Riba Rambles: |
|
LiveJournal
Saturday, November 05, 2005
She who is without syn
Posted by Lis Riba at 9:54 AM
 I may have erred in postdating my Who are you entry. Because I've already written one a lengthy post since then (dated earlier) that LiveJournal hasn't picked up -- even though it's been twelve hours and LJ claims to have checked my feed in the meantime. Meanwhile, time is running out for me to see any responses before I leave for London. So, in case you haven't seen it, I've posted some further ideas regarding London plans. If you have any insight or input, I'd love to hear it. Thanks. 
Who are you? Who who, Who who...
Posted by Lis Riba at 9:45 AM
[Posted Monday, October 31; Postdated to stay atop the page for longer.] Considering I'll probably be offline most of the week, I thought I'd turn some of the content over to you guys. According to SiteMeter, my weblog gets an average of 150 - 200 visits per day. And that doesn't include the people who only read from their LiveJournal friends pages (130 or so) or through other aggregators without directly going to osmond-riba.org or ribarambles.org. Who are you people? How did you find my blog, and why are you reading? You've gotten to know an awful lot about me, but I can't say the same for you guys. I notice that several people consistently read my blog by Googling on my name, rather than bookmarking it. Out of curiousity, why? Also, I can see several coworkers have been looking at my blog. Don't worry, I won't tell on you, but I'd like to know who you are. [And don't worry about traps or phishing; my site is wholly straightforward: SiteMeter detail pages show what I'm capable of gleaning. I recognize the office IP address, but if I had any more information on who specifically you are, I wouldn't need to ask.] Please, step forward and introduce yourselves.
Don't be shy. Anything entered in the e-mail field of my comment form is invisible to everybody but me. I've also started up a Frappr map, if you want to shoutout and show me where you're at. [Kinda like the LJ ClusterMap, for folks familiar with those.] Saying "hi" on my
Talk amongst yourselves.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Another library in London
Posted by Lis Riba at 4:45 PM
In another public library terminal, because one of Rick Steves' tips didn't pan out. He suggested using a payphone near one of the cathedrals to call American friends and relatives right before the hour so they can hear the bells. A 50p call disconnected within about 3 cents. Paying a pound gave me not much more time and cut off in the middle of a crucial sentence which may have given Ian a false impression. So I'm now in the Shoe Lane library, having dashed off an email to Ian and refreshing my inbox to see whether he's seen it and responded. BTW, British keyboards swap the positions of the at-sign (@) and double-quotes (") which is very disconcerting. Aside from the Museum of London, I've gone almost nowhere else in my plan, but I'm having a ball nonetheless. Decided to follow a trick of Ian's regarding my sore legs: hmm, need a quick safe muscle relaxant? Try alcohol. Found a pub (the Golden Fleece) and bought myself a half-pint of cider and it did ease the aches. Of course, I'm not going any easier on my feet at all, because I keep spotting interesting sights down alleyways or sidestreets that I have to investigate. So much to see, so little time; I'm having such a blast. I wish I could move here. At a minimum, I want to come back soon and drag Ian along. And I'm now at 25 minutes at this terminal and my time's almost expired. So, so long for now. I'm still trying to figure out whether to see a museum or lecture tonight (or even a lecture AT a museum) or find fireworks or get tickets to a show or...
Lis in London
Posted by Lis Riba at 1:25 PM
And, unsurprisingly, I'm in a library. Hey, free Internet access? Not going to spend too much time right now recounting my morning, but I'm in the City of London (I think; I've been walking along the London Wall and could never tell which was the inside and which the outside) and I'm safe. I had been planning on taking the Westminster walking tour at 2pm (it's 1:20pm right now) but I may skip it as my legs are getting a bit sore and I have a lot more walking planned for tomorrow. Suffice it to say I'm having a wonderful time so far. Following my feet more than following the map, but that's okay because I keep stumbling upon wondrous fascinating sites. Only real downside so far is discovering that my camera battery is dead, just after I lined up a lovely shot of the Wall. Ah well. If I just come back with memories, I'm still far richer for the experience. And now I've been in this library for 20 minutes and really want to get on my way. Find a cup of tea or something as the lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me, and I'm not about to stop. PS: Flipping thru Time Out, I found one other Shakespeare production if I'm interested: a one-man Macbeth. Sounds intriguing, but I probably won't make it. Toodlepip for now!
