Sleep, Churchill, and the Bird and Baby

After another trying night with no sleep, we headed out on our first Tuesday day trip. It seems that the students in the flat above ours want to party all night and try to attend classes during the day. Most nights I have managed to go to sleep in spite of the noise but not last night. I might also add that Ian has heard an entirely different vocabulary than he is used to. I just hope he doesn't ask someone back in Searcy what some of those words mean. I've already had to explain about "strip poker". Anyway, when the alarm went off, we staggered up and prepared to head to Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Fortunately, we had a tour guide there who gave an excellent tour. I told her afterwards that it was the best tour of Blenheim that we have had and I so appreciate her attitude as she escorted a group of American college students and a 10 year old through. Ian was fascinated by the collection of lead soldiers which Churchill also admired as a child.

From Blenheim, we headed to Oxford. Of course, since I was giving the tour, it poured down rain. It has gotten to be a joke that I will try to escort the students through these towns in the pouring rain. We saw the usual Oxford sites, but I tried to include all the C. S. Lewis sites I could come up with. I especially enjoyed finding The Eagle and Child ( locally known as "the Bird and Baby" which I have always missed before. This is the pub where Lewis, Tolkien, and others formed The Inklings and discussed their works. The Lord of the Rings as well as The Chronicles of Narnia were partially developed and discussed here. It is on the main road into Oxford and we have driven by it every time but I never noticed it before.

I plan to get to bed early tonight with a big dose of Simply Sleep so that I can survive tomorrow without falling asleep as I'm talking. If they wake me up in spite of the drugs, I will go upstairs in my drug induced state and see if I can get some quite. Of course, they will probable beat me up and roll me down all 99 flights of stairs.