laugh with rhino

It's been a pretty busy week for me as I peruse the National Archives; seems like every record I find turns up about a dozen more, and usually only a few pages of each one are actually worth anything. You would probably be surprised by how much paper an army generates; I found one record that contained twenty-three telegrams sent between four staff officers, debating whether or not they should still use the words "bunker" "foxhole" and "box" when fighting in the jungle. That's about three months worth of telegrams, too. Makes you wonder how we ever won the war...

Anyways, I thought I'd share a few amusing things I dug up in the Archives. People can really be quite funny in these official documents; of course, much of the humor comes from statements like "The African soldiers seem to be angry because they're paid much less than the Europeans, although really we don't see why" which are amusingly ironic.
This is a page of the "Rhino Review", a newspaper written by 13 Field Information Platoon of 11 (East African) Division. It mostly contains pieces of news about the campaign, news from East Africa, some mentions of things going on London, and then, goofily, this joke page - all the poems are mostly written by the editor, I think, and the jokes are pretty stupid, but its cute and based on the letters to the editor, people seem to have liked it. Hopefully you can read it - the best joke is probably that one about Nazis. I found an even better joke in a note included in a report on soldiers' morale: “Said the distinguished lady to the RAF ace:-“and how did you get your DFC [Distinguished Flying Cross]?” “I shot down four Fokkers.” “Really. And were they Messerschmidts?”
Hilarious.

Finally, we have this story I found today in one ofthe 5 Field Security Service's report on security issues in Burma: The 5th FSS found a Burmese villager who blew a horn every night in order to scare away wild pigs from his house; this apparently sounded just like a long-range Morse transmitter so they had previously suspected enemy action in the area, like a spy or something. After discovering this, they recruited him and several of his similarly-talented friends in the hopes of training them to disrupt Japanese signals.

Great stuff, and hopefully there's more of it to come.

The City, and out to Kew

Before I left London yesterday, I decided to head down to the original City, see what I could see, maybe snap a few pics of the stuff I looked at the other day while I was there.

This is the Bow Church, where John Milton famously was baptized. Also apparently in order to be a Cockney you have to be born within the sound of the Bow Bells. I didn't hear them though, and they aren't the originals since those were destroyed in the Blitz in 1941.

That's actually a lot of what I really liked about walking around in the City of London proper, it was hit by both the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz, so everywhere you go is a sign about "this famous place used to be here" or "this was restored from being blown to bits" or whatever, it really connects the past.

This is the Tate Modern I was telling you about before, taken from the Millennium Bridge. It's a pretty weird building, I'm not sure what it was before but definitely not an art museum. Wiki tells me it was a power station, which makes sense.

This is a shot of Tower Bridge, taken from the Millennium Bridge. In the middle there you can see London Bridge as well, which contrary to popular rumor is not falling down, falling down. It's also really boring compared to Tower Bridge, which is way cooler.

Right next to the Tate Modern, we have Shakespeare's Globe! This is a pretty cool looking theater, I'm thinking of coming back for a play here, you can get a groundling seat for 5 pounds but you have to stand the whole time. Still, that's authentic!
(an aside: I checked out the inside and poked my head into the gift shop; the people who run that gift shop must have the easiest job in the world. Honestly, Shakespeare has said so many cool lines about every topic, all you have to do is pick an easily stamped product, stamp the line on, bam its a Shakespeare product. Still, they had the sweetest hoodies ever that I would have bought had they not been 30 pounds; they said "hoods make not monks" from Henry VIII and that is pretty awesome.)
St. Paul's Cathedral! This is a pretty awesome looking place, designed of course by Sir Christopher Wren after the fire of 1666, and miraculously survived relatively untouched by the Blitz. (of course, a Blitz-destroyed version of it appeared in one of the Tony Hawk games, I think THUG 2 maybe because I guess blown up versions are cooler to skate in?)
Here's the front of St. Paul's, still looking cool. I of course was unwilling to pay the exorbitant 9 pound fee to go in, besides there was a line of tourists anyway.

