Tag Archive | Smithfield Meat Market

Lecture at Barbican Center, Walk Around Smithfield, Orientation Lecture at NYU

Sep6

Monday, September 5, 2016

London

I am having the most jam-packed days! When I set out in the morning, I have some idea where I am headed…but then it is almost as if the day takes over with a mind of its own and dictates where I ought to go.

This morning, I awoke at 6.00 am, drafted and posted a blog, booked coach tickets online for my trips to Oxford and back–I would have liked to spend two unbroken weeks there but now that I have an important meeting at NYU, I will need to get back once in-between. Still, I scored great prices: it is true what they say on the sides of those Mega Buses! You really can get one pound fares!!! I did! I also worked out my schedule for the next few days as I leave on Wednesday and needed to accomplish a lot before I go. I have begun packing my things away for my imminent move mid-month and put aside material I need to take to my new office at NYU. Yes, today was a red-letter day because I got possession of my new office and would be settling in later in the day–there was much to be accomplished. I had breakfast–the last of my honey yogurt with muesli and decaff coffee (as I am finishing up all my food supplies and buying nothing more), showered and left my house at 10.00 am for the Library.

At Queen Mary College Library:

I jumped into a bus going to Queen Mary College, two stops away, and spent most of the morning with my books at the Library, taking notes and creating a Bibliography for material for which I will call while I am researching at the Bodleian Library at Oxford. I love the fact that there are still only a few folks on the college campus and I still have the library almost entirely to myself. It truly has been a pleasure working here–and the fact that it is just down the road and can be reached in under 10 minutes, is a real blessing. The only library I have ever been able to reach faster has been the Fairfield University Library from my home in Southport–but I drive there and the drive takes me four minutes! When my work quota for the day was done, I left as I did not want to be late for the next item on my agent. I was headed to the Barbican .

Lecture at the Barbican Center:

The Barbican Center is a place worth exploring even if one is not really headed there for any particular reason. I love its maze of residential apartment  buildings, library, restaurants, theater, music concert halls, cafes, art galleries, etc. Over the years, I have seen some fine art exhibitions here. This area, as I understand it, was disused and lying wasted for years until someone came up with the plan to redeem it by using architectural vision that has transformed the entire area. It sits in a very historic part of The City with iconic buildings surrounding it–such as the Victorian Smithfield Meat Market and the medieval Church of Saint Sepulchre–right in its vicinity.

I, however, took a bus from the Library for two stops till Stepney Green Tube station, then hopped into a Hammersmith and City line train going to the Barbican stop where I hopped off and walked the five minutes to the Library. I was headed to listen to a lecture on The Great Fire of London by Jill Finch who is a Blue Badge guide–she gives coach tours of the city of London and leads walking tours too  through specific neighborhoods. On Wednesday, she had a walking tour that accompanies this lecture and but for the fact that I am trying to prevent PF, I would have been there in a flash.

Her lecture began at exactly 12. 30. A small portion of the library was delegated to it and it was packed. Using Powerpoint, she screened images that took us back to the past–The City of London as it existed in 1666, the cause of the origin of the Fire and its exact position on medieval maps, the reasons of its rapid spread (proximity of the structures made exclusively of timber and thatch, a cruel wind that encouraged it), the destruction it wrought, the accounts of it (Pepys and Evelyn), etc. In-between, she interspersed the talk with anecdotes, bits of humor and the like. I learned that although they could have built a firewall much earlier to curtail it, initially no one thought it would spread as quickly as it did. They only built the firewall after it had raged four days and was likely to reach the Tower of London in the East and Whitehall in the West. Even the King, Charles II, became involved in rescue efforts personally assisting in bringing help to those who needed it. After September 5, when it stopped blazing, the City was no more. Out of the ashes, it was necessary to recreate the city and that’s when rebuilding plans began. Jill took us through the paces explaining that there were several plans submitted for reconstruction but the assignment fell to Wren who first focused on the churches and the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral as Fire Wardens, retired judges who came out of retirement to address the claims of those who had lost everything in the fire and needed compensation, began their work. Within ten years, The City was resuscitated with new rules in place. All buildings from then on are to be made of brick or stone–the only exception was the Shakespeare Globe Theater for which Sam Wannamaker received special permission when he wished to recreate it exactly as it had stood in Elizabethan times. Insurance companies were formed and they have flourished since then. Plans for grid construction were roundly rejected–they would work superbly in America, but Londoners preferred a more haphazard look to their city. After that dreadful time, the city would face destruction on the same scale again in the 20th century, during the Blitz, and it would arise, once, again, Phoenix-like, to become the dazzling metropolis it is today.

