Thursday, February 19, 2009
London
The day has swooshed past me in a haze. I have no idea where the hours have gone. I awoke a little after 5 am today and after reading The Prisoner of Azkaban for an hour, I made a To-Do List as I had so many little things pending that I wanted to complete them all.
I spent the next couple of hours creating an itinerary for the 'Homes and Gardens Tour' I wish to take sometime in late May. This was time consuming, but I do believe that I now have a game plan and with some fine tuning, I think I might be able to pull it off. It involves using National Express coaches all over the country, the English Heritage Pass and my National Trust membership to visit the country estates I have in mind. When I was almost cross eyed switching between the websites of these various venues and the National Express website, I decided to take a break and get some breakfast!
The next item on my agenda was researching china replacement service companies online to try to find the missing Paragon teacup from the set I bought in Rochester. Chances are I will never find it as preliminary research has informed me that my set was one of the earliest ever produced by this company, somewhere between 1921 and 1933. One of the companies I spoke with told me that since I do not have a name for my pattern (only a number appears at the back of my teacup), it is clearly too old for their search experts and they would be unable to help me. Another company has emailed me back to request that I send an accompanying photo to help them in their search. I shall now have to work on getting this done.
Next, I had to do a bit of grading as a couple of my students were absent and did not hand in their assignments with the rest of the class. I also had to do an online recommendation for one of my former students (now a field researcher in Kosovo) who is attempting to find a position in a Master's Program at the London School of Economics. Drafting a letter of recommendation on her behalf took another great big chunk of my time.
It was well past mid-day when I finally sat down to transcribe material from the tape recorder based on the interview I did last night with Anglo-Indian genealogist Geraldine White. It took me simply ages to get everything down and half way through it, being almost cross-eyed, I decided to stop for a sandwich lunch and to start watching Jane Austen's Persuasion.
But within a half hour, I was back at work as I really did want to finish the entire transcription before I left for the next interview I had scheduled at 5.15 pm with another Anglo-Indian. Working slavishly, I actually finished the White interview though it still needed finishing touches and to be proofread before it was ready to be printed.
This left me enough time for a quick shower and then I was on the bus to Truckles Wine Bar at Bloomsbury where John had suggested we meet. It was a truly delightful place with a basement section that was almost Dickensian in character and ambiance. There actually was a candle stuck in a wine bottle providing rather dim and flickering light--just as you see in the Dickens' movies! It is these hidden gems that I so adore about London and that revive my love affair with this city at every turn. John and I settled with lager and a glass of Riesling respectively (as the pub did not carry cider) and then we were off.
John, a corporate attorney, is so different from any of the AIs I have met so far. He came to this country when he was 25 and spoke to me candidly about his experiences growing up Anglo-Indian in a small, narrow-minded pocket of South India. Several times during our conversation, he thanked me for undertaking this research project and told me what a great service I was performing for the community in putting myself through so much hard work in order to preserve the stories of the generation that preceded him in the UK. I found his candor deeply moving indeed and I know that I will be able to use a great deal of the stories he shared with me in the course of my work.
I was home by 7.30 pm when I got right down to work again on the White interview. It was 9.15 pm when I finally finished it and could stop for a bite to eat. I feel as if I have been chained to my PC all day today, added to which I received rather distressing news about my current lease. So, over all, I haven't had too easy a day. Though I did complete work on all the items on my To-Do List (except for one grant application which I shall draft next week), I do feel rather wrung out with concern.
Tomorrow, I will be accompanying my students on an NYU trip to Winchester and Portsmouth and I am keeping my fingers, toes and other extremities crossed for good weather and the opportunity to enjoy some lovely English tourist venues.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
A Very Busy Day!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
London
I was up again at the crack of dawn--at 6. 30 am--but did not have the time to do any reading in bed as I had to head out within an hour for my Physiotherapy session at UCL with Claire Curtin. I was early for my 8. 30 am appointment but was pleased to discover that I have improved a great deal since last I saw her. It seems that with the stretching exercises I have been doing, the shape of the arch of my feet has changed (hopefully, for the better!) and if I continue these stretches, I can hope to see more improvement. Claire showed me some new and more challenging exercises. I told her about my success with Alternate Bathing--while she did not nix it, she was not unduly enthusiastic either. She basically told me to do whatever it is that makes me feel better! She now wants to see me again after three weeks and has asked me to follow up with a call to the podiatrist to find out where I stand in the queue and if possible to see if they can fix up an appointment for me on the phone for my orthotics.
I took the bus straight from UCL Hospital to the SOAS Library so I could do some reference work with Frank Anthony's Book Britain's Betrayal in India. The library was almost empty when I got there at about 10 am--college students stir themselves slowly--and on consulting the online catalogue, I discovered that the book I wanted was in the Special Collections and for reference only. When I asked an assistant there to show me where the Special Collection was located, she informed me , to my huge disappointment, that Special Collections is closed on Wednesday because the library is short-staffed! I was so stunned! Imagine keeping a reference section in a university library closed because there is no one to work there! Such a thing would be unimaginable in the States!
I then decided to go into the stacks to get a book by Herbert Stark. When I tried to find that on the shelves, it was nowhere to be seen even though I had learned online that it was "Available". I thought that I was probably looking in the wrong section or that the book had been misshelved. I was almost tearing my hair out in frustration by this point but, just then, I saw a passing librarian and asked for assistance. She apologized and told me that many of the books had not yet been shelved as "there is a huge backlog". I was still trying to figure out what she meant when she led me to the Reshelving Section. To my horror, I saw several bookcases filled with books that had been returned days ago but which had not yet been returned to their respective shelves as they did not have the man power! This is completely insane, I thought. How is it possible for anyone to find books if they are not shelved correctly? I realized by this point that doing any kind of research in these libraries is going to take me much longer than it would take were I attempting to glean the same information in the US--so I better get cracking and bargain to spend a lot more time than I expected.
Since I was only two blocks away, I went next to the British Museum and decided to finish seeing the Highlights that I had begun yesterday. To my amazement, I found the Museum mobbed by every school-going kid in the country. Just as the area around Buckingham Palace was stormed by school-kids yesterday, so too the British Museum was buzzing today--a result of half-term break. The most popular galleries were the Egyptian Gallery where the Mummies are kept and the African and Native America Galleries where the giant totem poles and carved wooden eagles can be seen.
I had a bit of a fright when I entered an elevator to get from the Ground floor to the third. The elevator took off and then within ten seconds, kept bouncing up and down with a fearsome sound. The voice inside then said, "This lift is not in service". I was terrified for a few seconds as I was alone in the lift and have never experienced anything like this. I started to look around frantically inside the elevator for a button I could press to communicate with someone for help when the doors swung open and I was back where I started. I fled and decided that I was better off climbing the stairs!
Eventually, I did get to the relevant floors and spent a fascinating hour seeing the following items:
1. The Lewis Chessman (These exquisite carved ivory chess man are in the Sutton Hoo section). Each one is different and they are beautifully crafted.
2. The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial. (These treasures found in a mound in Dorset were buried with a Saxon warrior who is presumed to be a king. In addition to arms and armour, there are gold and silver objects, jewelery, and a whole horde of really amazing objects that were excavated at the time of the discovery).
3. Mosaic of Christ. (This Roman mosaic, found in a Roman mansion, is the earliest image of Christ in Britain. It is remarkably well-preserved).
4. Basse Yutz Flacons. (These large urn-like metals vessels are the finest survivals of early Celtic Art. They were used for the storage and mixing of wine in keeping with similar techniques that existed in France at the time).
5. Oxus Treasure. (This is a collection of gold ornaments that hails from Archaemenid Persia. The detailed metalwork is amazing).
6. The Flood Tablet. (This is a small stone tablet whose cuneiform script has been deciphered as hailing from the Babylonian civilization. It has been interpreted as describing a great floor that led to the building of a great ark that was filled with animals and birds--an incident that bears an uncanny resemblance to the account of Noah's Ark in the Bible. I was spellbound as I read about this on the explanation plaque near by).
7. The Royal Game of Ur. (This is a board game that was popular in the Middle East three thousand years ago. It was played with dice on a portable game board. Interestingly, a game called Asha, played in Cochin in Kerala, is said to have originated in this game--brought to India by the earliest Syrian Christians who hailed from this region--talk about cross-cultural global influences in the Ancient World...my God, this is stunning).
8. The Mummy of Katebet (This is one of the most popular items in the museum as kids seem to be bizarrely attracted to them).
9. Sphinx of Taharqo. (This is a smallish sphinx that has rather detailed features).
10. Samurai Armor. (This was found in the Japanese section but it was the least impressive of all the items I saw).
11. King of Ife (This is a small bronze head from the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria in Africa that shows the most delicate casting.)
I have to say that I was deeply touched by the images I saw everywhere of kids in the company of their parents. It took me back to my own childhood days in Bombay where I grew up. On Saturday evening outings, my parents took my brothers and myself to the Prince of Wales Museum in Colaba and it was probably there that my great passion for museums was first developed. I remember the excitement with which I looked upon the stuffed animals and birds in the Natural History section and the marvelous carved Gandhara art in other parts of the building. Bombay was such a different place in those days--the early 1960s. I remember the bus ride on a red double decker bus, so similar to the ones I have grown to love so dearly here in London. I recall the quietness of the Ballard Pier area on weekend evenings when the feverish commercial activity of the region ceased--so similar to my neighborhood of Holborn on weekend evenings. I can see so clearly the manicured lawns of the Museum and the sailors strolling around the dockyards having just disembarked from their voyages around the world.
How nice it is of these parents to spare the time to spend with their kids and to help create in their minds the kind of memories that I cherish today and am so grateful to my own parents for nurturing in me.
It was close to lunch time when I reached home to check and respond to email. Then, I shut my eyes for just a little while to take a cat nap as I had to step out again later in the evening to make my way to Charing Cross where I had scheduled a meeting with Geraldine Charles, the first Anglo-Indian academic I have met here in London. I arrived at our appointed spot rather early but whiled away the time at a local W.H. Smith store browsing through magazines. Geraldine arrived right on schedule and after we had settled ourselves in a Starbucks over coffee for her and a hot chocolate for me, we began our conversation.
Geraldine is different from most of the Anglo-Indians I have met so far in that she has made the study of her community as much an academic interest as it is a matter of familial curiosity. Her own probings into her family genealogy has led to her being invited all over the world to talk about Anglo-Indian families in British India. She gave me a ton of useful information and a number of photocopies of portraits from her family albums--all of which are priceless. Her clarity on the subject, her rather controversial views and her personal contact with eminent Anglo-Indians made for absorbing conversation and I was delighted, when at the end of our talk, she suggested we get together another time "for a curry at the Strand Continental Club". I told her I would love to do that and on that optimistic note, we parted company as she left to catch a long-distance commuter train.