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
And now to London
Posted by Lis Riba at 4:44 PM
Okay, we're about to leave for the airport. I don't have a cellphone or pager. Aside from brief stops at internet cafes, mostly to stay in touch with Ian, I'll be offline until I return. If you need to relay a message, you can try going thru Ian. If it's really urgent, I'm staying at the City of London hostel by St. Paul's. I don't know what their policy is regarding passing along messages, and I'd hate to offend the hosts, but FYI.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Newly alight
Posted by Lis Riba at 11:50 PM
I just got back home. My flight for London takes off tomorrow at 7pm (I'm not yet sure how much earlier we'll have to leave home for the airport). So much for the anti-jetlag tip of resting up in the days before departure... Ah well. For now, to sleep... Tomorrow a quick followup on some stuff from the ASIS conferece, catch up on work email (and douse anything that's started to smoulder in my absense) plus packing and other last-minute errands I'll be sending Ian on. :)
She who is without syn
Posted by Lis Riba at 9:54 AM
I may have erred in postdating my Who are you entry. Because I've already written one a lengthy post since then (dated earlier) that LiveJournal hasn't picked up -- even though it's been twelve hours and LJ claims to have checked my feed in the meantime. Meanwhile, time is running out for me to see any responses before I leave for London. So, in case you haven't seen it, I've posted some further ideas regarding London plans. If you have any insight or input, I'd love to hear it. Thanks.
Monday, October 31, 2005
London Calling: Making Final Plans
Posted by Lis Riba at 10:05 PM
Trying to make final plans for London, but it's tricky because there's far more that I want to see than I could ever possibly manage in the time available. Gary Farber gave me one of the best pieces of advice in this regard: "Recognize that you'll be making another trip, and another, and another, and another, and that this is a relationship, not a One Time Only." Still, by prioritizing and clumping sites geographically, I can hopefully get more done than just standing in the centre of the city with my jaw wide open trying to figure out then what to do next. I am also entirely expecting that many of these plans will be scrapped once I'm confronted with the reality of London... So, after poring through multiple guidebooks, this was my first pass shortlist of destinations: both must-see and those that looked interesting if I have time or am in the neighborhood. I've bolded the most important sites:
Last chance to warn me away from any of these or direct me towards anything else. [An earlier post in which I share my interests can be found here.] And I'm well aware I've got far more here than could reasonably be seen in the time available. I've already started winnowing down the list, as you will see if you decide to continue reading. Among my planning goals:
I'm better at grouping sites geographically than finding timeslots, but here's what I've got for my initial pass: Thursday, 3 Nov:My flight arrives around 6:30 am. Start out with a good breakfast, possibly at Heathrow, buy a 7-day tube pass and catch a train into downtown London. I may wait a bit to miss the rush hour crowd. Not so much because I don't want to deal with the crowds, but so my gawping and lost-ness doesn't get in their way. Drop my luggage off at the hostel. Probably start out by just just wandering around aimlessly interspersed with periods of bouncing up and down squeeing "I'm in London!" and pinching myself until I get it under control. Hey, I know I'm going to do that anyway, so I might as well just be upfront about it. I may (on Rick Steves' advice) stop by the local Tourist Bureau office for brochures and the like. My top destination for my first day is the Museum of London. Get my bearings, as it were -- a nice introduction to the city. Also, ever since Rick Steves talked about it, the idea of beachcombing along the Thames sounded like fun. Unfortunately, no guided tours are scheduled during my trip, but I was advised that the Museum bookstore may have information on identifying finds, making that a necessary prerequisite and another reason for stopping here my first day. [If I do this, who wants a historic pipestem?] Anyway, after the Museum of London, I'll probably grab lunch somewhere. Afternoon, I was thinking about the London Walks "Old Westminster" walk at 2pm, since that hits a number of sites I've hoped to see. If I do that, I could follow it up by visiting the House of Parliament (since that was the focal point of what's ostensibly my excuse for going this weekend). If I'm still awake, the National Portrait Gallery is open until 9pm, one of the few late night attractions in my list. Alternately, I've spotted a couple lectures at the National Portrait Gallery on Thursday that might be worth my pence:
