{"id":598,"date":"2016-10-08T06:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T06:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/08\/au-revoir-chriselle-lunch-with-stuart-and-a-pub-quiz-and-curry-supper-at-ealing-cricket-club\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T04:59:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T04:59:41","slug":"au-revoir-chriselle-lunch-with-stuart-and-a-pub-quiz-and-curry-supper-at-ealing-cricket-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/08\/au-revoir-chriselle-lunch-with-stuart-and-a-pub-quiz-and-curry-supper-at-ealing-cricket-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Au Revoir Chriselle, Lunch with Stuart and a Pub Quiz and Curry Supper at Ealing Cricket Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFriday, October 7, 2016<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

London<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Au Revoir Chriselle, Lunch with Stuart and a Pub Quiz and Curry Supper at Ealing Cricket Club<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>It is still a novelty to wake up in
\nthis gorgeous flat. It is also a novelty to wake up with company\u2014albeit Chriselle\u2019s.
\nIt is grand to have another human presence in my home and to make small talk
\nwith someone in the mornings. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and
\nChriselle returned to Los Angeles today via Gatwick airport. But we had the
\nmost amazing times together and savored every second of each other\u2019s company
\nbecause, as we grow older, such leisurely times became rare and more precious. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nBest
\nof all, it was a thrill to discover my new neighborhood of Ealing in Chriselle\u2019s
\ncompany and to revel in the little luxuries of my new home. It is early days yet, but I will tell you this: it is a 180
\ndegree difference\u2014like day and night. I LOVE this place\u2014both the location
\n(Ealing Broadway was buzzing at 11.00 pm when Chriselle and I got home on the
\nTube after seeing a play at the West End last night) and the accommodation (it
\nis a converted flat in a Victorian house dating from the mid-1800s).  <\/span>My landlord Stuart, is an architect who works
\nwith Norman Foster\u2019s firm in London and travels around the world supervising
\nglobal projects\u2014need I say more? He has done an interior conversion that would
\nbe the envy of design magazine editors. My one-bedroom flat is huge, has period
\ndetails (marble fireplaces in living room and bedroom, crown molding and
\nplaster decoration on the ceiling) combined with a completely Modernist
\naesthetic (a brand-new stainless steel kitchen, a gigantic drop down 70 mm TV
\nscreen that connects to my laptop, a combo washer-dryer\u2014few British homes have
\ndryers, by the way\u2014a deluxe hotel-quality round bath tub with jacuzzi and generous
\nrain shower and dimmers on all lights!). It is bright, airy (and well-aired),
\nhas sunlight streaming in from huge glass-fronted windows, and overlooks a park
\n(Haven Green). I really do feel as if I have died and gone to Heaven! Thank you
\nGod!<\/span><\/span> <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, together Chriselle and I have scoured stores
\nliterally on my doorstep\u2014Marks and
\nSpencer<\/i> department store, plus high street chains such as Accessorize, Monsoon, H and M<\/i> and Zara<\/i> are all around the corner! I have a
\nselection of three huge supermarkets from which to shop\u2014Morrison\u2019s, Sainsbury<\/i> and the lush Food Hall of M and S<\/i>\u2014all seconds away. My home is
\nlocated on Haven Green, a huge park that is filled all day with dog walkers,
\nstrollers and joggers. My Tube station is literally steps away from me (I can
\nsee it from my front door) and a huge bus depot skirts it. Adjoining my block
\nof Victorian houses is a stone church from which I can hear bells peal! The
\narea is vibrant, diverse, cosmopolitan, \u2018happening\u2019\u2014my idea of London! And for
\nall this, I am paying the same rent I paid in the East End of London. Truly,
\nmoving was a no-brainer for me and I really do feel I lucked out big-time.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nChriselle and I had intended to take a walk around the neighborhood
\nbefore her departure, but she was too tied up with packing and getting set to
\nleave London. My landlord Stuart arrived with a plumber to take care of some
\nurgent work. I met him for the first time and as we chatted and got to know
\neach other, I was completely charmed by his talent as an architect, his focus
\nand his demeanor. What a lovely young man! I do, of course, know his Dad Cecil,
\na physician, who has been a friend of mine for years\u2014but I had never met Cecil\u2019s
\nchildren. Chriselle too enjoyed meeting Stuart as they found a lot in common to
\nchat about\u2014mainly Stuart\u2019s interest in acting and in audio-visual entertainment
\n(hence, the gigantic drop-down TV screen in his home!). I offered him a coffee
\nwhile I cleared up our breakfast things: we\u2019d had croissants with cream cheese
\nand toast with peanut butter over raspberry and cranberry tea.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThen, quite suddenly, Chriselle managed to pull a muscle in her
\nshoulders and spent some time lying horizontal on the hardwood floor while I
\napplied an Ibuprofen ointment on her shoulder blades. After a hot shower, she
\nfelt much better. I too showered (we are still unable to get over the thick and
\ngenerous rain-like shower head in our massive round jacuzzi bathtub) and then
\nit was time to leave with her. She had carried sandwiches for her lunch\u2014so off
\nwe went on the Tube at 12 noon to get her 1.05 pm Easybus from West Brompton to
\nGatwick airport. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/b>
\nSaying Goodbye to
\nChriselle:<\/o:p><\/span><\/b>
\n     <\/span><\/span>
\n       It was hard to say
\ngoodbye\u2014for both of us\u2014as neither one of us has any idea when we will see each
\nother again. That\u2019s the most painful part of partings\u2014the unknowing! But being
\nthe mature adults we are, we focused on the great times we\u2019d just had together,
\nsaid our goodbyes and at Lillie Road outside West Brompton Tube station, we
\nfound the Easybus waiting and inside she hopped. And then she was away and I
\nreturned on the Tube back to Ealing.<\/o:p><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/b>
\nLunch with Stuart:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>Stuart was still home
\nwhen I arrived and was just finishing up bits of work that he had scheduled for
\nthe morning. He invited me to join him for lunch as both of us were starving.
