Getting Back to Normal

After nearly two weeks off of work, the last thing I wanted to do this morning was get up and head into the office. Sadly, I was forced to do so. Still, as there is no work to do (Again!), I've been mostly reading about the NBA draft and catching up on the sports news from the last week.

My Mother left for Ireland on Tuesday. We had a great visit. An exhausting visit, really. I have about 300 pictures to sort through, so I won't be posting anything just yet, but will put some of the best up by the weekend. The following is a brief review of what we did.

Friday

I had class on Friday so I sent my Mother to the British museum. She didn't last long. Not surprisingly, she was exhausted after Tuesday and Wednesday's all day events. Class was relatively droll and my mind was drifting. After class, I met some mates for a couple pints before heading back home to meet my Mother. We had a nice dinner and a chat before calling it a night.

Saturday

We went to Windsor Castle on Saturday. It's a giant castle just west of London. Edward the Conqueror started it about 900 years ago with a wood fortress on a hill that he built. About a hundred years after that, they put stonework in and it's been an impressive defensible position ever since. The castle is just on the Thames meaning that for hundreds of years, it provided a valuable defense of London as well as being a quick boat ride into the city. At some point, it transitioned to a residence, which it remains today. The Queen's residence that is.

Windsor is only about 30 miles from London, but it's a whole different world out there. The town is classically British in my opinion with a large, shop filled street that can only be navigated by pedestrians in the center of town. It's a vastly different look and feel from London, that's for sure.

We spent about four hours in the Castle. There's just that much to see and do. It's very impressive and I left feeling that if I ever have a country estate, I would like it to be much like Windsor Castle.

In the evening, I went to a Colombian friends birthday party. She had invited me and since I think the world of her (even though she is sadly in a committed relationship), I wasn't going to skip it. Of course, I ended up staying too late and didn't get home until 2 or so, but it was worth it. I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. Good times.

Sunday

Sunday proved to be fairly brutal given my state of sleep deprivation, but it was throughourly enjoyable. We took an organized tour from London to Oxford, Stratford on Avon, and Warwick Castle. Oxford was a very brief stop, about an hour. We didn't mind much because it was quite cool in the morning and we at least got to see and hear about some of the history of the college.

Stratford on Avon was a nice town; I could definitely live in a place like that. For those in unawares, it's the birth place of William Shakespeare and they capitalize on that. We toured the house he grew up in, but didn't have much time for anything else. Still, nice town and the sun came out making the whole place entirely beautiful.

Warwick Castle, however, was the highlight of the day. It is an amazing place really. It's a giant castle with high rising parapets fully complemented with arrow holes, murder holes, a portcullis, and all the trimmings of a medieval castle. The words, "silly English kniggits" immediately rang through my head. My brother in law would have absolutely loved the place (as would most everyone who goes there).

One of the truly grand things about Warwick Castle is that you can climb the towers and stand on the highest parts and look outwards, much as English soldiers did centuries ago. As a testament to my Mother's fortitude, she climbed along with me, even after tiring. Truly a great, great place. They have a jousting festival in July so I may go back. The only disappointing thing was that the dungeon was closed due to flooding, so I didn't get to see what it was like down there. Still, it was awesome.

Monday

We took the train to Bath on Monday. Bath is a city that was founded by the Romans almost 2,000 years ago. They discovered a hot springs there and built a temple and town around it. Unlike other hot bath springs in the Roman empire, this one had religious significance. Bath is a quaint little town saddled between two rolling hills astride the River Avon. The sun was shining, making the place look glorious in that European sort of way that we simply don't have in the States. I could live in a place like that as well.

The feature attraction in Bath is, of course, the Roman Bath. It takes a long time to tour and it's very informative, but near the end, I tired of the audio tour device they give you. There's almost information overload at a place like that. At the end, you get to try the water from the spring. It was warm and tasted a little odd, but I drank it heartedly. I figure if the Romans drank five liters of the stuff before breakfast every day, it must be good for you.

The rest of the town was really cool to see with the exception of this Costume museum. It was mostly boring and uninteresting, which surprised me because Rick Steves gave it his highest rating (3 triangles). Even he can miss the mark, I suppose.

Tuesday

I took my Mother to the Tube at 7 am. I didn't go all the way to the airport, but I can't imagine she had any trouble. She left quite early for her flight to Ireland, not that I blame her. You can't be to sure about that type of thing. I was sad to see her go. We really did have a great week, if exhausting. Of course, it was good that she left. I need to get back to normal so I can finish out the term and get a job. Still, I don't imagine that without some sort of windfall she'll be back. That's too bad. She really enjoyed herself, but there's still so much to see and do. I have to applaud her effort, really. Not only did she see some of the best parts of London, but she also saw a good bit of the country. I saw more in the last week than I've seen in 10 months.

Anyway, after dropping her on her train, I went back to sleep for a couple hours before heading to class. We watched Platoon, which I hadn't seen in a long time, so I really enjoyed it. This class is finishing up on Saturday when we have our final. I'll be glad for that. Next week is going to be brutal because we'll be back to Globalization and we have a number of make up days scheduled. Which, of course, means that I need to finish that damnable paper this weekend. Yuck. Plus, we're probably going to do some sort of BBQ to celebrate the 4th this Sunday.

Now, it's about noon and I've successfully squandered the morning away, so I'm off to lunch. In the words of the immortal(ly challenged) George W. Bush, "Merci y'all!"