Triple Lutz

The American eating The American

On Friday I slept in and didn’t get my free breakfast but I was able to find a roadside dinner where I got beans, eggs, ham, sausage, tea and bread for 3 British pounds. It was a little bit of a shady place, I was the only patron there with the exception of a homeless man who was sleeping on a nearby table. Nevertheless the food was really good and cheap.

I went to Westminster Abbey and happened to arrive at the same time that the Treasury Singers were performing a concert and I sat and listened while they sang songs I had never heard before in Latin. Then I went to Saint James Park, Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park. While in Saint James Park I saw this squirrel following an old man as he walked, like a dog would do begging for food. I thought that the squirrels must be really aggressive until the man turned and produced some food from his pocket and held it up and the squirrel which came up to the man and ate it right out of the man’s hand. This guy must regularly feed the squirrels in the park and they all know him. At Hyde Park they had a Winter Wonderland that was strangely German themed. Upon entering there was a giant moose head that talked and sang but spoke often in German. There were the usual food stalls and lots of rides along with a place to play Wii and an Ice Skating rink. I got myself some chestnuts and Gluhwein and then dominated some little kids at the Wii.

I also made my way to the Tate Modern Museum which was free and very interesting. There was one special exhibit that I thought was especially interesting. The Hague in the Netherlands was constructing a new building and as part of the project commissioned artists to produce artwork. One of these artists was an American woman who met with members of The Hague along with spies in secret locations and took pictures of the meetings. When she submitted her final pieces to The Hague they told her that many of her pictures were too revealing in regards to who the spies were and they couldn’t be used. There was great discussion between the artist and The Hague as to what could or could not be displayed. The artist documented everything that happened and put it into a book. The artist decided to abandon the pictures she had originally planned and instead went forward with the book which she submitted to The Hague for editing as was required by her contract with them. When the artist received the book back there was so much that had been altered that it would have been impossible to do anything with the book. As a consolation the artist was allowed to do a onetime exhibit of her project. After the exhibit everything would belong to The Hague and could never be shown again. The first part of the exhibit shows and explains all of that that I have just described and then there is her one time exhibit. The one time exhibit displays her book under glass with the entire body of the book removed and a letter to The Hague instructing them that it was theirs to take and read and keep. I thought it was really interesting how she decided to resolve the problem and what she presented.

There are ice skating rinks set up all over town and I went to one at the Tower of London. It has been a while since I was last ice skating but I had a lot of fun. While skating I decided to skate rather quickly and then rammed myself into one of the walls to stop me and it made a really loud crashing sound. One of the guys working came over and told me to take it easy. I apologized and tried to behave myself. I’m not a great ice skater, but I can skate decently well and I didn’t fall down the whole time. Just before leaving I decided that I should take a fall and built up some speed and then threw myself onto the ice and slid into the wall. It was a lot of fun but I did get wet and cold.

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