Friday, April 23/2010

Packing up day. Down to Camden Town in the morning for last minute errands and packing in the afternoon. Dinner at The Garden Gate pub just off Pond St. near Hampstead Heath. It's busy, more because it's Friday than because it's St. George's Day. We have fisn and chips and a fish pie - quite nice with shrimp and smoked haddock - and bitter. A nice finale.

Would have been good to go to the concert with A and F, but packing takes precedence.

Thursday, April 22/2010

Walk up Haverstock Hill, which becomes Rosslyn Hill and then Hampstead High Street, full of little shops and cafes and bakeries. Then turn down towards the Heath and past Keats' house. It's only open afternoons and this is still moroning, but entrance is a bargain - £3 for concessions, which allows admission for a year.

Down to trafalgar Square in the afternoon. J sits in the warm sun - along with many others - in front of the National Gallery while I go into Canada House. They're staying open in the afternoon again and letting people make telephone calls so I call Dorothy to say we're flying back thorugh Calgary with a 3 hour stop, so she's going to come out to the airport.

Along Oxford Street. We stop at John Lewis to look at the Itouches and netbooks. More interesting, they're demonstrating a new 3-D tv. A small knot of people gathers and we put on the glasses. Quite impressive really. Forty inch screen for £1800 ($2700). But of course there's not really much to watch on 3-D yet. what we do buy, somewhat to our surprise, is 10 m of downproof cambric to line the duvet ticking, as we salvage the original feather duvet that Joe's mother brought with her from Germany. I've seen the material online but never live, so to speak. We come home to find a tall thin man accompanied by his dog, whom he introduces, rescuing a couple of fancy dress hats from the bins. He's a little abashed, but they were on the very top and scarcely dusty - one black top hat style and one gold sparkles. We have to agree that it would be a shame to waste them. In fact the next time we're out I'm pleased to see that the red sparkled one has been salvaged as well.

We meet Flora and Alexander at Rosslyn Hill Chapel - really walking distance from us, though we take the bus, as it's door to door. Alexander is delivering a fortepiano for a concert tomorrow evening, a beautiful instrument that he and J move in across the crunchy gravel on a small wooden dolly. The church itself is larger than it looks from the front - 19th century stone with stained glass windows - two of them by William Morris and Burne Jones. It's Unitarian but with strong evidence of Christian heritage.

The fortepiano delivered, and the young pianist, a Ukrainian girl, left practising, we head off to find a spot for dinner, stopping almost immediately when Alexander sees an Italian restaurant, Carluccio's, which has a famous chef. Chicken liver pate starter (or mushroom soup in A's case). A has calf's liver and the rest of us pasta - j with tomato sausage sauce and F and I with seafood. Nice Montepulciano as well. A good little bonus with our delayed flight, this chance to see A and F again.

Wednesday, April 21/2010

Canada House lets us use the computers and phone. They're actually nicer about it than we expected - providing coffee and biscuits and staying open to five instead of their usual 1 pm. J notifies the insurance (on Mastercard) which begins by claiming no knowledge of him....Actually most travellers have more problems than we do - they're paying much more for accommodation, can't cook where they are, and, in some cases, are running out of money or prescription drugs. There are stories about hotels tripling their prices.

Back to the throbbing life along Kilburn High Road. This time we try The Bell pub. Seafood platter (minorly upscale version of fish and chips) and other specials are 2 for £6 ($9 CAD/US). And nice. A pint of bitter each.

Tuesday, April 20/2010

Over to the National to queue for £10 theatre tickets, this time for Really Old, Like Forty-Five. We go to the matinee. It's at the Cottsloe, their more experimental theatre, which is a pity because the same day seats have a somewhat restricted view and the accoustics aren't as good as the other two theatres. The play takes p\a darkly comic look at the position of the elderly and it has its moments, but we'll go back to choosing plays by the playwright.

The daffodils are pretty well finished, as is the forsythia and most of the magnolias. The camelias as well. But there ae still more flowers coming along - mimosa still in bloom and lilacs and hyacinths as well as cherry and quince blossoms.