Back home, I settled in front of the telly to watch Under the Greenwood Tree based on Thomas Hardy's novel of the same name, sent to me again by Love Films.com as the one they sent me a few weeks ago was defective. Thankfully, unlike most of Hardy's writing, this one had a happy ending.
London
I was up again at the crack of dawn--at 6. 30 am--but did not have the time to do any reading in bed as I had to head out within an hour for my Physiotherapy session at UCL with Claire Curtin. I was early for my 8. 30 am appointment but was pleased to discover that I have improved a great deal since last I saw her. It seems that with the stretching exercises I have been doing, the shape of the arch of my feet has changed (hopefully, for the better!) and if I continue these stretches, I can hope to see more improvement. Claire showed me some new and more challenging exercises. I told her about my success with Alternate Bathing--while she did not nix it, she was not unduly enthusiastic either. She basically told me to do whatever it is that makes me feel better! She now wants to see me again after three weeks and has asked me to follow up with a call to the podiatrist to find out where I stand in the queue and if possible to see if they can fix up an appointment for me on the phone for my orthotics.
I took the bus straight from UCL Hospital to the SOAS Library so I could do some reference work with Frank Anthony's Book Britain's Betrayal in India. The library was almost empty when I got there at about 10 am--college students stir themselves slowly--and on consulting the online catalogue, I discovered that the book I wanted was in the Special Collections and for reference only. When I asked an assistant there to show me where the Special Collection was located, she informed me , to my huge disappointment, that Special Collections is closed on Wednesday because the library is short-staffed! I was so stunned! Imagine keeping a reference section in a university library closed because there is no one to work there! Such a thing would be unimaginable in the States!
I then decided to go into the stacks to get a book by Herbert Stark. When I tried to find that on the shelves, it was nowhere to be seen even though I had learned online that it was "Available". I thought that I was probably looking in the wrong section or that the book had been misshelved. I was almost tearing my hair out in frustration by this point but, just then, I saw a passing librarian and asked for assistance. She apologized and told me that many of the books had not yet been shelved as "there is a huge backlog". I was still trying to figure out what she meant when she led me to the Reshelving Section. To my horror, I saw several bookcases filled with books that had been returned days ago but which had not yet been returned to their respective shelves as they did not have the man power! This is completely insane, I thought. How is it possible for anyone to find books if they are not shelved correctly? I realized by this point that doing any kind of research in these libraries is going to take me much longer than it would take were I attempting to glean the same information in the US--so I better get cracking and bargain to spend a lot more time than I expected.
Since I was only two blocks away, I went next to the British Museum and decided to finish seeing the Highlights that I had begun yesterday. To my amazement, I found the Museum mobbed by every school-going kid in the country. Just as the area around Buckingham Palace was stormed by school-kids yesterday, so too the British Museum was buzzing today--a result of half-term break. The most popular galleries were the Egyptian Gallery where the Mummies are kept and the African and Native America Galleries where the giant totem poles and carved wooden eagles can be seen.
I had a bit of a fright when I entered an elevator to get from the Ground floor to the third. The elevator took off and then within ten seconds, kept bouncing up and down with a fearsome sound. The voice inside then said, "This lift is not in service". I was terrified for a few seconds as I was alone in the lift and have never experienced anything like this. I started to look around frantically inside the elevator for a button I could press to communicate with someone for help when the doors swung open and I was back where I started. I fled and decided that I was better off climbing the stairs!
Eventually, I did get to the relevant floors and spent a fascinating hour seeing the following items:
1. The Lewis Chessman (These exquisite carved ivory chess man are in the Sutton Hoo section). Each one is different and they are beautifully crafted.
2. The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial. (These treasures found in a mound in Dorset were buried with a Saxon warrior who is presumed to be a king. In addition to arms and armour, there are gold and silver objects, jewelery, and a whole horde of really amazing objects that were excavated at the time of the discovery).
3. Mosaic of Christ. (This Roman mosaic, found in a Roman mansion, is the earliest image of Christ in Britain. It is remarkably well-preserved).
4. Basse Yutz Flacons. (These large urn-like metals vessels are the finest survivals of early Celtic Art. They were used for the storage and mixing of wine in keeping with similar techniques that existed in France at the time).
5. Oxus Treasure. (This is a collection of gold ornaments that hails from Archaemenid Persia. The detailed metalwork is amazing).
6. The Flood Tablet. (This is a small stone tablet whose cuneiform script has been deciphered as hailing from the Babylonian civilization. It has been interpreted as describing a great floor that led to the building of a great ark that was filled with animals and birds--an incident that bears an uncanny resemblance to the account of Noah's Ark in the Bible. I was spellbound as I read about this on the explanation plaque near by).
7. The Royal Game of Ur. (This is a board game that was popular in the Middle East three thousand years ago. It was played with dice on a portable game board. Interestingly, a game called Asha, played in Cochin in Kerala, is said to have originated in this game--brought to India by the earliest Syrian Christians who hailed from this region--talk about cross-cultural global influences in the Ancient World...my God, this is stunning).
8. The Mummy of Katebet (This is one of the most popular items in the museum as kids seem to be bizarrely attracted to them).
9. Sphinx of Taharqo. (This is a smallish sphinx that has rather detailed features).
10. Samurai Armor. (This was found in the Japanese section but it was the least impressive of all the items I saw).
11. King of Ife (This is a small bronze head from the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria in Africa that shows the most delicate casting.)
I have to say that I was deeply touched by the images I saw everywhere of kids in the company of their parents. It took me back to my own childhood days in Bombay where I grew up. On Saturday evening outings, my parents took my brothers and myself to the Prince of Wales Museum in Colaba and it was probably there that my great passion for museums was first developed. I remember the excitement with which I looked upon the stuffed animals and birds in the Natural History section and the marvelous carved Gandhara art in other parts of the building. Bombay was such a different place in those days--the early 1960s. I remember the bus ride on a red double decker bus, so similar to the ones I have grown to love so dearly here in London. I recall the quietness of the Ballard Pier area on weekend evenings when the feverish commercial activity of the region ceased--so similar to my neighborhood of Holborn on weekend evenings. I can see so clearly the manicured lawns of the Museum and the sailors strolling around the dockyards having just disembarked from their voyages around the world.
How nice it is of these parents to spare the time to spend with their kids and to help create in their minds the kind of memories that I cherish today and am so grateful to my own parents for nurturing in me.
It was close to lunch time when I reached home to check and respond to email. Then, I shut my eyes for just a little while to take a cat nap as I had to step out again later in the evening to make my way to Charing Cross where I had scheduled a meeting with Geraldine Charles, the first Anglo-Indian academic I have met here in London. I arrived at our appointed spot rather early but whiled away the time at a local W.H. Smith store browsing through magazines. Geraldine arrived right on schedule and after we had settled ourselves in a Starbucks over coffee for her and a hot chocolate for me, we began our conversation.
Geraldine is different from most of the Anglo-Indians I have met so far in that she has made the study of her community as much an academic interest as it is a matter of familial curiosity. Her own probings into her family genealogy has led to her being invited all over the world to talk about Anglo-Indian families in British India. She gave me a ton of useful information and a number of photocopies of portraits from her family albums--all of which are priceless. Her clarity on the subject, her rather controversial views and her personal contact with eminent Anglo-Indians made for absorbing conversation and I was delighted, when at the end of our talk, she suggested we get together another time "for a curry at the Strand Continental Club". I told her I would love to do that and on that optimistic note, we parted company as she left to catch a long-distance commuter train.
Back home, I settled in front of the telly to watch Under the Greenwood Tree based on Thomas Hardy's novel of the same name, sent to me again by Love Films.com as the one they sent me a few weeks ago was defective. Thankfully, unlike most of Hardy's writing, this one had a happy ending.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Changing of the Guard, Library Hopping and British Museum Highlights
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
London
I put in a solid three hours of work at my PC in bed before I stirred out to start my day . Before 6 am, I turned to The Prisoner of Azkaban and by 7 am, I was checking and responding to email. Then, because I knew I had to be at Buckingham Palace by 11 am, I began transcribing the interview with Cecil and Mary Wilson that I had done a couple of weeks ago.
This is strenuous and exhausting work and it absolutely guzzles time away! When next I looked at my watch, it was 9 am and I had merely begun. Still, with time spent on my breakfast, my Alternate Soaks and my exercises, I could only just squeeze in a shower before I had to leave my flat for the bus ride to the Palace. The website had informed me last night that in winter the Changing of the Guard takes place every alternate day while in summer it occurs daily. I was keen to get pictures of the guards in their winter garb--wearing the long grey coats in the style of their Kremlin counterparts, so there I was making my way on a pleasantly mild day to find a spot most advantageous to the clicking of pictures.
Only I did not bargain with the fact that this is 'half-term week' (winter break)--when schools all over the country are closed. Droves of youngsters have descended on the capital from every corner of the United Kingdom and they had found themselves seats all around the Victoria Memorial. Long before I got to the Palace precincts, while I was still in St. James Park and strolling along Pall Mall, I wondered at the heavy police security and the numbers of people that had turned up despite it being what I thought would be 'off-season'.
Still, I found myself a spot, though not the best as I later discovered and positioned myself for the clicking of photographs. I did not have not to wait too long. Within ten minutes, the first marching banks passed along in their red cloaks, their instruments gleaming golden in the watery sunshine. Indeed the sun made valiant attempts to elbow its way through a mass of thick clouds, but failed hopelessly in the effort. As the first rows of guards appeared, I discovered the name of the giant bear-skin hats they wear--busbees! Live and Learn, I thought, for I had never known that this was what those hats were called--I always just called them bear-skin hats! I received this little nugget of information from an English Dad standing near me who was explaining the ceremony to his little girl. I know I will never forget that word--busbee!
After the marching band and the crocodiles of guards went past--all attired in the expected grey overcoats, their winter regalia--a pair of coaches kept riding by in stately fashion. They were fully covered and I failed to see the point of them. Was there someone inside? If so, who and where was that person going? I was much too far from the Palace gates to see what was going on within the front yard. But at least I do know where to stand the next time I decide to do this highly "touristic" activity--in the summer, when they are back to wearing their red uniforms. In fact, I still find it hard to believe that despite innumerable visits to London, this was the very first time ever that I was 'doing' the Changing of the Guard. One more item just got ticked off my To-Do List!
Mission Accomplished, I made my way to the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies as I was keen to borrow two books that I need for my Anglo-Indian research. It is the information contained in these books that will allow me to call for the specific documents that I wish to examine at the British Library. To my dismay, I discovered that while I can use the SOAS library for reference, I cannot take material out of the premises. This is because NYU is not affiliated to the University of London colleges--only to UCL (I'm still not sure what the difference is!). Hence, I can use the Senate House Library at the University of London freely.
