Chiswick House Its gardens, Dogs' and dog lovers' paradise. Gateway designed by Inigo Jones There was a large painting after Guido Reni, called Liberality and Modesty. No photo was allowed snd I do not have the image. It was acquired by fi…

The postal museum was featured in BBC breakfast news. They talked about the mail rail! It is no longer used, unfortunately, but the service was working until very recent past, till 2003. To avoid the traffic jam and deliver the mail quickl…

Lady S has 'Dragon' in her mind. It is anxiety. She is always worried. Her husband always offers some causes as he is not a healthy man. When he is better, Dragon heads for her son. The son was accidentally there, paying a visit to the par…

Tights make all the difference. Someone was coughing downstairs today, but zi am OK today. My remedy yesterday and today: 2 oranges in the evening and one before breakfast, のどヌールspray, lots of water, and long sleeve shirt and tights. …

Warm, cold, cold, cold... The humanities 1 in the evening is OK but in manuscript room, warm in the morning and cold in the afternoon. I felt discomfort in the stomach, probably because of the low temprature, which is very uncommon with me…

Amazingly, I never had a wet morning before this. There were occasional showers, but I used my umbrella only once when I came back from the library last Saturday. Every morning except today the sky was blue and it was sunny. How lucky. But…

A royal historian, called Kate Williams, is talking about Duke and Duchess of Cambridge family's visit to Poland and Germany. Too suitable a name! I should have chosen the sunny Sundays, that is, the preceeding three Sundays, instead of th…

To traverl light, we have to choose which clothes are suitable and helpful. One of the mistakes I made is 3/4 sleeve shirts. They pretend they are versatile and useful, but it is a wrong idea. In the plane I wished I had long sleeves. On w…

The library closes at 17:00 on Fridays; it meams we have to finish reading at about half past four. Today's papers were on the Navy and the Americans, and family records, including extracts from the parish register and from books. And an e…

Repeating the routine.

When LS had some pain in her breast, a surgeon recommended her to go to Barege in the region of the Pyrenees to have douche. There was a reexaminatiom and in the end she did not go, but it seems the remedy there was well- known. Avocado, Q…

Another in a new routine. After five at M & S I bought a protein rich salad which has chicken, avocado, mustard-seed like grain and spinach. It was delicious and just the size I want. Yesterday's one was too big and I got tired of it half …

A new routine: staying in the library after the manuscript room is closed prior to 17:00. Going out to buy someyhing to eat and reading in the humanities room till 20:00 or we are encouraged to get ready and leave. This is contrived to avo…

Birdwatching in the British Museum. In the small column in the Sunday Times Konta's nationality is discussed. She was born in Australia to Hungarian parents, it says. And it declares she was definitely British until about teatime on Thursd…

Happy to be simple minded. Tea in a pot, bacon and an egg with tomato have encouraged me. I miss the ham, pastrami, yoghurt, Greek yoghurt and fruit cocktail breakfast, but it is OK. Their croissant was excellent as well. It was always war…

Today in the morning I checked out and moved to another accommodation. The reason why I split my stay is a mystery; I thought I could not afford, or it was not possible to book so long a stay in one accommodation. I found myself lucky toda…

Howe - Spencer correspondence continued Something very interesting about sociability and the navy. After one week and a half, I am doing very well with the manuscripts. It takes days before things go well.

Howe - Spencer correspondence They report health and illness of their family. When they are in good health, their account is 'favourable'. When they travel all right, their journey is 'prosperous'. Howe also talks about whose baby was born…

6 o'clock news has moved to BBC2 because a big story is now brewing here at Wimbledon. Sue Barker's announcement when Konta was was winning the second set tie break to go on to the final set.

I went to QML for the first time since 1997. A bridge over the road from Mile End station to the campus; new buildings along the road; new buildings across the road; Starbucks, Illys, Sainsbury's and other new shops along the road. Every t…

Eating boiled eggs with a spoon seemed unpractical and somewhat affected but it turned out to be fine. I wonder if this way is also good with Japanese eggs as I suspect they are different. Why the British egghusks can be easily peeled with…

One of the sheets of letters among nearly 200 was in a very bad condition because of mildew. I have never seen any other letters so badly affected. I wondered if I should report this to the librarian. At 16:40 we were asked to return the m…

jet lag free day A cup of caffe latte at 14:00 does the magic of making daytime proper daytime.

Patisserie Deux Amis I went out to have coffee at Deux Amis. It worked. Before thinking about the effect, I should say their cafe latte is superb as expected. And it was nice to be there. Whenever I am in London, I visit Deux Amis and walk…

BBC seems to be just for Wimbledon. Among the male, or rather, gentlemen, players there are familiar names, but I did not know the ladies defending champion. Konta and Kvitova are featured equally in the special programmes and news feature…

Following the day 1 pattern. The differences: not taking coffee at the hotel breakfast, having rye bread instead of croissant, taking a seat in the photo permitted section instead of the unbound papers section, and buying nectarines on my …

This was not taken today but yesterday. At the Tate member room they serve interesting salad. It includes something hot and spicy and with lots of watermelon pieces. Delicious. These are not for today, either. I just could not add them to …

Giacometti exhibition It is a sunny Sunday. Good for coming to the riverside gallery. I love Giacometti's lean figures which I saw in the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in Venice for the first time in 1990s. I now know it is only a part of his w…

K came all the way from Sapporo to see me off at Haneda. She is so kind and affectionate. I saw a super cyclist on the plane. He looked just like a serious cyclist with a streamline helmet; yes, he wore the helmet at least hen we were look…