Back in a London State of Mind! Tate Britain, Pitzhanger Manor and Ealing Cricket Club

Friday, August 9. 2019
London

Back in a London State of Mind! Tate Britain, Pitzhanger Manor and Ealing Cricket Club

    Hiya from London!
    There is nothing more exciting that returning to a place you consider your second home and then conquering it like a Boss! I did that today...and loved it!
     Up at 4.15 am (yes, that is 4. 15 am) because my body clock is still functioning on Bombay time, I spent a while in my bed on my laptop catching up on my blog posts--and I managed to put quite a few of them on my blog. Roz, my hostess, was working today but her husband Chrisite was around--he'd be attending to his business in India while online. I was given the house keys and told to come in and go out as I pleased. Before she left for work, I gave Roz the gifts I bought her--English Pear and Freesia perfume from Jo Malone and Indian glass bead jewelry that I had bought from Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu. I thought it would be significant because she is truly an English rose and because Christie is based in Chennai in Tamil Nadu although he is a Keralite.
     After Roz left, I showered and dressed and had my breakfast--Sainsbury's muesli with Spanish Honey and Ginger yoghurt from Sainsbury (I cannot find my favorite Hazelnut yogurt from Sainsbury--have they discontinued it?) I also brewed myself a cup of decaff coffee as I sat and watched the BBC Breakfast Show on TV.
     At about 9.00 am, Christie was kind enough to set out with me to the local shops as I needed to do two things: I needed to find an ATM to get some British currency and I needed to buy a British SIM card--possibly Lebara as I have alway used that brand. We drew a blank with the ATM machine (which was not working on Battersea Park Road) but we had success at the corner shop with Nero, a Sri Lankan who fitted me in with a Lebara card and then sold me a plan for 10 pounds that gave me unlimited calls and texts in the UK, about 3 GB worth of data and 100 international calling minutes which will work very well in my calls to Dad and Russel. Sorted! I would keep my eyes open for another ATM somewhere. Meanwhile, I stood at the bus stop waiting for a bus to get to my first port of call--the Tate Britain on Millbank as I discovered that there was a special exhibition there on Van Gogh and England that I simply had to see.  It helped that it was drizzling and that the day promised to stay wet. Being inside in museums seemed like the best way to go.

Getting to the Tate Britain:
      Christie and I parted company as he returned home and I stood outside a florist called the Battersea Flower Station (isn't that a terrific name??) for a bus. When it came along, I asked the driver if there was a bus that would take me to Millbank to the Tate and he told me that I would have to go to Victoria and change there. His was a 44 going to Victoria--so that was what I did. It was a single decker 'bendy' bus so I did not have the pleasure of sitting on the top deck, front and center--my favorite seat of choice.
     I made a call to Dad as the bus passed by Battersea Park. We actually passed by the terraced houses in which, on a previous visit to London, my friend Shahnaz and I had stayed in a B and B. I felt strongly tempted to go and see that English landlady named Linda who had really been quite nice.   We went over the Thames at Chelsea Bridge. Then the bus made a left and headed to Victoria. Once there, I tried to get a weekly pass but the conductor dissuaded me as I told her I would only be in London for 4 days. She thought it best for me to top up as needed as the weekly Tube pass has soared to 37 pounds--when I lived in London, ten years ago, it used to cost me 22 pounds for a month! Almost double in ten years! Amazing, isn't it?
        I also felt terribly handicapped as I did not have a bus map on me. Thankfully, I had carried the London Planner which I'd had the foresight to pick up when exiting Heathrow airport and that gave me a Tube map and my bearings. At the Travel Center at Victoria, I asked for a bus map but the assistant told me that they have stopped receiving then since 2016. Everywhere folks are going green and the inconveniences are legion. I should hold on to the complete set of bus maps I have at home in Southport, Connecticut. Someday they will be worth their weight in gold!
     I then took the Victoria line going south to Pimlico Tube station (one stop away only) and then walked about five minutes to the banks of the Thames (at Millbank) where the Neo-Classical majesty of the Tate Britain loomed in front of me. It is a gorgeous building and, miraculously, because the rain had stopped although skies were still overcast, I walked with a spring in my step.

