Tag Archive | Ealing Broadway

Exploring Ealing with Barbara and Bus Ride to Kingston

Oct17

Sunday, October 16, 2016

London

Up and About Before Dawn:

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

Off to Mass at the Church of Christ the Savior:

I left my house at 10.25 am for the 10.30 am Mass at the church which is literally one block away from my house. It is a beautiful church–Victorian Gothic, rich with exterior details that are appealing and attractive and equally rich inside with all sorts of sculptural and painted embellishments. There is a lovely huge stained glass window of the Risen Christ with an extraordinarily handsome, unbearded face, a very nice choir screen with the cross and twin figures flanking it (a common feature in many Anglican churches) and wonderful paintings on the ceiling, the side walls, plus many Gothic sculpted saints to keep one’s eye fascinated.

The Mass was well-attended. However, there were so many children that it was a very noisy service. It was a Sung High Mass with loads of incense and hymns of which all six verses were (badly) sung to the accompaniment of an organist who seriously needs some music lessons! Of all the services I have attended over the last two months, this has to have been the least satisfying. Although the children disappeared for Sunday School before the Readings began, they returned before Communion and the noise began again. What’s worse is that I saw grown adult women have a long and endless gossip session in the lines on their way to Communion, lots of hello waves and flamboyant kisses being given by members of the congregation as they made their way to the front to receive the Eucharist. I have never seen anything quite like this kind of socialization in the middle of Mass absolutely anywhere. It was shocking, disturbing and made the Mass very unruly. I will not be going back to that church–that’s for sure. That said, the very young curate preached an excellent sermon on the power of prayer and the ways in which we ought to pray. I learned a whole lot from it.

Back home, I barely settled down for just a few minutes when I got an email from Barbara to say that she was just about to board a Tube train at Chancery Lane. In about 45 minutes, she would be with me. I tidied my home in readiness for her arrival, folded and put away my laundry, then soon found myself greeting her at my front door. Barbara was my very first visitor and it was a real pleasure to welcome her in my new home. Naturally, I gave her a tour and then, as the sun had come out after what had been a very wet morning, we decided to take advantage of it and go out to discover my neighborhood.

A Lovely Stroll in Ealing:

As I have not had much time to explore my own neighbo0rhood, I was delighted to have Barbara for company. We took a random street right off Haven Green and walked up admiring the beautiful Victorian houses with their period details. Autumn is well and truly here and trees are shedding their leaves like golden confetti. There are tinges of red, orange and fiery yellows on every tree and crackling leaves underfoot–nothing, of course, compared to the glory of our New England autumn season…but this is bringing to mind the beautiful sugar maples in my back garden that are probably beginning to change color at this moment.

I told Barbara then about a sign I’d been seeing outside Ealing Broadway Station for the Pitzhanger Manor–and we decided to go out in search of it. Following a map on Broadway, we headed towards it but as it was already about 1.15 pm, we made a detour for lunch and chose to eat at Carluccio’s, the delicious Italian chain of restaurants to which Barbara and her husband Tim had first introduced me about nine years ago when we ate lunch together at the Carluccio’s at Smithfield Meat Market in Central London.

Lunch at Carluccio’s:

Well, we were seated very quickly in the eatery that we found at Ealing Green–and in the process of making our way to it, I realized yet again what a fabulous neighborhood I now have the privilege of living in–it is simply filled with shops and restaurants and bars and pubs that give it such a lovely warm neighborhood feel–almost like a little friendly village in the midst of the city.

When it came time to order, we both went for the Italian Peroni beer and while Barbara had the Spaghetti Carbonara, I had the Lasagna Traditonalle. My portion was huge and I ate just half of it with the intention of packing the rest up to take home for a future meal. You see, I needed to save room for dessert because I knew that no meal at Carluccio’s with Barbara or Tim is complete without a Lemon (Citron) Tart at the end for pudding. And that was precisely what we ordered and what we enjoyed–a  crisp tart shell and a tart creamy filling. It is a dessert also to which they had introduced me and which I never fail to enjoy.