I really did enjoy the lecture although I have to say, somewhat ashamedly, that although it was very interesting and she was a very engaging speaker, I actually nodded off to sleep a couple of times despite my strong determination to behave!

Completing my Walk Through The City:

Since I was in the environs of the Barbican, I decided to finish off the Walking Tour of The City that Murali and I had begun a few weeks ago. Although I have stopped walking for pleasure for fear of reigniting PF, I really do love this area so much that I simply could not resist it. So, off I went with my book in hand–Frommer’s Memorable Walks in London.

From the Barbican, I could see the jade-green domes of Smithfield Meat Market so I headed in that direction. I skirted around its periphery and was stunned at what they have made of the area–the Crossrail (to be called the New Elizabeth Line) is to pass through this area (Farringdon-Barbican) and, as is to be expected, they are digging up a vast part of it. There are also dozens of vast corporate complexes going up in the area–my friend Alisha told me yesterday that Deloitte is creating five new buildings in the area–can you imagine what this will do to property values? And my friend Rose told me that the Meat Market is going to close down soon and will be replaced by a market like Spitalfields. This will be a pity, methinks, as I love the uniqueness of a vast meat market in the middle of the city. Having lived in this past for a prolonged period in a huge loft belonging to friends of mine in Farringdon, in the years gone by, I know this area really well and love it.

So, for old times sake, I walked past Florin Court,  the Art Deco Building that is used as the exterior of the building in which Hercule Poirrot lives in the  TV series and to Charterhouse. I had once taken a tour of its interior–given a few times a week, check the website–and would highly recommend it. Monks still live inside–monks that descend from the same order that put up the first monastery in medieval times. As the place was added to over the centuries, it reflected the architectural tastes of the periods through which it has survived–Tudor, Elizabethan, Baroque, etc. Needless to say, it is a popular venue for film shooting and I have often recognized parts of it in the period films and TV series I watch.

For old times’ sake, I then walked to Cowcross Lane to the building I had once occupied (how I had loved my flat there!) and then through the vast arched portal of Smithfield Market and arrived on the other side to enter the old Church of St. Bartholomew The Great. The entire area had been shrouded by scaffolding when I had lived there–that is all gone now and the circular park has not been turned into a underground parking lot with the sculpture of the lady in the center glowing anew. The Church itself is the oldest parish church in the city dating from the 1100s. It is much used in film shootings (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love) as it is of Norman origin. I have attended Mass in this church several times, so I was not about to pay 5 pounds to tour it. Perhaps I shall attend Evensong tomorrow at 6. 30 pm. Erected by the monk Rahere who is interred in the church, the old small cloister still remains.

Rahere is also responsible for founding the adjoining St. Bart’s Hospital. Permission to build and expand was handed over to the monks who converted to Protestantism by Henry VIII later in the 1500s. To celebrate that, a Henry VIII Gateway to the Hospital was built. You can visit the Hospital Chapel–known as the Church of St. Bartholomew the Less as well as the excellent St. Bart’s Hospital Museum which I have seen in the past–its stairwell carries two magnificent paintings by Hogarth which are memorable.

I then walked around the big church to Cloth Fair to see the home of one of my favorite poets, the late Sir John Betjeman, and the site of the medieval fair that was held here each year till the mid 1800s and which gave Ben Jonson’s play its name–Bartholomew Fair.  From there, I walked down Giltspur Lane to see the golden sculpture of the Fat Boy–reportedly a symbol of the gluttony that they believe brought on the curse of the Great Fire upon London–and then walked to the Viaduct Tavern, dating from the 1700s on the corner at the Holborn Viaduct. Inside there are lovely mirrored paintings and a red tin ceiling which make it highly atmospheric. Across the street is Old Bailey, the Court House where trials are open to the public (I have attended one in the past) , topped by the gilded sculpture of the Goddess of Justice with the scales of mercy in her hands. When I used to live in London with my friends in Amen Court, I would part the curtains of my room each morning to see this magnificent dome right in front of me! It never ceased to charm me. Next stop: the Church of Saint Sepulchre which simply came to be known as Sepulchre Church–this was the church from which the Knights set out on their Crusades across Europe! Can you imagine??? I have never been inside this church and would very much like to. It also features in the Oranges and Lemons poem: “When will you pay me, say the Bells of Old Bailey”. So much history, so much brilliant architecture, crammed in this small square mile of space–no wonder I adore this area so much!

