At Home in London
Feb. 18th, 2002 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetHope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day. Jason snuck out and got me a
pretty potted rosebush with a couple of blooms and several other buds. It
will be fun to see how well it thrives in my window. In the evening we got
seasonally dressed (I wore the red top and black flowered skirt you gave me,
Mom, and Jason his burgundy dress shirt with one of the ties his mother
chose for him) and went down to the West End. We had decided to try
Kettner's, the place we've noticed across from YMing. It has a very ornate,
old-fashioned dining room, but its menu is pizza, pastas and burgers. We
got there pretty early and were seated immediately (they don't take
reservations), but by the time we left the place was full and they were
telling people it would be at least a half-hour wait. Our meal was okay,
but not exceptional in any way. We shared a green salad and then I had an
individual-size pizza and Jason tried their burger, which was dry and fairly
tasteless. We had time to kill, so we split a slice of apple pie for
dessert. That left us with just the right amount of time to get to the
theatre.
The show was Noel Coward's _Private Lives_, starring Alan Rickman and
Lindsay Duncan. He was a bit stiff in the first act, although he warmed up
considerably in the second and third. She was marvelous throughout. The
supporting characters were fine, although they are such annoying roles I
think it's very hard for anyone to be likeable in them. The sets were very
nice, all built at angles the reviews had said evoked the effects love has
on our sense of perspective. Overall, it was a good evening out and made us
feel very lucky in our love and marriage. And afterwards I got to see the
finals of men's Olympic figure skating. It was great to see a clean, clear
win.
I was craving sushi again, so we went back to Asakusa for a second try on
Friday night. The hamachi was, if anything, even better than the first time
we were there, and it was a good meal. However, they were very crowded and
had asked when I called if we'd mind sitting aat the sushi bar. This is
placed in the passage to the kitchen and is built such that you can't see
what the sushi chef is doing, so it loses the usual entertainment value. I
think that in the future we'll wait to go on a night when they have a table
for us. Afterwards we came home and I watched some of the ice dancing
compulsories.
Saturday was a gorgeous, sunny day and both warmer and less windy than it
had been during the week, so we went to the London Zoo! We both have our
childhood stories about going to the zoo (or attempting to do so) which we
enjoyed remembering on the way. The nearest tube station is Camden Town,
which we can reach via the bus that passes our house, so we had a nice ride
on top of the double-decker and then a lovely stroll through Camden Town and
Regents Park. It's not the most exciting zoo I've ever visited, but they
had some nifty creatures and nice exhibits. After a while outside, it got
pretty cold, but then we could duck into the various animal houses and warm
up. One of our favorite moments was in the reptile house, where we watched
a snake-necked terrapin (like a turtle) get itself stuck upside down in the
rocks and have to work for several minutes to right itself. Once it got its
head free it peered around at us with a look that clearly said "Well, that
was humiliating--hope no one saw me!"
We saw so many fun things...lots of nifty snakes and skinks and turtles and
gorgeous blue and golden poison frogs. We saw giraffes and new-to-us hoofed
mammals okapi and bongos. We saw red pigs and meerkats and lots of tiny
primates, including pygmy marmosets (the smallest primates), and golden lion
tamarins. They seemed to have an abundance of short-eared elephant
shrews--funny little mouse-like creatures with their tongues always stuck
out like an elephant trunk. We saw a tiger and a couple of different kinds
of jaguar and an Asian lion. We saw penguins and Bactrian camels and a wide
variety of pretty birds. I especially liked the lilac-breasted roller and
the socorro doves. One of the handlers was out for a stroll with a European
eagle owl (the largest species of owl in the world) perched on his glove, so
we got to meet Max up close.
We stayed there until closing time and then walked back to the tube and
headed to Leicester Square. We were hoping to see Gosford Park at the
Curzon Soho at 6:00pm, but by the time we got there at 5:15, that show was
already sold out. We decided to head home via Holborn, since the tube
station at Leicester Square was messed up. A couple of blocks up, we passed
the Odeon Covent Garden, which happened to have tickets available for the
5:35pm showing of Gosford Park, so we ducked right in and got great seats
without having to wait around at all.
