November flew by

I just realized I haven't updated the blog in weeks! We've been busy the past few weekends...

We went to a scary play two weekends ago - The Woman in Black - which has been playing nonstop in London since 1989! It was very spoooky (but I am a wimp about these kinds of things. Keith watched it stoically). The movie version from the early 1990s scared me silly when I was a kid so I prepared myself by watching the scary bits on youtube over and over again. The play was still scary though, especially the second act. Although it's all done with sound effects, lighting and only 2 actors on the stage (or are there 3? dun dun dun....) it is amazing that they can get an audience to scream out loud! We also bought tickets for War Horse in January (as a reward for finishing my two essays, due earlier that week). It's supposed to be fantastic (done with life-size horse puppets) so I am really looking forward to that.


What else did we do?... a few weekends ago we went out to the Museum in Docklands (part of the Museum of London found all over the city) in East London. The day was very cold and rainy so it was a great day to spend indoors learning about history. Keith was excited because one of the talking heads in the museum's video displays was the English actor Tony Robinson who hosts his favourite tv show Time Team (and is also known as the dimwitted Baldrick from Blackadder). The museum covers the history of the Docklands area from Roman times when it was the centre of trade to the present day, including the heavy bombing of the area during WWII and its rebuilding as a financial centre during the 1980s. My favourite part of the museum was Sailortown, a recreation of the Docklands area in the shady 19th century. It was complete with the strong scent of urine which certainly added a sense of realism. We weren't sure if this was an effect added by the museum staff or added by the museum patrons taking advantage of the darkened lighting to relieve themselves. Either way it was spooky (if smelly) fun.


We also attended a Remembrance Sunday service with some of the kids in Keith's school. It was held at the cenitaph in Uxbridge. It was very special to be part of a Remembrance Day parade in England, as both of our grandfathers served in WWII.


This past Saturday was our "uncultured" break - we went to the mall. One thing we saw which I am sure would never be found in Canada was a giant indoor snow globe - people were lining up to play and cavort in the plastic "snow"! If you put that in a mall in Canada people you would have to pay people to go into it.