Sunday, April 22/2012

Concert in the afternoon at the Royal Albert Hall - beautiful, ornate, round building with good acoustics (well, reviews are mixed but we were happy). It's not sold out and so we're offered free upgrades from the circle - good view but pretty high up - to the stalls. It's a St George's Day concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Anthony Inglis conducts - with flair and wit - and Claire Moore as soprano soloist. We're delighted to find John Humphrys is presenting as promised (looked for a moment as if he would be replaced). The concert is much in the style of the last night at the summer proms. There's popular and sometimes patriotic music from Elgar, Handel and others (including the Hallelujah kChorus) and we wind up with Land of Hope and Glory. Everyone singing by then and lots of flag waving (St George's flags having been included in the programs). red and white balloons released from the ceiling at the finale. Really fun.

Walk to the Nag's Head in Knightsbridge for a half pint afterwrd. another on my A list, though pretty crowded with surprisingly young drinkers. quirky, though, with the walls completely covered with old photographs and the ceiling all flag and collage, and, as J says, looking like it's going to fall in.

J fancies fish and chips for the last night, so we head back to Kilburn High road. again, the fish at roses is perfectly done and the fillet enormous. Plates are (I surreptitiously measure) thirteen and a half by eleven inches and it takes a bit of eating before the fillet isn't longer than the plate! Mushroom starters and cheesecake afterward (both shared - and not to save money as the prices are amazing but to have hop.e of finishing).

Then it`s home and time to pack up.

Saturday, April 21/2012

To the South Bank to meet Jenny and Emma and Emma's little girls. Coffee (and juice for Jasmine) inside the National Theatre's big comfortable cafeteria cum listening space. Leila, aged nearly one, is very busy seeing how her cup works with and without its lid, paper napkins inside, etc. Jenny (and Doug) just back from a few days in Germany. Emma has just started back to work after maternity leave. Nice to chat.

In the evening to Kolossi Grill with Alexander and Flora. It's a Cypriot restaurant just south of angel tube station - small and friendly. share meze starters - very good taramasalata - and then lamb. Kleftiko melts in the mouth like butter. excellent. There's a painting of Kolossi Castle on the wall. Interesting as we were in the castle in January. Nice to be able to talk to A and F as well.

Friday, April 20/2012

Stop at the bank, Charing Cross branch, to arrange (successfully we hope) to have the debit cards replaced with ones tht expirein the spring when we're home rather than in the winter when we're away. there are a finite number of tickable boxes - the young man tilts the screen so we can see - so our cards are listed as damaged. Does seema bit lame that they would both be, but whatever works.

Bus from Trafalgar to the War Museum, but we see it goes out the Old Kent Road to a large Tesco - so we check it out, as the large ones don't exist in the city centre. Then back to the museum.  There's an exhibition on following one large (ten children!) South London family through the war years. There's a lovely scale model of their house - from bread on the table to chamber pots under the bed. Then displays of rtions and ration books, clothing, gas masks and government advice, as well as info on evacuation, women's work, nutrition, etc. There are short film clips and it's also interesting listening to some of the comments and memories of others at the exhibition.

Our plan is to go to the Spitfire restaurant on Fulham Palace Road. it's a Polish restaurant with really good reviews and we've had our eye on it for a couple of years now. A bit confusing to access from Hammersmith tube station as you exit at the back of the mall and go under the flyover - and ti's raining. But when we get there (only a couple of blocks) we find that the restaurant is empty - and to let. We've waited too long.

Instead we go to the café in the Polish cultural centre. It's a nice place with a fair variety of comfort food. J has the beef goulash and I the perogies - very nice ones too. That would have been plenty, but J persuades me - minimal arm twisting necessary - to have an apple szarlotke as well. Reminds us both of J's mother's baking.

Thursday, April 19/2012

Camden town for a bit of shopping - mostly browsing the charity shopps. And in the afternoon we check out one of the pubs on my A list. It's the Mitre (more completely, Ye Olde Mitre, and old enough that the name isn't just fanciful), at the end of a lane of Hatton Gardens. The lane is entered through a door that's closed when we arrive. does mention the brewer, but we would never have gone in if we hadn't known. The pub is small but picturesque. The two separate rooms don't link up, though the bar in the middle serves both. All dark wood and reproduction period portraits. Is that Elizabeth I in the corner? Maybe we're basing the assumption oon costume. Amazingly the pub does date back that far - to 1546. The lounge on the other side is tiny but cosy and has small panes of old glass. It's full - with drinkers spilling out and sitting on the upturned barrels in the courtyard.

