Jan's and John's Peripatetic Adventure

X Marks the Spot

A little while ago, about 8:30 p.m., I looked out my window and saw X's in the sky!

Jets were making vapour trails of X's all over the sky. I ran up to the roof deck with my camera and took what you see below. It looked like they had been doing it for a while because various X's and trails were expanding and drifting off. But they were continuing to make new ones. In the bottom right photo you can see the end point where the jet is flying very fast, leaving the trail. The bottom center photo is directly over the house.

When I got back to my computer I saw that a friend was online in Yahoo Messenger, so I asked him if he was in London and could see the X's. He said he's an hour from London but he could see them too!

We speculated about the cause. He suggested that perhaps atmospheric conditions were just right for doing such a thing right now. I agreed. But that didn't answer the who and why so I'm wondering. Maybe it's a club where jet pilots wait for atmospheric conditions to be just right and then they go up and make designs in the sky. Maybe it's privacy fanatics trying to spoil satellite photos of London. Maybe it's aliens indicating this is the place.

It's 9:10 and the X's have all faded into a soft blur and are pink against blue while the sun sets. Strange but lovely.

Update: I'm guessing now that it has something to do with the world cup after I saw this. Whatever.

Purves Moves On

Today, I went up Tottenham Court Road to buy a battery for my watch. I went to three different stores before I found one. This is the first time I've ever replaced a battery in a watch. I'm strangely resourceful when John's not around.

Tottenham Court Road has changed quite a lot in the two years we've lived here. It seems to be shutting down, one store at a time. While the excellent Heals and Habitat are still there, I was shocked to see one of our favorite stores, Purves & Purves, is gone. We've bought many things there, including our shadow clock and Julian the orange dog. They say they're going to open elsewhere in central London so fingers crossed.

There are many closed stores, sometimes an entire block of them, so Tottenham Court Road is starting to look shabby. All that's there really, besides Heals and Habitat, is one after another of computer and stereo component stores, all selling the same things.

Remembrance of Things Past

John emailed me some photos from Paris, yay! First of all is a panorama of a local park.

John says, "There are little park squares everywhere around this area of Paris (The Marais), here's a photo of one I stumbled upon."

Just walking around he discovered two amazing concerts by musicians we enjoy: Jordi Savall all week and last night he saw Natacha Atlas.

John says: "Jordi Savall is here all week, giving various concerts. Unfortunately, the wednesday concert is sold out, which is too bad because the complete Marais CD box that the three of them (Savall/Hantai/Lislevand) recorded is one of my favorite CDs of all time. I'm hoping some seats become available the day of... "The photo is a poster in a shop window for the Natasha Atlas concert I went to tonight. No, her face was not covered at the concert, this is just her being artsy. In concert, she wore a see-through belly dancing outfit and wiggled a lot (and she has a lot to wiggle with). Great voice in concert, but a little too karaoke - the synth guy barely touched anything, and the synth played the drums and the melody. They had a live bassist, and a rock drum kit and arabic drummer adding to the overall mix, which definitely helped. And a huge, 7ft tall R&B singer who did occasional forays into rap."

Rap? Ew. Sadly, too many musicians are trying to be everything to everyone in the 21st century and it often just doesn't work. They should do what they do best and leave it at that. That's why we rarely go to concerts other than classical because so much of it isn't real. But we have all of Natacha Atlas's cd's and she is fabulous.

Jordi Savall is one of our favorite musicians ever, we have a zillion of his cds. Click here to see him signing one of them two years ago. (Only two years ago? Yikes, John and I look so different.)

Next, two photos that evoke memories of things past...

John says: "Right next the Natasha Atlas concert was the teeny tiny apartment, where I lived when I was 20, getting a Masters in Philosophy from The Sorbonne. Mine was the top apartment where the flower pots now are."

John has told me so many stories of his time in Paris as a student and it's wonderful to be able to see a photo of the apartment he lived in. That kind of stuff gets me all choked up. Sniff, sigh.

Meanwhile, while John is enjoying all the beauty and culture of Paris what was I doing here in London? Vacuuming the stairs and watching Star Trek. Today I'm going to Tottenham Court Road to find a battery for my watch. Now that's exciting.

All By Myself

John went to Paris this morning for a week. He's visiting a friend of ours from San Francisco who is there for a while who only wants to speak French so I'm out (note: John's fluent). I don't really mind because John and I are going to Paris together for a few days at the end of June.

What do I do when John is away? Well, besides drink champagne and watch Star Trek, I clean.

Our house in Berkeley can get pretty messy and just when it's at its worst John goes away to a conference or something so I spend my time cleaning. So far I haven't really done much of that in London because, frankly, 6,000 square feet is an awful lot of cleaning. But the plaster dust from the recent repairs and spackling is really out of control so it has to be done. The construction guys did a great job of cleaning up after themselves but the plaster dust clings to everything and only water and scrubbing will get it off.

In the past we've had an astonishingly expensive cleaning service come in. But I prefer not to be here when they're cleaning, it just feels weird to me. So, I decided to give it a try.

