Digestive Biscuits

So, I have a minor obsession with McVites Dark Chocolate Digestive biscuits. Out of curiosity I had to find out why they're called 'Digestives'. Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

A digestive biscuit, sometimes referred to as a sweet-meal biscuit, is a semi-sweet biscuit originated in the United Kingdom and popular worldwide. The term 'digestive' is derived from the belief that they had antacid properties due to the use of sodium bicarbonate when they were first developed. Historically, some producers used diastatic malt extract to 'digest' some of the starch that existed in flour prior to baking.

Whatever the reason, I'm completely addicted!

British Library and Tate Britain

Not much to post today. We went to the British Library which was pretty neat. They have tons of illuminated bibles. They had two very worn pages from the Gospel of St. John, written in Greek on papyrus, dating from the 3rd century! How cool is that. What's even cooler is they found these two pages in a trash dump in Egypt in the early 20th century. Amazing!

They also had the handwritten musical score of Handel's Messiah, one of Jane Austen's notebooks from when she was 16 to 19 years old and the prayer roll of Henry VIII. Very cool.

After the library a few of us went to Tate Britain where they currently have an exhibition of the 'Romantics'. There were absolutely gorgeous pieces by Turner and Constable. Love, love, love Turner and his way of painting light. There were also some pre-raphialite pieces such as Ophelia and the Lady of Shalot. Loved.

We're headed to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath tomorrow so I must go to bed. I'll post more when we get back on Friday.

Messing Around in Photoshop

Goodbye London!

Well, I'm off to home. Not looking forward to the flight, but I am looking forward to my own comfy bed!!! Yea!

I'll see my family in a few days too! Oh happy day!

Portobello Road

Well, there were a lot of people on Portobello Road, in fact I think all of London may have decided to go today.

Oxford, Warwick and Stratford-Upon-Avon

Yesterday we left London by coach, first stopping in Oxford where we walked all around Oxford University, then onto Warwick where we visited Warwick Castle. It's been turned into a sort of medieval amusement park. There was jousting and wax figures...the castle is real everything else built up around it and in it is somewhat questionable. We then went to Stratford where we watched The Merchant of Venice, performed by the Royal Shakespearean Company. There was a little more Elvis than I expected, but it was pretty fun. We stayed at an adorable little B&B called Woodstock and the next morning we saw Macbeth. I couldn't stand it so I left at intermission and went shopping. Stratford-Upon-Avon is a really nice little town. I could happily live there I think.

Just a week left in London and I must admit I'm ready to head back to the real world now, but I feel the need to cram in as much as possible in the little time I have left.

Notre Dame

I loved visiting the Louvre, The Pompidiu Center, the Orsay, Rodin Museum, Ivalides, Eiffel Tower, Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame and Pere Lachaise Cemetery. The food was great (even if I've forever maimed myself on baguette), especially the pastries but I would gladly never have to ride the Metro again, be accosted by insane French poets, smell stale urine for 4 days straight or pay 7 Euro ($10) for a diet Coke again in my life! This evening when I arrived back in the UK I took a deep breath of clean English air and grinned from ear to ear! I love you England!!!

Here's my favorite picture from the trip, it's the Rose Window at Notre Dame. If you want to see all the pictures I took, check me out on Photobucket. Here's the link: http://s1112.photobucket.com/home/Moxeyjc/index