Stonehenge and The Last Unicorn

it seemed to me fitting to post about the 1985 animated feature the last unicorn and the mysterious stone circle erected around 3000 b.c. in the same entry.

people at work asked me what i thought of stonehenge, and my immediate smart-aleck response was that it was rocky--which is an adequate description, if sarcastic and uninventive. but i did enjoy it very much. it was fun to contemplate the mystery and good for the soul to be out of the city and see the rolling green fields of salisbury. the audioguide also included an excerpt from thomas hardy's tess of the d'urbervilles which made me ecstatic. i've been saying i wanted to see stonehenge because of its being an important setting in that novel.

since the visit, i have become mildly obsessed with the idea of ley lines (not obsessed enough to do any research, mind you, but obsessed enough to mention it). the theory of ley lines is that important spots of worship are built along or on an intersection of these invisible lines. very druidic. it had been a long neglected theory until the whole new age movement came along.

to the last unicorn. my, oh my, i can't begin to give a critique. but it was a riot at times. it was screened in an old anglican chapel (and admission was free) and someone gave me a chupa chup lolly, so i don't know that the night could have been any better.

i love this postcard.

i don't love breaking out in stinging blisters after accidentally grazing some obscenely poisonous plant (this morning my hand still stings a bit as i type, but don't worry i shall overcome.)

last night i saw the musical billy elliot. i bought the ticket from a "half-price ticket kiosk" in the heart of the theatre district, and i really think Rick Steves may be right when he calls those ticket booths "scalpers with an address." i bet i could have gotten a cheaper, and perhaps better, ticket from the box office.

anyway, billy elliot was a pretty stunning production. while the first half left something to be desired it really picked up and won my love after intermission.

I feel I owe my public some blogging.

Life has been busy in London (much busier than my student life was in Italy. I chalk it up to volunteering full-time (it is a 9-5 gig, baby) and my one-hour commute each way (but I have been whipping through books.) I am residing with a family, and for their hospitality in taking me in and treating me so nicely I often spend my evenings home in their company chatting or watching some movie, and spend many evenings away from home trying to soak up the sites of this thriving city!

But everything has been wonderful.

Compared to Italy, I feel entirely at home. It is wonderful to actually be able to express myself with my arsenal of words fully loaded! Bless that mother tongue!

I feel like I have done hardly anything though, when in actuality, I have done quite a bit.

I have been to the Science Museum, Tate Modern (and I saw Ai Wei Wei's (free him China!!!) sunflower seeds, not all of them from the original exhibition, but a very sizable pile, about as tall as me), the Tate Britain, Trafalgar Square, the London Pride Parade, the Hyde Park Ward, the play The Woman in Black, seen the outside of Buckingham Palace, listened to Mumford and Sons play in Hyde Park (I didn't have tickets to the concert, but I found a good peep hole through the walls around the official space, and the sound carried nicely on a June afternoon), and have seen the inside of a good many pubs. One Saturday night, we got caught along with a stag party (in American language, a bachelor party) and went pub crawling a bit with a crazy bunch of lads, until we tired of them and just settled in to dance.

I also had a homeless man tell me I looked sexy eating my ice cream. I told him sincerely, "That was not my intention."

And I will do my best to take more pictures in the future! I just bought new batteries for my camera!