'Van Gogh and England' at the Tate Britain:
     There was a long crowd snaking its way into the museum to see the Van Gogh special exhibition entitled 'Van Gogh and England'. Luckily for me, my friend Roz (who is a passionate lover of art and has a home that resembles an art gallery), is a member and she handed me her membership card which allowed me to jump the queue and enter at my leisure. I felt a tad uncomfortable, I have to say, because as a passionate art lover myself, I'd have gladly bought a ticket--but the line was simply too long and I did not fancy waiting in it and tiring myself even before my day had begun.
     And what a fabulous exhibition it was! Years ago, when I was 21 years ago, I had read Lust for Life, Irving Stone's biography of Vincent Van Gogh--this was about the same time that the American folk singer Don McLean made Van Gogh a household name with his hit single "Starry Starry Night".  So, basically, by the time I was 22, I knew a whole lot about Van Gogh including possibly the best-known fact about his life--that he was so much in love with a prostitute who resolutely spurned his advances and in an attempt to dissuade him told him that she would spend time with him if he cut off his ear--never, for a second believing that he would actually do so! She is said to have fainted when he presented himself to her with his head bandaged--an image that the rest of the world saw in his Self-Portrait With Bandaged Head!
     This particular exhibition was wonderful. It taught me so many facts that I either did not know or had forgotten about Vincent's life. Forgive me for using his first name, but I rather think of him as a needy friend. He spoke and read five languages (including English) and was a huge fan of Charles Dickens. He read Dickens' entire output (and we all know how vast that is!). A showcase at the beginning of the exhibition held The Complete Works of Dickens and I thought that was a significant fact on Book Lovers Day--at least that was what Twitter told me it was!
     Inside, were the paintings at the National Gallery that had greatly influenced Van Gogh's early work such as Hobbema's Avenue at Middelharnis (which is one of my favorite paintings at the National). There were lots of examples of his work that owe some inspiration to England or that were done while he lived in England or that influenced British artists. His other Starry Night (in Arles) was on display as were his Boots--really special were the large number of paintings that I had never seen in any museum before.
     I could not leave the Tate Britain without paying a visit again to the Clore Gallery to see the Turners there--and once again, I was struck by how different and classical his early works are from the later ones--indeed, I would venture to say that he was the first Impressionist! There were also some wonderful Constables there including his View of Salisbury Cathedral from The Meadows which I had actually gone out to search for when I was in Salisbury ten years ago--and I found the spot from which he painted this scene (it has not changed much at all in two centuries!).
     I then walked to the Tube station and got on the Central Line to head straight for Ealing as I had a couple of places I wanted to see there and had a fiend to meet.

Lunch at The Hare and Tortoise:
     Getting out of Ealing Broadway station took me nostalgically back to the time I lived there, a couple of years ago, at the end of my Graduate Research Institute Fellowship at NYU-London. I was hungry--so I headed straight to The Hare and Tortoise where I actually dream of the Singapore Curry Laksa for days before I land in London. It is a humongous bowl of curried soup made with a coconut milk base that is crammed with every good thing imaginable--from chicken breast and prawns to fish sausage, bean sprouts, rice noodles (loads of them!) and sliced courgettes (green squash). They had a special lunch deal on it: 9.50 pounds with a drink (I got a Diet Coke)--usually the soup alone is 11 pounds! Deal! I loved it. I savored every spoonful. I would have loved to take longer but I had lots to do--45 minutes later, I was striding along Ealing Broadway.

Thrift Shopping in Ealing:
    I spent the next hour thrift shopping on Ealing Broadway and I hit the jackpot when I found a Christian Dior silk scarf for 6 pounds! That and a few DVDs (I got a brand new Boxed set of Kenneth Clark's Civilization that had started me on my independent study of Art History when I was 13 and still living in India) and a bunch of other British films. This is all I buy and all I shop for when I am in the UK (apart from the edible goodies, of course)!

Off to The Pitzhanger Manor:
     When I lived in Ealing, the Pitzhanger Manor was under renovation. I swore I would return when it reopened and today was that day! It was the country estate of Sir John Soanes who, when he got tired of his manor at Lincoln Inns Field in Central London, made his way, eight miles away, to this grand home which he also filled with his passion for architectural curiosities. The building was completely renovated and shines today in its new avatar--another great English country manor that can easily be seen by public transport by eager Anglophiles--unlike Syon House or Osterley House on the Thames which are hard to reach without a car of your own. Here, a short ride on the Tube, gets you to this lovely place where, for just 7 pounds, you can take in the broad mind of a man who worked closely with his friend Joseph Gandy to create these beautiful buildings. The Bank of England, The Church of St. John at Bethnal Green and the Dulwich Picture Gallery (all of which I have visited) are also buildings that his architectural genius has left behind.
     You will wander inside through rooms that have been decorated as they were in Soanes' time with Chinoiserie wall paper featuring exotic birds in pastel shades amidst feathery verdure. The Dining Room is spectacular with its gorgeous painted ceiling, but, to my mind, the lovely table cloth that shows place settings for some of his prominent guests (including Turner) is worth a careful study. Upstairs, the bedroom is gorgeous but I was particularly drawn to the stairwell with its huge bronze sculpture of a classically garbed Olympia and the skylight at the top (another Soanes' characteristic) that floods the place with light (you see this at his house in London as well). I loved the house--such a fine example of gracious 18th century living. 

