I took a picture of an ornate chair from Egypt at the British Museum. I didn’t get a good look at the construction – but the chair is 3000 years old.
Ancient Egyptian Chair
Pictures from London
Susanna and I are enjoying our last minutes in London at the SAS Lounge in Heathrow Airport (it is a nice benefit of being a Star Alliance Gold member – I can use the lounges on international flights). Next stop is Ottawa on Air Canada.
The last full day in London was a blast. We went to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in the morning. It was well worth the time spent there – lots of fun. Susanna didn’t make the scream tunnel (too scary I think), but her mom, Charlotte, and I went through. I thought it was funny (not too scary), but the girls in the line behind me were terrified (they were holding on to my coat for dear life the whole walk – and I didn’t even know them).
We had lunch at a hamburger place nearby, and then off to shopping (okay, not the whole day was fun), We spent way too long at Primark shopping for clothes. Dan got bored and went for a drink. I eventually wandered outside and sat on the street to watch people walk by.
We returned home in the early afternoon. Susanna and I went town to the hotel spa. It was a little disappointing. The steam room was nice, but the hot tub wasn’t so hot (more of a warm tub). That night we went to Cafe Rouge for Dan’s birthday dinner (after drinks, games and gifts in the hotel room).
This morning we were up early and took the underground to the airport. I recommend getting an oyster card to get around if you go to London. It is a prepaid card – you are charged the lowest rate for each trip you do. No stressing about paper tickets.
As promised, pictures from the trip:
Heading home
We are heading home today. We just checked out of the hotel and are getting a coffee on the way to the airport. We had a great trip, lots of fun. I’ll write more about it when I get home. But for now I’ll upload some of the pictures from the visit to Madame Tussauds Museum. I’ll fix the pictures if I can get Wifi in the airport.
London (day 3)
We are starting today off a little slower than yesterday. I was up at 7:30 and went up the street for a coffee and muffin (and free Internet). Susanna sleept in – so we passed on the family breakfast in the hotel.
After breakfast we all met up at the cafe and then headed our own ways. The girls (Susanna, her mom, sister and cousin) headed to Piccadilly Circus for shopping.
Susanna’s dad, Dan, and I headed out to visit the museums. The first stop was the British Museum. There we saw the Rosetta stone and other artifacts of ancient Egyptian civilization. We also visited the Greek and European exhibits. The museum
Was followed by a beer and snack at a local pub.
We took the underground to the Imperial War Museum and spent the afternoon there. It was a perfect sized museum. Not too big. The British Museum is way too big to take in at once. It was a good assortment of items from the military, plus a very sobering section on the Holocaust.
After that another bite to eat and a beer at a different pub.
Now back to the room for a bit and then out to a show this evening. Pictures to follow later.
London (Day 2)
Of course, I’m posting this on Day 3 early in the morning from Caffe Nero
After coffee, the we all sat down for a late breakfast at the hotel. The we headed off to find a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city. We didn’t have to walk far until we were accosted by a woman selling tickets for a bus company. But we did have to wait a while until the bus arrived. And, yes London is cold this time of year.
We took the bus to Notting Hill, and walked through the shopping district until Susanna, Rebecka and Karolina found what they believed was the blue door from the movie “Notting Hill.” Susanna kept trying to get me to ask for directions – I said I didn’t want to be the first guy in history to be looking for the blue door from that movie. I’m pretty sure Hugh Grant had someone to tell him where to go.
After that, back on the bus until we got to the Thames near Big Ben and the London Eye. We walked a bit, found lunch (after a try at a hotel, where the other patrons said they were waiting for over an hour for their food). Then to the London Eye for a trip up and down. Or rather around.
Then back to the hotel to warm up. We took the tube back from Westminster. We waited a while for the circus line to come, but then wound up having to take the green line (I can’t remember what it is called right now). Only after we got to the next station did I read the sign that said the circus line was shut down for the weekend due to engineering work. We would have waited a very long time for the train if we weren’t so impatient.
Dinner was at a local pub. I had a steak pie. The fine local cuisine. And beer. Tomorrow (or rather today, when I get to post this) will be to the British Museum and maybe some more walking around, with a show in the evening.
Sunday Breakfast in London
I had a nice coffee with Rebecka and Karolina this morning. We met at the Caffé Nero pretty early (8AM). The whole family is meeting at 9:30 to eat breakfast in the hotel. I wanted to get up early enough to get on the proper time zone. Karolina suggested doing an Internet free vacation. I’m not sure I want to do that, but I’ll cut back on checking the Internet.
Rebecka asked about my job. She asked how I felt working on something that was designed to kill people. I said that was a good question – difficult to answer. I have thought a lot about that, though not as much recently as I probably should. I do accept what I do, and think it is important. Though I really hope what I work on is never really used. I hope for peace, but am not a pacifist. My quick answer is that I think of it like a police officer carrying a gun. He wants to make sure it works, and that he can shoot well. But I’m sure most of them don’t ever want to use one for real. Maybe that is just a superficial answer to a difficult question.
We also talked about blogging. I think I write to give myself a record of what I do. It is a journal for me. I used to write a private journal. I can go back and find books with entries from random times in my life. I was never consistent with my writing. I am much more consistent with writing for my blog. Maybe it is the public nature that make me more willing to write. Though I mostly write it for myself – not for my two readers (thanks for reading Mom and Susanna).
