Archive | February 2009

More Browsing at the V&A.

Feb5

Thursday, February 5, 2009
London

I had a rather slow start this morning though I did wake up at 6 am. Between responding to email (I received some letters from friends in the States that required long and thoughtful responses), looking for cheap airfares between Rome and Istanbul (a most frustrating experience as I could find none), chatting to my parents in Bombay, to Llew who is currently at a conference in Washington DC, etc. the morning flew past.

I started to watch a film called 28 Days Later which is set in London; but it was so gory a piece of science fiction that I had to give up on it less than half way through. While watching it, I began the Contrast Bathing Therapy that Jane Hampson told me about and it was not half as intolerable as I expected (but perhaps I do not have the hot water hot enough or the cold water cold enough). However it might be best to start with milder temperatures and work my way up to more intense contrasts. At any rate, it seemed right away as if it worked. But then while I was at the V&A, later in the afternoon, my right foot started to trouble much more than it has in weeks–so I started to panic and wondered if I should continue this therapy!

I ate a light lunch (salad and quiche), showered and took the bus to the V&A with the idea of seeing the rest of the Highlights on the museum’s recommended list. But alas, there was a massive traffic jam on High Holborn and after sitting in the bus for 15 minutes and not moving an inch, I asked the driver if he would allow me to alight. He did and off I went down the stairwell to take the Tube instead.

I actually began my perusal of the Highlights at 3. 30 pm but by 4. 30 pm itself, my feet started to feel very uncomfortable and I decided to leave and return home. These are the items that I saw today–they were scattered through the vast environs on four levels! No wonder my feet protested so loudly!

1. The Bhairava Mask (from Nepal, copper with studded stones)
2. A Helmet made in Greenwich for King Henry VIII
3. A Silver Basin and Ewer
4. Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s portrait of Jane Morris, William Morris’ wife, for his own poetic work–the poem and the painting are entitled, The Daydream.
5. A small crucifix meant to be worn as a pendant entitled The Real Thing by David Poston (made of crushed Coca-Cola caps).
6. An exquisite hair ornament in enamel, diamonds and rubies (looked like blown glass) in the Jewelry Galleries.
7. A medieval Tapestry entitled Falconry in the Tapestry Room.
8. A cabinet by Henri-Auguste Fourdinois
9. Negative Bowl by Ane Christensen–a totally unique item that is hard to describe.
10. The Burgess Decanter (a very ornate decanter made of multiple materials)

The search for these objects took me through some of the most amazing corners of the museum and left me gasping at the size and the quality of the collection. The Silver Galleries, for instance, are so extensive that just looking at all the works carefully would take a whole afternoon. In particular, I was seized by a sterling wine cooler (reportedly the largest in the world) on loan from Russia at the moment. This gigantic object was awarded as the prize in a lottery that was initiated to raise funds to build Westminster Bridge across the River Thames. The winner sold it to the Russian Tzarina and it has remained in the possession of the Russians ever since.

I also saw the Jewelry galleries which are so stunning that they beggar description. There were tiaras and necklaces and belts and all sorts of ornaments featuring precious gem stones that were as huge as walnuts! I was struck dumb by the many items on display–sapphires, emeralds, rubies, peridots, amethysts, all surrounded by diamonds that winked and blinked and quite dazzled the viewer. No wonder the lady viewers could not tear themselves from the glass cases!

I walked close by the Cast Courts (that Jane Hampson had taken us into yesterday) and saw a plaster copy of Michaelangelo’s David up close and personal–but, of course, it is not a patch on the real thing that is in Florence’s Academia. Still, if one hasn’t seen the oroginal, this is a good likeness and I am going to recommend that Llew take a look at it when he comes here at the end of next month. The same room had a replica of Raphael’s famous painting The School of Athens. I do not recall seeing this painting though it is in the Vatican and I must have seen it when I was last in Rome 22 years ago. At any rate, I am looking forward very much to seeing it next month when Llew and I visit Rome together.

The next time I go to the V&A, I will spend more time in the paintings galleries studying the work of Turner and Constable as there are a large number of their canvasses here–as well as the Ionides Collection that was bequeathed to the museum intact (The Daydream is a part of this collection). I have a feeling it will be a really long time before I finish seeing everything I want to at the V&A. Meanwhile, my right leg was really bothering me…so perhaps it is time for me to get some foot rest again!

On my way back home, I did some grocery shopping and look forward to cooking myself some pasta tonight with prawns, cheese and basil. I am amazed to find that the basil on my kitchen counter has taken root superbly and is flourishing in a glass of water! I am simply stunned as I have never ever seen anything like this happen in the States.

