Mamma Mia!
Jul. 11th, 2001 01:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetThe beginning of this week was quite full and the weekend will be a trip to
Paris, so I thought I'd go ahead and write up what's been happening thus
far.
On Monday afternoon I went down to the Savoy Hotel around 2pm and hung out
with John Romkey and Michael Burg in their suite for an hour. Jason joined
us just before three and we met up with Michael's mother, Donna, and his
sister, Hillary, for a lovely tea at the hotel. I had Earl Grey tea and we
shared plates of tea sandwiches (ham, smoked salmon, prawn mayonaise,
cucumber, and tomato), scones (plain and with raisins), and pastries
(strawberry tart, mini-creme brulee, nut bread, etc.), all of which were
quite tasty. Rather than having us around a dining table, as they do at the
Ritz, we were seated on couches and arm chairs around a low coffee table,
which made for a very relaxed, cozy experience as we chatted and listened to
the pianist playing old standards in the middle of the room.
After tea, Donna and Hillary went off to do some shopping while Jason and I
joined Mike and John in their suite and gossipped for a couple of hours. It
was wonderful to catch up on what's happening with our friends in Boston.
At 6:30pm we walked up into Soho and met Carol & Scott to see Mamma Mia!,
the ABBA musical. That was wonderful! They had done a very good job with
the book, so that the songs seemed no more contrived to fit the story than
is generally true in a musical. The songs themselves are all catchy and fun
and the minor changes to them were unnoticeable. Two of the characters,
while good singers, didn't have the greatest voices, which somehow added to
the show, rather than detracting, making them seem more like real people.
There was a sympathetic, non-stereotypical gay character and the three women
in their forties were treated as sexy, beautiful women, a great thing to
see. I was so glad that Carol picked that show, because I probably never
would have, and I would have been missing out.
After the show we went around the corner to Y Ming, one of our favorite
Chinese restaurants. Jason tried their chicken corn soup and Carol their
crab corn soup, while Scott and I went with their excellent hot & sour
soup. We shared some prawn/almond rolls and some fried dumplings and then
had a winter hot pot of chicken and dry sausage, Tibetan lamb in garlic
sauce, and sizzling prawns with garlic, all of which were quite tasty.
Carol got one of the peppers from the lamb which the waiter had warned us
not to eat, and made great faces trying to cool off her mouth.
On Tuesday I spent much of the day reading about how Brunelleschi built the
dome on the cathedral in Florence, starting my research into what we need to
see in Tuscany. In the evening we had dinner at L'Estaminet--the French
place Jason and I discovered a couple of weeks ago--with John, Mike, Donna,
Hillary, Carol, Scott, Barbara and Leah. I had their prawn brochette again
and shared a Chateaubriand for three with Jason and Barbara. It was
accompanied by a grilled tomato, lovely French beans and their excellent
pommes frites. For dessert I had strawberries and blueberries with cream.
With wine, the bill came to just about #40/person.
We came home and I showed our wedding pictures to Carol & Scott and then
talked to Dave Policar for a while. It was quite late and I planned to
check my email quickly and head up to bed, but my email contained very sad
news. A friend from MIT, Vanessa Brown, apparently killed herself about two
weeks ago. We had lost touch after we both left Boston five years ago, but
I am very sad to lose the opportunity to ever get back in touch and to think
of her feeling that kind of pain and isolation. So it has been a sad day.
We'll be off to Paris via the Chunnel train tomorrow to celebrate Jason's
birthday in style. We return on Monday and I'm sure I'll have lots of
adventures to relate.
I hope all of you are well. Vanessa's death has made me want to reach out
to every single person I know, to tell all of you that I am so glad you are
in my life.
Paris, so I thought I'd go ahead and write up what's been happening thus
far.
On Monday afternoon I went down to the Savoy Hotel around 2pm and hung out
with John Romkey and Michael Burg in their suite for an hour. Jason joined
us just before three and we met up with Michael's mother, Donna, and his
sister, Hillary, for a lovely tea at the hotel. I had Earl Grey tea and we
shared plates of tea sandwiches (ham, smoked salmon, prawn mayonaise,
cucumber, and tomato), scones (plain and with raisins), and pastries
(strawberry tart, mini-creme brulee, nut bread, etc.), all of which were
quite tasty. Rather than having us around a dining table, as they do at the
Ritz, we were seated on couches and arm chairs around a low coffee table,
which made for a very relaxed, cozy experience as we chatted and listened to
the pianist playing old standards in the middle of the room.
After tea, Donna and Hillary went off to do some shopping while Jason and I
joined Mike and John in their suite and gossipped for a couple of hours. It
was wonderful to catch up on what's happening with our friends in Boston.
At 6:30pm we walked up into Soho and met Carol & Scott to see Mamma Mia!,
the ABBA musical. That was wonderful! They had done a very good job with
the book, so that the songs seemed no more contrived to fit the story than
is generally true in a musical. The songs themselves are all catchy and fun
and the minor changes to them were unnoticeable. Two of the characters,
while good singers, didn't have the greatest voices, which somehow added to
the show, rather than detracting, making them seem more like real people.
There was a sympathetic, non-stereotypical gay character and the three women
in their forties were treated as sexy, beautiful women, a great thing to
see. I was so glad that Carol picked that show, because I probably never
would have, and I would have been missing out.
After the show we went around the corner to Y Ming, one of our favorite
Chinese restaurants. Jason tried their chicken corn soup and Carol their
crab corn soup, while Scott and I went with their excellent hot & sour
soup. We shared some prawn/almond rolls and some fried dumplings and then
had a winter hot pot of chicken and dry sausage, Tibetan lamb in garlic
sauce, and sizzling prawns with garlic, all of which were quite tasty.
Carol got one of the peppers from the lamb which the waiter had warned us
not to eat, and made great faces trying to cool off her mouth.
On Tuesday I spent much of the day reading about how Brunelleschi built the
dome on the cathedral in Florence, starting my research into what we need to
see in Tuscany. In the evening we had dinner at L'Estaminet--the French
place Jason and I discovered a couple of weeks ago--with John, Mike, Donna,
Hillary, Carol, Scott, Barbara and Leah. I had their prawn brochette again
and shared a Chateaubriand for three with Jason and Barbara. It was
accompanied by a grilled tomato, lovely French beans and their excellent
pommes frites. For dessert I had strawberries and blueberries with cream.
With wine, the bill came to just about #40/person.
We came home and I showed our wedding pictures to Carol & Scott and then
talked to Dave Policar for a while. It was quite late and I planned to
check my email quickly and head up to bed, but my email contained very sad
news. A friend from MIT, Vanessa Brown, apparently killed herself about two
weeks ago. We had lost touch after we both left Boston five years ago, but
I am very sad to lose the opportunity to ever get back in touch and to think
of her feeling that kind of pain and isolation. So it has been a sad day.
We'll be off to Paris via the Chunnel train tomorrow to celebrate Jason's
birthday in style. We return on Monday and I'm sure I'll have lots of
adventures to relate.
I hope all of you are well. Vanessa's death has made me want to reach out
to every single person I know, to tell all of you that I am so glad you are
in my life.
