Sunday, 10 July 2011

Things I want to remember about London

Coming home from the British Museum with Isabel on a July evening.  Heard a sharp, sweet bird call (seemed odd for 9:30 pm).  Went over to investigate and saw a blackbird with its yellow beak on a branch singing his heart out.  Isabel was so happy.  We walked on and immediately came across a rowhouse with one of those round blue historical plaques on it that told us Thomas Hardy had lived here.  Isabel begged to hear a story by this writer.  What to choose:  Jude the Obscure?  Tragic beyond belief.  Mayor of Casterbridge?  Man sells his wife.  Brilliantly, I settled on Tess of the d'Urbervilles and got about as far as beginning to explain the concepts of seduction, ruin, and rape of women before I realized I would have to stop. 

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