We're intending to hit another A list pub, stopping on the way to pick up an Economist at the nearby LSE (where it's a pound cheaper than elsewhere). It's been showering off and on - increasingly on - and turns into heavy rain. So we abandon pub number 2 and also our plans for eating out. Just doesn't feel worth the stormy walk, even with umbrellas. We'll picnic in after a hot cup of tea. By the time we reach Queensway there's thunder and lightning and we're happy to be in with tea and telly.

Fascinating documentary on our newly enhanced television. The story, accompanied by quite a lot of period home filming, of Jutta and Helmuth Cords, a Jewish girl and a German soldier, who fell in love near the beginning of the war and were the first couple to be married in Berlin after the end of the war. They later emigrated to the States. Narrated by the wife, still very sharp.

Wednesday, April 18/2012

To Holland Park to look at Tony Benn's former house which has a plaque on it honouring his wife Caroline; educator, writer and socialist. A nice terrace house with a little picket fence and a garden someone has taken some time with in the past. Also an interesting example of what now goes for over  £3 million - but presumably didn't sixty years ago.

Take a look at the new 3D televisions not requiring glasses at John Lewis. Interesting concept (by Sanyo) but still needs work. Focus not always good, especially on writing. There's quite a bit of ghosting. Simply not good enough for over £3000 - though the idea of going sans glasses is attractive. there's an LG one with glasses that's better, but still uneven - sometimes impressive but at other times rather like a large viewmaster.

On Kilburn High Road J buys a pair of shoes - good black oxfords - on sale for £30. And since we're on the road we stop for supper at Roses - roast lamb, roast potatoes and two veg for J - similar for me but with chicken. Humus and pita starter and cheesecake (decadent but shared) for dessert.

Some time after 9 the man arrives to put in the black box for the great digital switchover. so we suddenly have a great picture and dozens of channels - some junk but quite a lot of good ones. Ironic, as we're in a city where there's endless interest and stimulation without television.

Tuesday, April 17/2012

The forecast is for showers, but they space themselves pretty conveniently. we do a bit of outdoor exploration. Bentinck Street, parallel to OxfordStreet, has been home to quite a few notable people, though it`s a very short street. Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess lived at number 5 at one point. It`s still there but shrouded as the renovation works are in progress. Gibbon wrote Decline and Fall at number 7 (unlike the spies`abode it`s marked with a blue plaque). chopin lived briefly at number 10, and Dickens for a time at number 18. The interior of number 18 is gone - totally demolished - but the facade is still standing, awaiting a new building to face.

A few blocks away, on Wimpole Street we spot the building where the young Paul McCartney lived above his then girlfriend`s family. We`ve read that Lennon wrote I Want to Hold Your Hand in the basement. Wimpole street is more famous, of course, as the place where Elizabeth Barrett lived before being rescued by, and married to, robert Browning the house is no longer there, but a plaque marks the place where it stood.

we`re very close to the Wallace Collection, so, after a quick look inside St James`s Catholic Church, Spanish Place, we go to visit it. It`s in a remarkable place. The house, originally a private home, holds the collection of five generations of the same family. It rivals many national galleries in both the quantity and the quality of the paintings, an amazing classical collection. It`s known for Hals`painting of The Laughing Cavalier. It`s an intriguing portrait, and the subject has a very modern face, apart from the period moustache. He`s not actually laughing, though. It`s a knowing smile - one of shared irony or even assignation.

Our last stop in the area is number 34 Montague Square. It`s supposed to be where Ringo Starr had a flat. We`re surprised to see a blue plaque, as they`re not awarded to the living - but when we get closer we see that John Lennon lived there as well for a time in the sixties.

We`re tired and getting hungry, so get a bus on Baker Street that`s headed to Waterloo. It`s slow moving, but that does give us time to focus where we might not otherwise. we`re parked in a jam on Regent Street when we see a round green plaque marking Lord Stanley`s purchase from a silversmith on this site, of a silver cup "for the people of Canada to commemorate amateur and professional hockey." It`s been a while since amateurs had a crack at it. J thinks the last may have been the Kenora Thistles.

