Grammar Police

Oh, Westjet.


Must we go through the its/it's lesson again? Let me dust off the grammar paddle. Really, this hurts me more than it hurts you.

Marginalia (Annoying)

I've been guilty of marking up library books when writing papers and whatnot (in pencil only!) but seriously, this is ridiculous:


Practically every sentence (and even a footnote!) on both pages has been marked off with a bracket. The distracting nature of the marginalia is exacerbated by the thickness of the pencil used. No mechanical 0.5 mm pencil lead here. Nope.


It's a fascinating book (Terry Eagleton's The Rape of Clarissa) but while reading it, there were points where all I wanted to do was take a giant white eraser to the margins. I still might.

Brain Inventory

Or, if you will, "brainventory".

1. Approaching Chapter One. The Brothel in Clarissa as compared to The Brothel in Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (yes, that second one is actually soft-core erotica). Why doesn't Clarissa figure out that she's staying in a brothel? What identifying marks are missing? Brothels in both books are disguised as respectable townhouses. What is the significance of the overlap of the two (each in their own way) domestic spaces? Is the brothel a domestic space? Are the signifiers of domestic space the same as the signifiers of a brothel?

2. Dress Shopping. Must find dress for 10-year high school reunion that is in 3.5 weeks.

3. Knitting. When am I going to have time to buy supplies for my next knitting project? Currently knitting from my stash of yarn. It's another scarf and it's pretty easy, but it helps to have something to do with my hands when I'm trying to think through dissertation questions.

4. Inconsistent Edmonton Weather. I want it to be nice so that I can wear flip flops and comfortably walk to the library and work.

5. The Chapter (or rather, the lack thereof). Pages I've written: zero. Pages other post-exam students have written: the entire freakin' bible, it seems.

6. Summer Solstice. Another month until the longest day of the year. Must find patio to celebrate.

Lyme Regis: video

I've finally put up the best video I took on my trip.

The shore of Lyme Regis is quite rocky (what with all the fossils in it and all). The sound of the waves dragging the stones back and forth on the seashore is pretty neat.

List: London by the numbers

Times I've been asked for directions: 3 (once on the street, twice on the tube)

Cost of replacing ID lost when purse was stolen: $90 so far ($15 for U of A ID, $75 for Canadian Citizenship card)

Cost of requesting copy of police report for insurance purposes: £10 (not yet done)

Houses visited: 7 (Osterley, Syon, Kenwood, Chiswick, Strawberry Hill, Johnson's, Franklin's); 8 if you count Jane Austen's

Archives/Libraries visited: 2 (Soane's, Geffrye)

Tube lines taken: 8 (Jubliee, Picadilly, Victoria, Northern, Central, Bakerloo, District, Metropolitan)

Bookshops visited: 11 (seven on Charing Cross Road, one in Charmouth, one in West Hampstead, one in Notting Hill, and the book stalls on the South bank in front of the BFI)

Pints consumed: uh...

Hours spent with Nicole: uh...

Hours spent consuming pints with Nicole: ...

Total days spent in UK: 23 (April 25–May 16)

Total days lived in new apartment before leaving for the UK: 24 (April 1–24)

Hours of flight home: 9

Last days in London: May 13-15

Last days in London have been spent mostly playing tourist and going to museums and whatnot (how much do I love the Tate Modern?)

On Sunday (May 13) I made it to one more house, Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill House in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, a western suburb of London. The house is an odd mixture of 18th century gothic and Victorian features due to the extensive renovations/additions of one of the inheritors. The house is about to close for a couple of years to undergo an extensive £8 million restoration back to its 18th century incarnation. It will be interesting to see how it looks afterwards.


Monday I went to the Tate Modern and walked down the South bank. Today I indulged my morbid side and went to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons. Yes there were many specimens in embalming fluid. Also, 18th century criminal Jonathan Wild's skeleton. Tonight I'm going to see a late show at the National Film Theatre. And then tomorrow morning I get up early and head to Heathrow and fly home.

As is probably evident from the brevity of this post, I am ready to be home. London is great but I'd like to sleep in my own bed again and stop living out of a suitcase. Also, London has been rainy and windy (my umbrella is bent out of shape) for the last week. A little prairie sunshine would be nice.

More London: May 8-12

The last week has been more blurry and less eventful and I'm a bit fatigued, so here's a short recap of what I've been up to:

Tues., May 8: Spent the day at the Geffrye Museum looking through their drawings collection of late 18th and early 19th century interiors. Took copious notes which I am still in the process of typing up. Yay work.

