Old material...

Cousin Laura,

I was looking through some photos from my brother's wedding and this one reminded me of something...something from the past...

(Victoria, Canada, 2011)

Which was, of course, this photo. Are they not strangely similar? Why are our facial expressions exactly the same? And what possessed us to wear scarves on our heads?

(Mucombeze, Mozambique, 2010)

Sadly, this is not the first time that something like this has occurred: http://notlikejacob.blogspot.com/2010/03/dear-laura.html

I think we're in a rut.

Egads...

I haven't blogged in ages. Please accept this link to my recent Facebook photo album as a proxy for the 15 or so blog posts I should have written in the last little while:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150834402225215.746907.804750214&l=f8b553aba2&type=1

The project...

Since getting back from my brother's wedding my focus has been on getting my dissertation finished as the due date draws nigh...very, very nigh.

I told my tutor that I would get my first draft to him by today, August 10th. In retrospect, that was a bit ambitious.

Anyways, after a rather sleepless night, a brief nap at dawn and then a few more hours of frantic edits, my first draft is submitted!

I stumbled out of my room at about 1:30pm exultant and full of joy! According to my housemates I also bore a strange resemblance to a mad scientist.

And now I guess I'd better clean up the post thesis-writing mess...

Love

My brother got married this last Sunday. I am so happy for them. I am so happy that I could be there.

The bride and groom set off on their new bicycle for two!

London

"New ideas must use old buildings."

Jane Jacobs

Inside the Natural History Museum.

Love this shot of St. Paul's in the gloom.

White Tower at the Tower of London.

One of my favourite places in the British Museum.

Victoria Monument at Buckingham Palace.

Westminster Abbey.

Canada Day

On Canada Day there was a big shindig here in London at Trafalgar Square.

My friends Celia (Italian) and Meghan (Americano) kindly accompanied me to the celebrations.

(Here are Megs and Cel with their loves. It's a great shot, no? Okay, on to Canada Day...)

Here are Megs and Cel surrounded by friendly Canadians with the lovely National Gallery in the background (by the by, Trafalgar Square is probably my favourite place in London, hands down. It was the first place I took my brother when he visited and, while I won't name any names, I will say that one of us got a bit emotional. It's just that lovely).

Here is me proudly wearing my Vancouver 2010 Olympic t-shirt! I think covered wagons are alright. Especially when they sell curly fries.

I introduced the girls to poutine. Celia was unimpressed, Meghan professed to enjoy it, and I was very obviously in love. There was a Tim Horton's booth as well, but they sold out of coffee and donuts before I could get some. I was rather saddened, until I remembered that I'll be in Canada in two weeks. I'll stock up then.

Wimbledon

The majority of our class agreed that this weekend should be exclusively devoted to frolicking before we settle in to a delightful summer of thesis writing.

Hence, I spent most of yesterday trying to get into Wimbledon to watch some world class tennis. I also spent a small portion of yesterday actually at Wimbledon watching some world class tennis.

Imagine our delight when we walked out of the Tube station and found that there were free bicycle taxis shuffling eager tennis fans from the train to the grounds.

Mac and I in our taxi. I am holding a Starbucks in my hand. I am happy. Mac just bought second-hand sunglasses. His fiance told him that he looked like a dreamy character from "Top Gun." He is also happy.

When we got to the grounds we were all given a number which determined our place in line. My number was 12, 476. We were told that there was 4,000 people in line in front of us. This is a true story.

This information didn't dampen our spirits, however. We were avoiding writing our theses! Waiting in line for four hours to watch tennis seemed like the perfect excuse! We had a proper good time in the line up thanks to the strategically placed pizza and ice cream stands.

This is Ashli when, at about hour 3.5, we were getting close enough to the grounds that we actually began to see signs that said things like, "Wimbledon." She is happy! We are getting close!

At last we made it inside the grounds! There were petunias everywhere and it smelled like my home town. Roger Federer is sitting up on that balcony. There was a large crowd of ardent fans standing below calling out his name and taking pictures of his elbow, which was basically all we could see. I guess he is a big deal in the world of tennis. I wouldn't know.

Through an advantageous turn of events, we got inside one of the big courts to watch mixed doubles. As it turns out, watching tennis is actually quite enjoyable. I like how everyone watches so politely when the players are wacking the ball around, and then how everyone yells little, dignified nuggets of encouragement when there is a pause in the action. i.e. "Come along now, Jonny! You can do it, old boy!".

Here we are politely watching tennis, as though we have a clue as to what is going one. One of us had actually played tennis in real life. One of us played tennis on Wii. One of us was actually a fan and even knew some of the names of the players.

This is Florence. She is the tennis fan. I sat next to her and clapped whenever she did.