As you can see, it is prominently displayed just like his last book, Dancing Barefoot, was a couple weeks ago. Now, both books are displayed on the counter. Very nice.
I emailed him the new photos so that he knows how popular he is here and he was excited. I bought a copy and can't wait to read it. It's next in my reading pile, with top priority.
| Today's fabulous meal: Lunch at Itsu, 103 Wardour Street, Soho - wonderful Japanese-ish food served on a cute little conveyor belt in a non-smoking environment.
BTW, we saw Thunderbirds today. We loved it. It was directed by Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek: The Next Generation, my favorite tv show ever. Well, everyone who knows me knows I'm just a geek.
This afternoon we met Daniel-Ben Pienaar, whose version of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 is fabulous.
He's really nice as well as incredibly talented. He and John met about potentially releasing Book 2 of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, as well as possible other projects.
You can never have too much Bach!
I really miss my piano and harpsichords so it's important I get a small harpsichord asap.
 Today we went to Robert Morley Company in Lewisham. It was a half hour train ride from the Bank tube station and then an easy walk. They sell pianos but also make and sell harpsichords and clavichords and have several second-hand instruments available.
This is exactly what I was looking for. The woman there was incredibly nice and helpful. They had many virginals; I bought the green one on the left in the photo. It was built in 1980 and I felt that the touch and tone are superior to the earlier ones (from the 1960's) which are more piano-like (which harpsichords often were back then).
Someone said I should not go to Morley and that I'd be "better off with a kit." Whatever. Keep in mind that I'm not a professional harpsichordist, I just play for my own enjoyment.
Once we have a house and more space I'll get a double-manual custom extravaganza. For now, this particular instrument is as good as, if not even better than, my bentside spinet in Berkeley which, btw, was made from a kit.
More photos after it's been delivered.
Today, John took the train to Cambridge to buy a bow for his fabulous, new 7-string viola da gamba (photos coming soon). (I stayed in the flat, reading and listening to music; my usual routine.)
 He took the Tube to King's Cross station to catch the express train to Cambridge. His train was platform 9A and he noticed another conspicuous platform number nearby. Harry Potter was nowhere to be seen but you never know!
Today's fabulous dinner: Cafe des Amis, 14 Hanover Place, Covent Garden - a wonderful dinner, once again.
On the way home from dinner we stopped at Marks & Spencer to get sparking water (rant about that coming soon). While in the checkout line I bought yet another fabulous pair of cotton socks. For those of you who know me and continue not to pay attention; I wear cotton ankle socks all the time. Even with dresses. They are not easy to find, I rely completely on Land's End as my source in the U.S. Yet, here we are standing in line with 12 bottles of unflavoured sparkling water (rant about that coming soon) and there are lots of cotton socks, not only in white but in many fabulous beige-type colors. Brings a tear to my eye, it does.
 Today we took the Tube to Harrod's, the famously fabulous department store.
It is fabulous. It is enormous; it goes on and on and on with furniture, clothes, toys (we bought toys), 25 restaurants/eating places, zillions of departments with designer perfume, makeup, handbags, etc. It's the largest department store we've ever seen.
The toy department was huge and carried some of the wonderful toys we saw on our last trip to France. The food market is impressive, with amazing cakes, chocolate, cheeses, sandwiches, and much much more. The furniture department had the kind of astonishing formal things you'd see on Masterpiece Theatre, as well as lots of lovely modern design.
We rested in the Cafe Punch and had tea and scones. Very civilised!
With incredible selection and quality, it is definitely a "destination" and we will be shopping there in future. Oops, I forgot to look for plastic hangers. Next time!
 While waiting for our furniture to be delivered today, John and I explored the features on our Mac G5's. Apparently video chat is built in. It is amazing. The microphone is built into the webcam, so you can talk and see each other instantly. Wow, it's like we live in the future...
 A little after noon the furniture arrived. Sofas!
It wasn't nearly as bad as I was afraid it might me. The delivery men did say the street was too narrow to park the truck. I told them it was fine. Then they didn't want to carry it higher than the 2nd floor. I nicely told them they had to. So they did. Hmmm, that trick actually works. These are not the droids you're looking for... Move along...
