Laurel's adventures... and 3 amazing women.

Last week was packed full of tropical illnesses and lab work - it was a blur.  But a good blur. One night was spent with an old friend from childhood who lives in London and works for Burberry.  He took me to a beautiful private club for dinner and we laughed as we reminisced about middle school years.  (I usually try to forget middle school.)  Later in the week,  I went with a classmate to an exhibit called Death: A Self-Portrait which was very good.  The various works were from a collection in the US, and illustrated various cultural perspectives on death.

On Saturday, Clay headed out to go to Manchester for a football game (see his post next).  I travelled to meet the first of three great women.  Rose Marie Miller is a friend of a friend, and he suggested I look her up.  We met at Harrow on the Hill, a charming little town near Wembley stadium.  The Harrow School has been there for a very long time, and it was the school where Winston Churchill attended.  The photo below is the old gymnasium.

The church on the hill dates back over 900 years and it was beautiful. Lord Byron attended there and his daughter is buried in the courtyard... see pic.   Anne Marie is a wonderful 88 year old woman who is still active as a missionary.  I have a new role model for active aging.  She can't conceive of retiring..." what would I do?"

Rachel then came down from Oxford to spend the evening with me and we had a good time getting our hair cut, going to dinner and then going to Mathilda the musical.  That Roald Dahl story was one of her favorites of childhood - and the musical was great.  It was her 20th birthday weekend and I was very thankful to be able to spend it with her.  She was the second of the 3 amazing women.  I am really proud of her, and she is loving her time at Oxford.  We went to church on Sunday to hear Baroness Caroline Cox - who started a large humanitarian charity organization to help "forgotten and persecuted people".  She spoke about the Karen people of Burma/Myanmar, as well as the Southern Sudanese and the Christians in Northern Nigeria who are targeting for church and school bombings by radical Islamists who are trying to drive them from their homes.  She is doing amazing work and she too was a model for "anti-retirement" and was the third of the amazing women of the weekend.  This coming week brings the full complement of classes, a focus on TB and some more parasitic diseases... the big news is that Steve and Clay's wife Jinny will be coming on Thursday for a long weekend visit.  We have a lot of fun planned and NO studying.