Several days condensed...
Got into London at stupid o'clock in the morning, after an overnight flight in which i was unable to sleep at all. So, i'm typing this at midnight after being awake for 36 hours straight, falling asleep for four, then waking up unable to sleep more. Jet lag blows.
At least i have a cute hotel--the Oliver Plaza in Earls Court. I picked it because it was the most affordable thing in between Heathrow and the V&A (my one must-do), and it's an old hotel--small rooms by modern standards, but whatever, i'm not doing anything but (trying to) sleep in it. My one critique is that i wish they hadn't dropped the ceilings by a foot--the windows are still original height but go up into a pocket now, with the ceilings lowered, and i can't figure out why they did it, because it wasn't to put in HVAC.
For those of you who may be reading this who are friends and London residents (or near-to), i apologize for not making any plans to see you. I knew it was going to be a fly-by kind of thing, that i'd be running on fumes from jet lag, and that planning would blow as i have no cell over here.
I was last in London in I think 1992, for a summer study abroad program in undergrad, Theatre and Culture. The program began in Stratford-upon-Avon, where we did the Shakespeare thing (including two plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company complete with backstage tours), then came to London for theatergoing and museums. I had a 1990s version of the haircut i just got, and lived in dormitories in Russell Square.
Today i visited Lock and Co. Hatters, a famous London hat maker who has been in business since 1676. They have historically been known primary for men's hats--they made the first bowler, i believe--though they do also have a second floor showroom of women's millinery as well. In a case they have a great display which includes the original order notes for Admiral Nelson's bicorne (including measurements of various elements of decor) and the Queen's head size block.
Ship in a bottle sculpture in Trafalgar Square.
Speaking of Nelson, i'm a fan of maritime history and swung by Trafalgar Square to check out the statuary there, including an enormous ship in a bottle. I also found one of those cool London serendipity things, a headstone for someone's dog or horse (couldn't tell, a "faithful friend" and clearly not a human's grave) from the 18th century hiding off in a tiny bit of side street earth. I didn't take many pictures since all i had with me was my iPad, my camera being in my luggage which was back at the hotel. (Incidentally, people who say things like "pix or it didn't happen" or "pix or there's no proof" have a much more narcissistic and exhibitionist concept of journaling or otherwise documenting life than i. That, or else need to work on trust issues. JMO.)
I then went to the National Portrait Gallery. Wow! I love portraiture--part and parcel of an interest in the history of dress, as it's a major source of documentation of research--and the NPG was a great way to kill a few hours! Among dozens of other things i saw the original Chandos Shakespeare (rounded a corner and there he was and literally caught my breath), and a portrait of Elizabeth I which i have in the past assigned as part of a millinery analysis project i give my students at the end of that class. I also saw a bunch of photographs of ballet dancers dressed in the famous Bakst costume designs, the renderings of which i'm so familiar with (and which i also often assign in that same analysis project but the dye class/surface design version). It was cool to see the actualized versions of those on real bodies!
Then i met up with B. in the Victoria and Albert Museum, a friend who is also studying abroad this summer--she's in law school and doing some legal coursework in London. The last time we saw each other, she had come out to Los Angeles on vacation when i lived there, six+ years ago, so that was a great time. We honestly could have sat in a diner and i'd have had fun, but wandering the V&A together was fab (though finding a loo in the place that didn't have a mile long line was like looking for an honest politician).
Eye-forkingly, their Fashion galleries are closed til 2012, and their textiles collections are in the process of moving to a new facility, but that's ok. We got to see tons of incredible sculpture, metalwork, jewelry, silversmithy, and liturgical regalia. There was some egregious lack of pattern matching of pieced brocade on this one chasuble, that we groused about more than was probably seemly. And, i made some structural notes on the construction of bishop's miters they had on display, one of those hats you have to make now and again, and which you can't just grab a handy extant example to study interior construction of (or at least, i can't, not having any close friends or colleagues who are high up in the church hierarchy).
Then, we adjourned to an EXCELLENT Italian restaurant for dinner, catching-up, and people watching. And then i crashed and burned spectacularly (or felt like i did, it's so hard to perceive reality while sleep-deprived) and had to come back to the hotel to pass out. Which i did for four hours, then woke up and wrote this. Woo. The wifi in this hotel is exorbitant, so i'll likely post it tomorrow from some cafe with free access before i get on the train north to Manchester!
*
Or,not. Now I'm @Euston Station, awaiting my train. I came quite early, in case the massive labor strikes were going to cause any delays. The hotel had a breakfast set out, so I forewent the cafe. The men's fashion here is excellent, with the majority of men having on excellent shoes--brogues, wingtips, even winklepickers on all sorts of men, and given that trends seem to migrate to the US, one can only hope. Pinstriped jackets are also huge, with jeans and other trousers. American men, please start dressing like this, instead of cargo shorts and hoodies and birth control sandals.
