Back from the dead

It's been a realllly long time since I last posted.  I have no life, like seriously, my life is writing essays.  Usually when I am writing a paper in my spare time I really don't feel like sitting in front of my laptop writing more.  What has happened since I last wrote? Taylor went away for a month and left me all alone.  But thankfully my parents (not just daddy, but also mom!) came to visit me for two weeks.  I was able to show dad around Norwich (we went to Biddys, Jamie Oliver's restaurant and wandered the streets).  I also opened my first exhibition (although it was small, it is still an exhibition!)

My parents and myself at my exhibition opening

Me and the other CURATORS!!!!

'Indian Kitchen'

'Indian Kitchen'

We also got to visit Cambridge (holy shit, it's beautiful there, I want to to live there forever) We got to visit a museum full of taxidermy, things in jars and animal skeletons! My kind of place.  We event went punting (even though it was freezing!)

Baby hippo

Then myself, my parents and my friend Charlene went to see the studio tour of Harry Potter.  It was incredible!!! They had every set, almost every costume and butterbeer! It was absolutely freezing out, but at least the majority of it was inside. 

My parents left and I spent March writing papers.  In April Mr. Taylor came home and we were both horribly ill so we spent the first two weeks doing nothing. 

Next time: My Placement

The adventure to Peterborough and the train ride from hell

On January 26th Taylor and I took a trip up to Peterborough to visit the Cathedral which was celebrating Katharine of Aragon (who is buried there).  It was a beautiful, sunny day (which is rare here) and the train ride up took about 1.5 hours.  Peterborough  is a really small town, but beautiful.  The town square consists of a really old church in the centre and further along is the beautiful cathedral. 

Town Square

The Cathedral and tiny little me!

Since this day was honouring Katharine of Aragon there was people dressed in period costumes telling you about food, weapons, and various other Tudor things.  There was also people dressed up as Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon, with Tudor minstrels, and guards in livery.  We wandered around the Cathedral just looking at the breathtaking architecture. 

Since I discovered Tudor history I have always been fascinated with Katharine of Aragon.  Many people assume that my favourite historical person is Henry VIII, but they would be wrong, it's Katharine of Aragon.  She was such a strong willed, intelligent woman.  I mean how many woman are known to have stood their ground against Henry VIII and his ministers? Not many.  Not only that, but she was raised by one of the fiercest warrior queens in European history and as the  regent of England while Henry VIII was in France she planned a battled against the Scots that got the King of Scotland killed! She is amazing.  I have always wanted to go to Peterborough Cathedral to see her grave and never thought it was possible so it was absolutely spectacular to be able to visit it in person.

I'm a nerd, I brought my Henry VIII and Katharine dolls for a cute little photoshoot.

After I visited the grave there began a huge show of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon processing through the Cathedral and then hearing "petitions" from the audience, as well as the audience learning how to properly address and king and hearing Tudor music. After I got to take some photos with the re-enactors.

After this event Taylor and I had a few hours to kill before our train ride so we got some lunch and then wandered around the small town.  Then the real adventure began.  We got on the train at 7:30 and after about 30 minutes of not departing we got an announcement that there was a signal problem along the route and we would be stuck here for a little bit. At 9pm we are told there is still a problem and they will order us taxis to take us to our destination.  So we wait for the taxis in the pouring rain and they arrive, the one heading to Norwich was a giant one for like 10 people, but there was 12 of us.  So Taylor being the idiot/gentleman that he is offered two young ladies to go and we would wait for the next one.  Problem was, they didn't order another taxi.  So after frantically speaking to the train staff (who were rude and unhelpful) we found out there were no more taxis and we would need to take a train departing at 10:30, switch at some town and then go to Norwich.  So the train was full of drunks on one end and very cranky people on the other.  After all this we finally got back to our flat at 1a.m and I had to go right to bed as I worked the next morning at 9:45. 

I'm back!

It's been a while, I know.  But I have a very good excuse, I went back to Canada for three weeks.  And let me tell you, it was marvelous! I got to hang out with all my friends, snuggle my cats, see my parents and eat delicious food that I can't get here.  But, before I left Taylor and I were forced to look for a new flat (long story short: our flat was sold, we knew the lady who bought it.  Our lease was up in March but she said if we found anything sooner we should take it and she would give us our rent back).  We found one literally the day before we went back home.  Its MUCH bigger (1100 sq ft), cheaper and closer to the railstation.  It is also a two  bedroom, two bathroom flat and each bedroom has a queen sized bed (which is a king size in the UK) which means everyone should come visit me. We had to pay the deposit in Canada and that was horrible! It took forever! At first the agent gave us the wrong account number, and then it just took far too long for my comfort. On January 6th at night Taylor and I flew back here and on the 8th Emily and Tom graciously helped us move. Tom is the tetris master, it only took two trips for all our boxes in their tiny car. I'll hopefully take pictures of the new place for tomorrow.


Life here has been pretty boring for one main reason.  The second week we got back it snowed, but only about 5cm.  The whole city shut down, buses stopped running, traffic was so bad that cars just stopped moving, nobody shovels so the pavement turned to ice making it super difficult to walk around the streets as the city is made up of steep hills. At this point we also didn't have internet, but thank god we brought board games or we would have killed each other.