From Waterloo by tube and Docklands Light Railway and to Greenwich, where we stop at our second Oxfam charity shop of the day. The first was on Marylebone Lane - a huge one dedicated to books and music. this one is all books as well, and there are some we'd really like to have, including a signed one by Roy Hattersley. but they're too big and heavy, and reluctantly we leave them.

What we've really come for is our second visit to Goddard's pie shop. this time we have the crumble - J apple and I rhubarb. Still the best, with the custard filling the bowl and the soup plaate in which the bowl sits. It's been six years since they closed in Greenwich but the crumble hasn't changed. This is it. We can barely finish it - and the girl had said to come back if we wanted more custard. Two pounds seventy (three euros six, $4.32), tax included. Amazing.

Stop at Crossharbour, thinking as usual of Conrad Black - Lord Black of Crossharbour. will he ever come back? Buy a top up for the UK mobile. Then home.

Monday, April 16/2012

To the Courtauld Institute in the morning as itès free until 2pm on Mondays. We start with the late medieval room. Interesting the traditions in painting infants - so many of them are ugly and, stranger, they often look like miniature adults. It's not that the artists  had never seen a baby or that they weren't able to draw well - so what was the statement?  There are some beautiful altar pieces  here as well, andsome lovely ivory miniatures.

The second floor has quite a number of Rubens' works. He's a much more varied painter than we'd realised. A landscape looks quite unlike the portraits, and J points out that his work changed after he'd been to Italy and come under the influence of Italian Renaissance painters. The top floor has old friends as well, like Manet's Bar at the Folies Bergère. There are a few Dégas works that we think of as typical, as well as a quite shocking painting of a woman in a window. Well, the story is shocking. Dégas painted it during the Siege of Paris and paid the model with a chunk of meat which she fell on immediately and ate raw. There is a special Mondrian exhibition on, but we`re not really Mondrian fans - and we`re full up. J disappointed that Blunt's living quarters are not on display.

Catch up time at our Starbucks office, while J takes a long walk in Hyde Park. Really this is a pleasant place to work. Comfortable chairs and I like the music. Decide to eat supper in the room and go in to Tesco just as they`re marking down - delicious couscous and chicken salads, a prawn sandwich, and fruit cups all for about a pound and a half. We get cherry tomatoes and oranges as well. A lovely supper in with the telly.

Sunday, April 15/2012

The Chinese Grand Prix is on BBC1 with coverage beginning at 7, so we watch.  J wisely gets up but I watch from bed, which means I sleep through the first part. Exciting win for Nico Rosberg.

We'd thought about going to Petticoat Lane street market this morning but there's a bitterly cold wind (though it's sunny) so we start thinking indoor thoughts. Go down to Bayswater Road to catch a bus to Euston Road for the Wellcome Collection. And we're immediately diverted into further outdoor walking, as almost the whole of Bayswater Road, on the Hyde Park side, has become a free Sunday gallery - the longest, it says, in the world. We're not seriously tempted to buy, but it's fun and the offerings are quite varied - London scenes, abstracts, flowers, traditional pub signs, and some witty drawings. Back on the bus and - with a brief practical shopping stop on Oxford Street - over to the Wellcome.

The exhibition is on the human brain. There are posters about the city advertising it, including one mentioning vinegar and brown paper as an old headache cure, which stirs a memory in my mind of the seldom quoted second verse of the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill:

Then up Jack got and home did trot 
As fast as he could caper.
Went to bed and wrapped his head
In vinegar and brown paper.

Hadn't thought of that in years. The exhibit has models and videos and historicl material. There are several references to the pioneering work of a Dr Cushing, including one article that mentions his mentor, the Canadian Sir William Osler. Osler was also the mento of Dr Wilder Penfield, the neurosurgeon who operated on my paternal grandfather in the 1930's.

Back to Chapel Market in Islington and the Indian Veg restaurant for another vegan buffet. then home to read our fat Sunday Times.


 

Saturday, April 14/2012

By tube to Jean's for a chat and tea before going to Shanthi's where we've been invited to tea in honour of Tamil New Year. Shanthi's friend Shirley (from Singapore - knkown her ever since she was born) is here with her two daughters, Laura - enjoying her first job with a PR firm - and kSophie - aged 12. And shanthi's daughter Priya is here of course - her time now split getting retail experience with Abercrombie and Fitch and with Calvin Klein. We're all impressed with the jewellery the latter gives her to wear in her job at Brent Cross Mall.