Discovering the V&A

Feb4

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
London

I had a very early start this morning, awaking at 5. 30 am, working on my PC for a while, then showering, eating breakfast and getting out of my flat by 7. 45 am to take the buses to the University College Hospital for my physiotherapy session. I reached there in under a half hour which was something of a surprise to me. Traffic seems to be moving a bit faster now on High Holborn–which is such a relief.

To my disappointment, I found that Paul is no longer working with me (he has been rotated to another division) and I now have a new physiotherapist–Claire Curtin–who says that she will be in this division for at least 4 months, so is likely to work with me long-term. I find this very annoying as I think the patient loses continuity with a health practitioner. This is also what is wrong about this NHS system–the patient has no control over who he is treated by. He just has to lump it and whether the physician is good or not, he has to stick with him. Anyway, I am not that bad now that my condition needs specialist attention, so I guess I shall just stay with Claire and hope for the best.

Nothing much came out of our session. She basically told me to continue with the same exercises that Paul had recommended. She drew them out for me because their computer is still not working (what??? Even after three weeks? How do these folks function?) However, it seems that Paul has made the referral on my behalf for the podiatrist, so I should be getting something in the mail asking me to see a podiatrist who will then recommend the orthotics that Paul thought I needed. So the rigmarole continues…Claire did massage my right ankle and told me how to do it myself and suggested that I see her again in two weeks time! She could not recommend the exercises strongly enough and told me not to stop, come what may!

I then took the Number 14 bus from Euston and rode on it all the way to Kensington. Now that I have finished my study of the National Gallery, I have turned my sights on to the Victoria and Albert Museum, known affectionately as the V&A. I had visited this museum only once, a few years ago, and been completely overwhelmed by its size and scale. I had taken a Highlights Tour then, but do not remember anything that was shown to me except for the Raphael Cartoons and a Cast Room. When I arrived at the Museum, a few minutes before 10 am, there were a couple of dozen people there already but the museum was still closed. At 10 am sharp, the heavy wooden doors were thrown open and I was the first person to enter the museum today!!!

After my bag was physically examined, I went to the Cloak Room to hand in my coat and bag, then went to the Information Desk to find out about Highlights Tours for the day. There were two at 10.30 am and 11. 30 am respectively that I thought I would take. Meanwhile, I got myself a Map and a list of 20 Highlights of the Museum and started to see those for the first half hour.

In the basement, I saw an ivory inlaid wooden cabinet by Fiammingo. Then in the Fashion Gallery (which is highly reputed), I saw a beautiful dress designed by Vivienne Westwood under inspiration from French artist Watteau. It was fashioned in emerald silk and was gorgeous. In the South Asian galleries, I saw Shah Jahan’s exquisite wine cup, carved in white jade, featuring a flower on the bottom and the head of ram in its handle–truly beautiful! In the Islamic section, I saw the Ardabil Carpet, a gigantic carpet woven in Iran and containing over 4,000 knots per square inch. The Far Eastern Galleries held a really charming Bodhisatava called Guanyin and in the Japanese Armor section, I saw a suit of armor that was presented to Queen Victoria by one of the big gun shoguns of the time. These were the highlights I saw on my own.

At 10. 30 am, I went to the spot where the Highlights Tour began and met my guide, Jane Hampson. She was disappointed to find that I was the only one on the tour but she took me, first off, to one of the Museum’s biggest attractions–The Raphael Room–where we were joined by another visitor originally from Egypt but now living in Australia. For the next hour, Jane took us on a very lively and interesting tour of the museum that included the following objects:

1. The Raphael Cartoons. (These water colors were the basis for the tapestries that hang in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. They were made in Mortlake on the outskirts of London. These belong to the Royal Family having been purchased by Charles I).
2. The Gothic Altarpiece featuring St. George and the Dragon.
3. A Chinese Red Lacquer Table and Throne.
4. The Eltenburg Reliquary (made of wood, whale ivory, and superb cloisonne work).
5. The Plaster Cast Room (with special emphasis on Trajan’s Column–the original of which stands in Rome).
6. A Porcelain Pagoda and Export China in the Chinese Gallery.
7. The Thomas Grace Cup–a medieval ivory cup that is associated with Thomas a Beckett of Canterbury and was decorated during the Renaissance.
8. The Dacre Animals (saved from a stately English country estate before it burned down).
9. Sculpture of Neptune and Triton by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (one of his early works, showing similar compositional elements with his Bachannalia that I show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York).
10. The Great Bed of Ware (this was made in the 1100s and there is actually a reference to it in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night–which, coincidentally enough, I saw last night!)
11. The Dale Chihuly Chandelier in the main lobby–this has always been one of my favorite pieces in the V&A and I recall taking a picture of it the last time I was there.

