Birthday Boy

Poor Dorian has been cursed with a late December birthday for several years now. Since birth actually. This year we got to spend it with him and enjoy feeding him and meeting several of his friends here in Glasgow. On Sunday last we went with him to his first church and spoke with many people who think very highly of Dorian and some have invited us to their homes for meals and conversation. A fellow who has begun something of a radio career after retiring from teaching invited us to lunch and we had a fine time with him and his wife.
Boxing Day on Buchanan St here is something to behold. The street is wall to wall people. It was even fun to be there, and for me to say that is weird I know. We had the fun of a classic Christmas Panto, Aladdin, with Dorian on Monday evening. It was great. We cheered "Widow Twanky", booed the evil magician and laughed at Wishy Washy. It was a million pound production and looked it. As Dorian has to go back to work, we have spent the days getting the details of our trip to the Canaries finalized. Some of you may not know, we had booked a flight with an airline called Globespan. We do seem to have the ability to bring airlines to grief. For the second time this year, the airline that we had chosen bit the dust. Visa is going to hate us. They have assured us that we are covered and will be reimbursed 100%. So now we have set our sights on Thomson Airlines. We hope that they can stay in business for the next 8 days.
We have roamed around the city centre and frittered our money away on lunches. Till next time, bye bye.

Christmas with Dorian.

It's been 6 years since we have been able to spend Christmas with Dorian, and it was sweet. It began quite late by my standards, 9 am ish. Dorian made us breakfast pancakes, home fries, sausages and even haggis. We opened our pressies and spent the day just hanging out with our boy. In the afternoon we skyped Liam and the fam and watched the girls open their presents. It was great then we had a fabulous Christmas supper. Finally we talked to Sheelagh's Mum and Dad and sister and brother in law. It was also fun to talk to our friends in Stroud.
Today we went down into the city and found a suit for Dorian and finished off with a fine fish and chips supper.

Scotland

The worst winter conditions in 20 years! That's what we've got here. Actually, anyone in Canada would laugh at us but we're feeling the cold more than we would have in the past.
We got away from London as planned. The train we had booked left to the minute and was packed. We realized that it was very lucky that we booked in August. As we got out of London the snow appeared and as we travelled along we went through areas of deep snow and light snow. The route took us up the east coast via York and Newcastle, Edinburgh and into Glasgow. The snow was falling quite heavily, and the streets were mushy. Poor old Dorian's bus was stuck behind an accident and so he didn't get to us until about 6:45 but he made it and we got to his flat and it was great to see him.
We have been exploring a bit and trying to get ready for Christmas dinner. Last night we went to a great concert of Christmas music in down town Glasgow.
We will get a better selection of pictures after Christmas, so until next time, tah rah.

Goodbye from London town.

The rain upon the windows echo the tears...... No, don't do that. The three weeks have flown past here in London. For the most part we have done the things that we came to do. At the same time, we have discovered lots more that, given opportunity, we would do next time. We are seriously planning on leaving the damage deposit in Elizabeth's hands and booking our next stay here in Covent Gardens. We are right in the middle of it here. Walking distance to the theatre world, the museums and galleries, the quaint or just odd little neighbourhoods that dot the city centre. We can't begin to explain how great it is to walk out the door and be in Covent Gardens. To see the giant marquees for shows that we've all read about within a few blocks. It has been great.
Yesterday we attended the 4th Sunday of Advent at the Bloomsbury Baptist. After lunch we went to King's Cross station and picked up our train tickets for tomorrow's train trip to Glasgow. All forms of transport are struggling right now with the weather, so think of us tomorrow, Tuesday the 22nd, as we try to initiate the next leg of our adventure. We are excited to be going to see Dorian in his lair as it were. He says that he has been scrubbing and dusting in anticipation of his Mum's arrival.
After we left King's Cross Station we went a short way along Euston Street and spent a couple of hours in the British Library. I sat for the whole time with a headset listening to snippets of great orations of history. Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr, T.S. Eliott etc. Sheelagh explored the place and enjoyed seeing The King's Library. It was donated to the nation by George II, and formed the basis of the British Library. As you can see in the picture, the books are in a huge column in the centre of the building. They were mostly, if not all, handwritten and leather bound.
The next blog will come from Scotland, see you then.

