I imagine no one is checking the website anymore, because I have not updated it in a while. The reason for my radio silence is that I was flat hunting. It was grueling. London is a strange place in many many ways. Besides the complete lack of English people and the perpetual invasions (what was once armies are now waves of immigrants… and immigrant is a dirty word here… much worse than in the states… or perhaps I was just believing the propaganda written on the base of the statue of liberty… do they even let you walk up to it anymore?) one key quirk in London is the flat letting market. There are scams everywhere. And the estate agents are so inundated with requests, they can do a brisk business with just the customers that they happen to answer the phone for. If you leave a message, they almost surely won’t call you back. And the flats disappear in a day, unless there is some huge flaw… So I have spent every spare moment in the past month trying to maneuver this bog known as the London flat letting market. We saw several doozies and met quite a few would-be scammers. But we have finally found a place.
Many of you have visited us and know what our current flat looks like. This new one, is about the same size, maybe a tad smaller. But, it has laminate floors (no industrial carpet) and an actual kitchen in its own room (although it is quite small). And while we are still left with the joys of the compact cooker, this flat also has a microwa
ve and a toaster (for those who have not visited, there was no place to put such modern conveniences in the current flat). And (drum role please), we have our OWN BATHROOM. That’s right. No more sharing a toilet. And the shower is no longer in our bedroom. And the shower is a proper tile shower, not one from a campsite (although I have to admit, I kind of liked the camping shower… I spared my wife my camping stove idea… maybe next time…). Other nice features include a beautiful city park just two blocks away, a television attached to a roof aerial (tried to rabbit ear it in the current flat and got nothing), wireless internet. The new flat is just north of the old one. And since we have crossed over to the ‘right-side’ of the railroad tracks, we are in a new borough. But from a commuting point of view, it is pretty much the same.
Anyway, we have a proper table with four proper chairs, so no more folding lawn chair and there is actually room to have people over. Anyway, here are the pictures from the web advert. We will of course take proper pictures of it once we get it ready. But I am so excited to finally not be spending time rifling through Gumtree (London equivalent to Craigslist), I just had to post a blog… I’m back!
During Jim and Laurens visit, we visited the famous Stonehenge, which is something like 90 miles west of London. The henge is the flat circular part and is made of earth. There are many henges all over England. Stonehenge is generally thought to have started as a burial site about 5000 years ago, and according to archaeologists it has gone through many changes and variations over those years. People who study these things think that the culture never developed a written language. If that is true, there is little hope of discovering its true purpose. There are many theories. The most popular are some kind of astronomical or religious site. The actual evidence however is rather sparse.
Despite having seen many pictures of it and having read so many things about it, I had forgotten that it was here in England until Jim mentioned he wanted to see it. It would have been an awful shame to have not seen it being so close. So I am grateful to Jim for getting me out there. I think the lack of evidence surrounding Stonehenge is what draws so much attention to it. It really leaves you free to imagine whatever you want. 
It was strange to see it in person. No doubt the images and writings I have experienced swelled my expectations. One of the most striking things was that it was just kind of there. There’s the road, there’s a farmhouse, there’s Stonehenge, there’s a field, there’s another farmhouse. It is like that. It doesn’t seem out of place. I wasn’t expecting that. I also think my experience was limited by not being allowed to walk amongst the stones. In fact, we were not allowed that close to it at all. I wonder if there was energy in amongst them. I couldn’t feel any from where I was standing. It was tad disappointing. It left me this feeling of wanting to sneak in at night and go inside the ring of stone. Even as I type this, I wish I had thought of darting across, although I am sure my wife is very happy I didn’t think of that. But despite not feeling any energy, it was still absolutely amazing. And we did get to walk on the actual henge, and for all we know, it may be the henge itself that is the most sacred part.
There are some obvious burial mounds surrounding the henge. Some are a bit of a distance away. But there were some that were quite close. We walked out to one of them. We met some grazing cattle on this little side journey. The mounds were fenced, but there was no one around to enforce the fences suggestion of no trespass. Several other tourists ran up and down the mounds. Unlike the stones, I had no desire to go on the burial mound. I am not sure what the difference was. Perhaps it is too close to my own cultural experiences of burial rituals. It just seems disrespectful. I have no problems with professional digging into them to learn about the culture. That to me does not seem disrespectful. But running up and down them, well that is another matter.
There has been lots of manipulation of the stones of Stonehenge in the name of preservation. Some have been straightened. Some have been filled with concrete. I for one believe that it should not be touched. Since we don’t know its purpose, we are more likely causing more harm than good. It occurred to me while we were there that it would be quite ironic if Stonehenge were a great hourglass structure. In this vision, I imagined that Stonehenge was built to usher in an age of peace, harmony, and spiritual prosperity. Each stone falling steers some intangible force into perfect alignment until finally with the last stone resting on the henge unlocking a new and great mystery leading humankind to an idyllic age. And we are blocking it by messing with something we don’t understand. But I am oh so melodramatic. Perhaps we should just build condos out of it instead. See. 
The lack of my presence on the blog recently is partly due to the many lovely people who have graced us with visits. It has been a true joy to have an essence of home come over the Atlantic in bits and bobs (no pun intended). First, we were graced with a visit from 