The movie was a lot of fun. It's just my kind of thing and it was nifty to
see all the actors and try to figure out where I'd seen them before. I
really enjoyed the whole upstairs/downstairs plotline. After the movie we
did head home to order a pizza and watch some TV.
On Sunday we went over to Notting Hill to meet Barbara for lunch. We were
quite early, so we took a turn through Kensington Gardens. The lake there
has the most enormous swans in the world and there were three members of the
Model Yacht Association of London out sailing boats by remote. We watched
for a few minutes before heading back up to meet Barbara at the Park Inn,
the Chinese restaurant where we always go for king prawn fried noodles and
green beans. Imagine our shock when we got there to find an Indian
resturant in its place! In our grief, we wandered around the corner to the
Queensway, a small second-Chinatown area. We tried a place that looked
pretty good and they had king prawn fried noodles that were passable, but
just not up to our usual standards. There was a Chinese New Year parade
going on, so we got to hear the drums and watch the dragons dancing. It was
great to see Barbara and catch up on her latest stories from the world of
extreme dating.
After lunch we said goodbye and took the tube over to Tottenham Court Road
and walked down Charing Cross Road to Trafalgar Square. That took us right
by Chinatown and there was a huge event happening in Trafalgar Square, so we
were quite immersed in the New Year crowd. We were taking a chance that
there might be tickets available to the special exhibit of Mario Testino's
photography at the National Portrait Gallery, but they were sold out. We
went around the corner to the National Gallery instead and wandered through
the Sainsbury Wing, which houses their collection of art from 1260 to 1500.
We had been before, but not since our trip to Italy, so it was great to see
the works with a richer context and they have some new pieces that were
pretty exciting. We especially enjoyed the works of Carlo Crivelli, who
hasn't really registered with either of us before.
The #29 bus route ends just outside the National Gallery, so we went out and
listened to the Chinese music in the square until a bus came and then dozed
our way across town to our doorstep quite conveniently. We spent a quiet
evening at home. I was feeling grumpy, so I went to sleep early and that
seems to have replenished my sorts as hoped.
Now it's time for me to get started on tidying up the flat in preparation
for the arrival of Tom & steve on Thursday!
pretty potted rosebush with a couple of blooms and several other buds. It
will be fun to see how well it thrives in my window. In the evening we got
seasonally dressed (I wore the red top and black flowered skirt you gave me,
Mom, and Jason his burgundy dress shirt with one of the ties his mother
chose for him) and went down to the West End. We had decided to try
Kettner's, the place we've noticed across from YMing. It has a very ornate,
old-fashioned dining room, but its menu is pizza, pastas and burgers. We
got there pretty early and were seated immediately (they don't take
reservations), but by the time we left the place was full and they were
telling people it would be at least a half-hour wait. Our meal was okay,
but not exceptional in any way. We shared a green salad and then I had an
individual-size pizza and Jason tried their burger, which was dry and fairly
tasteless. We had time to kill, so we split a slice of apple pie for
dessert. That left us with just the right amount of time to get to the
theatre.
The show was Noel Coward's _Private Lives_, starring Alan Rickman and
Lindsay Duncan. He was a bit stiff in the first act, although he warmed up
considerably in the second and third. She was marvelous throughout. The
supporting characters were fine, although they are such annoying roles I
think it's very hard for anyone to be likeable in them. The sets were very
nice, all built at angles the reviews had said evoked the effects love has
on our sense of perspective. Overall, it was a good evening out and made us
feel very lucky in our love and marriage. And afterwards I got to see the
finals of men's Olympic figure skating. It was great to see a clean, clear
win.
I was craving sushi again, so we went back to Asakusa for a second try on
Friday night. The hamachi was, if anything, even better than the first time
we were there, and it was a good meal. However, they were very crowded and
had asked when I called if we'd mind sitting aat the sushi bar. This is
placed in the passage to the kitchen and is built such that you can't see
what the sushi chef is doing, so it loses the usual entertainment value. I
think that in the future we'll wait to go on a night when they have a table
for us. Afterwards we came home and I watched some of the ice dancing
compulsories.