BTW, our vacuum cleaner is better than anything I've owned in the U.S. It's by Morphy Richards. Our model is slighly older than the one they show but it's essentially the same. It's amazingly powerful and the design is so simple. You just plug it in and go. And here's the thing: the exhaust is on the top. Every cylinder vacuum I've ever used had the exhaust in the back so as you move around the house the exhaust blows the dust bunnies all over the place. You spend too much time chasing after stuff that the exhaust is blowing around the house. Having it point straight up is ingenious.

This morning I started vacuuming (hoovering in British) to get up the big stuff, of which there wasn't much. You can see the before and after where the plaster dust is clearly visible on the floor. Ok, now for the mopping. But where is the mop? I went out to the store to buy a mop because the one we have is left over from some previous cleaning company and looks really beat. No mops in the grocery store but they had crunchy snax. Time for a break.

So, I'll either go to John Lewis tomorrow and look for a new mop or I'll give our old one a try. I have a sneeking suspicion that I'm going to wear myself out for nothing and we're going to end up having to call the cleaning service anyway. But it will keep me occupied while John is away and I can work off the calories from the crunchy snax.

House Concert No. 7

Last night was our first house concert for this season. It was a spectacular performance by Anneke Scott on horn and Kathryn Cok on fortepiano.

Anneke plays the natural horn, which has no valves like the modern version. She briefly explained how the instrument works and is different from the modern horn. Her performance was amazing and beautiful with subtlety and extraordinary musicality. She is completely world class.

Kathryn plays the fortepiano and her performance was wonderful. As well as accompanying Anneke in works that were equally demanding for the piano as for the horn, she played a Mozart Rondo and it was great to hear it played on a historic piano from his era.

The audience was particularly enthusiastic for this concert, I think, party in appreciation of Anneke's mastery of this difficult instrument with beautifully musical results and her personable stage presence.

The photos are almost all blurry because I had the settings on our new camera wrong for indoors. Drat. But they still show the flavour of the evening which was delicious. There were many familiar faces and lots of new ones. There's me with violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk who has a recording on Magnatune via Avie Records. Once again I was delighted to meet someone whose cd's I own and enjoy. He was really really nice which is always a great bonus. And this time I also got a photo of me with the evening's superstars.

Another incredible evening in our London adventure.

Sister Ray

It's still Sunday and more is happening...

On our way home from the Apple Store on Regent Street we walked through Soho and passed a cd store that John knew about but I've never seen before: Sister Ray. Then I remembered it's quite famous for indie music and electronica and the kinds of obscure things I like so I went in. And I found two brand new releases that I've been looking for that I can't find as downloads and now I don't have to mail order the cd's. Hurray!

Wow, what a fun day. And it isn't over yet. Tonight is our next House Concert so John is busy cooking and I'm going downstairs to start cleaning and organising. More tomorrow.

A Glimpse of Goldie

A lot happened today so Sunday continues...

After lunch at Loch Fyne, we walked to the Apple Store on Regent Street because John needed some computer stuff.

It is a lovely day so the walk was really nice. We went through Leicester Square and saw they were setting up for a movie premier at one of the smaller theatres again, rather than the main Odeon. It's for Poseidon, which has already tanked in the U.S. so I'm wondering how excited people are about this premier.

While walking up Regent Street we noticed this weird little alley called "Man in Moon Passage" which I think is hilarious. Further up we were happy to see that the new Habitat store is open. It's really large and very nice. The photo is of the dome over the main staircase; lovely.

Then! We were walking up Regent Street and walking right toward us was Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. This is the first time I've seen movie stars on the street in London. I may not have recognised each of them if they were alone but walking together they were immediately recognisable, in spite of their very large sun glasses. I got out my camera but then decided not to bother them. Yes, I'm a coward but I also know what famous people go through in public and I just don't want to be one of those annoying fans that becomes a story the next time they are on Oprah. John agreed.

So we just stood there and watched them go past us. Obviously they are in London because he's the star of Poseidon. It made me wonder how it feels to be going to a premier of a movie you're starring in that is already a flop in the U.S. I'd probably want to be left alone while I was walking down the street '-)

The Ultimate Fish

Today we had lunch at a new discovery, Loch Fyne.

We've walked past it a zillion times, I don't know what took us so long to finally give it a try. The restaurant specialises in fresh seafood and is 100% non-smoking. They also have other things, I got the smoked beef salad with green beans, rocket and shaved parmesan as a starter. Then the crab cakes as my main. It was excellent. We also had a half bottle of champagne. Yummy, champagne lunch on Sunday!

It's a great place so I'm putting it on our list of recommended restaurants. We plan to try it for dinner too.

Terabyte

Living in two countries with a house in each can be problematic. One of the problems is what to do with our music collection. Since John and I are both music addicts this is a priority for us.

We have over 5,000 cd's which we've been buying since they were invented. Over the past 2 years we converted our entire cd collection to high-quality mp3's and now we buy downloads intead of cd's when we can.

