<\/p>\n
London <\/span> ‘Funnest’ Last Day of Vacation for Chriselle: Abbey Road Crossing, London Eye, Afternoon Tea and Seeing Kenneth Branagh in The Entertainer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thursday, October 6, 2016 London ‘Funnest’ Last Day of Vacation for Chriselle: Abbey Road Crossing, London Eye, Afternoon Tea and Seeing Kenneth Branagh in The Entertainer It was Chriselle\u2019s last day of vacation and she was delighted to have the opportunity to spend it in London. She decided to do all the things… <\/p>\n
\nwas Chriselle\u2019s last day of vacation and she was delighted to have the
\nopportunity to spend it in London. She decided to do all the things she had
\nnever done before\u2014or mostly. After a rather leisurely start to the day, we had
\nbrekkie (croissants and peanut butter with salmon and dill cream cheese and
\ndecaff coffee). It was her idea that we should discover my new neighborhood of
\nEaling Broadway together and I thought it would be great to have her company as
\nI scoured it.
\nhouse and made our way past Morrison\u2019s<\/i>
\n(my new local supermarket) to Broadway\u2014which is basically the High Street. How
\nthrilling to see a huge Marks and Spencer<\/i>
\non the next block! We walked to the local branch of HSBC to get some money out
\nof the ATM machine and then found a thrift shop from which Chriselle wished to
\npurchase a paperback for her return flight home tomorrow. By 12.00 noon, we
\nwere at the Tube station and I was buying my monthly Travelcard. Much to my
\ndelight, I was served by an Anglo-Indian railway employee named Clayton who was
\ndelighted when I asked if he was an Anglo-Indian. He said that from my name he
\nwas about to ask if I was a Goan from Bombay! How cool was that! We had a
\nlovely chat and then I was off with my new monthly Tube and bus pass. <\/span><\/div>\n
\nAbbey Road:
\ntook the Central Line to Bond Street from where we switched to the Jubilee Line
\nas our destination was St. John\u2019s Wood as Chriselle was keen to get her Abbey
\nRoad Beatles Crossing picture. Once at the subway, we walked down Grove End
\nRoad (I knew the area well as I had lived there on two occasions during
\nprevious stays in London at the home of my friend Raquel on Abbey Road).
\nChriselle had such a blast as she strode across the street in imitation of the
\nFab Four. There were a lot of other tourists around with the same idea but
\nbecause the day was windy and it was uncomfortable to stride in the cold, most
\npeople got their snaps snappily. I took her picture while she strode across and
\nthen we had a passer-by get the two of us. It was a really fun way to start our
\nday.
\nI took a picture outside Neville Court, the building where I had stayed and
\nthat overlooked the crossing, we left. We took the Tube next to Westminster for
\nthe next item on our agenda.
\ncatch her first glimpse of Big Ben as we emerged from the Tube. As we were both
\npeckish, we picked up samosas (veg and lamb ones) from a local Indian shop and
\nmunching those, we made our way across the bridge to arrive at the booking
\noffice for the London Eye. It was great fun to be part of the tourist energy in
\nthe city and to get into queues for tickets when the place was not quite as
\nmobbed as it had been during the summer. In about ten minutes, we got our
\ntickets (25 pounds each) and were directed towards a theater to watch a short 4
\nminute 4D film on London which was a fantastic experience for both of us.
\nthan a half hour later, we were in a pod in the London Eye and we thoroughly
\nenjoyed our experience. The light was perfect\u2014it was a very bright day with
\nblue skies and fluffy clouds and a sun that popped in and out of them offering
\npicture opportunities in varying light modes. Of course, we took a ton of
\npictures together of the city from varied angles. After waiting for years to
\nride the London Eye, I can say that it was certainly worth the cost and the
\nwait. An hour later, we were back on terra firma again and striding off to our
\nnext location.
\nCollection:<\/span><\/b>
\nlove the very British concept of Afternoon Tea. Having been to the Welcomm
\nCollection which is a museum in Euston, about a month ago, I had discovered
\ntheir Tea Room called The Welcomm Kitchen<\/i>
\non the second floor. Afternoon Tea there is quite definitely the most
\nreasonably priced in the entire city and I had resolved to take Chriselle there
\nwhen she visited London. <\/span>
\nwe arrived there just before 3.00pm and ordered the Afternoon Tea for Two
\npeople which included the works: scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam,
\na selection of finger sandwiches (ham and cheese, smoked salmon, cucumber and
\ncream cheese and egg salad) and a lovely array of tiny pastries). Chriselle
\nchose the ginger and lemon tea while I had the elderflower and lemon tea and
\nthey were both superb. Sipping tea in a lovely quiet atmosphere was the perfect
\nway to chat about our recent travels and our plans going forward. It was grand
\nto have this down time\u2014quality time that we do not often get to spend together.
