Day 8: London to E-ville

Day 8: London to E-ville

Photo-hog dog has laid one his toys on one of the twins, hoping that the twins will start a throw-and-retrieve game

QOTD: You think THB had a lot of snow in London?

MB and DB's backyard when they arrived home in Yorkshire (-3)

Weather: Cold at the airport, clear and cool in E-ville

The view from THB's seat on the airplane

We're back! Flight relatively uneventful, if leaving over an hour late during weather front and being de-iced is uneventful.

Single row: when arriving near SFO, these seats faced directly into the sun coming from the other side of the airplane

Sardines two to an aisle

We're still packed in like sardines, it's better in the one biz class seat and then an aisle. The seats were still cramped, THB hopes not to be having this first world problem with Virgin Atlantic any time soon.

The camera is down around THB's hip, you can't see the usb port and have to find it by "feel"...and the overhead light is even harder to work unless you pull out the remote buried behind your left shoulder

On other hand, the Heathrow VA lounge was fabulous: lots of room, lots of good choices for lunch, THB had a version of an American IPA made by local British brewery, and a long walk to the flight.

Now to get back on west coast time...thanks for following along!

London Day 7

Day 7: London

QOTD: Wait, is that snow falling? Hail? 

Time lapse between 8 and 9am outside 18 Cadogan Place

Lawn covered in snow

Weather: You betcha, that white stuff filling your screen is snow, not static

Typical breakfast, you know the style: a cup of coffee and toast on the deck. Chip away at the frozen milk if you want some in your coffee. After lots of conversation about the weather, we enjoy cereal and fruit.

We split up: DBl and MB head to the more famous museums and DBr and THB head back to the Tate. We Uber to the Tate, $15; we’d have been frozen between getting to the Underground on way out plus walking the last few blocks to the museum on the back end. Our timing is almost perfect: something had gone on and they had to evacuate the museum and just as we show up they are starting to let the staff back in.

The museum is still free and we head in to the last few galleries left unseen from our prior visit. Well worth a return!! A number of great mini-shows and combo of artists.

Carl Andre

Donald Judd

Yayoi Kusama

THB selfie using Yayoi piece; the jacket was TBH's dad's, so it is well over 50 years old and perfect for the weather this week. And it's brown and thus unlike all the millions of black jackets we see

Joseph Beuys Documenta 7 pics; he was a big art eco-environmentalist

Joseph Beuys 7000 Oak Trees pic

Theaster Gates

Detail view of fire hoses

and several photos by Mark Ruwedel; THB almost inherited property near where these pics were taken...

Pic by William Eggleston, one of the Ferus gallery "boys" 

Matisse is one of THB's all-time faves and this piece is one of his Matisse faves

Antony Gormley work, one of DB's all-time faves

Two hours and we’re ready for lunch at Wagamama, a chain we first started eating at years ago when they were just one restaurant near the British Museum. A branch is right across the plaza from the Tate. No problema…except with wind chill those 20 meters are a real struggle. It must be in the teens. We don’t even take off our coats until half way through our ramen. We see people walking by with snow in their hair!

Nobody soaking up the sleet and snow outside today

There's a large empty table near the door: it's too cold to sit anyone there

Frozen hair test site; we also don't take off our coats until half-way through our ramen

Chilli chicken ramen

Everything ramen

The food isn’t all that great (which we knew from more recent visits), certainly not up to US standards at good pho or upscale noodle places. Two ramens and one order of 5 gyoza, $48.

Uber back to 18 Cadogan, $15, and a bit of shopping (essentials like cookies, milk, tea, Sudafed) and a rest up (cookies and coffee); we’re back in time to watch more snow flurries.

A pre-theater dinner at Terroirs (right near the theater): lots of small plates, a carafe of white, a carafe of red, three desserts, $95 per couple.

Stage before the curtain rises (except the curtain doesn't show until near the end of the play)

Kinky Boots: based on a true story from a British documentary made into an American/British movie and converted into a stage musical by Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein.   A feel good #dragqueen story, and even the straight guy comes out (not that COMING out) feeling much better about himself.

Book Review: He Calls Me By Lightning, The Life of Caliph Washington and His Forgotten Saga of Jim Crow, Southern Justice, and the Death Penalty, S. Jonathan Bass. A depressing story told in straightforward fashion of a young black man convicted of shooting a policeman in a small town in Alabama in the mid-1950s and the transitions of justice and politics in the South over the next 45 to 50 years. Not enough tension in Caliph’s story, and lots of chapters filling in the background of the local and state issues in Alabama. Neutral

And, two books THB won't be adding to his list this year:

Beautiful Churchillian pose on the cover

Shots from around town:

Guess this is like essential tremors: essential maintenance is "better" to have than  non-essential maintenance

Big Ben hiding below all that scaffolding

All the Uber drivers get caught today in the paving going on behind 18 Cadogan