Disappointed, I made my way past the Hare Krishna free food stall outside SOAS where I availed myself of the services of the organization to pick up a plate of rice with peanuts, a vegetable curry and some pumpkin bread. Replete with my unexpected meal, I made my way up the maze that is the Senate House Library and on going through the online catalogue and stacks, I had another disappointment for I discovered that the two books I wanted to borrow were not in the library (Frank Anthony and Herbert Stark). Very dejected indeed, I borrowed two other books instead (Alison Blunt and Lionel Caplan) and will now have to find a way to get those books out of SOAS--probably by having someone else take the books out for me.
Since it was still only a little after 3 pm, I decided to get to the nearby British Museum and take a look at the 20 Highlights that are supposed to be covered by first-time visitors to the Museum in three hours. I became aware of this self-guided tour through my students Frank and Max who took the tour on the date that I had assigned a Museum visit in lieu of a class (when I had so bad a hoarse throat that I could barely speak). It was easy enough to follow and I decided to cover about 12 of them on the Ground Floor. These were the items I saw today:
1. The Sloane Atrolabe (map that points to the position of the stars).
2. A Colossal Bust of Rameses the Great in the Egyptian Gallery (Supposedly inspired Shelley's Ozymandias).
3. An Easter Island Statue called Hoa Hakananai'a. (Since I will probably not get to Easter Island itself, this was the closest I came to one of these mysterious sculptures).
4. Aztec Turquoise Serpent (Exquisite)
5. Group of Tang Ceramic Tomb Figures (Massive and quite astounding indeed)
6. Cloisonne Jar with Dragons (really large ginger jar with minute enamelling all over it)
7. Jade Cong (Couldn't quite made sense of these objects at all despite the accompanying explanation. They are 5,000 years old and show superb craftsmanship for the time in the precision with which they are cut and polished)
8. Jade Terrapin from Allahabad. (This was really astonishing...a giant jade turtle that was made for Prince Salim--who became the Emperor Jehangir--in India. He had a special love for wild life and the turtle is found in the waters of the Ganges river where it meets with the Yamuna at the town that the Hindus called Praag and that Emperor Akbar changed to Allahabad)
As I had already seen the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Marbles and the Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs earlier on other visits, I decided to skip them though they were also on the Highlights List. There are about 12 more items on the Museum's list and I shall try to complete my study of them this week.
Then, I was headed home on a bus, fairly falling from fatigue. I made myself an Alternate Bath and sat to watch the new TV channel that debuted today--Blighty. It featured a show on the Coast of Scotland (Orkney Islands) with special emphasis on the marine life to be found in the area. I found it interesting but as I have so little time for TV watching, much as I would like to to, I don't think I will find a great deal of time to get acquainted with the channel and its promising offerings.
At 5 pm, I continued the transcribing of the taped interview that I had left unfinished in the morning, I had been concentrating on my work so much that I quite forgot that Ivana was on her way to meet me as we had made plans to meet up for a drink. Ivana arrived at 8pm, just as I was putting the finishing touches on my interview with Cecil Wilson. I excused myself for another five minutes while I wrapped up, then climbed into my clothes and left with Ivana.
I suggested The Mitre, a neighborhood pub in Hatton Gardens that Tim and Barbara had pointed out to me which dates from 1542. It is certainly the oldest pub in our neighborhood and when Ivana saw it, she was totally enchanted. She walked around it as if in a trance, taking in the cute courtyard (filled with worried attorneys drowning their sorrows in ale--who knows how long they will continue to have jobs?) and the bar area that was so small, so cozy and so ancient, it reeked of so much more than booze--age and history was what was proclaimed from the exposed beams--as we settled down with our shandy and cider and then decided to order a bite as well. We enjoyed the pub's 'toasties'--toasted sandwiches and sausage rolls and pork pies and caught up on our lives. I was amazed to recall that I hadn't seen Ivana since our walk in Chelsea and Battersea just before Christmas. She wanted to know all about my trip to Berlin (as she grew up in that historic city) and everything else that I had been doing since we last met!
By 10 pm, though Ivana wanted another pint, I was nodding off and told her that I had had a very early start. We parted company at the entrance to my building, promising to get together again at her place at Elephant and Castle sometime soon. Then, I brushed my teeth and climbed into bed and began to jot down a few lines on to this blog.
London
I put in a solid three hours of work at my PC in bed before I stirred out to start my day . Before 6 am, I turned to The Prisoner of Azkaban and by 7 am, I was checking and responding to email. Then, because I knew I had to be at Buckingham Palace by 11 am, I began transcribing the interview with Cecil and Mary Wilson that I had done a couple of weeks ago.
This is strenuous and exhausting work and it absolutely guzzles time away! When next I looked at my watch, it was 9 am and I had merely begun. Still, with time spent on my breakfast, my Alternate Soaks and my exercises, I could only just squeeze in a shower before I had to leave my flat for the bus ride to the Palace. The website had informed me last night that in winter the Changing of the Guard takes place every alternate day while in summer it occurs daily. I was keen to get pictures of the guards in their winter garb--wearing the long grey coats in the style of their Kremlin counterparts, so there I was making my way on a pleasantly mild day to find a spot most advantageous to the clicking of pictures.
Only I did not bargain with the fact that this is 'half-term week' (winter break)--when schools all over the country are closed. Droves of youngsters have descended on the capital from every corner of the United Kingdom and they had found themselves seats all around the Victoria Memorial. Long before I got to the Palace precincts, while I was still in St. James Park and strolling along Pall Mall, I wondered at the heavy police security and the numbers of people that had turned up despite it being what I thought would be 'off-season'.
Still, I found myself a spot, though not the best as I later discovered and positioned myself for the clicking of photographs. I did not have not to wait too long. Within ten minutes, the first marching banks passed along in their red cloaks, their instruments gleaming golden in the watery sunshine. Indeed the sun made valiant attempts to elbow its way through a mass of thick clouds, but failed hopelessly in the effort. As the first rows of guards appeared, I discovered the name of the giant bear-skin hats they wear--busbees! Live and Learn, I thought, for I had never known that this was what those hats were called--I always just called them bear-skin hats! I received this little nugget of information from an English Dad standing near me who was explaining the ceremony to his little girl. I know I will never forget that word--busbee!
After the marching band and the crocodiles of guards went past--all attired in the expected grey overcoats, their winter regalia--a pair of coaches kept riding by in stately fashion. They were fully covered and I failed to see the point of them. Was there someone inside? If so, who and where was that person going? I was much too far from the Palace gates to see what was going on within the front yard. But at least I do know where to stand the next time I decide to do this highly "touristic" activity--in the summer, when they are back to wearing their red uniforms. In fact, I still find it hard to believe that despite innumerable visits to London, this was the very first time ever that I was 'doing' the Changing of the Guard. One more item just got ticked off my To-Do List!
Mission Accomplished, I made my way to the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies as I was keen to borrow two books that I need for my Anglo-Indian research. It is the information contained in these books that will allow me to call for the specific documents that I wish to examine at the British Library. To my dismay, I discovered that while I can use the SOAS library for reference, I cannot take material out of the premises. This is because NYU is not affiliated to the University of London colleges--only to UCL (I'm still not sure what the difference is!). Hence, I can use the Senate House Library at the University of London freely.
Disappointed, I made my way past the Hare Krishna free food stall outside SOAS where I availed myself of the services of the organization to pick up a plate of rice with peanuts, a vegetable curry and some pumpkin bread. Replete with my unexpected meal, I made my way up the maze that is the Senate House Library and on going through the online catalogue and stacks, I had another disappointment for I discovered that the two books I wanted to borrow were not in the library (Frank Anthony and Herbert Stark). Very dejected indeed, I borrowed two other books instead (Alison Blunt and Lionel Caplan) and will now have to find a way to get those books out of SOAS--probably by having someone else take the books out for me.
Since it was still only a little after 3 pm, I decided to get to the nearby British Museum and take a look at the 20 Highlights that are supposed to be covered by first-time visitors to the Museum in three hours. I became aware of this self-guided tour through my students Frank and Max who took the tour on the date that I had assigned a Museum visit in lieu of a class (when I had so bad a hoarse throat that I could barely speak). It was easy enough to follow and I decided to cover about 12 of them on the Ground Floor. These were the items I saw today:
1. The Sloane Atrolabe (map that points to the position of the stars).
2. A Colossal Bust of Rameses the Great in the Egyptian Gallery (Supposedly inspired Shelley's Ozymandias).
3. An Easter Island Statue called Hoa Hakananai'a. (Since I will probably not get to Easter Island itself, this was the closest I came to one of these mysterious sculptures).
4. Aztec Turquoise Serpent (Exquisite)
5. Group of Tang Ceramic Tomb Figures (Massive and quite astounding indeed)
6. Cloisonne Jar with Dragons (really large ginger jar with minute enamelling all over it)
7. Jade Cong (Couldn't quite made sense of these objects at all despite the accompanying explanation. They are 5,000 years old and show superb craftsmanship for the time in the precision with which they are cut and polished)
8. Jade Terrapin from Allahabad. (This was really astonishing...a giant jade turtle that was made for Prince Salim--who became the Emperor Jehangir--in India. He had a special love for wild life and the turtle is found in the waters of the Ganges river where it meets with the Yamuna at the town that the Hindus called Praag and that Emperor Akbar changed to Allahabad)
As I had already seen the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Marbles and the Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs earlier on other visits, I decided to skip them though they were also on the Highlights List. There are about 12 more items on the Museum's list and I shall try to complete my study of them this week.
Then, I was headed home on a bus, fairly falling from fatigue. I made myself an Alternate Bath and sat to watch the new TV channel that debuted today--Blighty. It featured a show on the Coast of Scotland (Orkney Islands) with special emphasis on the marine life to be found in the area. I found it interesting but as I have so little time for TV watching, much as I would like to to, I don't think I will find a great deal of time to get acquainted with the channel and its promising offerings.
At 5 pm, I continued the transcribing of the taped interview that I had left unfinished in the morning, I had been concentrating on my work so much that I quite forgot that Ivana was on her way to meet me as we had made plans to meet up for a drink. Ivana arrived at 8pm, just as I was putting the finishing touches on my interview with Cecil Wilson. I excused myself for another five minutes while I wrapped up, then climbed into my clothes and left with Ivana.
I suggested The Mitre, a neighborhood pub in Hatton Gardens that Tim and Barbara had pointed out to me which dates from 1542. It is certainly the oldest pub in our neighborhood and when Ivana saw it, she was totally enchanted. She walked around it as if in a trance, taking in the cute courtyard (filled with worried attorneys drowning their sorrows in ale--who knows how long they will continue to have jobs?) and the bar area that was so small, so cozy and so ancient, it reeked of so much more than booze--age and history was what was proclaimed from the exposed beams--as we settled down with our shandy and cider and then decided to order a bite as well. We enjoyed the pub's 'toasties'--toasted sandwiches and sausage rolls and pork pies and caught up on our lives. I was amazed to recall that I hadn't seen Ivana since our walk in Chelsea and Battersea just before Christmas. She wanted to know all about my trip to Berlin (as she grew up in that historic city) and everything else that I had been doing since we last met!