Dinner at Roses on Kilburn High Road. Kilburn High Road being our great neighbourhood discovery of the year. We're there for the Polish menu - and the perogies are amazingly good - enormous and bacon covered. The cafe is full of locals, cheap, good and large platesful, with most of the dishes £4 to £5 ($6-7.50)

Monday, April 19/2010

Over to the Welby in the morning with the news that we're not leaving today. Marty now back from her mother's funeral. She says it was a nightmare - from her mother having been given a year to live and dying 2 weeks later to having to deal with Spanish laws and language.

Then out to Jean's to use a secure internet and rebook. Get a flight for Saturday via Calgary. Also email VIA to cancel our train from Winnipeg. Air Canada's London phone line so full of crackle as to be pointless - and recorded message anyway.

Then back to pick up a day's groceries and pay for another five days at the bedsit. Meanwhile Alexander has texted to ask - very kindly - if we need somewhere to stay and if we'd like to go for a meal if we're here for longer. So call Flora, who repeats the invitation and we agree to a meal. A texts and suggests Wednesday or Thursday.

Very nice coq au vin for two courtesy of Waitrose's markdown corner (£1.49 instead of 7.99).

Sunday, April 18/2010

Should be our last day in England, but we wake to the news that the flight ban is now extended to 7 pm tonight. That's now 17 hours before our flight.

It's the Shanghai Grand Prix this morning so we watch with the Sunday Times spread out across the bed. In the afternoon we go down to the south bank. It's sunny and warm enough so we shed our jackets and enjoy the breeze in our shirtsleeves. The Globe Theatre is celebrating Shakespeare's birthday with free tours of the theatre and various activities on stage. We also find ourselves at a talk about Henry VIII (play not monarch), part of this season's repertoire. We've been here before but not for years and its a real delight seeing the stage even without a performance.

Stop at an internet cafe to check on our flight tomorrow. It's cancelled, so we'll have to see about rebooking, though it's hard to know when would be good.

Saturday, April 17/2010

The volcano is still erupting and the flight ban continues to be extended. So we go over to the Welby where one of the co-owners assures us there will be no problem extending our stay should our flight not go on Monday. In fact we're not the first to present the same problem. Ahead of us is a young man whose Air India fight to Toronto has already been cancelled who now appears to be paying a day at a time to extend his stay.

The day is sunny and warm and the sky, ironically considering the volcanic ash problem, is blue and cloudless. So we decide to go to see Dr. Johnson's house as we've always intended to and have a 2 for 1 voucher. It's jjuust off Fleet St. near Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub (rebuilt in 1666 after the Great Fire of London!) A four story house containing (despite some war-time damage to the garret) some original panelling and floorboards and quite a few paintings and engravings of Johnson and his associates. The front door is remarkable for its security devices - security clearly as much a problem in the 18th century as in the 21st. There's a small glass fanlight window above the door with a metal rod across it to prevent the lowering in of a child thief through the small opening. The door itself is crossed by a massive chain, its links bigger in diameter than a man's thumb. To prevent anyone from lowering a hook through the fanlight to life the chain rom the hooks on which it rests, the hooks themselves are corkscrew shaped.

Hop a bus on fleet St, a number 11. It's a stunning day so we get the greand tour from the top deck - past Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey and Victoria Station and along King's Road in Chelsea. At the end of King's Road is World's End pub, recommended by Shirley, but it proves to be closed for renovations so we head home.

By evening there are stories of people taking extraordinary means to get back to the UK despite the flight ban. Thus one man, on being told that there is room on the channel ferry for vehicle but no more foot passengers, buys a second hand bike in France, pedals it up the ramp as required, suitcases in hand, and is home. And John Clese spends £3000 to take a taxi from Oslo to the UK - all right if you have the £3000 and if your mourney doesn't involve crossing the Atlantic. By the time we go to sleep the flight ban has been extended to 1 pm tomorrow.

Friday, April 16/2010

We stop at the Barbican and acquire a London telephone number for Air Canada as well as registering with BAA Heathrow's flight advisory service - for what that may prove to be worth. The service says it's for UK residents, but one assumes that this is in order to avoid long distance telephone calls and our mobile number is UK. The no fly looks like being extended.

