National Theatre, Sept 20.

 Sept 20

    Today we started early and met Maura at Charing Cross. We exchanged the last of our non-legal tender with Maura at her bank. Then, we walked to St Martin's in the Fields and ate a wonderful lunch in the Crypt. (All three of us had tomato soups and salads.) The profits support the unsheltered.

   

    Then we walked across the Thames to the South Bank where we all had a coffee in the National Theatre's cafe. We had tickets (thanks to Maura) for a matinee in the Olivier Theatre for The Father and the Assassin." It was about the life of Gandhi's assassin which made it a play about the slide toward the brutal partition of India and Pakistan and the 2,000,000 lives that were lost.  Little is known about Nathuram Godse, the assassin, partly because Prime Minister Nehru banned his statement at his trial from publication. 

    The play was written by Anapama Chandrasekhar.  Despite its heavy theme, there was a great deal of humor and the fourth wall was broken on several occasions. 

   As expected from the National Theatre, it was a top-notch production in every way. The set was creative and mobile. The choreography of the actors on the set was impressive. With the lighting and shadowing, there were times when the actors realistically conjured up crowds of thousands.

   Interestingly, the play was directed by Indhu Rabasingham who directed the play about North Korea that we saw with Maura several years ago, The Great Wave."  

    The acting was superb all round, but especially by the lead, Hiran Abeysekera, who played the assassin. As one review wrote, he was "playful and wicked, inviting us to spend time with a murderer." Abeysekera played the lead in the Life of Pi at the National Theatre for which he won an Olivier Award. He covered every bit of the stage and acted from his childhood until his death by hanging. He and Gandhi meet in the afterlife as well. 

    It is also an interesting look at identity and gender. Godse was raised by his parents as a girl after the death of three sons. Godse eventually rebels and endeavors to become a boy, then a man.

     He gets swept up, first by Gandhi's idealistic vision and nonviolence (ahimsa), but later feels betrayed by that and then succumbs to the Hindu nationalistic movement, wanting to keep India for Hindus only. It is clear that the play is influenced by the current rise of nationalism which is captured chillingly in the play's conclusion when Godse turns to the audience and urges them to purify their language and enforce racial boundaries. Barbara and Maura did not like that Godse got the last word in the play, but Mark thought it was the only way to end it.  Maura and Barbara would have preferred that Gandhi have the last word.

   After that, we went to Pizza Express for a very good pizza.

Sept 18, 19 - Jazz with Cousins and a trip to the British Library

 Sept 19

From the Royal Opera House, looking down at Covent Garden

    We met Pete and Shirley at the Royal Opera House for a coffee. 

Royal Opera House

Cafe of Royal Opera House

What a gorgeous building in the midst of the hubbub of Covent Garden. Peaceful, beautiful, quiet. It was the perfect spot for a long chat - over 2 hours of chat!

    From there, we walked to Soho to the Ronnie Scott Jazz Club where we had dinner and saw Tim Garland and a band playing songs from Chick Corea. Jim Garland is a noted British saxophonist and band leader. The band paid tribute to Chick Corea, an American jazz composer who died in 2021. His music spanned the 1960s until his death and had played with Miles Davis in the late 60s. He was noted for the fusion of jazz with global music such as Brazilian music. Tim Garland played with him on several albums. The show was amazing. 2 guitars, saxophonist, keyboard player (Jason Rebello) and a drummer. The keyboardist has played with Sting and  Jeff Beck and Branford Marsalis, among others. They were so in synch with each other.  We especially liked a song that blended flamenco with jazz and a later piece of his called "Galaxy 32, Star 4." The audience especially liked a standard, "500 Miles High," which we did not know. Pete and Shirley are knowledgeable about jazz and had seen Tim Garland and the keyboardist before and have some of their albums.

    We had a convoluted ride home as the Piccadilly line had a long delay. I think we were on 4 tube lines before we got home. Mark has an infected and swollen big toe, so walking a long way is an issue; we tried hard to walk the shortest distances possible today.

