london: week five

Week five was awash with guests from New York, Boston and the Bay Area. Our friends from New York, Julie and David, arrived during week four and stayed through week 5. The impetus for their trip was for Julie to attend “The Sourdough School” – a 2-day intimate class with Dr. Kimball at her home in Northamptonshire where she teaches “Baking as a Lifestyle Medicine (BALM).” I was fascinated to hear about what Julie learned at her workshop and was over the moon to be the recipient of two gorgeous (and scrumptious) sourdough rounds. I have almost finished eating one and the second is waiting for me in the freezer. 

Ahead of the sourdough class, we went with Julie and David to the Cotswolds for one night. The countryside was beautiful but very chilly and, if we had a do-over, we would rather visit this area in the summer or early fall. Many of the other guests at our hotel had their dogs with them which made me miss my Moose even more. Speaking of dogs, our observation is that English dogs are ridiculously well trained and obedient. Many people “walk” their dogs by having their dog follow them off leash. We also saw someone riding a bike in Hyde Park who had his small, fluffy dog follow along using voice commands. I can only speak for Northern California dog norms, but this is not our usual protocol. 

This week, our friends Bryan and Troy arrived from Boston for a 5-day stay. While they were here, we went to see “Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John & David Furnish Photography Collection” at the Victoria & Albert museum in South Kensington. This was the best exhibition we have seen so far. Bryan and Troy designed their visit around seeing Dua Lipa at Royal Albert Hall. They bought their tickets about six months ago and my husband and I opted out of the concert because the seats were too pricey. The guys went to the venue early, overheard Elton John warming up and sent us a text. An hour ahead of show time, we bought last minute tickets online for a fraction of the original price and rushed over to the concert while simultaneously downloading our tickets.

Turns out, our seats were amazing and arrived with plenty of time to spare. Dua Lipa performed for about 90 minutes with a 53-piece orchestra, 14-person choir and her seven-piece band. Elton John did come on stage to perform “Cold Heart” with Dua Lipa and stood right in front of our section – so close that we could see his “hair.” The show was filmed to air on television sometime in the near future so there were cameras all over the stadium. One cameraman consistently came into our section and shoved his camera into several peoples faces – including a mother and her adult daughter right in front of me, a cute pre teen girl just behind me and two 20-somethings directly across the aisle from us. Plus, I watched him film several other people in our section and the adjacent sections – some in our age group! After he came and went THREE times during the show, I felt pretty deflated. There is no way I can talk myself out of the fact that the cameraman actively chose to avoid us multiple times for being unworthy of tv cameos. If you happen to watch the concert, please look out for my “mom arm” which Bryan said he could see from his seats across the stage and let me know if it was camera ready or not. It’s worth noting that Bryan and Troy were happy we came but weren’t thrilled that we had essentially the same tickets but paid a lot less than they did. 

Other than the camera man shaming, it was a magical night for us because this is exactly why we do these experiments. It gets us out of our comfort zone and creates opportunities to do things we don’t normally do. Not that we don’t ever go to concerts but it is really rare for us to pick up an hour ahead of an event, attempt to get tickets and tackle the transportation challenges that come with big events. 

While both couples were visiting, we did a lot of shopping and tried several new restaurants. My week five fashion observation is that the Wallabee is making a strong comeback. It is not in exactly the same form as the first time it was popular in the 1970’s and now looks slightly more refined. Check out examples here and here. I did find a women’s version of this style as well as endless versions of loafers – chunky, flat, with tassels, platform – and in every color.

It was a serious week for notable restaurants, including The River Cafe at the Thames Wharf, Park Chinois in Mayfair, Gold in Notting Hill, Kerridges Bar and Grill at the Corinthia Hotel, and The Delaunay in Covent Garden. On their last night here, we had dinner with Bryan and Troy and friends of theirs, Michael and Francoise: this dinner fulfilled a personal fantasy of mine of being the solo gal at a dinner with five well dressed, successful, articulate men. An additional bonus was that one of them was French. 

My husband and I and all four of last week’s guests agreed that cocktails in England are much weaker than in the U.S. I know this is an unexpected comment coming from me considering I am a huge lightweight and a very part time drinker. Normally, I get a solid buzz off of one drink, but that is absolutely not the case here in London. Even though London is well known as a great place for cocktails, the alcohol in each drink is definitely less than what we are used to. I have gone down a fairly boring google rabbit hole on this topic and it looks like the issue is that the pours are smaller, there is a relatively new tax on liquor that has higher than 4% alcohol by volume and, yada yada, just order a double or a pint!

We continue to marvel at how many people stand outside pubs, drinking beer in the cold and rain, Monday through Saturday from 3 pm to closing time. We are also regularly surprised by how the weather app will say 0% chance of rain and then it rains on and off all day, and yet we still often talk ourselves out of bringing an umbrella. Finally (and less surprising), we have realized that we overpacked and will have a tough time squeezing back into our suitcases in less than two weeks.