This has been my longest gap (3 days) between entries. I apologize to myself, when in the future; I will read this and ponder the things that slipped my mind in those three days that will never be recorded in here. They may never be remembered.
All righty…Wednesday night was the AIFS welcome party at the Old Explorer off of the Oxford Circus station. It was entertaining and the price of beer wasn’t that bad, but what was even better, free food. My group didn’t win a British trivia game, we finished second. I took off relatively early to call Kate and to get some sleep before my first full workday at MOM’s Books.
MOM’s Books is an intriguing place. First, there are no men in this publishing house, okay so maybe there are a few, but none in the room I work in. Second, MOM’s publishes books on Churchill to books for children to hot and horny sex cheques. Third, everyone I work with is young. I did some spreadsheet work, technical stuff, filing, and research for a book they are putting together. I regret to say the research wasn’t for a new volume of sex cheques.
After the workday (work traditionally ends at 5:30 in the UK), we all went out for a pint because we fancied it, yes we did. We went to a pub called The Oak in Clapham, South London. The Oak was smoke filled by the end of the night…disgusting. I drank a Stella and a broadside, my first warm beer, but room temperature isn’t warm.
Today has been a long day. I didn’t sleep for too long before I had to wake for a trip to Stratford. The Shakespearian history was much more interesting to me than an analysis of his literature. There were many low doorways in Stratford that I should have crawled through. We saw all that we could in a few hours: Shakespeare’s house, Holy Trinity Church – where he was baptized and buried, a
nd Anne Hathaway’s cottage. I took another load of pictures. I did snap a shot of the church knocker because it is from the 15th or 16th Century. Back then when someone was caught in the act they could book it to the church and grab the knocker. If they managed to do this before the authorities caught them they were granted 40 days housing and dining with the church. The church staff would, during those 40 days, try to bargain with the law enforcement for a deal. Didn’t do much tonight. I am excited to sleep in tomorrow. It’s 1 am here and 6 pm back home.
MOM’s Books proved to be an avenue into British culture and life that I cherished. I made some good friends and I was sad to leave them. The workers there were the nicest people that treated me as a regular employee. Another bonus, as hard as I would try, I couldn’t get one of them to allow me to buy my own drink or a drink for them. I spent a number of nights in pubs with them and I cherish them still. I celebrated my 23rd birthday with employees of MOM’s Books at Clapham North. They bought me pint after pint. They even sang happy birthday to me.
I included a couple of links in this blog to a picture of the Old Explorer and a picture of Holy Trinity Church upon-Avon.
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