Annie and Tim arrived by Eurostar last Sunday, late afternoon, but I need to backtrack to the previous Thursday evening when they contacted us from Paris. They had arrived there earlier that day and, from their room with a view of the Eiffel Tower, Tim had presented Annie with an engagement ring. On Friday, Katie, Meg, and Korey were also in Paris and were able to celebrate with them, and my brother John, who just happened to be traveling in France as well, met up with them on Sunday morning. I'm sure this wasn't exactly how Tim had envisioned their few days there, but he was very gracious. As it was their news to share, we had to keep mum until they had talked to Tim's parents, my dad, and a few others before they were ready to make it public, which didn't happen until Monday. We celebrated their engagement and their arrival in London with a nice dinner at a restaurant called Black and Blue.

On Monday, I made breakfast for Annie and Tim before they went off to explore London. Katie arrived by Eurostar that afternoon and, after meeting her train at St. Pancras Station, we went to the airbnb flat I had rented for the kids. It happened to be in the same building as our flat. Katie, Gord, and I shared some wine and cheese at our flat before heading to Soho where we met Annie and Tim and Brea and her mom Cathy who was visiting from Hamilton, Ontario. We had reservations at Poppie's, a fish and chips restaurant with bright orange formica countertops and other 70s decor. It was originally the 2i's, a coffee house and later performance venue for early British rock 'n' roll.

This was on the wall so we pushed it, and eventually they brought us some.

Our server wanted to get in the photo, too.

After dinner, Gord took us on a walking tour of Soho. Tim and Annie very quickly recreated the Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory album cover, although it was nighttime and they weren't in exactly the right spot in the street.

On Tuesday, Gord, Tim and Annie left early by train for Bletchley to the Marshall Amplification factory for a private tour that Tim had arranged. Later they went to the British Museum. I met Cathy at St. Pancras and brought her back to the flat. Gord texted me that Annie said there was barely any water coming out of the showerhead at their flat and that the water was cold. Katie confirmed this when I saw her. I texted back and forth with the landlord who had someone go look at it. (Later, the kids said someone had definitely been there looking at it, as evidenced by the dirty footprints on the bath mat, but the water continued to be a lukewarm trickle at best. Annie opted to use our shower for the duration of their stay, but we also ran out of hot water, finding out that there is a timer on the water heater and there is no hot water after a certain time in the morning.)

Katie, Cathy and I headed by bus to the Tate Modern and the exhibition The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection. I thoroughly enjoyed this show, and not just because it was Elton John's collection. It was organized by theme in six galleries and explained the connections that modernist photography had with the changes going on in the art world, the dadaists and surrealists, but also what was going on in the world in general, war, depression, social change. The photos are in the frames in which Elton John has them in his home. Some of the frames were incredibly beautiful and all of them enhanced the art. There was a short video of Elton John in his home talking about his collection, and the photos are all around him from floor to ceiling, occupying every space. After we finished with the ticketed exhibition, we had a light lunch at one of their cafes and then wandered through much of the permanent collection until we could absorb no more.

You could step inside a booth and have your photo taken with one of three screens.

We had to visit the Louise Bourgeois galleries.

From the Tate we walked to Borough Market a bit, but I think we were still recovering from the museum and couldn't focus. We decided to go up to Liverpool Street and to Spitalfields Market to shop. I bought another pair of slippers, sheepskin this time, ones without a heel that I can wear in the flat. I don't believe Katie and Cathy bought anything. We stopped for tea at Patisserie Valerie and then went home. Meg and Korey arrived on the Eurostar from Paris at 6:30. Gord met their train while I ordered Indian takeout from Holy Cow. Brea and Marty came over after they finished work and the ten of us spent a pleasant, relaxed evening at the flat.

On Wednesday, Gord headed to class and I met Cathy at the train station again. The shower issues continued at the kids' flat. The kids went off to the Tower of London and Cathy and I went to Leicester Square where we purchased tickets for the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime for tonight. Cathy and I wanted to have salad for lunch and thought that a restaurant with the name Slug and Lettuce would do the trick. It didn't. It was a pub, but we did get a tomato and a little lettuce on our sandwiches. From there we walked to the Halcyon Gallery because I thought Cathy would enjoy seeing the Bob Dylan show. I noticed that some of the paintings were new and weren't hanging when I was here before. I confirmed with an employee that it wasn't my imagination. When a painting is sold, they replace it with others. There were a number of paintings with orange sold stickers still hanging, so I could probably go back there this week and see even more new pieces.

I loved the title of this one.

Nowhere and Anywhere

Late in the Day, Houston Street

Cathy and I then walked to Oxford Street, on a hunt for plain buttons and a coffee cone. This proved more difficult than we thought. We found lots of buttons, of every variety and color except clear ones, first at Marks and Spencer, then at John Lewis, and finally we were directed to MacCulloch & Wallis on Poland St. (a very cool fabric/haberdashery store) where Cathy found the perfect buttons (except they turned out to be too big). No coffee cone, however.

We met everyone at Franca Manco for a nice dinner and then walked to the play. I had seen it in New York last January with my sister Carole, but nobody else had seen it. I was still as impressed with the set and the demanding lead role as I was the first time. I haven't read the book upon which it is based, but I heard someone behind me saying to his companion that it followed it closely.