I thought the tour was superb and when Jane mentioned that she gives a special tour of the British Galleries at 12. 30 pm, I told her that I would join that as well. Meanwhile, I rushed off to join the 11. 30 am Highlights Tour, this one being given by a guide called Mina Renton. She took the group to the Raphael Cartoons, then moved on to “Tippoo’s Tiger” in the South Asian Galleries.

The title of the work refers to a music box that is concealed in the body of a tiger that is seen devouring a British soldier. As anyone with any knowledge of Indian History knows, “Tippoo” is Tipu Sultan, who was known as the Tiger of Mysore. He defended his territory against the British onslaught throughout the 18th century (as had his father, Hyder Ali, before him). He was finally vanquished and killed in the Battle of Seringapatnam by Lord Cornwallis (yes, the same Cornwallis who was involved with the British surrender at York during the American Revolution!). Mysore then came under British control. I was surprised how huge this object is–for some reason, I kept thinking it was a small table-top model. When I saw that it was almost life size, I was shocked. It is so fragile now and can no longer be wound up to play the sounds that emanate from the dying young British soldiers who is being mauled by the tiger. This design, incidentally, is based on a real-life incident–a Captain Munroe was out hunting in Mysore when he was attacked and killed by a tiger. Tipu was delighted and amused by this occurrence and requested that an organ be made for him in this design. It happens to be the most popular item at the V&A and one that most visitors wish to see. This tour then wound its way to the Bernini Neptune, but since I was keen on joining Jane’s British Galleries tour, I left it and returned to the lobby.

Jane’s British Galleries tour was just fantastic. In the short space of just one hour, she covered such a great deal and explained things very clearly indeed. She went from the 1500s till the late 1700s and confined herself to the ground level only. The British Galleries continued on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th levels, but those I shall see on future visits.

These are the items I covered with Jane in the British Galleries:

1. A Morstyn Salt Cellar.
2. Henry VIII’s Portable Wooden Writing ‘Desk’.
3. The Bradford Table Carpet.
4. A Funeral Pall for the Brewer’s Company.
5. A Medieval Baby wrapped in swaddling and a slipware cradle.
6. A Virginal used by Queen Elizabeth I.
7. The Drake Jewel (containing a miniature of Queen Elizabeth I and presented to Drake in recognition of his services to the country after the defeat of the Spanish Armada).
8. The Hunsdon Jewels (Presented by Queen Elizabeth I to various courtiers for services rendered to the country).
9. The marble bust of Charles I.
10. Fashionable Men’s Wear in the Court of James I and Charles I.
11. A Mortlake Tapestry.
12. A Marquetry Cabinet.
13. A Sumpter Cloth (used to be thrown across goods in a wagon).
14. A Sculpture by Cornelia Parker entitled “Breathless” featuring real crushed musical instruments and suspended from the ceiling.
15. The Melville Bed from the Melville House in Fife, Scotland.
16. The Stoke Edith Tapestry from a country estate in Herefordshire featuring the estate’s formal gardens.
17. The Badminton Chinoisserie Bed from Badminton.
18. A Marble Sculpture of Handel by Jonathan Tyers originally made for the Vauxhall Gardens.
19. A Selection of Chelsea Porcelain.
20. Four Painted Rococo Panels.
21. An 18th century Mantua or Court Dress of a Lady.
22. A Painting entitled ‘The Duet’ by Arthur Devis
23. The Norfolk Music House Room which originally stood in St. James’ Square, London–later razed to the ground after a fire destroyed it.
24. A Selection of miniature portraits by Nicholas Hilliard.

I found it hard to believe how much I covered in just two and half hours. That’s why I love these tours!

When Jane and I got talking at the end of the tour, I happened to mention my Plantar Fascittis (which had caused me to sit wherever I could find a seat or bench on the tours) and Jane informed me that she had the same thing, a few years ago. Apart from the massages and stretching exercises, she recommended what her physiotherapist called Contrast Bathing! What??? She told me this meant that I needed to sit with two big bowls of water side by side. One should be filled with water as hot as I can take it, the other filled with water as cold as I can stand it. You are supposed to place your feet for a few minutes in the hot water, then in the cold, the hot, then the cold. This apparently would expand and contract the muscles. Jane claims that ultimately this did cure her completely and, occasionally, when she still gets a twinge, she does this for a few minutes and she is right as rain, again! This sounds to me like Chinese torture but what the heck, since I have tried everything else, I am willing to give this a shot as well. She told me to do this while watching TV and I would not feel it at all!!!