Saturday was a gorgeous, sunny day and both warmer and less windy than it
had been during the week, so we went to the London Zoo! We both have our
childhood stories about going to the zoo (or attempting to do so) which we
enjoyed remembering on the way. The nearest tube station is Camden Town,
which we can reach via the bus that passes our house, so we had a nice ride
on top of the double-decker and then a lovely stroll through Camden Town and
Regents Park. It's not the most exciting zoo I've ever visited, but they
had some nifty creatures and nice exhibits. After a while outside, it got
pretty cold, but then we could duck into the various animal houses and warm
up. One of our favorite moments was in the reptile house, where we watched
a snake-necked terrapin (like a turtle) get itself stuck upside down in the
rocks and have to work for several minutes to right itself. Once it got its
head free it peered around at us with a look that clearly said "Well, that
was humiliating--hope no one saw me!"
We saw so many fun things...lots of nifty snakes and skinks and turtles and
gorgeous blue and golden poison frogs. We saw giraffes and new-to-us hoofed
mammals okapi and bongos. We saw red pigs and meerkats and lots of tiny
primates, including pygmy marmosets (the smallest primates), and golden lion
tamarins. They seemed to have an abundance of short-eared elephant
shrews--funny little mouse-like creatures with their tongues always stuck
out like an elephant trunk. We saw a tiger and a couple of different kinds
of jaguar and an Asian lion. We saw penguins and Bactrian camels and a wide
variety of pretty birds. I especially liked the lilac-breasted roller and
the socorro doves. One of the handlers was out for a stroll with a European
eagle owl (the largest species of owl in the world) perched on his glove, so
we got to meet Max up close.
We stayed there until closing time and then walked back to the tube and
headed to Leicester Square. We were hoping to see Gosford Park at the
Curzon Soho at 6:00pm, but by the time we got there at 5:15, that show was
already sold out. We decided to head home via Holborn, since the tube
station at Leicester Square was messed up. A couple of blocks up, we passed
the Odeon Covent Garden, which happened to have tickets available for the
5:35pm showing of Gosford Park, so we ducked right in and got great seats
without having to wait around at all.
The movie was a lot of fun. It's just my kind of thing and it was nifty to
see all the actors and try to figure out where I'd seen them before. I
really enjoyed the whole upstairs/downstairs plotline. After the movie we
did head home to order a pizza and watch some TV.
On Sunday we went over to Notting Hill to meet Barbara for lunch. We were
quite early, so we took a turn through Kensington Gardens. The lake there
has the most enormous swans in the world and there were three members of the
Model Yacht Association of London out sailing boats by remote. We watched
for a few minutes before heading back up to meet Barbara at the Park Inn,
the Chinese restaurant where we always go for king prawn fried noodles and
green beans. Imagine our shock when we got there to find an Indian
resturant in its place! In our grief, we wandered around the corner to the
Queensway, a small second-Chinatown area. We tried a place that looked
pretty good and they had king prawn fried noodles that were passable, but
just not up to our usual standards. There was a Chinese New Year parade
going on, so we got to hear the drums and watch the dragons dancing. It was
great to see Barbara and catch up on her latest stories from the world of
extreme dating.
After lunch we said goodbye and took the tube over to Tottenham Court Road
and walked down Charing Cross Road to Trafalgar Square. That took us right
by Chinatown and there was a huge event happening in Trafalgar Square, so we
were quite immersed in the New Year crowd. We were taking a chance that
there might be tickets available to the special exhibit of Mario Testino's
photography at the National Portrait Gallery, but they were sold out. We
went around the corner to the National Gallery instead and wandered through
the Sainsbury Wing, which houses their collection of art from 1260 to 1500.
We had been before, but not since our trip to Italy, so it was great to see
the works with a richer context and they have some new pieces that were
pretty exciting. We especially enjoyed the works of Carlo Crivelli, who
hasn't really registered with either of us before.
The #29 bus route ends just outside the National Gallery, so we went out and
listened to the Chinese music in the square until a bus came and then dozed
our way across town to our doorstep quite conveniently. We spent a quiet
evening at home. I was feeling grumpy, so I went to sleep early and that
seems to have replenished my sorts as hoped.
Now it's time for me to get started on tidying up the flat in preparation
for the arrival of Tom & steve on Thursday!
