Braving the cold and traffic of the M25 we made our way to Wales to visit Nigel's sister Pat. Boy, was that a hoot, complete with a intrafamilial talent show:
- Nigel – carols and reading The Lion and Albert
- Georgina – a dressed-up performance of Maud's Dream
- Simon – sleeping
- Sally – flute action
- Emily & Hannah – reading/singing of What Are We Gonna Get 'er Indoors
- Drew – a dramatic reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas
Check out some recordings of the festivities attached to this post, and of course, we hope that you had a very Merry Christmas!
Today was a busy day: Santa, Greenwich and BBC. In the morning yours truly played Santa Claus at a friend's daycare, asking each child what their name is, whether they've been good this year, and what they wanted for Christmas. The girls overwhelmingly wanted Baby Born and it was Transformers for the lads. For the afternoon and evening Nigel, Georgina, Emily and I headed into London, but making a stop in Greenwich first: the home of the prime meridian, 0 degrees longitude. Then for the evening, after rummaging around used book shops (yes, please), we filled four seats of the audience at the BBC Radio 2's Drill Hall, witnessing the recording of Clive Anderson's "End of Year Chat Room" to be broadcast on December 27.
Today we've been to Stonehenge and Salisbury down in Wiltshire County, south west England (about a 2 hrs' drive from Theydon Bois). It was absolutely freezing walking around the rocks at Stonehenge. It was such an open and exposed area that you could feel the winds smacking your directly in the face. I regretfully report that while we were walking around the trail around the rocks, I looked to my right to see one youth doing the Souljah Boy Crank Dat dance while a friend filmed. Some things in life you just don't expect to see: someone cranking dat at Stonehenge.
After the self-guided tour there, we ventured into Salisbury which is just some 10 miles south of where Stonehenge lies. In this town is the famous Salisbury Cathedral which is celebrating its 750th anniversary next year. 750! The church was completed in 1257 and has the tallest steeple/spire in all the UK and the second tallest in Europe. Though Stonehenge did not strike us as a "spiritual" place as many pagans claim, Salisbury Cathedral, on the other hand, brought tears to my eyes. This was a connection to the church of the 13th century. They had raised an Ebeneezer for later generations and thanks to those who have perserved the cathedral these 750 years, we can enjoy it today and be connected in a tangible, experential way to the medieval church. That gets me fired up!
Check out the pictures in the gallery of both Stonehenge and Salisbury.
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