By 10 pm, though Ivana wanted another pint, I was nodding off and told her that I had had a very early start. We parted company at the entrance to my building, promising to get together again at her place at Elephant and Castle sometime soon. Then, I brushed my teeth and climbed into bed and began to jot down a few lines on to this blog.
Monday, February 16, 2009
An Uneventful Day...Except for Travel Planning
Monday, February 16, 2009
London
Today was a fairly uneventful day. But for the fact that I taught two Writing classes, met with one student during my lunch break during which time I also squeezed in a meeting to sort out the details of our proposed trip to Suffolk, nothing much happened.
I did visit the large Jessops Camera store on Oxford Street to find out if they could help me fix my camera. Not only would they take 4-6 weeks to do this, but they said the charge would be 120 pounds! Given that our camera is about 9 years old, the salesman told me it was not worth it at all. At any rate, I have managed to find a way to keep it working even though it will not be most convenient. This has taken the worry out of the problem for me and I have now laid it to rest.
My meeting with Alice at NYU led to the finalizing of our plans for our student trip into Constable Country. We've now decided to include the medieval town of Lavenham in our itinerary. We will be headed to Dedham, East Bergholt, Flatford Mill on the River Stour and then on to Lavenham in Suffolk. It promises to be a fun-filled day.
I also had a chance to talk with Robert about our forthcoming trip to Cornwall and have a better idea now about our itinerary there. We will be making our base at Newquay, visiting the Eden Project and Tintagel, legendary castle-home of King Arthur, and Boscastle. I have decided that since a whole day will be spent by my students on the bus getting to Cornwall, I will go two days earlier and see some more of the region on my own. I am keen to visit St. Ives, for instance, where the Tate St. Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum are worth a visit as well as the town of Penzance (made famous by Gilbert and Sullivan in their opera The Pirates of Penzance). I will then head to Newquay and meet the bus when it arrives with the students late on Friday evening.
In an attempt to find transport to Cornwall, I went online and through Ryanair found a free (yes, Free) ticket to Newquay. Inclusive of taxes, my ticket cost one penny but because I made the booking online with my credit card, I had to pay 5 pounds! I will now get on the phone tomorrow and make accommodation arrangements for myself for two nights at the same hotel where NYU will be putting me up for the two nights that I will be spending there with my students.
I also managed to find myself accommodation in Paris through a French student of mine and since I am keen to experience the Chunnel, I went online to the Eurostar website and found some incredible fares. I am looking at spending a week in Paris somewhere during the first or second week in June when the weather will be much nicer and the responsibilities of teaching will be behind me. Now all I have to do is find another week somewhere on my calendar to be spent in Belgium--and with that I would have achieved almost all my international travel goals for the year.
I spent a good part of the evening photocopying material from my travel books for the trip I am taking this coming Friday with my students to Winchester and Portsmouth and to all the other spots that Stephanie and I intend to visit at the weekends. That and a bunch of other things that needed to be photocopied kept me busy for another hour, long past my office hours.
It was a very mild day and everyone looked cheerful even though the sun was in hiding all day today. I am amazed to see daffodil stalks sticking their heads out of the ground already--a sight that would be unthinkable in the States in the middle of February. I know that spring comes early to England ("Oh to be in England/ Now that Spring is here!") but now that I am already spying the little signs that herald its arrival, I am fairly bristling with excitement.
I got back home to sort out all that material that I had copied and to organize it and watch a bit of TV and eat my dinner before I settled down for the night.
I am excited about waking tomorrow to the inauguration of a new channel on TV called 'Blighty' which promises to present programs about the quirkiest aspects of British life and culture. It should be, as they would say here, not just brilliant, but loads of fun.
Tomorrow I am also planning to go and do something I have never done before in London--Viewing the Changing of the Guards. I am particularly keen to view this spectacle while the guards are in their winter togs of knee-length grey coats and if I want to get some pictures featuring this garb, I will have to hurry as there doesn't seem to be much of winter left, is there?
London
Today was a fairly uneventful day. But for the fact that I taught two Writing classes, met with one student during my lunch break during which time I also squeezed in a meeting to sort out the details of our proposed trip to Suffolk, nothing much happened.
I did visit the large Jessops Camera store on Oxford Street to find out if they could help me fix my camera. Not only would they take 4-6 weeks to do this, but they said the charge would be 120 pounds! Given that our camera is about 9 years old, the salesman told me it was not worth it at all. At any rate, I have managed to find a way to keep it working even though it will not be most convenient. This has taken the worry out of the problem for me and I have now laid it to rest.
My meeting with Alice at NYU led to the finalizing of our plans for our student trip into Constable Country. We've now decided to include the medieval town of Lavenham in our itinerary. We will be headed to Dedham, East Bergholt, Flatford Mill on the River Stour and then on to Lavenham in Suffolk. It promises to be a fun-filled day.
I also had a chance to talk with Robert about our forthcoming trip to Cornwall and have a better idea now about our itinerary there. We will be making our base at Newquay, visiting the Eden Project and Tintagel, legendary castle-home of King Arthur, and Boscastle. I have decided that since a whole day will be spent by my students on the bus getting to Cornwall, I will go two days earlier and see some more of the region on my own. I am keen to visit St. Ives, for instance, where the Tate St. Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum are worth a visit as well as the town of Penzance (made famous by Gilbert and Sullivan in their opera The Pirates of Penzance). I will then head to Newquay and meet the bus when it arrives with the students late on Friday evening.
In an attempt to find transport to Cornwall, I went online and through Ryanair found a free (yes, Free) ticket to Newquay. Inclusive of taxes, my ticket cost one penny but because I made the booking online with my credit card, I had to pay 5 pounds! I will now get on the phone tomorrow and make accommodation arrangements for myself for two nights at the same hotel where NYU will be putting me up for the two nights that I will be spending there with my students.
I also managed to find myself accommodation in Paris through a French student of mine and since I am keen to experience the Chunnel, I went online to the Eurostar website and found some incredible fares. I am looking at spending a week in Paris somewhere during the first or second week in June when the weather will be much nicer and the responsibilities of teaching will be behind me. Now all I have to do is find another week somewhere on my calendar to be spent in Belgium--and with that I would have achieved almost all my international travel goals for the year.
I spent a good part of the evening photocopying material from my travel books for the trip I am taking this coming Friday with my students to Winchester and Portsmouth and to all the other spots that Stephanie and I intend to visit at the weekends. That and a bunch of other things that needed to be photocopied kept me busy for another hour, long past my office hours.
It was a very mild day and everyone looked cheerful even though the sun was in hiding all day today. I am amazed to see daffodil stalks sticking their heads out of the ground already--a sight that would be unthinkable in the States in the middle of February. I know that spring comes early to England ("Oh to be in England/ Now that Spring is here!") but now that I am already spying the little signs that herald its arrival, I am fairly bristling with excitement.
I got back home to sort out all that material that I had copied and to organize it and watch a bit of TV and eat my dinner before I settled down for the night.
I am excited about waking tomorrow to the inauguration of a new channel on TV called 'Blighty' which promises to present programs about the quirkiest aspects of British life and culture. It should be, as they would say here, not just brilliant, but loads of fun.
Tomorrow I am also planning to go and do something I have never done before in London--Viewing the Changing of the Guards. I am particularly keen to view this spectacle while the guards are in their winter togs of knee-length grey coats and if I want to get some pictures featuring this garb, I will have to hurry as there doesn't seem to be much of winter left, is there?
Sunday, February 15, 2009
A Canterbury Tale
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Canterbury
Following in the footsteps of Geoffrey's Chaucer's medieval pilgrims, Stephanie and I decided to "wenden on a pilgrimage/ to Caunterbury with ful devout corage". I arrived at her place at Wimbledon at 9 am and using the GPS, we found a rather circuitous route into Kent. It was with some frustration that Stephanie asked me, "What's with this country that it is ALWAYS cloudy on a Sunday?" I had no explanation but I couldn't help sharing her longing for a day trip that the two of us will actually do in bright cheerful sunshine. Still, if we have to wait for such a day to come along in England, we might well be waiting forever. I am convinced that the English are so relieved when they find a dry day that they have stopped caring about clouds!
The miles flew by as we caught up on our week. Stephanie already feels like an old friend and when we get together, we gab non-stop. I had carried a pile of travel books with me and en route to our destination, I read aloud chunks of relevant information to fill us in on the history of the venue.
I had visited Canterbury 22 years ago when the lines of Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales were still fresh enough in my mind that I could actually recite the opening lines by heart. I remember how thrilled I was to be following on the route taken at least a thousand years ago by pilgrims from the Dark Ages and how enthralled I was to be visiting the sacred site on which Thomas a Beckett was murdered. If Chaucer's Tales were on my mind then, so was T.S. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral as was David Lean's unforgettable film Beckett starring Richard Burton in the title role with Peter O'Toole playing Henry II. Who can ever think of Beckett and Canterbury without calling to mind that chilling line uttered by a resentful monarch, "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?"--a line that led to one of the most brutal murders in medieval history.
Arriving at Canterbury, Stephanie and I found parking in a public car park not too far from the famous Cathedral. The city's Roman walls were visible long before we parked our car--walls that were begun by the Romans and fortified in the Middle Ages by such illustrious kings as Ethelbert who welcomed St. Augustine who arrived in England in 597 A.D. in accordance with the wishes of Pope Gregory III to convert the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian faith.It was Ethelbert's wife, the Frankish Queen Bertha, who took the teachings of Augustine to her heart, provided him with a hospitable environment in which to preach and influenced her husband to convert as well. A pair of sculptures that recalls the contribution of this royal couple to the religious history of the city is seen on Lady Wooton's Green where they appear resplendent in their courtly robes.
It was St. Augustine's zeal that led to the creation of the first Christian house of worship in Canterbury, a space that evolved under the orders of Bishop Lanfranc into the majestic cathedral that stands today. The ingenuity of medieval stone masons, carvers and craftsmen is plainly evident on the exterior and interior of this monumental building where intricate lace-like work decorates every surface. Twin spires rise up tall, accompanied by Bell Harry Tower, a square tower whose interior is covered with the most magnificent fan vaulting at a height of 128 feet. The nave of the church is the longest in England and the choir stalls are superb examples of medieval wood carving.