I came home for lunch, caught up with email correspondence and tried to take a short nap; and then before I knew it, the time was 5. 45 pm and I left my flat for my appointment with Rosemary Massouras and Christie Cherian, her partner. We had decided to meet at the Sherlock Holmes Bar which is located in the Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes Hotel on Baker Street, just a block from the fictional 221B Baker Street where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Victorian detective Sherlock Holmes lived.

It was a lovely evening and over cider and white wine and some nibbles (hummus and pita, feta cheese and sauteed peppers), we chatted about a vast variety of subjects from travel and India, films, our children, my trip to Berlin, etc. Rosemary and I have decided to go together to the special exhibition on Byzantium at the Royal Academy of Art where she happens to be a member and she also wants to do a weekend trip with me somewhere–but is afraid she will not have the stamina to keep up with me, she says!

I took two buses back and got home at 10 am when I had a small bite to eat and after writing this blog, fell asleep.

Culture-Vulture Me! Twelfth Night with Derek Jacobi.

Feb3

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
London

After the worst snowstorm in two decades, London limped slowly back to normal today. Red buses were plying again and the ice on the sidewalks had started to melt. There actually were signs of life on the streets as I had my breakfast and finished captioning our Scotland album. Actually, it was rather an odd sort of day because Carol, the weather forecaster on BBC’s Breakfast show, kept saying that temperatures were be below the minus mark (which is a big deal here in London) but that the sun would shine all day!

I spent a while doing some preliminary research on my proposed Spring Trip with Llew and since Easyjet has a sale that ends at midnight tonight, I figured I would look at some possibilities. We have finally decided to go to Italy and Turkey for 9 days–essentially Rome (where Llew has never been) and Istanbul which so many of my friends have raved about and which I did want to see before I returned to the States. I also wanted to go to Egypt; but I find that airfares are really high right now and it might be best to go to Egypt and Jordan at the same time that Llew and I go to the Holy Land as that trip is very definitely on the cards for us sometime.

After I found us good fares, I dashed off an email to Llew telling him to get back to me and let me know if the dates I had in mind would work. Given the time difference between New York and London, I knew it would be a few hours before I heard from him, so I showered and set off to get myself a bunch of theater and opera tickets for the next few months as some marvelous shows have opened up in London for the winter season and I did not want to miss them.

It WAS a beautiful day–it is so rare to see the sun in these parts in winter that though it was very cold indeed, I did not feel the bleakness of winter surrounding me. I took the bus first to Shaftestury Avenue to the Apollo Theater where I got myself a single ticket to see Three Days of Rain starring James McEvoy (who played Robert in Ian McEwan’s Atonement). The show is filling up fast (McEvoy’s name is a huge draw) and I only managed to get a seat in my price range in April. Next, I took a bus to Trafalgar Square to the Trafalgar Studios to book a ticket to see Imelda Staunton (who played Vera Drake in the film Vera Drake) in Entertaining Mr. Sloan. This show has a very limited four week run and since I think Staunton is one of the finest female actresses working in the UK today, I simply did not want to miss it. How thrilled I was when I found a ticket for next Monday evening. Then, I simply walked across Trafalgar Square to the Coliseum where the English National Opera has two superb shows on in the next few months. I got myself a single ticket to see Puccini’s La Boheme in March and then bought two tickets for this Saturday evening’s show to see Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Stephanie will be spending the weekend with me in my flat and we decided to go to the opera and dinner on Saturday evening. Finally, I crossed the street (St. Martin’s Lane) and entered The Duke of York Theater to buy a ticket for Arthur Miller’s View from the Bridge which counts in its cast Hayley Atwell (I saw her recently in The Duchess and she also played the major role of Julia Flythe in the new version of Brideshead Revisited–which I have yet to see). She is one of the UK’s most up-and-coming actresses and I am delighted to be able to see her in person. So, with all these tickets in the bag, Culture-vulture Me then hopped next door into the National Gallery to complete the last six galleries I needed to study as part of my project to become closely acquainted with its collection.