*
Now, I'm on the train! I've traveled by train in the US, so it's not a total novelty, but I forgot how enjoyable it is. I have chosen to specify "Quiet Zone" for my carriage and people are serious about that designation, as a woman just got roundly berated for her cell going off loudly for a second time. Judging by what's flying by outside my window, sheep are a major segment of the UK livestock population. Which reminds me that I had made a mental note to look into tartan production as a possible source of interesting stuff in Scotland. I will say this, too, in terms of travel in general in the UK, it has been so easy and hassle-free, it really serves in contrast to the US, which is feeling more and more like a totalitarian state in terms of the bs you have to deal with just to travel from place to place.
Manchester, hello! Nice to meet you! Here I am staying with my friend C. and her husband T. (and their dachshund and two cats). It is nice to sleep in a real bed in a real home instead of a hotel. We're going to the Stockport Hat Museum, which i'll have to write up in La Bricoleuse. I can't wait!
*
Well, i'd hoped to make one post of all the previous material and write another on the train from Manchester to Edinburgh, but it was a fantastically ghetto train with no wifi and absolutely packed with passengers so no such luck. Now i'm in Edinburgh, but our lodging house has no wifi either. Crappy. This afternoon i'm going to hit an internet cafe and search for free wifi locations in the city--i know a couple of chains of coffeeshops do it so it's only a matter of time. The disconnectivity is actually really conducive to getting work done in terms of reading, writing, etc. so i don't mind so much, but it's just inconvenient to start.
View from my window.
I had to buy these.
Where I live!
My room is a decent, serviceable room, nothing posh but nothing gross either. I split the bath and kitchen with two other women in the program, one of whom is in my writing workshop (the morning class). It's a fourth-floor walk-up, but that will hopefully make up a bit for the lack of time for exercising that i'll have here. My window overlooks Bruntsfield Links, a huge meadow and golf course, so it doesn't feel like i'm in a city really.
I've already gotten my monthly bus pass for the city--£51, better than shelling out £3.20 a day or £1.30 every time i want to ride somewhere, which, given that we have to take the bus to and from campus and all evening events, would add up to more fast. I'm a block from a grocery store, so that's also convenient.
This morning is a literary walking tour and then i'll probably scope out someplace to post this much at least. I need to write up my thoughts on the Hat Museum this afternoon as well, before it gets too far in the past, because it was completely amazing and gave me a bunch of ideas for future scholarship opportunities. If this program comes back to Edinburgh next summer, i may see if i can work it so i spend a month in Manchester beforehand and do some scholarly research in the museum's archives or something. It's something i'm baking in the brain-oven, so to speak.
At least i have a cute hotel--the Oliver Plaza in Earls Court. I picked it because it was the most affordable thing in between Heathrow and the V&A (my one must-do), and it's an old hotel--small rooms by modern standards, but whatever, i'm not doing anything but (trying to) sleep in it. My one critique is that i wish they hadn't dropped the ceilings by a foot--the windows are still original height but go up into a pocket now, with the ceilings lowered, and i can't figure out why they did it, because it wasn't to put in HVAC.
For those of you who may be reading this who are friends and London residents (or near-to), i apologize for not making any plans to see you. I knew it was going to be a fly-by kind of thing, that i'd be running on fumes from jet lag, and that planning would blow as i have no cell over here.
I was last in London in I think 1992, for a summer study abroad program in undergrad, Theatre and Culture. The program began in Stratford-upon-Avon, where we did the Shakespeare thing (including two plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company complete with backstage tours), then came to London for theatergoing and museums. I had a 1990s version of the haircut i just got, and lived in dormitories in Russell Square.
Today i visited Lock and Co. Hatters, a famous London hat maker who has been in business since 1676. They have historically been known primary for men's hats--they made the first bowler, i believe--though they do also have a second floor showroom of women's millinery as well. In a case they have a great display which includes the original order notes for Admiral Nelson's bicorne (including measurements of various elements of decor) and the Queen's head size block.
Ship in a bottle sculpture in Trafalgar Square.
Speaking of Nelson, i'm a fan of maritime history and swung by Trafalgar Square to check out the statuary there, including an enormous ship in a bottle. I also found one of those cool London serendipity things, a headstone for someone's dog or horse (couldn't tell, a "faithful friend" and clearly not a human's grave) from the 18th century hiding off in a tiny bit of side street earth. I didn't take many pictures since all i had with me was my iPad, my camera being in my luggage which was back at the hotel. (Incidentally, people who say things like "pix or it didn't happen" or "pix or there's no proof" have a much more narcissistic and exhibitionist concept of journaling or otherwise documenting life than i. That, or else need to work on trust issues. JMO.)