Tuesday night I saw a play, Landscape with Weapon, with Nicole and Bowerman at the National Theatre. It's a play about a man who invents a weapon of mass destruction, set in the present-day post-Iraq Britain. I was a little afraid that it would be a polemic but it was very good. The acting was fantastic—the lead was played by Tom Hollander, who played Mr. Collins in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice adaptation. His character is nothing like Collins. Yay theatre!

Wed., May 9: Wandered up Charing Cross Road and bought some books. No worries; my suitcase expands. Yay books!

Thurs., May 10: Wandered around London some more. Went to Samuel Johnson's house,

had late lunch in Chinatown (dim sum), and experienced the interactive tour at Benjamin Franklin's house. Johnson's house isn't a preserved interior, but it was useful to see the architectural layout of an urban house in the 18th century. The neatest thing about it were the huge panels that swung out on the first floor, closing the two side rooms off from the landing. (More photos here.)

The Franklin house is a new attraction to London, having only opened in January of last year. When I say that the tour was "interactive", I mean that an actress was our guide. She stayed in character the entire time, and the rooms we saw had been equipped with state of the art projectors and hidden speakers so that we could hear other people talking (as if they too were in the room) and see relevant images and the walls. There are no furnishings or anything, through structurally the house has some original 18th century features (panelled walls, fireplaces) and is appropriately narrow. The tour itself is fine if you can overcome any antipathy towards historical reenactments; unfortunately, I could not. It was especially disconcerting when the actress had conversations with the voices in the room.

Thursday night I saw a musical, Avenue Q, at the West End, at the Noel Coward Theatre. It was a big, entertaining spectacle with good music and, well, puppets. Think of it as the anti-Seasame Street. When the opening number is titled "It Sucks to Be Me" and one of the highlights is the song "The Internet is for Porn", you know that you can't bring kids into this show. (I just suddenly realized that typing out the title of the previous song might make this post turn up in untoward Google searches. Great.)

Fri., May 11: I went shopping on the main commerical drag, Oxford St. I didn't buy very much (something for my sister, a replacement wallet for me) but I did check out the Kate Moss collection as TopShop. My verdict? It's a little ass. Coloured denim skinny jeans and hot pants? No thank you. However, many Londoners disagree with me; the Kate Moss section was the busiest by far. Upcoming trends for summer, if Oxford Street is to be trusted: big, puffy ankle length summer dresses and mini-dress length tops that must be worn with leggings or skinny jeans, and flat ballet slippers. (Do NOT get me started on the rounded toe).

Sat., May 12: Headed down to Portobello Road Market and wandered along the street. It's been rainy all week, but it didn't really start pouring until I was about to leave. The market is lots of fun; the fresh fruit and vegetable stalls are colourful and very tempting. Afterwards I went to see a Guy Maddin movie Careful at the Institute of Contemporary Art. I know it's a little odd to be watching an avant garde Canadian movie when I'm in London, but this was only the second time I've ever had a chance to see one of Maddin's films on a big screen and I didn't want to pass it up.

Overall, the week has been less photo-heavy because I've been to fewer houses and gardens. It's also been rainy all week, which is a touch depressing. I do miss home, my own space and all, so I'll be happy to go back to Edmonton. If anyone wants me to bring them anything from London, tough. I'm a strict budget (blew it all at the seaside playing VLTs) and what I have left is going to beer. (Just kidding. About the VLTs, I mean.)

Lyme Regis (May 5-7)

The party from Uppercross passing down by the now deserted and melancholy-looking rooms, and still descending, soon found themselves on the seashore; and lingering only, as all must linger and gaze on a first return to the sea, who ever deserve to look on it at all, proceeded towards the Cobb...

– Jane Austen, Persuasion

Lyme Regis is beautiful. It's a little seaside town that used to be a major port, and was only a port because of the Cobb, a man made harbour that consists of two "arms" of stone (one much bigger and longer than the other) jutting out into the sea. Lyme Regis was a part of the tour because a significant part of Austen's novel Persuasion occurs at Lyme Regis. Also, I wanted to deserve gaze and gaze upon the sea as well. It was worth it.

We arrived in the evening and after finding our B&B, headed down the beach for dinner. Lyme Regis at dusk seems particularly pretty:


The next morning we went to the Cobb. It really is a huge stone structure with uneven (and slanted) surfaces that are slippery when wet. Neil, who I'm lodging with, mentioned that every year, at least one or two people get swept off the Cobb in particularly bad weather. I was grateful that the weather was nice.


The east side of the Cobb (pictured above) is the "outside" of the harbour, and the waters are noticeably choppier than the water on the other side. Nicole and I walked all the way to the end.


Walking the Cobb is a little scary because it is a bit tilted and if you slip off, there's no lifeguard (it's the damn ocean). But it's exhilerating to be that far out in the ocean. The wind is really strong, according to Nicole it smells salty, and everything feels fresh. The views are also spectacular—not just of the ocean, but also of the coast. It was beautiful.