At NYU Campus:  

I hopped into a 46 bus going to Holborn Circus (as a number of buses were on a diverted route) and from there into a 25 to get to Bloomsbury and to my NYU campus. In half an hour, the porter Mark gave me the keys to my office on the third floor. I loved it. Its windows look out on to the dome of the British Museum and the tops of Centerpoint–the skyscraper at Tottenham Court Road. How lucky am I to have this venue to work in??? The last time I worked in London, my colleague Karen and I had shared a basement office. This time, I have my own individual office on the third floor with a view! I am certainly movin’ on up (as George Jefferson from the American TV series The Jeffersons would have said!)! Yes, I am thrilled by little pleasures of this kind.

Losing no time, I walked around the third floor meeting my new British colleagues and introducing myself. I met another GRI Fellow, a grad student (I am the only faculty member) and my colleague Emily Bauman who is not a Fellow but also has a semester off teaching. It was lovely to see a familiar face again. I also met Eric, one of the senior administrators at NYU-London, and received a very warm welcome from him. I then sat down on my brand-new Mac desktop computer that had been set up with a shell for me and began to check my email. I also needed to print something out (printer is in the adjoining room) but there was some glitch with the set up and I will have to wait until tomorrow to do that. Instead, I went down to the faculty lounge where I printed my Conference Program for Scotland and photocopied some material. I do not believe I will have a lot of time for sightseeing but I am looking forward to meeting a new Twitter friend for dinner in Edinburgh. As I have already starting packing my backpack for that trip (I will also be going to Glasgow), I am looking forward to it now.

Off to Foyle’s:    

When I finished off at NYU, I had about an hour to spare. So I jumped into a bus going to Cambridge Circus, jumped off at McDonald’s for a KitKat McFlurry sundae, then walked into Foyle’s, the bookshop, for a short browse of new titles and then jumped back into a bus again to return to Bloomsbury.

Lecture on British Orientation at the Congress Center:

Yes, I was attending my second lecture of the day at 6.20 pm at the Congress Center–part of our Orientation events for new students on campus. It was an Introduction to British Music and Comedy and consisted of two short lectures: the one on music was given by David Sinclair who has written extensively on the subject and one a stand-up comedy routine by Mark Dolan who is one of Britain’s best-known stand-up comics and has just returned from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Sinclair used the screen to project videos–one of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke with Adele, another of The Kinks and a third of Punk Rockers–as Punk is celebrating an important anniversary this year (there is a special exhibition on Punk at the British Library right now). Dolan was full of humor (it is impossible to resist making fun of the Brexit Vote and of Donald Trump, I suppose) and there were many laughs. I think NYU found a great way to appeal to the students’ interests (Music, stand up comedy routines) to introduce the country in which they have chosen to study. I enjoyed it but was ready to call it a day at 8.15 pm when it ended. However, it was nice to resume contact with some of my new British colleagues at NYU and to get to know a few more of them.

On the Bus Home:

I had walked a bit too much and could not face the thought of making a Tube change from the Northern to the Central Line and then taking a  bus home from Bethnal Green–so I simply took a 25 bus going home and although it took me about 35 minutes on the bus (as opposed to 20 minutes on the Tube), it was a lovely way to relax and see the city by night. I am getting more used to coming home after night has fallen, but I am still uncomfortable about the neighborhood and the folks who people it.

I had a long chat with Llew, had my dinner (the last of my chicken piri-piri and my broccoli with soup)  and I fell asleep watching a bit more of the Beck episode on my laptop–but I haven’t finished it yet.

So there was my day—busy, busy, busy. But so enlightening and so much fun.

