More on Stratford

In the spirit of being thorough and somewhat constant I wanted to share a few more highlights of the Stratford trip.

We went to Mary Arden’s farm first. Mary Arden was Shakespeare’s mother and I actually like this best of all of the Shakespeare “properties.” It was kind of cloudy but not cold and I felt like I’d walked onto a real farm. There were people in costume doing stuff and it was like it really needed to be done and they weren’t just going through the motions for tourists.

Recently a house on the farm, formerly known as “Glebe Farm”, has been opened. Most of the furniture there is Victorian rather than Tudor, including a multi-purpose high chair. Kind of in one end and out the other. The guy inside answering questions found out we were going to the play that night. He said he worked at the theatre and it was the best production of the “Tempest” he’d ever seen and by far the best Ariel he’d ever seen. It was a South African production and very “colourful”.

The play really was spectacular. It was the Lion King meets Shakespeare. It had a colonial twist (England colonizing third world countries) and was topical because of Apartheid etc. The music, decor, costuming and some of the actors were South African. Anthony Sher was Prospero (look him up, you might recognize him) and Ariel – who was South African lived up to my expectations. I ran into the guy from Mary Arden’s farm. He was selling programs and so I bought one.)

The girls had a good time thanks to how visually stimulating it was and how noisy it was. Plus Ferdinand was very cute and I knew they would all fall in love with him. Sure enough, when we were all outside they had already divided into two camps based on whether Ariel or Ferdinand had the best abs. They were very adamant and vocal in their debate and so when poor Ariel came out of the theatre to go home, they all accosted him wanting pictures and asking to see his abs. Meanwhile Tom was down the street getting cabs to take girls to the hostel. (Tony had used up his hours for the day.) We were finally able to start dragging them away and send them off in groups of 4 & 5.

About 15 minutes later Jess came around the corner and said guess who he had with him: Ferdinand. I thought he was joking but he had talked the actor into coming down the street to meet the girls. They were thrilled and those who’d already left were devastated.

The next morning we went to Blenheim Palace. Dad and I had never been there before. Tony approached it from a road that made the first glimpse, very stunning. It’s made of gold stone and is situated on grounds with gardens, lakes, a maze, etc. Winston Churchill was born there and spent a lot of his time there as a young child because he was related to the Marlboroughs who owned the house and still do. We decided to do a group shot on the steps and so the girls ran to the windows of the cars in the parking lot and started to do hair and make-up. I found it comical because their little faces were going to be tiny and a hair out of place wasn’t really going to matter.

I walked over to take a picture of one them primping and somehow the cord on my jacket got caught between the trunk and back bumper of one of the cars. By some fluke of nature this little metal thing slid down into the crack but wouldn’t come back out. I tugged and maneuvered it; everyone came to help except Dad who was no where to be found. It looked like the only options were to leave my jacket there, which would have looked weird and it was kind of cold, get it out somehow, or cut it off. Gnawing if off looked to be the only possibility (not really) until one of the girls found some scissors in her backpack. Thank goodness.

Well that’s all for now. (It was “Mothering Day” here in England last week and the Shulers gave me a cute card they’d all signed and a little sheep ‘cause they know I love sheep. They also call it Mum’s Day and there’s a movement to make the name officially Mothering Day, because everyone is getting lazy and calling it Mother’s Day.)

Love,
Mom/Becky

Gloucester -- abridged

Here is a belated report on our weekend in Gloucester.

I’d been there before – as have Carter and Laura - and the Cathedral acoustic was amazing and so I suggested it for one of Dad’s cathedral projects. Finding hotels for these outings is an extensive effort because we have to take in to consideration the price, availability, locale (has to be within walking distance of the Cathedrals), and of course, the “charming” factor.

We ended up at The New Inn which is really old – 1300’s. It was a stable, pub, inn and still has a courtyard and prides itself in its variety of ales. We told them to give us a good room and ended up with the “Oak Room.” Our room had the lion, you can see in the picture, right outside our window. It was paneled with oak and was a little scary because the floor creaked and kind of went downhill from one side of the room to the other. It was one of those “wonky” half-timbered houses. (The bed also went downhill.) When you looked at the armoire, at the bottom it was about 12 inches from the wall, but at the=20top it was about 6 inches from the wall. I don’t know if it was the armoire, the floor, or the wall that was crooked.

From our room you looked out to the courtyard and could actually watch everyone getting drunk. We were right over the pub and when you were in the bathroom you were privy to private conversations going on downstairs. Rather than luxuriate in our historical “digs” (evidently Jane Grey was there when she learned that Bloody Mary had taken the throne from her) that night, we planned ahead and got tickets for a movie about Liverpool at an arts cinema.