We begin with Asian sweets - with Tamil names we don't quite get. There's a golden soft crumbly dough, almond flavoured sweets, and crispy deep fried ones. Then to the dining table where we have a hot noodle dish, tuna sandwiches, fried chicken legs, mutton rolls (delicious, like spicy spring rolls with a lamb filling and a slightly crunchy exterior) and cake and tea. A Singapore high tea, the girls recognize. Shanthi urges more, but we're all happily full. Lovely visit.

Jean drops us near Rayer's Lane tube station - and in front of a grocery shop that sells Turkish products and J is delighted to find packets of the Turkish red pepper (biber) flakes that he loves.

Friday, April 13/2012

Lucky draw from the hat of possibilities on Friday the thirteenth. We decide to go to Hogarth's  house in Chiswick. bit of a walk from Turnham Green station, but an interesting one through Chiswick, now a part of London but in the 18th century, when hogarth lived here, a town on the Thames well outside London. It still has a bit of a village feeling to it, though the house is situated on Hogarth Lane, which is a lane in name only. It's a dual carriageway which becomes, a little to the west, the M4 . There are paintings here that show it as it once was, though - a country lane.

The real fun in the place, though, is the engravings, someof which are the originals. satirical, indiscreet, and as busy as a giles cartoon. The Rake's Progress with the weeping pregnant fiancée in the doorway. And all the peripheral characters, like the chimney sweep poking his head out the chimney, the syphillitic child, or the monkey in the corner peeing into a helmet. There are dark themes but very funny caricatures illustrating them. I've always wanted a copy of Gin Lane, and they do have the posters, but no tubes. So we opt for Hogarth placemats instead.

We're a ten minute walk from St Nicholas Church where Hogarth and his wife and sisters are buried, so we go over to look. The church is a nineteenth century rebuild but the tower is fifteenth century and the records go back to the twelfth century. The assumption is that there was originally a Saxon church on the site. We're fortunate to meet one of the wardens in the churchyard, who shows us the Hogarth tomb and also points us to where Whistler and his wife are buried. The latter is an interesting tomb with resin figures at the corners replacing original and replacement bronze ones - both sets having been stolen.

Round the corner from the church is the George and Devonshire, a Chiswick pub dting back to the 1650's. In fact it's the only pub left of the original Chiswick village establishments. We stop for half pints of the Fuller's Pride brewed locally. There have been some changes in decor over time. The jukebox style gambling apparatus with flashing lights isn't period. The fireplace may be original but the empty Pinot Giorgio bottles on it are a late and fairly unimpressive addition. Historically the pub had a smugglers' tunnel leading to the Thames and apparently the steps leading to it are still there in the cellar.

Dinner is in Islington - a place I've found googling. It's a real keeper. Indian Veg on Chapel Market, just north of the Angel station. It's quirky and friendly. The walls are covered with vegetarian facts, figures and advice. Small tables with tablecloths and a sign announcing that you're welcome to bring your own wine without corkage fee. (All right. I confess that I googled "very cheap" and "no corkage.") But it's wonderful. an absolutely delicious eat all you like vegan buffet. It's amazing, healthy - and f£4.95 a person.

Home by tube. At Bayswater Station an underground worker with a brush is busy sweeping up what turns out to be large white dominoes from the stairs.

Thursday, April 12/2012

To HSBC to sort things out. A separate method of having the cards verified by Visa, which makes them usable online, but is becoming a pain. The young man does give Joe a little key for generating access numbers as well, though.

In the afternoon to Chris Mullin's play A Walk-On Part: The Fall of New Labour. It's at the Soho Theatre, which is small, seating about 150 in the upstairs theatre. The seats are comfortable, but more or less cushioned benches with backs - but no arms, allowing more people to be squeezed in. Works nicely for this play though, as it mirrors the seating in the British House of Commons. The seating isn't assigned and we're there early enough to get centre front, a highly desirable location in this intimate theatre because we're seated at stage level.

