london: week six

The quote of week 6 is “This bar is for women with a past who want to meet men with no future.”  The bar being referenced is where we had lunch ahead of the Chelsea vs Newcastle soccer match last weekend. We were lucky enough to get tickets to the game from our former neighbors Sharon and Mark who previously lived in London for ten years. And, we were also very happy to have been connected to new friends and fellow water polo parents JP and Emma through Liz and Jack from Los Altos. JP is an American and Emma is English and, while my husband and her husband talked about the Premier League, she and I had some thoughtful, high energy discussions about both American and English politics. She encouraged me extend our stay in London in order to avoid American election anxiety but she was also having serious angst about the UK budget, housing prices and job opportunities. I am looking forward to continuing this passionate exchange over WhatsApp.

This post is may be challenging to follow because there are so many names but try to stick with me. I’ve already mentioned six names and I have several more to go. We went to the Chelsea game with our friend Amy from North Carolina and her daughter Phoebe who is doing her freshman year in London through Northeastern University. We were warned by a few Londoners that the game would be loud and obnoxious but we saw none of that. At Premier League games, you are not allowed to drink in your seats. So, people certainly had drinks ahead of the game and promptly left at half time to get more drinks but we observed very little drunken behavior. We thought it was entirely civilized and polite (like almost everything here.) No one was eating in the seats and there was almost no trash on the ground at the end of the game. The game started at 2 pm, ended just after 4 pm and we took the tube there and back. Of yeah, I almost forgot to mention, Chelsea won 2 to 1. 

This week, we also spent time with our Bay Area friends Sharon and Ed who have a flat in Belsize Park and are here visiting Sharon’s family and friends. Sharon has provided a wealth of information about British culture. Beyond introducing us to Ribena, helping us locate the best London bagel, strongly encouraging us to avoid Mexican food in London and explaining British Jewish culture, she was the impetus for us to go and see “ABBA Voyage.” This 90-minute show features digital avatars of ABBA as they were in their prime in the 1970’s. It is selling out week after week and the tickets are not cheap. 

While there is a live band, you spend much of the show focusing on the images on stage and repeatedly thinking four things: (1) They look so real. (2) Why am I applauding? (3) This is making someone a ton of money. (4) Which acts will do this next? At the very end of the show, digital avatars of ABBA as they look now (almost 50 years later) come on stage and my husband reacted to them by saying, “I can’t believe they have to stay in London for the duration of this show!” That’s how real they look. You know they are not real and then you keep second guessing yourself. If you are interested in the economics, this article has some good info.

Based on recommendations from several people, we decided to schedule in some “real” arts and culture and went to the Wallace Collection and the National Portrait Gallery. The Wallace Collection is meant to be a “smaller” museum but it is two, packed floors of a giant mansion situated in the middle of Marylebone. I have to pass on Megan’s Aunt Eileen’s recommendation in her exact words because it really hooked me: “What’s really cool is that they put in a courtyard restaurant in the middle of the mansion that feels like West Palm Beach – the pink walls juxtaposed against the rest of the building and the art collection is kind of wild.” We highly recommend a visit to the Wallace Collection – they have an excellent audio guide, free admission and an impressive, extensive collection of paintings, sculptures, furniture, arms and armor and porcelain.

In addition to these two museums, our former neighbors from SF and now long-time Brooklyn residents, Devera and Michael, made sure to get us to a play at the National Theatre. We saw “The Other Place,”  a very dark, modern take on “Antigone,” featuring several well known British actors. The acting was excellent but the play was disturbing. We originally met Devera and Michael in 1999, right after our son was born and they have since been clutch with babysitting our kids when they were little and being a landing pad for them when they have each been stranded by delayed or canceled flights in the NY area. They are part of the inspiration for these fall experiments because in 2001, they picked up and moved to New York City and have not looked back. After living in the UES, UWS, Union Square, and NoHo, they are rooted in Brooklyn and spend a month every winter in Rome.

We rounded out the week with a failed attempt to experience a Sunday Roast because we were unaware that this traditional meal is only served at lunch and we showed up at dinner time. We finished up our 6-week padel clinic and started investigating ways to play in the Bay Area: anyone up for learning padel in Sunnyvale or in South SF? We had some notable casual food: outstanding chicken parmesan at Grasso on Dean St. in SoHo and amazing smashburgers, chips and fresh-baked cookies at Junk on Old Compton Rd., located directly next door to “The Grand Dame of Queer Street,” Comptons Soho. We expected to round out our last week by seeing a few more exhibits, neighborhoods and restaurants but instead our London experiment ended in a late night blur that I cannot wait to tell you about.

And, for Mallory, one photo of us while visiting Greenwich: