Luxury in London

  London, United Kingdom
Thursday, September 27, 2007

Back into London from Fes via Luton, a new experience for both of us and because we were staying in London this time, we flagged the rental car and opted to bus into Victoria and then tube to Fulham Broadway. We were very generously given a flat "to keep warm" by Jen's friend Julian which was a real bonus as we had not expected to be able to spend so long in London. Thank you Julian - we lived in luxury!
 
Our first night was out at the theatre with Fiona and Jake, and although we arrived a bit late due to tube delays (which became a feature of our time in London) we did enjoy "Boeing Boeing". This was an older comedy being redone, about a chap in Paris who has 3 air hostesses each believing their sole rights to him, as he juggles the airlines timetable, and inevitably has a major clash.

On Saturday we enjoyed a meal with Julian and Isabella at Le Columbier restaurant, and at the end Brian enjoyed picking  the red rose from the table for Jen right under the stuck up nose of our waiter.

Sunday was Henry Moore at Kew Gardens, a

Henry Moores "Draped Reclining Woman"

display of 28 Henry Moore sculptures, with some dating from the 1960s when his work was very controversial.

Henry Moore's "Double Oval"

We were so impressed that we bought the commemorative book with some great pix. Then an evening with Anne, Jen's Mum, in Epsom after a short stopover at a pub near Victoria to see part of the A/Bs vs Scotland.

Melvyn cooked us a superb dinner on another night, but Paul was out in India in his capacity of festival director, planning to organise a music festival over there. The next time we see them will be when Melvyn plays at the Wellington Arts Festival in March.
 
The next few days we kept busy enough with some retail in Kingston when we met Catherine and Grayson again to catch up over coffee, and a walk down Knightsbridge and Sloane Street (without retail). We were both a bit sluggish with Morocco belly and URTI. We didn't feel any need to do any tourist thing as we had both lived in London before, but would love to spend more time checking out theatre and shows recommended in "Time Out".
 
Our London experience ended with a trip to Stanstead via tube and express with the usual delays and congestion, and our traveltime to Vienna intobecame a 9 hour journey, although the flight itself was only 2 hours.

Whilst we were in London we were so sorry to hear from Gary the awful news of a break in and murder in Kenya. Though so recently we had all been together in Morocco, that now seemed a distant and almost improbable memory in the light of these events. We record our distress, and empathy with Gary, Joy and the Olivado family.