Bath, Bristol and Banksy

Frank and I went to the Banksy exhibit in Bristol for a bank holiday.

Bath and Bristol

This is Frank in line to see the Banksy exhibit... only a 4.5 hour 'queue'. Damn, am I getting into the lingo or what? You can follow the link to check out pics I took along our rides (Bradford on Avon, Bath, Bristol, Banksy exhibit). We biked back at top speed from Bristol in order to appreciate some of the fine local Bath ciders and cute pubs.

It was just a pretty damn fantastic weekend. Bath is the location of ancient ruins dedicated to the worship of Minevera. This is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Athena who has been a favorite of mine for a long long time. In addition to being the goddess of war and intelligence (so awesome) she is accompanied by an owl who sits on her shoulder in much of the iconography. In addition to all of this she was born from her father Zeus' forehead(no messing around necessary).

The Roman Baths were neat and we walked around listening to the likes of Bill Bryson pontificating about the Romans. After that however we visited the Thermae Spa in central Bath. This was so relaxing and amazing. I loved the steam baths and felt really good about going back to work in Oxford after this little retreat.

Huzzah! Now, back to work!

Not all birds love England

As it turns out there are not hummingbirds in Europe. I know, I know, this will shock many. As a girl who has identified with birds since the age of 3 (little bird was my YMCA indian princess name) I am shocked by this. This means that the tiny hummingbird feeder that I was so delighted to receive from my brother Matt for Christmas this year, the same hummingbird feeder that was so kindly brought to me across the ocean by Kathleen when she was visiting this last week, the hummingbird feeder that I just filled with one part sugar to four parts water (the perfect nutritional combination to keep beautiful iridescent wings beating at a rate of 50 times per second), this hummingbird feeder is useless here. It will remain for the duration of spring and summer here in the UK as absent from hummingbirds as the one in this picture. This may be the most disappointing thing I have learned about the UK to date...

On the other hand... the weather is lovely today.

Hallelujah!

One of the great things about being at Oxford is that there are a lot of people here who I think are really clever for a variety of reasons. One of my pals from the choir is Hugh Trimble. He is probably my best source of interesting information about the English since I read 'Watching the English' by Kate Fox (strongly recommended). Hugh recently had a short contribution published in BBC letters that has received a lot of feedback. His letter follows:

Now I heard there was a certain song
That Cowell made and you sang along
But you don't really know your music, do you?
What follows next: some Bible text,
Some music terms and some kinky sex,
Leonard Cohen composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

The song was strong, but not well known
Till Buckley came, made it his own,
Helped out by John Cale, who had been peculiar:
He'd cut out the most fervent fits
And only kept the dirty bits
Soon every busker's lips said "Hallelujah".

Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Jeff Buckley's fans are grumpy now
While Alex milks their holy cow
But for once you don't hear Cohen moaning, do you?
There's royalties from every try
It doesn't matter whose you buy
When nothing's in the charts but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Hugh Trimble, Oxford, UK