Day 42 – Tuesday, June 5th

Train time is always shorter with energetic traveling companions!!!

They are much more fun when they are awake!!

A really cool chess set!!

Do you see quilts in these tiles?

Roy and Diane were very interested in seeing the British Museum so we made a quick trip to London for the day. I greatly enjoyed walking around the museum again because I realized just how much I had missed on the first visit.

In one area of the museum there was a huge gallery devoted to life and death. It contained information about witch doctors, modern medicine, religion, etc. There was a huge glassed in case running down the center of the room, and the display inside it was called “Cradle to Grave”. The middle was covered with long rolls of netting that had pills woven into it. There were photos all along the length of it showing various people and families in all of the different stages of life, starting with a newborn baby and ending with a funeral procession carrying the casket. Each photo had a handwritten caption about the picture. Interjected with the photos were medical items such as needles and vials, IV Bag, X-Ray, Apple, Herbal remedies, Bible and a Death Certificate. It was a very interesting exhibit to look thru. There were photos and quotes on the walls of this room….two of my favorites were…..

“Choose” by Carl Sandberg

The single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open, asking hand held out and waiting.
Choose:
For we meet by one or the other.

“Late Fragment” by Raymond Carver

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

We had lunch at a nearby Sandwich Shop (called “The Pancake Place”) and I had a wonderful roll with crispy bacon and avocado!!!

We got stuck on the tube for about 20 minutes while they worked to clear out congestion on the line that we were traveling and then made the “train dash” to the FURTHEST platform in Paddington Station to catch our train to Oxford.

We checked out a Thai restaurant on the way back to the house and ended up calling Michael and telling him to meet us there for dinner. The food was excellent….there were only a few drops of sauce left on our plates. We had Spring Rolls and Fried King Prawns for starters and then a Spicy Beef Curry and Stir Fry Chicken as the main courses. We went home and cooked a frozen Apple and Cranberry cobbler for desert and spent the rest of the night talking and relaxing.