I sat on a bench in the lobby and ate my quiche Lorraine and then began my perusal of galleries 41 to 46 which are the most popular rooms at the National since they contain works by the Impressionists. They were, therefore, far more crowded than the the other galleries I’ve studied. All the big names were here and all the most famous canvases in this genre (Monet’s Water Lilies, Van Gogh’s Armchair and Sunflowers, Degas’ Ballet Dancers, Renoir’s Umbrellas —I loved that work–Cezanne’s still lives, Seurat’s Bathers at Asnieres, etc. etc.) but for me, as always, the works that caught my attention were the least known–I particularly warmed to a view of Badminton by Corot and a wintry scene in Norwood by Camille Pissarro. So many of these Impressionists ‘escaped’ to London to avoid the (Crimean?) War that they ended up painting English landscapes in styles that pre-empted the Impressionist rage that would shortly sweep over France. And it was these works that I found most intriguing. I also loved the scenes of the Siene at Argenteuille and Pointoise that Monet, Manet and even Morissot painted. Somehow, it is these rural river scapes that are most charm my eye and take me into imaginary realms that make me feel me serene and contented.

Then, I took the bus back home, glad that Llew had contacted me via cell phone while I was in the gallery and had greenlighted the dates I had picked for our travels. This meant that I could go ahead and book our Easyjet tickets online which I did immediately. So, Italy and Turkey…here we come! I now have to find us good fares from Rome to Istanbul but I do know that Swissair is doing some good offers at the moment. I organized all my theater tickets at home, changed a few plans to fit in with an invitation to drinks tomorrow that my friend Rosemary Massouras left me by email and tried to take a short nap before I left the house again.
You see, yesterday, just by chance, when we were standing outside NYU waiting for the campus doors to be opened, Ruth Smith Tucker, one of our administrative aides, had offered me a free ticket to see Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Donmar Wyndham Theater on Charing Cross Road. I had jumped at the opportunity, of course, as I was aware that the role of Malvolio is being played by none other than Derek Jacobi, veteran Shakespearean actor (also star of Cadfael and I, Claudius). So, I pulled on warm clothes, took the bus to Charing Cross at 6. 30 pm, (after a small bite of more quiche Lorraine) and arrived at the theater to find David Hillel-Reuben, Director of NYU-London, in the lobby awaiting the arrival of his family. A little later, his wife and son joined us and still later, James Weygood arrived with my ticket.

Upstairs, in the Grand Circle, in one of the most beautiful theater interiors I have been so far, we settled down to watch a show that I have seen several times before and in several versions (the very first time being at the Royal Shakespeare Theater at Stratford-on-Avon twenty-two years ago when I was at Oxford). Yet, it never ever palls, this lovely amusing confusing heartwarming comedy that Shakespeare wrote so many centuries ago. I have seen so many Malvolios over the years and each of them has brought his own brand of humor and individuality to the interpretation of the role–but I know I will never forget Jacobi, who was simply masterful.

I was also thrilled to discover that Olivia was played by an Indian actress (Indira Varma who was in Bride and Prejudice among other shows). She is tall, slim, statuesque and very elegant indeed and when I saw her olive skin, so beautifully set off in the grand black mourning outfit she wore in the first scene, I knew she was an ‘ethnic’ actress. Yet another actor whose origin is undoubtedly the Indian sub-continent was Zubin Varla who played Feste, the Fool–he is not only from South Asia but a Parsi as well, as I can tell from his name. All of the cast were just superb and at the end of the show when I ran into Mick Hattaway who teaches Shakespeare at NYU and is considered one of the UK’s finest Shakespearean scholars, he said to me, “This is as good as it can get”. Indeed, it was brilliant, and I realized as I left the theater that I can see Twelfth Night again and again and never ever tire of it.

The show ended at 10 pm, I changed three buses to reach home and yet I was in the lobby of my building at 10. 25–this is the beauty of living in the Heart of London and of London’s buses–when they do run, they are reliable and convenient and, best of all, so cheap!!!

Back on my couch, I helped myself to some Carrot and Ginger Soup and the Strawberry Compote Trifle (courtesy of Marks and Spenser) and went straight to bed. It had been a day of art museums and quality theater and I was a happy camper as I fell asleep.

London’s Worst Snow Fall in 18 years!

Feb2

Monday, February 2, 2009
London

When I fell asleep last night, snowflakes were falling steadily down on High Holborn. It probably continued all night long because when I awoke this morning there was about a six inch accumulation and the landscape outside my window was transformed. I was enchanted and, sticking my camera out of the window, took a few pictures of the beautiful medieval Staple Inn building covered with a frosting of snow and of the tree outside my neighbor Barbara’s flat.

