Lots to talk about!

I know, I know, it's been a while since I posted! I'm sorry - life has just been getting away from me!

Well, where to start? I went to Bath for Easter weekend, which is a four-day weekend here. It was about an hour and a half train ride from London. What a beautiful city!! I loved it! There are mineral hot springs there that were turned into a temple to the goddess Minerva Sulis and public baths by the Romans back during the Roman occupation of Britian. The structures had all fallen into disrepair and a cathedral was built on top of the temple. The baths were used for different purposes over the years until the 1800s when a entrepreneur decided Bath would become a tourist attraction, so he took it upon himself to build a city (build it and they will come!). So he did and they did! It became the fashionable place to holiday, and actually had a "season" (as in, "We're going to Bath for the season"). Anyway, that means that most of the building was done around the same time in a similar style so it is well laid out and quite beautiful. Everything is made of Bath stone, which is particularly good for building. There is a lovely abbey, with tons of windows, and remnants of the Romans here and there in bridges and whatnot. See the link below for pictures of my excursion to Bath as well as a Bath website with more information.

http://www.chrisinchiswick.zoomshare.com/1.shtml/Bath

www.bath.co.uk


I no sooner got home than I got sick and was in bed for two days during the week. I'm still recovering, and have been told by a frequent traveller that my slow recovery is likely due to the bad air in London. I have a persistent sore throat, and he said that is quite common for newcomers to have sore throats and breathing issues for their first six months.

Last Saturday, I went with a friend to a suburb called Watford. My friend had promised to help his buddy put up a prefab garden shed, so I tagged along. It was a great day - sunny, but not too hot. The wife, Loretta, and I got along famously and had fun. We made supper for the guys and the four of us chatted and played some games. A very nice day out!

This weekend I've booked a trip to Malta. I'm very excited! Malta is a tiny island just south of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. It was the place where the apostle Paul was shipwrecked. My birthday is on Tuesday, May 2, and since Monday, May 1 is a holiday here, I took the opportunity for a long weekend and took Tuesday off. So I'm going for 4 nights, staying in a resort hotel and catching some rays! The island has an interesting history and I plan to do some checking out of ancient churches and chapels as well as walking around soaking up the culture and trying Maltese food. Too bad I couldn't bring Chipper, my Maltese dog, with me!! But I think he's happier in his home in Calgary. You can check out more about Malta at this link:

www.visitmalta.com

Not much other news to report. Been working a lot, getting caught up from my three weeks in Canada. They are doing some restoration work on our building, so it's currently covered by scaffolding and plastic, which means we have no view out the window and it feels a bit like a hothouse in here. We've been joking that we should be putting tomato plants in all the windowsills! I hope they're done the work soon, but based on my experiences so far, and the opinions of my coworkers, I'm not holding my breath!

As some of you might know, it was the Queen's 80th birthday last weekend. Lots of celebrating going on here, and I was pleased and touched to see that the British genuinely love and respect their Queen, and far from being outdated, the monarchy is alive and well. Queen Elizabeth is a brilliant monarch and leader, tireless and always gracious. She plays an important role in governing the nation and successive prime ministers from Churchill on have come to her for advice and guidance. A few days before the actual day, she held a birthday party for 99 people who have a birthday on the same day as her. Apparently the attendees were decided by lottery, so if you had the same birthdate (including year), you were eligible. So there were 100 (including her) octogenarians in the room together! I thought that was a classy thing for her to do.