Off to Find Pitzhanger Manor..and Stumbling Upon Walpole Park:

When we’d cleared our bill, we set off in search of the Pitzhanger Manor and discovered that it was being refurbished in a major project that will see completion only in 2018! Hard Luck indeed! But we also made the discovery that the house was designed by none other than the chap I am coming to think of as an old friend, Sir John Soane! Yes, he of the John Soane House and Museum in Holborn that I had visited only a few days ago! Soane designed it in the Neo-Classical style for which he is famous with straight severe lines, one half of the classical columns facing outward and classical maidens adorning the pediments of each of the pillars. We knew this from the pictures that surround the fence that encloses the property. Ah, too bad, we thought. We must come back together in 2018 and see how it looks in its new avatar.

Then, just around a corner, as we continued our walk, we chanced to come upon the gates of a park and, on impulse, stepped inside it. And what a lovely walk we had amidst its wide acreage! The park was park of the property that one would see from the back windows of the Pitzhanger House that had, apparently, been designed for the Walpole Family. It has been bequeathed to the people of Ealing and is, therefore, known as Walpole Park. It had everything you could desire in a park–a lovely avenue of plane trees, a serpentine (lake), a duck pond (complete with colorful mallards), a bridge (in the style of John Vanbrugh’s Blenheim Bridge at Blenheim Palace) over a brook, plenty of well-kept lawns filled with ecstatic dogs and their happy owners, lovely children’s playgrounds with sand pits and sliders, swings, see-saws, etc. and well-defined walking pathways. The day turned out to be simply gorgeous after all and it was a perfect way to spend an afternoon. No wonder the park was fairly full.

Back Home for Tea:

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

On the Bus to Kingston:

I decided to leave my flat and walk Barbara to the Tube station, but I also decided that since the evening was still so bright and the light so pretty, I would take a bus ride to Kingston. There was a 65 bus waiting right at the station stop and into it, I jumped. It turned out to be a most delightful ride–there was a time when I was a little girl in Bombay when my parents often took us for bus rides on a Saturday or Sunday. Alas, horrible traffic in Bombay put paid to such simple pleasures–so it was nice to be able to revive them and take a bus ride just for the sheer joy of it.

The bus route was lovely–we went past Ealing and towards Kew. In fact, we rode alongside the famous Kew Gardens and I could see the tops of the glass greenhouses and, later on, the Pagoda for which it is famous. Further along the route, we passed by wide parkland as we arrived hear the Thames at Teddington and then we were in the snazzy town of Richmond. We did not go towards Twickenham (which would require crossing the Thames on Richmond Bridge), but went straight toward Kingston. A few minutes later, we were there and at the last stop, I hopped off. It was then almost 6.00 pm and twilight was darkening the city quite rapidly. Besides, since it was a Sunday, all the shops had closed and there wasn’t much to see on foot. So I just sat at the bus stop opposite and jumped into a bus going back to Ealing where I reached at 6. 30 pm. It was a really impulsive but very satisfying outing and I felt very pleased that I had seen some of the more beautiful Thames-sides’ hamlets that I dearly love.

Back home, I got back to the itinerary planning I had begun in the morning and booked my ticket to get from Catania in Sicily to Padua where I will be giving a guest lecture. I was pleased to get a good price on a Ryanair flight and with that done, I continued watching the Lewis episode that I left half watched last evening. I finished writing this blog post and then got ready for dinner as I was quite famished by this point. I ate the last of the Lamb Korma from Tayyabs that I had frozen with a cup of tomato soup and chocolate ice-cream for dessert and while I ate, I caught up on past episodes of Cold Feet.

I had a very nice weekend indeed. It was one in which I managed to catch up on a lot of items on my To-Do List and although I haven’t managed to accomplish all of them, as Scarlett O’Hara said, Tomorrow Is Another Day.

Until tomorrow, cheerio…

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

Oct5

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 4-5, 2016

London

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

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

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

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

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

Until tomorrow, cheerio…

An Errand at Ealing and Late Evening at National Portrait Gallery

Aug27

Friday, August 26, 2016

London

Today is the Friday of a long ‘Bank Holiday’ Weekend in the UK–not sure what the Bank Holiday is for…but everyone is in a jolly mood with three days ahead to veg out.

As for me, I have to admit that loneliness is beginning to hit me gradually coupled with the fact that my feet are issuing serious warning signals. I know the signs of plantar fasciitis and I dread them with all my heart. It is time to slow down and give my feet a rest. But that means, basically, staying put and at home. Not a very exciting prospect for me, to be honest, as finding things to keep me busy when I am home-bound is tough!