Thursday morning, Gord took Tim and Korey for a tour of Denmark Street, before he went off to the Skidmore Thanksgiving lunch and they continued on to the Churchill War Rooms. I met Cathy at the train station and went back to the flat to meet the girls. I had booked an appointment at Angelica Bridal in Islington, so that Annie could share the experience with her sisters and me. Brea was able to get there to see three of the dresses before she had to run back to work. Annie must have tried on eight or nine dresses and every one of them looked beautiful. But there were three standouts that everyone seemed to like (we would have made very boring guests on "Say Yes to the Dress"). It turns out that they were all by the same designer (and I later confirmed that designer is represented in the US). Anyway, we had a lot of fun and I think Annie now has a sense of what style dress she prefers.

We walked around Islington, had lunch at The Blue Legume, Cathy found her coffee cone!, and I bought some meringues at Ottolenghi. We then took the subway to Camden, and walked to North Bridge House, the school the girls attended for four months in 1996.

We then took two buses to Swiss Cottage and Buckland Crescent, the street on which we lived.

Then we took our tired feet on a relaxing subway ride to Stratford in East London for our non-traditional Thanksgiving celebration. Stratford is the location of  the 2012 Olympic Park. We met everyone on the car park rooftop of the Stratford Westfield mall. It was converted into a bar, with a DJ, and a couple of food stalls, but we came for the curling and the karaoke cabins that I had prebooked.

It was a lot of fun, but the night was still young when our allotted time was up at 8:30. So we took the underground to Soho and ended up at Ronnie Scott's and heard part of their Thursday night W3 Jam Sessions. The band was really good, but it was very hot and crowded in their upstairs space, so we only stayed for one set.

We said good-bye to Marty, Brea, and Cathy for the night and headed home. Meg and Korey came back to our flat for awhile and had some Holy Cow leftovers.

On Friday morning, Annie and Tim went off on their own. Katie, Cathy, Korey, Meg, and I walked the Regent's Canal towpath to Camden, where we got some food from some of the dozens of street food vendors. We also did a little shopping before Korey and Meg went off to check out some pubs and Katie, Cathy, and I took the subway down  to Embankment. We met up with Gord, Annie, and Tim for the In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes walking tour led by Corinna. It was pretty good and she was a piece of work, a bit actress who managed to slip in occasional references to "telly" shows she has been in and one series that was starting that night. She certainly knew her Sherlock Holmes stories well and had excellent elocution. We had some time before our dinner reservations. Annie and Tim went off on their own again and Katie, Cathy, Gord, and I went to Paul's for tea and to warm up. We then wandered around the outdoor stalls at Covent Garden where Katie found a couple of small prints.

Everyone met up for dinner at Polpo on Maiden Lane, good small plates, and then we went to the Covent Garden Comedy Club where we heard three standup comics of varying talent. I think we all agreed that the compere was the funniest and that we could have done without the second guy. I was confused because I was pretty sure I had read that one of them was a Canadian who now lives in the UK, but the one who bombed was Australian and the other two sounded British. (I researched it while writing this entry and Tom Stade, the Canadian, was definitely on the lineup for that night. I didn't catch the name of the first comedian we saw and it kind of looks like him, but not exactly, so I'm still not sure. I've put the question out to the other nine people and will update this entry should I get confirmation).

From the comedy club we walked over to Gordon's Wine Bar on Villiers Street, a 19th century bar (London's oldest) with cool, very low vaulted ceilings in the cellar. It was packed with people so all we could do was have a look and take a photo of Gordon next to the sign.

We then walked across one of the Golden Jubilee footbridges at the Embankment station, and took in the view of Big Ben and the London Eye. There was a Christmas market on the Southbank as well as a roller skating rink. We walked around a bit, but it was cold and we didn't stay long.

On Saturday, Korey went off to the England v Argentina rugby game in Twickenham. Katie, Tim, Annie, Meg, Gord, and I walked to the Rocket pub for breakfast. We then went to Notting Hill and the Portobello Market, and Cathy and Brea met us there.

We stopped in at the Earl of Lonsdale, a strange little pub with the smallest doorways connecting different sections of the place. You had to crawl under them to reach the toilets.

We shopped longer than we planned. Gord and I found some soup spoons that matched our silverware and Meg found a couple of things. I don't think anyone else bought anything. We stopped at the flat and then walked to the Angel to meet Marty, Korey, Annie, and Tim. I tried to get us in to Bibigo, the Korean restaurant, but they couldn't take us. I wasn't surprised, since we were a party of ten and hadn't prebooked it. We ended up at Thai Square where they managed to fit us in. We hung out in our flat after walking home, drank some English sparkling wine, and booked airport transportation for tomorrow morning. Meg took a few things to pack in her suitcase and bring home for me and Katie took a few books.

The first car left for Heathrow Airport with Katie, Meg, and Korey this morning at 8:45. At noon the second one took Annie and Tim. We had such a great time with everyone and it was sad to see them leave, but at least we get to see them all again in a few weeks.


Update: On Friday I got a text thanking me (for the second time) for my blood donation and telling me that it has now been issued to Ealing Hospital. How nice. I'm pretty sure that will be the end of the trail and that they won't text me with the name of the person who received my donation.


Reading: Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson