The Way of the Wombat

On the Tuesday that D-d and I were in London, we went to the Churchill War Rooms for about 3 or 4 hours, even though they reckoned it took about 2! Then we had a brief lunch in St James's Park, before walking across Horse-guards Parade to visit The Banqueting House. D-d wanted to visit it in particular because of her love of the Stuarts - Charles 1st was beheaded there. In fact we were both equally fascinated by the actors who were 'rehearsing for a court masque' - D-d had a chance to have quite a chat with one of them - a slightly surreal conversation where he was in character - and she fell into the role of one of the household of Lady Stanley which she portrayed in Labyrinth last month! I was mainly a fascinated onlooker...

However, I did not use my camera inside the war-rooms or the Banqueting House - I somehow never got around to it!

Here, though, is a picture of St James's Park -



That is about 5 or 10 minutes from the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and so on - a really lovely, quiet, space for everyone. On those rocks are some pelicans. We heard a couple arguing about whether they could possibly be real - he was convinced they were ornaments - even though they were flapping their wings...

We ate in Bill's in St Martin's Courtyard, in Covent Garden. As neither of us had come across this chain before it was something new for us; we were really pleased to see naked burgers on the menu - and were both rather sad that it was a bit early for us and we didn't have room for pudding! Early - because we then went to the theatre to see Matilda - which was wonderful.

Wednesday we went to The Wallace Collection - and, again, I left my camera in my bag. Excellent though - totally recommend it. I can confirm that The Laughing Cavalier is neither laughing nor a cavalier - but he has some rather nice clothing. We'd also recommend their courtyard cafe!

Thursday, and D-d was back home, and I went to the V&A. This time I took the camera out of my bag...


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And that, folks, is the last of the holiday posts...

I don't know if any of my North American friends are ever likely to be visiting the University of Wisconsin in Platteville. But if any of you ever do, you might find a visit to this new museum interesting.

And Happy 'Honorable Clare Christian Day'!

Every day, at work, we get a digest of health related media links e-mailed to us - some of it is local, some of it interesting articles from one news site or another - usually about research findings, or what the local paper thinks about our breast-care facilities, or whatever. But just now and again I think the person who collates it lets themselves fly - just for a moment or two...

And how could I resist a link to a series of pictures labelled 'Prosthetics through time'? How could anyone?

So here it is for you to share too - for how could anyone resist the lure of an ancient Egyptian prosthetic big toe? I love the note under the knight's metal arm...

And, of course, this is my pirate icon...

I took D-d down to the airport this afternoon to go to Liverpool and thence back to York. I took some time to take pictures of some of our island history that I see whenever I take her there. These, plus a picture of Silly Cat being silly - or possible Embarrassed Cat being embarrassed, are under the cut.

First though I was reminded today, in Sunday School, of one of the oddest questions a small child has ever asked me. "Is God's name Harold or is it Richard?" Think about it... any ideas?

I had to ask why it might be either of those before I saw the light... "Our Father Richard in Heaven, Harold be Thy name..."

Actually, today I was teaching older children than usual - 12-15 year olds. We were looking at Jonah - told to head East to Ninenvah he got on a ship heading as far to the West as he could - to Spain. Could you hide from God by running away? Was it a sensible thing to do? And so on, until we got to the fish. Small children accept the Pinnochio picture of someone in a large empty space in the middle of a fish - older ones know what the inside of a fish actually looks like - even if it was a basking shark with that big open mouth, which would not have regarded Jonah as food.

The ensuing discussion - is it simply an allegory, or a parable? Or did Jonah, who says

5 The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;

and...
7 “When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, LORD,

just almost drown? And then, finding himself miraculously safe on the shore, come to the conclusion that the only way God could have achieved this was to have had him saved by a passing fish? And, in the end, does it matter?

I do like the challenge of the teenagers sometimes - we concluded that an actual hollow fish you could live and breath in was very unlikely - but in the end it didn't matter - God saved him when he admitted that he shouldn't have run off in the opposite direction.

Anyway - to the cat and the history - ( click here )

As an island people we also all held the people of Japan in our thoughts in church today.

Yesterday, on the other hand, S2C, D-d, and I were considering that there is a lot to be said for Cornwall. It should act as a good breakwater if a tsunami ever approaches up the Irish Sea. (Not impossible, if Cumbre Vieja on the island of La Palma ever goes in a major way). My family, and why I love them!