17 June 2026

Assorted outings.

Victoria, with soccer ball

Bradford. Like Northeastern DC but more desi. We waited at Victoria Station where there is a large memorial to the people who had been killed at the attack on the nearby Ariana Grande concert a few years ago. When we arrived around nine, the square by the town hall was in use primarily by hard-worn people shouting at each other until the fuzz rolled up. We went to the Science and Media museum which was fine but probably optimal for someone who is more interested in cameras than any of us. Eurovision exhibit with a very, very detailed overview of the difficulty of transmitting from Britain to France in the fifties. V. good keema lunch at The Kashmir Restaurant.

Long wait for a bus while making uncertain conversation with a woman who told us her electricity and water had been shut off. Poor navigation by me so we had only thirty minutes to speedwalk the Bradford Industrial Museum which had lots of operating machinery, apartments dressed to represent worker families in different eras, and a bunch of other stuff we didn't get to. Our bus driver when we going to the museum (debarking in a panic when I realized we were going the wrong way) also picked us up from the museum and gave us a good-natured greeting that seemed tinged with relief at our survival. By the time we got to the station, the square was full of people at some sort of Christian revival event. Zayn, a Bradford native, played Manchester that night and lots of people on our train home were on their way to see their hometown boy.

Stockport Hatworks. Lots of hats, lots of nightmarish steam powered hatmaking equipment. There were some hats to try on but I have gotten at least three notifications a month about lice from the school so I didn't risk it.

Apply to run this pub! Should I, a person who can't drink beer and hates being awake after 10 pm, go for it? Should you?

Manchester Central Library

Chaperoned N's class trip on the tram to downtown, where they went to the Central Library and Manchester Art Gallery. I'm very glad I went on the trip with B's class first, because it meant that I could fully appreciate that the older kids either went to the bathrooms either independently or not at all. Very good behavior even as they trooped through the silent reading room, but at the end one girl said of a shapely Greek sculpture "That statue is VERY INAPPROPRIATE" and then things unraveled a little.

T has been extremely indulgent of all my stately homes, so one day during the break we rented a car and went to the Jodrell Bank telescope. The tickets, which admittedly are good for a year, were not cheap so I was DEEPLY chagrinned to learn later that we could have gotten a discount as University of Manchester staff. There was much more visitor infrastructure than at any of the national labs I've visited in America, and I wish we'd caught the astronomy activities they have in the winter when it's not light out until 10pm. Fermilab in Illinois has bison living on the fields above the accelerator. Jodrell Bank is surrounded by sheep pasture, and their smell made itself known.

Priest hole

Tudor plaster ceiling

Bramall Hall in Stockport. The Elizabethan half-timbered exterior and solar were under construction, but this was still one of my favorite houses I've seen. We've been listening to the Chronicles of Narnia audiobooks (Jeremy Northam is an unsung genius as a narrator) and this house is just like I imagned The Professor's house.

16 June 2026

We went back to York. We stayed in the Bar Convent, which opened in 1686 and is still a working convent. Reasonably priced, breakfast included, close to the train station, quote from St. Ignatius stenciled on the wall in the bathroom. Highly recommend!

First sight of the day, short visit to the Merchant Adventurer Society Guildhall, which is a very old building where the Merchant Adventurers used to meet to discuss merchandizing and adventuring. The organization still exists, although one wonders how much of their activities these days have to finance the maintenance of the building itself.

THE PRAYER OF THEMERCHANT ADVENTURERS

O God, our Heavenly Father;who dost send us here onearth in order that whilst here,we may seek and find anotherand a better world: Make usto be true Merchant Adventurersbold travellers into thy worldof Spirit: and finding theregreat treasure, to bring it backand enrich man's life on earth,building thine everlastingKingdom, through Jesus Christour Lord. Amen

York's last sedan chair carrier

Top priority was the Jorvik Viking Centre because my kids always have a moderate Viking fever brewing that mostly ax-driven. We showed up at our booked time as required and were ushered in with the rest of our group to a dark stuffy cellar. Beneath its glass floor were the remnants of an archeological dig that had taken place on the site. A costumed interpreter gave us a little spiel and there was a short video about the discovery and dig. We got into line for the next part of the experience. "You'll get used to the smell after a few minutes, don't hold your nose as it'll just take you longer to adjust!", said the interpreter. I had done zero research about this place before booking so I was in suspense about what this warning referred to. There was some shuffling along a line as people boarded pods that would bear them through the exhibit. The pods traveled on a track in the ceiling around recreated scenes of Viking life. The faces of the animatronic figures were fairly lifelike but they had dead shark eyes and they moved like jerky zombies. Children were mildly unsettled. There was indeed a smell, probably a combination of the latext robots, animal furs, straw and wood, and other things my brain is probably deliberately preventing me from identifying. As promised, you did kind of get used to it!