 The base for the dining table didn't fit though the door to the building so they hauled it up through the old warehouse door next to the windows. Yikes! It wasn't heavy, just bulky. I tipped each of them because I was so grateful they went up the extra flight of stairs and lifted the table base up through the window. They were both very nice.
More photos once we're organised. After the camping chairs, I had forgotten how comfortable real furniture can be. Paradise.
Today's fabulous dinenr: Le Deuxieme, Covent Garden - exquisite in every way.
 
Guess what came today: our BT phone bill!
At last, we have a U.K. bank account and a mastercard is coming soon. Well, ok, I had to give them our U.S. bank statement. But I was so excited that they would accept a copy of our marriage certificate in order to add me to the account that I was willing to compromise. It still took all morning; lots of signing of forms and photocopying of passports, etc. But now we can pay our bills and rent and buy things in the store without having to call visa in the U.S. to unfreeze our credit card for the zillionth time.
We can also now get U.K. cellphones and satellite television. All from one little piece of paper with a £ due notice on it. Whatever!
We spent the rest of the day shopping for clothes for John, picked up his new glasses, lunching at EAT. Then we saw Around the World in 80 Days which we both thought was fabulous.
The photo at the top left is Marks & Spencer where we buy most of our groceries, and then a photo of the block walking home. Yes, it's people packed together as far as the eye can see. Welcome to Covent Garden!
BTW, the weather has really perked up. Sunny and low 70's the past few days after a month of chilly, grey and partly rainy days. Summer is here.
 Last night we went to Doris Lessing's house for dinner.
She is incredibly kind and is really fun to be with. Dinner was Nepalese (delivered) and very yummy. We really enjoyed the evening! BTW, her new book "Time Bites" is coming out in September in the U.K. Buy it!
 We took the Tube and it was a very easy journey. The Tube is truly amazing. It goes everywhere and switching lines to go another direction is generally very easy although it may include a walk through tiled tunnels and a long escalator ride up or down.
Last week, we each got an Oyster Card which is similar to Bart cards in San Francisco; you put money on the card and it gets deducted automatically for each trip. It's so much easier than buying a card each time we want to go somewhere, which is nearly every day. And no standing in line at the ticket machines.
With the Oyster Card, you don't put it through the turnstile slot like a ticket, you just pass it over the yello Oyster Card pad on top of each turnstile. We keep them in our shoulder bags and just plop the bag on the pad, the gates open immediately and the display tells you how much you've been charged. You can check your remaining balance at the ticket machines and add more money to the card whenever you like. Fabulous.
 I never thought I'd see the day, but we have abandoned our Windows PC's and switched to Apple Mac G5's.
Why? Hello! How many times has your pc frozen and needed a reboot today. Mine was getting so bad I had to reboot several times a day.
I've always found the pc religious wars to be obnoxious but now I see how they came about. The mac really is wonderful. The hardware is incredibly elegant but, more importantly, the software is even more elegant. All kinds of built-in stuff like manipulating photos, a calendar, iTunes iCalendar, etc. I can even sync my Sony Clie with it. The mac feels like a friend, whereas my pc felt like a naughty child that had to be coaxed into doing even simple things like bathing or even breathing.
We will have to keep our pc's around to run software that is not available on the mac. This turns out to be very few programs so our access to the hellish world of windows will be diminishing as time goes by.
The most difficult part of our living in London is the inability to get a bank account or a cell phone.
Each requires proof of residence in the form of a utility bill. A lease is not acceptable. I'm sure that makes sense as a restriction to the people who invented it but not to me (or the people at the bank). It's all because of September 11. Of course it is, isn't everything?
So, we had to wait over a week for the phone company to install our phone line and then they say they will send our first bill within 10 days. 10 days. OK. It should be here any minute now. Then we are running to the bank to open an account so we can get a U.K. credit card because the U.S. credit card company keeps freezing our card because we are buying things in the U.K. Dizzy yet? My head sure is spinning.
There's more. The bank also requires a bank statement from our account in the U.S.; an original not a photocopy (I knew there was something I forgot to pack!). Also, a utility bill from the U.S. An original, not a photocopy. That was the final straw for me. I suggested our California drivers licenses as evidence we are actually from the U.S. and the woman at the bank said ok. And there is no way I'm giving a copy of my U.S. bank account statement to anyone...