Still, I awoke at 5.30 am today (for some unearthly reason) and could not get back to sleep. I decided to work on my paper and edit it as it is much too lengthy. After more than a hour, I stopped to have breakfast (muesli with yogurt and coffee) and continued working some more. I also wrote a blog post and started to think of a query letter I need to write for a potential publisher that a friend in New York has recommended to me.

Getting to Ealing:

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

Exploring Ealing Broadway:

Yes, just half a block (in New York terms) from their place is Ealing ‘High Street’ called Broadway here–filled with every conceivable kind of restaurant, shop, fast food place, bar, etc. Around the corner, there is Marks and Sparks plus the famed Westfield Mall and hundreds of people to-in and fro-ing, making it vibrant and truly ‘happening’. I entered Morrisons for the first time to see what the prices were like and got the shock of my life. Six butter croissants for 1. 20 pounds! That is 20p a croissant–how is that even possible? Soon I found that everything, simply everything is less than half of what I have been paying in Sainsburys or the Co-op–which, by the way, is the biggest rip-off. Everything is more pricey there! See? After a month, I am becoming proficient in comparison-shopping in the UK!

As I left the store, a vendor placed a coupon for McD’s in my hand–because the place is also fully surrounded by every American fast food outlet you can imagine (McDonalds, Subway, Burger King, even Five Guys!) I felt fully at home! By the way, there is also Tinseltown–my favorite burger and shake place in the UK on The Mall. I usually get a Ferroro Rocher Shake at the Tinseltown in Hampstead–so it was great to spot one here too. Naturally, I could not resist getting a Big Mac for 1.99 pounds with fries! So in I went! Yes, Into McDs!!! A place I never enter unless Llew and I are on the road, travelling by car in the US! I guess after about a month in the UK, I needed my American Fix! So I also ordered a mocha frappe to go with it–perfect on another sweltering day–and discovered that McD’s in the UK does not accept credit cards that require a signature!!! Good Job I had some cash on me (I usually do not!) Anyway, I sat and wolfed down my caloric American meal and called my Dad for a chat. By the time I finished my meal and walked about with my food shopping from Morrison’s, I decided to scrap the thought of wandering about M&S (anywhere where I could find air-conditioning would have been fine!) and go home instead.

An Afternoon Chez Moi:

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

An Evening at the National Portrait Gallery:

I had to think of some place to which I could go that was air-conditioned and did not involve too much walking. And I came up with the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square–one of my favorite places in London and one that I had yet to re-visit. Fridays is also late-evening closure at the museum whose doors are kept open till 9.00 pm. Not that I wanted to stay out late or after dark as I am still hesitant to come back to this neighborhood after nightfall.

An Unexpected Recital in the Elizabethan Gallery:

As soon as I entered the Gallery, I looked for their ‘Events for Today’ and found that a duo were performing upstairs in the Elizabethan Portrait Gallery. Without wasting any time, I took the escalator to the second floor to find that a recital between a lutanist and a tenor had just begun. I had to wait for a few minutes for the first set to end before I was able to take a seat right in front and give myself up to the music.

It was just lovely! I realized that this sort of music would have been the ‘radio’ of the Tudor and Elizabethan periods–the sort of background music that would have been a constant feature at court. In so many movies and TV series, I have seen a pair of musicians seated in a corner in the antechamber of the queen and her ladies or in Banquet Halls where the king supped. The music is quiet, lilting and softly pleasing. The composers were Thomas Morley, John Dowland, Francis Pilkington and Thomas Campion mainly and they wrote music for lute and harp–again, the kind of instruments that provide a pleasing sound without being intrusive. The concert, entitled ‘From Dawn to Dusk: Musicke in the Ayre’ featured the Australian singer Daniel Thomson who has made London his home and lutanist Din Ghani who is not only a musician but a musicologist and a maker of lutes! Seated in the Gallery, just below the Coronation Portrait of Elizabeth I, I kept wishing they had dressed in period costume–for that would have enhanced the entire experience a thousand-fold. Still, it was simply enchanting and after an hour, when they were done, I began my exploration of the gallery.