View from a pod

No long boats, no shields, no animatronic dudes in horned helmets raising tankards of ale and pledging to seek Valhalla. All the scenes were based on artifacts that were found on the site: preparing food, playing music a funeral service, a slave being beaten as she tried to escape. A latrine in active use. Not as dramatic as we expected but it was certainly vivid and more educational than the infotainment I was expecting. After we descended from the pod, there was a room with a few demos and cases of artifacts and a surprisingly modest gift shop. In total it took about an hour and cost 49 GBP for the four of us, not a huge value in terms of money vs. time spent but not something any of us are going to forget any time soon.

T had a meeting so he went back to the hotel. An hourish to kill before dinner. I'd caught sight of a house museum around the corner and pounced, ignoring protests from the peanut gallery. The Fairfax House is a Georgian townhouse that is dressed with furniture and decorations from the collection of Noel Terry, the chocolate orange magnate.

From a child engagement perspective, we had hit upon an ambiguous boon. We've now seen several historic homes with a scavenger hunt for kids, usually with a stuffed animal or two stashed in each room. Here, there were dozens of felt mice hand stitched by a volunteer throughout the house, and the intricate furnishings made spotting them a real hunt. On the upside, the children were not asking to leave. On the minus side, they were so keen to find the mice and mark them on their worksheets that I was being constantly harried along to the next room, or back to the last one so they could count again, and because of all the bric-a-brac I didn't want to let them get too far out of my sight.

Dinner with a family friend who babysat me long, long ago. When I told her where we were staying she looked over at the children. N was absorbed in his meal and B had fallen asleep. "Did you see"- she held her hand to her mouth to block it from their view and mouthed silently-"THE HAND?". Oh, did we!

Morning. Many bodies rattling around in a room very full of beds and cots until we could go down to breakfast. Frasier is on! Remembering the article in the Manchester Mill, "Frasier is one of the most popular sitcomes ever written. Manchester is its unseen star.", I thought it would be OK to leave it on for a little while. The children became unexpectedly absorbed. Roz said something mildly racy and we scrambled for the remote.

The Hand! Our stay at the hotel got us 50% off admission to the small museum in the convent about its history, its purpose disguised and secret when it was constructed as Catholicism was officially illegal. There was a model priest hole you could squeeze into, a video with the silhouette style animation so beloved by British museums, and a very creepy recording of frightened breathing and whispers.

Vestments disguised as a traveling ribbon salesman's wares, in every color needed in the liturgical year

The Hand. St. Margaret Clitherow was pressed to death for refusing to plea to hiding Catholic priests. Her hand was in a case behind a roller blind in the chapel, which had several secret doors and crannies. It was a sight to see, let's leave it there.

Next stop: the Treasurer's House just next to the great Minster. We were four minutes late for our booked tour, and our spots had been given away. We were told we could get on another one an hour and a half later. Lunch in the cafe in the basement, consideration of various other activities to kill time, decision that we were better of just loitering around to be sure we weren't late again. The house had been painstakingly restored and furnished in 1897 by the heir of a fortune (mostly given away or spent by the time he died) originating from the invention of a steam powered apparatus by an ancestor. These origins meant that the family were still considered upstarts a century later.

She looks like she was a real piece of work

Last attraction of the day was the train museum. There was a shuttle running from the Minster area to the museum for 5 pounds a person or a 30 minute walk. We were all flagging at this point so instead of trudging over and likely stopping to buy snacks, we took the bus and ate slightly mushed granola bars from my backpack. We have now seen several transportation-related museums and this was a pretty good one. They had a Shinkansen car you could get on, and perhaps in another world I might have taken advantage of it to have a brief nap. Real train, which was very close but a rather circuitous walk, and home!

29 May 2026

Passive Aggressive Gossip Magazine Titles:

Take a Break!

That's Life!

OK!

Weather Items:

1. A few weeks ago I was giving my spiel to someone, don't mind rain because at home we got a meter of snow yada yada. He said "I've always wondered how people function when that happens? Does everyone just stay home?". I said said "Well the city plows? And then you shovel your own sidewalk?" and his answer was "A plow? That's real??? I saw that on the Simpsons but I thought they just made it up!".

2. On Monday, a panicked message went up in the WhatsApp group for B's class. A mother had signed her kids up for an outdoor camp over the two week Whitsun break we are currently on. The camp had been canced because of excessive heat. It was 85 degrees.