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outings london

A Medieval visit to London

Yesterday, a friend and I went to visit The Charterhouse in London. I've been several times, but she'd never been, so it was fun to go back again.

The Charterhouse's history goes back to 1348 when the site was used as an emergency cemetery for plague victims in London. The 'Black Death' killed 60% of the London population, and a Chapel was built on the site for mourners to pray for the victims' souls. Following this, a Carthusian monastery (known as a Charterhouse) was built nearby in 1371 and thrived for many years.

In 1545, following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII (which led to the death of the monks and the seizing of the land by the Crown), a Tudor manor house was built using some parts of the old monastery. You can just see some of the original stones above the bench in the frieze at the base of the building if you click the photo.

In 1611, Thomas Sutton, a wealthy landowner, bought the site and turned it into a charitable institution which included a school for 'poor' boys and almshouse accommodation for 80 impoverished 'poor Brothers'. Today, the school has relocated, but it is still home to 43 people who are given free accommodation if they meet certain criteria. This is still fully funded by the charity Sutton set up and is maintained by Governors (including King Charles II).

More under the cut with photos.
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The criteria for becoming a Brother at The Charterhouse in 1611 - you would have to be “either decrepit or old captaynes either at sea or at land, maimed or disabled soldiers, merchants fallen on hard times, those ruined by shipwreck or other calamity”. It was originally a Faith-based charity.

Today the criteria are: you must be single, and over 60 years old; in financial, housing or social need and have no significant debts. You must be able to live independently, be keen to contribute to a community and have the right to live in the UK.

I'd love to live there, but there are a couple of criteria I don't meet! LOL!

It was a fascinating tour, and even though I've been before, I learned some new things, which is always good!

Current Mood: pensive

The Friday Five for 4 July 2025

This week's questions were suggested by

lord_azurewave.

1. Who is your best friend?

2. Why did you become friends?

3. How did you meet?

4. Why have you stayed friends?

5. How long (realistically) do you think you'll be friends?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**

Weather's cooled down a bit, that's nice

Moonpie's foot looks better, we didn't end up having to take her for an x-ray at all.

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Bleeding

Ugh

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A Song on the End of the World by Czeslaw Milosz

On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.

On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.

And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.

Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he’s much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
There will be no other end of the world,
There will be no other end of the world.

Warsaw, 1944

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Link

Entry tags:

meme

meme

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(no subject)

New computer is now up and running. I am just about finished moving in, I think.

I mentioned that because my current monitor is really old, an adaptor was necessary to deal with obsolete cables, but that Husband could just pick one up as click and collect and the whole process was only delayed by a few hours while waiting for the shop to open.

Turns out that wasn't the last of our problems! This old monitor was constructed in such a way that the sockets are in a little cavity on the back, probably so that there wouldn't be anything sticking out and looking unseemly or something. What nobody had foreseen, however, was that cable + adaptor was too tall for said cavity!

Creative solution: Having first determined to his satisfaction that all the electronic bits were elsewhere and the bottom edge of the cavity was indeed just plastic, Husband proceeded (with permission) to make a hole in it.

It was a nothing to lose situation, really. Alternative to it not working was to get a new monitor. Alternative to not trying was also get a new monitor. So you might as well try, right?

Result: Works fine and you can't see it.

Entry tags:

140 in 1400

Goal Checking

Finished This Month

Finish reading 3 books with a Jewish protagonist

Progress This Month

Exercise every day in 2025
Weight lift every day of 2025
Brush teeth 360 times in 2025
Shower weekly 2025
Go to fighter practice 12 times in 2025
Art Every Day 2025
Paint 12 times in 2025
Write in Spanish every day of 2025
Write in Russian every week of 2025
Finish my memoirs
Write 300k words in 2025
Write weekly 2025
Work through a book of writing exercises
Read 2 pages of Spanish every day 2025
Read 12 new fiction titles 2025
Clean 2 minutes per weekday 2025
Clean 10 minutes per week 2025
Cook 12 times 2025
Watch a video in Spanish every week 2025
Watch a video in Russian every week 2025
Read 3 science textbooks
Read 3 social science textbooks
Read 3 history textbooks
Work through 3 math textbooks
Read 12 new nonfiction titles 2025

Rebuilding journal search again

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

Speaking of fictional lawfirms, we finished new Matlock

( Season finale spoiler )

During the Christmas episode we saw the firm's acapella group, which might have just been an excuse to highlight one character's amazing singing voice. Anyway, they were singing White Winter Hymnal, and I'm going to just post two quick videos, the original version and a different acapella cover:

Watch on YouTube

(Those lyrics can't be entirely right - surely the pack is swaddled in their coats, not swallowed?)

Anyway, you'll notice that in the first one they weirdly pronounce "the" with a "long e" (the vowel in pee) before the words "white snow". Does that strike anybody else as a weird place to do that?

Crossover time!

I was looking up fictional law firm names and you know how Angel has the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart? Apparently NCIS has Wolfram, Hart and Donowitz. No word on if they're evil. Are they evil?

