AND FINALLY ... !!

Also took in Westminster Abby. In amongst the famous people There was this. I thought it was an interesting reflection... 

"Mrs MARY KENDALL daughter of Thomas Kendall Esqr. and of Mrs Mary Hallet, his wife, of Killigarth in Cornwall, was born at Westmr.[Westminster] Nov.8 1677 and dy'd at Epsome March 4 1709/10, having reach'd the full term of her blessed Saviour's life; and study'd to imitate his spotless example. She had great virtues, and as great a desire of concealing them: was of a severe life, but of an easy conversation; courteous to all, yet strictly sincere; humble, without meanness; beneficient, without ostentation; devout, without superstition. ...."

Interesting portrait of humility: "She had great virtues, and as great a desire of concealing them."

Another interesting gravestone on the floor which I spied:

LONDON TOWN

She's still not amused!

JUNE 28 2013 UPDATE

3DM European Senior Leaders Retreat at Horsey Green. Over a hundred people with a great diversity of stories. Diversity yet shared passion and purpose and perseverance. The mark of an emerging movement.

27 JUNE UPDATE

Arriving in Oxford, we spent ages driving around looking for a place to park. It was 'open week' or something like that, and the place was swarming with prospective students, in orientation groups being shown round the town. Is it me or do uni students look younger each year? Anyway. At the last moment we found a place to park, looked up and discovered we were across from the Eagle and Child. 

As the sign says, this is where the Inklings met for many years. The more regular members of the Inklings included J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. "Jack" Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, Tolkien's son, Christopher, Lewis's elder brother Warren, Roger Lancelyn Green, Adam Fox, Hugo Dyson, Nevill Coghill amongst others. Guests included Dorothy Sayers.

On the way out we drove through the Oxford suburbs past 20 Northmoor Road. During his time at Pembroke College Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings, whilst living at 20 Northmoor Road inNorth Oxford (where a blue plaque was placed in 2002).

Librarian heaven! The Bodleian Library,  the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, 1602 in its current form.

YET MORE PICS

Warwick: St. Mary's CatholicChurch: On his 21st birthday, JRR Tolkien wrote to Edith Bratt a declaration of his love and asked her to marry him. Edith replied saying that she had already agreed to marry another man, but that she had done so because she had believed Tolkien had forgotten her. The two met beneath a railway viaduct and renewed their love; Edith returned her engagement ring and announced that she was marrying Tolkien instead. Following their engagement Edith reluctantly announced that she was converting to Catholicism at Tolkien's insistence. Her landlord, a staunch Protestant, was infuriated and evicted her as soon as she was able to find other lodgings. Edith and Ronald were  married here in 1916.

Warwick: Eastgate... part of what was the wall around the old city

Some More Pictures ....

Glasgow: A civilised city! : )

Trip Update two

Saturday morning, 6:30am got into Heathrow. We had a three hour stop-over in Abu Dhabi around 2:30am local time. Impressively modern terminal and duty free outlets. 
Call me crazy, but I find Tommy Hilfiger; Bvlgari, Tag Heuer, Rolex, Chanel; Mont Blanc, Harrods and Grand Prix promos strangely un-alluring at 2:30am after a seven hour flight!
We picked up a nifty VW diesel and then headed off to 'Moreton-in-Marsh; to drop them off for their week-long Cotswolds walk. I then headed north to Sheffield for the Conference starting Monday. 

Trip Update

We left Melbourne really late Wednesday night, or was that early Thursday morning? 2.40am  is a strange time to board -and then you get served breakfast; or is that dinner?

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur about mid Thursday morning and ended up having the afternoon and next morning to look around. With specials that Emirates and Etihad had at the time,  worked out more economical to break the trip. It was nice to look around and get a quick dose of 30 plus degrees tropical heat before braving an English summer!

We took a spin on the monorail, we walked, looked, had food and generally took in the 'vibe'.