Visit London

Monday 20^th June 2005

Today is our day to visit London under Elisse’s guidance.

First stop is Paddington and a walk through Hyde Park, past the Peter Pan statue to Elisse’s land – the Royal Albert Hall, Royal College of Music and the Imperial College. Elisse is proud of her stomping ground.

Pat Neale Moody calls – can we meet? We make plans to meet tomorrow evening, but unfortunately Graham will not be there.

We hop from mainline to underground to light rail and end up at Greenwich. We climb the hill to the observatory and have a great view of London. Good time to try the ‘Scene’ option on Ev’s camera.

Greenwich is a pretty place and we find a lovely café ‘George’ for lunch – bagels and Paninis and juices. Back on the light rail to the docklands. It is a huge conglomeration of tall buildings, very un-London like. All the new train stations on the Jubilee line are very grey with concrete, steel and exposed beams.

We navigate to Waterloo where we find Andy at his flute shop ‘Top Wind’. Elisse ‘buys’ a piccolo case – Andy kindly gives it to her.

From Waterloo, we walk down to the river and alongside it, past the Big Eye, Dahli exhibition, Saatchi museum and street performers. We continue down to the Tate Modern Gallery – once an electrical power station and a truly ugly building.

We had tried to buy an ice cream but what was on offer was uninspiring – leftovers from a hot Sunday. Forget the ice cream.

We walk across the millennium footbridge bridge between the Tate Modern and St Paul’s Cathedral. Back on the tube to Turnham Green, where Elisse has more connections – a flute teacher who lives here and then to the bar ‘All Bar One’ where she worked, for a beer/wine and nuts.

Underground from Chiswick Park to Ealing Broadway and the bus home with shopping from Sainsbury’s – salmon steaks and roast vegies. The supermarkets have rows and rows of refrigerated and frozen prepared meals – just pick up the packet and bring it home to heat and serve. Where is the flavour? Where is the challenge to cook something a little bit unique?

We hold out long enough to speak to Ev at 11pm, but it has been a long day and we are still suffering jet lag.

Tuesday 21^st June

Hayden is off to work so we join him for breakfast. The days are very light and he mistakenly gets up at 5:30am instead of 6:30am. He uses the time writing a program.

Later in the morning we head off to London, to Camden Town and walk through the market. Very Goth, you can buy magic mushrooms to use now and to grow for later. There are heaps of tattoo places and huge chunky boots.

We find Camden Lock and walk to Little Venice. It is cooler along the water’s edge and it is very peaceful. We walk past Regent’s Park Zoo and the aviary. There are lots of kids – kid’s chatter. We walk past some fantastic houses – so Regent looking.

We have lunch at Café Laville, on the canal at Edgeware Road. There are lots of houseboats, some are pretty run down, others are very much more elaborate. It is a pretty part of the canal. London certainly does justice to summer!

We keep walking down the Grand Canal until the interest dies and the scenery becomes bland, then we get the tube to Oxford Street.

The warm weather is surprising us – so we splash out on a new shirt each. We find Hayden’s Apple Store – it is very impressive looking, a beautiful old building modernised inside.

We find King’s Cross station and meet Pat (Neale / Moody). It is great to see an old friend. Yes, I suppose we do look older, but good. We go to Covent Garden, truly don’t remember how we get there, just the messages through the underground to drink plenty of water and get out of the train if the heat is too difficult to manage. Lots of chatter.

Covent Garden is delightful. Once again, lots of flowers, street performers, people. There are no cars so it is quiet, just people noises.

We have a drink and wait for Hayden and Elisse to meet us. There are some clowns juggling. One hops on a high unicycle, wonder what Hayden thinks?

We walk to China Town. Once again, lovely walking streets, few cars, people eating and drinking at outside tables. What a lovely life in London when it is warm!

We find the ‘New World’ Chinese restaurant, a favourite of Pat and Graham’s. We have a great meal (but not a patch on the ‘Wild Bamboo’ in Hampton). Lots more chatter.

Hayden and Elisse shout us ice cream in Regent Street and we say our goodbyes. There will be more of these.

Home, exhausted. Ev wants to talk again – truly too tired for chatter.

Tuesday 22^nd June

Elisse sees us onto the tube to Marble Arch. We browse in Selfridges. Nice store, but nothing much for us to buy. Very hip people serving. A little shopping, some postcards and stamps, a battery for Evan’s camera. We walk Oxford Street to Regent Street and meet Hayden for lunch at his favourite café.

After lunch Bruce gets his camera out because we are so impressed with the Apple store. He takes a heap of photos of the store. The big glass staircase up the centre, the crowds using free internet access, the space, the lecture theatre and wireless internet access, are they there for learning or just to provide access? Is this how Apple persuades people to change platforms?

We walk up Carnaby Street. It is very tame compared to what we saw in the 70’s. Lots of brand name shops, no racks on the street, no cars, no bustle.

We take the tube to St Paul’s Cathedral. It is such a lovely clear day we decide to climb the dome. 530 steps – it is a huge climb up stone, wooden and spiral metal stairs. You really have to concentrate on the going up to avoid becoming dizzy.

We see the whispering gallery (yes whispers do travel around the walls), then up to the dome to see great views of London.

After we come down we wander through the crypt – so many dead, famous people.

Next is the Tate Modern. We spend 1½ hours just skimming through the modern art on the 4^th floor – it is an enormous gallery.

Home and out to the ‘Clay Pot’ (Indian) restaurant with Hayden and Elisse.