8.07.2006

photo dump: stonehenge, etc.

my pictures are taking forever to upload. sigh. on the brightside, i finally saw peter pan! it took us two hours to find him, hidden in some obscure corner of hyde park. people gave us lots of wrong directions, and some of them just said, "there's a statue of peter pan here? huh!" no sense of priority or culture.

as soon as i found him, i climbed on top and made rahul take a photo of me. a brown man walking past stopped to scold me, but instead of just telling me to get off of peter, he said, "you're lucky that statue isn't breaking." breaking? it's not like he's made of bronze or anything...oh wait, he is made of bronze...breaking?! do i really look that heavy? do i really look like i'm five? (don't answer either of those questions please, or i'll break some bronze on YOU).

along the way to peter, we passed the princess di memorial fountain, but it had just closed. some people were still inside, however, so we figured there must be some way in...which led to us hopping the fence. a custodian came by and asked us how we got in, to which our answer was, "ummmm...got in? you mean to this fountain? like past the fence? (gesture vaguely toward some indefinite direction)" to which he promptly replied, "you can't just hop into locked memorials! i'm calling the police on you." which is ridiculous, because he can't hold us there, and by the time the cops come, we'd be gone anyways. but we obediently left. there was one 8 year old kid who just pretended he didn't hear the custodian and stayed in the fountain. the custodian threatened some more, and then gave up. i think our correct answer to his original question should've been, "no comprende, amigo." what's with the people in this country making false threats anyways?

i saw footloose with savage the other night, but it was hard to get past the fake american accents. one guy was very obviously irish. the british don't give a shit if you eat in their theaters. they even sell ice cream during intermission.

in celebration of the aussies' last day, the firm took us to an ice bar friday. everything inside is made of ice (including the cups), and people can only stay inside for 40 min at a time. my poor toesies were freezing. afterwards, we went to karoake and then a club. dancing in heels kinda sucks. makes me hafta reevaluate my entire style. i missed meryl and cchu lots...people kept josling me around, and i felt kinda alone. funny how crowded rooms can do that to you. when i vowed to punch the next person who pushed me or stepped on me, i decided it was time to sit down and cool down. apparently i wasn't the only one with problems. johanna showed me the bruise left by someone's stiletto. heels suck.


got home at 2:30, caught a few winks, woke at 5:40 to meet kat for our stonehenge, etc venture. ended up missing the bus by 2 seconds (literally saw it turn down the street), and had to chase it in a taxi. what a rush. the day was spent in wessex county, where sir thomas hardy set all of his works. there's even a scene in tess that happens at stonehenge (speaking of literary sites, i stumbled on goldsmith's grave near temple church yesterday--he wrote she stoops to conquer, the vicar of wakefield, etc). kinda makes me want to write to mrs case and frau. oh, and did you know that the word sheriff comes from the words shire's reive? and that the town of marlborough is so named because that's supposedly where merlin is buried (merlin's burrough), and a public education at their secondary school costs 21,000 pounds a year (that's roughly $40,000!!).


the walls of old sarum castle, the original location of salisbury cathedral. the stones are made of chalk, left from when a shallow, warm sea covered britain.
salisbury cathedral, home of the magna carta.
also home to many a dead person.
salisbury cathedral windows.
more salibury cathedral windows.


lunched at the george hotel, featured in dickens's martin chuzzlewit.
stonehenge. built in 3500 b.c. (before the advent of the wheel), requiring 1500 years. nowadays politicians can't pulloff projects taking more than 10 years. i blame it on slim shady and the internet.
avebury. a town built within a mile-round stone circle.
getting atop this rock was not easy.

and here are some random photos i've taken:

superhero phonebooth.

cornish pastie.

statue in front of buckingham.

2 comments:

Mina said...

That buckingham statue picture is awesome!

Daphne said...

pictures of people standing on their hands! brilliant! (why didn't i think of that?)

i'm ranking it right after jumping pictures. :o)