Up in Ontario

London

Over at So Misguided the Duck has a full rubdown of our adventures in London thus far.

Today we toured as tourists do, on the top of a double-decker bus, tour guide blaring on the microphone, our heads swivelling from side to side as we passed through the narrow streets. The city is like a Disneyworld of monuments, statues and memorials. Everywhere you look something is old and noteworthy. So much in such a small place.

Tomorrow we're off to more museums, perhaps a gallery or two, and more places that places in North America are named after. We're staying at the Victory Services Club, a lovely building in Marble Arch where they used to hang the criminals up until about a hundred years ago. A plaque to the Tyburn Tree sits in the cobbles around the corner from our door. 28 criminals could be hung at one time.

When they hung they didn't die immediately, the rope didn't break their necks, and they could be left gurgling and suffocating for up to an hour before expiring. Family and friends were invited to come to their execution to grab onto them and shorten their misery, hence the phrase, pulling your leg. Somehow the meaning's changed.

If we're lucky there'll be Moore, Roger Moore, later.