Warning to UK Dwellars: MaggieL visits in July
 

I'll be in Muggles, Swansea for a few days in the first week of July for my daughter's wedding at Oystermouth Castle, likely followed by a day or two in London.

You have been warned. :-) Further details on request by PM or email.

Touristy recommendations welcomed; It irks me to spend so much money to stay such a short while; I know I shall not see even a tiny fraction of what I'd like to, but vacation and funds availability are what they are. The kid's getting married in the UK because her beau's parents live there; they will be moving to Denver shortly after.

And there no damned way I'm going to miss this.

yay for you! If you have the money to spend , spend it and don't be irked. Yes, no dammed way you could miss it!!

Bring LOTS of pictures. I am sincerly thrilled for you.

You go Maggie....that'll teach them to try and tax our tea.:D

Truthfully, I'd rather give the money to the kids to get started on and have them have it someplace closer to home. The trip will put a dent in my plastic for a while.

When I married my ex-, we had it in my daddy's church (with him officiating) and served Pepperidge Farm cookies and Hawaiian Punch after...the immediate wedding party decamped to Chinatown for dinner afterward after quitting the formal clothes.

But Daughter[0] knows what she wants, and I'm pleased to honor her desires; you only get married (for the first time) once. :-)


http://www.castlewales.com/oystermouth02.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/colinswalesuk/oystercasopt.jpg

http://www.gwerin.org.uk/images/castle/CastleEast.jpg
http://www.castlewales.com/oystermouth06.jpg

I'd like a nickel for every time I've heard that story.:(
Guys at work, offering their kids $15k to $30k, for getting their life on track, only to be rebuffed in favor of the big wedding.

the place looks postively killer! Wow!
*jealous, jealous me*

Ooooh. Looks gorgeous.

I'd take the 15-30k, buy mint milanos, and I frickin love hawaiian punch. As for Oystermouth, I hear gargling with lemon juice takes care of that.

Really beautiful place though, your daughter must be a romantic.

Have fun over there, plastic be damned!

Indeed she is.

That certainly is a beautiful place for a wedding! Make sure she has a photographer who is familiar with the location, so that he knows the best place for photos.

London tourist tips are well covered on all sorts of websites - the off-the-beaten track places I could suggest wouldn't be worthwhile on a tight schedule.

Definitely go on the London Eye. The better the day, the better the experience, but even on a dull day it's a wonderful sensation to be on a feat of modern engineering that dwarfs the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben below.

Check out London.walks.com if you don't mind pounding the pavement. Even my parents (both brought up in London) discovered things when they came to see me & we decided to play tourist.

I can't think of any reason your trip would involve coming to Leicester, but if you did I'd be happy to buy you a couple of pints of Stella & treat you to the best Southern Indian All-You-Can-Eat buffet this side of Chennai. Can't say fairer than that.

Posting from London tonight. The wedding was spectacular; more photos to follow soon.

If I had money I would pay you to snap some shots of Heddon Street for me.

There's no Heddon Street in my AZ of London. Where is it?

Oh...my actual plans for tomorrow are: walk from Kings Crioss to th ePier at embankment, take the water taxi down the Thames from there to Greenwich, then to the Observatory and maybe the Maritime Museum....then boat back to embankment; I have a ticket for Blue Man Group at the New London Theater tomorrow night.

Then fly home the next morning...

I'm trying to attach pix but nothings happening; I think I may be up against a quota.

Heddon Street is about two blocks away from Piccadilly Circus. It's something of a holy spot to Ziggy fans, it's the street that the album photos for TRaFoZSatSfM were taken.

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/8...nstreet0im.jpg

Hmm. I see where that must be. But this googled:



You're sure the pix were taken at Haddon Street? Because Haddon Hall would appear to be an altogether different deal...

not haddon, heddon.

Just make sure you leave the guns , and the mindset that goes with it , in the photograph of your sitting-room , Maggie L .

Yeah, Maggie...try to be at least as civilized as the football hooligans, okay?

Sorry. I'm exhausted...and didn't have time to get there anyway. Rides on the river, Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum, stooging around in town (walked most of it) and just now got back from Blue Man group.

Fuck your ignorant presumptions about my "mindset".

I carry exactly the same mindset, only with a hightened sense of awareness because my personal defensive weapons options in the UK are *extremely* limited...about the same as they are on an airliner.

I was willing to tolerate it only to attend my daughter's wedding. The groom, of course, was heavily armed: broadsword as long as your arm.

Nah, I was kiddin, it's coo', I wouldnt seriously ask you to traipse around london for me.

And buddug, if Maggsters needs a gun to feel secure, and aint a threat to you by having it, then fuck off, eh?

OK, we'll list you under ignorant presumptions too.

But more polite about it. :-)

It's not "Maggie needs a gun to feel secure". It's "Maggie has a right to own and carry weapons, and resents it when drooling collectivists interfere with that right so they can have a warm fuzzy or satisfy some darker purpose".

Hey, if it had been convenient I certainly would have...I was traipsing anyway and not particularly discriminant about where in some cases. :-)

Nah, I was kidding, I know, I know.

It's such a gun-grabber canard, though. In fact it seems to me that the folks in such a big hurry to disarm their law-abiding neighbors to "prevent gun crime" are the ones with some issues.

I know, thats why I said it. Its like going "not ALL towelheads are terrorists!" or "not ALL fags like rainbows!" I had to say it for the irony.

Why would you want to carry a gun in London? There is no right to bear arms here, and most olf us Brits would feel might insulted at the mere suggestion that you felt you had to be armed, like you were comparing us with Bagdhad or NewYork or LA or somewhere else equally violent.












OTOH, if you were going to Liverpool or Salford.....

Maybe because of all the knifings going on over there. ;)

The same reason I bear them anywhere else. I know your law has long ago abrogated that right for you. And I think that's a shame.

Sorry you may feel insulted, but I can't be responsible for your misconception that a *place* is violent. Personally, I don't think places are violent, and I don't think weapons are violent.

People, however, are sometimes violent. And when you run into such, it can ruin your whole day. And it only takes one...not a whole place-full. Where it happens is irrelevant...unless it happens to be a victim disarmament zone. Like all of the UK. Including the quiet little tourist town I visited in Wales, where a scrap metal dealer is currently up on charges of bludgeoning to death three generations of a family.

With a bar of scrap metal, naturally... :-)

I dunno, places CAN be violent... I live at the foot of a dormant volcano, and there's a typhoon coming right for me....

Oh, they've got a law for that too.

That's why only the bad guys have knives, hence the stabbings.

Locking blades are illegal? Good thing they have national health care.

After 50 odd years, I'd be lost without my pocket knife. :(

That's not enough though...

Yes, that's right...there has apparently been a rash of morningstar assaults. Or so one would believe.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/n...nd/5109098.stm

Good thing he's over 16...

Wow, she's lovely. And looks just like you, maggie.

Congrats, Maggie. Great pic!

Yeah, she's a gem. Her little sister is really something too...

Part of the wedding party: left to right: maid of honor, best man, bride, groom, groom's mother

Slightly better pic of same group...adds groom's father (in kilt and sporran)

MaggieL , my husband wore full French officer regalia to our wedding in Wales . This included a sword . The vicar asked my husband to leave the sword outside the church , as a symbolic gesture . My husband naturally complied with good grace .

Similarly , I shall leave all verbal weapons aside in order to wish your daughter and her husband a happy life together , forever and ever . Llongyfarchiadau fel dan ni'n dweud yn Nghymru !

The Best Man has the Best Hat.

One might ask "symbolic of what?", althought I can well imagine that an armed Frenchman is not well-taken in a Welsh church. :-)

Disarming Sean would not have been possible in this case, as jumping over the sword together was part of the ceremony. (Fortunately it did not take place in a church, either.) Although I do recall my father officiating at a wedding in his (Anglican communion) church in which sword-jumping was a part, although it was not worn as a sidearm.

In both cases the swords were inscribed "Dum vivimus, vivamus!"; Heinlein fans will recognize. Sad that people confuse being armed in the defense of oneself or the weak with agressive intent--as if owning matches or installing a fire alarm was evidence of intent to commit arson.

Yes, Gonz was superbly turned-out.

MaggieL , you seem to forget that Wales has a long history of fighting alongside the French against England . Look up Owain Lawgoch for example , otherwise known as Yvan de Galles to the French . And do not forget that the Welsh were Christians long before the English . And it was the Catholic version of Christianity until Henry started misbehaving .
Wales and France go back a long way . We feel especially close to the Bretons who speak a similar language to ours . Breton is closer to Welsh than is Irish or Gaelic for example .

Best wishes to the bride and groom once again ! And thank you for the charming photographs .

More photos now online at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31519080@N00/

The bride's dress has a very nice pent embroidered (brocaded?) at the waist, I see. Looks like a great time was had by all, Maggie.

Embroidered with beadwork. She finished it the night before...:-)

re: post 36, Wow Maggie, before I realized what I was looking at my first thought was "Hey, Maggie jr." Then I rememberd where I was.

Beautiful children. My best wishes for them.

:) I think if there is any such thing as paradise gatherings and occassions like this have to be it. Great photos maggie. Thanks

Got Google Earth?
 

Try the attached...don't unzip, just rename to UKTrip.kmz

You lost me. Download the file, UKTrip[1].kmz.zip, rename to, UKTrip[1].kmz, then what? How does it work with Google Earth? :confused:

It won't work with Googe for two reasons....


1. The UK, aka Airstrip One, is subject to the various Homeland Securty statutes and therefore a virtual 'gray' area...

2. The ever-present rain clouds over the UK make it a physical 'gray area'

I've heard some interesting theories about those gray skies and British moods. What do you think? Is all your AntiAmerican sentiment really about weather-related jealousy? ;)

PS--aren't you up kind of late? It's one thirty over there! Hot date?

What a fantastic wedding Maggie. How kewl is that? Awesome.

It works for me. Maybe it's moron-incompatible in some subtle way.

Just do File/Open...it will become a subfolder of Temporary Places, just as if you'd loaded it from a server.

kmz==Keyhole Markup Zipped, a set of placemarks/paths/ etc. These placemarks are linked to my Flickr.

I only renamed it because VBulletin doesn't want to attach .kmz

When the annotations and explanations are more complete I'll stick it on a server someplace.

Cool. I just looked at these placemarks. Looks like you saw some pretty interesting places.

I didn't know you could save multiple placemarks under one kmz file. Neat. I'll need to play with this some.

Yes...I owe most of that to Robin, who suggested the river trip to Greenwich as what I should do having only one day. One gotcha there is that the Clippers only run to Greenwich during commute time, so anybody intending the same should plan accordingly. It still left me off at Embankment in time for some rubbernecking and windowshoping in a fascinating neighborhood until it was time to go see Blue Man Group in Drury Lane.
Yes indeed...there's all kinds of things you can do including paths and tours; I've only scratched the surface.

Furthermore, if you unzip the kmz to a kml, and put it on a webserver, you can do
http://maps.google.com?q=http://myse...g/mykmlfil.kml
And navigate the placemarks on Goggle Maps without having GE installed at all.