While on the Cobb, we couldn't resist taking a photo of me "falling" off the stair s, à la Louisa Musgrove. And yes, that is a Jane Austen reference. Neither of us actually fell and broke our heads when Capt. Wentworth failed to catch us, though.


It was also a minor miracle that neither Nicole or I twisted or sprained our ankles, because that afternoon we decided to walk the beach (at low tide) from Lyme to the neighbouring village of Charmouth, and the walk itself was literally a bit rocky.


The scenery is just breathtaking. Needless to say, though the walk took us an hour and half, we stopped to take a lot of photos. By the time we reached Charmouth, we were tired and took the bus back to Lyme instead.


The next morning, our last morning, dawned drizzly. Nonetheless, we walked out to the Cobb one last time. It was not as welcoming as it had been the day before:


But we still walked to the end. The waves were huge and coming up on top of the Cobb. A woman walking behind us got totally soaked by one wave.

Generally, Lyme was really fun, though I was really sick of potatoes by the end of the trip. I'm not sure why, but the English really like their potato-based sidedishes. It's not whether you want fries (I mean, "chips"), rice or a salad with your fish, it's whether you want chips or a baked potato (which then leads to the question of how you would like your "jacket potato"?). Even if you get the vegetables, there are definitely going to be potatoes.

Overall it was a really, really fun trip. If anyone ever wants to go to Lyme, I'll give you the contact info for our nice B&B (which served breakfast on a trolley that we rolled into the room! And which had a "Turbo Toilet" that sounded like the angriest toilet in the world when flushed) and a list of places to go. We did neglect the museums and whatnot, but who can compete with a view like this?

Many many many more photos from Lyme here (don't say I didn't warn you about the "many").

Jane Austen Tour: Chawton and Winchester (May 5)

This past weekend was a long weekend in the UK, so my friend Nicole and I embarked on a Jane Austen tour of England. Stops included: Chawton Cottage, where Austen spent the last eight years of her life and where she wrote or revised all of her novels; Winchester Cathedral, where she is buried; and Lyme Regis, where a significant part of her novel Persuasion takes place. We'd both already been to Bath (another important stop) so we skipped that, which was for the best because the itinerary was already full.

First stop, Jane Austen's House at Chawton Cottage. Austen moved here in 1809 and lived here until she died in 1817. Despite being called a cottage, it's more like a solid red brick house.

View from the front:


Austen's house from the side:


Though it is called a house and museum, the "musuem" part is a little suspect. It was more like a simulacrum of a museum, in which objects that were marginally or potentially related to Austen were displayed. You can see, for example, copies of Austen's letters mounted on the wall, a tea set that the family would have used in the time period, a dining table that was in the Chawton Great House that was never in the cottage while Austen lived there, a faded lock of her father's hair, a copy of a contemporary watercolour of Austen's childhood home Steventon, and, for a few months only, costumes worn by the actors in that other piece of Austen simulacrum, Becoming Jane.

I knew that no educational value would be gleaned by going to the house. The trip was indeed a pilgrimage more than anything else. Because house itself was converted to flats in the 19th century before being bought after WWII and restored, it's difficult to know how close the building resembles its early 19th century incarnation. Nonetheless, it was still meaningful to walk through the same physical space that Austen did. To think: I have occupied the same coordinates in space as Jane Austen, time (200 years) notwithstanding.

From Chawton we cabbed it back to Alton and took a bus to Winchester (yes, logistics were tough on this trip) to see where Austen is buried. Winchester is a very pretty town and we caught a bit of the local market, which included loud flowersellers and really fresh strawberries, while there (roses were reduced from £5 to £4! That's 20% off!). After a short coffee break, we headed to Winchester Cathedral:


And saw Jane Austen's final resting place:


For those who care, here's what it says:

In Memory of
JANE AUSTEN,
youngest daughter of the late
Rev. GEORGE AUSTEN,
formerly rector of Steventon in this county.
She departed this Life on the 18th of July 1817,
aged 41, after a long illness supported with
the patience and the hopes of a Christian.

The benevolence of her heart,
the sweetness of her temper
and the extraordinary endowments of her mind
obtained the regard of all who knew her, and
the warmest love of her intimate connections.

Their grief is in proportion to their affection
they know their loss to be irreparable,
but in their deepest afflication they are consoled
by a firm but humble hope that her charity,
devotion, faith and purity have rendered
her soul acceptable in the sight of her
REDEEMER.