Sept 20

    We tried to have a bit of a rest day, partly because we were out late last night and partly to spare Mark's foot. But, we still ended up walking about 4 miles, but we took it slowly and with rests. 

    We took "our" tube line (so, no changes) to St. Pancras and walked a block to the British Library.

One is St Mark and one is St Matthew

Old printing press

There, we perused the "Treasures Room" which is so manageable - they have displayed a lovely sampling of rare documents - maps, books, musical scores - from all over the world. We saw one of the Gutenberg Bibles, a Bible ordered by Henry VIII, rare copies of sacred texts of the world's major religions, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Folios of Shakespeare (all in one case). We saw a tiny Bible from St. Cuthbert. It is the oldest European Bible that is intact. It spent 400 years in the grave with Cuthbert.

The leather binding looked brand new...and it was from the 8th Century! We saw the world's oldest complete book - a rolled manuscript from China. There were some more recent additions such as documents from the Beatles and also Monty Python's script of the "Spanish Inquisition." 

"Spanish Inquisition" - Monty Python

   From there, we took the underground back to our neighborhood and walked down the Portobello Road and ate at Mia Mamma - again. (On Blenheim Crescent). We each had the same dishes we had last week - Barbara had eggplant and Mark had pizza. 

West Wickham Weekend, Sept 15-17

   Friday, 9/15

55 Goodhart Way

We left 70 Cambridge Gardens and took the underground to Charing Cross and then a train to West Wickham. It took about 2 hours, partly because of a delay on the train. Annie met us at the station and we had a lovely chat in the garden at 55 Goodhart Way. (Chris and Ken were out.) She told us all about her painting business and how happy she is doing it. Ken, Mark and Barbara went to pick 9-year-old Connor up at his primary school.

Ken, Barbara and Connor played some lawn tennis.

Barbara and Connor playing lawn tennis

From left: Connor, Adam, Lewis, Ewan

Eventually, a group gathered for a lovely dinner in the garden as the weather was beautiful.  

This included almost-16 Ewan, 14-year old Lewis, 11-year old Adam and 9-year old Connor. Also: Katrina, Walshie and Annie, plus, of course, Chris and Ken. 

Saturday 9/16

  Another gorgeous day. We had a lovely brunch at Katrina's house. It is the first time we have seen their new house. Katrina and Annie with help from Chris put on a big spread complete with bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, fruit, quiche etc. There were 12 of us, so a big job.

   In the afternoon, all the males, except Walshie, went to the Bromley football club to see a match, which Bromley won.

    Meanwhile, Chris, Barbara, Katrina and Annie went for a walk in the woods.

12 people eating fish and chips!

     We all ate at a fish and chip shop on the West Wickham High Street; it was excellent and a good time was had by all.

T

Sunday, Sept 17

The day started for us with Ken taking us to the football pitches where town leagues play. We watched Connor play on the Beckenham team in the 9 year-old group. He is easy to pick out as he's the tallest on the team.

Connor, "Player of the Match"

Connor did well and scored the first (and only goal) for his team. He got player of the match.

Connor, Ewan-at football match on Saturday in Bromley

Cousins in the woods

     Then we all converged to take the train into London. Four of us got on at West Wickham and the others got on at Eden Bridge. (Lewis and Walshie had gone for the day to a car racing track near Gatwick.) We got off on the south side of the Thames, but had to trek over to the other side to catch the river bus. It was quite a bit of walking. Just as we all boarded, it started to rain, but we were nicely inside.

Annette and Katrina making brunch on Saturday

     We got off at the completely renovated and repurposed Battersea Power Station. 

     By then, it was past lunch time and people were hungry. As none of us knew the layout or where there was a food court, it took a bit of time and discussion to figure out where to eat.  In the end, some of us went to a central arcade and ordered from a variety of places and others went to a burger joint. Afterwards, we wandered a bit into shops etc. We left around 4:30 and tried to find a bus home, but couldn't find the bus stop, so went by underground by a complicated route, but.....got back, footsore.

