Happy....Bank Holiday???

So, today is a bank holiday.  We had the day off work, but unlike in the US, it was unclear as to what we were celebrating.  It wasn't Labor Day, Memorial Day, or (my favorite) Casimir Pulaski Day.  (I say it is my favorite because of a long ago story when my brother John came to visit me at college.  I'm not sure he would remember, but it still cracks me up.  As this is a story that involves underage drinking that I'm not sure that Mom has heard yet, I will hold off on spilling those goods.)  

At any rate, while I'm not sure what the reason for the holiday, I wasn't going to argue with a day off.  My friend Lisa had a BBQ today in honor of this random holiday.  Since it is a school night, I wasn't really sure how many people would be up for a day/night out.  It was a beautiful day, though, so I think everyone wanted to take advantage of the nice weather.  

I found myself at one point in a conversation with a group of people: a Russian by way of Israel and Canada, a South American, an Indian by way of Germany, and a Norwegian.  And that was just one group on one side of the room.  Including Lisa and me, I think there were only 3 Americans in the whole party.  This isn't uncommon (which most of you are saying "duh, Chris, you aren't in America."  I realize that, but it's still sinking in).

I have to admit --- I kind of like being the minority.  It was kind of refreshing (although it was nice to not have to explain American phrases like "jones-ing" to the 3rd American).  It's one of the many things that I love about London ---- the vast diversity of cultures and the openness to those cultures.

Shakespeare, Newton, Jane Austen, and the Beatles...All In One Room

We've had lovely British weather today --- a bit cool and rainy --- so I decided to go to the British Library.  It's one of the few museums that I haven't been to yet.  

There is only one main room of materials in the Library, but it is chock-full of amazing things.  There is a special exhibition space, too, but they were showing an exhibit about propaganda and Mom saw it and said it wasn't worth the extra dough.

The main room carries a bunch of sacred texts from various cultures as well as the Gutenberg Bible.  There is a special room for the Magna Carta.  There were only 7 copies of it made and only 4 are left.  The Library holds 2 of the copies.

There are also letters from Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, Leonardo DaVinci's notebooks, Jane Austen's notebook and writing desk, a letter from Charles Darwin, some works from Shakespeare, and the Beowulf Manuscript (gag --- I hated reading that in high school!).

On the more contemporary side, there is also a bunch of Beatles stuff.  The handwritten lyrics for Help, Ticket to Ride, Yesterday, and others.  One of them was written on the back of Julian Lennon's birthday card.  It was pretty cool to see the evolution of the lyrics.

There was a new exhibition added to the Library recently.  The 1863 Minute Book, which contains the 13 original laws of football.  And, by football, I mean soccer.  It was pulled together by a group of guys (in a pub, of course) to try to regulate things.  Up until then, everyone was playing by their own rules.

FA Minute Book

The book is valued at £2.5 million, which is kind of impressive because it isn't that big.  And, the rules that I saw were kind of lame.  It's not like it specified offsides or anything.  The entry was about when they would have meetings.  I guess they couldn't give us free access to page through the book.

All in all, it was a pretty cool compilation of stuff.  Not a bad way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon.

I'm BAAACK!

I was reminded recently that my last entry on this site was in early July.  A lot has happened since then:

As my previous entry alluded to, I went to Budapest with Kelly and Kathy.  We also went to Venice and Padua.  I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to post those entries, but I will get to it.  I have so many pictures and cool stories that I need to write them down before my old age robs them from my memory.

I have signed on to continue working in the UK through the end of the year.  I will be going back and forth to US during this time.  There was a need to continue supporting the project I came over here to launch and also work on a few additional things.  The final details of the extension didn't get finalized until about 1/2 hour before my "leaving do" (aka going away party).  You can imagine the look on the faces of some of the people in the UK office.  It's kind of like "really?  I thought we got rid of you."  I'm like a bad penny.  Can't get rid of me.   While I was tooling around London and the rest of Europe, I likely wasn't wearing the best shoes.  My foot has been bothering me for a while and I didn't do anything about it.  As a result, I got this as a gift when I went home:

My robo-foot

Apparently, flip flops are not the best option for wandering around the cobblestone streets of Europe.  I have a tear in my Achilles.  I've been in my little contraption for about 4 weeks now and I will be in it until I go home in early September.  At that time, I'm hoping my doc tells me I can get rid of it and just do physical therapy.

As a result of the aforementioned club foot, my travel and activity plans have been severely limited.  I won't be able to do much fun stuff.  So, a lot of the short-term entries may be flashbacks of things that I haven't gotten around to writing about yet.  I knew that my procrastination would come in handy!