Sun! Cold, but sun!

We had a great day yesterday. The sun shone, as did our spirits. We got away by 10 to Trafalgar Square to the National Gallery. As we went in we were so proud to see a group of protesters parading around out front with signs saying that Canada and its tar sands had copped out in Copenhagen. It brought a tear to my eye. Normally they ignore us.
I may have mentioned that the galleries and museums are free here. I think that it's wonderful that the Government of England has enough respect for the history and the arts of their country to make it available to all. The galleries and museums are struggling though, so I think that some sort of minimal charge, say $2. a head, in addition to government funding would be a good compromise. It would not keep people out, and it would help maintain the institutions. For a low income family at home, the cost of entrance to museums and galleries is prohibitive. There, I got that off my chest. Anyway the art was wonderful.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, The Tate Modern. I'm sorry, I try, but, for the most part, I just don't get it. It was warm though and I spent about 1 1/2 hours not getting it in the warm. Sheelagh proclaimed that she wasn't going to look at that stuff and headed for the restaurant, bought a pot of tea and looked out over the Thames. The 7th floor view is the best part of The Tate Modern in her humble opinion. Then we wandered on down the river walk to see Southwark Cathedral. It was very close to The Globe Theatre and Billy went to this church and they have a stained glass window dedicated to him. We passed "The Clink", the worst prison into which one might get tossed. Voted so by the people. They also had a replica of The Golden Hind, Sir Francis Drake's ship.
Passing through a series of unbelievably great street markets, and a group of Morris Dancers, "Poofs with hankies" as Blackadder calls them, we arrived at The George. This is the last coaching inn in London. Some of Shakespeare's plays were put on using the balconies.
Last night we went to The Royal Albert for "Carols by Candlelight". You really had to be there. It was so beautiful. I should have taken pictures, but I didn't. There was a choir and an orchestra all in white wigs and period costumes. As Shush said, it made you feel that you could sing. A perfect end to a perfect day.

Naked Bodies Everywhere

We spent yesterday at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Sheelagh said it was her favorite, and after yesterday I can see why. There is the biggest collection of beautiful, naked marble people I have ever seen. What a place. We arrived quite early with the idea that we would be there an hour or so and then do something else, but as we had a look around we decided that there were lecture tours that sounded interesting. We wandered separately for an hour and then had morning tea. These museums are all free so we have decided that we will support them by having tea in their cafes. What troupers we are. After tea we went on a gallery tour that covered the early 1500's to 185o's in Britain. The guide was very funny and knowledgeable. Then we wandered a bit and took a second tour of the Theatre and Performance collection. Again, it was wonderful. We saw the stage design collection, costume collection and poster collection. When we left it was dark and cold so we had a night at home.
Today we wanted to get some info on our Moroccan visit so, foolishly, Shush left it to me to get an address to visit and I took us to the embassy and not the tourist bureau. I think that the man who answered the door to the embassy was a bit taken aback by this bearded Canadian asking him about flights from Lanzarote to Marrakech. He rallied nicely though and got us a different address to try. Since we were in Kennsington, and it wasn't too cold we decided to do a literary tour of the neighbourhood. It was the best one yet. We found the neatest little streets with wonderful houses and shops where many early writers lived and toiled. To name a few, there was Browning, Henry James, James Joyce, William Thackeray, Ezra Pound and G.K. Chesterton. If you know Sheelagh you will know the outrage she expressed when we walked by Agatha Christie's house and it wasn't even mentioned in the book.
It began to get cold so we jumped on the tube and went to Oxford Street and visited the Wallace Family Collection. This is a huge house that contains the art collection of a Mr Wallace dating from the years of Louis the 14th and 15th of France who encouraged him. There was no doubt that he had a lot of pictures and porcelain and glass, but this was my least favorite gallery that we have seen in London. Sheelagh disagrees, her least favourite was The Soane Museum. As we left and walked down Oxford Street to the tube the lights were on and the sidewalks were jammed. Oh Christmas.
Tonight we attended a carol service at the Bloomsbury Baptist church It was a beautiful service, but Sheelagh declared the mince tarts and mulled GRAPE JUICE!!! second compared to the Church of St. Giles In The Field a couple of nights ago.