I walked on down the street, and found myself at the Museum of London, which I wasn't really aware existed. It was free, so I went in. It was...okay, but not great - sort of like a weird local history museum in your town with mostly a lot of clay pots or whatever and not very good exhibits on why you should care. Still, there were some cool things, and they're apparently redoing it this winter so if you're in London next year maybe consider checking it out?
Outside the museum, there was this really interesting monument on the spot where John Wesley was apparently converted, although I'm not sure to what exactly. Still, it's a pretty good monument for that sort of thing, a page from his diary in the shape of what I think is supposed to be a flame, and obviously I'm very interested in all things Wesleyan.
Below the Museum was a segment of the original London Wall, built (I think) by the Romans around the City of Londinium, although I don't know if this particular section is that old...I would assume not. Still, pretty cool,
I also ran across this old church, which is actually still in ruins, with the front as a garden and I think a dentists' office on what's left in the inside. Amazing that it's still standing, really.
Continuing my walk, I passed by the famous London courthouse, Old Bailey, and had to take a picture. Pretty nice statuary over the door, if I do say so myself. I also saw a weird sign nearby commemorating the spot where William Wallace was killed, celebrating him as a patriot and a true hero - all I can say is that the UK certainly champions its political freedoms of all kinds.
Finally, an update on my current situation: I'm in Kew, staying at this house here. It's quite nice and cozy, there are a few other people staying here but we all get our own rooms and everything so its pretty luxurious after where I've been. My hostess' cat seems to think that because I pet him a few times I will now feed him, and every time I go anywhere in the house he goes running to his food bowl, but sadly for him, that's not my job.

This is the National Archives! I started here today, and it is something. There are a ton of people here all the time, which sort of surprised me, and their organizational system is a bit of a pain, but there are about a billion documents so I've got lots of reading ahead of me. This blog may get less interesting; Kew's not exactly a hopping place and days I spend in the Archives I probably won't be going anywhere else, so I suppose I'll probably just update when I actually do something, weekends perhaps.

mystery and magic

Sorry for not updating for a while, people, my camera mysteriously failed to save any of the pictures I took this weekend so I was trying to figure that out. No idea what happened; my trips to - the exhibits at the Imperial War Museum, the Tate Modern, the Millenium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral, the British Museum, and Oxford Street are now totally undocumented. Still, I'll have to go back to quite a few of these places so I suppose it'll be ok. Above is a picture of Platform 9 3/4, from King's Cross right near my hostel. They've moved it because they're doing construction on Platforms 9 and 10, but I found it alright. I tried to poke my head in but apparently Dobby is protecting me from some dark danger.
Notes on the other places I went (that are sadly pictureless):
- the Imperial War Museum: the exhibits here are really good, they did a good job on balancing the "oh cool, tanks" with the "oh actually tanks are designed to kill people as efficiently as possible". There was a really interesting and sad exhibit on children in World War II, stuff about the Blitz and sending them into the country and so on. Also a cool gallery of art based on wars, and a recreation of a whole section of WWI trenches. I recommend it highly.
- the Tate Modern: excellent of course, although all the paid exhibits are ridiculously expensive. I like how they had signs up warning that some of the exhibits were graphic or disturbing - in the exhibit, so you'd already seen it all. Oh well, good thing I didn't bring the children.
- the Millenium Bridge: I was pleased to see it'd been repaired already, I saw a documentary a couple of weeks ago that mentioned its being completely destroyed by Death Eaters.
- St. Paul's Cathedral: just walked by, really, but the outside is nice. I'll have to go back and explore the city proper.
- the British Museum: really cool, although I don't like how they have all the big famous stuff all right near the front rather than properly located within the sections they ought to be - it makes things difficult for those of us unwilling to pay 2 pounds for a map. I saw the Elgin Marbles, which were amazing, and enjoyed the combative signage nearby on why the British Museum is the only good place for the Marbles and giving them back to Greece would be a huge mistake. I must admit though: I'm glad I didn't have to go to Greece to see them, although I don't know if that's really an argument to keep them here in London.

Also, Saturday night, I was lucky enough to get to see the famous Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap, the longest running theatrical anything in the world - it was really fun, very well-scripted, and I can't tell you who did it because its part of the tradition.

Today I'm moving to a new residence (I'm writing this from the British Library, actually) out in Kew, and it might be a little harder for me to get into London, but easier to get into the National Archives, so there's that. I'll try and let you all know how the new place is, assuming I can figure out the Internet deal there.

just walkin my beat friend, london's my beat and i'm walking it

Today I had some free time so I figured I'd go and finish off the National Portrait Gallery, which I did, and it was excellent. Really, it's almost like a history museum - they just have a million portraits of like every famous person in British history with captions letting you know what the story was. It's really something.

On my way there, I passed through Piccadilly Circus, which is sort of the Times Square of London, I guess, in that its really touristy and packed. They have this statue of Eros though that I thought was pretty sweet.

This is the gate the Queen rides through when she's going to Parliament or being crowned or whatever, it's right by Trafalgar Square. Only Royalty are allowed to pass through that gate in the center (I learned this from a tour guide walking by)

This is a statue of Capt Cook! What a baller, I really like him - he died on Tahiti of course though.

