Westminster Cathedral

Pauline and I went to Sunday mass at Westminster Cathedral today. The cathedral is relatively new given Catholics were persecuted in the early 1800s, and it wasn't until they were recognized as citizens in 1829 that their numbers began to swell, justifying the building of the cathedral in 1895. The cathedral is enormous, but is not yet finished. The exterior appears to be completed, but the interior, especially the ceiling, is definitely not done. There are several small chapels that line the walls of the interior of the cathedral, each dedicated to a particular saint. Many of these await completion as well, although those that have been completed give one a taste of the incredible mosaic tilework that is intended for the remainder of the ceiling. Photographs are not allowed inside, and I'm afraid these two pictures of the exterior don't quite capture the enormous size of the building. The tower is incredibly tall, and the vast and intricate brickwork is staggering.

JP

The Flat

Once again, the firm has put us in a flat in downtown London. I walked to the office today and found that it took me exactly 10 minutes door to door. Not a bad commute.

This flat is located at the Google Maps coordinates here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=172+Aldersgate+Street,+London&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.219929,81.738281&safe=on&ie=UTF8&z=16

The office is at 41 Lothbury, just to the southeast. The flat is very nicely furnished with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen. As is typical in British homes, as well as our last flat, the clothes washer and dryer is a single combined unit located...where else...in the kitchen (last photo).

-JP

Boarding the plane

The first photo is of me and Pauline waiting in the terminal for the plane to begin boarding. I needed to take a picture of Pauline so I could send it on to Sammi, a woman who works out of the London office, and whom I befriended during my last visit. Pauline is going to be spending a day out shopping and otherwise being shown around by Sammi, whom she's never met. I'm sure Pauline will have plenty of pictures and stories to post about her visit in a few days.

The second photo was intended to show Pauline having just found her seat on the plane. What I managed to capture in the background purely by accident is a young British boy having just experienced his first Lemon Head candy. Pauline witnessed the two boys talking about how Lemon Head candies were "really quite nice" until the moment the boy attempted to bite into it, only to find it was rock hard, yielding the rather unfortunate reaction in the picture.

The plane had at least 30 or 40 young teenagers returning from a spring break trip to California. Many of them were showing off impressive sunburns, while others decorated themselves with "I love SF" shirts, and other paraphernalia that revealed to us that they had been skiing at Tahoe. We were dreading the thought of having to sit next to these kids on the plane, but given the adage "what goes up must come down," so too did their energy level. Pauline and I enjoyed watching them wake up from their cramped positions while their lower extremities came back from sleep, resulting in agonized looks of pain and anguish.