Then a visit to the Guildhall. We've been before but not for years and it's free on Fridays. The most interesting bit is the excavation underneath, showing a partial wall of a Roman arena - now close to 2000 years old but once the scene of gladiatorial combat. There are also art galleries, including a current exhibition of large photographs of the heart of ondon taken from above. As well as the permanent collection, with quite a few royal portraits and Victoriana. A portrait of Victoria herself shows her at 18 - very formal but very young.

Thursday, April 15/2010

Out to Lewisham, far end of the Docklands Light Railway line. Once, of course, it was a separate Kentish village and not part of greater London. The coming of the railway line in 1857 made it commuter territory for those working in the city, as it still is. There's a Tesco near the terminal but not a giant one - food but not mobiles, clothes, etc.

Out to Jean's in West Harrow. The wind is from the east but it's warm in the sun. We're to have dinner with Jean, which we do - lovely salmon en croute. The plan is that we'll then go to shanthi's for dessert, this being part of Hindu New Year's festivities (actual NY being yesterday). However S phones to say that there's been a minor crisis at work and she'll have to cancel.

This does have the result of leaving us watching the electoral leadership debate on television together. Fairly good format, allowing for bits of clash but little shouting or repetition. Nick Clegg was quite winning, probably stealing some of David Cameron's charismatic thunder. Brown a bit ponderous but still carrying some heavyweight authority, and Cameron with engaging (and well rehearsed) opener and closing speech but spending a good deal of time looking as if his opponents were emitting a bad smell. Interesting and quite amusing at times - not always intentionally. Then goodbyes - always a bit sad, but we'll be back in November.

The real news of the day, though is not electoral and is harder to assess. A dark cloud of volcanic ash from the volcano erupting in Iceland has caused the closure of all airports in the UK - to say nothing of Denmark, the Netherlands, etc - until 6 p.m. Not horrific in itself, but the eruption is continuing. By the time we get home, the flight ban has been extended to Friday morning.

Wednesday, April 14/2010

To Camden Town in the morning on minor errands - AA batteries, toothbrushes, etc.

In the afternoon we take the train to Thames Ditton to see Jenny and Doug before they leave on their Caribbean cruise and, especially, to see Jane and David, who are sailing from Southampton with them. Nice visit with Jane. We stayed at their house in Cumbria for two weeks four years ago while Dave (and Jane) was stationed in Cyprus, having met them on the same Nile cruise as Jenny and Doug. Dave is now in the process of retiring from the army and is looking at a job in Glasgow, in the interests of which he is writing an exam in Bath today. But he joins us for a cup of tea and in time to see Jasmine demonstrate her new skill - as of today she can walk a few steps.

Tuesday, April 13/2010

Day for pottering about. we wander through Selfridge's food hall - posh and attractive and expensive. An older man with a leather shoulder bag and full sized black umbrella orders his meat and says he'll be back in a few minutes when the butcher has trimmed the fat off it. And that's Selfridge's. If you're willing to pay for it you can have beautiful food and service. Though we note that the peanut butters they carry are Skippy and Jiffy, which isn't too impressive. Maybe it's what they believe American expats want. Perhaps they're right.

In the afternoon we go over to Abbey Road - not actually that far from us - to have a look at Abbey Road Studio and the famous Beatles crossing point. Not far from St. John's Wood tube station and instantly identifiable by the knot of people staring at the rather unremarkable square white building as well as the graffiti on the wall, much of it quotations from Beatles songs. We're probably the only people here old enough to remember when the Beatles were together.

Then wander along our section of Finchley Road checking out the little charity and card shops. Minorly interesting, though in some cases the second hand price is perilously close to the new.

Monday, April 12/2010

We've discovered that the Courtauld Institute - famous for its paintings and infamous for its former director, Anthony Blunt, exposed as a Communist spy, is free from ten until two on Mondays. Lucky timing as there's an exhibition of Michelangelo's drawings, some of them quite moving - and a number lent by the queen.

There's lots in the permanent collection as well. Manet's A Bar at the Folies Bergere could, apart from style of dress and decor, be a very modern work - the weary and distracted girl tending bar thinking of anything but the gentleman she is serving. And there's Monet's Antibes - a single tree against the water - and one realises that the painter was still alive after the first world war and that without the ornate gilt frame the painting could look contemporary.