Until tomorrow, cheerio…

 

 

Scaling the Dreaming Spires of Oxford & Dinner at Smithfield

Jan23

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Oxford

Today was all about spending an indulgent day in one of my most beloved places in the world with some of my favorite people in London.  I had arranged a tour of what Matthew Arnold had called “the dreaming spires of Oxford” for friends who had never been there. It had been all arranged–for weeks. Raquel and I were going to take the Oxford Tube (read coach) to the university city. Then, I invited my friend Bash and his girl friend Kim to join us. He volunteered to drive us there. My friend Susan who lives in Oxford was going to join us there and together, we intended to have a lovely day.

Only all sorts of things went wrong as Murphy’s Law decrees: Although Raquel and I were ready to roll by 8.00 am after Jonas was dropped off to school, we realized we still had 45 minutes to play with as it takes only about 40 minutes on the Tube to get to Northholt where Bash was  awaiting us with his car. When we got there, we found a terribly repentant Bash (no Kim) informing us that there were major alterations in our plans. Kim had sciatica and was home bound. He had domestic commitments that had cropped up overnight that made it impossible to spend the day with us. However, and get this, he had decided that, in true British tradition, he “wasn’t going to let us down”–and so the trooper was driving us to Oxford as planned, would have a quick coffee with us and would turn right back to return to London. Although we protested, he was having none of it–and off we went, with Bash behind the wheel on to the M40 for the 90 minute ride into the city.

Arrival at Oxford:

The journey was truly pleasant as we caught up on so much. Raquel and Bash–both being outgoing types–hit it off well and before I knew it, were discussed the job market, tried and tested job-hunting techniques on Linked-In, etc. and then we were pulling into Grandpont where my friend Susan lives. We parked Bash’s car in one of the side streets adjoining Marlborough Road to make our way into a very quiet, isolated Delicatessen Cafe on Whitehorse Road where we settled down with hot drinks–coffees, lattes, hot chocolates–and eats–quiches, rocky road, coffee cake–and chatted some more as we awaited Susan’s arrival. She turned up really soon and after one more raucous reunion and some more introductions and much chatting later, Bash bid us goodbye, returned to London and left us to our own devices.

A Walking Tour of Oxford:

It was time to begin our exploration of Oxford for it was already noon and light fades by 4. 30 pm. Being that we were just a few minutes from Foley Bridge, we started our tour at Christ Church College after taking in the lovely vista of the college across the Meadows and spying the balcony from the famous scene in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited in which a drunken friend of Charles and Sebastian threatens to throw himself off to the ground!

Our tour cost 5. 50 pounds (normally 7) because the famous Dining Hall which had provided the model for the Dining Hall in Harry Potter’s Hogwart’s School was closed for renovation. Part of the ceiling had caved in, a few months ago, and the place was under refurbishment. Still, we could see the grand staircase which actually features in the film and where the students are introduced to Prof. Mcgonnagal for the very first time as she stands at the top of the staircase with its lovely fan vaulted ceiling and invites the students inside in the first Harry Potter movie.

We could also visit the Cathedral (the only place in the world where a cathedral sits in the midst of a college) and the vast quadrangles. And we had the added benefit of getting a short tour from one of the bowlder-hatted porters named Mark Hathaway (how many comments does he get about his association with the TV detective James Hathaway–now an Inspector himself–in the Inspector Lewis series set in Oxford, I wonder?). Through the brief walking tour, we discovered the basics: Christ Church College was originally meant to be named Cardinal College after the wealthy and corrupt prelate Cardinal Wolsey who founded it–hence, the symbols of the college are the Cardinal’s Hat with their streaming tassels. When Wolsey fell out of favor with King Henry VIII for not being able to procure his divorce from Katherine of Aragon, the ownership and running of the college fell into the hands of the King who renamed it and actually created a set of rooms for himself to live in it.

After the Reformation, Christ Church became significant once again during the Civil War when King Charles I moved his court from London to Royalist Oxford and occupied rooms designed originally for Henry. Needless to say, this did not eventually prevent him from being beheaded. We strolled through the lovely grounds of the college on another especially cold day cursing the weather and commenting on our poor frozen toes.

Once at the Main Quad (short for Quadrangle), the largest of any Oxford College and known as Tom Quad because it is dominated by Tom Tower that is named for the bell, Old Tom, that religiously tolls each hour, and after admiring the lovely Fountain of Mercury in the center and commenting on the unfinished cloisters –evident in the fact that the plinths still surround the quad–we made our way into the adjoining Cathedral. A Cathedral gets its ‘status’ from the Cathedra (Latin for Chair) that is meant for the use of a cardinal who is usually resident there. In this case, Cardinal Wolsey’s original association with Christ Church gave its chapel the distinction of becoming a Cathedral–and you can still see the Cathedra on the altar.

