In other news...

[adelynne]

I saw the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End trailer (thanks to meilithian, who was kind enough to alert me of its existance). It is SHINY! And seems timed to release following my first set of Orals this May. Good stuff.

Also, Doyle & I will be going to England May 30th through June 7th. If you have suggestions for what we should do or see, please don't hesitate to advise. We'll definitely be in London, Oxford, and Cambridge, but beyond that we have no clue.

Following a conversation I had with hamsterwoman, I've been thinking about revisions of Glamour. More particularly, having this plan wherein I go in and revise a chapter a day and then post it here under filtered friends-lock for critique. It seems like something that would motivate me to do the revisions (which I have been dragging on) and yet keep my commitment to not show the thing to anyone until I've done a 2nd draft of all the chapters. This would be a massive project, though, so until I've done my Orals, it's just not happening. But after that, I'll have a bit more breathing room and it'll be good to get it done.

What do you guys think?

Comments

[justbeast.livejournal.com]

The trailer looks completely awesome. I can't wait. :)

[hamsterwoman]

It seems like something that would motivate me to do the revisions

It does seem like it should work as a motivator and get things going.

Am very jealous of your upcoming trip to England! No suggestions on other places to visit, but I absolutely loved Oxford, which is even more impressive given how high my expectations of that visit were.

And thanks for the (very shiny) POTC trailer link!

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

Any ideas for what to do in Oxford? Or anywhere, for that matter?

[hamsterwoman]

(This was meant to be a quick list and got a bit out of hand... but I do so love Oxford, so perhaps it was to be expected.)

My Oxford diversions were largely related to assorted literary figures associated with the place, and especially Tolkien (I went around visiting houses he'd lived in and colleges he'd been a part of and so forth, basically using Humphrey Carpenter's biography as a tourist guide, which allowed me to see quite a bit of the rest of the city). Things I remember fondly:

Colleges and environs:

- Magdalen College botanical gardens, park, and river walk (Addison's Walk, I think it's called). The botanical gardens particularly impressed me with their giant watery lily pond. One can also go up and stand outside of Oscar Wilde's rooms -- when I vsted, there was a piece of paper taped onto the door announcing "Oscar Wilde Lower Rooms", but can't actually go or see inside I think. (I believe people still live in them, which would be why.)

- Christ Church Meadow was also a nice pace for a stroll. There were cows...

- University College -- I wanted to get in to see the Shelley Memorial, but they wouldn't let me, which I very much regret... I don't think it's open to the public, but I wish I had pretended to be a student and bluffed my way in.

Standard attractions:

- Bodleian Library -- I'm not really sure what-all is open to the public there (we were brought in as part of a guided tour), but something is. It's nice in its own right, but mostly I like that can now say I've been inside "Bodley"

- Ashmolean Museum -- the archeology part especially. I found the spears and armour and stuff on display pretty inspiring.

- There's also the Bridge of Sighs, which is a standard sort of attraction, but I personally wasn't terribly impressed.

Walking around the city:

- Hollywell Cemetery at St. Cross Church (I think I've got the name right... was a lovely place to sit in solitude and listen to birds and such.

- Groucester Green Market (twice a week) -- I just found it fun to browse the trinket stalls and drinking in the local colour.

- On a similar note, the Covered Market on High Street was kind of fun to visit, too

- I also spent an embarrassing amount of time browsing Blackwell's Bookstore and the English Teddy Bear Company, but that might be just me...

And, kind of generally, one of my favorite things about Oxford is that pretty much werever you step, you stumble over some odd piece of history or other. There are these little plaques here and there announcing things like, "On this spot, King So-and-So ordered the beheading of Noble/Bishop/Etc. So-an-So in the year 1***", or you spot a bit of the original city wall, or traipse through a college quad and find ot that this is the quad that's supposed to be haunted by the ghost of Archbishop William Laud, kicking around his severed head (that would be St John's College, more alleged ghosties here.)

yet more stuff to do around Oxford... (sorry :P)

[hamsterwoman]

Outside of Oxford proper but more-or-less nearby:

- The "treacle well" at St. Margaret's Church in Binsey, walking distance from Oxford. The well is thought to be the one referenced in Alice in Wonderland. Also, I'm a fan of G.M.Hopkins, and he has a poem about Binsey poplars (which are very much in evidence even still), so that was nice.

- Blenheim Palace was pretty impressive (especially the tapestries). I think this is ~20 min driving from Oxford.

- Broughton Castle in Banbury has the loveliest formal garden and a lots of other neat stuff to see. Looks like it's open a couple of days a week. This is ~20-25 miles from Oxford

- Stratford-upon-Avon was also quite lovely (and I'm not even a Shakespeare enthusiast) -- but I was mostly charmed by the weeping willows over the water which reminded me of Kiev, so somebody visiting from a more temperate climate, where weeping willows do occur, may be less impressed.

I was rather less impressed by London than I had wanted to be, and the only places that struck me as truly memorable were The Globe and the British Library, but I'm really not a museum person in general, or a big city person, as it turns out, so that's likely why.

Man... now I'm all nostalgic for Oxford...

Re: yet more stuff to do around Oxford... (sorry :P)

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

Don't be sorry, this is great! It's my first trip outside this hemisphere since I got here when I was 7. I'm very rusty on the tourist thing.

(Previously been to Canada and Aruba, the latter involved a lot of beach-lying and being a lobster.)

Re: yet more stuff to do around Oxford... (sorry :P)

[hamsterwoman]

My Oxford trip was also my first one out of the hemisphere since moving here (actually, properly out of the country, even), and I found myself surprised by the weirdest things -- that I was expected to bag my own groceries, that the bread sold in supermarkets was not sliced (but *was* tasty), that cars did not observe pedestrian right of way -- which was all rather embarrassing, since I'd grown up with all that stuff.

We've been trying to find a good excuse to go to Aruba -- from everything I've heard, it sounds like paradise on earth -- but getting there from the West Coast is such a pain, especially when compared to the proximity of Hawaii, which is practically next door from here...

Re: yet more stuff to do around Oxford... (sorry :P)

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

Oh, Aruba's wonderful! It is pretty darn close to paradise with casinos. Great food, good diving if you're into it, and you can often get packages from all the hotels/timeshares they're building to go down and so long as you go see their presentation they don't care if you buy it.

Just make sure to pack TONS of sunscreen. I cannot recommend that enough.

[rosamund.livejournal.com]

There's always a spare room library here ;)

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

It's a lovely room. Just beware the books. They distract mightily. ;)

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

I've never found that to be a problem.

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

Yay!

(More to come. We really need to start planning this thing.)