houses of parliament and camden market

We got up early this morning (a huge accomplishment since it's Saturday) and took a tour of the Houses of Parliament.  That was really interesting, but following traditional London fashion, they didn't allow pictures.  So instead you get a picture of my personal favorite London icon, Big Ben, which is just outside.  What really struck me about the tour is that England is so bound (for better or worse) to traditions.  The Parliament is separated into two houses -- The House of Lords and the House of Commons.  They House of Lords section of the building is lavishly decorated in red and gold and ornate tapestries and velvet.  The House of Commons side is much simpler (shockingly so) and is decorated in green.  The thought behind this is that hundreds of years ago, red was an expensive dye and green was a cheap one.  They carry the traditions to this day.  The House of Lords side has huge frescoes and thrones and the House of Commons side is plain stone.  It seems to me that in more modern times England may have wanted to push for a little equality, but I guess not.  They also observe tons of archaic ceremonies each year.  I can't remember very many of the examples they told us, but one is that every year, the Queen's messenger knocks on the door to the House of Commons with a staff.  They take quite a while to answer, and when they finally do and he tells them that the Queen is calling them, they take their sweet time to head over, leaving two by two and laughing and joking and carrying on the whole way.  It's supposedly a symbol that Parliament will do what it wants when it wants, regardless of the Queen's will (and the staff the messenger uses has actually ruined the wood on the part of the door that he bangs on).

Another example: in the House of Commons, the MPs vote by leaving the debate room and going into a "yea" hall or a "no" hall.  In this hall, they have eight minutes to continue to a desk where they give their name and cast their vote.  However, they must vote this way, so if they're off to lunch or something, they receive a text message telling them they have eight minutes to get back and cast their vote.  Several of the restaurants and pubs around Parliament even have bells so they can announce that voting is open.  I'd really like to see a voting day because I can only imagine guys dressed in suits running crazily back to the House to cast their vote before time's up.  I can understand that England has a lot of tradition, but I guess maybe because I'm American and we haven't had as many years to develop our traditions, some of the things they do seem inefficient and archaic to me.  It makes me wonder what the role of tradition should be: how much should be left to tradition and how much should be modernized?

After our tour, we headed to Camden Market.  I love this market.  It's HUGE.  Vendors sell every kind of food known to man and it's delicious (the picture up there is of "Bang Bang Chicken."  I have no idea what that actually is, but some Asian guy sold it to me and it was heavenly).  We even found a stand that sells freshly-squeezed orange juice.  I don't love orange juice normally but freshly-squeezed is just so good that I had to buy some.  There are carts selling jewelry, clothes, ethnic items, records, vintage prints and clothes . . . basically anything you could imagine.  I wish you all could see it because it's so much fun.  I could come back every single day just to explore it and try new things.  It's such a great way to spend a Saturday.