Sonja & John's Visit
Mar. 23rd, 2001 04:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetSonja & John arrived around noon on Saturday. John took a nap while Sonja
and I set off to take the London Walks tour of Old Kensington.
Unfortunately, we missed the beginning of the walk, so we wandered a bit on
our own down High Street Kensington and stopped into St. Mary's church
before getting some lunch at the Prince of Wales pub. We went back to the
flat, picked up the boys and joined the St. Patrick's Day pub walk.
Although it was led by Shaughan, one of our favorite guides, the walk was
somewhat disappointing. The pubs were very crowded and the walk didn't have
a whole lot of content. It ended near Covent Garden, so we walked over to
La Tasca and had dinner of tapas.
On Sunday I went with Sonja & John down to visit the Design Museum. We
stopped at the cafe of the Coffee & Tea Museum on the way and enjoyed a
lovely pot of Darjeeling and some pastries and wandered through their gift
shop for a while. The Design Museum itself was very cool. Their special
exhibit, on the work of Mexican architect Luis Barragan, wasn't very
illuminating, but the main section was interesting. My favorite part was
the results of a competition where a group of designers were asked to design
a piece of children's furniture from one 4x8 sheet of plywood--the best was
a car that turns upside down to become a seesaw. After a stop at Pizza
Express for lunch, we wandered down the Thames to the Tate Modern. Jason
met us there and I headed home and scanned Egypt pictures until the others
got home and we all ordered Chinese food.
On Monday Sonja, John and I went down to Madame Tusseaud's. John went on a
walk to find an ATM and a post office while Sonja and I chatted on line for
an hour. They had really changed the route since I was there in November,
so that now the section devoted to movie stars is left out of the tour. We
grabbed fish & chips at The Globe pub and then walked over to the Wallace
Collection. I had never heard of it, but John & Sonja had visited it on
their last trip to London. It's a wonderful collection of European
paintings and decorative arts (porcelain, silver plate, furniture) as well
as several rooms of European and Persian armour. John's brother is in the
SCA and very interested in armour and I was pleased to find in their gift
shop a reprint from the journal _Neuropsychology_ entitled "Head Protection
in England Prior to the First World War," all about helmet technology. We
made a stop at home to drop off bags and pick up Jason and headed back out
for another wonderful dinner at Pierre Victore.
Jason went to work on Tuesday and John & Sonja went off to the British
Museum, while I stayed home and finished the scanning and caught up on
various chores. In the evening I made fried chicken for all of us.
On Wednesday Sonja, John and I took the London Walks Explorer Day to Bath.
We met Richard, our guide, and 18 other people at Paddington (after briefly
losing Sonja on the tube) and had a lovely ride through the countryside to
Bath. Richard showed us around the town, telling us its history from the
Roman era up to the present day, focusing on Bath's heyday as a popular
watering hole in the eighteenth century. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the
Sally Lunn Cafe, specializing in Sally Lunn buns, a not-unlike-brioche
pastry that is right on the border between savory and sweet. After lunch we
toured the Bath Abbey, with its gorgeous fan-vaulted ceiling, which has been
partially repainted as medieval churches were before the Puritans came in
with their scouring faith. In general, Bath is a very lovely place and I
enjoyed seeing the squares, circus and royal crescent designed by John Wood
pere et fils. The most exciting part of the day for me was seeing the Upper
Assembly Rooms, where I could say "this is the fireplace in the Octagon Room
where Anne Ellis is standing when Captain Wentworth walks in late in
_Persuasion" and the ballroom where so many important scenes of Jane
Austen's works take place. It was Austen's connection with Bath that made
me particularly interested in seeing Bath and I was richly rewarded. In the
late afternoon, while John & Sonja and most of the rest of the group went
into the museum to see the original Roman baths, I ran back up the hill to
the Jane Austen Centre. In addition to a twenty minute talk about the
author's life, they have an exhibit of various areas of Bath that figure in
her work, period costumes and rooms. Our train back to London was a few
minutes late and we scurried to make our 7:45pm curtain, but did so in good
time.
The show was Stephen Daldry's production of J.B. Priestly's _An Inspector
Calls_. It was fairly spectacular, but none of us really enjoyed it. Our
dinner afterwards at Bella Pasta, across the street, was much more
enjoyable.
One of the things I disliked about the play was the extensive use of
stagefog, which made me cough as it rolled out over the audience. My throat
stayed raw and by the time I woke up on Thursday, it was clear I had come
down with a cold. I spent the day doing clerical catch-up and resting on
the couch watching Buffy. Jason had picked that day as a good opportunity
to make up for having blown off doing anything for Valentine's Day and
brought home a gorgeous flower arrangement including the two types of rose
used in our wedding flowers. He then proceeded to make salmon for us for
dinner. (John & Sonja had spent the day out & about and saw _Copenhagen_ in
the evening.)
Today I spent another day on the couch, trying to whip this cold. In the
evening, Leah and Barbara joined the four of us to read _The Importance of
Being Earnest_ and eat Chinese food. Barbara had her pictures from Uganda
for us to look through and much fun was had all around. I am still feeling
very tired and achey, but better tonight than last night. I'm hoping one
more day of downtime will do the trick.
and I set off to take the London Walks tour of Old Kensington.