More later...
 This evening we attended a concert at The Barbican Center. It was great to see Nicholas McGegan, conductor of San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. We were invited by our friends Melanne and Simon of Avie Records, who are very good at filling up our calendar with delicious classical music events.
We ran into Nick before the concert and chatted a bit. He is a really, really nice guy. The concert was wonderful, truly amazing. Nick is the happiest conductor I've ever seen, he's smiles the whole time. He's fabulous.
The guest pianist did his best to ruin a Mozart Piano Concerto. He was technically perfect but musically incompetent. Also, he wrote the cadenza himself and it was a travesty; completely absurd. He looked very pleased with himself but since I had never heard of him before I suspect I never will.
However, for the Boccherini Cello Concerto the guest cellist, Natalie Clein, was incredible. She has wonderful presence and her playing is outstanding. She wrote her cadenzas too which were excellent. The pianist should take a few lessons from her.
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was the last piece and it was a blockbuster. The finale always gets me and this performance was truly remarkable. We enjoyed the evening very much. Thanks, Melanne, for inviting us!
BTW, saw "Sam" on the stairs today while looking for the mail. I didn't bug him as he appeared to be busy with guests.
 
At last, toys. Oh, and our glass workstations came today. It's nice to be able to work on the computer at a real desk instead of the camping tables.
We've been feeling toy deprived since we got here. So today I went on a quest for toys and these are so adorable they gave me the endorphin rush I was seeking.
Petal is a Sparkly Sprite. I found her at Benjamin Pollack's, an amazing toy store in Covent Garden Market. She looks as if she came with the apartment and immediately took to the giant wheel attached to the ceiling. Damn, those sprites are cute.
Willie the Mouse is musical. He sings a little song in tiny cartoonish voice, the words of which are incomprehensible except the word "tingle" is understandable and unbearably sweet. I found him at Peter Rabbit and Friends, also in Covent Garden Market. Another appealing quality for Willie is that he reminds me of Foamy Squirrel.
Today's fabulous meal: Microwavable dinners from Tesco, our local grocery store. I'm tired of sitting in a restaurant every night so we're eating at home for a while.
 Last night we saw our first London play, Democracy at the Wyndham Theatre. When I spoke with Doris Lessing last week it was the first play she suggested so we went. It was fabulous; the real thing. Great writing, great acting, great set, great experience.
This morning we waited for the phone company guy to activate our phone line. It took only about 15 minutes. At last we have a U.K. phone number and, more importantly, will shortly have the essential utility bill that one needs in order to open a bank account.
Yesterday the left bow on John's glasses snapped off so today we went to see if they could be fixed. We went to Eye Clinic on Regent Street. When we walked in the guy immediately spotted that John's glasses are Calvin Klein and that those particular frames are discontinued. So, John has new glasses. The service was amazingly friendly and they made his new glasses in about 1/2 hour. But now we don't have the same glasses anymore so we won't be as cute a couple as we used to be. I'm sad.
Today was the Bill Clinton book signing at Waterstones on Piccadilly Circus.
He was scheduled to arrive at 1:00 and when I walked past at 11:00 the line was already many blocks long, curving around the building and onto the street behind. There were television crews interviewing the people in line, presumably about their preference for Monica or Hillary. My vote goes to Monica because I really like her handbags.
To get your book signed you had to buy a ticket in advance, which they were doing in the store over the weekend. I overheard a particulary gruesome saleswoman chastising an assistant to not give bags to people for their books because they would be needing them for Monday. So, apparently the only way to get a bag for your book today is to have it signed by a former U.S. President.
While I was walking around taking photos I noticed there were women with signs about voter registration. U.S. voter registration. Jeez, they really are everywhere. Whatever. One of them was talking to someone and said she was disappointed there were so few Americans in line waiting to see Clinton. I couldn't help myself, I said, "Maybe it's because this is London and British people live here." She flinched but was undaunted in her quest to find Americans living in London who want to hear about how much Kerry cares about the environment.
  
 This photo is of Seven Dials, an intersection of seven streets in a kind of mini traffic circle, a block from our apartment.
As you can see, the sky is a mixture of blue and impending storm clouds. It can get completely grey and start raining in about 10 seconds and then be sunny 2 minutes later. It's better than continual rain but carrying an umbrella is required at all times.