Anish Kapoor at the Pitzhanger:

     The biggest current highlight of this grand country manor, at the moment, is a special exhibition on the work of the Indian-born, UK-based sculptor Anish Kapoor whose work I am now increasingly seeing in international museums. Llew and I saw one of his works in a museum in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil recently. He is best known for having designed what is called the Acelor Mital Slide at the London Olympic Park at Stratford which was a centerpiece of the space and which is now used to give people rides. He does really funky work that involves reflecting metallic surfaces that function as mirrors do reproducing images to infinity. The ones present here depict wall art mainly in convex and concave shapes that are treated with some kind of process that allows them to do two things--they present images upside-down and they change color as one changes viewing positions! I simply cannot explain the impact of these items on the viewer in any clearer terms--they must be experienced to be appreciated. The thought that went through my head was this: Just when you think artists can do nothing more to vex their viewers by their creativity along comes a Kapoor to completely bend your mind and perplex it. 

     Seeing so many of the works of this incredibly talented sculptor in one place is one of the bonus reasons for exploring the Pitzhanger Manor and I would strongly recommend a visit and was very glad I went.

Meeting Cecil at Ealing Broadway Station:

     I then hurried along past my former home at Haven Green to get to the Tube statin where I had a 4.15 pm appointment to meet my friend Cecil, a physician and surgeon, who had just got off duty. Two years ago, he had come to my rescue when I was unhappy with my rental accommodation in the East End of London and recommended his son Stuart's one-bedroom pad in Ealing as an alternative. I am so glad I had taken him up on his offer because I ended up having thee blissful months in that space that served my needs and desires in every possible way.

     Cecil was waiting with his nose buried in a free eveninger when I arrived. We then walked briskly towards the Ealing Cricket Club where he is a member and where he had once taken me to spend an evening indulging in that most British of drinking traditions--the pub quiz! Our team had not walked away with the prize but we did not come last either--we had come a respectable fourth last! 

     The evening was still sunny and the cricket pitch looked tempting as we settled down in the pavilion with pints of cider and caught up. Cecil told me all about the expanding families of his four sons (including my former landlord Stuart, now safely settled in New Zealand with a Mongolian partner and a baby on the way!). I discovered that Cecil's specialization is arthritis! We ended up, then, talking about my brother Russel and his affliction and I got some valuable input from Cecil's professional advice. All too soon, however, I had to leave as my friends Roz and Christie had invited me to join them for drinks with friends in Battersea.

     It was a fairly long walk to the Tube station and, quite suddenly, it had started to come down--the flimsy folding umbrella I had borrowed from Roz was most inadequate and ended up soaking both of us! Still, once on the District Line on the Tube, I got off at Victoria and then waited too long for a bus. I would be late for the promised evening of drinks--so told my friends to carry on without me.

Salmon Supper at Roz's:

     I had the house to myself when I used my key to enter. This gave me about a half hour for a welcome lie-down (as my feet were killing me) before my friends returned. I sat gabbing with Christie while Roz pottered around the kitchen (refusing my help) and churning out a splendid dinner with broiled salmon, boiled new potatoes, samphire (a rather little-known green in the US or India) served with Hollandaise sauce and a coleslaw of raddichio, carrots and pomegranate. We had Ben and Jerry's Fudge Brownie Ice-cream for dessert that I had picked up from the corner Sainsbury because it was on sale!   

     What a fabulous first day I'd had in London and how delighted I was that I managed to pack so much into it.

     Until tomorrow!     

       

       

Exploring Ealing With Barbara and a Bus Ride to Kingston

Sunday, October 16, 2016
London

Up and About Before Dawn:
     I was awake by 5.30 am, I read Twitter till 6. 30 am, then I drafted a blog post and checked and responded to email. I also put together my itinerary for my forthcoming trips to Europe in November. I then booked Easybus tickets to get from Victoria to the airports and back. It is amazing how much time all this takes.  This has pretty much become my routine movements of the morning but today, there was a slight difference. Since it was Sunday, I intended to get to Mass. Plus I had plans to meet with my former Holborn neighbor and friend Barbara who was sweet enough to come to Ealing so that we could explore my new neighborhood together. It was about 9.00 am when I got out of bed to wash and have a bit of breakfast--toast with peanut butter, Nutella and Philadelphia Cream Cheese and coffee.

