Chris & visited Dorset in September, more specifically the coastal towns of Bournemouth & Poole and had a very nice time. I can't write a blog about the weekend, however, as I took no notes and it was already 6 weeks ago. In a nutshell: Bournemouth - pretty touristy, nice hotel, lovely gardens in the middle of town, on the seaside; Poole - much more quaint and pretty, on a harbor, very old, love their pottery. Oh - and I was convinced that I saw Vanessa Redgrave there. What Vanessa Redgrave, CBE, would be doing in frumpy clothing sitting on a bench on the Poole Quay (boardwalk) I have no idea, but if it wasn't Vanessa, then she has a twin. An identical twin. And even tho' the woman told me directly that she was not Vanessa Redgrave when I asked (oh, yes - I asked), if she had said she was I would've believed her, she looked that much like Vanessa Redgrave, even at close range. As a matter of fact, I'm convinced that she told me that she was not indeed Vanessa Redgrave, so as not to start a riot of fans right there on the Poole Quay. Chris & I are fortunate enough to have tickets to see Ms. Redgrave co-starring with James Earl Jones in the West End production of Driving Miss Daisy next weekend. Perhaps a stage door interrogation following the play is in order.
Anyway. At the end of September and beginning of October, London - indeed most of the lower UK - was blessed with summer. Finally. It was truly glorious weather by any region's standards: blue, cloudless sky and temps hovering right around 80 degrees F or a tad higher. I took advantage by walking & visiting parks where possible, and Joyce, Jenny & I made a day of it and visited Ham House, a National Trust property in the southwest part of London. Chris & I also finally made it back to Highgate Cemetery to check out the west side (we saw the east side last summer) and I must say, against most conventional wisdom we both preferred the east side. You can only visit the west side through a tour group and aren't able to wander around on your own, which might have been why it was less appealing. Still a beautiful, mysterious place. Apparently, Highgate was the setting for various B-type vampire & horror movies in the 60's and 70's, and it's completely evident why it would have served as the perfect choice.On the day that the weather was due to become more seasonable and England-like, Chris, Kyle & I flew off to the US for a visit. True to form, it was jam-packed. It unfortunately started with a 5-hour delay at Dulles for Kyle & I as our plane from London was delayed and we missed the connecting flight to Syracuse. But it was all up hill from there. We spent 2 days in Liverpool (NY) then drove down to Vestal to our house that we seem to grow to love more the longer we are away from it! That weekend, the Manning family descended for the annual (when we can pull it off) Early Thanksgiving, and as usual, it was a hoot. Following that, Chris flew to DC for work and Kyle and I took a road trip to NJ and PA before heading back to Vestal to prepare for the Wronsky's 50th Anniversary dinner, which was a sparkling success. Then, after the bathrooms were once again clean, beds made up with clean sheets and every last crumb vacuumed away, we all flew down to Washington for a few more days of visiting with the guys before finally flying back to London. Gosh - it made me tired just to recall all of that!
And speaking of tired, the jet-lag got the better of me on this end of the trip and it seemed to take longer than usual to get back onto GMT. And now that I finally am, we turn the clocks back this weekend. Woe is me, right? Until the next adventure, I will survive!
https://picasaweb.google.com/swronsky/BournemouthPoole?authuser=0&feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/swronsky/Summer2011?authuser=0&feat=directlink
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