We're finally getting familiar with how to get around. The basics, like which direction to go, are not immediately obvious and we're discovering alternative or quieter routes to the places we need to go. It's nice to walk around without the A-Z Map, it makes me feel that I look like where I'm going, even if I don't.
Tomorrow, Bill Clinton is signing copies of his book at Waterstone's on Picadilly. This I gotta see. More later...
I can't believe it, we now have 36 white plastic hangers. The store that had them: Selfridges on Oxford Street. Last week they told me they usually have them but they were sold out. I can imagine why: they are the only plastic hangers available in London! Sold out, indeed. She said to come back later in the week. I was dubious and thought that they would be plastic versions of the clunky wooden hangers I don't like (even those are hard to find). But when we went back yesterday they were exactly what we wanted. So now we can hang up our clothes like civilised people.
(Update: In my ongoing quest for nice plastic hangers, John Lewis seems to have them in stock the most often.)
 Today's fabulous lunch: Masala Zone, 9 Marshall Street, Soho - Indian/Asian fusion, lovely decor, completely non-smoking, some seating similar to the benches at Wagamama, and mediocre service. I think the strangely low 10% built-in service charge does not inspire the servers to excellence. But still very enjoyable.
We dined at the highly acclaimed and lovely Neal Street Restaurant but felt the food was mediocre. We had dinner with our friends Stephen Gottlieb and Jane Dorner. Stephen is a lute builder and John bought one of his fabulous lutes a couple years ago. They are two of the most civilised and nice people we've met and look forward to seeing them often while here.
Photo: the famous Carnaby Street in Soho, which we walked through while waiting for Masala Zone to open.
 While we were at Foyle's today John and I were waiting at the check-out register for them to charge our books and I noticed there were a few copies of Wil Wheaton's "Dancing Barefoot" book right there on the counter. (Great book, you should buy it.) I was so happy to see it here in London and so prominently displayed that I sent him email letting him know. I didn't really expect to hear from him but he replied and was excited and asked me to send photos for his blog which I was happy to do.
For those of you who know me but haven't been paying attention: Wil Wheaton played Wesley Crusher on my favorite tv show ever - Star Trek: The Next Generation. He's not Wesley anymore but he's still fabulous.
 Foyle's is our new favorite bookstore. It's on Charing Cross Road which is very close to our apartment. Like Waterstone's it is multiple floors but it also includes an excellent sheet music department. I had been to it when I came here alone in 1996 but hadn't really thought about it until we passed it the other day. Waterstone's is great but Picadilly Circus is, well, a circus. And it's a chain, albeit a nice one. Foyle's is an independent store and is fabulous.
Did we buy more books? Duh!
 Our audio/visual system arrived today. Yay! At last we can watch dvd's and listen to cd's on good speakers (instead of on the Mac). Last week I got the new Lamb cd that comes with a bonus dvd of videos; they are fabulous.
Behold, our trusty camping chairs. I'm looking forward to putting them out on the street for them to be stolen.
Today's fabulous meal: Carluccio's - amazing take away
When the landlord showed us the apartment he mentioned "Sam" and his wife had had it renovated (hence the sound-blocking movable partitions) and "Sam" had intended to use it to work on editing a film but ended up doing it elsewhere . At the time I thought to myself: "There are so many artistic people here. How nice."
Ok, I figured it out and my head is spinning.
 Although we didn't see American Beauty or Road to Perdition, the idea of an oscar winning director having an office downstairs and the possibility of bumping into him or his wife, Kate Winslet, on the stairs is a bit daunting. "Oh! Hi, Sam. Hi, Kate. I haven't seen any of your movies but I think you're fabulous. Would you like to come up for a cup of tea?"
Which reminds me, the other day we were walking past the Covent Garden Hotel and as a lovely girl was leaving a bunch of guys ran up to get her autograph. She complied and was polite but cold. I have no idea who she was. I saw a famous person get ambushed by autograph hunters and I don't know who it was! Well, I am out of touch when it comes to most television and film stars. If they weren't on Rosie or Regis and Kelly I generally don't know who they are. I am a clueless groupie.