And then, of course, because we are New Englanders, I did not think anything of it as I showered and got dressed for my day in class. While eating breakfast, I watched BBC’s Breakfast Show and discovered, to my huge astonishment, that the city had been brought to its knees. All buses were off the roads, only one Tube Line (the Victoria) was working, all commuter trains had come to a grinding halt. With six inches of snow??? How was that possible? The weather forecaster talked about the snowfall being the worst London has seen in 18 years. All schools were closed and, I guess, I should have taken my cue from that. But we aren’t a school. We are an international university and we just pull up our (snow) boots and get off to work, don’t we?

So off I went. I knew I had to walk, so I gave myself a half hour to reach campus (I usually take 15 minutes). At the door to my building, my concierge Arben asked if I really had to get to work. Can’t you just stay at home? he asked. I still couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about!

On the streets, Londoners walked as if shell shocked. It was clear they have never seen anything like this. They stepped gingerly over the sidewalks that were an icy mess–these folks do not even own shovels and not a single person had shoveled the sidewalk outside their stores! Kids were delighted and were throwing snowballs at the adult accompanying them. So many folks had cameras in their hands and were taking pictures of the buildings–and these were not tourists! It was all very amusing to me.

When I did arrive at Bedford Square, a small group of students were standing outside, as surprised as I was, to find that the main doors were firmly shut. It seems that the security staff who come in early to unlock the doors were unable to get to work. Within a few minutes, Ruth Smith, an administrative aide, arrived and she called a few people on her cell phone and announced to us that the campus would be closed for the day and all classes cancelled. Oh darn! It would probably mean that we will have to make up these classes on a Friday–an idea I am not too crazy about! Some of my students got into a snowfall fight, forming two teams, each of which stood on opposite sides of the main road (Bloomsbury Street). The snowball fight was picking up steam when a cop car arrived and they were told off as they were endangering traffic. The Bedford Square Gardens that had made a backdrop to the snowball fight were such a pretty sight and I did wish I had my camera with me.

Well, there was nothing else I could do–I couldn’t even get to the National Gallery as there was no transport available–so I just turned around and walked back home, stopping off briefly at Sainsburys to buy some groceries. I figured I would go home and make myself two steaming cauldrons of soup as I suddenly felt a great desire for a hearty bowl of soup!

At home, I got to work in the kitchen and before long, I had conjured up Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Carrot Ginger Soup. I spent the rest of the day catching up with pending chores including captioning my Scotland photograph album and sorting through the memorabilia I brought home from Berlin.

My cold is still bothering me and my legs are no better–though I have to say that I abuse them no end with all the walking I do even when I am not supposed to. My exploration of Berlin is a case in point. In fact, before I left the house this morning, the University of London Hospital had already called me to cancel my physiotherapy appointment for tomorrow! It seems that more snow is expected through the night and the situation does not look as if it will be any better tomorrow. I now need to call to reschedule this appointment and God knows when I shall be able to see someone again considering the manner in which the NHS functions.

Just before 8 pm, whilst I was in the midst of a long and lovely chinwag with Chriselle on the phone, my doorbell rang. I half expected it to be my next-door neighbor Tim, and how delighted I was when he offered an invitation to their place for supper. Tim had cooked kedgeree, a dish he had promised to serve me on two occasions earlier, but for some reason, I hadn’t been able to take him up on his offers then.

I was out of my flat like a shot taking with me a starter of Carrot Ginger Soup. Unfortunately, Tim had his dinner planned to the second as kedgeree must be served straight off the pan! He is off to Leiden in Holland tomorrow, so hopefully, Barbara will enjoy the soup on what promises to be another frigid day. When I walked into their living room, I discovered that Barbara’s niece Hannah was present (I have met her before). She was spending the night with Aunt Barbara as she was unable to find transport home. We settled down with drinks while Tim organized our dinner and before long I was tucking into his wonderfully warming kedgeree.

This Anglo-Indian dish that evolved during the British Raj had the humblest of beginnings as a melange of boiled rice and lentils. The British jazzed it up, adding fish (traditionally smoked haddock) to it and serving it Italian risotto style with the ‘sauce’ all around it, usually for breakfast. Tim’s version was studded with peas and it was simply British Comfort Food at its best. For dessert (or ‘pudding’ as they say here), there was a store-bought Strawberry Cheesecake (from Marks and Spencer–I preferred the Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake) and the mintiest after dinner mints I have ever tasted–Bendick’s Bittermints. Barbara and Tim are true gourmets and they offer their guests nothing but the finest goodies. So, it is always a pleasure to be invited to their home for a meal.