We are suffering too.

We had snow today. Yes, with all the money we spent getting over here, on the Queen Mary and everything, we had snow today. It just ain't fair.
On Monday we went to the British Museum for an hour or so to attend a guided talk on the gods and goddesses of Roman Britain. Very interesting as I am reading the novel London right now. Then to the National Portrait Gallery where I wished that Canada could get its act together to have our gallery in Ottawa where it belongs. After we had our supper, we went to the Royal Opera house to see two short ballets, Les Patineurs, (the skaters), and The Tales of Beatrix Potter. We wished our little girls could have been with us.
Yesterday we went window shopping, but we couldn't afford even one window. In the morning we set off through the strip clubs and massage parlours and gay bars of Soho. Well, not through them, you know sort of past them, not looking at them too much. Such is London that right cheek to jowl with these places, you find Liberty, one of the truly upscale department stores. It is in an Elizabethan, Tudor building. It has very un Elizabethan prices, but such unusual, lovely things. It was such fun to wander through and dream.
After our visit to Liberty we went across Regent street and on to Saville Row, stopping for an award winning steak and kidney pie at The Windmill Pub. Saville row is very discreet. Many stores, or tailor shops require that you be buzzed in. They are bespoke suit makers, which I learned means that you have spoken to the tailor before the suit is made, and it is created just for you. I would like to live long enough to go and have a suit made there. Then I sneered at a cow creamer in the Burlington Arcade a la Bertie Wooster.
We visited the Royal Academy and looked at their collection. We stood and looked at one wall that had 10, yes 10, Constables. I'm certain that you could buy the whole block where I live with that one wall. From there to Fortnam and Mason the grocery store that Queen Liz uses. We saw a ham that cost 90 pounds, a small can of truffles for 100 Pds, beef for 5.80 Pd per 100 gms. Sheelagh tasted peat smoked scallops which she declared will make all ordinary scallops third rate. Oh well, what can I do?
Home for a cheap supper and then off to Hammersmith to see Simon Callow in two one person plays by Dickens. They have not been done in London for 150 years. They were great. We got to sit in the front row. Maybe they will someday be done in High River.

We had a wonderful weekend with Dorian. Sheelagh's leg is still not behaving itself completely, but we did quite well. On Saturday morning Dorian and I wandered off down to the Strand and along to Fleet St. looking at little alley ways and impressive buildings as far as St Paul's. We had coffee in the shadow of the big church. At 12:15 Sheelagh met us there and we went to a Eucharist service and had a look at the beautiful interior. There was a beautiful Henry Moore sculpture of the Madonna and Child. I had never been inside in spite of having stayed in a hostel very close a few years back.
After leaving St. Paul's we walked over to the Museum of London and learned all about this wonderful city since before there were people here. It was fascinating. We saw the meeting hall where John Wesley was converted to Christianity. There had been a church there for a long time. Took the tube back to our place for supper and then out again to the Blueboy production of Pied Piper, a hip hop show. It was great. Unbelievably talented young dancers.
Dorian had to be up and away by 9:40 am. We went to the Bloomsbury Baptist Church. This is a friendly place where many homeless folk are loved and fed every Sunday. The day was cold, so we stayed in and wrote a Christmas letter and celebrated Advent with Liam's family in Edmonton via Skype. Last night we went over to lovely little Wiggmore Hall to hear The Medieval Trio sing. Three sopranos with beautiful voices.

Dorian's visit

We are very excited to see Dorian, our youngest lad. He got up at 4:30 am to take the train down to spend the weekend with his aged parents. The first day was great fun as we hobbled along the streets to the Tower bridge and a food fair. Lots of laughter, much at hop along Sheelagh's expense.
If you know the nursery rhyme, "Oranges and Lemons," said the bells of St Clements. This is the church.