I did have a nice little break and one Thursday (after a terrifying visit to the dentist) Charlene and I headed for London to see Sharon Needles (my favourite drag queen)

It should be obvious why I love her

At the club was also a UK celebrity Jonathan Ross.  Just a reminder for my mom, he was the one whose talked showed we watched and him and all his guests attempted to rollerskate.  We stayed till 12:30 before walking back to our hostel.  We woke up at 5a.m to catch our 6a.m train in order for me to get back to Norwich to get to school on time.

I also started my job at the optical store, it's decent, just a little boring.  But, money is money.  Last weekend Taylor and I went on an adventure-I shall discuss that next time.

Visitors!

It's been a while since my last post.  School work keeps me busy and I feel too tired at the end of the day to write.  Nothing too exciting happens here but we have had quite a few visitors in November.  Taylor's friend Jordan visited us for three days.  The majority of the time I was in the library doing research but for one of the days Taylor and I showed him around town and took him to the many sights of Norwich.  He also took us out to the Library restaurant (which is in the converted old library).  Taylor got steak, so he was happy and I got a delicious mushroom burger. (Taylor is allergic to mushrooms so I never get to eat them).  After Jordan left to go explore London we had a few days of just the two of us before the lovely Hilary arrived.  She has been living in London for the past year, but we went to high school together and university together (although we only had one class together). She has recently turned vegan so it was nice to be able to bake and cook with someone.  The first day she was here we explored Norwich and headed back to my place to bake vegan banana bread-which was some of the best banana bread I've ever had-and make a delicious lentil stew.  We stayed up till 2 am just talking about many things and having lovely discussions about pretty serious/thoughtful topics....

Getting ready to bake!

The next day we explored more of Norwich, swinging by the vegetarian grocery store where she bought us these DELICIOUS vegan hazelnut truffles.  After it began to get cold and rainy so we headed back to my place for some tea.  We decided to head out to a vegetarian restaurant I have been wanting to try for a while.  It was about a 20 minute walk from my place in a kind of suburban area.  The restaurant is kind of in the middle of nowhere but oh my goodness was the food delicious! We both got burgers (two different kinds) and stuffed our faces.  It was very odd, the waitress looked SO similar to my sister in law, but she was covered in tattoos....On Hilarys last day here we did some more relaxing things, like bake cookies and more banana bread with her to give to her friends back home.  At 7:30 I walked her to the train station and she headed back to London.

London!

Mom and I didn't have much time in London so we tried to cram as much in as humanly possible.  We arrived in London around 1:30 and took the Tube to our hotel-The Boltons.  It was a pretty adorable room.  We relaxed for a little while before heading off for our adventure.  We went to the British Museum and wandered around for a while before trying to find a restaurant to eat at and settling on some pizza.

The British Museum at night

Mom Bolton at The Boltons

Daughter Bolton at The Boltons

Saturday was another jam packed day.  Mom and I explored the Wellcome Collection a museum that one of my classmates used to work at.  Before she told me about it I had never heard of this museum.  It was amazing! Basically it holds the collection of a guy whose name is Mr. Wellcome (he has a first name I just can't recall it).  He tended to collect any object that was somehow involved with medicine.  For example he had Napoleon's toothbrush, 19th century glass eyes, a chastity belt, a birthing chair, etc.).  I was blown away, I plan on going back for the upcoming exhibit on Death. Next we headed to the V&A.  Stopped by the horribly crowded cafe for a delicious lunch before I FINALLY got to see the 16th century collection.  The last two times I have visited the V&A this section has been closed off.  I got to see the death mask of Henry VII, something I have always read about.  Since it was right next to the V&A we visited the Natural History Museum.  I love taxidermy and weird things in jars so it was quite interesting, albeit outdated.  Mom and I relaxed our sore feet back at the hotel for a short while before heading out to a delicious vegan restaurant 15 minutes from our hotel. 

"Obesity" from the Wellcome Collection

Napoleon's toothbrush

Glass eyes

Henry VII

MANATEE!!!!

Tasmanian Tiger

Mom and her orcas

The dress Queen Victoria wore when she found out she was Queen

Our last day in London was my favourite.  I'm a wee bit obsessed with Queen Victoria and mom and I were able to visit Kensington Palace.  It was fantastic! To walk into the exhibit you have to walk up the stairs that Queen Victoria describes using on a daily basis (but until she was queen it was always with someone  holding her hand)  Throughout the exhibit we got to see everyday pieces belonging to the Queen and her family including the gown she was wearing when she found out she was now Queen of England, her wedding dress, personal clothing items of the children, paintings, etc.).  We also got to see an exhibit on Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebration as well as the Royal Apartments used by Queen Anne and a few of the Georges. After we explored a very crowded Camden Town and shared ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, very delicious!  For our last night together we headed to a restaurant in the north end called Le Mercury.  Delicious (and quite cheap).

Her wedding dress

Children's clothes

Jubilee items

Liquid nitrogen ice cream

On Monday I had to take my mom to the airport and sadly send her back to Canada, where she gets to snuggle cats all day.


After I had to say goodbye to the mother I met up with my friend Hilary who I know from high school and university.  She has been living in London for the past year so we went out for lunch and wandered around the non-touristy areas of the the city before I had to board my train back to Norwich.