Saturday, April 25, 2009

Back from England

Susan and I returned last Monday from a week in London with Linda (my wonderful and generous mother-in-law). We had the pleasure of watching Mathias and Laura-Jane perform at the London Coliseum. They were wonderful, especially Mathias who danced the role of McGog in Sylvia. He and his partner in the dance, Kit Holder, (also "straight") stole the show when they danced. A picture of the charming couple in costume backstage appears below. Mathias also danced in Enigma Variations and Penguin Cafe and was wonderful, as was LJ.



Kit Holder and Mathias as Gog and McGog in Sylvia (click to enlarge, if you wish!?!)

Courtesy of Linda's generous contribution of 130,000 Marriott Points, we stayed at the swanky London Marriott County Hall in an upgraded (thanks to me) two room suite with an incredible view of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. A photo of our view taken from Linda's room also appears below. I actually took this picture and it turned out pretty good.



View of Westminster Bridge and Big Ben from our hotel window at the London Marriott County Hall

We could walk to the theater in 15 minutes, as well as St Martins in the Field and Covent Garden, which we did several times. The weather was generally pretty good with only a little rain. Susan and I seem to bring better weather to England when we visit. I will also post some more of MY pictures below, but I'm sure that Susan will post more in her blog.



View of the London Eye from Westminster Bridge



Susan, Linda, Laura-Jane, and Mathias on a river boat going to Greenwich.



A nice picture of Susan on our ferry boat



Mathias and Laura Jane at Greenwich. Did I actually take this fabulous picture? Yes I did!

Now for some other news. Susan and I are leaving for San Francisco next month for a long business related weekend (May 7-10). We are going to visit graveyards and Susan will attempt to make more clandestine grave rubbings for her grave rubbings series. By the way, it is illegal to be buried in San Francisco (except at the Presidio and you must be military) and almost all of the historic cemeteries were moved to the city of Colma, south of San Francisco and north of the airport. Please see Susan's blogs for more information on this interesting part of San Francisco history.

We just found out yesterday that Susan was awarded a full scholarship (tuition, room and board) to attend the Split Rock Arts Summer Program in Minnesota. She will be taking the Art Quilt Class from July 12-17. She will be announcing this later on her blogs. This really cheered her up since she was rejected from Penland. THEIR LOSS!!

Business is still a little slow, but the weather is wonderful and I will attempt some more landscaping in the back yard. Until next time.