Sealion II

musical covers, that is, I would get Tom Waits to cover "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap.

And David Bowie to do something of Joanna Newsom's. "Bridges and Balloons", maybe.

You?

So, after our late-night amusements at the football match (or, in the American, soccer game) we arose bright and early the next morning to make our trip to the City of Lights. Day trip to Paris!

We were a bit short on sleep, so the trip was a little surreal right from the get-go. In our previous train trips we had discovered that the so-called canard is a fact--Americans really are super-loud and obnoxious. The Scots and English people on our train to Glasgow outnumbered us five to one or thereabouts, but we made much more noise just by conversing at our normal American level than everyone else did put together.

The train ride to Paris proved, however, that there is a nation whose citizens are louder and more obnoxious than the Americans. That nation is Australia.

The train journey to Paris was enlivened (maybe not improved, but definitely enlivened) by the advent of an aggressively cheerful and gregarious Australian miner who sat down across from the HLP and me and proceeded to regale us with stories about his wonderfulness. And mining accidents, and things like that. It was very early and the details were never very clear.

It was something of a relief to get off the train, all things considered. After a brief rendezvous with a station agent there in Paris we had our Metro tickets and our maps in hand and were ready to begin.

I figure it will only take me two years to finish the trip at this rate.

But hey, at this point it's bringing back all the lovely memories. So that's something.

On Wednesday we went first to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. And this is the proof of it:


That's me and King Richard I, Coeur de Lion (he was a Norman, after all, so he gets the snazzy French. Not that "Lionheart" is unimpressive.) Unlike Lord Nelson he is willing to turn his back on Parliament, but Parliament was less troublesome to absolute monarchs back in his day. At least until he left his little brother in charge while he went on a crusade.

Westminster Abbey is the most beautiful building I have ever seen.



That is all.

Then we went to see Wicked, which was a blast. I liked it a lot, but we don't have any pictures. What we do have pictures of is...Champions League football! Arsenal v. Sevilla, and I was there! This was a crowning felicity of my sporting life, and worth every penny. Here are the lads in action:



The ones in black are Sevilla, the red and white are Arsenal. Arsenal carried the day 3-0, and a good time was had by all.

I got up very early this morning and went out to vote. I wanted to make sure I got it done, and I've got to give a group meeting this afternoon. So, at 6:53, I got in the line to enter the polling booth and do my civic duty.

Yes, there was a line. At 6:53 in the morning.

I am, apparently, not the only person extra-motivated today. There were about thirty people in line in front of me, and the line behind me quickly grew to something like 100, where it held pretty steady--that was about the number in line when I left at 7:45.

I'm reading online reports of similar things in other states. Looks like turnout will be unusually high. It could wind up being a barn-burner, folks.