The play is heavily based on Mullin's political diaries, one of which we've recently read, and covers his 23 years as a labour MP, endiing with his resignation at the time of the last election. It's very funny, often very indiscreet, occasionally poignant. And there's absolutely no downtime - no looking at your watch or wondering where to go for dinner. There are only five actors - one to play Mullin and four (two men and two women) to play all the rest, and they're very good. No props other than straight backed chairs and a screen at  the back of the stage that serves, variously, as window on the House, photos of politicians and announcement of dates. The script itself is good - the best bits culled from the diaries, but the facial expressions and body anguage are wonderful. Amazing that the same person (Hywel Morgan) can play Tony Blair - brilliantly - and Tony Benn (amongst others) convincingly. Or, as in the third male character (Howard Ward), John Prescott and George Bush. John Hodgkison as Mullin, is impressively energetic and witty. The audience loves it.

Back to Roses (apostrophe not forgotten - it's as in flowers not as in belonging to Rose) on Kilburn High Road for lamb kleftiko (a whole leg and beautifully done with roast potatoes and 2 veg) and spaghetti bolgnese. A bit busier tonight but probably entirely people living within a mile or two of the restaurant. As far as we can make out, the specials aren't special in price but are guaranteed to be something they have. They're a bit like a Polish restaurant menu in that the meny lists all the dishes they ever have and you have to ask what is available. But then all the prices are astonishingly good anyway.

Wednesday, April 11/2012

Observation on public transportation: young white men are theleast likely people to give up their seats to the elderly - or to me, not that I require it. I do have seats offered tome more than in previous years though, for whatever reason. The most likely to give up seats are Asian men of almost any age, followed by young Middle Eastern men and young Asian women, followed (at some distance) by young white women. Observations unscientific but accurate, I think.

Tube to Camden Town and then bus to Hampstead Heath, as we've noted that our one year tickets to Keats House expire on Sunday. the house is the one Keats lived in with a friend just before his final illness sent him to Italy in search of a warm climate and a cure. His fiancée, Fanny, lived in the other half of the house, since made into one. Even though we've been before, it's a moving experience, and interesting too for things like the 18th century kitchen and the sole water supply from a cistern on the roof to a lead sink. Add this to a diet which seemed to consist mostly of meat and white bread (vegetables having only recently been declared not dangerous) and it's hardly surprising that so many people succumbed to disease, quite apart from the lack of modern medicine.

Supper at an Asian buffet by the Kilburn High Road tube station. Not exciting, but not at all bad. Chicken satay very nice. Spring rolls and samosas pretty useless.

Last bit home is the tube from Notting Hill Gate to Bayswater. A man gets into our carriage and grabs three abandoned Evening Standards. He's not quite quick enough to jump off before the doors close, so, having been obliged to come to Bayswater, he alights and rummages through two litter bins, retrieving several more copies of the Evening Standard to add to at lest ten in his bag. J suggests that he may want extra copies of a particular article, and it's plausible, but the paper is distributed free and theman looks obsessed.

Tuesday, April 10/2012

Check out the Notting Hill pub Harry took us to many years ago. We find it on Campden Hill Road. too early in the day now, but marked down for future reference.

By tube to connect with Dockland Light Railway. when we get off to change at Bank St they're announcing delays on the Central line, which we've just left, as there's a person under a train at the west end of the line. This is not an uncommon occurrence, usually suicide of course.

We're off to Greenwich again. This time we have an agenda, but it takes us a while to reach the National Maritime Museum. On the way, we detour through the Old Royal Naval College. The painted hall is impressive trompe d'oeuil, looking three dimensional, and dates from the beginning of the 18th century, or at least the painting does. there's a small room off the painted hall where Lord Nelson's coffin lay before the official lying in state.

But the greater interest today is in what's going on outside the Naval College. As we're heading towards the college we first spot a man in the distance crossing a square wearing pre Vatican II ecclesiastical robes. Then we see a great many trailers as well as people in period costume. And finally, most impressively, an absolutely enormous statue, much larger than life size, of an elephant. It's a film shoot, of course.  Turns out they're shooting Les Miserables. Though how the elephant fits in....

Then to the National Maritime Museum and the agenda.  J is looking for a large model of the Uganda, a ship that he took students on for one year's Mediterranean cruise.  It was later used in the Falkland War as a hospital ship - andwe did see the model on a previous visit.  But everything is in flux here and Olympic oriented, and the Uganda is no longer on display.

I've also come with a question.  My 6x great grandparents emigrated fro Germany via Rotterdam in 1709.  This was part of a scheme for acquiring labourers in the New World on behalf of the English navy.  The reward was English citizenship.  Between leaving Rotterdam and sailing to New York, the emigrants spent the winter of 1709 in England.  There were three caps - at Deptford, Camberwell and Blackheath, and I'm hoping to learn their locations.  The short answer is "lots of luck."