\nAbout two hours later, we were leaving the museum and getting into a bus
\nopposite University College, London.
\nBentham at UCL:
\nUCL, I took Chriselle inside the main campus of University College, London, to
\nshow her one of the most curious sights in the city\u2014the auto-icon of economist
\nJeremy Bentham. As most folks know, he was the 1ate 18th<\/sup>-early 19th<\/sup>
\ncentury economist who propounded the theory of Utilitarianism that advocated
\n\u2018The greatest happiness of the greatest number\u2019. Well-connected with UCL, he
\nwas one of the Trustees and greatest patrons of the college. In his will, he
\nstipulated that his body should be embalmed and preserved in the premises of
\nthe college. Hence, his body is seated on a chair clothed in a casual outfit
\nand gazing at generations of students that have gone through the portals. At
\none time, students had vandalized the case, taken off his head and played
\nfootball with it. The head is now stored in a safe and a wax head had been
\nplaced on his body in the side corridor.
\nby what she saw and upon hearing the story, she wanted to leave right away. She
\nfound the entire story \u201cway too creepy\u201d\u2014just as I had done the first time I had
\nseen it. <\/span>Hence, we did not spend too
\nmuch time there, but hopped into the first 29 bus that trundled along to take
\nus to Trafalgar Square.
\nstill had time to kill before the final item on our agenda\u2014the Big Surprise I
\nhad in store! Since we were at Trafalgar Square, it was a no-brainer to jump
\ninto the National Portrait Gallery so that Chriselle could see some of the
\nnewer portraits\u2014she was keen to see Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Sadly, there
\nwas a special Picasso exhibition on and so the portraits had been squirreled
\naway. However, she did see the new one of the Duchess of Cambridge by Paul
\nEmsley\u2014which, like so many folks, she thought was terrible for it made her look
\nso aged and so grey. We also looked at a few other portraits before moving on
\nnext door.
\nChriselle some of my special canvasses\u2014the entire room devoted to Carlo
\nCrivelli, for example, in the Sainsbury <\/i>section;
\nmy very favorite painting in the museum (Courtyard
\nof a House in Delft<\/i> by Pieter de Hooch); Van Dyck\u2019s equestrian portrait of
\nCharles I; the Wilton Diptych; The
\nAmbassadors<\/i> by Hans Holbein. <\/span>By this
\nstage, we were both tired and decided to go somewhere to rest.
\nchocolate from Amorina<\/i>\u2014one of my
\nfavorite things to do in Manhattan is to get hot chocolate from there. She got
\na Caramel one and I got an Aztec-studded with cinnamon and chilli. Since it was
\na cold night, we were both grateful for the pick-me-up and about an hour later,
\nwe made our way towards the big surprise.
\nthis time, since we were hovering around the West End, Chriselle guessed that
\nthe surprise had something to do with a play\u2014however, she did not know which
\none. When we walked just a few steps ahead and entered the Garrick Theater at a
\nlittle past 7.00 pm, to see Kenneth Branagh take the lead role in John
\nOsborne\u2019s The Entertainer<\/i>, her joy
\nknew no bounds as Osborne is one of her favorite playwrights and Branagh is one
\nof her favorite actors. Suffice it so say that we spent an absolutely fabulous
\nevening in the theater especially after I discovered that two other well-known
\nactors were also in the play: Greta Sachhi who has been a permanent fixture in
\nseveral films by Merchant-Ivory and Sophie McSheara who played Daisy in Downton Abbey<\/i>. They took the two female
\nleads in the play and they did a fine job\u2014although McSheara\u2019s voice is much too
\nthin for such a powerful role. Overall, we had such a great time together.
\n When the play ended, we actually stood at the Stage Door hoping to catch a glimpse of Branagh and perhaps get him to autograph our Playbill for us. But we were informed that he had left by another door. Our disappointment was assuaged, however, by the appearance of McSheara who obliged us quite readily and posed for oictures with us. It really was one of the highlights of Chriselle’s evening. She informed her that I was a big fan of Downton Abbey<\/em> and had recognized her from the TV series. <\/div>\n
\ntake me to get home to Ealing from the West End and how crowded the train would
\nbe by the time we came to the last stop as I would likely be going to the
\ntheater on my own and was afraid of being the only one on the train at that
\nlate hour. As it turned out, I need not have worried. The trains were packed
\nand at least 1\/3 full by the time we reached Ealing Broadway. In fact, the area
\noutside the Tube station was buzzing although it was almost 11.00 pm and my
\nspirits soared. Since my flat is just across the Tube station, I need not worry
\nat all about getting home after dark as I had done when I lived at Bethnal
\nGreen. It is great that I had Chriselle to accompany me during this experiment
\nand that I had her company while I broke into my new digs.
\nnight in my new home, I was convinced that I had made the right decision in
\nmoving. I was certain I would adore my new home and neighborhood and to get to
\nknow it really well as the weeks passed by.