Unfortunately, we missed the beginning of the walk, so we wandered a bit on
our own down High Street Kensington and stopped into St. Mary's church
before getting some lunch at the Prince of Wales pub. We went back to the
flat, picked up the boys and joined the St. Patrick's Day pub walk.
Although it was led by Shaughan, one of our favorite guides, the walk was
somewhat disappointing. The pubs were very crowded and the walk didn't have
a whole lot of content. It ended near Covent Garden, so we walked over to
La Tasca and had dinner of tapas.
On Sunday I went with Sonja & John down to visit the Design Museum. We
stopped at the cafe of the Coffee & Tea Museum on the way and enjoyed a
lovely pot of Darjeeling and some pastries and wandered through their gift
shop for a while. The Design Museum itself was very cool. Their special
exhibit, on the work of Mexican architect Luis Barragan, wasn't very
illuminating, but the main section was interesting. My favorite part was
the results of a competition where a group of designers were asked to design
a piece of children's furniture from one 4x8 sheet of plywood--the best was
a car that turns upside down to become a seesaw. After a stop at Pizza
Express for lunch, we wandered down the Thames to the Tate Modern. Jason
met us there and I headed home and scanned Egypt pictures until the others
got home and we all ordered Chinese food.
On Monday Sonja, John and I went down to Madame Tusseaud's. John went on a
walk to find an ATM and a post office while Sonja and I chatted on line for
an hour. They had really changed the route since I was there in November,
so that now the section devoted to movie stars is left out of the tour. We
grabbed fish & chips at The Globe pub and then walked over to the Wallace
Collection. I had never heard of it, but John & Sonja had visited it on
their last trip to London. It's a wonderful collection of European
paintings and decorative arts (porcelain, silver plate, furniture) as well
as several rooms of European and Persian armour. John's brother is in the
SCA and very interested in armour and I was pleased to find in their gift
shop a reprint from the journal _Neuropsychology_ entitled "Head Protection
in England Prior to the First World War," all about helmet technology. We
made a stop at home to drop off bags and pick up Jason and headed back out
for another wonderful dinner at Pierre Victore.
Jason went to work on Tuesday and John & Sonja went off to the British
Museum, while I stayed home and finished the scanning and caught up on
various chores. In the evening I made fried chicken for all of us.
On Wednesday Sonja, John and I took the London Walks Explorer Day to Bath.
We met Richard, our guide, and 18 other people at Paddington (after briefly
losing Sonja on the tube) and had a lovely ride through the countryside to
Bath. Richard showed us around the town, telling us its history from the
Roman era up to the present day, focusing on Bath's heyday as a popular
watering hole in the eighteenth century. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the
Sally Lunn Cafe, specializing in Sally Lunn buns, a not-unlike-brioche
pastry that is right on the border between savory and sweet. After lunch we
toured the Bath Abbey, with its gorgeous fan-vaulted ceiling, which has been
partially repainted as medieval churches were before the Puritans came in
with their scouring faith. In general, Bath is a very lovely place and I
enjoyed seeing the squares, circus and royal crescent designed by John Wood
pere et fils. The most exciting part of the day for me was seeing the Upper
Assembly Rooms, where I could say "this is the fireplace in the Octagon Room
where Anne Ellis is standing when Captain Wentworth walks in late in
_Persuasion" and the ballroom where so many important scenes of Jane
Austen's works take place. It was Austen's connection with Bath that made
me particularly interested in seeing Bath and I was richly rewarded. In the
late afternoon, while John & Sonja and most of the rest of the group went
into the museum to see the original Roman baths, I ran back up the hill to
the Jane Austen Centre. In addition to a twenty minute talk about the
author's life, they have an exhibit of various areas of Bath that figure in
her work, period costumes and rooms. Our train back to London was a few
minutes late and we scurried to make our 7:45pm curtain, but did so in good
time.
The show was Stephen Daldry's production of J.B. Priestly's _An Inspector
Calls_. It was fairly spectacular, but none of us really enjoyed it. Our
dinner afterwards at Bella Pasta, across the street, was much more
enjoyable.
One of the things I disliked about the play was the extensive use of
stagefog, which made me cough as it rolled out over the audience. My throat
stayed raw and by the time I woke up on Thursday, it was clear I had come
down with a cold. I spent the day doing clerical catch-up and resting on
the couch watching Buffy. Jason had picked that day as a good opportunity
to make up for having blown off doing anything for Valentine's Day and
brought home a gorgeous flower arrangement including the two types of rose
used in our wedding flowers. He then proceeded to make salmon for us for
dinner. (John & Sonja had spent the day out & about and saw _Copenhagen_ in
the evening.)
Today I spent another day on the couch, trying to whip this cold. In the
evening, Leah and Barbara joined the four of us to read _The Importance of
Being Earnest_ and eat Chinese food. Barbara had her pictures from Uganda
for us to look through and much fun was had all around. I am still feeling
very tired and achey, but better tonight than last night. I'm hoping one
more day of downtime will do the trick.
