Windsor Castle, again

Steve finally made it to Windsor Castle! The idea of sitting around on a Saturday was not very appealing, so Steve and I went into Windsor and to the castle. It was fairly crowded – we stood in the queue for quite a while just to get in. But, we enjoyed walking around and talking to the different docents. We got some of the history behind the part of the castle that burned about 17 years ago (a spotlight and a curtain were the cause), as well as some history about Henry VIII’s children not bothering to bury him as per his wishes.

After our visit to the castle we went to the Drury House Restaurant and had a late lunch. Drury House is very close to the castle and dates from the 17th century. They serve traditional British food and teas. We both had the Cottage Pie (basically the same as Shepherd’s Pie) which was very yummy. After our Cottage Pie we moved on to puddings – I had apple pie and Steve had a chocolate gateaux. We like the Drury House and sometimes go there on a Sunday afternoon for a cream tea.

Having dined to our satisfaction we wandered around Windsor for a bit looking for a new lamp for my sewing room. We didn’t end up finding one in Windsor, but Steve went later into Slough to B & Q (UK’s Home Depot clone) and found a perfect one.

In Memory

Edward R. Holley III, of Austin died on Sept. 20 after a two-year battle with cancer.  Born in Urbana, IL on Sept. 13, 1965, he moved with his family to Austin in 1979.  He graduated from Anderson High School in 1983 and then from the University of Texas in 1988 with special honors in Computer Science.  After working part-time at IBM while a student, he began full-time employment as a programmer at IBM Austin in 1988 and transferred to IBM Seattle in 1996, where he worked until 2003.  He enjoyed snow skiing, hiking, mountain biking, and competitive water skiing and was a voluminous reader, especially of science fiction.

Surviving are Ed’s sister, Joyce Holley Kramar, her husband Steve, their children Lynne, John, Philip and Cara of Datchet, England, and Grand Rapids, MI, and his parents, Edward R. and Peggy Scott Holley of Austin.  He was preceded in death by his nephew Peter Kramar and his grandparents.

The family would like to express appreciation to the members of the Westover Hills Church of Christ, the Northwest Church of Christ in Seattle, IBM Seattle, neighbors, and Ed’s Anderson High friends, especially John and Brooke Winfrey, for their constant support.

No formal service or visitation is planned.  The faithful prayers and attention of his friends during his illness have been his memorials.

Box Hill and Clandon Park

Box Hill is just outside London and is a great place for a hike and to enjoy some stunning views. It’s long been famous as a destination for day-trippers from London. We’ve been before, but there are enough trails to make each visit a bit different. This time we found a tower that we had not seen previously. The kids had a great time crawling in through the window, and getting stuck in the window as well. There were plenty of people out despite the less than perfect weather. The nice thing about the extensive trails is that the further away from the tea shop you get the less crowded the path will be. We did our part for the tea shop though and each had an ice cream after our hike. It was a nice way to spend a part of a Sunday afternoon. (Click here for the rest of the photos from our afternoon.)

Our next stop was Clandon Park, a house and gardens dating from the 1700’s. Clandon’s most impressive feature is a two storied marble entrance hall. The rest of the house is full of impressive art work, furniture, porcelain, and tapestries from the 18th century. We did not spend a lot of time at this house, but enjoyed a quick walk through. The kids did the quiz as we went from room to room and got a balloon and sticker as a prize for completing it.

On our way home we stopped at a pub for dinner. Pubs are interesting because in most you sit at the table to peruse the menu, then you go to the bar to order. But, a waitress brings the food, and takes any other orders you might have for dessert or coffee. Seems to me that if you’ve got waitresses you might as well have them take the original order as well, but perhaps it’s just not the way it’s done. In any case, the kids were hungry from all the walking and ate accordingly. After dinner they spent some time talking to several horses through the fence behind the pub.

Harvesting

This morning the back field is being harvested (or maybe they’re just cutting the already harvested corn stalks). What is mostly interesting to me is that there is a fellow standing in the field near our back garden fence, with some sort of a shotgun or rifle. I heard him shoot it a couple of times, but don’t see any evidence that he got anything. I wonder what on earth he’s doing out there? I don’t remember anyone out there with a gun in the past when they’ve harvested. Strange, strange. (My witty son John says that the fellow with the gun is looking for any lions that might come out.)

Spider Update

I let PJ stay up late last night to watch a movie. This morning there are nine dead spiders in various states of squish-ed-ness spread across the floor. In trying to discover why there seems to be an upsurge of spiders right now I found the following:

They become more noticeable in autumn, which is their mating season. The males are often seen scuttling across a room or falling into bath tubs as they move around in search of a female.UK Safari

That certainly explains it.

In the News – Hunting protestors burst into Commons

LONDON (Reuters) – Six pro-hunting demonstrators have burst into the floor of parliament in the week’s second stunning breach of security at a landmark site.

The stunt — which briefly halted debate among astonished MPs — came two days after a fathers’ rights campaigner scaled a balcony at Buckingham Palace.

Dressed in white T-shirts bearing the faces of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, the protesters raced into the House of Commons and came within inches of a government minister who was leading debate.

The breach on Wednesday calls into question Britain’s softy-softly attitude to security in which high officials appear in public with low-profile protection, most police patrol unarmed and the public can gain access to key institutions such as parliament.

The low-key approach contrasts with the United States, which has tightened “homeland security” across daily life.

“They could have done absolutely anything,” said Labour MP Claire Ward.

“The opposition will be demanding a major and urgent inquiry,” added Conservative MP James Paice.

Security had been tightened at parliament, not only in response to an increased global threat of terrorism, but after an unprecedented attack on Blair in May.

