Feb 2. The last post continued... onto cultural & other exploits in London & Cotwolds

Here is portion of the post that covers events in the last week without any direct references to food except for the most peculiar bit all the way at the end. I think both parts are quite intense but should you choose to change your mind and read about the food still, here it is again.

On Tuesday when I drove to work my good luck driving charm had stopped working and I hit the car on the street of the English Inquisition - some 1/2 mile from work.

This is a special street where local authorities put together a number of measures to challenge your driving charm.
The street is 1.5 lane wide for 2 directional traffic. Cars can park on the sides 2-3 at a time in an alternating pattern. To get through you drive up to the parked cars, wait behind them for the incoming traffic to pass. Then drive up to the next set of parked cars and hide behind them until the open next window.

In addition, there is a version of a Spanish boot: two metal rods just wide enough for your tires to squeeze through - if you drive precisely between them. I was so happy I got through without puncturing my tires that I did not swing far enough to the right when passing a large parked service vehicle and brushed against it with the left side of the car. Oh well. I'll get a replacement from the insurance company in 2 weeks.. The famous customer service..

Girls are trying to arrange playdates with boys in their classes.. Maybe next week Isabella will have hers. Georgia asked Isabella what they boy she wants to see likes. Isabella did not so much as bat a lash when she said "Me." So funny!

We found a new Russian cartoon: The Mystery of Suharava Tower (probably incorrect translation). It seems like a Russian derivative work of French Dragon hunters and some Asian cartoons. It is pretty nice. We are looking forward to more series. Hope it will get translated - it can impress the international audience.

We worked our way toward visiting the National Gallery on Saturday by reading a few books about famous painters and paintings. Since Georgia is also learning about Aztecs in school we decided to start the day by going back to the British museum to take a look at Aztec room #27.

It is small exhibit but awesome. Wall panels covering the subject of bloodletting, to feed the great serpent and facilitate communications with ancestors, by passing the rope with thorns through the tongue or using a perforator on some other body parts were particularly dramatic.

As we walked to the National Gallery after lunch @ Dishoom, we passed the little China. There were Chinese New Year celebrations in the area. Restaurant owners hanged up bunches of lettuce with a little red envelope outside their doors. Then a dragon came with some drummers and did the dance prior to "consuming" the offering. We've never seen anything like it, really loved it. Crowds followed the dragon around.

The National Gallery was impressive. We did a handful of rooms in depth. Mostly 14-15 century Europe. The museum is far to big :)

We tried to squeeze in the Courtauld gallery to cover some impressionists but were arted out. We will have to come back to both of them.


On Sunday we went to Cotwolds - a pretty area to the west of Oxford. It does not have the same rugged and intense landscape as the Peak Region we saw a few weeks earlier. Plus thick bushes and trees growing by the sides of many roads obscure the views. But it looked very special too due to amazing yellow color stone they use for their buildings. Lit by the sun, those stone villages looked like they were gleaming gold.



Did anyone try?

We did the circle around the Stow-on-the-Wald >> Moreton on Marsh >> Broadway >> Stanton >> Stanway >> Lower and Upper Slaughter.. with some abbey and castle ruins in the middle. Slaughter is a derivation of the old English word that means "mud." They still have plenty of that around, especially helped by recent rains.

Say "Yes" to the British faggots! Sadly we had reached our saturation point earlier last week. When we saw this sign we just took a picture and kept going without stopping to read the ingredients and learn more about this delicious dish. Maybe we will get another chance to try in on our other trips.