At Home in London

On Monday night we introduced Steve and Trish to the joys of YMing and to
our friend Jo, who joined us for dinner. Afterwards we raced home to watch
our new addiction, _Waking the Dead_, a BBC show somewhat like CSI.

On Tuesday I roasted the beef that had been taking up most of my freezer.
Jo was home all day awaiting builders and Jason's friend Lauren. The plan
had been that Lauren would arrive in London on Monday, spend that night in a
hotel with a friend, see the friend off to Greece, then stay with Jo for a
few nights until our guest room freed up. No word from her on Monday. No
word from her all day on Tuesday. Jo came over for dinner, figuring that
Lauren had her mobile number and our number. Still no word. We were really
beginning to get nervous when Jason got email from Lauren explaining that
she had suffered from a major panic attack and would not be coming. That
alleviated our concern on one front, at least, and got Jo off the hook on
housing guests with no kitchen. The roast beef turned out well, too.

Having decided that a big joint anniversary present would be more fun than
individual ones, and that this was the perfect occasion to use up the
Harrods gift certificates that Jason's cousin gave us as a wedding present,
we went down to Knightsbridge on Wednesday afternoon. Jason had never been
upstairs in Harrods, so that was half the fun, just wandering through the
miles of showrooms--who buys their refrigerator at Harrods?! We looked at
many pretty things, but quickly decided that a clock was the perfect gift
for ourselves. It's a very traditional, round wall-clock with a rim of
polished wood and brass, and on the face it has the maker's name and
"LONDON," so it will always remind us of our time here.

That decision made, we went downstairs, first to the Harrod's gift shop,
where Jason decided that he should have the Harrods 2002 bear, "Giles," in
his wooly jumper, and I got the peacock tin that has stuck in my head since
I was there with B. in July. Then we moved on to the food halls, where we
picked up various tasty bits that appealed to us including smoked wild
venison, spicy salami (spinata calabrese), smoked Spanish ham (jamon
serrano), herring in sour cream, squat lobster tails in brine, a selection
of pakoras and samosas (Indian dumplings), chicken fried rice, Thai
stir-fried vegetables, smoked trout and swordfish, cornichons, oak-smoked
cheddar and aged Emmenthal, a couple of baguettes, a roll of salmon stuffed
with minced prawn, a couple of lychees and a mangosteen, a box of chocolates
and a selection of single-serving tartes (raspberry mousse, fruit tarte,
chocolate cake, and caramel-apple cheesecake).

We hopped on the tube to come home, but there were massive delays on the
Picadilly line, so at Picadilly Circus we ran upstairs and jumped in a cab,
so we could get home to feed all our goodies to Steve & Trish, along with a
jar of lobster bisque from our Christmas hamper that we've never found
occasion to eat before. It was all delicious and there was plenty left for
lunch the next two days.

Trish's birthday is the 21st, but she would be home in Seattle by then, so
we decided that Thursday--their last day in London--would do as a stand-in.
We sent Steve & Trish off to the matinee of _Stones in His Pockets_ (which
they enjoyed very much) and met them afterwards at the Congress Centre on
Great Russell Street to see a reading by Iain Banks in the same venue where
we'd seen Neil Gaiman read last month. (Speaking of whom, did everyone hear
that he won the Hugo for his novel, _American Gods_?) I'd never seen Banks
before and it was a real eye-opener. He's very like many of the
40-something, shaggy sf fans I've known, but Scottish. Very Scottish.
Talking thick and quick, he took us through two bits of his new book, _Dead
Air_, and then answered questions for about an hour. It was great to hear
explanations of the structures of his works and his intentions and
inspirations. The overwhelming impression, however, was that I will have to
read his books faster in the future!

After the reading we grabbed a train from Tottenham Court Road up to Chalk
Farm and walked over the tracks to Odette's. It was noisier there than I've
ever known it to be, but the food was wonderful. They had substantially
changed their menu since our last visit, but still had the fried-oyster
starter with tuna and makerel sashimi, duck prosciutto, and small dabs of
pureed melon--it's such a wonderful combination of flavors and textures that
I couldn't pass up one more chance at it. Part of me really wanted the
fillet of beef, but I'd had so much red meat this week that I let Jason talk
me into the sea-bass, which was served on a "compote" of prawns and
lettuces, with a scoop of fresh, course tomato paste on top. For dessert I
had the grilled peaches with a slice of French toast (tho' they didn't call
it that) and a scoop of fresh pistachio ice cream. Steve & Trish asked what
we would recommend and we confessed that it's hard to know because nothing
we've had there hasn't been fabulous.

