Tea for Two

Andipa Gallery

Andy Warhol print to buy at Harrods
for 90,000 pounds

The tea room

Our tiers

The happy champagne drinkers

Those famous green bags
full of goodies

Arrive in South Kensington and am impressed from the start with Michellen Building.  The Stella McCartney doorman greets me like an old friend however I decide not to buy the 800 pound shirt, but am sorely tempted by the colourful cropped flower pants, a steal at 900 pounds. Mini coopers are zipping around everywhere it must be the car to drive if you are from this area.

Walton St is full of eclectic shops from contemporary art galleries to babies clothes. Lots of amazing design, colours and ideas.

Time for a change of pace onto the 4D Apollo experience at the science museum. 1, 2, 3 lift off I ride a Saturn V rocket to the moon, the take off is quite a blast. On the way back to the main objective I cannot resist a peak into the V & A.

Then short walk up the road to Harrods! This year’s sale thankfully does not start till Saturday, its still crowded but not sardines like last year. Starting with the chocolates I wind my way through so many departments, ending in my favourite, the pet area. There are no lions for sale today, just two puggles and four guinea pigs, a lady at the counter getting a jacket for her Chihuahua and 4 Bichon Frise’s getting a hair cut.

As evening approaches its time to sit down and wait for Jane to arrive for the main event of the day. Afternoon tea at Harrods!

The decadent eat fest begins, sandwiches with lobster, salmon, egg and things I have no idea about. Scones with strawberry and rose petal jam and extra cream. We celebrate Sue and Aunty Betty’s birthday in style chat about the upcoming trip to Italy. A plan is hatched for midsummers day that Sue will either love or hate. We will see. Finally we devour some of the little delicate cakes at the top of the tier. But we cant fit them all in. We are the last ones to leave but there is still time to do some more shopping.

Onwards to home, its late for me, but London is still packed with people. We arrive at Lewisham and have so many shopping bags we need to get a black cab. Yes, the final London transport option that I had not been on, tick.

Roman London

Paleys Upon Pilers

Malta Memorial

Roman flooring

The Leaky Cauldron

One of the many examples in
Postman's Park

Shard to St Paul's
form One New Terrace

Armed with my trusty google map I set off to find some well known and not so well known London landmarks. Alighting at Aldgate the first is a new wooden sculpture to commerate the poet, Geoffrey Chaucer and mark the traditional eastern entrance to the city in Roman times.

Next with a glimpse of the Tower of London I find the church, All Hallows by the Tower where Samuel Pepys watched the Great Fire of London from the steeple. This church has one of the best preserved Roman floors in London dating from the 2^nd century. Then a memorial to the people of Malta for their heroic service in WW2.

Now its an uphill walk to Leadenhall Market that dates back to the 14^th century and was originally a meat, poultry and game market. Nowadays it is used on lots of movies and I find the important entrance to the Leaky Cauldron from the Harry Potter movies.

So far my navigation is going well, onto the London Stone. Like everything in London there are lots of stories about it, maybe it dates to the 12^th century, maybe not. Either way it is very underwhelming now set in front of a boring concrete building from 1962.

Walking around the city of London one of the best bits is the contrast between old decorative buildings and modern skyscrapers.

Final stop this morning for me is Postman’sPark a memorial to heroic self service, an oasis of green amongst the towering office buildings. A check of my trusty London Tube app and its time to navigate to South Kensington.  

A day by the Thames

My first mudlarking find, a bone

The fossil

Painted Hall

Christopher Wren designed building

Staircase in the Queen's Gallery

A party from his Majesties ships Resolution (Cook's)
and Discovery shooting sea-horses by John Webber 

Liberty entrance to chocolate shop

Piccadilly Circus

Chatting with Rosco on Skype

Today the plan is to spend some more time at Greenwich, we did not fit it all in last year. Greenwich is pretty close to home so I arrive with time to spare before everything opens and walk down to the Thames. OMG the tide is out, time to try out mudlarking. My first find is a bone, my next is a fossil, then some clay pipe. Totally ecstatic!

Now time to explore the Painted Hall. These magnificent naval scenes took 19 years to paint. Thornbill’s work was recently restored and years of muck from the sailors using the hall for meals was removed. The place positively shone today.