None of this architectural splendour would have catapulted this cathedral to fame were it not for the notorious murder of then Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Beckett in 1170. On that fateful day, four knights broke into the cathedral and murdered the prelate in cold blood. Henry II, himself devastated by the death of his one-time close friend, ended up doing penance for what he considered to be his part in the murder. He walked barefooted around the streets of Canterbury while being flogged by monks carrying branches of trees. These gestures only served to increase reverence for the good priest and devotion to him grew steadily until news of a number of miracles began to surface. Within three years, Beckett was canonized a saint by the Catholic church and the pilgrimages of which Chaucer wrote less than a hundred years later began. Soon, Canterbury was the most popular place of pilgrimage in Europe and pilgrims came by the thousand from far and wide to seek healing.
The devotion to St. Thomas continued until 1538 when Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries. St. Augustine's Abbey, which is located just a few meters away from the cathedral, was saved for a few years, but, finally, it too fell to the merciless designs of Cardinal Wolsey who ordered the physical destruction of the monastery buildings themselves and the confiscation of all church property which came under the possession of the Crown. The Shrine of St. Thomas which had been built in 1220 was destroyed by order of Henry VIII who wished to erase his memory from English religious history--perhaps the story of Beckett's defiance of the orders of his king (Henry II) was too close to comfort for Henry VIII who needed the loyalty of his prelates to be able to carry out his own vision of Protestant Reformation in England. At any rate, with Beckett's shrine destroyed, all vestiges of the saint's existence were wiped out for a long while. In due course, this devotion was revived and today there is a perpetual candle that burns on the spot in Trinity Chapel where the shrine of St. Thomas once stood.
We entered the Cathedral the way generations of pilgrims before us had done--through the marvelous West Gate that is covered with detailed sculpture. It was here that I had a minor set back--dropping my camera on the cobbled stone street. To my huge dismay, the camera suffered some damage and I was no longer able to use it. Resolving not to let this damage my spirits, I put it out of my mind and with Stephanie promising to send me the pictures she took, I decided to find out tomorrow from a camera repair store if it can be fixed or must simply be written off. At the entrance, we discovered that the church was closed until 12. 30 and we figured we might as well get ourselves a spot of lunch. At a small tea room, I opted for a cream tea (scones with clotted cream and strawberry jan and a pot of peppermint tea which really hit the spot as it was chilly outside and we both felt grateful to be able to warm up indoors).
Once we paid our 7 pounds apiece and entered the Cathedral, we found that the inside contains minutely designed stained glass windows that tell the stories of the miracles attributed to St. Thomas while the spot at which Thomas fell is marked with a plaque bearing his name and a very evocative sculpture on the wall that contains three drawn swords--The Altar of the Swords--signifying those carried by his three murderers (Thomas had struck one down in self defence when they attacked him). This part of the cathedral is near the crypt, itself an enormously interesting part of the structure and not just for the details of medieval architecture that one can study within. Treasures of the crypt in the form of silver and gold altar pieces are also on display here. It is also in the crypt that the original 12th century frescoes can be found--albeit in rather poor state.
It was while walking around the exterior of the cathedral, however, that Stephanie and I were bowled over. The accompanying stone buildings that flank the Cathedral itself are so well-preserved and so evocative of England that we were enchanted and took many pictures. The stroll took us into the serene cloisters that overlook an emerald green courtyard that lay within the shadow of Bell Harry Tower. The cloister ceilings are covered with the heraldic shields of the many knights who were once deeply devoted to their religious calling. Stephanie and I were completely enchanted by this space and wished we could have lingered there forever.
But it was cold and we needed to move on and our next port of call was the War Memorial Gardens. At this point, since we were both tired, we returned to the Cathedral to rest our feet and a little later set out on our next expedition--the discovery of St. Augustine's Abbey. We followed directions, crossing the War Memorial Gardens and the city walls and arriving at the King's School and then the ruins of the abbey that was founded by St. Augustine himself. I was really tired by this point and while Stephanie used her English Heritage membership to tour the grounds, I viewed the excellent exhibition that retold the history of the abbey from medieval to modern times as well as showed a vast number of archeological remnants of its past vigorous life.
Canterbury was marvelous and Stephanie and I, latter-day pilgrims, found ourselves very edified by our visit. Though we did not stay for Evensong which was scheduled to begin at 3.15 pm, we did receive a fine sense of the ambiance of the service from the rehearsals that were on while we were visiting. I was pleased to have found a priest who paused to point out some of the most interesting bits and pieces of the Cathedral's history and architecture to me such as the red marble flooring near the altar that was worn into a hollow from the number of pilgrim knees that had crawled to the altar in their thousands during the heyday of Beckett devotion. Had he not drawn my attention to this deeply moving feature, I would have missed it altogether.
Then, it was time for us to return to our car before our parking permit expired and to start the drive back home. We were caught it awful traffic on the South Circular Road which still has me believing that there was a better way to get to Canterbury and back from Wimbledon. But then we came upon an Underground station that turned out to be Tooting Bec and within a half hour, I was home (as opposed to the one hour it would have taken me to get home from Wimbledon).
Back home, I consulted my neighbor Tim on the best place to get my camera looked at. He suggested Jessops on New Oxford Street and I shall try to get there after teaching my classes tomorrow. I then downloaded the pictures on my camera so as not to lose them, edited and captioned and backed them up on CDs and decided to stop to have some dinner and one of my Alternate Baths. While I was in the middle of my dinner, Llew called me for a half hour chat. We caught up and by 10 pm, I decided to get ready for bed and spend a while blogging in bed.
Canterbury
Following in the footsteps of Geoffrey's Chaucer's medieval pilgrims, Stephanie and I decided to "wenden on a pilgrimage/ to Caunterbury with ful devout corage". I arrived at her place at Wimbledon at 9 am and using the GPS, we found a rather circuitous route into Kent. It was with some frustration that Stephanie asked me, "What's with this country that it is ALWAYS cloudy on a Sunday?" I had no explanation but I couldn't help sharing her longing for a day trip that the two of us will actually do in bright cheerful sunshine. Still, if we have to wait for such a day to come along in England, we might well be waiting forever. I am convinced that the English are so relieved when they find a dry day that they have stopped caring about clouds!
The miles flew by as we caught up on our week. Stephanie already feels like an old friend and when we get together, we gab non-stop. I had carried a pile of travel books with me and en route to our destination, I read aloud chunks of relevant information to fill us in on the history of the venue.
I had visited Canterbury 22 years ago when the lines of Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales were still fresh enough in my mind that I could actually recite the opening lines by heart. I remember how thrilled I was to be following on the route taken at least a thousand years ago by pilgrims from the Dark Ages and how enthralled I was to be visiting the sacred site on which Thomas a Beckett was murdered. If Chaucer's Tales were on my mind then, so was T.S. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral as was David Lean's unforgettable film Beckett starring Richard Burton in the title role with Peter O'Toole playing Henry II. Who can ever think of Beckett and Canterbury without calling to mind that chilling line uttered by a resentful monarch, "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?"--a line that led to one of the most brutal murders in medieval history.
Arriving at Canterbury, Stephanie and I found parking in a public car park not too far from the famous Cathedral. The city's Roman walls were visible long before we parked our car--walls that were begun by the Romans and fortified in the Middle Ages by such illustrious kings as Ethelbert who welcomed St. Augustine who arrived in England in 597 A.D. in accordance with the wishes of Pope Gregory III to convert the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian faith.It was Ethelbert's wife, the Frankish Queen Bertha, who took the teachings of Augustine to her heart, provided him with a hospitable environment in which to preach and influenced her husband to convert as well. A pair of sculptures that recalls the contribution of this royal couple to the religious history of the city is seen on Lady Wooton's Green where they appear resplendent in their courtly robes.
It was St. Augustine's zeal that led to the creation of the first Christian house of worship in Canterbury, a space that evolved under the orders of Bishop Lanfranc into the majestic cathedral that stands today. The ingenuity of medieval stone masons, carvers and craftsmen is plainly evident on the exterior and interior of this monumental building where intricate lace-like work decorates every surface. Twin spires rise up tall, accompanied by Bell Harry Tower, a square tower whose interior is covered with the most magnificent fan vaulting at a height of 128 feet. The nave of the church is the longest in England and the choir stalls are superb examples of medieval wood carving.
None of this architectural splendour would have catapulted this cathedral to fame were it not for the notorious murder of then Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Beckett in 1170. On that fateful day, four knights broke into the cathedral and murdered the prelate in cold blood. Henry II, himself devastated by the death of his one-time close friend, ended up doing penance for what he considered to be his part in the murder. He walked barefooted around the streets of Canterbury while being flogged by monks carrying branches of trees. These gestures only served to increase reverence for the good priest and devotion to him grew steadily until news of a number of miracles began to surface. Within three years, Beckett was canonized a saint by the Catholic church and the pilgrimages of which Chaucer wrote less than a hundred years later began. Soon, Canterbury was the most popular place of pilgrimage in Europe and pilgrims came by the thousand from far and wide to seek healing.
The devotion to St. Thomas continued until 1538 when Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries. St. Augustine's Abbey, which is located just a few meters away from the cathedral, was saved for a few years, but, finally, it too fell to the merciless designs of Cardinal Wolsey who ordered the physical destruction of the monastery buildings themselves and the confiscation of all church property which came under the possession of the Crown. The Shrine of St. Thomas which had been built in 1220 was destroyed by order of Henry VIII who wished to erase his memory from English religious history--perhaps the story of Beckett's defiance of the orders of his king (Henry II) was too close to comfort for Henry VIII who needed the loyalty of his prelates to be able to carry out his own vision of Protestant Reformation in England. At any rate, with Beckett's shrine destroyed, all vestiges of the saint's existence were wiped out for a long while. In due course, this devotion was revived and today there is a perpetual candle that burns on the spot in Trinity Chapel where the shrine of St. Thomas once stood.
We entered the Cathedral the way generations of pilgrims before us had done--through the marvelous West Gate that is covered with detailed sculpture. It was here that I had a minor set back--dropping my camera on the cobbled stone street. To my huge dismay, the camera suffered some damage and I was no longer able to use it. Resolving not to let this damage my spirits, I put it out of my mind and with Stephanie promising to send me the pictures she took, I decided to find out tomorrow from a camera repair store if it can be fixed or must simply be written off. At the entrance, we discovered that the church was closed until 12. 30 and we figured we might as well get ourselves a spot of lunch. At a small tea room, I opted for a cream tea (scones with clotted cream and strawberry jan and a pot of peppermint tea which really hit the spot as it was chilly outside and we both felt grateful to be able to warm up indoors).
Once we paid our 7 pounds apiece and entered the Cathedral, we found that the inside contains minutely designed stained glass windows that tell the stories of the miracles attributed to St. Thomas while the spot at which Thomas fell is marked with a plaque bearing his name and a very evocative sculpture on the wall that contains three drawn swords--The Altar of the Swords--signifying those carried by his three murderers (Thomas had struck one down in self defence when they attacked him). This part of the cathedral is near the crypt, itself an enormously interesting part of the structure and not just for the details of medieval architecture that one can study within. Treasures of the crypt in the form of silver and gold altar pieces are also on display here. It is also in the crypt that the original 12th century frescoes can be found--albeit in rather poor state.
