Tupperweather

So after two months of near constant heat and humidity, Washington has finally decided to behave itself and has produced a day of overcast, dry mid-20s bliss. The kind of day where the grey in the sky improves the colours of everything else, rather than washing it out and making it dark all around. I was given this day to walk 4.6 miles around the city on a tour of some of its historic residences, and despite the realisation in the evening that it was also the anniversary of the burning of Washington- oh wait, tangent time!

Hells yes. Although this picture is terribly inaccurate, both historically and geographically. Then again, given that the portion of the world who even remember the war are completely misguided as to who actually did the burning (note especially the presence of Tony Blair 3 minutes into that video... fuck the what guys) so the presence of men in boats and the British burning the Frigate Colombia aren't exactly a big deal, relatively speaking.

Also let us not forget that the national dish of said portion of the world appears to be cheesy chips. 'nuff said.

Anyway, what was I talking about. Oh, yes, I got a solo field trip day to see some historic houses, which should have been postponed to a non-historically-important anniversary but never mind, there's always tomorrow (which I hereby declare to be "British-running-away-with-their-tail-between-their-legs-because-a-hurricane-terrified-them-off" day, unless you can think of anything catchier). This meant I spent a lot of my day playing Simcity 4 wandering the gloriously beautiful neighbourhoods of Georgetown in my boots and a nice top, enjoying the complete lack of sweat forming anywhere on my body (I did also play Simcity 4 a bit but shhhh! I also toured 3 historical locations, walked 4 and a half miles and read 40 pages of a grown-up novel so *justified*).

Where did I go? Well, first up, Tudor Place, from where Mrs William Thornton watched the Capitol go up in flames (she was at the window just to the left of the pretty column thingy):

This is about the right weather, too. Like I say, tupperweather (I can't remember who initially coined that phrase but by golly I am going to use it so often now). That's the weather you would get if you were enclosed in a Tupperware container, for the uninitiated. And no, Americonians, I don't care if you don't call it Tupperware. Look it up if you're not sure what I'm talking about. You're on the internet for crying out loud.

Erm yes, Tudor place. I went on a house tour with a lovely guide, a nice lady and another lady who despite being nice was also everything that gives Americans a bad name in international tourist circles. Gushing over any tiny little thing that George Washington touched is bad enough, but must you do it whilst asking stupid questions and occasionally even contradicting the tour guide? And also we don't really care if you had that particular kind of sink in your 1950s New York home. It's a farmhouse sink, my parents still have one at home and it's not noteworthy. Pipe down.

Another interesting fact about Tudor place: for a very long time, its owner was an American lady who had the distinction of being named Britannia Wellington Peter by her parents (one of whom was George Washington's granddaughter, hence all the Washington paraphernalia in the house). Given that she was born in 1815, that must have been quite a fun name to go around with for 96-odd years. She had sisters called Colombia and America too. Fun times.

Enough nonsense about that place. I also went to Dumbarton Oaks (not Dumbarton House which I should have gone to, really) which was like a very small boring version of the British museum with a load of old stuff in it and also I sassed the security guard and got away with it.

Then I went on a walk to OCTAGON HOUSE! The most badass place that you have never heard of.

(Incidentally, all this stealing pictures off Wikimedia commons and then having to resize them in the HTML is working wonders for my division skillz.)

The most exciting thing about Octagon house, according to anything you will ever read about it, is that ZOMG IT'S NOT ACTUALLY AN OCTAGON. It's built on a kinda triangular lot, and they reckon it's called Octagon House because blah blah circular room building it's all very yawn.

More interesting things about Octagon House:

- Designed by Dr. William Thornton- as was Tudor Place and, for a while, the Capitol (until that whole burning thing came along). He liked doing architecture in his spare time, because hell, who doesn't? It was his wife who watched the burning up above (and that is historically interesting because she wrote a diary about it, by the way)

- Lived in by some mates of Washington who bought into the whole "THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST CITY EVER" thing (for most of the 19th century it was actually a godforsaken malarial swamp; opinions are divided as to whether it's improved since then. It was gonna be a big industrial centre with its own CANAL but then oops railways guess that thing you sunk millions into building ain't gonna bring in that much business after all)

- NOT REALLY AN OCTAGON oh wait yawn

- The guided tour would like you to believe that it got saved from burning because the owner moved the French ambassador in for the duration of the British occupation (24 hours); this was during Napoleon's first exile so the British had no interest in irritating the French by torching their representative. Actually the British only burned one privately owned building and that was the one that the American militia were shooting them from and thus reasonably justified in the grand scheme of things. They were specifically told not to burn or loot private stuff, so it's really no mystery at all why this completely private building survived, Frenchy or no.

- After the presidential mansion got a bit singed, Madison and his charming wife came and hung out here for a bit. This is where the Treaty of Ghent got signed, which ended that all important war of 1812 for good.

- Now the architectural college have taken it on and thus a lot of the guided tour (one of these MP3 do it yourself things) is talk about how wonderfully efficient and ventilated the house is and how thoughtful Dr Thornton must have been when designing it. Which I guess must be very interesting, if you are an architecture student. Just like the fact that it's NOT REALLY A- oh whatever.

What else? Oh yes. TEAISM. Which is my new second home and which I will miss terribly when I leave Washington. I went to a different one to usual, which was less characterful but smelled better and gave me a nice big mug to drink my tea out of instead of the teeny tiny ones that I get at Dupont circle. Also their Jasmine tea is epic as I discovered today.

Hasn't this been a good entry? I shan't spoil it by talking about the weekend and the people who left. I have retired from the social sphere of the house now, which is sort of sad I guess but I'm feeling way more relaxed at the moment than I have in a long time. I can identify the cause pretty well but again NOT RUINING THIS.