{"id":3176,"date":"2010-10-03T15:58:29","date_gmt":"2010-10-03T19:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=3176"},"modified":"2018-08-05T21:16:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T01:16:38","slug":"sunday-october-3-2010-some-london-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=3176","title":{"rendered":"Sunday, October 3, 2010 \u2014 Some London Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent my last day in the U.K., after tak\u00ading care of some busi\u00adness mat\u00adters, wih my friends Skye and Natasha, Cana\u00addi\u00adans liv\u00ading in London.<\/p>\n

Skye took me to vis\u00adit Bur\u00adrough Mar\u00adket, near Lon\u00addon Bridge. Housed in a con\u00adfus\u00ading\u00adly laid out Vic\u00adto\u00adri\u00adan struc\u00adture, and milling with peo\u00adple, the mar\u00adket is a delight\u00adful chaos. There has been a mar\u00adket on the site, or at least near\u00adby, for two thou\u00adsand years. Bur\u00adrough Mar\u00adket com\u00adbines retail and whole\u00adsale func\u00adtions, and there\u2019s a cer\u00adtain amount of grime. This and the con\u00adstant shout\u00ading of hawk\u00aders con\u00adtrasts with the anti\u00adsep\u00adtic qui\u00adet that per\u00advades St. Lawrence Mar\u00adket in Toron\u00adto. We had some fine Per\u00adsian pastries.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Bur\u00adrough Market<\/p><\/div>\n

But the main item on our agen\u00adda was Green\u00adwich. Skye and I are both fond of a 2000 tele\u00advi\u00adsion mini-series called Lon\u00adgi\u00adtude<\/em>, star\u00adring Jere\u00admy Irons and Michael Gam\u00adbon. This tells two par\u00adal\u00adlel sto\u00adries, one in the 18th Cen\u00adtu\u00adry and the oth\u00ader in the mid-Twen\u00adti\u00adeth. The first relates the strug\u00adgle of inven\u00adtor John Har\u00adri\u00adson to per\u00adfect a marine chronome\u00adter that would allow sailors to cal\u00adcu\u00adlate lon\u00adgi\u00adtude at sea. The sec\u00adond tells the the sto\u00adry of Rupert Gould, who res\u00adcued the sur\u00adviv\u00ading chronome\u00adters from stor\u00adage and got them to work again. The four sur\u00adviv\u00ading chronome\u00adters are pro\u00adfound\u00adly impor\u00adtant in the his\u00adto\u00adry of tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy, among the most sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant objects in human his\u00adto\u00adry. They are pre\u00adserved in the Roy\u00adal Obser\u00adva\u00adto\u00adry, Green\u00adwich, in the com\u00adplex of muse\u00adums asso\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded with the Naval Hos\u00adpi\u00adtal and the Obser\u00adva\u00adto\u00adry con\u00adstruct\u00aded by Christo\u00adpher Wren. The Obser\u00adva\u00adto\u00adry pre\u00adserves impor\u00adtant trea\u00adsures in astron\u00ado\u00admy, chronom\u00ade\u00adtry, and nav\u00adi\u00adga\u00adtion, while the Nation\u00adal Mar\u00aditime Muse\u00adum hous\u00ades exhibits appro\u00adpri\u00adate to an Empire built on sea pow\u00ader. Like all of Britain\u2019s nation\u00adal muse\u00adums, there is no admit\u00adtance charge. I wish peo\u00adple in Cana\u00adda, who are accus\u00adtomed to pay admis\u00adsion to pub\u00adlic muse\u00adums, would take note of this. While we have some fine muse\u00adums, I am gross\u00adly offend\u00aded by the atti\u00adtude that imag\u00adines it appro\u00adpri\u00adate for us to be charged a fee to look at our own stuff<\/em>. It is as ridicu\u00adlous as set\u00adting up a pay toi\u00adlet in your own home.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Christo\u00adpher Wren\u2019s Naval Hos\u00adpi\u00adtal at Greenwich<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a>

Green\u00adwich Observatory<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a>

One of John Har\u00adrison\u2019s Chronometers<\/p><\/div>\n

Natasha, Skye and I dined at a Pan\u00adjabi restau\u00adrant on the Kil\u00adburn High Road. The cur\u00adry was bland com\u00adpared with what would be served in Toron\u00adto, which Skye said was typ\u00adi\u00adcal of Lon\u00addon taste.<\/p>\n

The flight home was marked by an unusu\u00adal clear\u00ading of the skies over Kalaal\u00adlit Nunaat, so I got a mag\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcent view of the Green\u00adland Ice Cap.<\/p>\n

My trip had been hur\u00adried, and I sel\u00addom stayed long enough in one spot to real\u00adly appre\u00adci\u00adate what I was see\u00ading, but, as always, I was hap\u00adpy to be back home in Cana\u00adda. My cat, Enkidu, had sur\u00advived a week of being locked indoors with\u00adout too much trau\u00adma. I was now con\u00addemned to return to infe\u00adri\u00ador fish and chips, but I could again eat cur\u00adry with the prop\u00ader fire in it. I had picked up a bot\u00adtle of Bel\u00adl\u2019s Scotch at Duty Free, pru\u00addent\u00adly pass\u00ading on the chance of pur\u00adchas\u00ading a \u20a46,000 Isle of Skye. I had the whiskey, some gen\u00aduine Orca\u00addi\u00adan oat\u00adcakes and cheese, a bot\u00adtle of Orkney\u2019s Red Mac\u00adGre\u00adgor (\u201cFive thou\u00adsand years in the mak\u00ading!\u201d), and a gen\u00aduine Match\u00adbox lon\u00addon bus, made in Eng\u00adland in 1972, not a Tai\u00adwanese knock-off. These will con\u00adsole me as life returns to its tepid norm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent my last day in the U.K., after tak\u00ading care of some busi\u00adness mat\u00adters, wih my friends Skye and Natasha, Cana\u00addi\u00adans liv\u00ading in Lon\u00addon. Skye took me to vis\u00adit Bur\u00adrough Mar\u00adket, near Lon\u00addon Bridge. Housed in a con\u00adfus\u00ading\u00adly laid out \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,8,948,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-aq-blog-2010","category-d-viewing","category-dq-viewing-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3176"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7758,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3176\/revisions\/7758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}