Sarah's Visit

Since we've been here, we've managed to have quite a few visitors. In fact, we figure that someone from the homestead has been over here to hang out with us at least every two months. This includes virtually every member of our immediate families (many of them twice) and a couple friends. Least week it was our friend Sarah's turn. We're always happy to have guests; on top of the excellent company, it gives us an excuse to show off all of our favorite UK places and 'things to do'. Of which we have built up a considerable repertoire. Given that we only had a week, some of these activities were out of range, but I think we still achieved our primary aim of running Sarah ragged. The very day she arrived, we told her to forget about the jet lag and took her out to the bustling Northampton town center, exposing her to number of pleasant Northampton standbys including the Market and Cafe Nero. She did pretty well that night, managing to stay up pretty late whilst playing Sequence (sortof a card-based 'connect four').

Sunday, we left early for Avebury, a UNESCO world heritage site, which we were told has a stone circle many times the size of Stonehenge. It's a pretty neat place, actually. The stone circle (circles, actually) is indeed very large if not quite as dramatic as the Stonehenge. The national trust has taken over the entire village of Avebury (which consists of maybe ten English cottages and a pub) as a historical property. We did what most people do there: Walk around the stones and the village. We also stopped in to see Silbury hill, a nearby barrow that is about twenty times bigger than any other. No one really knows what purpose the hill served. No skeletons were found, though it is likely there were some there initially. Lots of roman artifacts were recovered from the site, so clearly the hill was reoccupied by successive peoples. After Avebury, we headed over to Oxford for a trip. We took a tour guided by a rather strange and bitter man (though he did know a fair bit of stuff) and then climbed the tower of Saint Mary the Virgin Church, which had some pretty nice views. Oh, and we went to Starbucks. This will be a recurring theme.

On Monday, Jane and Sarah accompanied me on my commute and spent the day in Cambridge. The highlight for me was being able to make use of my student card to get us into King's college chapel, which in addition to being very huge, has an excellent museum that includes things like Henry the VI's will and an infographic on the War of the Roses. While I was at work, Jane and Sarah walked around down by the river and went to Satrbucks.

Tuesday I was on my own again - Sarah and Jane went to the university of Warwick so that they could get some work done. No Starbucks, but I am informed that lates were had nonethless in the cafeteria. I believe it was that evening that Sarah's eyes were opened to the beauty that is Firefly.

Wednesday we took Sarah for a whirlwind tour of London. Of course the first thing we did was to feed our Starbucks addition at the well-placed Embankment location. We went on the eye (Jane and I for the second time), saw various sights (Big Ben, Westminster abbey, Covent Garden, China Town etc.), went to dinner and even saw a west end play. The dinner is an important point because I got to eat Garfunkle's Lamb Shank with Mint Sauce. I am aware that this sounds disgusting, but believe me, it is exactly the opposite of that. The play was a one man show called 'Under the Lintel' starring Richard Schiff of 'The West Wing' fame. It was quite good, I thought, but not brilliant. Interestingly, the subject matter centered on subjects that we had had very deep philosophical discussions about just the night before. Having a Catholic, a Baptist and an Atheist under one roof is bound to lead to some after dinner philosophy! That night, there was more Firefly!

By Thursday, we were starting to wind down. Sarah was ushered (by me) over to Kenilworth castle where we took (part of) the audio tour before going to pick up Jane at Warwick. After that it was to Stratford so that Sarah could be exposed to the Bard. We had a very historical lunch at a very historical pub called the Windmill. They could trace their owners back to the mid 1700's. Try doing that in Canada! Then Jane and Sarah went to the Shakespeare museum whilst I walked around eating fudge (I had already been in). Then, so as to be original, we went to Starbucks, walked the Avon a bit and left. That evening we watched... can you guess? Firefly :-)

And on Friday, rather exhausted, I imagine, and coming down from a prolonged Starbucks sugar/caffeine high, Sarah caught the plane back home.

And I think I'll just leave of with this, which I was unfortunate enough to spot in Oxford: