'm not mistaken.
Obviously, there was nothing much that we could afford at Fortnum & Mason, so after a while of our eyes glazing over, we left and went to wander around Piccadilly instead.
This is where mom and I went to the following morning.
Yes, it's Westminster Abbey! Where the royal wedding was held, of course. Unfortunately, one isn't allowed to take photographs inside, but I'll talk a little about it anyway using photos from Google.
You might recognise this place if you paid attention to the royal wedding (probably not many of you since it was such a long, drawn-out thing. Actually, the part inside Westminster Abbey was more a religious ceremony than anything, so it might have not made sense - or got too boring - for some. But hey, the abbey is absolutely breathtaking - both the interior and the exterior, I say).
Just to make my point. And I don't need to spam photos YAY 'cos it's all in the video BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Warning: Completely, totally, absolutely boring for anybody who didn't - doesn't - care about the royal wedding of Will & Kate. It sounds almost like a sitcom. Oh right, no, that was Will & Grace. Makes sense, because people were comparing Kate to Grace Kelly. Okay. Enough from me on that.
Onto more meaningful matters. There is a place in Westminster Abbey called Poets' Corner, and it is where many famous poets are interred and/or memorialised. I really did want to cry very badly when I saw T.S. Eliot's memorial stone. I couldn't believe that I was looking at the memorial stone of T.S. Eliot. Of the T.S. Eliot whose poetry I love and enjoy so very much. And then there was also Dylan Thomas' memorial stone, and W.H. Auden's, and one dedicated to the war poets including Wilfred Owen ... it was just absolutely overwhelming. And Charles Dickens is also interred and memorialised there - in that very place. It was absolutely awe-inspiring and humbling to be looking at a monument to such famous writers. Stunning.
George F. Handel - yes, the Handel who composed the Water Music suite and Messiah - is also interred and memorialised in the abbey. The relief of him is quite impressive. And that's his Messiah inscribed on the sheets of paper in his hand.
coldthermistor will like this - a monument to Isaac Newton. Newton is actually interred in the abbey also: his marking stone is somewhere further down from the monument. It is absolutely amazing and powerful to see the resting place of such a scientific powerhouse. The entire foundation of physics as we know it rests on this man's shoulders.
I can't seem to find pictures, but Charles Darwin - yes, Darwin - is also interred and memorialised at the abbey. His monument sits on the other side of the hall from Newton's, but his gravestone is somewhere next to Newton's. I find it absolutely intriguing that the man who was responsible for evolutionism - and hence the creationism vs. evolutionism war - should be interred in an abbey.
Ok, enough photos from Google. Here's a photo I took to conclude this round of London updates:
Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and the side bit of the London Eye on a day with good weather. Correction there: really good weather. The sky on that day was practically completely clear. As you can see, there virtually isn't a single swirl of cloud in the sky - not even a tiny, misty streak. An absolutely gorgeous day there.
Mom and I - yes, my mom's gone back to Singapore, so this really is almost a week old - went into Fortnum & Mason and we found the Christmas decor section. Yes, there are Christmas tree ornaments that entirely gold in colour. Wow.
What your Christmas tree could look like - if you had access to a trust fund or won the lottery, that is. Those baubles cost like £12 a piece. Ditto the reindeer if I'm not mistaken.
Obviously, there was nothing much that we could afford at Fortnum & Mason, so after a while of our eyes glazing over, we left and went to wander around Piccadilly instead.
This is where mom and I went to the following morning.
Yes, it's Westminster Abbey! Where the royal wedding was held, of course. Unfortunately, one isn't allowed to take photographs inside, but I'll talk a little about it anyway using photos from Google.
You might recognise this place if you paid attention to the royal wedding (probably not many of you since it was such a long, drawn-out thing. Actually, the part inside Westminster Abbey was more a religious ceremony than anything, so it might have not made sense - or got too boring - for some. But hey, the abbey is absolutely breathtaking - both the interior and the exterior, I say).
Click to viewJust to make my point. And I don't need to spam photos YAY 'cos it's all in the video BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Warning: Completely, totally, absolutely boring for anybody who didn't - doesn't - care about the royal wedding of Will & Kate. It sounds almost like a sitcom. Oh right, no, that was Will & Grace. Makes sense, because people were comparing Kate to Grace Kelly. Okay. Enough from me on that.
Onto more meaningful matters. There is a place in Westminster Abbey called Poets' Corner, and it is where many famous poets are interred and/or memorialised. I really did want to cry very badly when I saw T.S. Eliot's memorial stone. I couldn't believe that I was looking at the memorial stone of T.S. Eliot. Of the T.S. Eliot whose poetry I love and enjoy so very much. And then there was also Dylan Thomas' memorial stone, and W.H. Auden's, and one dedicated to the war poets including Wilfred Owen ... it was just absolutely overwhelming. And Charles Dickens is also interred and memorialised there - in that very place. It was absolutely awe-inspiring and humbling to be looking at a monument to such famous writers. Stunning.
George F. Handel - yes, the Handel who composed the Water Music suite and Messiah - is also interred and memorialised in the abbey. The relief of him is quite impressive. And that's his Messiah inscribed on the sheets of paper in his hand.
coldthermistor will like this - a monument to Isaac Newton. Newton is actually interred in the abbey also: his marking stone is somewhere further down from the monument. It is absolutely amazing and powerful to see the resting place of such a scientific powerhouse. The entire foundation of physics as we know it rests on this man's shoulders.
I can't seem to find pictures, but Charles Darwin - yes, Darwin - is also interred and memorialised at the abbey. His monument sits on the other side of the hall from Newton's, but his gravestone is somewhere next to Newton's. I find it absolutely intriguing that the man who was responsible for evolutionism - and hence the creationism vs. evolutionism war - should be interred in an abbey.
Ok, enough photos from Google. Here's a photo I took to conclude this round of London updates:
Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and the side bit of the London Eye on a day with good weather. Correction there: really good weather. The sky on that day was practically completely clear. As you can see, there virtually isn't a single swirl of cloud in the sky - not even a tiny, misty streak. An absolutely gorgeous day there.