But Only in My Dreams - Christmas 2019

Updates since my last post was all the way back in September:

I rode horses in Wales (fell off but got back on, that’s the important bit)
Saw many dead things in jars at the National History Museum
Had a wonderful time killing and being killed at Oystermouth Castle
I now have 2 expensive pieces of paper saying that I’m officially clever (top notch clever too, despite the spelling errors that are likely in this blog)
I was back in Canada for a week in November to see my family because I knew I wouldn’t be able to go home for Christmas

The Christmas season is always an interesting one when you work in the service industry. I was once again a very sad elf for The Canterbury Tales’ Medieval Christmas (got to usurp the Santa seat temporarily). I also manned our Christmas stall at the market where I sold a lot of mead and talked to many interesting people, including Jared Leto’s dad (or at the least, a very big fan who gives away merch and signed photos of Leto). I had a series of Christmas parties, a pizza party with the Tales Crew and a formal ØC dinner. All this capped off with the first day I was officially on Christmas holidays.

Our trip to London perfectly bookended my historical interests. In the morning, Katya, Tom and I went to the Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery, a few pubs in between, and then an evening of cheesy Shakespearian drama and carolling at the Snow- Globe.

Despite a truly ridiculous level of train delays, we did eventually get to London and I speed-walked all the way to the front doors. After an introductory video about the boy king and his treasures, we were lead into blue-lit galleries that shimmered with gold.

Don’t know when this was taken, but some interests don’t fade. Although, I am annoyed that I’m holding it wrong, and that the collar is on backwards.

Both 10-year-old me and 26-year-old me were equally giddy. Every time I took a photo I wanted to keep zooming in and zooming in because every line and tiny detail of these artifacts was perfect. In so many other museums, you have the actual item, a shrivelled, collapsed, or decomposed version, and then the modern recreations, but with Tutankhamun everything looks like it was finished yesterday. Despite their three thousand years hidden from light, the jewel colours shine bright. I’ve seen so many of these pieces so many times in various books and documentaries growing up that it was very strange to see them inches away from me. All the hieroglyphics, the gods and goddesses, the beautiful statues, everything just brought back my love of this ancient and under-appreciated kingdom.

My favourite thing about Tutankhamun is that he was a nobody. He was an in-bred, temporary, puppet Pharaoh who couldn’t walk without a walking stick, likely due to polio. He won no battles, he built no temples, and when he died almost all mention of him was erased. His tomb in the Valley of the Kings is tiny when compared to other ones; but it was full, and that changed everything.

So it’s true what people say about material wealth, you can’t take it with you. However, it can make you a worldwide superstar thousands of years after your death and cause a global resurgence of interest in your life and country.

The famous funeral mask was not there, it’s not going to leave Egypt. As soon as the King Tut museum is completed in Cairo most of the artifacts will live there forever, so I was very lucky to see these while I could and I look forward to seeing them again when I eventually go.

We then caught the tube to Southbank and after killing a few hours in a pub, headed to the Globe for their Christmas show. I loved it! It was that perfect level of self-acknowledged cheesiness that Brits do so well: the villain sprayed Snowdrop, the winter fairy with branded ‘Puck Off’ anti-fairy spray, the long-lost Shakespearian ‘identical twins’ were played by a 4’11’’ Danish woman and a 6ft tall Indian man, and it had all the no budget special effects that one could hope for. The Christmas carols were sung joyously and loudly, even if certain singers were slightly off-key, and we made a Christmas chain during the intermission.

We sang our adapted Shakespearian version of the Twelve Days of Christmas including:

5 golden crowns

4 feuding families

3 witches

2 twins unite

and a bear to pursue us off staaaaaggeeeee

Once the fairy was able to get her magic back, snow magically started falling from the sky! I promptly forgot that the ‘snow’ was actually clumpy soap bubbles and, on instinct, stuck out my tongue to catch some. A very distasteful mistake.

For the rest of our holiday, we spent our time at Ruth and Trevor’s, Tom’s parents.

We had a very lazy holiday, watching Lion of Winter, The Vikings, Underground 6, The whole Witcher season, Blackadder, a Muppet’s Christmas Carol, and various other tidbits. I also finally had some time do to a bit of reading, finishing my copy of Tolkien’s translation of Sigurd and Gudrun, which was beautiful. Most days it was unnecessary to change out of pjs.

The Robinsons have a lovely tradition where the family opens all the cards from each other and reads the thoughtful notes and poems that they write each other on Christmas Eve. It was strange having to actually wait for Christmas morning since my family always opens everything the night before, either because that’s the Germanic tradition or because mom and dad didn’t want to be awoken early in the morning, I’ll never know.

I was able to stay up very late and Skype with the family for a while. Rachael and Chris had just driven in from Kelowna and the holiday pandemonium was in full swing. They paused the dinner prep so I could watch them open my presents to them; a series of photo books with images from our trip to Iceland. My webcam photos aren’t quite as nice as my usual ones but they’ll have to do. It’s always hard being so far away from home, and it’s all the more apparent during the holidays, especially every time “I’ll be Home for Christmas” starts playing. I’m so thankful that I’m still able to call and talk to them so much and that I know I have their love and support even with an ocean between us.

Christmas Morning!!!!

We all gathered around the Christmas tree and began dismembering the wrapping on our presents. I gave Katya and Tom tickets so we’ll be seeing more Globe shows and musicals in the New Year and I received a lovely Viking hoard of re-enactment kit, Tolkien books, and other bits and bobs.

Tom had gotten a lot of games for his birthday so we spent a lot time playing Exploding Kittens (I won), Gloom (won that too) and Kingsburg (won the second time around).

We’d occasionally interrupt our lounging with a traditional English walk. But these can fast become swims if you don’t heed the warning and decide to go walking in a place called Wash Meadows. We found ourselves sliding through chocolate-frosting mud and our path lead straight into a river that wasn’t there before. We did make a solid effort, walking past cows and medieval manor houses, but when our adventure was cut short we sought shelter in a stone pub next to a roaring fire.