I descend the stairs into the undercroft, used in recent James Bond movie, Skyfall and go through the tunnel to the undercroft on the other side and up to the chapel. Over to the National Maritime Museum next to see Nelson’s coat he was wearing when he died (yesterday I saw the bullet that killed him). Chatted to Thomas the guide that showed us Pluto through the 16^th century telescope last year.

Time for some Captain Cook spotting. Alas Cook’s portrait is in storage. Darn, will have to try again another time. On this day in 1778 Cook was in Australia and ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. Over in the Queens Gallery are some portraits from his second and third voyage with a fascinating one of shooting seahorses (walruses). Most of England do not share my obsession with Cook, very sad.

The next mission is to find Queen Elizabeth’s Oak where legend says she used to sit in the shade and Henry VIII and Anne Boyle used to hang out here too. So I start off through the park in the general direction. The squirrels follow me and scamper around as I go and up and down dale in search of the oak. What’s this a Time Team Romano-Celtic site. So cool. Give up on the oak and head for the top of the hill. Lo and behold here is the oak, looking a bit forlorn and surrounded by a fence.

There is still some life in my weary legs so I jump on the train to the shops. Starting on Totternham Court Road, the place is packed. Turn into Regent St and it’s a different story, police and massive riot squad vans everywhere. It turns out the police did a raid in Beak St of some of the protestors for next weeks G8 summit. Glad we will not be in London next week when that is on. On automatic pilot my legs take me to the National Gallery, its like a beacon in the dark to escape the rain and the weight of all my shopping. Some book shopping and then home.

My first castle

Me and Windsor Castle

Changing of the Guard

Another friend

Windsor town

Eton

Silly boys in suits

The cake Jane baked me

 It’s a balmy 10 degrees as I head out the door. Welcome to Summer. Two squirrels scamper along as I head to the train. Windsor Castle is my destination today, so that involves navigating the peak hour rush at Waterloo Station. Very impressed with all the people moving so fast, Waterloo makes Wynyard look very small.

After the obligatory security check, Prince Charles greets me on the audio tour as if he personally knows me. I don’t know how they he does that tone but it works. Its cold and blustery here today, perfect weather for castle exploring.

10 centuries of history are before my eyes, the turrets, arrow windows, stone work of all different types. Its easy to imagine this was one a defensive fort.

The crowds start to gather for the changing of the guard. The guards look amazing in their chocolate box outfits in red and gold but I would not want to tussle with them as their guns look pretty mean. The band knows how to whip the crowd up into a frenzy.

Next is St George’s Chapel, as you enter the gothic ceiling towers above you. The windows are so big you can’t see how the walls stay upright. Seeing where all the kings and queens are buried is like stepping back in time. Sculptures of each king and queen lay on top of their graves. Their features are so life like and peaceful in marble. It’s a pity you can’t take any photos but in some ways makes the overall experience more powerful and the beauty is burned into your mind instead.

Now into the room for the Order of the Garter, founded in 1348 and the oldest order for chivalry in the world. I ask if there are any Australian’s and am shown Sir Ninian Stephens spot with a king parrot on his helmet and wattle and thistle on his banner. The thistle represents that he was born in Scotland.

Now to join, the long, long, long line to see Queen Mary’s doll house. Americans complain loudly that the lines are longer than Disneyland. Some people abandon the line, I wait it out. Finally I get inside the building out of the cold and then wait some more. Then into a darkened  room, I first see all the cars lined up in the garage, then the rooms start to appear. Each room is exquisite a showcase of the best of British design at the time (1924) including an electric vacuum cleaner in the maids room. The toilets flush, the lights are electric, some of the paintings are copies of original works of art redone in miniature by the original artist. There is even a valuables room to secure the miniature crown jewels. Walking around every side of this exquisite construction is an experience I will never forget.

Shuffling along with the rest of the crowds its time to now be awed by the state rooms, without any photos to share with you I could write a book about how impressive each room is. A couple of the highlights for me.

Being blown away by the Waterloo Chamber, its was built to celebrate the success of the forces at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The large room is surrounded by portraits of major people in the battle all done by Sir Thomas Lawrence. As the portraits are all done by one person they create a harmony in the room. This room screams don’t mess with us we win battles.

Glancing into a small glass case and seeing the bullet that killed Nelson. These guys sure know how to do history. The life size marble statue of Queen Victoria has her favourite dog, Sharp sitting at her side, wrapped in amongst the folds of her dress.

