Two weeks in London: Day 3

Day 3

A bit of a lie in (for one of us) and a generally lazy start to the day on account of the lashing rain outside and no desire to get soaked.  Apparently the remnants of hurricane Bertha were hitting the country.   We took the opportunity to give Peter a haircut!   By the time the rain stopped it was almost lunch time so we decided to eat at home and set out afterwards.

Two lemons waiting for a bus.  Very bad selfie!

We had forgotten about the bike ride round London taking place today and stood like lemons at a bus stop by St. Paul's Cathedral waiting for a bus that would go through to Trafalgar Square.  After a while it dawned on us that the buses were being diverted so we hopped on one for half the journey and walked the rest in the sunshine.   Just as we were nearing Trafalgar Square huge fat drops of rain started and almost immediately turned into a deluge.   We hopped into the entrace to a shop...and not one to waste an opportunity, I went in and bought a sweater!

At last we arrived at the National Gallery and made our way through the crowds (are all tourists art lovers, or did they have nowhere else to go in the bad weather?) to the 19th/20th century collections.  Very difficult to see anything in the crowds, but still got a glimpse of some great works.  We also went to see a special exhibition about architecture in art which opened our eyes to as aspect of Renaissance painting that we hadn't noticed before...and there was an excellent video about the use of architecture in painting, film and animation.  

Crowds in the gallery

The National Gallery

Nelson on his column watching for the next downpour

Entertainment outside the gallery

London is full of tourists enjoying themselves! 

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. 

Upton House

During the second world war my father was working for a bank in the City of London and a number of the accountants were sent to live and work at Upton House, Warwickshire, the country home of one of the bank's owners.   It was probably the first time my father had lived in the country and he told us stories about his time there, many of which he wrote up in his 'memoirs'.   It was an important time for him as he and my mother got married during his stay there and he moved out of Upton House to a bungalow nearby, their first home together.

Upton House from the front

Dad, second from the right

When Peter and I were on holiday in the area a couple of years ago, we visited Upton House and as they were asking for people's memories of the house,  I wrote a brief note about my father's connection.  A volunteer rang me and we had an enjoyable and long conversation and I sent her an extract from the memoirs.  They were delighted.  Recently I had a further request for any photographs which sent me digging around.  In addition to a couple of small blurred photos of my parents with their bikes which I had included in the memoirs, I also managed to find two more.  One of my father and his work mates outside a pub and another of my father standing in front of Upton House.

Dad in front of Upton House

Today I recieved a note from the Assistant House Manager thanking me for the photos.  In March they are opening an exhibition at the house called 'The Country House Bank' and my father's 'desk' will feature with a picture of my mother on it!  My father would have been very amused.   We are looking forward to an invitation to the opening. 

I've just given birth...

to my first courgette!!!!   Look at this baby!  More on the way.  I'd better put this one in the fridge to wait for another to make a meal.  

And now for something completely different - again!

Having just got back to normal after our trip to College Station, Texas, Peter announces that he is accepting the interim Director role at ICSU, the International Council for Science.  Well, that's not really a fair way of putting it.  He did discuss it with me when the initial approach was made and then there was a delay before we were sure it was going to come off.  But now we know!  And ICSU is in Paris!  So we will be decamping once more in October, this time for about 6 months.

The hunt is on for an apartment and I'm starting my internet searches to decide what, apart from shopping and cooking and going to museums and galleries and strolling through parks and polishing up my French, I'm going to do with myself.  This is the same challenge I faced in College Station, at least initially, and then people came to my rescue (notably my Wednesday adventure companion Carol) but we know that the French are more reserved when it comes to making new friends...we shall see.

One avenue for meeting people I have spotted is the British and Commonwealth Women's Association for ex-pats in Paris.  But they all look young and anyway, does it sound like me?  I've also located an English speaking book group, but again, they all look young. Might be something to fall back on if desperate.  In the meantime I think I'll Google 'ex-pat grannies in Paris' and see what I come up with!

DIY day

Saturday DIY!  We now have quite a collection of these orginal Fritz Hansen 1960s chairs and 4 more not in the picture.  Some we have had since we were married, purchased from Peter's father's Scandinavian furniture shop on Brixton Hill.   Others we have acquired.  The latest six came from Bedford, spotted by Eliot on Ebay, and for once they were sensibly priced.  We love these chairs and for some reason they have never been reproduced so they are getting hard to come by.    Today was the day to sort them all out, replace worn feet, rub out dirt and give them a dose of teak oil.  They've come up nicely.

Lunch out for Keith's birthday

Crab salad

Keith's birthday lunch at Roger Hickman's Restaurant
in Norwich is fast becoming a tradition! 

It was a bit difficult to photograph but this was the start of a delicious meal.  It's a crab salad with soft boiled quails eggs, samphire, marinated cucumber, toasted puffed rice and avocado.  Heaven!  Looking at the photograph I realise there's a nasturtium leaf on top and my plate was empty when it was taken away, so I ate that too!  It was preceded by an amuse bouche of pea and mint puree and followed by roasted sea trout with beetroot, Swiss chard and horseradish, which was followed in turn by strawberries with macadamia nuts, elderflower and clotted cream.  Oh, and the odd glass of wine.  And coffee...and chocolates.

Lunches like this feel so decadent, which of course they are.  The rest of the afternoon is a haze and there's no need to eat again in the evening.  Fortunately, they don't happen too often.  Just as well for my waistline and conscience.