It was while walking around the exterior of the cathedral, however, that Stephanie and I were bowled over. The accompanying stone buildings that flank the Cathedral itself are so well-preserved and so evocative of England that we were enchanted and took many pictures. The stroll took us into the serene cloisters that overlook an emerald green courtyard that lay within the shadow of Bell Harry Tower. The cloister ceilings are covered with the heraldic shields of the many knights who were once deeply devoted to their religious calling. Stephanie and I were completely enchanted by this space and wished we could have lingered there forever.
But it was cold and we needed to move on and our next port of call was the War Memorial Gardens. At this point, since we were both tired, we returned to the Cathedral to rest our feet and a little later set out on our next expedition--the discovery of St. Augustine's Abbey. We followed directions, crossing the War Memorial Gardens and the city walls and arriving at the King's School and then the ruins of the abbey that was founded by St. Augustine himself. I was really tired by this point and while Stephanie used her English Heritage membership to tour the grounds, I viewed the excellent exhibition that retold the history of the abbey from medieval to modern times as well as showed a vast number of archeological remnants of its past vigorous life.
Canterbury was marvelous and Stephanie and I, latter-day pilgrims, found ourselves very edified by our visit. Though we did not stay for Evensong which was scheduled to begin at 3.15 pm, we did receive a fine sense of the ambiance of the service from the rehearsals that were on while we were visiting. I was pleased to have found a priest who paused to point out some of the most interesting bits and pieces of the Cathedral's history and architecture to me such as the red marble flooring near the altar that was worn into a hollow from the number of pilgrim knees that had crawled to the altar in their thousands during the heyday of Beckett devotion. Had he not drawn my attention to this deeply moving feature, I would have missed it altogether.
Then, it was time for us to return to our car before our parking permit expired and to start the drive back home. We were caught it awful traffic on the South Circular Road which still has me believing that there was a better way to get to Canterbury and back from Wimbledon. But then we came upon an Underground station that turned out to be Tooting Bec and within a half hour, I was home (as opposed to the one hour it would have taken me to get home from Wimbledon).
Back home, I consulted my neighbor Tim on the best place to get my camera looked at. He suggested Jessops on New Oxford Street and I shall try to get there after teaching my classes tomorrow. I then downloaded the pictures on my camera so as not to lose them, edited and captioned and backed them up on CDs and decided to stop to have some dinner and one of my Alternate Baths. While I was in the middle of my dinner, Llew called me for a half hour chat. We caught up and by 10 pm, I decided to get ready for bed and spend a while blogging in bed.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
St. Val's Day! Antiquing on Portobello Road, More V&A and Chinatown
February 14, 2009
London
London was made for Lovers! And more so on Valentine's Day. All the world loves a lover and they were out in droves today--with their red-attired beaus, the gals were all dolled up in the miniest of mini skirts and impossibly high stillettos, their scruffier boyfriends tagging alongside in unhemmed jeans and sneakers! Why do the girls kill themselves so when their guys are so nonchalant about this most romantic of holidays?
I awoke and read Harry Potter for an hour, then worked on my email correspondence. Soon after breakfast, my soaks and exercises and a shower, I left my flat and decided to go antiquing on Portobello Road. I can't believe that five months have passed since I came to live in London and I haven't yet been to my favorite hunting ground. But when I arrived the dollar was so weak that everything was out of my reach. Now that the dollar has skyrocketed, I can finally start to look at purchasing some antiques and today, with the rain at bay and the sun making occasional attempts to peak out, I thought it would be a good day to find out what was available.
So, off I went by bus (8 to Tottenham Court Road, then the 390 to Notting Hill Gate) and a short ten minute walk later, there I was amidst the stalls selling vintage jewelery and bric-a-brac and the serious antiques dealers with their sterling silver, Royal Douton china and signed designer jewelry. It is always a mystery to me where time goes when I have my nose pressed to the show cases that display the items that most take my fancy. While painted porcelain has always been my passion, I am no longer in the market for cups and saucers as I simply have no place to store them. My collection already numbers about 250 and I now only make a purchase when the pair is really rare or very reasonably priced.
At different times, on Portobello Road over the years, I have looked very specifically for a certain item. One year it was an umbrella stand (I ended up snagging a rare Japanese Imari for next to no money). On another occasion, it was a cut-crystal cruet set (I did not find it on Portobello Road but we did find a rather rare complete set in a very special antiques shop in the Cotswolds). This time, I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but I did end up buying an antique type face--a giant A (for Almeida) which I can use with a stamp pad to personalize Thank You cards, Place cards and the like.
It was almost 1. 00 and I was already tired when I hopped on to the first bus I spied and rode it towards Kensington. I decided to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see the Scultpure Gallery and the collection of Rodins that I really had no energy to study the last time I was there. I found myself a seat indoors and ate my home-made tongue and gammon sandwich and feeling fortified for more art inspection, I spent a while among some of Rodin's most recognizable work such as the study for the Gates of Hell, St. John the Baptist, etc.Having also left the paintings gallery unfinished the last time, I climbed the stairs to complete it and ended up browsing once again in the upper story of the jewelry section where I became particularly fascinated by the 18th and 19th jewelry items called chatelains--a sort of carry-all that included the tiniest implements that a lady might need such as a pair of tweezers, a pen knife, a pair of scissors, a bottle for her perfume, a tiny spoon to dig the wax out of her ears (!) and a lot of other odds and ends that might otherwise be misplaced! They were just too cute!
It was still bright and not yet biting cold when I got on the bus again and made my way towards Chinatown. As part of the course I am teaching this semester, my students have been assigned the exploration of a different ethnic London neighborhood each week. This is designed to teach them about the global environment in which they dwell in one of the world's most diverse cities. I figured that I might as well explore the neighborshoods at the same time and since one of my students will be making a Powerpoint presentation on Chinese London on Monday, I decided to get off at Shafestbury Avenue and poke around Chinatown myself.
London's Chinatown is located on Gerard Street right behind Shaftesbury Avenue. There is a giant gateway designed in Oriental fashion that marks the entrance to this neighborhood. A couple of weeks ago, this area was seen at its festive best with scarlet lanterns strung all over the facades of the stores in celebration of Chinese New Year. Most of them have been removed but a few remain, red being the color of good luck and prosperity. Though I have passed through this part of Shaftesbury Avenue several times on the bus, I had never really entered the shops, studied the menus in the main restaurants or poked my head into the supermarkets.
The entire experience was heady and fascinating indeed. In the Loong Fung Supermarket, for instance, I decided to buy myself some Oriental fruit as I had eaten these in Thailand a few years ago and had quite enjoyed them. So I filled my basket with lychees, rambutans and mangosteens but when I came to the check out counters and saw the lines stretching for miles, I decided I simply did not have the energy to join them. I left my fruity purchases right there and resolved to vist the area on a weekday.
Many restaurants offered Peking Duck that hung from large hooks at the entrance. Many served Dim Sum all day and as I love Chinese dim sum, I wished very much that I could have tried some of their offerings. But I do not enjoy eating alone in a restaurant, so I shall wait until I can find some company to check one of these places out. I was quite taken by the Chinese bakeries where all sorts of exotic pastries beckoned--red bean pastry, sesame pastry, almond cookies, melon and kiwi mousse cakes, green tea mochi, etc. Food apart, I also saw Chinese hair dressers and Chinese acupunturists and Chinese herbalists all plying a brisk trade in this area. Hundreds of tourists strolled along the shop fronts looking for a suitable place to eat their evening meal. It was a very interesting evening indeed and I ended up feeling as if I had just taken a detour into Hongkong via Singapore!
Since I was very close to Kingsway, I then walked for another 15 minutes for the 6 pm mass at St. Anselm's Church. Stephanie and I will be out for the day on one of our weekend trips--we're going to Canterbury tomorrow a la Chaucer's pilgrims--and since I would be missing Sunday mass, I did want to go to Church today. It is after all Valentine's Day and I did miss Llew and Chriselle very much indeed. The mass was fairly well attended but, when it ended, my wait for the bus was most frustrating as even 20 minutes later, the bus did not make an appearance. In disgust, I walked a few yards to another bus stop from which I could get 3 buses and in less than ten minutes I was home!
I arrived at the door of my flat to find a huge parcel on my door--the delivery of flowers and a gift for me from my Valentine across the seas! I was so excited and so delighted that despite the fact that I was not home all day and there was no concierge on duty, the delivery had been made. When I opened the parcel, I found a dozen long stemmed red roses, a bottle of champagne and a darling little Teddy Bear--and of course, a very touching message from my beau! I called Llew immediately and thanked him for the very loving thoughts and, of course, then I missed him more than ever. This is the very first time in our lives together that we have been away from each other on Valentine's Day and so it is the first time I have received a long-distance gift from him. The thought was very sweet indeed.
I spent the next few minutes arranging my red roses in a vase and getting together my Meal for One--lovely pecan and raisin bread with Smoked Cheddar for a starter, Chicken Curry with Rice and Tiramisu for dessert washed down with ice-cold cider. I watched the Food Network do all sorts of programs that had focussed on the Foods of Love and the UK's favorite dinners (would you believe the Number One favorite is Spaghetti Bolognese?) and then it was time to end this lovely Valentine's Day by calling Chriselle and Chris in the US and wishing them a happy Valentine's Day as an engaged couple before I got ready for bed.
London
London was made for Lovers! And more so on Valentine's Day. All the world loves a lover and they were out in droves today--with their red-attired beaus, the gals were all dolled up in the miniest of mini skirts and impossibly high stillettos, their scruffier boyfriends tagging alongside in unhemmed jeans and sneakers! Why do the girls kill themselves so when their guys are so nonchalant about this most romantic of holidays?
I awoke and read Harry Potter for an hour, then worked on my email correspondence. Soon after breakfast, my soaks and exercises and a shower, I left my flat and decided to go antiquing on Portobello Road. I can't believe that five months have passed since I came to live in London and I haven't yet been to my favorite hunting ground. But when I arrived the dollar was so weak that everything was out of my reach. Now that the dollar has skyrocketed, I can finally start to look at purchasing some antiques and today, with the rain at bay and the sun making occasional attempts to peak out, I thought it would be a good day to find out what was available.
So, off I went by bus (8 to Tottenham Court Road, then the 390 to Notting Hill Gate) and a short ten minute walk later, there I was amidst the stalls selling vintage jewelery and bric-a-brac and the serious antiques dealers with their sterling silver, Royal Douton china and signed designer jewelry. It is always a mystery to me where time goes when I have my nose pressed to the show cases that display the items that most take my fancy. While painted porcelain has always been my passion, I am no longer in the market for cups and saucers as I simply have no place to store them. My collection already numbers about 250 and I now only make a purchase when the pair is really rare or very reasonably priced.