Sunday, April 11/2010

Mass, as we might have done last week had there not been a race. The boys' choir, sadly for us but no doubt not for them, has a break after their Easter duties and there's a guest choir from Ireland. Nice enough, but not the same. The first time we've ever seen empty seats at Westminster Cathedral. Is this down to the scandal in the Church?

The flat is, as almost always, too warm, although we leave the heat off unless we're drying clothes on a radiator. We do keep the window open, but not very far, except when we're home in the daytime, as it's at ground level and central London, like many other cities, is home to rats. We've seen them in the past, though not outside this particular building.

Saturday, April 10/2010

Go early to the National to queue for tickets. There are probably forty people ahead of us, and more behind, but we've brought the Saturday Guardian and our place in line is by a convenient sitting step, so it's not bad. There are three plays on that we'd be pleased to see, but we opt for London Assurance, both because it's had excellent reviews and because Nicholas Hytner is the director.

Back in the afternoon to see the matinée. This time we're back row instead of front - a different experience but more comfortable seats. It's an excellent production, witty and well-timed. Impressive sets and costumes. Just classically 19th century - lots of clever lines and twists but not something one goes home thinking about.

Friday, April 9/2010

Out by tube to North Greenwich where we take a look at the enormous O2 Centre, concert and film venue and erstwhile Milennium Dome. Many of the restaurants are open, though the shops mostly aren't, but we look around and then take a bus out to the Thames Barrier. As we board, I ask the driver if he can tell us where to get off for the Thames Barrier and he simply nods. But sure enough, when the time comes he bellows loudly enough to be heard upstairs, so we get off at what turns out to be the edge of the Thames Barrier Industrial Estate. There's a garage and I no sooner have my mouth open to inquire than the man there is giving directions - he's been asked this before. Sure enough, at the end of the road we're at the Thames Barrier - the huge set of metal clad moving dams that control the water level and prevent flooding. We have 2 for 1 tickets for the interpretive centre, so we look at the info and models, J more taken with the clever design of the project and me, as usual, with the words - for example the description of rowboats inside a flooded medieval Westminster Hall or the information that the invading Danes came downsteam along the thames taking villages as far as Reading before being stopped by alfred the Great. We have memories of our Thames walk four years ago and fill in one gap by walking back from the barrier to North Greenwich along the path past the Greenwich Yacht Club as well as a number of industrial yards and moored boats.

Then tube to Kilburn. We check out the Tricycle Theatre for later and are impressed by the Polishy shop and, more so, by the multi-ethnic Eastern European and mideast shop. Also marked for later. Then Alexander texts to suggest a Turkish restaurant on Kingsland for dinner.

We plan the route but.... Part of the overground isn't running, and, not wishing to be grounded at Gospel Oak, we go with Plan B. Tube to Liverpool followed by bus, which we get off too early. Though, as Alexander kindly says, we still have the whole evening.

Turns out their car has been stolen recently, so we head for Testi, the restaurant recommended by Dominic, by alternate means. Flora very generously takes the bus while J and Alexander and I fold into the G-wiz, our first ride in one. It's electric and not subject to the congestion charge. Also road tax benefits and very cheap to run, and Alexander is delighted with it.

The restaurant is a pleasure - small, but nice if noisy. Flora, Alexander and J have succulent lamb shish kebabs while I have stuffed aubergine. All very nice, and the starter taramasalata the best we've ever had. With a bottle of Italian red. We've opted against the sheep's testicles, on the menu at about £10, though clearly we could have dined out on the story for years.

Alexander has a job orchestral tuning in the morning and Flora deserves a ride home, so we say goodbye at the restaurant and hop on a bus for Liverpool St.