Quickly around the rest of the table: Jason started with the soft-shelled
crab and smoked salmon, followed by the lamb with rosti potatoes, with the
apple tarte fine (no crust) for dessert. Steve & Trish split the native
lobster salad, then he had the lamb and she the Dover sole. Dessert was a
bit rushed, because unlike the 20-30 minutes it has taken in the past for a
taxi to arrive, this time--since I remembered to ask them to call when they
brought our desserts--it arrived before we finished our coffee or had our
bill. But it was nice to make it home so quickly and easily and we enjoyed
giving Trish the book of _Artists' Gardens_ we had found for her before
seeing them off to bed.

They spent Friday morning packing and preparing to leave and then we all
shared a last lunch, making sandwiches from the Harrods goodies, before it
was time for them to head toward Heathrow for the long journey back to
Seattle.

On Friday afternoon we got the final estimate from our contractors for the
work we need done on the house, which also included a lot of work they think
needs doing that we can do ourselves. It was a lot like the experience of
being swarmed by souvenir vendors in Egypt--you just have to keep saying
"No, no, no, no, no!" So we spent a while stressing about it all and
deciding that we can live without re-doing the bathroom and all will be
well.

We spent Friday evening with Jo, meeting her friend Justin, seeing her newly
re-ceilinged kitchen--the plaster is brown!--and going to see _Bourne
Identity_. We thought it was a fun chase, nothing to do with the book,
really, but streamlined and well-shot. Afterwards we picked up chicken
doner kebabs at a shop near the cinema before saying our farewells--Jo was
off to Boston the next day--and heading home again.

On Saturday we were lazy. The only thing we did was watch TV. Jason had
found two different pilots for Joss Whedon's new series, _Firefly_ (the one
Joss made originally, and another episode that FOX picked to show instead),
so we watched both of those and then one of the two episodes of CSI that we
missed the first time around. We ordered pizza and I talked to various
people and it was a generally relaxing day. Sian Gramatis came by for about
five minutes to drop off her bag--she's in England for meetings and with
Lauren bagging on us, our guest room is available for Monday and Tuesday,
when Sian gets back from Oxford, so we'll see her more then.

Having indulged our laziness, I was raring to go on Sunday. Once I got
Jason up and going, we went down to the Museum of London, which takes up the
corner of the Barbican Centre near St. Paul's. It's a nifty place--a very
modern building, set around an inner courtyard with a lovely garden and
looking out on various remaining bits of the old city walls--that traces the
history of the city from the time of the Romans. They're in the process of
setting up a gallery that will examine the pre-Roman settlements in the
area, but that won't be finished until Summer 2002, according to the signs
:) We started out slowly in the Roman galleries, moving more and more
quickly as we proceeded through the Saxon, Medieval, Tudor, Stuart and
Hanoverian sections. Near the entrance to the museum are markers denoting
the site of the "evangelical conversion" of the Wesley brothers, John and
Charles, the founders of the Methodist movement.

We had skipped lunch and the museum cafe held nothing to tempt us, so we set
off toward Holborn at a brisk pace. That end of town is pretty dead on
weekends (the City of London itself has only about 8000 residents, though
weekdays find over a million people there), so we walked quite a
ways--getting caught in a brief downpour along the way--before finding a
Cafe Pasta where we could get a bowl of mussels and some pizza. We had
thought about seeing a movie, but the one we most wanted to see had already
started by the time we finished our late lunch, so we went home and watched
the other episode of CSI that Jason had downloaded and I made a tuna
casserole for a late supper.

So, a relaxing weekend and only two more to go. Now it's time for me to get
going on the various tasks awaiting me. Without the need to pack for
ourselves, there's not a lot of pressure to this move, but there are still
things to accomplish before the appointed day.