So we drift along to some of Greenwich's other charms.  The halcyon Bookshop has most of its books selling for a pound. At first we assume that the shop has been abandoned, misled by sacks of books blocking the aisles and heaps of them cascading onto the floor.  But no, it's open, and we browse for a while through the unsorted shelves.  Then, a few doors up the road, there's the Junk Shop. It's a series of tiny rooms, on two levels, with an uncountable number of old things.  Some possibly antique, many period or collectible, some more or less junk.  And there are thousands of them, from books to jewellery to kitsch to poison bottles (for holding poisonous contents, one assumes). Fascinating.

We finish up at Goddard's pie shop, now officially open, having chicken and mushroom pies with mash and gravy. Can't hold the desserts. Are the pies the same as we remember? Is the plate smaller, the scrubbed wood tables gone? Not sure, but the pies are good and at similar price to the ones we remember.

Monday, April 9/2012

Morning trip to the British Library, chosen for its proximity to the tube station - rain doesn't matter much. The BL has two of the four copies of the Magna Carta in existence, so we focus there. In the afternoon check out the theatre listings from the comfort of Starbucks. It's pretty full. The man next to me has taken off his shoes, leaving grubby feet on the cold floor. Looks like he's here for the duration. But we do find a free plug. Then down to the Soho theatre off Oxford St to get tickets for Chris Mullin's A Walk On Part - The Fall of New Labour. Mullin was a Labour backbencher and we've just finished reading and enjoying one of his political diaries - A View from the Foothills. This play is unique in that it actually played once at the House of Commons, at the invitation of the Speaker.

There's a small bit of comedy as we leave the theatre. We're approached by a cheerful man bearing copies of the Big Issue, the magazine produced and sold by the unemployed. "It's your lucky day," he begins. "Because I'm not selling anything." Naturally we're intrigued. "I'm accepting donations for me to have a beer on my way home." Ear to eear grin. "It's St Alan's Day. We confess that we haven't heard of St Alan but he's sure, and not a bit abashed. I fish in my pocket. "Would 20 p be of any help?" "Yes, indeed." So off he goes, and we're still chuckling a block later.

Finish up with a meal at Roses on Kilburn High Road. Unlike some of the pubs, they are indeed doing food today. And every day. It's a small restaurant with a laarge menu and huge portions. Excellent food and quiet local clientele. We opt for two courses and then begin to question our wisdom. J's chicken and broccoli fettucine is delicious and substantial and my fish and chips enormous. The fish fillet ust be 18 inches long. J says maybe 20. It's also cooked to perfection, which must have involved keeping the tail end out initially. J, who inherits more than half of it, says it's probably the best cooked deep fried fish he's eaten - and he's a very good fish fryer himself. We shouldn't be able to hold the apple pie and custard, but  it's good and we do. Total price, with large mugs of tea, £14.50 (€17.69, $22.91). Tax included, and we shouldn't have to eat for days. 

Sunday, April 8/2012

Relatively early, if drizzly, Easter start, as the rail lines are full of engineering works, buses replacing trains, etc. work out a plan to go via Wimbledon instead of Waterloo, which looks muchmore efficient, so we pick up bunches of narcissi from the little flower market outside the pub on the corner and head off. At Wimbledon we transfer to a bus replacing a train at an unmarked bus stop. Does he go to Thames Ditton (as promised by National Rail website)? No, we'll have to change at Surbiton. Well, it's wwell along the way. Walkable from there in a inch. And if the second bus were as slow as the first walking would have been attractive. The only other passenger is a girl who makes repeated phone calls - "I have the sugar but I'm on a bus that's moving like a snail." In Kingston we pass the cattle market car park twice. Is it different entrances or are we circling? Jenny remembers when she was a child and it actually was a cattle market.

But we arrive, and without being rained on. Lovelly Easter brunch. Jenny and Doug have the perfect dining table. It seems to seat an infinite number - fourteen of us here anyway - Laura and the boys, Emma and Giles and their girls, Jenny's mother and aunt, as well as Jenny, Doug and us. Jasmine 9aged 3) has helped to make the Middle Eastern date rings. Jenny's grandmother was Palestinian Christian and so are some of the recipes. The coloured eggs are hard-boiled and we play a traditional family game where we tap ends of our eggs with the others to see if anyone ends up with an uncracked egg. Cody (also aaged 3) is too young to remember last Easter but emerges with a winning egg.