Thursday, April 8/2010

Train from Paddington to Cookham in the morning. We change at Maidenhead and are in luck, because a woman going to Marlowe to walk the Thames path to Henley tells us "platform four" and we follow her and make it with no more than a minute to spare - the next train on the Marlower branch line being an hour later. At Cookham the kind station master tells us how to reach the Stanley Spencer Gallery, a straightforward and pretty walk through the village. It's about ten minutes and the sun is warm on the cottages and the tiny moor we cross.

the gallery is in a house at the end of the high street, not large and surprisingly full of viewers. The price for concessions is £2, probably possible because the gallery, which gets no grants, is staffed by volunteers. It has a permanent collection of over 140 paintings but what is on view now is an exhibition commemorating the 60th anniversary of the death of Hilda, Spencer's first wife. Thus there are a number of paintings of Hilda and their two daughters as well as paintings done by Hilda and the younger daughter, Unity, both artists in their own right. The work is interesting, as is the biographical reminiscences on a video upstairs. There's even the original pram that Spencer used to wheel his painting materials, complete with the large sign asking that he not be distracted from his work.

What we don't see is very many of his fascinating religious paintings, such as the resurrection painting showing the people of Cookham rising from their graves in the village churchyard. There is a last supper as well as the enormous but unfinished painting of christ preaching at the Cooiham Regatta, but some of our favourites aren't here, either because the gallery doesn't own them or because they aren't included in the current exhibition.

It's sunny and warm and we walk down to the river, near where christ preached at the regatta in Spencer's last painting. Then along to the churchyard, where we sit on a bench and eat our bread and cheese and listen to the birds. Back on the high street past Spencer's old home and along to the Crown, a pub at the edge of the little common. We take our bitter to an outside table and watch the passers by.

There's a little more time and we go past the war monument down school lane, which is home to a marvellous old brick house with inset beams, so old that neither walls nor windows are straight. Round the corner there's a beautiful house with thatched roof and thatched porch cover. ~Then train back to Paddington.

Wednesday, April 7/2010

We give some thought to trying to get into the House for Prime Minister's question period - the last before the election - but the thought of wasting ages in a queue and then not getting in decides us against. Do go to the War Museum, but it's swarming with children on school break, so we settle for going through the submarine and opt instead for the Victoria and Alberta (Museum), which is probably less of a kiddy drawing card despite some excellent hands-on exhibits. This proves to be right as the tube is crammed with families but most are siphoned off before we reach the V&A.

Victoria and Albert is hosting 3 special exhibits, one of which, Decode: Digital Design Sensations, we saw reviewed in a newspaper in cyprus some time ago. So we buy our concessions tickets and head in. It's a very nice collection of digital decor, some of which is interactive. So we see a tree in silhouette on the wall that moves in response to the wind blowing outside the museum and scatters silhouette leaves on the floor. Other digitally programmed screens have abstract patterns that respond to the viewers movement or sound. It's a fascinating exhibition with a hint of the possibilities of future decor.

Stop at Waitrose at the mark-down moment (around 5 p.m.) on the way home and acquire a packet of spinach falafel to add to our chicken and vegetables for dinner. Delicious.

Tuesday, April 6/2010

To the Barbican to use the internet (me) and catch up on papers and magazines (J). Check the Cock Tavern theatre and can see that we're not going to be going to La Boheme. It's a fundraiser, no concession prices, and even the champagne, nice though it would be, would not compensate for paying a hundred quid each for the tickets. Also check times and prices for some of the day trips we have in mind. By comparison with La Boheme, train tickets to Cookham look very reasonable at £10 each.

In the afternoon we take advantage of the fine weather to follow the Thames east from Tower Bridge. So we get off the tube by the Tower of London and follow the river round by St. Katharine's Pier. We've never been here before and really aren't in the right income bracket to have done. The harbour is full of the most amazing yachts. Quite a pleasure walking and admirinig though. We follow the cobbled street past warehouses and water front flats, some fairly old marine facilities, and some buildings recreated as upscale accommodation. follow Wapping High St. and then Wapping Wall until we come to the Prospect of Whitby, arguagly the oldest pub in London. In its earliest period it was the scene of cockfights and bare knuckle fights. Somewhat later it was frequented by Turner and Whistler, who used it as a vantage point for painting the Thames. We pick a window table and enjoy a glass of bitter. Looking out over the river as boats - from river cruisers to a barge to a small but very fast speedboat - and birds - gulls, ducks and coots - go past. The water itself is hypnotic, and there's the sound of the waves underneath our small-paned window.

