Back in the game!

Hey folks, if you're seeing this post, then it means I was finally able to upload some photos again! I've been wanting to post a few from the last days of our visitors--especially since I owe Cindy a picture of Ian while he was here (completely healthy and sane, I promise).

We've got a big upcoming trip that will just about mark the end of our extra-London adventuring, but we're both really looking forward to our anniversary in Paris this year! Two years already, I can't believe it.

Anyway, here's some more photos of us with Callie, and the one picture of Ian in our flat that I was allowed to take:

NOTE: I don't know why the pictures are cut off, just click on each for the full view!

Here's the girls doing, you guessed it, the Abbey Road Strut. This isn't really the right zebra crossing, but you'd be amazed by how many crazy people are out there doing this every day...

Up in Regent's Park, Queen Mary really knew how to make a garden! We had a beautiful day for a stroll through the rose gardens, and...

...plenty of chances to fascinated by ducks. They really do all swim in a line. I wonder why that is?

Tower Bridge is still one of the coolest things in London.

Speaking of the coolest things in London: here's Ian! He came for a visit, and almost broke my thesis!

That's all for now, hopefully no more problems with pictures!

Problems with photo uploader...

Sorry for the delays in updating. I've been having trouble with Blogger's photo uploader--apparently it doesn't care for pictures over 3 MB very much. I'll keep at it, however, and soon will have even more new pictures to share!

We've had another visitor, all the way from gay Paris, over this past week. Ian has been in town visiting some of his friends, enjoying greasy breakfasts around town, and shattering Trevor's confidence in himself through his unwavering support for Trevor's dissertation topic. Sound like a contradiction? I thought so too, but I'm still quaking in fear of submitting this paper in January...

At any rate, look for pictures soon! I'm going to get in contact with Blogger/Google and try to see what's up!

Stonehenge and Bath

In the effort to stay current--and just simply because our trip yesterday was awesome--I'm posting pictures immediately of our adventure to Bath and Stonehenge with Callie B. To celebrate Callie's visit, we opted for a very special "Inner Circle" tour, where we actually got to go in among the stones at sunset. As you can imagine, it was a dramatic evening.

The Roman Baths--at Bath, go figure--are pretty spectacular as well. Bath is a beautiful little village that actually reminds me quite a bit of towns in Italy. In fact, the Pultney Bridge is a copy of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, and it is the only remaining bridge in England that has buildings on it. The baths themselves are the only natural hot spring in all England, and were long believed to hold magical and healing powers. The Baths were dedicated to Sulis Minerva. Aquae Sulis was the Roman name for the town that would be rebuilt as Bath centuries later. Sul was a pre-Roman Celtic god worshiped at the spring. The current baths were built in the 18th century, and excavations of the Roman ruins didn't begin until much later in the 19th century. They didn't even know the Romans had been there for a long, long time.

Here we see a view of the Abbey from the top of the Great Bath. This Abbey, incidentally, is where Edgar, first king of all England was crowned by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury in 973 AD.

This is the view of the Pultney Bridge mentioned above.

The Romans were really smart, and made their own saunas by drawing air across a fire under a hollow floor, and up through hollow flue bricks in the walls. This is the floor structure in one such room.

Callie and Anna relaxing (since they didn't get their traditional spa experience) by the Great Bath.

Stonehenge. Stonehenge is a really stunning piece of human heritage. Built between 3,000-5,000 years ago, and in the three separate stages over several centuries by separate peoples or tribes, we still don't know exactly what it's for, but it bears a special relationship in its construction to the solar and lunar cycles. It probably allowed ancient Britons to predict eclipses as well. The larger stones can weigh around 45 tons, and some of the smaller, "blue" stones are a rare type of stone that occurs in only one mountain in south Wales--some 250 miles away from where Stonehenge sits in the county Wiltshire.

Our tour got a special view of a dramatic sunset, coupled with some rain, but as a consequence also a stunning rainbow over the English countryside. Also, we got to go inside the ring, and people don't normally get to do that! Enjoy:

This was a really, really special adventure. Not one easily forgotten.

The Return of Strong Internet Connections!

That's right folks, we've finally got our internet hookups squared away, after much consternation and many long phone calls to multiple concerned parties. The "Death Star" is fully armed and operational, as they say. "They" referring to evil galactic emperors, of course.

Let's see, the last post I was able to complete was about Sweden a few weeks ago, and even then I was catching up. This summer has been flying by, Anna and I have both been hard at work--for the most part. My time has been divided between the several libraries at which I do my research. I wish I could take pictures of the reading rooms at the British Library, because they are fantastic. Where else would I get to handle and read original copies of books printed in the 1880's? I'll see if I can come up with some contraband evidence without getting kicked out. Anna has been taking several courses in design, sewing pattern adaptation, color, and styling. She is developing her plans for an image consulting business, and working hard at it!

Here are some pictures!

