Two weeks in London: Days 1 and 2

Day 1

Came down to the Barbican with a car load on Friday.  So much stuff that we had to borrow the porter's blue bin on wheels to get it all up to the flat!  Unfortunately the 6 chairs that we bought didn't fit in the blue bin so Peter had to make two separate journeys to get them up.   They look perfect with the original 60s teak wall units that we inherited with the flat.

Fritz Hansen 'hammer' chair

The dining area

At the start of the fortnight...

My poor geraniums hadn't had any water for several weeks and in all that heat had given up flowering.  A nice show of dead flower heads to remove, much watering and now waiting to see if they will fight back during the two weeks we are here. 

Day 2
Sainsbury's delivering this morning after much telephoning from the driver.  a) I'm stuck in the West End and may be a bit late.  b) I can't find you, so many roads are closed.   c) I've found you but the porter isn't in the lodge and I can't get in!  Still it was great to stock up on essentials and leave trips to Waitrose on foot for the lighter luxuries!   Actually we went to Waitrose in the afternoon and bought 4 bottles of wine which we had to carry back so self-congratulations were a little premature.

Abe

Ask a 2 year old to smile and this is what you get!

Around noon Eliot came with the boys, both fast asleep in the back of the Volvo.  Apart from coming to see us and removing the boys from the house while some decorating was going on, Eliot was also swapping cars with us so that he takes a car to France with working air conditioning and a better guarantee of road worthiness!  We get his old Volvo!  The boys woke up to find themselves strapped in their car seats but on the ground in a car park.  They just smiled - very adaptable!  We all had lunch and 'visited' until it was time for them to go to a party. Saul's talking is coming on by leaps and bounds and Abe was his usual chatty self.  He talked about the 'castle' we had in Edinburgh for my birthday.  He was obviously taken with it!

In the evening we hopped on a bus outside the Barbican which stopped at the National Theatre where we had tickets for an Alan Aykbourne play "A Small Family Business".  Great acting, clever

Waiting for the play to start

set and very funny.   It tells the ultimately sad story of a family business which goes from success to failure due to the increasing greed and dishonesty of the family members.  A son in law tries to rescue the business but his reforming zeal is gradually undermined and he comes to accept a deal involving drug trafficking.   Meanwhile his own daughter is sliding into addiction, but everyone is too busy making money to notice.  I know that doesn't sound amusing, but the writing was very clever and there were strong elements of farce.  The 'house' rotated to show the insides of two floors.  Caught a bus back immediately.  As it sailed across the Thames towards St. Paul's Cathedral I thought how wonderful London is and how lucky we are to be able to enjoy it.