\nWe ended up going to one of my favorite eatery chains in London, The Hare and Tortoise<\/i>\u2014a Japanese chain
\nthat is inexpensive and simply the yummiest. I always have the Curry Laksa when
\nI am there\u2014it is a massive bowl of noodles, bean sprouts, prawns and chicken in
\na coconut milk-based curried chicken soup that is mammothly filling and super
\ndelicious. Stuart had udon noodles with sushi and prawn tempura. Our lunch
\noffered more of an opportunity to discuss international architects that we love
\nfrom Norman Foster (for whom he works) to Zaha Hadid, from Jean Nouvel to
\nGaudi. Stuart thinks that the Cathedral of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is
\nsimply the world\u2019s most awesome building. It was a great pleasure chatting with
\nhim and I truly enjoyed our time together. Best of all, I am thrilled beyond
\nwords that The Hare and the Tortoise<\/i>
\nis just steps away from my new home, across Haven Green. Anytime I feel like a
\nCurry Laksa, I can nip right in! <\/span><\/div>\n
\nQuiet Afternoon and
\nEvening Until\u2026<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span>
\n     <\/span>I looked forward to a
\nquiet evening spent catching up with my blog, sorting through my papers,
\nresponding to urgent email, etc. and I was in the process of doing just that
\naccompanied by the pleasure of a hot pot of tea and cake (for I had nipped out
\nearlier in the evening to get some goodies from M and S<\/i>) when I got an unexpected phone call. My friend Cecil, Stuart\u2019s
\nDad, who lives ten minutes away, called to find out if I was free to join him
\nand a few friends for supper at his nearby Club. Boy, being alone quite so
\nsuddenly after Chriselle\u2019s departure, was I just! And what a fascinating
\nevening it turned out to be! A true exposure to British Cultural Studies!<\/o:p><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/b>
\nA Pub Quiz and \u2018Curry
\nSupper\u2019 in a Cricket Club:<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n      <\/span>Cecil\u2019s invitation
\nwas to the Ealing Cricket Club, a few blocks away from my new home. He rang my
\ndoor bell promptly at 7. 20 pm and together we hopped into a car around the
\ncorner in which his friends Mona and Girish Shah were seated\u2014they were part of
\nthe quiz team that would participate in the annual Club fund-raiser. Within
\nminutes, we were chatting companionably with each other. We arrived at the
\nClub, parked our car and entered the gymkhana-like atmosphere of an old English
\nClub where Cecil is a member\u2014a first-time for me.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>For the rest of
\nthe evening, I gave myself up to the pleasure of the pub quiz\u2014something about
\nwhich I had heard so much and was very pleased to participate in. There were
\nabout twelve tables with teams of varied sizes. We were joined by Kate, an
\nEnglishwoman, a little later\u2014so our team comprised 5 people. There were about
\n10 rounds of quizzing questions in different categories: Pot Luck,
\nEntertainment, Sports, and the like\u2014with 10 questions in each category. Questions
\nwere called out by the MC. Each table received a \u2018pack\u2019 of sheets with space
\nfor the answers on them. And then we were off. I have to say that we did not do
\ntoo badly overall. I was culturally ignorant about a lot of the questions but I
\nmanaged to answer a few! <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>Halfway through
\nthe quiz, we stopped for supper that was laid out at one end of the room. Much
\nto my amusement, it was a \u2018Curry Supper\u2019\u2014featuring Chicken Curry and a
\nVegetarian version, served over rice (which I refused) and naans. There was
\nalso yogurt, a green salad and a number of pickles and chutneys\u2014all of which I found
\nto be a very English version of an Indian curry meal and a fascinating exposure
\nto British Cultural Studies. For example, in India, we would never present a
\nbowl of plain yogurt at a meal\u2014it would always be a raita! Nor would we ever present
\na bowl of plain salad greens\u2014it would always be dressed! Other than at Parsee
\nweddings, you would not see a sweet-hot mango chutney (such as Sharwood\u2019s) at
\nan Indian buffet\u2014although you would find hot pickles! So everything was quite
\namusing and entertaining to me, as I observed each aspect of British Cricket Club
\nculture. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>After supper,
\nthe quiz continued (five more rounds of it). Every team was serious and focused
\nand competitive. My team had informed me that they have always come last. Well,
\nthis year, we ranked about 8 of out 13\u2014not quite rock bottom! Indeed, we failed
\nquite respectably! <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>By 11.00 pm,
\nthe Shahs dropped me off at the corner on Haven Green (still hopping at that hour\u2014which
\nwas a huge comfort to me) and I was home a few minutes later. It had been an eventful
\nday and I was glad I had my mind taken away from Chriselle\u2019s departure and my
\nfeeling of sudden bereavement by this exciting quiz night. I was also delighted
\nto make friends with the Shahs whom I hope to see again as they live not far
\naway in Wembley.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>Until tomorrow,
\ncheerio\u2026 <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, October 7, 2016 London Au Revoir Chriselle, Lunch with Stuart and a Pub Quiz and Curry Supper at Ealing Cricket Club             It is still a novelty to wake up in this gorgeous flat. It is also a novelty to wake up with company\u2014albeit Chriselle\u2019s. It is grand to have another human presence in… <\/p>\n

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