Off to Mass at the Church of Christ the Savior:
     I left my house at 10.25 am for the 10.30 am Mass at the church which is literally one block away from my house. It is a beautiful church--Victorian Gothic, rich with exterior details that are appealing and attractive and equally rich inside with all sorts of sculptural and painted embellishments. There is a lovely huge stained glass window of the Risen Christ with an extraordinarily handsome, unbearded face, a very nice choir screen with the cross and twin figures flanking it (a common feature in many Anglican churches) and wonderful paintings on the ceiling, the side walls, plus many Gothic sculpted saints to keep one's eye fascinated.
     The Mass was well-attended. However, there were so many children that it was a very noisy service. It was a Sung High Mass with loads of incense and hymns of which all six verses were (badly) sung to the accompaniment of an organist who seriously needs some music lessons! Of all the services I have attended over the last two months, this has to have been the least satisfying. Although the children disappeared for Sunday School before the Readings began, they returned before Communion and the noise began again. What's worse is that I saw grown adult women have a long and endless gossip session in the lines on their way to Communion, lots of hello waves and flamboyant kisses being given by members of the congregation as they made their way to the front to receive the Eucharist. I have never seen anything quite like this kind of socialization in the middle of Mass absolutely anywhere. It was shocking, disturbing and made the Mass very unruly. I will not be going back to that church--that's for sure. That said, the very young curate preached an excellent sermon on the power of prayer and the ways in which we ought to pray. I learned a whole lot from it.
     Back home, I barely settled down for just a few minutes when I got an email from Barbara to say that she was just about to board a Tube train at Chancery Lane. In about 45 minutes, she would be with me. I tidied my home in readiness for her arrival, folded and put away my laundry, then soon found myself greeting her at my front door. Barbara was my very first visitor and it was a real pleasure to welcome her in my new home. Naturally, I gave her a tour and then, as the sun had come out after what had been a very wet morning, we decided to take advantage of it and go out to discover my neighborhood.

A Lovely Stroll in Ealing:
     As I have not had much time to explore my own neighborhood, I was delighted to have Barbara for company. We took a random street right off Haven Green and walked up admiring the beautiful Victorian houses with their period details. Autumn is well and truly here and trees are shedding their leaves like golden confetti. There are tinges of red, orange and fiery yellows on every tree and crackling leaves underfoot--nothing, of course, compared to the glory of our New England autumn season...but this is bringing to mind the beautiful sugar maples in my back garden that are probably beginning to change color at this moment.
        I told Barbara then about a sign I'd been seeing outside Ealing Broadway Station for the Pitzhanger Manor--and we decided to go out in search of it. Following a map on Broadway, we headed towards it but as it was already about 1.15 pm, we made a detour for lunch and chose to eat at Carluccio's, the delicious Italian chain of restaurants to which Barbara and her husband Tim had first introduced me about nine years ago when we ate lunch together at the Carluccio's at Smithfield Meat Market in Central London. 

Lunch at Carluccio's:
     Well, we were seated very quickly in the eatery that we found at Ealing Green--and in the process of making our way to it, I realized yet again what a fabulous neighborhood I now have the privilege of living in--it is simply filled with shops and restaurants and bars and pubs that give it such a lovely warm neighborhood feel--almost like a little friendly village in the midst of the city.
     When it came time to order, we both went for the Italian Peroni beer and while Barbara had the Spaghetti Carbonara, I had the Lasagna Traditonalle. My portion was huge and I ate just half of it with the intention of packing the rest up to take home for a future meal. You see, I needed to save room for dessert because I knew that no meal at Carluccio's with Barbara or Tim is complete without a Lemon (Citron) Tart at the end for pudding. And that was precisely what we ordered and what we enjoyed--a  crisp tart shell and a tart creamy filling. It is a dessert also to which they had introduced me and which I never fail to enjoy.

