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Hyde and Go Seek
Swan on the Serpentine
Another blog post and another bad pun. What else would you expect? Last Sunday I spent a few hours in Hyde Park.
A beautiful place as you can see. I was there for half the day and I only saw about a 1/4 of the park. The highlight was the speakers corner, a Sunday tradition where anyone who wants to gets up and speaks. There were the requisite preachers yelling about Jesus, but then there was this guy, who ironically didn't say much
Another highlight was a man who postulated that all German men are turning gay because their women nag them too much. Brilliant. Like I said, anyone is allowed to speak. But the park offered so much more that crackpots and evangelists. Here are a couple examples.
This is the statue of Peter Pan that is rumored to move. I didn't see anything though. It is located next to the lake in the middle of the park which is called the Serpentine. Axl fans rejoice! There was a boat house where you could rent paddle boats and venture out among the swans. Since it was the middle of November I decided to take a pass.
After the park I headed to the couple of pinball hotspots I have discovered. I was met with a pleasant surprise. One of them had recently added a new game. Pirates of the Carribean. It was quite good, and despite the fact that I had never played it before I manged to get the 3rd and 4th highest scores. Not too shabby.
My next adventure was on Tues. After planning to go for weeks and failing to wake up early enough, I finally made it to the Tate Modern Art gallery at opening time 10am. I am not usually a big fan of modern art. For example there was one exhibit that was just a neat stack of bricks. Another was a canvas that was painted a uniform grey. How inspiring. I am sure that these are just examples of my ignorance of art and couldn't be the result of the art world taking itself to seriously. But I digress, I wasn't there to look at postmodern "art" I was there because of this.
A new exhibition called the unilever series was recently installed to rave review. It consists of 5 fully functioning slides. The tallest one, seen here was 5 stories high. This was supposedly art, and the artist says that he has a vision of redesigned cities where the slide is an alternative method of transportation. Whatever. I was just there to have fun. I hit the 5th story one first and then moved on to the 4th floor. Even though the 4th floor slide was shorter, it was more fun. The corkscrew design of the tallest slide prevents you from picking up any significant speed, white the shorter on has some nice straightaways and a couple sharp turns. I was lucky I got there when I did, because by the time I left there were huge lines.
Wednesday we all went to London City Hall for the Mayors question time. The mayor, Ken Livingstone, has recently fallen under major scrutiny for a failed trip to Venezuela. He took a lot of flak for it too. He was questioned thoroughly by the council, and there was lots of interrupting and insults being hurled back and forth, some of which are too rude to be repeated here. (E-mail me if you want all the sordid details) Livingstone took it all in stride however and came out smelling like a rose. He is a truly great politician but he comes across as rather down to earth instead of a slimy used car salesman. After that it was on the the Lord's Cricket Ground, the mecca of the sport. The grounds were amazing but Cricket has to be one of the most confusing sports. I am not sure I know how it is played I just know matches can take up to 5 days and you are supposed to drink Pims while you watch it.
Today we went to the Victoria and Albert museum which was quite impressive. This will probably be the last museum I visit for a while seeing as how I have been to so many this term, and my Art class is coming to a close. Tonight we have a farewell dinner at an Italian restaurant, and then next week finals.
This weekend is when the real fun begins. Tommorow night I head out of town at 11pm on the bus. 7 hours later I will arrive in Newcastle. Allthough they have many impressive sites, such as a monument to Lord Earl Grey or Mr Tea as I like to call him, the real reason I am going is this.
The worlds hottest curry!!!! It contains two scoops of chili seeds and 2 scoops of chili powder. If you can eat it all you get it for free. They also have t-shirts and certificates. Added bonus they have my favorite beer.
That's right its beer with a chili pepper in the bottle!! Everyone else I know hates the stuff but I can't get enough. Some people get a rush from jogging, bungee jumping, or stingray tickling. I think my hobby is a little safer. Besides, the ingredients in spicy food have been shown to: stimulate the immune system, help prevent ulcers, and they are listed as brain food. I'm gonna live forever!! I know that travelling 12 hours round trip for a curry might seem a little pointless to some so here is another trip I am taking.
On Thanksgiving day, while most Americans will be stuffing themselves with turkey and watching football I will be exploring my family history. (Somebody tape the cowboys game for me and save me a drumstick) Recently while flipping through my guidebook of the UK I discovered a small village of about 150 people called Ripley! There is also a Ripley Castle.
http://www.ripleycastle.co.uk/pages/home/
I am headed up there to rightly claim my family home. It will be exactly like King Ralph. Except funny. Everybody start kissing up now if you want a good place in my court. Those that lavish me with gifts will be given an Earlship or a Dutchy. Smart ass comments will earn you the position of scullery maid.
I eagerly await your reply
Lord Dawson-Ripley of Ripley