London (Day 1)
London. We made it. Our journey took us on Air Canada from Boston to Toronto then to London. It is nice to fly a non-US airline once in a while. The accommodations on the aircraft were much nicer than the normal United aircraft – individual entertainment centers.
The flight across the pond was an overnight flight. The trick is to try to get as much sleep as possible. In the past, I had tried the Tylenol PM route. It knocks me out, but I feel pretty groggy the entire next day. This time I tried melatonin. Susanna slept most of the flight with the melatonin. I slept for the first 4 hours. Not as long as with the Tylenol, but better than nothing.
We arrived in early afternoon. We couldn’t check into the hotel until Susanna’s parents arrived – so we dropped off the bags and walked around Kensington High Street. We found a nice Italian place for lunch – though apparently it is a chain restaurant.
After Susanna’s family arrived (Dan, Charlotte, sister Rebecka, and cousin Karolina) we checked in, unpacked and headed out to a nice dinner at another local Italian restaurant. Since we had turned right on Kensington High Street today for lunch, we turned left and found the first place to eat. We enjoyed a nice dinner and good conversation. We did end the night discussing the upcoming election in the states, which was a decidedly unintelligent conversation. Or more correctly, a conversation about the unintelligent.
Internet is a pain here. No free internet in the hotel. I’m too cheap to pay for internet, so I’ll post this tomorrow from a free Wi-Fi hotspot at a café up the road. I’m also pretty tired tonight from the lack of sleep last night – so if this blog makes no sense, that is my excuse (plus I never proofread anything anyway – it is just too boring to try and get it right).
Tomorrow’s plans are (though I’m pretty sure they have changed a bit) – in order:
Frukost
Kyrkbesök
Lunch
Hop on Hop off+buss
Afternoon Tea
Ev Spa
Kvällsmat
Of course the agenda is in Swedish (or it seems more like Swenglish). Frukost is breakfast (food is important). Lunch is lunch (I needed special help from Susanna with that one). Kvällsmat is dinner. Which covers the important events of the day. I’m pretty sure “Afternoon Tea” is English and the second one has something to do with a church.
I’m meeting Rebecka before frukost tomorrow to go grab coffee and free internet. Actually, I think it should be free “Internet” not “internet.” Not sure Susanna will be up in time to get coffee. Of course I’ll either amend this in the morning (or just add a note if she makes it).
Random postings
We are getting ready for travel tomorrow. Susanna is trying to get over her cold. I packed most of my stuff tonight. Tomorrow I’ll have to take the dogs to Mark and Jessica’s house. Getting ready for a big trip means lost of miscellaneous chores around the house – packing and cleaning. Tomorrow afternoon we head to Boston for the flight to London to vacation with Susanna’s family.
I’ll try and post more pictures this year on the blog. Today I ordered a printed book made from the 2010 and 2011 entries from the blog from www.blog2print.com. The book should show up in early March. I’ll need to make sure that I upload higher quality pictures in the future, so when I print it the quality of the pictures is acceptable.
One of our family friends have started blogging about their life on a small family farm here in Connecticut. You can read about their farm here. We’ll have to start getting eggs from them.
Tools that I like (Clamping Square)
I have a couple of clamping squares – they are useful for making sure that corners are perfectly square when I do glue-ups. I have one from Woodpeckers Precision Tools. It is a beautiful piece of machined aluminum:
I love the the tools from Woodpeckers. All the ones I have used are high quality and precise. Not the cheap tools one can get from the local stores.
I have two larger plastic clamping squares from Rockler. They are plastic, and of course don’t have the fine feel of the machined aluminum. However, they are a little larger (and easier to clamp), and work just as well for the projects I have needed them for. They are also a little cheaper:
I only have 3 total clamping squares and have been able to get by with that many. Another 2 would be useful at times. I might recomment starting with a pair of the aluminum ones, on sale now at Woodpeckers. The Woodpeckers tools are made in the USA as well.
Never Enough Clamps (or Bookshelves Part 3)
It seems in the workshop one either needs one or two clamps at a time for a project, or two shops worth of clamps for a glue-up. Never anything in-between. I’ve had to glue the face frame to the bookshelves in individual pieces because of my limited number of clamps. However, the current arrangement of the workshop makes it nearly impossible to walk all the way around the case when it is on the saw horses. So maybe it is good that I didn’t have enough clamps to attempt a big glue-up at once.
The project overall is coming along pretty quickly. It is amazing how quick a project can be done when using sheet goods (can you say no milling of lumber).
On the down side, the top that I glued up isn’t deep enough with the face frame attached. Luckily, I have a spare piece of cherry milled and ready (hey, I do eventually learn – to mill up extra lumber) to cut and glue to the top to get it deep enough. Now if I had more clamps to do the glue-up while the face frame dries. I guess it doesn’t matter – I can’t get to the table saw with the case in it’s current location. And I don’t want to move it with the glue drying…
I was able to finish two of the shelves (build, glue edging on, one coat of shellac, and 2-3 coats of spray varnish). They turned out pretty nice. Cherry is pretty light colored right after finishing. A couple of months exposed to light and hopefully it will turn darker.
Writing in my blog – a good way to spend filling the time between the glue-up and when I can take the clamps off (and move the shelves). I think it may be time to get more clamps. Maybe a pack of 24-inch clamps from USA Clamp Company. I have 5 clamps made by them, and I love them. Plus they are way cheaper than the bar clamps purchased at most woodworking supply stores.