So overall its pretty obvious to all where the “Great” in Great Britian comes from.

After checking out the rest of Windsor town, I make the trek over the Thames. In my Aunty Betty’s diary she comments “Eton boys in morning suits looked ridiculous” and she was right. They are everywhere around the streets and the tourists are secretly taking photos of them and the boys know it. The teachers with their white bow ties look even sillier.

Home late for a yummy dinner with Jane, lightly dusted haddock and vegetables, my favourite London meal.

Giddy at the gardens

This tale starts 18 years ago at 66 Clarence St where Amanda B is yet again regaling me with the places she has visited over her massive managers desk on Level 4.  She has lugged in an exquisite book with photos of Sissinghurst Castle Garden, a beautiful garden with a fascinating past in Kent. Today I stand in this garden and see first hand the beauty, symmetry and creativeness.

Sissinghurst started out as pig farm in the Saxon times, moved onto a manor house, then in the 16^th century was rebuilt into a much more luxurious house and tower. By the 1930’s the house and garden where nearly derelict and Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West set about rebuilding the garden into what we enjoy today.

Our first assault is to climb the 67 steps to the top of the tower and stand in the bitter wind to see the layout of the whole garden beneath us. The white garden, cottage garden, meadow, moat and buildings so much to explore. We are giddy with excitement and race back down the stairs to explore every possible nook and cranny of the garden. Between us we take 399 photos.

Hello London

A sunny day welcomes me to London and we take to the buses. First stop is Notting Hill and the famous markets along Portabello Road. Amongst silver tea pots, old cameras and food stalls I find a beautiful pashmina scarf to start our shopping spree. Next Jane finds another cow shaped milk pourer for her collection.

Is that Hugh Grant in front of us? Alas not, but we do find the shop that he works at in the movie Notting Hill. There are masses of people enjoying the sunshine, shopping and all types of food.

We now find the famous blue door from the Notting Hill movie and do the obligatory tourist photo. We are getting a bit hungry and find a pub called The Elgin for lunch. This reminds me of Chez Elgin, my home in Melbourne.

Our next mission is to follow my google map and seek a Banksy. Down one street, up another, cross over here, beautiful houses everywhere. But we never seem to get closer to our quarry. Cross back to Portabello Road and then find the right street. Start along the Acklam Street there is art everywhere, a live band playing, kids in a skate park playing but no Banksy. We turn around and retrace our steps, then low and behold Jane spots it, Graffitti Painter protected by Perspex and surrounded by other interesting pieces. Yes, my first real Banksy in the wild.

Its so sunny we hop on another bus and end up in Belgravia. First we find the shop where Beatrice and Eugene buy their hats and then a dog and cat outfitters. The house of Vivien Leigh, one of my favourite actors is down a side street. We could keep going on for hours. Alas it is time to head for Ladywell Lodge. Into the tube we descend and are whisked towards home within minutes. On the tube we are standing with all the other Saturday shoppers. A seat comes free and this young 30 year old girl offers me the seat, I am so exhausted I take it. Now I really am feeling old.

The journey over

On the plane 

My first Dubai friend

The top 5 books in Dubai today

Heathrow

The plane starts filling up with everyone jostling bags, pillows and travelling paraphernalia. But the seat between me and my new friend Rachel is empty. We hold our breath, the last few stragglers arrive and then the captain announces to close the doors.  We raise our arms in the air and cheer as we have an empty seat between us! The only empty seat on the whole plane.

Its 15 hours to Dubai as we approach its dark, there is a coastline, lots of oil tankers and big lines of lights going straight out into the water, maybe they are oil pipelines? Now lots of big areas of dark empty spaces and then pockets of lights. Towns in amongst desert? Then long, straight highways packed with cars all leading to Dubai, its 12:30pm at night. Where are all these people going? My first impression of Dubai is it looks like Las Vegas, all the coloured lights on the big buildings glowing in the dark. On the way out of Dubai we see a massive building twinkling in the dark, assume this is Burj Khalifa. Can I now say I have been to the Middle East if I spend 25 minutes in the airport terminal?

The plane settles down for the final leg to London. I crash out till we are over Romania and 2 hours out from London. After landing we whiz through customs and bag check and then into the welcoming arms of my London family.