this is a strange place

Well, we finally made it to the British Library for a tour, but more on that later.

Got up this morning after sleeping in and went to work. It was nice having internet access there. Started doing some work on writing a new program we need. We went out to lunch at a pub with some of the people working in the lab we are in, kind of to get to know each other a bit better. Grace was able to join us for that, and then pretty much right after lunch we went to the British Library, where we got a tour of some of the conservation work that was being done there. We saw Rudyard Kipling’s original Jungle Book manuscript, as well as some really old first-edition Charles Dickens books.

We hung around at the BL for a bit after the tour, saw the Magna Carta. I learned something interesting about the Magna Carta, that it was actually rescinded by a papal bull about ten weeks after it was originally signed, and it was much later that a modified version actually went into effect. The original Magna Carta also pretty much also only protected the English Nobility. There was also something complicated about how the pope and the king of England became allies right before all of that, because they had been enemies, but I don’t recall exactly how that worked.

We went to supper on the Thames, Grace, myself, Ryan, Matt and Steve. I had sausages and mash (venison sausage on mashed potatoes) and Grace had a chicken carbanero thing that was really good. Mine was good to. After that, Grace headed back to the apartment to call home and talk to people, and I hung out with the guys and we walked around and took pictures. There’s a neat-looking egg-shaped office building, and we walked around the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. It was getting pretty dark by the time we got back, so we got some good night shots of stuff.

That’s pretty much it for the day. Tomorrow is Grace and my last day in London, then off to Scotland on Saturday. Until next time.