I then went to the National Portrait Gallery. Wow! I love portraiture--part and parcel of an interest in the history of dress, as it's a major source of documentation of research--and the NPG was a great way to kill a few hours! Among dozens of other things i saw the original Chandos Shakespeare (rounded a corner and there he was and literally caught my breath), and a portrait of Elizabeth I which i have in the past assigned as part of a millinery analysis project i give my students at the end of that class. I also saw a bunch of photographs of ballet dancers dressed in the famous Bakst costume designs, the renderings of which i'm so familiar with (and which i also often assign in that same analysis project but the dye class/surface design version). It was cool to see the actualized versions of those on real bodies!
Then i met up with B. in the Victoria and Albert Museum, a friend who is also studying abroad this summer--she's in law school and doing some legal coursework in London. The last time we saw each other, she had come out to Los Angeles on vacation when i lived there, six+ years ago, so that was a great time. We honestly could have sat in a diner and i'd have had fun, but wandering the V&A together was fab (though finding a loo in the place that didn't have a mile long line was like looking for an honest politician).
Eye-forkingly, their Fashion galleries are closed til 2012, and their textiles collections are in the process of moving to a new facility, but that's ok. We got to see tons of incredible sculpture, metalwork, jewelry, silversmithy, and liturgical regalia. There was some egregious lack of pattern matching of pieced brocade on this one chasuble, that we groused about more than was probably seemly. And, i made some structural notes on the construction of bishop's miters they had on display, one of those hats you have to make now and again, and which you can't just grab a handy extant example to study interior construction of (or at least, i can't, not having any close friends or colleagues who are high up in the church hierarchy).
Then, we adjourned to an EXCELLENT Italian restaurant for dinner, catching-up, and people watching. And then i crashed and burned spectacularly (or felt like i did, it's so hard to perceive reality while sleep-deprived) and had to come back to the hotel to pass out. Which i did for four hours, then woke up and wrote this. Woo. The wifi in this hotel is exorbitant, so i'll likely post it tomorrow from some cafe with free access before i get on the train north to Manchester!
*
Or,not. Now I'm @Euston Station, awaiting my train. I came quite early, in case the massive labor strikes were going to cause any delays. The hotel had a breakfast set out, so I forewent the cafe. The men's fashion here is excellent, with the majority of men having on excellent shoes--brogues, wingtips, even winklepickers on all sorts of men, and given that trends seem to migrate to the US, one can only hope. Pinstriped jackets are also huge, with jeans and other trousers. American men, please start dressing like this, instead of cargo shorts and hoodies and birth control sandals.
*
Now, I'm on the train! I've traveled by train in the US, so it's not a total novelty, but I forgot how enjoyable it is. I have chosen to specify "Quiet Zone" for my carriage and people are serious about that designation, as a woman just got roundly berated for her cell going off loudly for a second time. Judging by what's flying by outside my window, sheep are a major segment of the UK livestock population. Which reminds me that I had made a mental note to look into tartan production as a possible source of interesting stuff in Scotland. I will say this, too, in terms of travel in general in the UK, it has been so easy and hassle-free, it really serves in contrast to the US, which is feeling more and more like a totalitarian state in terms of the bs you have to deal with just to travel from place to place.
Manchester, hello! Nice to meet you! Here I am staying with my friend C. and her husband T. (and their dachshund and two cats). It is nice to sleep in a real bed in a real home instead of a hotel. We're going to the Stockport Hat Museum, which i'll have to write up in La Bricoleuse. I can't wait!
*
Well, i'd hoped to make one post of all the previous material and write another on the train from Manchester to Edinburgh, but it was a fantastically ghetto train with no wifi and absolutely packed with passengers so no such luck. Now i'm in Edinburgh, but our lodging house has no wifi either. Crappy. This afternoon i'm going to hit an internet cafe and search for free wifi locations in the city--i know a couple of chains of coffeeshops do it so it's only a matter of time. The disconnectivity is actually really conducive to getting work done in terms of reading, writing, etc. so i don't mind so much, but it's just inconvenient to start.
View from my window.
I had to buy these.
Where I live!
My room is a decent, serviceable room, nothing posh but nothing gross either. I split the bath and kitchen with two other women in the program, one of whom is in my writing workshop (the morning class). It's a fourth-floor walk-up, but that will hopefully make up a bit for the lack of time for exercising that i'll have here. My window overlooks Bruntsfield Links, a huge meadow and golf course, so it doesn't feel like i'm in a city really.
I've already gotten my monthly bus pass for the city--£51, better than shelling out £3.20 a day or £1.30 every time i want to ride somewhere, which, given that we have to take the bus to and from campus and all evening events, would add up to more fast. I'm a block from a grocery store, so that's also convenient.
This morning is a literary walking tour and then i'll probably scope out someplace to post this much at least. I need to write up my thoughts on the Hat Museum this afternoon as well, before it gets too far in the past, because it was completely amazing and gave me a bunch of ideas for future scholarship opportunities. If this program comes back to Edinburgh next summer, i may see if i can work it so i spend a month in Manchester beforehand and do some scholarly research in the museum's archives or something. It's something i'm baking in the brain-oven, so to speak.
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