The night England shook and other tales

I haven't written anything since a long time ago and I've had two weeks really intense in which I've done plenty of interesting things and also some others have happened including an earthquake! Step by step, starting by the beginning. I already told you how it went in Llantrisant and Woolwich. I hope to post photos soon... I promise I'm working on it; writting is not hard for me but editing photos, resizing, changing colours, contrast, erasing things... I'm lazier for all that stuff. After that week in Woolwich I was at the office. No big novelties except the big amount of work and the little time I have. It's not that they give me little time but I don't organize myself very well... That's something I definitely have to improve unless I want things to go really bad.

Well, let's get to the interesting stuff. I've been working last week at Hampton Court Palace. It's something like El Escorial in Spain or Versailles in France. That's to say the awesome mega-palace in which the typical king (Henry VIIIth in this case among others) had his residence. It's on the Tames' riverside and the king used to come from there to Oxford in his boat to go to the Christchurch College, that not only is the College where Oxford's Cathedral is located but also is famous because there lived the author of "Alice in Wonderland" (Lewis Carrol) and the girl who inspired the tale. In addition, the filmed some of the scenes of Harry Potter's movies. The work in Hampton Court was expected to take about a couple of days but it's taking longer actually. I'm alone with three workers who lifted the pavement from a small courtyard and I have to record what it's found below. Nothing was expected to be found but it's not like that and the thing is that I have plenty to do. The worst is that it's a long journey from Oxford and I'm getting fed up with so much travelling (if we had known the work was going to be that long, they'd have found accommodation for me). The best thing is that you don't work in a place like that every day. The palace is impressive and I hope to have some spare time to make a visit on my own. They made a card for me with my photo and name (and my second surname wrong, as usual) which gives me access to every places and I get a 50% discount in every tea-rooms and restaurants :o) I'm not posting any photo because if you do a search in internet you'll find many more and more beautiful (these for example).

Another interesting thing is that the night between last tuesday and wednesday there was a small earthquake in England and I felt it!!! Earthquakes are unthinkable in my home city. I was sleeping in my futon but I was having a bad night so I woke up. However, I wasn't very sure about what it was, I just thought I was dreaming. Then the ground shook a bit more and I thought to myself: I'd swear the house moved... But as I was sleeping bad, I thought it was just something with me. The morning after they told me that it was an earthquake. In fact, it hasn't been the first earthquake I have lived through because when I was in Japan (exactly in the same circumstances, lying on a futon) I noticed something similar but I wasn't sure whether it was or not. However, that was the same I felt the night of last tuesday and that's beyond question. It's been the strongest earthquake of the last 24 years in England and it happened at 1 a.m. measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale. The epicentre was located in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire and there weren't bad injuries except for a kid who got something broken after masonry crashed into his bedroom, but he'll survive.

And another very cool thing that has happened to me lately is that last saturday a friend came to visit me from Sheffield (she's there now). We had a very good time although she couldn't spend a long time here as she came in a trip organised by the University. We joined Marta and Liz, two colleagues from other departments. We were visiting the Oxford Castle (former jail), we had lunch in a typical pub and then we went to visit Christchurch. Finally, we had time enough to drink something at The Eagle and The Child, where Tolkien and other freak-stories authors used to meet. Once again I promise I'll post photos of everything when I spend some time at home, but as you can see I don't have time for anything now. I promise I'll focus in doing the blog a bit more visual keeping the "literary quality" at a good level.

And I finish telling you a couple of things that have a lot to do with today's date: a great new and a simple anecdote. The anecdote is that on 3rd March 2007 I came to Oxford, so I've spent already one year in the UK. Someone has congratulated me for the anniversary. One year is a long time... And the great new, to some extent unexpected until one week later, is that one of my sisters phoned me today, the one who was pregnant. And I say she was... hehe. Yes, my second nephew has born this evening!!!! His name is Endika (Henry in Basque language) and he has born without problems. This is great, I have two already. When I was talking to my sister I could hear him making some funny noises. I'm really keen to meet him! I'll be able to meet him in two weeks.

As you can see, I'm very well now. Despite the anxiety for the work, the rest is ok. There are thousands of smaller things I don't tell you not to do the entry too long, but they're all good. I'm expecting some new events for the next days but I'll give details later, ok? See you then.