Delighted to find that a cold and snowy day had turned into such a treat for me, I went to bed, pleased to be a part of another unique London experience!

In 1066 Country–Battle and Hastings: Where England Began…

Feb1

Sunday, February 1, 2009
Battle, Sussex

For some inexplicable reason, I am still waking up at 5. 30 am. While this gives me time to stay on top of all the things I want to do, I keep wondering if I am getting enough sleep and keep checking my eyes for dark circles and unsightly bags!

I left my flat at 8 .15 am after a cereal and yogurt breakfast to meet Stephanie outside Wimbledon Tube Station. We had talked on the phone yesterday and decided that despite the forecast of a snowy afternoon we would stick with our plans to visit Battle in East Sussex. With Stephanie behind the wheel, her GPS and my Britain Atlas by our sides, we felt well-equipped to find the fastest route to get there.

But we were distracted en route by signs for Hever Castle and Penshurst and since Stephanie shares with me such a consuming interest in Tudor and Elizabethan History, we decided to make a detour to visit these sites: Hever Castle is the ancestral home of the Boleyns–the same one from which emerged Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I. Penshurst, as I recalled vaguely, is the ancestral home of Sir Phillip Sidney, Elizabethan courtier-poet and contemporary of Edmund Spenser..

We passed the most beautiful Kentish countryside along the way. Though the fields are barren at this time of year, sheep still grazed as they have done through the centuries, oblivious to the few cars that sped past them. Oast houses (in which hops are dried) with their peculiar conical roofs punctuated the rambling country lanes. Old stone churches with squat towers and clock faces beckoned. Rambling, almost crumbling, gabbled houses that turned out to be pubs sported the quaintest names (The Shy Horse, The Little Brown Jug) and dotted the pasture land to make for some of the most appealing sights in rural Kent. I know that I will always carry images of this part of the country in winter in my heart wherever I might roam.

Unfortunately, we found the stately rambling home called Penshurst that sits in the midst of vast property, parkland and gardens to be closed until March. However, I gazed upon it and so many names rushed through my mind–Sir Phillip Sidney, of course, Elizabethan courtier-poet, who from this grand estate made such a mark upon the court. Then, of course, there is Ben Jonson’s famous poem “To Penshurst” which I had studied as an undergrad and have never forgotten. Penshurst is a compilation of honey toned walls, towers and turrets that speak of a romantic past and of royal antecedents. How marvelous it was for me to look upon what Jonson called “an ancient pile”. I took a few pictures of the exterior and hoped we would be able to return when it opens its doors again to visitors for the new season.

We met with the same fate at Hever Castle which was also closed and which will reopen in March. I realized that these stately homes are closed in the winter as it is too expensive to heat them. While we did get a glimpse of Penshurst from the outside, Hever lay concealed behind high walls–all we saw was the Tudor Gatehouse. Again, we resolved to return on another trip and made our way down south towards the Sussex coast of England to Battle.

Ironically, the town Battle derived its name from the Battle of Hastings which was fought here in 1066. It was called the Battle of Hastings because the battlefield was closest to the town of Hastings! Yet, because it became such a revered site in England, a whole new town developed around the battlefield and it seemed fitting, I suppose, to name the town Battle! It is this strange coalescing of history and geography that never fails to fascinate me, especially in ancient countries like England. Be that as it may, we arrived in Battle, starving and ready to eat an ox.

Battle is a quaint town with a very picturesque High Street. Tudor structures with black gables and exterior beams have been converted into pubs, tea rooms and gift shops. They make a very charming impression on the viewer but we resisted the impulse to explore as our hunger led us to the nearest meal. Our first port of call, therefore, was a pub called, appropriately enough, The 1066, where we decided to have a very proper British meal–Fish and Chips, of course, with thick tartar sauce and ketchup on our fries (chips). It was delicious and particularly warming on this frigid afternoon. The tall gates of the Abbey towered right by our window and after our hearty meal, we went straight to the entrance of the Abbey to find out how to access the battlefield.

