Just Can't Stand It

We're going to England!!!!

Not long now.

And amid all the buying of stomach remedies and packing extra socks, I just keep thinking of the plans and possibilities:

• Hampton Court
• Harry Potter Studios
• Cardiff--Doctor Who Experience and Cardiff Castle
• Viking exhibition at British Museum
• "Downton Abbey"/Highclere Castle
• Stonehenge
• Winchester
• St. Pancras and Platform 9 3/4
• Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and brass rubbings at St. Martin's in the Field (also tea)
• Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye
• Evensong at Westminster Abbey
• Tower of London
• St Paul's 
• Museum of London
• Globe Theater and Southwark
• afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason's 
• lunch at Cheshire Cheese
• Harrod's
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• yes, the food:  scones, clotted cream, strawberry jam, Earl Grey tea, Ploughman's lunch, Branston pickle, Cornish pasty, wonderful Indian food, traditional English breakfast, chocolate refrigerator cake, yogurt and marmalade, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, treacle sponge/summer puddings, digestive biscuits, steak and kidney pie, bubble and squeak, fish and chips, lemon curd, shepherd's/cottage pie, flapjacks, elderflower drinks, etc etc etc
• The kids have even been practicing the lingo (boot, biscuit, bobby, petrol, lorry, tube, pounds, pudding, trousers vs. pants, chips, crisps, dustbin, loo, chemist's shop, car park, car bonnet, lift, post, Wellies, brolly?, etc) . . . 
• and trying to keep a hold on the history (Celts, Romans, King Arthur, Vikings, Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, Pilgrims/Puritans, Victorians, WWII . . . yes, there are some holes, but they're 8!)
• and, last but not least, Lambeth and Mrs. Lambeth!!!

Ya-hoo!!!!!

Doctor Who Weekend

If you haven't heard, this weekend is the 50th anniversary of the television show "Doctor Who."  I introduced the kids to the recent reboot, after myself becoming enthralled with the show in the last year or so.  They've seen episodes from the 9th, 10th, and 11th Doctors and look forward to seeing the 12th--they even both recently chose actor David Tennant (#10) as the person they most wanted to have over for dinner, in the guise of the Doctor (good taste, I'd say--and they chose it independently of me and each other!)  They've also put visiting the Doctor Who show and seeing the T.A.R.D.I.S. at the top of their London list (along with Harry Potter studios and the London Eye.)  No doubt after tomorrow's episode, SPOILERS the Tower of London and National Gallery will join the list as well.

So, tonight we'll watch some episodes they haven't seen yet, probably rewatch some of the trailers of the anniversary episode, and tomorrow we'll be watching the live pre-show and then the episode at 2:50, simulcast around the world.

Gotta stock up on Jammie Dodgers.  (Only wish I'd had these to make cookies with.)

(But no fish sticks and custard.)

Expanding the Whovian Universe

The kids love "Doctor Who."

We watched two episodes last weekend and they begged for more this weekend.  Meanwhile, they played with my sonic screwdrivers, drew pictures of the TARDIS, and read the Who encyclopedia.  And, so, on Saturday night we watched "Blink," the episode with the scary Weeping Angels.  But it was a little too much.
Then Sunday morning after UU service, Sis and Bud played "Doctor Who" on the playground with the other kids.  They all talked about Daleks and Cybermen, Doctors 9, 10, and 11, the Face of Boe.  And they ran around playing a kind of Weeping Angels tag, only moving when their target wasn't looking.  It really was perfect, a happy/proud parenting moment for me and the sense of how right the UU church is for us.  And I think it purged them of Weeping Angel nightmares.

Of course, now when we go to London, they want to visit the Doctor Who store with its TARDIS.  They also want to see Harry Potter's Platform 9 3/4 and the phone booth where he dialed into the Ministry of Magic.  So much for the Tower or Westminster Abbey or the British Museum--our trip to London this spring might be a fandom trip!

Twenty-Five Weeks and Counting

Twenty-five weeks puts us in mid-April.  Spring Break.

And we think we're going to London to celebrate Mama's big birthday by visiting the Harry Potter Studios.

It's all in the planning stages, and we're not even sure that Mama's big project will be over (so we might go at the end of June instead.)  But we'd love to go.  Time in London, time with Lambeth.  The biggies:  the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Westminster Cathedral, Big Ben, St. Pancras's Station (platform 9 3/4!), Hampton Court, maybe one of the museums (British?  V&A?  National Gallery? of the City of London?).  Plus whatever with Lambeth--his town, Stonehenge, King Arthur's table, the filming location of "Downton Abbey," all manner of things.

It's all to be worked out.  But it's the fun kind of work.

Congrats and Best Wishes!

To London and Lambeth, on the opening of the 2012 Summer Games!

Wishing the world a wonderful Olympics!

(And a lot less Romney!)