Off to Find Pitzhanger Manor..and Stumbling Upon Walpole Park:
     When we'd cleared our bill, we set off in search of the Pitzhanger Manor and discovered that it was being refurbished in a major project that will see completion only in 2018! Hard Luck indeed! But we also made the discovery that the house was designed by none other than the chap I am coming to think of as an old friend, Sir John Soane! Yes, he of the John Soane House and Museum in Holborn that I had visited only a few days ago! Soane designed it in the Neo-Classical style for which he is famous with straight severe lines, one half of the classical columns facing outward and classical maidens adorning the pediments of each of the pillars. We knew this from the pictures that surround the fence that encloses the property. Ah, too bad, we thought. We must come back together in 2018 and see how it looks in its new avatar.
     Then, just around a corner, as we continued our walk, we chanced to come upon the gates of a park and, on impulse, stepped inside it. And what a lovely walk we had amidst its wide acreage! The park was part of the property that one would see from the back windows of the Pitzhanger House that had, apparently, been designed for the Walpole Family. It has been bequeathed to the people of Ealing and is, therefore, known as Walpole Park. It had everything you could desire in a park--a lovely avenue of plane trees, a serpentine (lake), a duck pond (complete with colorful mallards), a bridge (in the style of John Vanbrugh's Blenheim Bridge at Blenheim Palace) over a brook, plenty of well-kept lawns filled with ecstatic dogs and their happy owners, lovely children's playgrounds with sand pits and sliders, swings, see-saws, etc. and well-defined walking pathways. The day turned out to be simply gorgeous after all and it was a perfect way to spend an afternoon. No wonder the park was fairly full.

Back Home for Tea:
    Having received our exercise for the day, we found our way back to my flat past Ealing Town Hall (a very handsome building in golden stone) and the new residential development that is coming up right outside the Tube station and adjoining the church. Once home, I put the kettle on and we sat and chatted some over a cup of tea and carrot cake with pistachio biscuits and Tunnock's Tea Cakes. But since we had just eaten a big and very late lunch, all we did was nibble at tiny pieces of cake. By 4. 30, Barbara got ready to leave and I was very sorry to see her go as I do not know when I will see her next.

On the Bus to Kingston:
     I decided to leave my flat and walk Barbara to the Tube station, but I also decided that since the evening was still so bright and the light so pretty, I would take a bus ride to Kingston. There was a 65 bus waiting right at the station stop and into it, I jumped. It turned out to be a most delightful ride--there was a time when I was a little girl in Bombay when my parents often took us for bus rides on a Saturday or Sunday. Alas, horrible traffic in Bombay put paid to such simple pleasures--so it was nice to be able to revive them and take a bus ride just for the sheer joy of it.
     The bus route was lovely--we went past Ealing and towards Kew. In fact, we rode alongside the famous Kew Gardens and I could see the tops of the glass greenhouses and, later on, the Pagoda for which it is known. Further along the route, we passed by wide parkland as we arrived near the Thames at Teddington and then we were in the snazzy town of Richmond. We did not go towards Twickenham (which would require crossing the Thames on Richmond Bridge), but went straight toward Kingston. A few minutes later, we were there and at the last stop, I hopped off. It was then almost 6.00 pm and twilight was darkening the city quite rapidly. Besides, since it was a Sunday, all the shops had closed and there wasn't much to see on foot. So I just sat at the bus stop opposite and jumped into a bus going back to Ealing where I reached at 6. 30 pm. It was a really impulsive but very satisfying outing and I felt very pleased that I had seen some of the more beautiful Thames-sides' hamlets that I dearly love.
     Back home, I got back to the itinerary planning I had begun in the morning and booked my ticket to get from Catania in Sicily to Padua where I will be giving a guest lecture. I was pleased to get a good price on a Ryanair flight and with that done, I continued watching the Lewis episode that I left half watched last evening. I finished writing this blog post and then got ready for dinner as I was quite famished by this point. I ate the last of the Lamb Korma from Tayyabs that I had frozen with a cup of tomato soup and chocolate ice-cream for dessert and while I ate, I caught up on past episodes of Cold Feet.
     I had a very nice weekend indeed. It was one in which I managed to catch up on a lot of items on my To-Do List and although I haven't managed to accomplish all of them, as Scarlett O'Hara said, Tomorrow Is Another Day.
    Until tomorrow, cheerio...     

Back in T'Smoke Again: Its Moving Day for Me! Hiya Ealing!

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 4-5, 2016
London

Back in T'Smoke Again: Its Moving Day for Me! Hiya Ealing!

     Chriselle and I arrived from Dubrovnik at Luton airport (a first time for both of us) just after midnight. Although we hoped to clear Immigration speedily, I had the chattiest officer ever—he was simply thrilled that I was originally from Bombay and loving the city as much as he does, he would not let me leave the counter! When he finally let me through, we took a National Express coach to Victoria that flew through the dark streets and then hopped into a bus that dropped us off at Battersea High Street where my friend Rosemary (Roz) left us a key that allowed us to enter her home at about 3.00 am. She had kept two beautiful guest rooms ready for us and within seconds, we were both out like a light!

