Lots of pictures!

So I hit the National Gallery AND the Portrait Gallery yesterday! That is a LOT of framed faces!! But I have been there before--ages ago--and I came armed with Rick Steves… so  I thought I was prepared. :) And it was fine… Of course I got oddly lost--museums are so randomly winding… And I had to double my tracks several times. AND there were times in the Portrait Gallery that I seriously thought I was in some strangers attic… Who are these random people, and why should I care?? But then I'd see the little Jane Austen sketch, or the painting of the Bronte sisters, or some nerdtastic thing like that!! Also, there was a picture of George Washington there, which I thought very odd. He's not British--wasn't that the point of the Revolution??

The National Gallery is always great… And it remains true that the Impressionists are still my favorites-- and I don't care who knows it! And I have a soft spot for the Spanish, too, which goes back to that culture class I took one summer in high school where I studied El Greco and Velasquez, etc…

THEN, I checked out the oldest bookstore in London, Hatchards. Loved it!! Of course I had to buy a book there… I am starting to get worried about all the random stuff I'm buying already!

A kitchen towel with the menu of one of George IV's ridiculous dinners at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton (100 courses). A collection of Cookery postcards that I'll clearly never send but just keep for the fun value (not yet available in the US, btw). A biography of Dickens to help prepare me to teach him…another book of literary tours of London (seriously, who doesn't need this book?). And more!! I'm going to get expert at shipping stuff back to the US, I imagine!

OK--And now off to do stuff TODAY to write about hopefully tonight. (Hint: one of these days is going to be quite boring--as I really have to get these CFPs sorted out, read the dang article draft I agreed to do, actually finish preparing for my classes…)