Your weekly fix. He’s starting to have a lot more expressions, isn’t he?
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A picture for my Albita of a hat she gave me.
We’ve started getting baby gifts!
This is the first gift we got for the baby, from a co-worker. She took great pains to say the name several times – it sounds funny!!
It’s a lovely, soft blanket in bright colors from IKEA. Yay!
Then Cristin gave me Toby socks!!!!! What can I even say? LOVES!!!!!!!
And my friend Alba sent me this adorable fleece poncho from Colombia, along with some soft fuzzy socks for me and coffee for Dave. She thought of the whole family, I’m impressed!
And last, but totally not least, is this ADORABLE sock-cat from Ali. 1) Whoever thought to make a sock-monkey in cat form was SMRT. 2) I think someone’s going to have to start giving me synonyms for “adorable” at some point in the near future.
Thank you all!!!!
I’ve compiled some of my favorite pictures from my trip to England.
The Tower Bridge (look familiar?)
Bill, my and Alba’s host in Cambridge, who indulged me an an hour-long conversation about my favorite British TV shows
A much deserved beer at the end of a long day of biking around Cambridge
How much I adore a decent half-pint!
My tower of coasters
Self-portrait at Picadilly Circus
Getting attacked by a street performer
Lovely shadowplay on the Houses of Parliament (courtesy of Alba)
Self-portrait in front of the Tower Bridge
An alley cat I made nice with in a pub in Harrow
See the guy in the back, on the right? Later that day, he gave me his match ticket from the match that had played that day in Wembley Stadium – what a lovely souvenier!
The only rain I saw during my whole trip was as I was about to board the plane home 🙂
UPDATE
This cover from the Ziggy Stardust Cover Contest really shows how the cover relates to the scene now. Apologies for not giving props to whoever created this – it’s not listed on the site that I could fine. Hi-C, thanks for pointing this out to me!!
So, while in England Alba and I visited the site where the photo for the cover of the Ziggy Stardust album was taken.
Here is the original.
It took us a bit of time to find it. We were wandering around holding the picture above, squinting at all the building facades, when a helpful passerby said “It’s over there.” I think he worked there and must have been used to seeing people hunt for this landmark.
This is from the end of the street. You can see the site on the right-hand side of the street. On the building at the end of the street (which is The Living Room), note the wood framing over the first floor and the side-by-side rectangular windows at the top of the building. You can see those very clearly in the album cover. Strangely enough, what Graham told me didn’t really jibe with what we saw – the site does not really appear to be part of the building that houses The Living Room.
Here is a sideway view of the building, looking to the right corner. It’s not clear which doorway the picture was taken from.
Looking down the street from the far corner of the building. The picture was taken further down the building, but all of the markers, the light, the K.West sign, the boxes, are all gone.
So, we found it! With the restaurants that lined the entire street all filled with patrons, it was impossible to get in to the actual site, but we got close!! It was fun to have a mission to accomplish, and satisfying to have accomplished it. I probably should have taken more pictures, but I’m happy with what I got.
While Alba and I were in Cambridge, we toured several of the Colleges of Cambridge, including St. John’s, Trinity, Kings’, Queens’, and Clare College.
A very fun thing to do in Cambridge is to punt down the river. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. It was sunny, mid-70s and simply gorgeous. Alba rented a punt from her alma mater, Clare, and punted us the whole way. The river was quite crowded.
Alba did such a good job! It’s a rather difficult thing to do. According the the guide book, “no one else knows what they’re doing, either.” You can hire professionals to guide you down the river, but what’s the fun in that?
It was wonderful to be in the boat, gently rocking, feeling warm under the sun and getting to take in all the sights along the Cambridge River. I could have fallen asleep, laying there.
The Bridge of Sighs (St. John’s College)
Trinity or Kings’ College Bridge?
A Pirate Punt!
For MFA…
Proof that you shouldn’t do Sudoku, even a gentle one, at 6 AM when you’ve had only four hours of sleep.
The inflight status tracker was very accurate, including the two circles we made to kill time because we arrived early.
Thursday night, I arrived around 8 PM and caught the 2 1/2 hour coach up to Cambridge. Alba met me at the bus station and we took a cab home. Then we went to sleep!
Friday morning, she made me a lovely breakfast with coffee, fresh fruit and eggs.
“You got a toothbrush? We’re going to London. Do you hear that, Doug? I’m coming to London!” (NSFW)
Remember that soundbite from the Snatch sountrack? Well, it’s true!! I’m going to visit my BFF Alba, who is from Colombia but is visiting Cambridge for a summer research program.
We are going to be spending two nights in Cambridge and two in London.
The one thing I want to accomplish while I’m there, besides QFT with Alba? I was inspired by Cristin’s Bowie album cover recreation. Now, I don’t have the mad skillz she possesses, but I will be in London so I want to revisit the site of the Ziggy Stardust album cover.
Dave and I have been playing catch-up recently, trying to see some movies while they were still in the theatres.
So, here’s what we’ve seen recently.
300 – Lovely cinematography and plenty of eye candy, though I have to admit that Gerald Butler’s Scottish accent was quite peculiar. I enjoyed the modern soundtrack and the action scenes were entertaining, but some of the creepy creatures were just too creepy. Oh, I also totally called that they filmed the Oracle scene under water – yay for me! Did I mention that there is a lot of nudity in this film? Lots.
Hot Fuzz – Another brilliant Simon Pegg movie! I love love love Simon Pegg, who I first saw in Shaun of the Dead. I’ve seen Shaun of the Dead 4 times now, including the Zomb-o-meter version and the director’s commentary. If you haven’t seen it, rent it now! Hot Fuzz pairs Simon Pegg with his buddy Nick Frost once again. The action is terrific, the story never slows down, and the jokes don’t stop. It’s currently playing at the second-run Carmike theatre on Blue Ridge Road.
Transformers – More than meets the eye!! This movie is awesome! Really, really wonderful. Go see it now!! I sat with my knees pulled up to my chest the whole time – there’s not a minute of relaxing in this fast-paced, adrenline-packed movie. Shia LaBeouf did a great job, but what kind of funny name is that? I also found myself feeling a dramatic surge of patriotism and pride watching all the arms of the military responding with lightnight speed and courage to the situations that were thrust upon them. Silly, I know, but that’s just who I am. *shrug*
Silver Surfer – Not as bad as the first Fantastic Four movie, but not great by any means. I was never a fan of the comic so I wasn’t put off by how much they changed Galactus for the movie. Jessica Alba continued to look plastic with her Sims hair, freaky fake contacts and goofy blue eyeshadow. Ioan Gruffudd (pronounced YO-an GRIFF-ith) is pretty cute though they didn’t give him enough gray at the temples. The Silver Surfer himself was pretty cool.
Harry Potter – We’re going to see it today!! Here’s Cristin’s review.
I finally got my ring! I am so flippin’ excited! You may have read my earlier post about the stone and the ring. Well, it took several tries to find the right setting, but we finally figured it out.
Alba, thank you, thank you, thank you!