This is the Mall, leading down to Buckingham Palace - which you can see in the background. Bit disappointing though, there weren't any good stores!
The Palace! I stopped by to see the Queen, but apparently Friday is the night when she washes her hair.
This is the monument to Queen Victoria, right in front of Buckingham Palace. I like the big statue of her, it's very imposing.
One of the famous Palace guards. I'll be honest - I took a picture of this one and not the other one because he was black and I thought that was pretty cool.
I think this is the Horse Guard building? That area in front is where they do their fancy changing of the Horse Guard, which I missed of course.
This was right by the Horse Guard building, I'm so excited - a statue of Lord Mountbatten, commander of the British forces in Burma during WWII which of course I'm doing my thesis on. He was the cousin of the King, and a pretty good General, as these things go.
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament! I told you I saw them. Pretty cool huh. I also walked by 10 Downing Street on my way over towards here, but you can't really see it - there's just a gate on the street and some annoyed looking guards so I figured I wouldn't bother taking a picture.
Big Ben, of course. I kind of assumed it would be bigger, but on retrospect I realize it's because I was visualizing it as it appeared in The Great Mouse Detective, where of course it was incredibly massive. Still, it's pretty neat. Can you tell what time I took this picture at?
Right across the street, we have this statue of General Smuts, who of course was the leader of British forces in the Boer War. There was also a statue of Abraham Lincoln for some reason, which really confused me but I guess it's just a tribute to him as a great lawmaker or some such.
The Houses of Parliament. The statue in the lower right (if you can see it, its small) is actually of Oliver Cromwell, which I thought was kind of interesting given that he dethroned and executed a King; still, I suppose he did it to restore Parliament, but it seems a little weird.
Finally, I walked down to the Covent Garden area for dinner; it's got a nice shopping area right here, something like a mall combined with an open-air market, and I was able to pick up some cheap-ish Indian food. This is a pretty hot spot on weekends I guess, there were a lot of street performers including an escape artist, two guys juggling chainsaws (at different times), a living statue, and about 30 magicians. Also they had an art exhibition of the graffiti artist Banksy, which was cool but seemed sort of counter-intuitive somehow. Still, nice to see.

memorials and lodging

Not too much today, just went to the IWM again - its Reading Room closes on Saturday for most of the rest of my time here so I have to get whatever else I can.

Meanwhile, this is a statue I noticed today outside the IWM; its a memorial to the Soviet citizens and soldiers who died during WWII; very nice. People have decorated it with poppies.

This is another memorial I passed today and found interesting; it's dedicated to all the men and women working for the railroad during WWII. For some reason I at first thought the dudes on it were Stalin, I don't know why.

My dinner! I finally found a place that sold delicious Cornish Pasties! This cost me a mere 2.80 and let me tell you, it was worth every p. Chicken and mushroom, perfectly cooked crust - amazing.

The big news today, I suppose, is that I moved - my time ran out at that other hostel so I moved to another across town. It's ok so far (all of 2 hours), it's called "The Clink" since its actually in an old courthouse and jail building. The beds seem more comfortable and there's a kitchen, although its only open at weird times, and we get free breakfast. The trade-off is that there's no free wifi so I'm paying the not too bad but annoying 50p an hour right now for wireless.

This is the wireless room where I am right now, and let me tell you, it's awesome. Note that its the old courtroom, with computers on every bench; I'm currently sitting on the observers bench I think. I sadly didn't move fast enough to get the even more awesome judges seat computer going on up there.

I'm here for the weekend; Monday I move again to a homestay in Kew for the rest of my trip, which sounds quite nice. Meanwhile I shall endeavour to keep you all updated.

trafalgar square and art museums

Today while doing research, one of my contacts started hurting pretty badly so I had to leave early and go take it out. With this newfound extra time though, I thought I'd take the Tube down to Trafalgar Square and see what there was to be seen.
This is the top of Nelson' Column, with Lord Nelson up there - I sat at the base and ate my lunch and it was really quite nice. There were also about a million tourists but I suppose that's to be expected - I could barely see the famous pigeons and there were also people climbing all over the stone lions at the base of the Column.



This is a wider angle view of the entire Column and a bit of the Square itself - that weird thing in the corner was some sort of "Track & Field" thing set up by some food company, I really don't have any idea what it was really.
This is the view from where I ate my lunch, straight down the street to Big Ben. Note the double-decker bus on the right - if this doesn't prove I'm actually in London I don't know what does.

This is the National Gallery, on Trafalgar Square, which I then went to. It was quite nice and had a lot of good art. I did, however, realize that I'm apparently much more bored with Impressionism than other people seem to be - Monet leaves me cold, Degas is de-blah, Seurat I like a bit. Honestly, I love all the art right up to that period and a good portion afterward - but for some reason Impressionism itself I'm not as into. Personally, I much prefer the Dutch masters or even better, Napoleonic battle scenes which the National Gallery had a good number of.
Afterwards, I went to the National Portrait Gallery which is right next door. Very cool - they were presenting the winners of their recent contemporary portrait exhibit, which was fascinating - portraiture goes so many interesting places these days and I feel like its just something you don't always see as often. I also got to see all the Tudor portraits, but was kicked out before I could get much farther than that - the museum closed. However, I spent a while staring at this one:
trying to remember where I had seen that face before, when it hit me that it was good ol' John Wesley! Founder of Methodism and indirectly my own alma mater. Truly, it's a small world.

amazing sights

Today on my way back to the hostel, I thought I'd walk home a different way, took a wrong turn or two, and wound up on the Lambeth Bridge, facing the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and all that. It was actually pretty amazing. Later I took a wrong turn again and wound up somehow in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. I'd have taken a picture or two, but I forgot my camera. Sorry. Anyways it would have looked like every other picture of that area anyway.

