They're here! Here are Cheryl Colletta, me, Suzette and Whitney Bryan. We are in front of the Victoria and Albert Museum where we saw lots of stuff, including an awesome exhibition on Surrealism.



Here we are again, drinking gin and tonics. Danna, Suzette, Cheryl and Whitney. Thanks to our photographer, Stanley.

Thank You, Lisa, You're a Good Teecha

Here is our kitchen. Above the stove, on a shelf, Tara has displayed cards she received from Demi Moore. Tara did Demi's hair for some movie. Stanley asked her if it was for GI Jane, but I'm not sure she got the joke. I didn't, either, but I'm a clueless dork. If you, too, are clueless, the joke is that Demi Moore, as GI Jane, had all her hair shaved off.

This photo is kinda dark because of it's being back-lit (second born, remember?) but maybe you'll get the idea. There is a rock star on the wall whom I call Elvis though Stanley disagrees, done in the shattered glass motif so ubigquitous here. You'll note, also, the chair that bears more than a passing resemblance to a giant loo with the lid up. Or is it just me?


No, it isn't some new-fangled satellite dish. It is yet another chair that symbolizes things having to do with bodily functions. Great for hemmoroid (terribly misspelled?) sufferers.
Anyway, thank you Lisa, for the tutorial. Yes, I'm doing better now. And I found the goddamned delete button. I deleted another sideways photo, and am proud of it. Not as proud as would be if I could figure out how to get it straight, once on the blog, though.

Bishop Tutu and our Crazy Flat

After doing our shopping at Burroughs Market, we looked for a spot to eat some of our stuff and found the lawn around adjacent Southwark Cathedral to do so. That is when we discovered that Bishop Tutu would be performing the next day's service. So, Sunday morning we schlepped our way back and attended. It was a treat, both to listen to Bishop Tutu and to check out the service in this beautiful, small, and therefore intimate, cathedral. We were seated on the side right by the altar and so had a close up view of the bishop's profile. And afterwards, we shook his hand! (Confidential to "Harahan M....Sorry to boast again.)

What is this, you ask? Only the entry hall to our crazy flat. Done up over the top with the shattered mirror motif. Tara obviously doesn't harbor superstitions.
And this is our bathroom sideways. (Confidential to Nola Lisa...So where is that fricking delete button?)
Here is our bathroom straight-up. Again, so many damned mirrors! They have inspired many dreams of nips and tucks. Sign me up, Laura P., for a complete makeover when I get home.

The Picture of the Scotch Eggs

This is the photo that was supposed to be in the last blog rather than the sideways one.

Because I'm Second Born

I'm understandably not too bright and can't get the hang of this blogging. That is why the photos are not arranged so well and why the words come out spaced weirdly, and the last photo of Burroughs Market is sideways. I did't even think I chose that picture. My life is full of mystery.

Burroughs Market

This just may be the best farmers' market in the universe. It's open every Saturday at Southwark (pronounced kinda like Suhthark), an area across the Thames between Waterloo and London Bridge. Check out those fish! And those things called Scottish eggs I recently had opportunity to eat back in Lafayette at the Homeless Fundraiser at the Schoefflers, and here they are for real!

B

No So Great at Blogging

So, I goofed up a bit trying to put the photos and captions in here. I meant to put in more roses. The canal shot that is labled as if in Regent's Park is actually part of the walk by our flat. Anyway, you get the idea.

Photos of Regent's Park

Here are some photos of Regent's Park and Queen Anne's Rose Garden. I couldn't resist photographing a variety of roses. So many colors and types!

Stanley

Here is Stanley infront of the Royal Inns of Court, just after bringing the students on a tour and just before going out for birthday lunch.

Some photos

This is the part of the Regent's Canal that is right outside of our flat.

And to Deflate the Grandiose Tone Even More

Our first day here, Stanley and I took a neighborhood stroll. Way, way different here than Chelsea. We popped into a little grocery store and introduced ourselves. "Nice neighborhood," Stanley remarked to the shopkeeper. "Yes,"he said. "No one will bother you around here. Just the occasional junkie late at night." Okay! I think we've met him already, in broad daylight, walking the Regent's Canal walking the canal tow path. (Note to Suzette, Paul and Christy. Don't worry....We're in a gated condo!)

I guess I'm a little puffy.

Costly, extensive demographic studies indicate that twenty percent of Halpinlondonblog readers find us a little grandiose. Another twenty percent want more photos. Another twenty percent is a friendly, anonymous birthday well-wisher. That leaves Caroline and Lisa who seem okay with the status quo.

To remedy the grandiosity, I'll try to talk plain and say the bad stuff, too. Like how I spent an entire day trying to figure out how to get a check in pounds to pay for my workshop, failing and getting lost over and over again. But that sounds like my usual boring whining, doesn't it, twenty percent known as Michael? And to the twenty percent known as Marisa, I am trying to do the photos but they won't download from the camera to the computer even though I have the cable connected, unless I put the plugs in the wrong little holes. How about another tutorial, twenty percent known as Caroline or Lisa?

The First Day of Summer, 2007

But oh, so much cooler here than home! Sorry to rub it in, y'all down in the torpid swampland.
Well, loyal halpinslondonblog readers, here we are again. Our trip was easier this time around. No delayed flights, no lost luggage arriving after four days all wet. I even made a friend on the flight to Atlanta, a friend of a friend whose name I won't mention because she was kind enough to give me two of her seditives, one for going and one for returning overseas. In exchange, at her request, I sent a postcard to her summer home in Massachusettes.
Now about the new flat.....This is not the flat I knew and loved in Chelsea. We are living in the shadows of the King's Cross/St.Pancras Station. (Yes, the same St. Pancras about whom we gave so much thought last summer). It is a less posh area along the Regents Canal. The owner is Tara Smith and she is the hairdresser to the stars, most recently working on Quentin Tarantino's latest film. It appears that this area is kinda up-and-coming chic, where old canalside warehouses are being converted into condos. I admit, at first I felt lonely for the quiet, stately atmosphere of Chelsea. This condo is small, modern, high tech, metallic somehow. It didn't feel right!
But now I am adapting to it just fine. It is quite nice to have the canal to walk beside for miles and miles. I walked well past Regent's Park yesterday, jogging part way, no automobiles to worry about or street crossings where not only do you have to know your left from your right (which is hard for some of us) but you have to remember which way to look because the Brits drive on the wrong side of the road, you'll recall.
We attended a great play called The Drowsy Chaperone. As the promoters put it, some plays you know will be great just by the name. This isn't one of them. This play was recommended to us by a lawyer and his partner who sat next to me at the ACLU awards banquet after they learned I love musical theater. I wish I could find them to say thanks, because I loved this play. Just loved it. Yes, really, really loved it to the bottom of my toes. Stanley, honest to God, slept through it!!! Well, okay, he woke up once in a while, after I elbowed him severely out of my finely honed sensitivity to the performers' feelings. Maybe I can take photos of the program for this blog. I know you halpinslondonblog readers would be thrilled to see it. After all, if you're still with me this long, you'll enjoy anything!

start up

Class has started. Lots of enthusiastic students. Teaching International Private Law. Getting settled in at Ice Warf flat. Learing how to use this stupid blog. It is my and Vivi's birthday (66 and 4)Most enjoyable. Danna treated me to lunch at the Admiralty on the Thames. Stanley

Leaving USA

We are set to go. Will be in London June 17 July 31 2007. This time we will be Near St. Pancres tube stop on the regent's canal to experience a different part of London and cut down on the bus ride to class. More Later. S & D















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