Ive joined the Mile High Club!

I’ve joined the Mile High Club!

Now don’t get me wrong, I am behaving myself – It’s just that I’m sending this blog entry from high in the sky over Siberia, courtesy of Singapore Airlines’ new wireless internet connection.  

We’re on our way home now (or to Singapore, at least, for a day’s rest before the last leg) and enjoyed our final day in London steeping ourselves in all things English.  Tower of London in the morning, wandering around Westminster and Whitehall in the afternoon, and afternoon tea at Fortnum and Masons.

Looking forward to seeing friends and family soon!

Merton and Christ Church Colleges from the path where I took a walk a couple of days ago. I hope you enjoy looking at these photos I took. It was so peaceful - but very cold. So cold that after a while my camera froze so I had to stop shooting. 

My walk took me along the river at the bottom of Christ Church Meadow. 

Ducks on the river bank. 

You lookin' at me???? 

Trees on the opposite bank of the river. I really love this one! 

Autumn colours. 

A pretty scene... 

Christ Church Oxford, where Charles Dodgson (a member of the academic staff) and Alice Liddell (daughter of the Dean) lived. This was the location where Dodgson told and wrote his famous stories "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass". The following pictures show just some of the places and things in Oxford that have links with the Alice stories. 

Statue of Dean Liddell, father of Alice. 

The chestnut tree in the Dean's Garden (all that we, the public, are allowed to see of it) where Lewis Carroll imagined the Cheshire Cat sitting. 

Christ Church Library. From here, Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Dodgson) would have seen the Liddell girls playing in the Dean's Garden over the wall nearby. 

The Alice Shop in St Aldates. It appears in the Alice books as "The Old Sheep Shop" and it's said that in Alice's day it was owned by an old woman who spoke in a bleating voice like a sheep! This shop is opposite Christ Church and Alice used to go there to buy her sweets. Today it sells Alice memorabilia. 

The path through Christ Church Meadow down to Folly Bridge - a path often taken by Alice and her sisters. 

Salters Boat Sheds, by Folly Bridge, where Dodgson hired a boat to row the Liddell sisters down the river. You can still hire rowing boats here. 

The meadows where Dodgson, his friend Robinson, the Liddell girls and their governess Miss Prickett, had their picnic and Dodgson first spun the tale of Alice in Wonderland. 

These brass "firedogs" in the dining hall at Christ Church have long necks - rather like the illustrations in the Alice in Wonderland books. It's thought they were models for the illustrator. 

The Oxford Museum of Natural History - Dodgson would have taken Alice and her sisters here often. Unfortunately the stuffed Dodo that the museum had held long after the bird's extinction was found to have lice in the 1770's - so it was burnt (lest the lice infest other valuable specimens in the Museum), all except its feet and head, which were mummified for posterity. Shame! 

Dinosaur skeleton inside the Museum of Natural History, a wonderful neo-Gothic Victorian building. 

This display case in the museum has examples of all the animals mentioned in the Alice books including the dodo, white rabbit, mock turtle, eaglet and walrus. 

This painting of the extinct Dodo was first hung in the Oxford Museum of Natural History in the mid 1800's and excited great interest in Oxford. Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) would have taken Alice and her sisters to see it. Dodgson had a speech impediment, apparently, so said his name as "Do-do-dodgson", hence his nickname for himself in the Alice books,"The Dodo". 

Reconstruction of Dodo skeleton (on left) and Dodo (on right) - in Oxford Museum of Natural History. 

Cast of Dodo head in the Oxford Museum of Natural History. 

Casts of Dodo feet in the Oxford Museum of Natural History 

A white rabbit! 

Dining room at Christ Church where Alice's father, Dean Liddell, presided nightly at the High Table in the mid-1800's. Boak and I were privileged to be the guests of the Sub-Dean at High Table here in April 2003. Paintings of famous past members of Christ Church are hung on the walls.