Today's hilarious quote from the Imperial War Museum, found in the memoirs of R.A. Farringdon of the RAF: "My luck is such that should I have been born a triplet to Raquel Welch, I’d have been the one fed on a bottle.”

victoria and albert

Today being a Sunday, and thus sort of my day off (the Reading Room being closed) I thought I'd take a stroll through the Victoria and Albert Museum, just a couple of blocks away from my hostel. Above is part of the facade, with a statue of Albert over the doors and a statue of Victoria over him (as of course is proper)

It's a really nice museum, dedicated to design rather than just art. For instance, this sculpture area had European sculpture arranged chronologically, from its beginnings to more modern pieces. It was nice because you got to see how different ideas transformed as time went on and how things built off of each other. They even did this for the Asian art sections, which I thought made for a much better section rather than the usual "look at all the foreign stuff we stole"

In the fashion section, for instance, there were these nice displays of how mens and womens fashions have changed over time. Here we see mens suits from about 1890 - 1960 or so. Surprisingly they've changed very little, but also more than you'd expect. I particularly like that flamboyant orange one.

Here's a similar interesting display of posters for concerts and events; they have a whole section on performing arts that had a bunch of cool artifacts from all these different places and time periods

They also had an awesome hall with cast reproductions of famous sculptures/buildings from around the world, some of which have since fallen down so this is the only place you can see them. It's pretty sweet, the column there (the two are two parts of the same Roman column) are absolutely huge.
After the museum I took a walk down a side street and found myself in Kensington Gardens, where there's this absolutely amazing monument to Prince Albert. Honestly, I don't think anyone has a monument this over-the-top; the golden statue, the decorations of the four continents he ruled in marble, all of it...just amazing.
Edit: yeah, only four continents. Africa, Asia, Europe and America. Strange, especially since he didn't really control much of America but he did control all of Australia...maybe it wasn't considered a continent at that time?

this is london

I am in London. It is interesting and a little strange, mostly because I am traveling by myself and don't know anyone.

This is the front of the hostel I'm currently staying at. It's interesting, because it's a hostel inside a building dedicated to the founder of Scouting, Robert Baden-Powell (that's a statue of him out front. Behind it you can see people checking into the hostel desk). I'm in a four-person room with bunks, which so far I've shared with a couple of Dutch kids going to the football game down in South Hampton, a South African looking for work in London, and an Asian couple who came in last night at about 2 AM and left the room (didn't check out though) this morning at about 5 AM, so I have no idea what their deal is. So far it seems okay, but I guess we'll see how I feel about it by next Friday... I am currently sitting in the lounge using the free wireless, which is irritatingly slow, and watching some sort of Swedish tour group distributing mock awards.

I took these shots while on my lunch break today at the Imperial War Museum. This is the Tibetan Peace Garden, in the park next to the IWM. It's pretty cute and a nice place to sit and eat your lunch.

The Imperial War Museum itself. Those guns out front were taken from two different British warships from World Wars I-II. I haven't even looked around the museum yet, mostly because I had an appointment for the Reading Room my first day here and since then I've just been spending all my time in there looking at various documents. It's pretty interesting so far, although I'm not sure quite what I'm actually looking for in the documents, which is sort of bad honestly.
I did find one amusing story looking through a diary today; a British Intelligence Officer had a story in his diary about him leading a patrol out in Burma to gather intelligence about the Japanese positions. They found a Japanese camp, and saw a sentry, but couldn't tell how many people were actually there, so they decided to shoot the sentry (which would cause the camp to mobilize) and then run away. Just as they were trying to escape, the officer was suddenly immobilized by a sudden "fiery" sensation in his genitals, and he and his men had to delay their movement while they poured water from their canteens down his pants. Turns out his bottle of sunscreen had leaked while in his pocket, and poured into his underpants where it turned out to be very bad for sensitive areas.

Finally, this is a piece of the Berlin Wall out front of the Imperial War Museum. Pretty awesome, I think. I expect to actually look through the collections at some point. They have a Horrible Histories exhibit on WWI, the "Terrible Trenches" but it costs money so we'll see how that works out.

I will try to continue to snap pics and update this blog. Please leave comments/questions so I can know that my efforts are justified.