GlobeToddles

Arguably that should really be the title of this whole blog, eh? Although here I'm specifically referring to this, my final Boston post: after the previous one which interested the history buffs this post is all about the fun stuff we did in Boston, and there are more photos of the kids, so it's a nice lighthearted snapshot for you all. Enjoy. Harvard, MIT - the images conjured up are of deeply studious environments, with a weighty seriousness quietly but undeniably present on the campuses. Well, nobody batted an eyelid when Master H enjoyed doing big jumps off some handy rocks in front of the iconic MIT Great Dome building (his new favourite hobby; stone-throwing has taken a bit of a back seat this year due to a reduction in lake visits). Famous scientists' names adorn the perimeter walls that flank the dome building, so it was somewhat amusing to think that giants such as Faraday and Newton were overlooking two tiny people happily chasing each other and pic...

That was the title of one the books on our host's shelf, along with "The History of Coffee" and "Rwandan Women". I enjoyed a few brief sojourns with the latter two, but then the "Heroes Are My Weakness" title caught my attention. Which heroes? Why is it "weakness" to be captivated by them? Surely that's one of their wonderful side effects: people hold heroes up as great examples of humanity, and aspire to be like them? Upon closer inspection, the book was rather disappointingly a romantic fiction novel, but the title still plays on my mind. Heroes are my  weakness indeed. And Boston, I was beginning to realise, is full of them. I was starting to really like this place. In chronological order, first we delved into historical Boston we learned about the brave souls who set up home in this, a foreign land, in a desperate plight for a better life. The Mayflower brought the first wave of pilgrims in 1620 from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, ...

I always thought those were the lyrics. In my head this poor girl (I'm more familiar with the Kirsty MacColl version of " A New England " than Billy Bragg's original) was wandering around North America trying to find an elusive area of land, fervently explaining to each passer-by whom she asked for directions that she most definitely did not have a political agenda. As I sit in our Boston Airbnb which is owned by a political adviser for the Democrat party, having spent the afternoon at the JFK Presidential Library, the day before walking around Lexington and Concord where the American Revolutionary War began, and a few days prior to that in Plymouth where the Mayflower landed and the Pilgrims built themselves a new life away from (Old) England, I'm not surprised they questioned her: it seems Massachusetts is all about people who want to change the world. Hold up, I hear you say: you're in Boston now? Yes. After a few months in the UK we've resumed our...