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lj idol

LJ Idol Prompt 2: If it's any consolation

“If it’s any consolation,...”

I ignore the rest of the sentence, because it never is a consolation. It’s always a comparative, a distraction, a reassurance.

I don’t care if his loss was ‘worse’. I don’t care if there is an event to take my mind off it. I don’t care that you feel sorry for me.

I’m in pain. I want to wallow in it. I’m not ready for your sympathy, your understanding, your attempt to divert my attention.

I’ve lost a lot in my time on earth. Some things are missed but replaceable, while others are an ongoing ache. Not constant; humanity isn’t made for constant pain. I’ve laughed at more than my share of funerals because life is absurd. I laughed when the car alarm on the pall bearer’s car went off as we were filing out of the funeral home; I laughed when the minister asked about music for my utterly tone-deaf grandmother. I laughed when my father put on two different shoes for a funeral and didn’t realize it until we arrived. I laughed when the minister sounded like a monster truck announcer.

At first, the laughter hurts as much as the tears. ‘This is the first thing I’ve laughed at I can’t share with her.’ The guilt of continuing is as painful as the loss itself. But even on the day of the funeral, you find pleasure in the sandwiches and the platters of squares. You find peace in the people around you, the place where you’ve stood awkwardly facing their losses with them.

Because humanity is not made for constant pain. Humanity is not made for constant joy. Humanity’s very inconstancy is what helps us survive and helps us progress. It helps us deal with the losses and the joys to come.

This pain will be overshadowed by other losses, other pains, other joys and other sorrows. Not forgotten, but churned together with the vast range of emotions that make up a human life.

So do not be consoled. Wallow in the pain, shiver through the joys. Remember it. Remember those you love and miss, and enjoy those you love and have. Speak of your miseries and your triumphs.

And when those around you suffer a loss, do not console. There is no comfort to be had in these moments. Acknowledge the pain, as you will acknowledge future joys.

(no subject)

So I was keeping an eye on the new super-mouse for when it would be in stock. It was estimated to be in stock by the 30th, but that date has been moving around quite a bit, so I was checking it daily.

Two days ago, it was in stock. They had 25 of them. I ordered one immediately. (Parcel tracking info says I can expect it tomorrow.)

Because I was curious, I checked it again today. All gone. Not just 'out of stock, expecting more at this date' gone. It's gone!

Good thing I jumped on it as soon as I had the opportunity, because clearly it wasn't just me.

In other quite closely related news, the new computer is ready for me to move into, except for the tiny detail of my monitor being old and it turned out that an adapter was necessary because the cables are obsolete. Luckily Husband was able to source one as click and collect which he has just gone to pick up, and it's a very cheap item as well. Delayed the process by a few hours, though.

I do have plans to upgrade the monitor as well, but I don't want to do so yet. Come winter when we will likely begin the process of redecorating my room, there is also going to be some changes to the furniture, which means I might have room for a 2 monitor situation. I see little need to start replacing it until we know whether this is in fact the case, because the only thing wrong with the current one is a tendency to sometimes turn itself off completely instead of remaining on standby. This is mysterious and slightly inconvenient, but hardly a huge problem. Especially considering it's been in daily use for 15 years.

Been watching new Matlock with Jenn

The set and costume designers heard about blue-and-orange color schemes and just decided to run with it. I swear, they bought out everything blue in the store. Even the post-its are blue! And what isn't blue or teal is orange, or tan, or gold.

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acelightning has passed away

There don't appear to be details on flowers etc. yet.

JFC

How is it that we literally are talking on the internet, we have access to all the information, and people are still saying whatever bullshit they made up in their heads instead of taking a minute, a second even, to ask themselves "Wait! Is this even true?"

On a happier note, the newest episode of The Strange Case of the Starship Iris answered a question I thought we'd never get answered, which is "How on earth did Brian get a price on his head from three different mafias?" and - wow, beware the quiet ones, I guess.

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Welp, I've got way more tabs open than I can handle

And don't even ask me about my email!

Also: Comicsrss got a cease and desist from Gocomics, so now all my gocomics feeds are borked. I should see if I can find those comics hosted somewhere else and get their RSS feeds, but ugh.

Also also: What to know about the COVID variant that may cause ‘razor blade’ sore throats

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The Friday Five for 27 June 2025

This week's questions were suggested by

bindyree.

1. Who was your favorite teacher?

2. Why was that teacher so special?

3. Do you think teachers get paid enough?

4. Do you have a favorite year of school?

5. If you could travel back in time and tell yourself something now that would have helped you get through school, what would you say?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

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Link

My mother's favorite saint probably was St. Fiacre

He's the patron saint of gardeners, and also taxi drivers (unofficially). See, an early and popular cab stand was at Hôtel de Saint Fiacre in Paris, and the carriages themselves began to be called fiacres, and it just spiraled from there.

What makes this even stranger is that he's an Irish saint.

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