At different times, on Portobello Road over the years, I have looked very specifically for a certain item. One year it was an umbrella stand (I ended up snagging a rare Japanese Imari for next to no money). On another occasion, it was a cut-crystal cruet set (I did not find it on Portobello Road but we did find a rather rare complete set in a very special antiques shop in the Cotswolds). This time, I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but I did end up buying an antique type face--a giant A (for Almeida) which I can use with a stamp pad to personalize Thank You cards, Place cards and the like.
It was almost 1. 00 and I was already tired when I hopped on to the first bus I spied and rode it towards Kensington. I decided to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see the Scultpure Gallery and the collection of Rodins that I really had no energy to study the last time I was there. I found myself a seat indoors and ate my home-made tongue and gammon sandwich and feeling fortified for more art inspection, I spent a while among some of Rodin's most recognizable work such as the study for the Gates of Hell, St. John the Baptist, etc.Having also left the paintings gallery unfinished the last time, I climbed the stairs to complete it and ended up browsing once again in the upper story of the jewelry section where I became particularly fascinated by the 18th and 19th jewelry items called chatelains--a sort of carry-all that included the tiniest implements that a lady might need such as a pair of tweezers, a pen knife, a pair of scissors, a bottle for her perfume, a tiny spoon to dig the wax out of her ears (!) and a lot of other odds and ends that might otherwise be misplaced! They were just too cute!
It was still bright and not yet biting cold when I got on the bus again and made my way towards Chinatown. As part of the course I am teaching this semester, my students have been assigned the exploration of a different ethnic London neighborhood each week. This is designed to teach them about the global environment in which they dwell in one of the world's most diverse cities. I figured that I might as well explore the neighborshoods at the same time and since one of my students will be making a Powerpoint presentation on Chinese London on Monday, I decided to get off at Shafestbury Avenue and poke around Chinatown myself.
London's Chinatown is located on Gerard Street right behind Shaftesbury Avenue. There is a giant gateway designed in Oriental fashion that marks the entrance to this neighborhood. A couple of weeks ago, this area was seen at its festive best with scarlet lanterns strung all over the facades of the stores in celebration of Chinese New Year. Most of them have been removed but a few remain, red being the color of good luck and prosperity. Though I have passed through this part of Shaftesbury Avenue several times on the bus, I had never really entered the shops, studied the menus in the main restaurants or poked my head into the supermarkets.
The entire experience was heady and fascinating indeed. In the Loong Fung Supermarket, for instance, I decided to buy myself some Oriental fruit as I had eaten these in Thailand a few years ago and had quite enjoyed them. So I filled my basket with lychees, rambutans and mangosteens but when I came to the check out counters and saw the lines stretching for miles, I decided I simply did not have the energy to join them. I left my fruity purchases right there and resolved to vist the area on a weekday.
Many restaurants offered Peking Duck that hung from large hooks at the entrance. Many served Dim Sum all day and as I love Chinese dim sum, I wished very much that I could have tried some of their offerings. But I do not enjoy eating alone in a restaurant, so I shall wait until I can find some company to check one of these places out. I was quite taken by the Chinese bakeries where all sorts of exotic pastries beckoned--red bean pastry, sesame pastry, almond cookies, melon and kiwi mousse cakes, green tea mochi, etc. Food apart, I also saw Chinese hair dressers and Chinese acupunturists and Chinese herbalists all plying a brisk trade in this area. Hundreds of tourists strolled along the shop fronts looking for a suitable place to eat their evening meal. It was a very interesting evening indeed and I ended up feeling as if I had just taken a detour into Hongkong via Singapore!
Since I was very close to Kingsway, I then walked for another 15 minutes for the 6 pm mass at St. Anselm's Church. Stephanie and I will be out for the day on one of our weekend trips--we're going to Canterbury tomorrow a la Chaucer's pilgrims--and since I would be missing Sunday mass, I did want to go to Church today. It is after all Valentine's Day and I did miss Llew and Chriselle very much indeed. The mass was fairly well attended but, when it ended, my wait for the bus was most frustrating as even 20 minutes later, the bus did not make an appearance. In disgust, I walked a few yards to another bus stop from which I could get 3 buses and in less than ten minutes I was home!
I arrived at the door of my flat to find a huge parcel on my door--the delivery of flowers and a gift for me from my Valentine across the seas! I was so excited and so delighted that despite the fact that I was not home all day and there was no concierge on duty, the delivery had been made. When I opened the parcel, I found a dozen long stemmed red roses, a bottle of champagne and a darling little Teddy Bear--and of course, a very touching message from my beau! I called Llew immediately and thanked him for the very loving thoughts and, of course, then I missed him more than ever. This is the very first time in our lives together that we have been away from each other on Valentine's Day and so it is the first time I have received a long-distance gift from him. The thought was very sweet indeed.
I spent the next few minutes arranging my red roses in a vase and getting together my Meal for One--lovely pecan and raisin bread with Smoked Cheddar for a starter, Chicken Curry with Rice and Tiramisu for dessert washed down with ice-cold cider. I watched the Food Network do all sorts of programs that had focussed on the Foods of Love and the UK's favorite dinners (would you believe the Number One favorite is Spaghetti Bolognese?) and then it was time to end this lovely Valentine's Day by calling Chriselle and Chris in the US and wishing them a happy Valentine's Day as an engaged couple before I got ready for bed.
Friday, February 13, 2009
London's Seedier Side: Two Walking Tours of the East End
Friday, February 13, 2009
London
The Prisoner of Azkaban is marching along nicely. One hour long reading sessions at dawn and at bedtime will, I think, get me through the tomes (which grow in size with each volume) before I am gone from here.
Alternate Soaks, phone calls to Bombay, email correspondence, proofreading blog entries--all of that kept me busy through the morning. But the thing that ate most of my time and got me most frustrated was trying to find reasonably priced airfares for our proposed flight from Rome to Istanbul just before Easter. After trying every possibility, I came to the crazy conclusion that it might be best to use the budget airlines to return to London from Rome, then take another flight from London to Istanbul! Llew green lighted the scheme as most financially feasible and tomorrow, I shall try to make our bookings.
In the midst of all the internet research I did to try to find some fun things that Llew and I can do on Easter Sunday (as we will be spending it together here--yyesss!!!), I finally did something I had been meaning to do for weeks--book a ticket to the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show, In fact, this was on my list of things to do before I leave London! I have been reading about this legendary flower show--perhaps the world's best--for so many years in the Home and Garden magazines to which I subscribe in the States. So, I was determined to buy myself a ticket.
When I finally got down to it this morning, I discovered that it is scheduled the very week (May 19-23) I will be in Lyon, France, with my French pen pal of 37 years, Genevieve Tougne-Ducote. Genevieve and I have not seen each other since 1989 and I was so looking forward to meeting her and her family--husband and two sons. Fortunately, the day I return from France is also the last day of the show and since my flight arrives at Stanstead at 10.30 am, I will certainly be able to catch the last three to four hours of the show--which will be ample, I think.
Then, for technical reasons (they need my credit card registered to a UK address)my online purchase would not go through and in desperation, I called my friend Rosemary and asked her to make the purchase for me with her credit card. She readily obliged and I will reimburse her in cash. Delighted, just delighted, that I did get tickets to the show and will actually be able to make it, despite my travel plans, I decided to go outdoors and enjoy what had shaped into a lovely day with robin's egg blue skies and a cheerful winter sun. I showered, decided to do the Jack the Ripper Walk from my book--24 Great Walks in London--and left my flat.
The reason I chose this macabre walk was because I had scheduled a walking tour of Spitalfields with a Blue Badge Guide for my students of Global Cultures at 5pm. I knew that Brick Lane is located in this general area and since my students are studying Monica Ali's Brick Lane for my South Asian Studies class, I thought it would make sense to take them there to explore the area and see it for themselves. We were scheduled to meet at Liverpool Street Station at 5 pm, so it made sense to do another walking tour of the same area in the afternoon with a good long break in-between in a coffee shop to rest my legs.
The Jack the Ripper Tour began at Aldgate Underground Station and took me past such interesting sights as the following:
1. The Church of "St. Botolph Without Aldgate" (so-called because it lay beyond, outside, or without, the gates of Aldgate). Also known as the Prostitutes' Church as most of the street walkers of the area worshipped here.
2. Various locations in which the six women that Jack the Ripper killed were found or were last seen. These included a few pubs in the area around Whitechapel.
3. Petticoat Lane (so-called because 18th century under-jackets called petticoats, worn by men, were sold on this street). Today, it is a thriving street market, mostly frequented on Sundays by tourists. I found it very disappointing and totally lacking in atmosphere.
4. Old Spitalfields Market: A Victorian indoor market (similar to Old Covent Garden Market or Smithfield Market). Both this place and Petticoat Lane were on my list of places to see before I left London--so I guess I can say, Been There, Done That.
5. The Jame Masjid at Fournier Street, just off Brick Lane. Interesting because it was once a Huguenot Chapel, then a synagogue and is now a mosque.
6. Rows and rows of row houses (attached houses), many of which were destroyed during World War II (remember all the TV footage we have seen so often of the late Queen Mother touring the ravaged East End after the London Blitz?). These once housed the Huguenot silk weavers and giant wooden bobbins are now hung outside these homes. This is especially true of Wilkes Street and Puma Court. This was the most atmospheric part of the walk and appealed to me the most.
7. Christ Church, Spitalfields, built by Nicholas Hawksmoor (pupil of Sir Christopher Wren) in the early 1700s. An imposing Baroque structure, its spire rises tall into the sky and its four columns in the front flank a semi-circular pediment that gives it a very distinctive look. Inside, after restoration, it exudes peace and serenity and has fine stained glass windows.
This walk took me to some of the seediest parts of London I have seen so far. There was garbage in the gutters, houses and neighborhoods that looked badly in need of refurbishment or at least a lick of paint, rather ratty looking shops and Mom and Pop businesses. Now I understand why they say the East End is one of the most neglected parts of the city and why they hope the coming Olympics in 2012 will rejuvenate the area.
However, it is also one of the most diverse parts of the city and I saw a variety of races living in harmony together and a number of global cultures coalescesing quite effortlessly. Amazingly, just a few blocks past the rather run down streets were the towering glass and concrete structures around Liverpool Street Station where the large corporations have set up shop--RBS, for instance. Just a few yards ahead is Bank, so-called because the Bank of England (aka the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street) is located here and one day, when the weather gets better, I shall explore these old solid 18th station buildings and the warren of streets that unite them, on foot.