After brunch there's an Easter egg hunt for the children in the garden - chocolate eggs this time. The dogs, who would have been happy to help, have been penned but watch with keen interest. Doug's sister Kathleen and her husband arrive, so we stay to say hello bud then head off.

Just as well we didn't go earlier as the earlier bus didn't come - we're informed by a man waiting for t?) he 3:40 along with us. We chat. He's been to Canada in the 70's when he (or his band?) toured with Nazareth. Home trip smooth - and back with the Sunday Times, more than a day`s read.

Saturday, April 7/2012

Re-establish the Starbucks Office. Not bad - good coffee, comfortable chairs next to plugs for the computer, and nobody hurrying you. and open on a long weekend when the library isn't.


down to the British Museum. It's holiday crowded so we do our usual - opt for a look at one area we haven't visited before, in this case Assyria, about 8th to 9th century BC. First of all I have to ask J where Assyria was when it was at home - answer, more or less Iraq. there are very Egyptian looking statues, including huge (12 foot high?) lions with human heads that once guarded a palace entrance. Also a large number of elaborately carved stone wall panels that lined palace walls and were inexpertly removed to be taken to another palace some 2700 years ago. They've been amazingly well restored though, and record past battles, domestic life, royal life etc, both in pictures and in extensive writing.


Try to check out the Mary Ward Centre near Russell Square. It's an educational facility, but with a good gallery and café - unfortunately closed for the Easter break. Stop off in Camden town. Then pub supper and home with fat weekend paper to read. We`ve missed the Oxford and Cambridge boat race and it was dramatic. Interrupted by a swimmer protesting elitism. A radio 4 presenter refers to it drily as a "race hate crime."

Friday, April 6/2012

Tube system a bit altered for the weekend, though not badly. Down to Earl's Court for a wander round. Nothing looks especially new and interesting. Warm on the sunny side of the street. In the afternoon we go to Trafalgar Square where there's a re-enactment of the crucifixion scheduled. cast not of thousands, but of 100 plus. We do wait quite a while for it to start, but the people watching is good. The squarae is crowded, with tourists mainly. It's sunny and there are buskers - a girl playing the violin and men being living statues - one all silver and one gold. The gold sttue wanders back to the National Gallery for a smoke break, beaked mask removed, before heading back to his pedestal. There's some technical problem and they explain the play will have to restart. we've been here for about an hour enjoying the crowd, but we can't really see the stage - just the screen - so this is our exit cue.

Up by Leicester Square, in the process of being revamped (the square, not us). it's supposed to reopen this month, but if the loud drilling and the mess is any indication the target is optimistic. Through china town and down to Covent Garden. St. Paul's, the Actors' Church, there has a vigil Mass scheduled for 9 tomorrow evening to be followed by a "Resurrection Party". Sounds like a brilliant idea but 9 is a bit late for the start,not just for us pensioners but for the tube system if it's a post-midnight finish.

Thursday, April 5/2012

Walk across Hyde Park and along to the royal Albert Hall to buy tickets for a Proms style concert on April 22, our last day here.

In the afternoon out to Jean's in West Harrow. We take her the Benn diary (hard cover) and the four books of the Raj Quartet, so things should be much lighter now, although the Jaworskis, like nature, seem to fill any vacuum when travelling.

Samosas and other Indian appetizers from Jean's handy off licence. We chat until Shanthi joins us after work and then have a lovely curry meal that Jean has made  - lamb, leeks, sweeet potato, green beans, salad, dhal and beautiful fragrant rice. Followed by apple crumble and custard. We won't need to eat again for days. Beautiful meal! Before we know it it's after ten and we're on the tube back.

Wednesday, April 4/2012

Walking dowon queensway when someone hands me a card in English and Arabic suggesting I consult Yasmina at the Psychic Mews. But we pass up the opportunity to see  the crystal ball read and take the Docklands Light Railway to Greenwich.Takes almost no time to find Goddard's pie shop. It's a shop that's been in the same family  in Greenwich for over a hundred years. They closed a few years ago and went into wholesale, but had always intended to reopen locally and they're about to - tomorrow. We peek through the window - the menu and pries ook pretty much like the old place and it's just the other side of the square.