Though I've read biographies of James and histories of the period that deal with the Gunpowder Plot, I haven't actually read any of the books on the event itself, so could use a bit more learning. Oh yeah, and several places along the river are getting an early start on their Guy Fawkes fireworks displays this evening if I care to track those down. Friday, 4 Nov:I noticed London Walks offers a guided Victoria & Albert Museum tour scheduled for 10:45am. But I think that may be my inclement-weather plan. More likely, I start my morning out at the Tower of London and Tower Bridge Experience, and spend the day on the South Bank, including Shakepeare's Globe, the Golden Hinde replica, Southwark Cathedral, and so forth. If I reach a reasonable breakpoint in the afternoon, the British Library offers their own organised tours at 3:00 pm. And then, as long as I'm in the neighborhood, that's not too far from King's Cross Station, where I can get Harry Potter geek cred by visiting Platform 9 3/4. I may stop at the TKTS booth midday to see about a show for the evening. Otherwise, if I don't make it to the National Portrait Gallery on Thursday night, it's open late on Friday as well. Saturday, 5 Nov (Guy Fawkes):Not really sure what to do during the day. I'm leaving the evening open for whatever Guy Fawkes festivities I may stumble upon. But I'm concerned that between the holiday and it being weekend, most of the sites will be horrendously crowded. If I wake up early enough, I could go to services @ Bevis Marks. Two London Walks caught my eye if I want their-style overview of the city:
I also noticed that Somerset House offers their guided tours on Saturday, if I want to do that. [I'm particularly interested in the Gilbert collection with its snuffboxes and miniatures.] But on the whole, I think I'll play this one by ear and decide later. Sunday, 6 Nov:I was originally thinking of spending the morning at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. But then as I mapped destinations in Google Earth, I noticed the proximity of Petticoat Lane, Bevis Marks synagogue, the historic Jewish neighborhood, and Marlowe's lodgings in Norton Fulgate. And looking further, I see London Walks "The Old Jewish Quarter" includes all those sites (except Marlowe's, which I planned to explore on my own anyhow since there's probably not much to see) so that seems my most likely plan for the morning. For the afternoon, the Geffrye Museum looks interesting, isn't too far away, and doesn't strike me as one of the most Or, I've received an invite to take the Shakespeare's and Dickens' London Walk at 2pm Alternately, if I have free time in the afternoon and didn't get enough education on the Gunpowder Plot itself, The National Portrait Gallery is holding another lecture on the subject at 3pm. PS: The world premiere of the new Harry Potter movie is at the Odeon Leicester Square this night. I have little interest in gawking at the celebrities walking down the red carpet so may try to avoid the area that evening. Monday, 7 Nov:In the afternoon, I have an opportunity to see the Rose Theatre site. I'm scheduling everything else around this. [Particularly since my stay manages to miss two Park Honan lectures on Marlowe and the London opening of Tamburlaine.] And then (for reasons stated later) I'll probably see Richard II that night. Tuesday, 8 Nov:My flight leaves Heathrow at 5:55 pm. Even leaving a rich margin for travel time, that gives me enough time for some sightseeing. This may become my catchall day for things I haven't yet gotten to yet. For example, I already see that I haven't scheduled any time for the Victoria & Albert Museum, but I'd prefer not to spend the entire last day indoors... Ah, who knows. I'll work out further details once I'm there. Other destinations as yet unscheduled:
The Theatah:More and more convinced I'm going to see Richard II. Looking at general listings of current shows, I see a lot of productions of American material: Death of a Salesman, High Society, The Producers, A Few Good Men... Sorry, but I'm not going to London for an American show. Bad enough the only Shakespeare in town has an American lead. :/ I'll confess, I'm tempted by The Mousetrap, but that's one Ian actually wants to see. Given how averse he is to travel in general, I'd hate to lose that incentive, so may save that for my next trip. Other shows that caught my eye include: Billy Elliot, Ducktastic, and We Will Rock You. But I'll probably just see what half-price tickets are available while I'm there rather than booking in advance for any of these. Food & Dining:As I've said earlier, I just want old-fashioned British food: pub grub, fish and chips, curries and the like. One tourbook mentioned jellied eels at Petticoat Lane, which I'd be curious to try if the price is reasonable. Sadly enough, I never actually developed a taste for beer, but I like ciders and shandy. What does anybody know about Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese? The sample menu sounds good, but Every Single Tourbook gives it a plug, which frankly makes me uncomfortable. I've been to the Bull and Finch Pub upon which Cheers was based. Totally touristy. And I worry that this might be something similar. Other than that, I think food will be largely catch-as-cat-can. Since I'm not going for the trendy hotspots or haute cuisine, that hopefully won't be a problem. And that's about all I can think of to write right now. This has largely been a braindump, so pardon me if it isn't quite as readable to those outside my skull. I just wanted to get it all down before I depart, in part so I can print it all out and take with me. Thanks for your patience.
TOP |
LiveJournal feedCopyright © 2002 - 2008 Elisabeth Riba,
All Rights Reserved