Double the archives, double the . . . something.

Clearly, I am not as good a photographer as Alex, and need to actually use settings other than automatic when shooting. (Making a mental note of that right now.) But, I figured you might want a (blurry, poor) visual of what Kew looked like this evening on my walk home from the archives. So here goes, the first pic without flash, the second with:Anyways, enough of that. I am ashamed and will try better next time.

This morning I had a rough time getting out of bed. I slept for an hour or two before my alarm went off at 7:30am and I really didn't want to wake up. But I had an appointment to keep! So I eventually persuaded myself to get up and eat and pack myself lunch. I made it to the underground station and then started a very long ride on the District line. The underground is really awesome, but damn expensive. It's confusing at first glance, but the stations are well signed so I haven't had any problem getting around. Also, once in town there are stations all over the place so it would be challenging to actually get stranded in this city. I made it to the British Red Cross office at Moorgate only, ahem, 35 minutes late! But it was fine, and there really was very little for me to see. I was done by 1pm and then completely forgot that I was supposed to call a couple friends of mine. I only remembered once I was half-way back to Kew. Ah well. Perhaps seeing them isn't meant to be . . . .

Since it was only just after 2pm when I reached Kew Gardens station I figured I might as well be productive and so I headed off to the National Archives. It's a nice facility and so different from both Library and Archives Canada and the National Archives at College Park. Interesting, that. And thus completes my plan to research in the national archives of the Anglo-Atlantic world this winter! (Even though it's really not anything like winter in London. Today was rainy/dry and +9 celcius or so.)

After the archives closed I walked over to the local retail park to check out Marks and Spencer. I bought a few more things to eat and then came home. A long, productive day in terms of getting stuff done, but I didn't get that much of use in terms of the research I conducted. But . . . I find excellent stuff on the Canadian Red Cross in Siberia in my last few minutes at the National Archives, material that I totally could have used for my MA, and will now hopefully use to good effect in current/future projects. Yay! Tomorrow it's back to the NA for more discoveries.