Although on several past occasions, I have visited the Cathedral (once to listen to candlelit Evensong), it made sense to visit it again with my friends and to use the handy pamphlet to discover its treasures, among which are: the gigantic keyhole in one of the wooden doors that inspired Lewis Carol (aka Charles Dodgson who was a professor of Mathematics at Christ Church) to include it in his story of Alice in Wonderland (narrated spontaneously to his little friend Alice Liddel, daughter of the Master of Christ Church whom he knew well and with whom he would sail in summer on the adjoining Cherwell). It was through this key hold that Alice fell in the story! Other aspects worth noticing were the stained glass window featuring Jonah and Nineveh, the windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones (one of the Pre-Raphaelites who studied at neighboring Exeter College), the St. Friteswide widow that features her entire story and includes, of all things, the first ever flushing loo invented by one Thomas Crapper in Oxford–now you know where all words associated with ‘crap’ come from!) Indeed, there is a loo by her death bed in the stained glass window and it makes for a real curiosity in one’s study of it (the window, I mean, not the loo).

We also saw the original 12th century carved stone altar of St. Friteswide who is the patron saint of Oxford and the new very solid altar carved in black balsa wood. At the main altar, we exclaimed at its beauty  before we exited the cathedral to browse in the gift store and pick up souvenirs of our visit. Raquel picked out a Diamond Jubilee porcelain plate with the year 2012 featured on it–she had moved to the UK in 2012. It was a very good buy that I converted into a gift for her.

Continuing our Walking Tour:

Exiting Christ Church College from the back, we arrived at Oriel Square (an opportunity to see the rather unusual facade of Oriel College) before making our way to The High (as High Street is known in Oxford) to cross into Radcliff Square to arrive at the Radcliff Camera–a rotunda topped by a dome designed by James Gibb (and not Wren as I had mistakenly assumed) and named for John Radcliff whose estate had endowed the creation of a library inside. The University prides itself on the fact that once you request a book, they can haul it up from the bowels of the earth, if need be, in under an hour. Mind you, the University receives, by royal decree, a copy of every book every published in the UK–that means literally millions of books. That they still find the room to accommodate them all simply boggles my mind. And, get this, today, a valiant attempt is being made to scan every single book in the collection and make it digitally available to the public! Soon, you will not need to be a registered student at Oxford to access its printed collection.

The Camera makes a real architectural statement in the Square which also features the Church of St. Mary The Virgin (you can climb to its spire for a fee for extraordinary views of the city) and All Souls College whose twin spires are unmistakeable. We skirted these magnificent buildings, took in the sights of railings lined with bicycles, saw students mill in and out of classes and residential rooms in colleges, all bundled against the freeze, and arrived at Catte Street to show Raquel the famous Bridge of Sighs that joins Hertford and New Colleges in imitation of the one across the canals of Venice. At this point, it was only right to make a detour and walk along the narrowed alley in the city to arrive at the home once occupied by Jane Morris who became the wife of artist William Morris (also one of the Pre-Raphaelites, also at Exeter) who was a humble embroiderer until these artists discovered her and used her as the model for their work). This led us to the well-known Turf Tavern that has been associated with many Oxford luminaries including, and significant for us Americans, Bill Clinton! Inspector Morse was also known to have downed many a pint in these lovely premises with their beer gardens and cozy interiors.

Back on ‘The Broad’ (Broad Street), we popped into the unusual Norrington Room attached to Blackwell’s Bookstore (another Oxford institution) which lies underground in four tiers right below Broad Street–it is the only bookstore in the world that is sunken so deeply. It makes for a wonderful peek into another treasure house of books. This vantage point permitted us to pass through the Clarendon Building to view Christopher Wren’s masterpiece, the rather-funnily shaped Sheldonian Theater where graduation ceremonies take place and where, throughout the year, there are musical concerts under its spectacular painted ceiling. We did not pay the entry fee to see it, but moved into the ornate quadrangle of the Bodleian Library with its lovely sculpture of Thomas Bodley who endowed the creation of this store house of knowledge. We stepped into the Divinity School but could not enter unless we paid–it would be interesting to calculate just how much a really thorough visit to Oxford would cost if one indulged in a close look at all its highlights.