Our 6. 50 pound entrance fee provided us with an audio guide that also entitled us to watch a short documentary film that was beautifully made. It described, very effectively, the origin of the enmity between Duke William of Normandy and the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson that ended in the arrival of hundreds of Norman ships and troops that vanquished the English forces on October 14, 1066. (I can never hear that date mentioned without remembering my History of Literature classes with Dr. Homai Shroff at Bombay’s Elphinstone College. It was she who had told us that if there was one date we could commit to memory from the vast annals of British History, it ought to be 1066! And I have never forgotten it!!!) Well, England came under French rule and would never be the same country again as its language, law, customs and traditions became influenced by the Normans.

At Battle, we, visitors could actually walk around the Battlefield and see where the bloody fighting took place. We visited the ruins of the church built by William, who subsequently became known as The Conqueror, in accordance with the Pope’s directives, in 1070 in reparation for the bloodshed and suffering he had caused. This church was subsequently destroyed by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1532 but the Refectory building, the cloisters and the monastic dwellings with their beautiful fan vaulted ceilings, etc. can still be inspected and it made for a stirring visit indeed.

There is a also stone marker on the site that shows the exact spot where Harold fell fighting and upon that very spot stood the altar of the church that William built. These very evocative moments in British history that go back to a time when the United States of America was not even a concept make such visits richly rewarding for me and I am so glad that Stephanie shares my enthusiasm for history and for such folk lore.

We would gladly have spent more time at Battle but large snowflakes began to come down and paint the town with a light whitewash! We decided to start our drive back to London as Stephanie wanted to avoid driving in the snow. But, to our enormous shock, when we reached the car park, our car would not open, try as we did to get the handles to turn. After a few frantic moments, Stephanie called Lexus’ Road Assistance Service and they promised to send a technician out to help us.

This unexpected wait took us into a very old Tea Room called A Taste of Battle where we settled down with large hot chocolates and a warm fruit scone which we piled with clotted cream and strawberry jam. I could certainly think of worse things to do on a snowy day than curl up in a warm rustic tea room with an English cream tea! In fact, within minutes, a large number of other people came tearing out of the snow and shook the flakes off their coats as they settled down to warming cups of tea.

It wasn’t even ten minutes before Stephanie received a call from the technician telling her to meet him at the car park. It turns out that the remote signal on our key fob was conflicting and crossing swords with other signals being emitted by other cars in the parking lot. These were making our car reject the signal from our own key! The technician set it right in minutes and we were on our way deciding to drive through the nearby town of Hastings. The clerks in the Battle Abbey had told us a joke about Hastings which went like this: Hastings is a one-horse town that would have been exciting if there were a horse in it! Still, we decided to see it for ourselves (primarily because a TV show I have enjoyed watching for a while called Foyle’s War is set in Hastings in the 1940s). Alas, Hastings on this dull and dreary winter’s afternoon with the snow coming down looked nothing like its depiction on the small screen and I was disappointed.

The flakes came down larger and faster as we found our way back to the highway and home to Wimbledon where Stephanie dropped me off to the Tube station and returned to her own flat. I caught up with a number of small chores and sat down to write my blog as well as get myself prepared for my classes tomorrow.

Goodbye to Berlin–And Back to Great Britain

Feb1

Saturday, January 31, 2009
Berlin-London

I had set my cell phone alarm to 6 am and Anja and I jumped up immediately as we had a lot of clearing and cleaning of the apartment to do before we left the house at 6. 30 am. Anja very sweetly escorted me to the station at 6. 30 and decided to return to the flat that had served me so well, to clear away the garbage and take it home with her (in her bicycle basket!). Having packed and kept my backpack ready the previous night, we were out of the house and I was on the train by 6. 40.

Though it was a Saturday, there were a few folks on the platform and as the train sped towards Treptower Park where I had to make a change, more passengers climbed on—which was comforting to me as I am rather unnerved about traveling in public transport when it is empty. Within an hour, I was in Schonefeld airport and with much time to spare before I boarded my Ryanair flight, I was able to finish my Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (known as the Sorcerer’s Stone in the American edition).

The flight was smooth and uneventful and we arrived at Stanstead aiport without any incidents. I caught my Easybus van and was dropped off at Baker Street from where I changed two buses to get home to Holborn.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur as I downloaded my pictures from my camera, edited and captioned them, had a shampoo and shower, did my laundry, unpacked my backpack and brought things back to normal. checked and responded to my email (both business and personal) and made a few calls. This has become my routine when I return from trips and I pretty much do it now in my sleep. Before I knew it, it was 8. 3o pm and I was starving and thoroughly enjoyed the Salmon Pie that I had pulled out from the freezer on entering my flat. It made a very satisfying dinner before I decided to retire early as Stephanie and I have made plans to drive to Battle and Hastings tomorrow.