Tim turned 60 this year, and the big surprise for his birthday was getting the whole family together. As you can tell, he wasn't exactly expecting us all from the four corners of the world. New York, San Francisco, London and La Crosse, all getting slightly closer together these days!


So we says to ourselves, "since we're about the business of surprisin' anyway, let's see how many we can fit into one trip." Mom's near-heart-attack-of-joy was certainly a good one!


Of course, the planets aligned and brought many friends home during the exact time period in which we were so secretly back in La Crosse...so naturally we went bowling! This is, after all, what We do.


In case you needed more proof that we are really awesome...we're totally famous...

So there's just a taste of our little jaunt back across the pond. It was far too short, and full of good times and great memories. There's just a taste for now, but, as I've been promising for some time, now that the internet Force is with us once more, there will be updates aplenty--especially considering our visits and upcoming events! More on that later, and cheers for now!

Gazing out my window

We've had an eventful month or so, managing to fit in a trip to Sweden, moving to a new apartment in Paddington, a clandestine trip back to La Crosse to surprise our families and friends, and soon I (Trev) begin the hectic process of applying to Ph.D programs back in the US. Whew, at least it's nice to have a nice view to sit back on a Sunday evening and enjoy. Catching up on pictures a bit, here's a few from our Swedish excursion to visit some of Anna's more extended family:

Above: Trevor does something unintelligent. He is jumping several long meters into jellyfish infested, nearly arctic waters. It was awesome.

This is us in Grundsund, the beautiful little fishing village where Anna's cousin's grandmother lives, and where her aunt and uncle spent a good deal of time when their kids were growing up. Actually, this picture is more like outside Grundsund, in the awesome hills along the coastline.

And this is Grundsund itself, built right up along the water, and wonderfully maintained!

This is actually where we were first, but the pictures got out of order. This is outside of Gothenburg, with Erik Durtsche, Anna's cousin, and his aunt Ilva's family. The little dude is Gustav, and the one only slightly in the picture is Johan. Taking the picture is Micael. He's cool too.

Sorry this has been so slow in coming out. Once we returned to London and moved into our new flat, we began a continuing struggle with the internet people, and still have no reliable connection. I will be updating more as soon as we are able! Stay tuned!

Musing

Why is London so perpetually interesting? Especially during the summer, it's possible to wander right into large-scale events and interesting celebrations of more localized sorts. We took a jog through Hyde Park shortly after moving into our new place, only to come across a gigantic rock festival happening over the weekend. Stevie Wonder, Pearl Jam, Ben Harper, Paul McCartney, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Jamiroquai, and Elvis Costello among others. Beautiful weather and a perfect opportunity to sit in the sunshine enjoying a couple beers listening to good music.

And again, this past weekend, walking towards Buckingham Palace to meet some friends from the US, Snoop Dogg concert in the park, astonishingly large Pride festival in Trafalgar and Leicester Squares featuring the cast of "Hair," and an American Beer Festival near Old Street for Independence Day. My inner beer geek is coming out to enjoy the festivities with some friends who desperately need a schooling in quality American brew. It may not be Riverfest on the Mississippi, but it's something!

The goings on are going on and on

The never-ending adventures are, well, never-ending. I'm having a fun time playing with ridiculous titles and opening sentences for updates and posts.

We have a ton more pictures from Italy to put up, but so much has been happening since we returned that I may have to return to those pictures at a later date. Since April, I (Trev) have been done with classes and have been "working" on my dissertation research. This basically involves reading a lot of fun adventure novels that I like to read anyway. After burning through quite a few books in the past month or so, I've opted to change tack on my research question. Hat tip to Kelly for the idea of focusing on the portrayal of faces in Victorian fiction and problematizing the idea of empire related through physiognomy. And you all thought I'd never make anything of myself studying literature!

So, here you see some interesting times around London since our Italy trip. At top, you see one of the Assyrian bull-dudes found at Ninevah by A. H. Layard around 1847. His findings were installed in the British Museum at the exact time, and roughly 100 meters away, from where Karl Marx was writing about class struggle and commodity fetish. Interesting stuff. Second, one of the historical curios lying around London, a bronze Sphinx along the Thames embankment. This one is notable because it has a plaque on it explaining how the scars and holes in the statue were caused by a German bomb dropped nearby in 1917. Third, this is what passes for a barbeque right now, huddling around a charcoal grill roasting marshmallows and sausages. Actually, that was a pretty awesome time. No complaints. Finally, the ever popular Tower of London. You know, for the longest time, I didn't even know it was more than just a big tower somewhere. It's a whole castle, and pretty impressive to walk around and read the history of things like the "Traitor's Gate."

Summer in London has been a lot of walking, working (mostly for Anna, hahaha), enjoying the beautiful weather--in London, I know!--and kickin' it with our friends. We've just moved into our new flat for the rest of time here, and once we get our internet situation figured out we'll have a few more posts to catch up, and then onto a more regular schedule. Cheers for now!