It was time to return to The Broad to spy the sculpture by Anthony Gormley on the building at the corner of Turl Street and directly above the set of rooms I had once occupied in the Margary Quadrangle of Exeter College which we next entered. There I took my friends to the exceedingly beautiful chapel where the beautiful stained glass windows and the Byzantine mosaics combine to create a really lovely space filled with Pre-Raphaelite treasures–there is a majestic tapestry by Edward Burne-Jones featuring the Adoration of the Magi which I truly love.

Out in the Margary Quadrangle, I showed them my room which still brings back such lovely memories for me and then we were going past the Junior Common Room to get to Exeter Library and the Fellows Garden to climb upon the terrace that overlooks Radcliff Square and that provides some of the most beautiful views of the square. It was there that Raquel taught me how to use the Panoramic feature of my I-Phone to enable me to get these incredible 180 degree shots of the Gothic architecture that I so adore! She has changed my photographic life forever!

It was time to get some sustenance–and Susan led us to the Rooftop of the Covered Market–it is a place that has newly opened for drinks and snacks and offers views and heights similar to those of the spire of St. Mary’s Church. It takes a ‘local’ to help one make such discoveries and we were glad to have Susan as our guide! We made a quick round of the actual Covered Market itself, then climbed several floors up, stopped midway to order our hot drinks (it was too cold a day to sip anything else) and up we went to kiss those dreaming spires that were all around us as we turned and made 360 degree pirouettes. How marvelous it all was! Back downstairs, we sat for a long time and nursed our drinks and caught up on all sorts of news–it was good to chat at length with Susan in whose home I had once spent a few days while staying in Oxford.

Then, it was time to move on. It was almost 4 pm by then and light would soon fade. Susan needed to get on home to do some work and I swung Raquel into St. Giles, first to see the very spot at which the Bishops Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley were burned at the stake by Queen Mary Tudor and then to admire the medieval cross raised at The Martyrs Memorial. Across the street we went, to walk by the Randolf Hotel and the Ashmolean Museum, for which, alas, we had no time, and then we swung on to the Jericho area of city as I was keen to arrive at the Oxford Canal where I had never been before–but which is the site of so many murders in the Oxford mystery series that I watch. Off Combe Sttreet, we squeezed through the gates and arrived at the exact spot that I wanted to see. We took pictures of it and then retraced our steps to the Woodstock Road–but not before finding a framed needlepoint treasure in a thrift store!

Walking south on Woodstock Road, we arrived at the Eagle and Child Pub, popularized by The Inklings, the Exeter College pals that had comprised JRR Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and their friends. We entered the quaint pub, took in its unique ambiance with its little wooden cubby holes, black boards announcing food specials and then used the loo. There was time only to nip into Waterstones so that Raquel could buy some books and then off we went to the Gloucester Green bus stop to find the coach to take us back to London.And thus ended a most amazing day!

Back in London for Dinner at Snithfield Market:

The coach journey in the pitch darkness was not a lot of fun as there wasn’t much we could see outside. But we did catch up, Raquel and I, as we chatted about this and that and accessed our email through the free wifi. Hoping off at Baker Street, we hurried into the Tube to take the Metropolitan Line to Farringdon as I was taking Raquel and her husband Chris out for dinner. She had made reservations at Smith’s, a well-known steak house right opposite the grand Victorian lines of the famed Smithfield Meat Market–and it was there, on the third floor, overlooking the lovely new spires of The City , including the Shard, and Wren’s magnificent dome of St. Paul’s, that we ate a fabulous steak dinner with chips and a glass of Merlot. It was quite magnificently done–medium rare for all of us–and absolutely butter soft and succulent. For dessert, we picked at a Clementine Cheesecake–not the best of things in the world but different. How marvelous it was to have extended time with Chris who has been off to work each  morning leaving us little time for interaction and to find out about his work in finance and investments.

But by 10.00 pm, we made our way back to the Tube, past Denmark House in which I had once stayed on Cowcross Lane with its spacious, art-filled loft–a thought that seems like a dream to me today as I look back on my year in London.

We reached home just past 10. 30 pm and fell right into bed, really pleased at what had been a most satisfying day.

Until tomorrow, cheerio!