We've passed two other pubs, survivors in a Wapping High Street that once was home to 36 pubs in a rough dockside neighbourhood. There's the Town of Ramsgate, with a bloody history of its own as the "hanging" Judge Jeffreys was captured there and later executed after the overthrow of James II. We also pass the Captain Kidd pub, named after the pirate Captain Kidd who was executed nearby in 1701. Execution Dock gave pirates what was known as the Grace of Wapping when they were tied to a stake until the tide covered them three times.

Monday, April 5/2010

We'd thought of Easter Monday as a public holiday observed more in the public than the private sector - as in Canada - but it's more widely observed here. Thus the planned engineering works disrupting the underground continue, the Barbican is pretty well silent and the streets in The City, commercial heart of London, are deserted.

But not the museums, so we spend a couple of hours in the Museum of London, a favourite. The pre-historic section includes bison horns and spears thrown as an offering into the Thames. There's also a presentation in the medieval gallery. A woman in period dress talks about medieval medicine. She's done quite a bit of reearch and it's interesting, and frequently disgusting, e.g. sitting in a bath of pigeon dung to cure a fever or tasting urine for diagnostic purposes. Some odd things did work. Rubbing chicken brains on the gums of a teething infant worked because it softened the gums.

Sunday, April 4/2010

Could actually have watched the Malaysian Grand Prix rerun this afternoon and gone to Easter Mass this morning, but my reading of the tiny type in the telly guide proves inadequate, and, thinking there is no rerun, we opt for the race. And it's a good race, followed by brunch.

In the afternoon we take the bus up to Hampstead - not very far actually - and hop off once the shops look interesting. Happens to be opposite a lane that we follow through to the next street and round the corner to a little alcove full of shops, about half of which are open. There's a quilt shop and one with delightful miniatures for dollshouses, including a tiny cat with a paw in a goldfish bowl. And there are jewellery shops - where I fall for a delicate old silver and amethyst ring that J buys for me. It's a lovely little spot with older, if not necessarily antique, jewellery, and the old lady minding it for her friend tells us about suffragette jewellery - if a piece had gems in purple, white and green, such as amethyst, diamond and emerald or jade, then it identified a suffragette.

Then further by bus to Golders Green, where we browse through a Polish food shop - they have pickled herring but not the sort we want. And a bookstore where we find a double cd of Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields songs. The sunny weather has held.

Back by bus for our Easter dinner - trout fillets, baked potatoes and vegetables and sticky toffee pudding.

Saturday, April 3/2010

Begin by watching qualifying for tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix. it's quite interesting as there is intermittent heavy rain, creating an unpredictable starting grid.

It's on the edge of rain when I go out for a Guardian before qualifying, but bits of sun crep through and we decide to walk over to Kilburn, about a mile away, to explore and also to check out the Cock Tavern, which incorporates a small theatre, currently host to a production of La Boheme - tecommended to us by a man on a bus in Camden Town. Kilburn high road is a pleasure, with some of the rough vibrancy that Queensway had twenty years ago and has lost. There's the Bell pub - where one can have fish and chis and a pint for £6 ($9.25 CAD or €6.60). There are plenty of small shops, some with produce spilling out onto the street, and little street corner markets. At one point we pass a group of exuberant black singers, singing gospel music out of sheer exuberance - no hat out for collections. We find the Cock Tavern. It's a stately brick building, licensed in 1486 and rebuilt in 1900. Upstairs there's a theatre that seats 40, while the downstairs is, apart from the tile mosaic in the entry, a reasonably unprepossessing pub - bare wood floors, a scattering of male regulars and even, as we come through the outer doors, a faint but unmistakeable smell of piss. No refinement, but like Kilburn High Road itself, very real. Unfortunately, it's not possible to buy tickets - or even get prices - here. That has to be done online or by phone.
Take the 31 bus to Camden Town where we get a whole chicken at Somerfield Co-op and then bacon, pitas, milk and trout fillets at Sainsbury's. Then home by tube.

