prendrelemick
Registered User

None of our libraries carry the book you mentioned, and so I just ordered it from a bookstore online. I think I will enjoy the book by Kate Frost very much, especially since I have seen English behaviors. Have no fear they did behave gentlemanly. Misbehaving ones were all foreign teenagers. I just read your book review on Life of Pi. I thought Pi=3.141592653589793... before reading your book review and stayed away from the book. The book sounds interesting now because it is about a different culture.

Nonlinear English queue! Ha ha, I am glad I patiently waited, otherwise they would have thought me rude.

You are very kind. Thank you for your concern! We got rain for two days, but they did not bother us at all. Living in a lousy place has its benefit. We tend to get torrential rain and, when it rains here, we stay inside. But those rain in London or Oxford are just sprinkles for us to enjoy.

How nicely you describe London Plane! I appreciate that very much. I love those trees, grass, and everything about London. I decided to put some photos in my album here. All the photos in London had our eyes closed: we must have been very tired.

Westminster Abbey and the Bodleian Library still linger in my mind with awe. I will try my best in my second blog.

By the way, which part of London did Dickens describe so gloomy and muddy? We wandered through Regent's Park to Camden to see those boat houses. Is it the dodgy end? I'd better look up Cheapside. I wonder why I missed to look them up.

jinjang, It's great to hear from you again.

I read your blog with relief, this may sound strange but I felt aprehensive about your visit. I really wanted you to enjoy your time in my country, I felt like an anxious host during the visit of an honoured guest. I was constantly checking the weather forcast for London, hoping it wouldn't rain.

It always suprises me how green London actually is, I blame Dickens and Conan-Doyle for its gloomy image.

The plane trees you mentioned are actually known as London Plane, they are such a feature of London and yet it takes someone with fresh eyes to really notice them. They have the property of filtering pollution out of the air and fixing it in the bark, which then sheds. a beautiful and remarkable tree.

I am looking forward to any photos you send and to your next blog.

Hello friend,

I have been 'horizontal' for a few days to rest. I enjoyed the trip to England immensely. I wrote a blog, too, about the trip to London. I will write another one for Oxford separately. If I find any nice picture, I will send you one through PM.
I hope you are well.

I like your version and I enjoyed the book.

I am almost ready, which means I will pack tomorrow morning and possibly forget something. A friend, who knows me well, gave me a checklist for travels. I prepared an umbrella and a book on London, at least. That is what my husband did when he was trying to learn Korean: he bought several books and he said proudly, "I am all set to learn." I am not sure whether he knows where the books are.

A funny anecdote:
He learned a few Korean words:
An-yong-ha-sae-yo (Hello);
Gam-sa-ham-ni-da (Thank you);
Bae-Go-Pa-yo (I am hungry: as a French man, he thought this was important.);
Sa-rang-hae-yo (I love you); and some other words.

He thought he put these to practice when he encountered an old Korean lady,a mere stranger, at a Korean restaurant. He made a big bow and said proudly, "Sa-rang-hae-yo," thinking he said a polite hello. His embarrassment lasted a long time.

Hello,

I read Beowulf just before The Maine Woods. I confess that I chose the book after watching the recently made CGI movie Beowulf. The movie started well following the book, but it turned to a quite different ending. Angelina Jolie played the part well to make the movie more enticing. My favorite part of the movie was the dragon and Grendel's mother.

From the book:
"Then sorrow came over the youthful kinsman,
as he looked down in grief, and saw on the ground
the one he loved best at the end of his life,
after wretched suffering. His slayer lay dead also,
the terrible earth-dragon, his life torn away,
in a violent death. The dragon in its coils
no longer held power over the hoard of rings,
since the blades of iron, hard and battle-sharp
from the smith's hammer, severed it from life,
and the monstrous wide-flyer, stilled by its wounds,
was hurled to the ground near the hall of the hoard."

Is it the same version as your book?

Wow, those are gorgeous pictures Prend. I did realize you were a shepherd/farmer. That is awesome.

Posted this on mine accidently:

Living near "the moors made famous by Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights?" I am sure the book is dearer to you because of that. Do you get such howling winds as described in the book?

Wuthering Heights was gloomy and, in captivating way, dreadful, but I was glad it ended with some redeeming happiness on the next generation. I must have read the book 2 or 3 times. I understood it better when I was older. When I read it as a teenager, I couldn't quite understand Catherine who married someone else while she knew she loved Heathcliff. I also did not quite understand the love between them. That love felt like a disease not to be desired but to avoid at all cost. Do I understand it fully at last? Maybe.

Good morning to you!

It turned out the image link was an official site for a comercial and so it keeps changing images and so I had to edit the message below. Come to think of it, 'quad bike' is redundant or it has to have 8 wheels.

Hello,
I did not know what the quad bike was and so I searched online.

I imagined you like this:

I also pictured you stunting this way:


Then, I realized 'quad' means "quadruple." LOL...

Wouldn't it be nice to ride on a tube to hop from here to there? I am looking forward to walking around all over the city. I am not so keen on exercises but I am an excellent walker (Did Austen say that?). I get all my workout from walking or hiking, if the weather permits. Yoga is also a good workout for me.

I would really love to visit you, but we are there only for a week. It was just my wishful thinking. I will have to be content with your exotic photos.

Exponentially growing family, huh? It has to become a logistic curve eventually. Excuse my ignorance. Are you a baby boomer in GB? France has trouble making people have babies. Is not the case in GB?