            The next morning, over Roz’s excellent tea loaf studded with tea-soaked raisins and hot coffee, we had a natter. She was thrilled to meet Chriselle for the first time and wanted to know all about our travels in Eastern Europe. At 9.00 am, we left as she proceeded to work and Chriselle and I took a bus to my office at NYU where my belongings were stashed. It was not long before we hailed a smart London black cab that took us to my new ‘digs’ at Ealing Broadway. By noon, we were meeting Nancy, a gorgeous Sicilian, wife of my friend Greg, who was renting his brother Stuart’s flat to me. She led us in, handed over keys and fled as she had an appointment in Knightsbridge.

     Chriselle and I spent the next few hours unpacking our cases and doing two loads of laundry (after we figured out how the washer-dryer worked). As Chriselle napped, I took the opportunity to unpack my suitcases and was simply delighted at the oodles of closet space available to me. We had a very light lunch of croissants and cream cheese with soup that I nipped out to Morrison’s to pick up. I am delighted by the proximity of all the shops to my new flat. I have Morrisons and Sainsburys and M and S all on the same block. It is like having a pantry in my front yard. Plus, right in front of my house is a park—Haven Green. So I do have my little pocket of greenery amidst the urban sprawl. It was a huge pleasure to discover the workings of my glorious new home with Chriselle—to find out together how the appliances worked (although we still have no idea about the drop down TV screen!)

     After she felt a bit more rested, we decided to go out for the evening. It was our initial plan to get tickets for the London Eye—as neither one of us had been on it. But when we found that darkness was falling really swiftly over the city, we changed our minds and decided to ride it tomorrow when we have more light. Instead, we decided to follow up on another plan—to go for dinner to Tayyabs, a very well-reputed Punjabi restaurant in the East End—which I had just left! Situated in Whitechapel in the heart of Bangla Town, Tayyabs is known for its North Indian cuisine. Since Chriselle is a pescatarian now, we ordered mainly vegetarian and seafood—paneer tikkas, Fish Amritsari, Karahi King Prawns with vegetable biryani. But since Lamb Korma was the ‘special’ of the day, well, I simply had to try it. Suffice it to say that the food was perhaps the best Indian we have ever eaten. Everything was delectable. While we did order mango lassis, we did not have room for dessert—and we took home hefty doggie bags—enough for dinner the following night.

            Back on the Tube to Ealing, we were grateful for an early night as the day had been long and neither one of us had adequate sleep. Tomorrow, we will plan out Chriselle’s last day of vacation in London. It feels grand to be in London again and moving into this spacious one-bedroom with its period details but its Modernist aesthetic has done absolute wonders for my psyche. I know I will be absolutely thrilled to live here for the next few months.

    Until tomorrow, cheerio…     

An Errand in Ealing and Late Evening at National Portrait Gallery

Friday, August 26, 2016
London

     Today is the Friday of a long 'Bank Holiday' Weekend in the UK--not sure what the Bank Holiday is for...but everyone is in a jolly mood with three days ahead to veg out.
As for me, I have to admit that loneliness is beginning to hit me gradually coupled with the fact that my feet are issuing serious warning signals. I know the signs of plantar fasciitis and I dread them with all my heart. It is time to slow down and give my feet a rest. But that means, basically, staying put and at home. Not a very exciting prospect for me, to be honest, as finding things to keep me busy when I am home-bound is tough!
     Still, I awoke at 5.30 am today (for some unearthly reason) and could not get back to sleep. I decided to work on my paper and edit it as it is much too lengthy. After more than a hour, I stopped to have breakfast (muesli with yogurt and coffee) and continued working some more. I also wrote a blog post and started to think of a query letter I need to write for a potential publisher that a friend in New York has recommended to me.

Getting to Ealing:
     At 9.40 am, I stopped to get dressed as I had an errand to run in Ealing and some friends to meet. I left the house, on schedule, at 10.00 am for my 11.00 am appointment but as I was locking the door, a bus to Bethnal Green sailed past. Grrr! Since I am avoiding walking now, there was no choice but to wait for the next one which came in about 12 minutes. I took the Central Line train to Ealing and was there almost on time. I had a bit of a challenge trying to find their place but soon I was reunited with them--Greg and Cecil. I was meeting my friend Cecil after a few years, so it was great to see him again and to meet his son, Greg. They were lovely and we had a wonderful time before I left to explore Ealing Broadway.