Then, two men campaigning for fathers’ rights to see their children, hit Blair with purple powder missiles as virtually the entire government convened in the House of Commons. The substance was harmless; the embarrassment acute.

“ROGUE MOMENT”

The intrusion came as some 10,000 protesters marched outside parliament to rail noisily against a likely vote by MPs to ban fox-hunting.

After shouting and waving, the intruders were hauled away by parliamentary guards in ceremonial black suits.

Their stunt brings to a head a growing national debate over balancing security with democratic access and adds to a recent litany of high-profile breaches of security.

“If you want total separation of the government of this country from the public you can do it with barbed wire,” said security analyst Tim Ripley, of Lancaster University.

“But the aim is to let members of the public meet their representatives….You will always risk this rogue moment,” he told Reuters.

Just before the protesters broke in, riot police carrying shields and truncheons battled demonstrators outside parliament in central London. The supporters blew horns, jeered, threw bottles, set off firecrackers and surged towards police lines.

The skirmishes left some protesters bleeding.

Blair vowed to outlaw hunting with hounds when he took power in 1997 but fierce opposition has repeatedly stalled that.

But Blair, whose authority over his Labour Party has been eroded by the Iraq war, is now determined to push through a ban before an expected general election next year.

Opponents denounce hunting as a barbaric bloodsport while supporters defend it as an essential part of rural life that dates back three centuries.

In the News – Palace Protester Breaches Security

LONDON (Reuters) – A fathers’ rights campaigner has evaded tight security to protest on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, a spokeswoman for the Queen says..

“There is a protester on the balcony,” the spokeswoman said on Monday. “It is a matter for the police.”

A spokesman for pressure group Fathers 4 Justice said campaigner Jason Hatch climbed onto the balcony dressed as Batman.

It was the latest in a long line of stunts by the group, who say Britain’s courts are biased against fathers in divorce case child access arrangements.

In the most high-profile incident, protesters pelted Prime Minister Tony Blair with flour-filled condoms as he was speaking in parliament in May.

Last year a protester dressed as Spider-man barricaded himself in a crane over London’s Tower Bridge.

Two Years in the UK

On September 3 we had our two year anniversary of living in the UK. Pretty impressive considering it was supposed to be somewhere between a six month and a year long stay. I will be surprised if we make it to three years though. I may eat my words on that one. I guess time will tell.

To “celebrate” our two year anniversary we went out to the movies then to dinner. We saw the movie The Terminal starring Tom Hanks. We decided that there were some interesting parallels between him being stuck at JFK and us being stuck in the UK. It was a good movie that we all enjoyed. After the movie we went out to eat at Francesco’s, an Italian restaurant that we often choose when we go out. (Due in part to it’s proximity to the movie theatre.)

Windsor Castle

After two years of living in the shadow of Windsor Castle, perhaps the time has come to say a few words about it. First I’ll have to clarify that we are not really in the shadow of the castle, it’s about a mile away as the crow flies.

Windsor Castle dates from around 1080. About that time earth and timber construction began while the plans for the stone castle were in the works. About 100 years later the stone work was mostly done. Over the next 400 years there were new bits added here and there, but since then only refurbishment has taken place.

At 900+ years, Windsor Castle has the distinction of being the oldest royal residence in England to have remained in continuous use by the monarchy. The Queen is officially in residence twice a year: in April and June. The Royal Family are rumored to often spend their weekends there as well. When they are in residence the Royal Standard is flown over the castle, rather than the Union Jack. We’ve yet to run into any of them strolling about Windsor, but I suppose it could happen.

We’ve enjoyed touring the castle several times, thanks to the fact that all council tax paying residents of the Borough of Windsor, Eton & Maidenhead get in free. (Steve hasn’t managed to visit yet, even though it is free. Always working when we’ve gone.) Even though there are parts of the castle that are not open to the public, there is still plenty to see: state apartments, Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, Semi-State rooms, a gallery, the “China Museum”, a massive staircase, the “Grand Vestibule” (chock full of guns, swords and war trophies from India and the Napoleonic Wars – as well as the bullet that killed Admiral Nelson), throne rooms, drawing rooms, bedchambers, dressing rooms, closets, dining rooms, ballrooms, the Queen’s audience chamber, reception rooms, and so on. Quite a place. Also on the grounds is the Albert Memorial Chapel (for Queen Victoria’s husband) and St. George’s Chapel. Inside St. George’s are the tombs of 10 monarchs, including Edward IV, Charles I, George V and Queen Mary, and George VI. Henry VIII lies beside his favourite wife, Jane Seymour. If you gingerly try to step around the tombstones that are a part of the floor, one of the docents will tell you not to bother. Even if there are no tombstones visible, there is likely someone buried under there anyway.

On the grounds, there are many great views. If you stick around long enough you can see a changing of the guard. Nothing on the scale of Buckingham Palace, but grand all the same. Outside the castle walls there is the Windsor Great Park, with the Long Walk (a two mile path to a huge statue of King George). All in all I think Windsor Castle is impressive and worth the visit.

Cough Medicine

A recent visit to the chemist in search of cough medicine saw us bringing home a brand of cough medicine we’d never tried before, but had seen in ads on the television. An expectorant was what we were after and found easily enough. We had to admit that we were a bit surprised that the label said it was for “Chesty Coughs”. (When something is described as “chesty”, lungs are not the first thing that pops into my mind.) Even though the wording was strange it seemed to us like it would do the job. Unfortunately we failed to notice that it did not have a flavour listed anywhere obvious. After opening the bottle we quickly discovered that what the bottle describes in little letters on the side as the “original Veno’s flavour” is in fact licorice. Needless to say another visit to the chemist was in order and special care was taken to be sure the medicine in question was a nice kid friendly flavour like cherry. Now if we we could just get this kiddo over her cough, we’d be in good shape.