Friday, April 2/2010

Over to Waterloo and then, by train, to Thames Ditton where Jenny and Doug have invited us to good Friday breakfast - hot cross buns. Jenny's mother is here and Emma and Laura and their families, so the table, which can hold twelve easily and more at a squish, is quite full. and the hot cross buns lovely. Babies on their fathers' knees and talk and laughter.

J finds the small blue bag of things accidentally left behind after our trip to Cornwall. Which is just as well, because it includes a piece of blue cheese that he had carefully wrapped, so it would eventually have made its presence felt. But it's fine.

Goodbyes. Jenny and Doug are going on a cruise to the Caribbean the week after next, so we probably won't see them again until next year. Or, technically, much later this year. Cool on the way back, but the cherry blossoms are out and the magnolias are budding.

Thursday, April 1/2010

Our time in London is half over, so we go down to Victoria to collect the April London planner to see what we shouldn't be missing and to Victoria Coach Station to check on day trips - though here most of the pamphlets are unimformative or missing. Increasingly brochures refer one to the net - and the prices are often cheaper there too.

Home to the bedsit. When we first moved in there was, incongruously, a large brown (presumably) faux leather recliner and a small off-white footstool sitting outside the door to the lower level. There's nothing obviously wrong with them - one supposes they just didn't fit inside someone's tiny bedsit - but they must be filling up with rain water. There was also a bar sized fridge (not working?) which has recently been topped with a television set (also not working?). Interesting collection, a little like a prop room for a drama taking place elsewhere. Most Londoners have no basement and little spare room, so one quite often sees things in skips or left for the binman that look quite salvageable, but can see why they aren't salvaged.

Minor disaster over dinner - not the food. J turns wrong burner on and I have left a glass dinner plate on the now hot burner. when I notice, I remove the glass and it promptly shatters. Had I turned off the burner and left it to cool, the plate would probably have survived. As it is, bits off hot glass embed themselves in the carpet - and are eventually removed by J. Quite dramatic.

Wednesday, March 31/2010

Up as early as we can manage and over to the National Theatre by eightish to queue for tickets for Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art. It's cold, and while the overhang protects us from rain it's surprisingly windy. But we're third and fourth in line, so we know we'll get tickets. The man ahead says that when the weather is really bad we're sometimes allowed in early, but he supposes it's not that bad.

Tickets pocketed, we go over to Canada House to check the email, exchange rate, etc. They no longer carry Canadian papers "because they're available online" - read economy measure.

The Habit of Art is no disappointment - Bennett's plays never are. This one chronicles an imaginary meeting between Auden and Benjamin Brittain at Oxford in the '70's, both of them past their prime (Auden vulgarly and outrageously so) but persisting, movingly, in the habit of art. Wonderful messy set, casual staging and witty lines. And a good two and a half hours. Never anything thin about what Bennett provides.

Tuesday, March 30/2010

Out in the afternoon to West Harrow to see Jean. It's been a while as we were in Cornwall and then she had rehearsals for her choir's performance on Saturday night. Good visit and lovely lamb curry with rice, aubergine, dhal, leeks, and green beans. And then apple blackberry crumble with custard. Lovely. Good conversation too - we're not all greed.

Monday, March 29/2010

Up early and over to the National Theatre to queue for tickets to The Power of Yes. The National Theatre is a pleasure for a couple of reasons. It stages plays that are more than spectacle, sometimes experimental or classical, often popular, but usually with genuine artistic merit. And it holds back several of the least expensive (£10) seats until the day of the performance. The doors to the building open at 9:30 and we're there at about 8:20, putting us 8th and 9th in line. Some of the others are better prepared, with folding chairs and cups of coffee and novels, but we've brought newspapers and the wait is worth it.



Then over to the Barbican to use the internet and check the magazines. Stop in Camden Town on the way back and home for late lunch. In the evenings it's back to the theatre for the performance. The Power of Yes is an examination by playwright David Hare of the 2008 (and following) financial crisis in a serious of dialogues and incisive comments with characters ranging from Alan Greenspan to George Soros to a bemused playwritht. It's a fast-moving examination, and, in the words of the New Statesman, "not only enlightening - financially and psychologically - but biting, witty, fun." No spectacle at all, but we really enjoy it.