Exploring Ealing Broadway:
      Yes, just half a block (in New York terms) from their place is Ealing 'High Street' called Broadway here--filled with every conceivable kind of restaurant, shop, fast food place, bar, etc. Around the corner, there is Marks and Sparks plus the famed Westfield Mall and hundreds of people to-in and fro-ing, making it vibrant and truly 'happening'. I entered Morrisons for the first time to see what the prices were like and got the shock of my life. Six butter croissants for 1. 20 pounds! That is 20p a croissant--how is that even possible? Soon I found that everything, simply everything is less than half of what I have been paying in Sainsburys or the Co-op--which, by the way, is the biggest rip-off. Everything is more pricey there! See? After a month, I am becoming proficient in comparison-shopping in the UK!
     As I left the store, a vendor placed a coupon for McD's in my hand--because the place is also fully surrounded by every American fast food outlet you can imagine (McDonalds, Subway, Burger King, even Five Guys!) I felt fully at home! By the way, there is also Tinseltown--my favorite burger and shake place in the UK on The Mall. I usually get a Ferroro Rocher Shake at the Tinseltown in Hampstead--so it was great to spot one here too. Naturally, I could not resist getting a Big Mac for 1.99 pounds with fries! So in I went! Yes, Into McDs!!! A place I never enter unless Llew and I are on the road, travelling by car in the US! I guess after about a month in the UK, I needed my American Fix! So I also ordered a mocha frappe to go with it--perfect on another sweltering day--and discovered that McD's in the UK does not accept credit cards that require a signature!!! Good Job I had some cash on me (I usually do not!) Anyway, I sat and wolfed down my caloric American meal and called my Dad for a chat. By the time I finished my meal and walked about with my food shopping from Morrison's, I decided to scrap the thought of wandering about M&S (anywhere where I could find air-conditioning would have been fine!) and go home instead.

An Afternoon Chez Moi:
     I was in the train in 10 minutes and home about 40 minutes later. After I put away my shopping, I went up to my boiler of a bedroom, threw the window open because I though I would suffocate--it was so hot and airless--and left it open as I thought I would continue to work. But I simply cannot manage without a fan. The heat is getting to me so vilely that I cannot sit upstairs in this house during the day. Instead, after trying to work on my paper for about an hour, I had a video chat with Chriselle in California and then I made myself a pot of tea and had it with Coffee Walnut Cake. I then went for in a badly needed shower.

An Evening at the National Portrait Gallery:
     I had to think of some place to which I could go that was air-conditioned and did not involve too much walking. And I came up with the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square--one of my favorite places in London and one that I had yet to re-visit. Fridays is also late-evening closure at the museum whose doors are kept open till 9.00 pm. Not that I wanted to stay out late or after dark as I am still hesitant to come back to this neighborhood after nightfall.
 
An Unexpected Recital in the Elizabethan Gallery:
     As soon as I entered the Gallery, I looked for their 'Events for Today' and found that a duo were performing upstairs in the Elizabethan Portrait Gallery. Without wasting any time, I took the escalator to the second floor to find that a recital between a lutanist and a tenor had just begun. I had to wait for a few minutes for the first set to end before I was able to take a seat right in front and give myself up to the music.
     It was just lovely! I realized that this sort of music would have been the 'radio' of the Tudor and Elizabethan periods--the sort of background music that would have been a constant feature at court. In so many movies and TV series, I have seen a pair of musicians seated in a corner in the antechamber of the queen and her ladies or in Banquet Halls where the king supped. The music is quiet, lilting and softly pleasing. The composers were Thomas Morley, John Dowland, Francis Pilkington and Thomas Campion mainly and they wrote music for lute and harp--again, the kind of instruments that provide a pleasing sound without being intrusive. The concert, entitled 'From Dawn to Dusk: Musicke in the Ayre' featured the Australian singer Daniel Thomson who has made London his home and lutanist Din Ghani who is not only a musician but a musicologist and a maker of lutes! Seated in the Gallery, just below the Coronation Portrait of Elizabeth I, I kept wishing they had dressed in period costume--for that would have enhanced the entire experience a thousand-fold. Still, it was simply enchanting and after an hour, when they were done, I began my exploration of the gallery.
 
Viewing Works at the National Portrait Gallery:
     I love the National portrait Gallery for many reasons: the portraits themselves, of course, first of all, are among the best in the world. Secondly, for the significance of the portraits: The Portrait of Shakespeare, for instance, is the first one that the Gallery ever acquired for its permanent collection and the curatorial notes state that it is probably the only one painted from life--now this dispels the belief that the recently-unearthed Cobbe Portrait is the only one painted from life! Go figure! Thirdly, for the amount that I learn about the sitters with every visit I make. Fourthly, because viewing these works always provides a crash refresher course for me on British history and politics. The chronological arrangement of the rooms allows me to traverse centuries of British notables and to learn about them and the artists who painted them. Finally, I love the mood lighting in the Tudor and Elizabethan Galleries--it is kept soft in order to preserve the integrity of the pigments, but it adds to the atmosphere of the era. This was a very dark time in British History and as I gaze upon the faces of women like Anne Boleyn and Mary Tudor and contrast their portraits with those of bigger worthies such as Henry VIII or Sir Thomas More or Archbishop Cranmer and even lesser ones such as Salisbury and Cecil, I keep thinking how dangerous those times were for women, how they were 'played' politically by the men, how powerless they were in battling court intrigues that dispensed with them at the drop of a hat. These portraits truly transport me into another era and fill me with a deep sense of dread.
     Even as one leaves the 1500s behind and enters more recent epochs, there is hardly a portrait of a woman. But for an occasional queen, the dominant faces are masculine: writers, musicians, politicians, architects, you name it...they were men. I got all the way to Room 10 and reached the 18th century--all those portraits of male members of the Kit Kat Club with curled wigs tumbling about their shoulders as was the fashion of the time. I looked aghast at the kings (Charles II, for instance) who fathered 14 children with different mistresses, brought his wife Catherine of Braganza untold misery and then claimed he truly cared for her!!! For far less transgressions, thankfully, today, royal marriages have broken up.
      The Gallery is also experimenting with the concept of mixing a contemporary painting of current notables with those from the past--for some contrast and to allow the viewer to compare fashion, poses, etc. For instance, in the Elizabethan Gallery, there is a huge portrait of the two current princes--William and Harry--in casual conversation with each other. It is a lovely piece of work by Nicky Phillips. Although set in Clarence House (which I visited a couple of weeks ago), their home during their growing years and dressed in formal military garb (William wears the Order of the Garter), they are laughing as they converse and both look away from the artist--so casual, so unposed, so different from the stiff portraits of their own ancestors in the same room. Overall, I had a lovely time and so absorbed was I in my own contemplation of past history and past society, that I completely lost track of the time and was startled by the announcement that the Gallery would be closing in 15 minutes!
   
Trafalgar Square by Night:
 Yikes! It was already 8.45--already dark! I finished Room 10 and then hurried out into the evening splendor of Trafalgar Square. I realized how beautiful it was as I was seeing the city at night for the first time since my arrival here. With the blue lights in the fountains of Trafalgar Square and the dome of the Colisseum where the English National Opera performs, the city was transformed into a magical place. There were crowds, simply milling crowds, all over as the warm night and the darkness contributed to keeping people where they were: tumbling down the stairs leading from the National Gallery to the Square, seated all around Edward Landseer's lions, perched on the parapets that surround the periphery of the Square, etc. This is what I love about London--the sheer love that I have for this city is reflected in the eyes and movements of all the people who have come here because they so love it too. I also love the fact that I can wander into a museum and stumble upon a truly atmospheric concert that I can enjoy for free! Where else on earth could such things happen?
     But I had no time to lose. I hurried off to Charing Cross station to take the Northern line south for one station and when I arrived at the Embankment, I hopped off, made my connection into a waiting train and got completely lost in The Evening Standard--the free paper distributed to commuters each evening (the free paper concept has never caught on in New York--probably because people there prefer to gaze at their phones!)
     It was only when I reached the Barbican that I realized I was on the wrong train! Crumbs! I jumped off, raced to the platform on the opposite side, rode it one stop further to Liverpool Street and then took the Central Line from there for one stop to Bethnal Green. In a way, it was good I had made a mistake as this allowed me to take the 309 bus home for 2 stops instead of walking alone in the dark and taxing my feet. Luckily, my bus came along in 3 minutes and I was home by 10.00 pm--the latest I have ever come home (but this time all I had to do was cross the street from the bus-top and enter my house). Since I had eaten a big lunch and a substantial tea, I decided not to eat any dinner at all and I simply prepared to go to bed.
     I do not think I punished my feet too much today but I did manage to accomplish a lot--despite the heat which I hope will abate soon.
     Until tomorrow, cheerio...