Year 50 Day 116

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My wife and I at Shakespeare's Globe Theater in London. We're in one of the upper galleries overlooking the stage and floor area. Other audience members are finding their spots for the performance behind us.

Day 116: Our first day of exploring London!

We started with a visit to the British Museum, which is a huge, gorgeous museum packed with loot artifacts stolen acquired from across the globe. It’s also so popular that I found it impossible to really enjoy the visit — there’s absolutely no opportunity to actually stop and appreciate anything, because there are simply so many other people crowded in, pushing through, and all to often either stepping directly in front of you or physically pushing you aside so that they can see whatever you’re trying to look at. Honestly, as gorgeous as the museum is, and as impressive as its collection is, the actual experience was something of a disappointment. That said, we made the most of it, and did see a lot of neat stuff.

Once we finished with the museum, we came back to the hotel to rest for a while. Then we were off again! We took a cab up to Shakepeare’s Globe, walked across the Millennium Bridge and around St. Paul’s Cathedral (sadly, there was no old woman selling crumbs to feed the birds for tuppence a bag), saw a rainbow over London as we came back across the Millennium Bridge, and then watched an incredibly good performance of Macbeth at the Globe.

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Year 50 Day 115

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My wife and I in front of the window of our hotel room in London. Behind us is a gorgeous view of Tower Bridge.

Day 115: We’re (finally) off the boat and in London! The QMII docked in Southampton this morning, and we were very ready to move on. While the trans-Atlantic crossing was a really neat thing to do, with a lot of fun ties to history, we’re now pretty sure that that’s not a thing that we’d be intereste in doing again. Seven days at sea is a long time, and when you factor in the obviously high risk of getting ill…well. It was worth doing and the first half was a lot of fun; the tedious latter half, though, we’re happy to see the end of.

So, we disembarked in Southampton, caught a cab to the Southampton train station, a train to London Waterloo station, a London black cab to the Tower Hotel, and checked into a room with the most incredible view I’ve ever had in a hotel room.

After getting settled in, we walked across Tower Bridge and got dinner. Once we got back to the hotel, my wife (who was hit much harder by the bug that I was) needed rest, so I went out and took a two-hour walk enjoying the London evening and taking photos before finally coming back and heading to bed.

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Year 50 Day 114

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Me seen from behind, looking at the TV in our stateroom, showing the title card for the film Titanic.

Day 114: Another day of holing up in our stateroom to concentrate on resting and trying not to let whatever bug bit us get any worse. I almost forgot to get a picture, but then remembered that I’d planned ahead and made sure to include some thematically (in)approprite viewing choices for us, including this one on the history of the Cunard Line.

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Year 50 Day 113

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My wife and I in 1920s-style outfits. I'm wearing a white shirt with black tie, pinstriped black vest, and black cap, she's wearing a green flapper dress with black sequins, a long string of pearls, and a green sequined headband.

Day 113: Most of the day was spent hiding in our room, so as to rest and avoid possibly infecting anyone else. The second big gala event of the voyage was tonight, with a 1920s theme, and as we didn’t want to entirely miss it, we got dressed up and ventured out for about an hour (masked the entire time, aside from a couple brief moments to have our photos taken). Once we’d been there long enough to say we’d been there, it was back to our room and back to bed.

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📚 Uncanny Issue 53 edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas, Monte Lin, and Betsy Aoki

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41/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Standout stories in this issue include “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia, “The Ghasts” by Lavie Tidhar, and “The Music of the Siphorophenes” by C. L. Polk.

Me holding my iPad with the Uncanny Issue 53 cover shown on the screen

Year 50 Day 112

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My wife and I sitting at a table all set up for a fancy traditional English tea service.

Day 112: The day started well, with another history lecture, a cute new haircut for my wife, and an attempt at afternoon tea. However, about the time tea started…disaster! Well, no, not disaster, but a hearty amount of grumbling and annoyance. A few days ago at dinner before the Red and Gold gala event, we had a couple sit at the table next to us, and one of them was obviously ill: sniffling, sneezing, coughing, and bleary-eyed, all the time assuring us that he “wasn’t contagious” and it was “oh, nothing, just some little virus thing”. In hindsight, we should have excused ourselves, but between wanting to enjoy the evening and general social pressures, we stayed…and today was the day when we started feeling the effects of that decision. COVID testing has come back negative, so we’re hopeful that this is “just” a cold or flu.

So, we cut tea short, went back to our room, and spent the evening resting and preparing for our upcoming London adventures…otherwise known as watching Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary. That counts as research, right?

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Year 50 Day 111

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My wife and I standing at the bottom of the ship's grand stairway. I'm wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, black and grey necktie, and black kilt; she's wearing a black dress with silvery-grey wrap and a black choker necklace.

Day 111: Today was a second astrophysics lecture, a history lecture by Giles Ramsay about British actress and spy Aphra Behn, and an evening dancing to pop tunes by the in-house cover band. Since this is a trans-Atlantic voyage without any stops, there’s a lot more day and evening programming since there aren’t ports of call and shore excursions to keep the travelers distracted.