I arrived at Liverpool Street Station at the end of this walk and found myself a quiet spot in a Burger King where I rested for over an hour and read the free local eveninger--"the london paper"! At 5 pm, I made my way to the Upper Concourse to the meeting point outside McDonald's where my students and I were supposed to meet Rachel Kolsky, our guide. We were all very punctual indeed and our walk began with Rachel pointing out many interesting features of the area, such as:
1. Kindertransport Sculpture: This sculpture by Frederick Meissler depicts the Kindertransport children. She told us the moving story of the 10,000 European children who were brought to England in 1939 just before the outbreak of World War I and were placed in English homes. I had never heard of this aspect of War history before and was fascinated and moved to tears by Rachel's retelling of the scheme and the impact it had on the children who are scattered, today, all over the world.
2. Dennis Severs House: Built by an American expatriate in the East End who took an old Huguenot house and converted it into a 'museum' of sorts to recreate the era of the old silk weavers. It is a must-see, I think, and I will definitely carve out some time to see it though visiting hours are rather erratic.
3. Homes on Hansbury Street, deliberately kept in a decrepit state, because they are used today as movie sets for period films and TV series. The insides were also true to those bygone eras and were fascinating to peer into.
4. The synagogue on Hansbury Street and the many stories associated with it. This taught me about the arrival of the Jews into the East End (they lived on the outskirts of the City as they were not permitted within the City reaches), their persecution and expulsion under Edward I, their return to England under the more hospitable Oliver Cromwell, their persecution again in the Victorian Age and their move out of the East End to the Western suburbs such as Golders Green, Hendon and Edgeware in the 1970s to be replaced by Bangaldeshi immigrants.
5. Brick Lane: This stop told us about the arrival of the Bangla or Bengali immigrants into the UK from the time of the lascars (Muslim ship hands) who, in the late 1800s, jumped ship in England and made their home in the East End to those who arrived at the end of World War II to provide labor during the era of acute labor shortage in England and then the most recent ones who came during the Civil War in 1971. We touched on Monica Ali's novel as we surveyed the endless chain of Bangladeshi restaurants, sweetmeat shops, sari emporiums, video stores, etc.
The appetizing aromas of spices assailed our nostrils and made me long for a curry stop except that it was freezing by the time we finished our walk about two hours later and all that my students and I could think of was getting back home to our warm dwellings and hunkering down for the evening.
The walk taught me why you can find really excellent bagels in Brick Lane (the Jewish run bakeries still stay open 24 hours of the day and make really authentic, delicious, boiled bagels on the premises). I can't wait to try one with lox (smoked salmon) and cream cheese, capers, lenon juice and chopped onion. It is one of my favorite things to eat and I frequently fix myself this treat for breakfast at home in the States.
It is true that having done two walks in one day, I was very tired when I got home. I made myself comfortable on the couch while eating my dinner (I picked up canneloni stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese from M&S, what my neighbor Tim refers to as his "larder") while doing my Alternate Soaks (if ever I needed them, it was this evening!) then checked my email and got ready for bed.
London
The Prisoner of Azkaban is marching along nicely. One hour long reading sessions at dawn and at bedtime will, I think, get me through the tomes (which grow in size with each volume) before I am gone from here.
Alternate Soaks, phone calls to Bombay, email correspondence, proofreading blog entries--all of that kept me busy through the morning. But the thing that ate most of my time and got me most frustrated was trying to find reasonably priced airfares for our proposed flight from Rome to Istanbul just before Easter. After trying every possibility, I came to the crazy conclusion that it might be best to use the budget airlines to return to London from Rome, then take another flight from London to Istanbul! Llew green lighted the scheme as most financially feasible and tomorrow, I shall try to make our bookings.
In the midst of all the internet research I did to try to find some fun things that Llew and I can do on Easter Sunday (as we will be spending it together here--yyesss!!!), I finally did something I had been meaning to do for weeks--book a ticket to the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show, In fact, this was on my list of things to do before I leave London! I have been reading about this legendary flower show--perhaps the world's best--for so many years in the Home and Garden magazines to which I subscribe in the States. So, I was determined to buy myself a ticket.
When I finally got down to it this morning, I discovered that it is scheduled the very week (May 19-23) I will be in Lyon, France, with my French pen pal of 37 years, Genevieve Tougne-Ducote. Genevieve and I have not seen each other since 1989 and I was so looking forward to meeting her and her family--husband and two sons. Fortunately, the day I return from France is also the last day of the show and since my flight arrives at Stanstead at 10.30 am, I will certainly be able to catch the last three to four hours of the show--which will be ample, I think.
Then, for technical reasons (they need my credit card registered to a UK address)my online purchase would not go through and in desperation, I called my friend Rosemary and asked her to make the purchase for me with her credit card. She readily obliged and I will reimburse her in cash. Delighted, just delighted, that I did get tickets to the show and will actually be able to make it, despite my travel plans, I decided to go outdoors and enjoy what had shaped into a lovely day with robin's egg blue skies and a cheerful winter sun. I showered, decided to do the Jack the Ripper Walk from my book--24 Great Walks in London--and left my flat.
The reason I chose this macabre walk was because I had scheduled a walking tour of Spitalfields with a Blue Badge Guide for my students of Global Cultures at 5pm. I knew that Brick Lane is located in this general area and since my students are studying Monica Ali's Brick Lane for my South Asian Studies class, I thought it would make sense to take them there to explore the area and see it for themselves. We were scheduled to meet at Liverpool Street Station at 5 pm, so it made sense to do another walking tour of the same area in the afternoon with a good long break in-between in a coffee shop to rest my legs.
The Jack the Ripper Tour began at Aldgate Underground Station and took me past such interesting sights as the following:
1. The Church of "St. Botolph Without Aldgate" (so-called because it lay beyond, outside, or without, the gates of Aldgate). Also known as the Prostitutes' Church as most of the street walkers of the area worshipped here.
2. Various locations in which the six women that Jack the Ripper killed were found or were last seen. These included a few pubs in the area around Whitechapel.
3. Petticoat Lane (so-called because 18th century under-jackets called petticoats, worn by men, were sold on this street). Today, it is a thriving street market, mostly frequented on Sundays by tourists. I found it very disappointing and totally lacking in atmosphere.
4. Old Spitalfields Market: A Victorian indoor market (similar to Old Covent Garden Market or Smithfield Market). Both this place and Petticoat Lane were on my list of places to see before I left London--so I guess I can say, Been There, Done That.
5. The Jame Masjid at Fournier Street, just off Brick Lane. Interesting because it was once a Huguenot Chapel, then a synagogue and is now a mosque.
6. Rows and rows of row houses (attached houses), many of which were destroyed during World War II (remember all the TV footage we have seen so often of the late Queen Mother touring the ravaged East End after the London Blitz?). These once housed the Huguenot silk weavers and giant wooden bobbins are now hung outside these homes. This is especially true of Wilkes Street and Puma Court. This was the most atmospheric part of the walk and appealed to me the most.
7. Christ Church, Spitalfields, built by Nicholas Hawksmoor (pupil of Sir Christopher Wren) in the early 1700s. An imposing Baroque structure, its spire rises tall into the sky and its four columns in the front flank a semi-circular pediment that gives it a very distinctive look. Inside, after restoration, it exudes peace and serenity and has fine stained glass windows.
This walk took me to some of the seediest parts of London I have seen so far. There was garbage in the gutters, houses and neighborhoods that looked badly in need of refurbishment or at least a lick of paint, rather ratty looking shops and Mom and Pop businesses. Now I understand why they say the East End is one of the most neglected parts of the city and why they hope the coming Olympics in 2012 will rejuvenate the area.
However, it is also one of the most diverse parts of the city and I saw a variety of races living in harmony together and a number of global cultures coalescesing quite effortlessly. Amazingly, just a few blocks past the rather run down streets were the towering glass and concrete structures around Liverpool Street Station where the large corporations have set up shop--RBS, for instance. Just a few yards ahead is Bank, so-called because the Bank of England (aka the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street) is located here and one day, when the weather gets better, I shall explore these old solid 18th station buildings and the warren of streets that unite them, on foot.
I arrived at Liverpool Street Station at the end of this walk and found myself a quiet spot in a Burger King where I rested for over an hour and read the free local eveninger--"the london paper"! At 5 pm, I made my way to the Upper Concourse to the meeting point outside McDonald's where my students and I were supposed to meet Rachel Kolsky, our guide. We were all very punctual indeed and our walk began with Rachel pointing out many interesting features of the area, such as:
1. Kindertransport Sculpture: This sculpture by Frederick Meissler depicts the Kindertransport children. She told us the moving story of the 10,000 European children who were brought to England in 1939 just before the outbreak of World War I and were placed in English homes. I had never heard of this aspect of War history before and was fascinated and moved to tears by Rachel's retelling of the scheme and the impact it had on the children who are scattered, today, all over the world.
2. Dennis Severs House: Built by an American expatriate in the East End who took an old Huguenot house and converted it into a 'museum' of sorts to recreate the era of the old silk weavers. It is a must-see, I think, and I will definitely carve out some time to see it though visiting hours are rather erratic.
3. Homes on Hansbury Street, deliberately kept in a decrepit state, because they are used today as movie sets for period films and TV series. The insides were also true to those bygone eras and were fascinating to peer into.
4. The synagogue on Hansbury Street and the many stories associated with it. This taught me about the arrival of the Jews into the East End (they lived on the outskirts of the City as they were not permitted within the City reaches), their persecution and expulsion under Edward I, their return to England under the more hospitable Oliver Cromwell, their persecution again in the Victorian Age and their move out of the East End to the Western suburbs such as Golders Green, Hendon and Edgeware in the 1970s to be replaced by Bangaldeshi immigrants.
5. Brick Lane: This stop told us about the arrival of the Bangla or Bengali immigrants into the UK from the time of the lascars (Muslim ship hands) who, in the late 1800s, jumped ship in England and made their home in the East End to those who arrived at the end of World War II to provide labor during the era of acute labor shortage in England and then the most recent ones who came during the Civil War in 1971. We touched on Monica Ali's novel as we surveyed the endless chain of Bangladeshi restaurants, sweetmeat shops, sari emporiums, video stores, etc.
The appetizing aromas of spices assailed our nostrils and made me long for a curry stop except that it was freezing by the time we finished our walk about two hours later and all that my students and I could think of was getting back home to our warm dwellings and hunkering down for the evening.
The walk taught me why you can find really excellent bagels in Brick Lane (the Jewish run bakeries still stay open 24 hours of the day and make really authentic, delicious, boiled bagels on the premises). I can't wait to try one with lox (smoked salmon) and cream cheese, capers, lenon juice and chopped onion. It is one of my favorite things to eat and I frequently fix myself this treat for breakfast at home in the States.
It is true that having done two walks in one day, I was very tired when I got home. I made myself comfortable on the couch while eating my dinner (I picked up canneloni stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese from M&S, what my neighbor Tim refers to as his "larder") while doing my Alternate Soaks (if ever I needed them, it was this evening!) then checked my email and got ready for bed.
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