Ewan and Annette

The "gang" at Bromley Power Station

      Years ago, Mark gave Ewan a $5 and told him that, if he kept it till we returned, it would be doubled. When we saw him again, Mark said he would double it again and given a similar gift to Lewis. This time, both boys had their money which is quite amazing to have done, especially with Lewis having moved from one house to another. So, Mark paid both boys. Then, he gave dollar bills to the younger two - Adam and Connor with the same deal. 

London, Sept 13: Cousin and Comedy

 Sept 13

Chris and Clare in Crouch End

Another gorgeous day. We went to Crouch End via the underground and the 91 bus on a journey to see Cousin Clare and her husband, Chris. The driver on the bus did not know the Edison Road stop, so we got off too early and, with Clare's directions, got back on the next bus. The driver on that bus also did not know the Edison Road stop! But, we got off at it and, up the road, was Clare waving to us. We walked a short walk to her flat, a light-filled ground floor flat with access to a back garden. Clare works in the city 3 days a week and Chris works at home for a large food distribution charity, Felix. 

   We walked a very short distance to a nice Thai restaurant and then walked a bit around Crouch End, a part of London they love. Chris has season tickets to Arsenal and the stadium is within walking distance. He also follows hockey and there is a stadium for that, too. The center of Crouch End is very pretty. The two of them know a lot of history of the area. They told a story of Bob Dylan once seeking a man with whom he was going to record. He went to the wrong house of a man with the same name and the woman let him in to wait. She did not recognize Dylan. When her husband came home, he asked why Dylan was sitting in their parlor! Below is a photo of the oldest comedy place, also a pub.

     Crouch End also has what is supposed to be the oldest comedy venue in London in a beautiful pub. Dunns, a famous bakery, is also in Crouch End. And, Queen performed their first concert there; at the time they were known as "The Queen." Quite a few actors live in the neighborhood. The above photo shows where Queen first performed.

  

   We got a coffee at a local coffee shop and then we headed back to Ladbroke Grove to do a laundry. Then, we went into the West End to the Duchess Theatre to see "The Play that Went Wrong," a comedy which Jecca and family saw several years ago and recommended. We had to change trains as ours had delays and felt very pleased with outselves at figuring a new way out and still arriving early. The play is about community actors where everything in a play that could go wrong - does. We saw so many examples of things we have personally witnessed while directing young actors. The set completely falls apart in surprising ways. Characters are  knocked out by doors and are unceremoniously taken off stage on broken stretchers, through windows and stuffed into a grandfather clock. 

Actors forget their lines and mispronounce words like "facade" as "fack aad" and "cyanide" as "cy - a - needy." The acting was terrific with amazing timing and audience rapport. We befriended a young Spanish actor who moved to sit near us because the man next to her was crowding her and pressing against her leg. We walked out with her after the theatre had emptied.

Sept 14, Thursday.

    We have now been in England for a full week. We have eaten Japanese, Persian, Thai, French, Italian, and Turkish food! Wow.

Bird on the sconce

     Today we had a "neighborhood day" with beautiful weather - just a nice summer day with blue sky. We had a slow start which included a robin flying in the front window. We had to open up a large (locked) window and wait for the bird to find its way out, which it eventually did.

     Then we walked down Cambridge Gardens and strolled the Portobello Road with its shops etc. We had an iced coffee and later ate at Mia Mamma. Yum! Mark had a pizza with a very thin crust which he liked and Barbara had an eggplant dish which she loved. It was eggplant with a tomato confit and cheeses with a bottom of a pea sauce. Turns out the restaurant was visited by Stanley Tucci and a story ran about it on CNN. The owner wanted to start an Italian restaurant years ago and brought 3 Italian mamas with no professional culinary experience to work in the kitchen - hence, the name.