Excedrin is not available here. I am not complaining; I love England and I adore London. But there are many products that we can't get here and it's driving me nuts. Besides the catastrophic lack of plastic clothes hangers, they don't have bottles of Excedrin, Tylenol, Advil, etc. They have little packages of 16 tablets of non-aspirin products and the aspirin comes in desolvable form (yuck). I'll probably get arrested at customs next time we come to London for bringing in 10 bottles of extra strength Excedrin: "U.S. Woman Arrested for Importing Dangerous Substance. Claims She Just Has a Headache."
 As promised.
It was a beautiful morning and I had my hopes up that the weather people here are as incompetent as the ones in the U.S. but they got it right this time.
John took a train to Guildford to try out, yes you got it, more viola da gambas. I wonder if he remembered his umbrella?
Photo is view from our bedroom window at 5:00 this afternoon. Yuck.
Today's fabulous meal: Mon Plaisir, 21 Monmouth Street, Covent Garden - an excellent dinner that was the most authentic French food we've had since the south of France. The smoking is a bit hard to take, even from the next room, but the food is outstanding.
So, where are the plastic hangers? In Berkeley, when I run out I go to Walgreens and get a dozen hangers for $1.99 or something like that. Even the supermarket has them. Not here. I can't even find wood hangers. Finally, in Heals I had to repeat three times "do you have clothes hangers" before he said no. It seems like it wasn't my American accent this time, it was the concept of hangers, he just didn't know what I meant. Is there some British slang for hangers I don't know about? It's one of the mysteries of London and when I figure it out I'm going to reveal the solution here.
Furniture shopping is one of the worst activities invented by mankind.
After visiting all the stores on Tottenham Court Road several times during the last week, we finally decided on the following: - Heals: 2 sofas, dining table and chairs - delivery in 2 weeks (sofas are from clearance department, otherwise it's 10 week delivery)
- Habitat: 2 glass workstations - delivery in 1 week
- AskDirect: TV and audio system - delivery tomorrow
- Argos: microwave, printer, vacuum cleaner - delivery in a few days
 I saw the bed I absolutely had to have but the delivery time is 14 weeks. Even the salesgirl was appalled. We prefer to buy something that is going to be delivered this calendar year so we're still looking. In the meantime, we are still sleeping on the inflatable mattresses. Actually, we kind of like them. Really, I'm not kidding. Even John likes them, so there you have it.
BTW, here is our street. I don't remember who told me that the way Londoners would be able to tell we are American is that we wear sneakers. Bzzztt, wrong! There are at least 5 sneaker stores on our block and it's the British who are wearing them. I think they call them trainers but they are definitely a fashion statement rather than for excercise use.
 Today is supposed to be our last day of sunshine before a week of rain. The weather changes so quickly here that we'll see if they mean it will rain all day or just that there might be some rain during the day. Even on sunny day days there is often a quick shower in mid-afternoon.
Berkeley Sunrise: 5:54 am
London Sunrise: 4:52 am
Berkeley Sunset: 8:34 pm
London Sunset: 9:18 pm |
Because we're closer to the Arctic the days are longer, something I hadn't realized was the case before we got here.
At first we woke up when the sun started. I thought, "jeez, we accidentally slept until noon, we'd better get up" and then discovered it was 5 a.m. This, combined with jet lag, made for some nasty moments. We will look for darker window shades but, in the meantime, we're getting used to it. In fact, today was the first day we woke up at 7:00 after going to bed at 11:30 the night before without being interrupted by noise or unexpectedly early sunshine. Perhaps we're finally acclimated? I hope so. |
I just love that it stays light later in the evening. Going out to dinner and not having to walk home in the dark is wonderful. Of course, that means it's darker in the winter then doesn't it. I'll worry about that later.
Ultimately, I would like a harpsichord here, as well. In the meantime...
Last weekend we also bought me a little midi controller keyboard (no built in sounds) which attaches to the Mac and plays piano as well as a bunch of other things using only software. The piano quality is not very good but it's fine for playing and practising. The synth sounds are amazing. I can't believe all this can be done with just a keyboard and a laptop computer. It's like we live in the future.
, Tottenham Court Road, Bloomsbury - coffee and a snack but the menu looks great for an elegant, simple lunch in the future.
At last, our internet phones are hooked up.
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