We quietly sat there for a few minutes, but time was of the essence so we didn't stay long. We made it to the train station with mere minutes to spare (and after buying tickets, pretty much seconds to spare) and took the train to Lyme Regis, which will definitely be another post. More photos of Chawton and Winchester here, and Nicole's insightful report (she is a journalist, after all) is here.

Jane Austen: The Portrait

Fri. May 4: The Portrait

The first time I visited London five years ago, one thing I really wanted to do was go to the National Portrait Gallery and see the watercolour and pencil sketch of Jane Austen that's there. I was staying in Oxford at the time so I made day trips into London. When I arrived at the National Portrait Gallery, I looked at the floor plan to figure out where she was, took the escalator up, wandered through the rooms, and was greeted with a sign stating that the 18th century collection was currently touring America. Damn colony, always stirring up trouble.

Today, then, I went to the National Gallery and took a guided tour, and afterwards popped around the corner (of Trafalgar Square!) to see Jane Austen. I was on a mission and tried not to get distracted by the portraits of other familiar names (Samuel Johnson! Robert Adam! Addison! Steele!). Ironically, in my purposeful search through the gallery, I actually missed the portrait the first time through.


It's small. I've seen reproductions of the portrait, of course, but the actual sketch is the size of a small postcard and it's placed in an oval frame, making it even smaller. The portrait is mounted under glass in its own display case rather than on the wall (which is why I missed it). It is rather out of place amidst much bigger portraits of other artists like John Keats and Samuel Coleridge (yes, it is housed in the Romantics room even though Austen was not a Romantic; no, don't get me started). And rather than being painted by a professional portrait painter, Austen's portrait (a sketch, really) was painted by an amateur, her sister Cassandra.

What struck me the most about the painting, which I had never quite noticed before, is how she's holding herself, or rather, how she's not. She seems to be leaning back in the chair a little bit, slumped, with her arms crossed in resignation. As a pose, it's rather... modern. Unrefined. Certainly informal, unlike all the other portraits in the surrounding galleries. Fast forward a century and one imagines that the pose would fit into the Bloomsbury group or Dorothy Parker's circle—all she's missing is a cigarette in one hand.

Do I think that's what she looked like? I think it's a partial likeness. What I like about this portrait, though, which all the subsequent "improvements" erase, is the sense of character and personality that comes through in her expression and body language. The woman in the portrait is a little wary of the world, is literally observing it askance. That pleases me very much.

Posted: late Friday, May 4, when I should be sleeping.

London: May 2-3

A little blog catch up today as I prep for the long weekend here, which will consist of me and Nicole embarking on a trip to Jane Austen's cottage in Chawton, her grave in Winchester, and Lyme Regis, where a significant (in both senses of the word) portion of Persuasion takes place.

Wed., May 2: I take advantage of further nice weather and go to yet another semi-rural house in the western suburbs, Chiswick.


Chiswick is notable because it was designed and built by Lord Burlington, and was one of the properties the great 18th century poet Alexander Pope had in mind in his Epistle to Burlington (okay, yeah, that's geeky, but this is a research trip). The building is from an early period of 18th century architecture, Palladian, way before Robert Adam's time. The interiors are much heavier than Adam's. The ceilings are heavily decorated, but unlike Adam's light reliefs at, for example, the library ceiling at Kenwood, the ceilings at Chiswick have panels a foot high, or, in the case of the blue velvet room, brackets at least a metre high. It gave me a much better appreciation of what people meant when they said that Adam's style was lighter and flatter that what came before. A few more Chiswick photos here. No interiors, again, but I'm quite pleased with a couple of the exterior shots.

Thursday (May 3) I went to the Sir John Soane's Museum of Architecture and sat in its library, reading books on architecture. I also flipped through a full-sized, folio copy of Robert and James Adam's Works in Architecture. It was incredibly useful just to see the plates at full size, since no detail is lost. During the lunch break, I ate lunch in one of the fields that comprises Lincoln's Inn Fields, which was pretty cool.

And yeah, and after never getting around to it in Edmonton, I finally saw The Lives of Others in London (go figure). It's very very good and I would recommend it.

Posted 12:22 p.m. Fri., May 4, London

Hampstead Heath: tanned

I am coming back from England with a tan. This is due in part to the unseasonably warm and sunny weather and also in part to my questionable decision today to walk all the way from West Hampstead to Kenwood House, at the far end of Hampstead Heath. Adding about 10 extra minutes from getting lost, the walk took me about an hour.


After going through Kenwood House I checked out its backyard,


sat down, freed my toes


and ate my lunch in the sunshine. I then explored the Heath (which is huge and green and lovely) and took the bus home. A few more photos of Kenwood here.

In other news, the music/DVD stores here are way cooler than the ones at home. Stupid Region 2 coding and lack of money.

Posted 12:40 a.m., 2 May 2007 in London