Hello,

I figured you would all understand that I have been very busy seeing London and that is why I haven't been blogging.

Right now I am at the Conservative party office in a town called Daventry in Northhamptonshire. I am doing all the same sort of campaign work I did back in Virginia in college(lit drops, phone banking etc) but only with English people!

Daventry is lovely. It is surrounded with lush green hills populated with little white sheep. There are loats of old pubs with names like "The Heart of England" and " The Saracens Head." I went to one yesterday and had the most delicious treacle pudding in custard with tea. mmmmm.

I have been here since Monday night and before that I had a whirlwind 5 days in London...

Let me start by dealing with the Lowpoint of my visit ....Westminster Abbey

I went Monday morning and there was a very loooong queue. I had to wait half an hour. It was insanely crowded.(queue got longer with time. evenlonger when i left the abbey) I couldn't put one foot in front of another without bumping into someone.

After waiting so long to get in I had to go to bathroom. so I left and then reentered the abbey from a different entrance which meant had to go against flow of the crowd down some stairs. I got very very loudly yelled at by one of the tour guides for doing that. She wouldn't let me through. I wanted to start crying.

Later on when she had her back turned I snuck by anyway.

In the chapel where Elizabeth I is buried there was also some guy tour guide constantly yelling at us to keep moving along. I couldn't even stop to look at the grave at the woman I have admired for as long as I can remember.

They were just rushing people through. It was like a cattlecar. And I paid 10 pounds (17 dollars) for this abuse! honestly, if people pay so much to get in you could atleast be polite to them.

I saw poets corner. barely. It is hard to have a private moment with Geoffrey Chaucer's grave or Handel's statue when you are crowded about by annoying Americans wondering loudly where Henry VIIII is buried.

I think he is the only King most Americans have ever heard of. It's all Henry VIII all the time!

I just wanted to use my program to slap some of them upside the head and go "He is buried at St. George's chapel!"but no. First that program was expensive and second that tour guide lady would then have a real excuse to evict me.


Tourist shops cater to this Henry VIII obsession by offering all sorts of tacky products emblazoned with his picture. They are prosituting their heritage.


Well anyway, it was cool to see the coronation chair. I got to see Henry VIIand Elizabeth of York's graves. and of course the place where Cromwell was briefly buried. and Mary Queen of Scots' grave and the portrait and grave of Richard II. I got to see the special coronation chair made for Mary II since she was co-sovereign.

I really can't complain, but your can understand that my visit was a bit of a downer.

I had better luck visiting the Liberty store ( a maker of lovely fabrics that I have admired for years) We had tea with hot crossbuns at their tea shop.

Thursday we saw Picadily circus. Coventry gardens. China town. Leicester Square. Trafalgar Square. Harrods and Fortnam and Masons. We rode all around town on those red double decker buses. We had tea and scones at fortnam and masons.so lovely. the most interesting was watching all the people around me . London is insanely crowded. really jampacked. The crowdedness was a real turnoff. I suppose it is due to the chunnel.

Saturday night I went to St. Pauls. I had reviewed Diana and Charles wedding photos on line the night before to make sure I knew where she walked and such. I saw nelson and wellingtons and John Donne's graves.

Then I met up with my overly energetic friend Sarah. A crazy mad dash through London ensured. We walked/ran all along the Thames saw the Tate Modern. I could stand the nasty Francis Bacon for about 10 minutes, but there is a nice cafe overlooking St. Pauls on the top floor.

We crossed the thames on the millenium bridge and saw the outside of the Globe Theater and also the tower of London. I was overpowered to actually see it. unbelievable! the actual tower. sight of some of the most important moments in history. so many kings and queens have stayed there.

One of Sarah's friend's dads was a beafeater and the family lived in the tower. Apparently it is a very prestigious job. It was too late in the evening to go in to the tower. We will take a boat tour there some other time.

I had a wonderful visit to the National Portrait gallery. I saw Augustus John's Dylan Thomas. so lovely. I am now determined to get a greysweater with black dots like the one DT is wearing in the portrait I a portrait of Byron so lifelike it made me uncomfortable.

I saw numerous portaits of Elizabeth I. amazing to see them in real life- just to be so close.

I saw the only known portrait of Jane Austen.

One of my best days was Sunday, though. I went to church in the morning and then had Easter breakfast with the Polish family I was staying with. It felt a bit hollow in that there was no Bible reading or even a mention of Easter. Oh well. I had been to church that morning which was great. They had nice white and blue china ware. all very Polish.We also observed the Polish tradition of banging your hardboil egg against someone elses. If yours doesnt crack and the other person's does you "win."


Then we went to richmond park-Henry VIII's old hunting grounds. (He is supposed to have been hunting there as Anne Boleyn was being beheaded). There are still lots of deer there. They are very tame. We saw several herds of them-one with lots of little bambis including 1 albino one. The park is so expansive. with lots of hills. you can really sort of imagine how it was when Henry VIII rode there.

The hunting ground was turned into a park by Charles I.

We went to a special part of it called the isabelle garden. Apparently the word isabelle stems from its yellow topsoil. There were camelias and rhododendrons.

We also stopped at 'the kings mound' a hill which offered an excellent view of London and the surrounding area. it used to be a druid burial mound. On one side you could see all of richmond park and in the very very very distance you could actually see Windsor Castle. You really could see it!

On the other side was a telescope which you could use to look at the other side of london in the distance and see St. Pauls.

we drove back through richmond and saw Mick Jagger's house. a posh pad as you can imagine. He has a great view of the Thames.

So that was easter. Monday was the unfortunate Westminster Abbey incident. and here I am in here in beautiful Daventry this Wednesday working hard to win the hearts and minds of voters for the Tories.

It is all so beautiful. Robert Browning summed it up perfectly when he wrote...

Oh, to be in England
Now that April’s there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!