Viewing Works at the National Portrait Gallery:

I love the National portrait Gallery for many reasons: the portraits themselves, of course, first of all, are among the best in the world. Secondly, for the significance of the portraits: The Portrait of Shakespeare, for instance, is the first one that the Gallery ever acquired for its permanent collection and the curatorial notes state that it is probably the only one painted from life–now this dispels the belief that the recently-unearthed Cobbe Portrait is the only one painted from life! Go figure! Thirdly, for the amount that I learn about the sitters with every visit I make. Fourthly, because viewing these works always provides a crash refresher course for me on British history and politics. The chronological arrangement of the rooms allows me to traverse centuries of British notables and to learn about them and the artists who painted them. Finally, I love the mood lighting in the Tudor and Elizabethan Galleries–it is kept soft in order to preserve the integrity of the pigments, but it adds to the atmosphere of the era. This was a very dark time in British History and as I gaze upon the faces of women like Anne Boleyn and Mary Tudor and contrast their portraits with those of bigger worthies such as Henry VIII or Sir Thomas More or Archbishop Cranmer and even lesser ones such as Salisbury and Cecil, I keep thinking how dangerous those times were for women, how they were ‘played’ politically by the men, how powerless they were in battling court intrigues that dispensed with them at the drop of a hat. These portraits truly transport me into another era and fill me with a deep sense of dread.

Even as one leaves the 1500s behind and enters more recent epochs, there is hardly a portrait of a woman. But for an occasional queen, the dominant faces are masculine: writers, musicians, politicians, architects, you name it…they were men. I got all the way to Room 10 and reached the 18th century–all those portraits of male members of the Kit Kat Club with curled wigs tumbling about their shoulders as was the fashion of the time. I looked aghast at the kings (Charles II, for instance) who fathered 14 children with different mistresses, brought his wife Catherine of Braganza untold misery and then claimed he truly cared for her!!! For far less transgressions, thankfully, today, royal marriages have broken up.

The Gallery is also experimenting with the concept of mixing a contemporary painting of current notables with those from the past–for some contrast and to allow the viewer to compare fashion, poses, etc. For instance, in the Elizabethan Gallery, there is a huge portrait of the two current princes–William and Harry–in casual conversation with each other. It is a lovely piece of work by Nicky Phillips. Although set in Clarence House (which I visited a couple of weeks ago), their home during their growing years and dressed in formal military garb (William wears the Order of the Garter), they are laughing as they converse and both look away from the artist–so casual, so unposed, so different from the stiff portraits of their own ancestors in the same room. Overall, I had a lovely time and so absorbed was I in my own contemplation of past history and past society, that I completely lost track of the time and was startled by the announcement that the Gallery would be closing in 15 minutes!

Trafalgar Square by Night:

Yikes! It was already 8.45–already dark! I finished Room 10 and then hurried out into the evening splendor of Trafalgar Square. I realized how beautiful it was as I was seeing the city at night for the first time since my arrival here. With the blue lights in the fountains of Trafalgar Square and the dome of the Colisseum where the English National Opera performs, the city was transformed into a magical place. There were crowds, simply milling crowds, all over as the warm night and the darkness contributed to keeping people where they were: tumbling down the stairs leading from the National Gallery to the Square, seated all around Edward Landseer’s lions, perched on the parapets that surround the periphery of the Square, etc. This is what I love about London–the sheer love that I have for this city is reflected in the eyes and movements of all the people who have come here because they so love it too. I also love the fact that I can wander into a museum and stumble upon a truly atmospheric concert that I can enjoy for free! Where else on earth could such things happen?

But I had no time to lose. I hurried off to Charing Cross station to take the Northern line south for one station and when I arrived at the Embankment, I hopped off, made my connection into a waiting train and got completely lost in The Evening Standard–the free paper distributed to commuters each evening (the free paper concept has never caught on in New York–probably because people there prefer to gaze at their phones!)

It was only when I reached the Barbican that I realized I was on the wrong train! Crumbs! I jumped off, raced to the platform on the opposite side, rode it one stop further to Liverpool Street and then took the Central Line from there for one stop to Bethnal Green. In a way, it was good I had made a mistake as this allowed me to take the 309 bus home for 2 stops instead of walking alone in the dark and taxing my feet. Luckily, my bus came along in 3 minutes and I was home by 10.00 pm–the latest I have ever come home (but this time all I had to do was cross the street from the bus-top and enter my house). Since I had eaten a big lunch and a substantial tea, I decided not to eat any dinner at all and I simply prepared to go to bed.

I do not think I punished my feet too much today but I did manage to accomplish a lot–despite the heat which I hope will abate soon.

Until tomorrow, cheerio…