We also check out the market. It's not the seething place of weekends, but there are a number of stalls open, including one manned by a philosopher who asks if you're willing to draw a philosophical question out of a hat and discuss it. Mine is "Is there such a thing as nothing?" So we do discuss it for a bit. There's a pythonesque aspect to it all, but fun.

Past the Cutty Sark, which is in the final stages of restoration after a fire five years back. There are literally miles (11 of them) of rigging on the 46 metre high mast and the gilt trim gleams. It was a record setter for speed in 1885 - Sydney to London in 67 days. Royal reopening sheduled for the end of the month.

To Kilburn for a meal. Seems a bit odd as we leave the tube station and are handed cards advertising Duke's Comedy Club by a young man saying brightly "Stand up comedy on Good Friday." Down to the Old Bell for vegetable curries and an ale from the April guest ale list - Cumberland.

Tuesday, April 3/2012

Reacquainting ourselves with our part of London. And down to HSBC to try to sort out the retistration for online purchases. Lovely girl called Emily gives me two pages of directions and a nice little gadget for generating sign on numbers.

Up to Camden High Street. Hot cross buns are on sale everywhere. Marks and Sparks are the best.

Monday, April 2/2012

We're at the bus stop with our suitcases when a taxi pulls up and the driver says "five euros to the airport." Done. the usual is well over twice that. Jane's brother and his wife are on the same plane, but we only eet up when we're about to board. flight a bit delayed because of strikes in France (knock on) but quiet and nice enough curry with quite a drinkable red.

At the hotel Genie shows us the room - same one as last time but with improvements. There's a brand new shower and sink.

Sunday, April 1/2012

Last bits - finish reading the Rankin and finish packing. Boxes tied, suitcases done.

Saturday, March 31/2012

Our last Saturday here. It's not cold, but it is very windy. Take a couple of last minute things to the charity shop. WE've thought of ice creams at Harry's Café, but it's too windy to enjoy them so we settle for Cyprus coffees.

Last loaf of sesame rye bread from the bakery and last salad things (and fresh strawberries) from Prinos. We're walking back when a man calls our attention to a tree covered with blossoms with an amazingly beautiful scent. we take one to try to identify. Does smell like jasmine, but one woman suggests Mexican orange - she has one at home - and Kiki also thinks it may be citrus.

Flat looks like disaster zone with drawers and cupboardsopen and emptying, flat surfaces covered, bottlesbeing decanted into smaller and taped for transport or sealed for storage. You'd think we were moving house.

And reading in between. Looks like we may just finish the Rankin. We forget the world wide turn off of lights for ecology and read right through it, so spared moral dilemma.

Friday, March 30/2012

Pre-packing. Should be simple, as the cases are so small, but that doesn't make it any easier. Some things will be boxed for next winter. We too have tried to reduce the volume with limited success. Then spot (not that it's difficult) Arvid and Eva's things packed and labelled on the floor outside the 4th floor lift. thirteen containers occupying an area about 60 feet square. We feel positively Spartan.

Haven't timed the book finishing perfectly either. I seem to be about half finished Anthony Blunt's biography and similar with the Ian Rankin we're reading aloud. Take to London or store for next year?

Thursday, March 29/2012

J confirms with Mr A that next year's rent will be the same as this - and yes, we can have the confirmation in writing.

Last coffee with Margaret down at George's. Quite a crew there, not all of whom we know. Margaret's been lovely and brought us a little fridge magnet with Paphos Castle as a memento. So I'm glad that I've brought along a little container of the lemon curd I made this morning.

Maggi's last day, so we help her move her boxes and cases down to the mezzanine, m lamenting her inability to reduce the number of boxes despite her best intentions.

We take the bus out to Vlachos in the evening. Arrive a little early and go fo a walk nearly to the second road in to Pyla - just past Beau Rivage Hotel, deserted, semi-dismantled, and for sale. When we get back Jane and Bill are there along with Jane's brother and his wife, who are visiting from England Aylsa and Harry arrive and we have a lovely visit and meal. Harry and Aylsa pack up the leftovers for the animals, the multitude of dogs and cats they share their house with. There are birds too, including a couple of baby birds.The breeding is somewhat accidental.  Harry says, seriously, "I don't encourage it." No Cypriot restaurant hurries you, so we're neearly 3 hours. Aylsa and Harry kindly give us a lift home.