Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Great Times with Ian and Charity

Since the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square and St. Martin in the Fields are just around the corner from Charity and Ian’s flat we can cover a lot of gallery and site-seeing ground in one day! In addition to spending some quality time in the next-door museums, Charity and I took a bus to the Tate Britain Gallery and then a boat down the Thames to the Tate Modern. SO much fun!

The Tate Britain is one of my favorite galleries in the world. They always have a new exhibit and this is the one for this year: (Thanks again to Charity for these pics. We only have one working phone and Rick/Dad had it).

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This dazzling gallery includes one of our family’s all time favorite paintings
, since this piece been hanging in our living room for many years. We saw an artist painting a replica of The Lade of Shallot on one of our trips to that gallery and Richard immediately recognized the talent and bought the replica on the spot. A trip to the Tate just isn’t complete without seeing that girl!

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Our favorite at the Tate Modern was this Bread Bed. It is encased in glass and is made entirely with slices of white bread at different stages of demise and then glazed with wax. Who could think of that? The mind of an artist is so amazing!

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We also loved the color and design of this painting:

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These paintings and creations always make us think, “I could do that,” but actually ….no!

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What could be more festive for Covent Garden (also around the corner from Charity) than this new installation indicating that Covent Garden is the heart of London. At night the lights make this mass of balloons look like a beating heart!

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On our last night, our newlyweds (until next month when they will celebrate their one year anniversary) skillfully led us to the magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral where we saw spectacular views of that magnificent monument to God from a roof-top.

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After having dinner there, we were excited to find out what “the surprise” was that Charity and Ian had been saying they had in store for us for the past two days. We walked across the Millennial Bridge and as we neared the London Eye, we saw a crazy swing that went up a poll which was taller than the London Eyre…at breakneck speed. As we approached, we have to admit that we thought “I hope that’s not the surprise,’' which you should never say because….indeed it was! Yikes!

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Ian, Rick and I were terrified as they strapped us into those contraptions and Charity was giddy with glee!

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We survived. It was a ride we won’t ever forget!

London! What a dazzling place for Ian and Charity to start their first jobs and lives together. They are saying that they will be there between 2 and 10 years. It was a delight to be with them in their new ward on Sunday and experience their new environment!

All their belongings from the States have not yet arrived and it looks as though it won’t be there for several more weeks. It’s amazing how beautifully they are surviving as they continue to live out of suitcases for all these weeks! They have two air mattresses (one for them and one for us), four bowls, a set of four plastic knives, forks and spoons and 4 glasses. They have an almost perfect two room flat. I say almost because there are no electrical plugs in the bathroom so Charity sits on the floor in the hall near a plug with no mirror to dry and/or curl her hair. They are amazing troopers!  Ian loves his very demanding job and Charity is grateful that she has a flexible job working with a group of charter schools.

We are so grateful that they can both take time off to go on a cruise down the Adriatic Sea which is coming next!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Linda,

it is definitely not typical of Europe that there are no electrical plugs in the bathroom. I am living in Europe, and I`ve never heard of or experienced anything like that, not even in England or Ireland. Please don`t write stuff like this-people who read your blog and have never been to Europe think it`s true when it isn`t. I`ve read the most weird things about Europe on american blogs that mybe true for a special region in a certain country, but certainly not for Europe. Please remember that Europe consists of many different countries that differ in culture, language, traditions, history-everything. And every country has many different regions that can be very different from each other.
Enjoy your journey.

Linda said...

Sorry, fixed that, but I do have to say that I have rarely stayed in a flat or hotel in Europe that has an electrical plug in the bathroom. Guess it may have to do with the years they were built or just bad luck? We read some pretty strange things about America too so apologies!

Linda said...

Sorry, fixed that, but I do have to say that I have rarely stayed in a flat or hotel in Europe that has an electrical plug in the bathroom. Guess it may have to do with the years they were built or just bad luck? We read some pretty strange things about America too so apologies!

Unknown said...

It`s all good! Could be both, I don`t know, but it is strange, isn`t it? :-)

Julie said...

The only electrical items that are allowed in bathrooms & loos over here are ones for toothbrushes & either a light switch or a pull cord.

I found it really strange when I was in the US that people dried their hair with a hair dryer in the bathroom. I was so worried in case they got electrocuted.

I think the main reason could be to do with the currency here.

My brother is an electrician, I'll have to ask him the reason for it.

You were all really brave on those swings.:)

I love the picture of the London Eye in the evening.

Did you go on the Eye?

kms said...

The outlets in the bathroom, in the kitchen near the sink and outside the house are different than the outlets in the bedroom and living room. There is some protection. Still not advisable to toast bread while submerged in the bathtub and the toaster balancing in the side of the tub. But if you hand is damp and you are using a hair dryer in front of the sink you probably won't die.

Anonymous said...

Hi kris - long time no see!

belle and whistle said...

It is so funny what we all perceive to be 'normal' and what we take for granted. When I read your words I thought; hairdryer? in the bathroom? oh my! My natural instinct is to think of it as dangerous. How lucky we are to experience living in different countries and communities and learn alternative ways of living?... even if it is just figuring out where us Brits dry our hair...ha!

FYI: We tend to do our hair in the bedroom with a full length mirror :)

Hope you had a wonderful time in London.

Best wishes, Anna X

Pol said...

Shaver sockets are the only sort allowed in UK bathrooms :) 240V in the supply is a lot more than in the U.S. Of course, that's why we have decent electric kettles. US kitchens without a proper kettle to make a nice cuppa always come as a bit of a shock :)

Brooke Higgins said...

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Suzan Baker said...

Bread bed? A bed made from bread pieces? Seriously who could think about that! This is amazing. Car parking Birmingham