The New Inn was right around the corner from the Cathedral and so we went in to look after we got our movie tickets. It was easy to spend an hour or longer there looking at everything. Edward II is buried there. They tell us in the guidebook that he was suffocated, but didn’t mention how the hot poker slid up his rectum that his wife and others used to kill him. I guess if you’ve got a monarch buried at your cathedral you want to put the best face possible on it.

There is a little chapel off the Lady Chapel that pays tribute to all of the musicians that worked there, Sumsion, Howells, and Ivor Gurney. They were really modern stained glass windows and I wish the UCA choir could have seen the Howells window when we were there. Another chapel has new windows that are all in blues that depict the doubting Thomas story – really beautiful. Every nook and cranny in these cathedrals have something to look at whether it’s a tomb, misericord, painting, window, sculpture etc. and the mixture of old and new makes it really interesting.

There was a little place to write a note and leave it for the preacher to read in the prayer at Evensong and dad left one for Jack and his upcoming surgery. (We are always lighting candles for everyone so I hope you are feeling the benefits of those!)

We finally decided to get something to eat and we went to Lily’s Tea Room right across the lane from the Beatrix Potter shop. I discovered that there is a museum upstairs and the little man who ran the shop was very excited to tell us all about it. If you look at the illustrations in “The Tailor of Gloucester”, you can see the shop and other Gloucester landmarks depicted.

Since we were so close to the cathedral we decided to go back for Evensong. It was very moving when we heard the woman vicar mention Jack in her prayer. It reverberated throughout the church. We went and shook her hand afterward and said thank you.

The next morning we went back to Eucharist. I decided to get a blessing while everyone else got the wafer and wine. As in various other cathedrals, they tell you in the program to take it up with you and you will just receive a blessing.

Like most every one we’ve heard here, the sermon was very insightful and thought-provoking. The choir sounded great and I actually saw some of the boys outside playing soccer after the service and they let me take their picture.

We hopped back on the train and were back to the centre in time for our own Evensong.

Love, Mom/Becky

You Can't Get There from Here...aka the Earl's Court Problem

Last Sunday, Mom and I decided to attend Sung Eucharist at Westminster Abbey. I reasoned my English hymn project would benefit from selecting a hymn heard in that historic space. So...getting to Westminster Abbey from BYU’s London Centre is a snap, right? I mean, it’s only a few stops from Notting Hill Gate down the Circle Line.

Except, wait a minute…it's Sunday. London Transport closes the Circle Line for maintenance nearly every weekend. Buses? Nah—too unpredictable and they take too long on weekends.

Not to worry. Let's take the District Line from Notting Hill to Earl’s Court, transfer to the other side of the platform and pickup the returning District Line towards Westminster. Right? Not so fast. Sure, we get to Earl's Court--but on this particular Sunday the District Line was closed for “track repair” from Earl’s Court through White Chapel. Does that include Westminster? Yup. Sigh. Anyone that’s ever travelled underground in London knows how the Bermuda Triangle’s got nothing on Earl’s Court Station.

Now what? Throw ourselves on the tracks? Not just yet. C'mon! We can beat this system! No problem. Station officials advised us to take the Piccadilly Line from Earl’s Court to Green Park, and then transfer to the Jubilee Line which will then deposit us at Westminster.

Ya think? Whoops. We got to Green Park all right, but what’s with this sign that says “Jubilee Line is shut at Green Park? Are you kidding me?

OK—now I’m at WAR with the London Underground. We consult the map. I know! Let’s make our way over to Embankment on 2 lines that ARE operating today, then work our way back to Westminster.

Mom's brow is furrowed. She's got that sceptical look. Time ticks--Eucharist is minutes from starting. But we DO get to Embankment; what a triumph. And...Oh my gad! All westbound (towards Westminster) trains from Embankment are suspended. HUH? Yee Gads.

Exasperated, Mom declares, “I AM OUTTA HERE!” We split up--not the marriage (though almost!), just our next chosen paths. I exited Embankment, and walked prestissimo to the Abbey--a pace that would have put Mom “in hospital"-- arriving 15 minutes late. They let me in with a wink. Except for one possibility, the hymns weren’t that great! Isn't London swell?

Miscellanea

It's time for a bit of the trivia and unclassifiable stuff that Mom likes to share with us on occasion:

1. "Boiled Sweets" = hard candy, like life-savers, or those little candies you get in a tin at Christmas

2. Instead of passing someone on the freeway (motorway or M-road) you "overtake" them.

3. When they lay somebody off here, they say that workers have become "redundant". So you'd say that GM has had 2500 redundancies this month.

4. When we went to Ann Hathaway's cottage we were told that the little curved parts of the thatched roof were call "eyebrows."

5. Outside old churches is something called a "litchgate" where the recently dead are left for a few days. They look like a little wooden shelter with a roof and no walls. They wanted to make sure the person was really dead and so they didn't bury them for a few days after the funeral.

6. Dad and I took the Shulers to Young Victoria the other day at Whiteley's. It's a great movie that doesn't open until June in the US. It stars Emily Blunt (Meryl Streep's assistant in the Devil Wears Prada,) and Rupert Friend (who played Wickham in P&P.)

7. We do feel like the girl's are "learning" something while we are here but it's a bit disheartening when we tell them we are taking a trip to Greenwich and we explain that we'll be taking a boat down the Thames and somebody says "what's that?" and we've been here for 2 and half months.

8. I went to Portobello Road the other day and saw several unusual things - one of which was a guy carrying a bass fiddle on his shoulder like a rifle.

9. There is this great Oscar Wilde sculpture/bench behind St. Martin's. It says "A Conversation with Oscar Wilde." See attached photo of Dad and Oscar chatting.

10. Friday is Red Nose Day. It's a Comic Relief thing and they've been promoting it for weeks. Red Nose refers to clowns. We had two on our tube train yesterday asking for money. I put some in and they put a sticker on my coat.

11. At a church in Greenwich the little kids made a giant cross out of egg cartons.

12. Last but not least, there was a really warm day last week and Dad and I decided to go to the Borough Market. As we were leaving we "caught" the girls taking a mattress to Hyde Park.

Mary Arden's Farm

Mom went to Mary Arden's Farm and she, along with several girls, got to work with the "falconer." Only that day it was owls and not falcons.

"The owl comes swooping to get some "food" and lands on your hand. That pales in comparison to the horror of having a chopped off chicken foot, claw, whatever on the glove on your hand. I'm glad the photo of me is a rear view..."

From place, to place.....to place.

Mom and dad went on a three-day trip, which is to date the longest this group has been away from the center. They made many stops and mom touched a bit on each one-

Wales

We drove through Newport and the hotel we stayed in. St. Fagin's is kind of a Williamsberg kind of place. There are a bunch of Welsh cottages, houses, shops that have been gathered an put into a kind of "village" form. It turned into a beautiful day and quite warm. There were people in period costume working in the homes and fields. There was smoke coming out of the chimneys on the thatched roofs and it was very picturesque. They had also built this Celtic huts that were supposed to be similar to what the Celts lived in 1000 years ago. Little kids from a school class were there building mud fences and houses. The students had a great time because it was warm and they got to get out and move around.

After that we went to Castle Coch just outside of Cardiff. It was way up on a mountain and looks like a fairy tale castle. The same guy that financed the refurbished Cardiff Castle and the same architect were responsible for building Castle Coch on top of existing ruins. The decor and style of the interior was very much like Cardiff Castle. It was fun and the girls loved it.

The next morning we headed north and traveled the entire length of Wales. It was cloudy, but still beautiful to see the landscape. There were mountains, sheep, coal mines, and it started to snow. We went around Snowdonia and stopped in a little town called Porthmadog for lunch. Fortunately we made it to Beaumaris a couple of hours before dark. We went to Beaumaris Castle which was built by Edward I. It was never finished but is considered one of the best preserved and it was more secure that other castles because there were various walls that had to be penetrated by the enemy. It may become one of my favorite castles. The primitive little chapel is still intact and Dad had the girls that were there when we were sing a few hymns to check the accoustics. Pretty soon everybody (the students) all over the castle grounds started drifting in because they could here us. The singing went on for about a half hour and we had to drag them out of there.

The hotel was a bit worn down, but in England that counts as charming. They gave us a great deal and that's why we were able to afford it. It was very Victorian. Dad and I stayed in the Regent Room. I guess they give the director the best accommodations. We had a view of the water and it was really fun. The girls were in heaven. In places like that all the rooms are different and so they were running around looking at each others rooms. It was first bathtub they'd seen since they'd left home.

The next day we traveled to Chester, one of the oldest cities in England. It was adorable. What they call the Rows are shops with two stories. Kind of the very first mall. On the upper level you don't have even have to go outside. We walked through those for awhile, went to the Cathedral, and went to look at the Roman amphitheatre ruins. From there we went to Shrewsbury to see the Abbey there. It is the locale of the Cadfael mysteries, and is associated with Wilfred Owen, the WWI poet. After that we still had time to go to Coventry and see the cathedral there.

I took the picture of the little girl because she was there with her dad and she said, "Daddy- let me show you my favorite thing here. It's the dancing stage." The dad said, "honey that's not a dancing stage." It was kind of poignant considering the she was dancing among the ruins...