I love downloads. They don't have manufacturing flaws (well, ok they do sometimes), they don't scratch and, most importantly, they don't take up shelf space. But they do take up another kind of space. Computer space. Problem solved: we have a terabyte server. One in London and one in our house in California. But a new problem is created: how to make sure both servers have the same music on them. When I buy music in California how does it get to the London server and vice versa.

Previously I had been copying the files to my iPod and then copying them onto the other server at each end. It worked but then I discovered that sometimes I missed some (old, reliable, human error). Thankfully I'm married to a computer genius so he worked it out. He wrote a script that uses a thing called "rsync" that links the two servers together and transfers the files that are missing on each server, including new mp3's purchased, changes to descriptions of previous mp3's, making the two servers mirror images of each other. He also has a terabyte server of his own in each city which he keeps synced with the music server as as backup.

When dealing with computers it's very very important to always have a backup.

So, we don't have to worry about losing any of the mp3's we've purchased, we have an exact copy of our music collection in each city which we can listen to using Apple's Airport Express hooked up to our stereo system which is connected throughout the house.

It's like we live in the future.

The Ultimate Burger Coke

Today we had lunch at The Ultimate Burger. It's one of our favorite lunch spots and even sometimes for a quick and casual dinner.

You wouldn't expect London to be a great place for burgers but we think it is. In California, burgers in the upmarket restaurants we go to are often really greasy and the buns are always artisan bread (that's so Califoria) and too hard. Our favorite burger in Berkeley is at Oscar's. The place itself is a dive but they have soft buns.

The burger places in London are attractive, pleasant and non-smoking. At The Ultimate Burger, the buns are soft and the burgers are not greasy. We also love Hamburger Union. Of the two we prefer The Ultimate Burger but it's really a close call.

And look! Coke in a glass bottle. And with a straw instead of a glass. I don't think I've had coke in a glass bottle since I was 10 and we all know how long ago that was. Coke just tastes better from a bottle than from a can. Yummy!

Sour Notes on South Bank

Last night we went to a concert at The Purcell Room on South Bank.

We were excited because it was a concert of baroque chamber music, our favorite. It was a gorgeous evening to walk over Waterloo Bridge to South Bank, as you can see in the photos. Our tickets were in the first row which was also exciting.

Our excitement ended at about 30 seconds into the concert. What a mess. I don't often go on and on about a bad concert. Actually, we rarely see bad ones. But this was just too amazingly bad.

I don't want to name names because the performers are probably friends of friends and I don't want to upset anybody. But, wow, it was terrible. They were the most unmusical collection of "professional" musicians I've ever heard. I've heard amateurs with more musical sensitivity and expression. The harpsichordist clanged his way through some Couperin and his accompaniment on the other pieces was sloppy and... unmusical is the only way I can explain it.

The main performer, who played every wind instrument and probably the kitchen sink too, was completely unmusical. One of the problems with musicians who play every instrument in an intrumental family is they end up playing none of them well. But that wasn't his big problem. His real problem was his complete lack of musicality. His phrasing was nonexistent. He blundered his way through the music, making even the Bach unrecognisable.

Even worse, he did this kind of puffing up his cheeks and letting out a combination sigh/huff after finishing each movement. He made lots of huffing/puffing noises which at first I thought may have been because he actually was out of breath but then he did it before playing as well so it was really just an obnoxious affectation. Someone needs to tell him to knock it off and at least pretend to act like a professional. Oh, and he also read these "cute and amusing" little stories about obscure 18th century musicians before a couple of the pieces that didn't have anything to do with the composer of the piece they were playing so what was the point? Perhaps to distract us from his bad playing.

Then, John and I couldn't believe our eyes, right before he started the final movement for the last piece of the first half, he rolled up his eyes and made a face that is hard to describe but was something like: "dear god, let this be over soon, I can't stand being here, I'd rather be anywhere else." Well, that's certainly what I was thinking, maybe he heard me telepathically.

I guess the real evidence is that the audience finished applauding before the performers left the stage. I'm not sure I've ever seen that happen. We left at the interval (intermission) and were pleased to be able to walk back over the bridge while it was still light outside on such a lovely evening.

It could have been worse, sometimes we're trapped at a disaster and there's no interval. Whew!

Spackle and Paint

Today is the last day of the house repairs and it's looking great, as you can see in the photos. They repainted most of the walls in the grand stair which were badly scuffed and dented from moving furniture, etc. It looks like new, yay.

The next phase of the project is to redo the master bathroom showers. For those of you who have visited us, you know what I mean =:-0 Mostly, it will be nice to have doors on the showers. That project will be over the summer, hopefully when we're not here. It's not just the smell of fresh paint and plaster, or the noise of the hammering and sanding... The all-day-while-they-work, very loud radio station playing the worst pop music we're ever heard is just too much to take.

Hopefully within the next two weeks the new window shades will come. They are going to be gorgeous.

Lunch at Tas

We had such a fabulous dinner in April at the Tas restaurant near The Globe Theatre that we decided to try the one in Bloomsbury next to The British Museum which is really close to our house. Wow, what a find!

First of all, it's 100% non-smoking. That alone is a reason to go there. But it is also lovely and the food is amazing. (And we had a half-bottle of champagne for lunch which is always enjoyable.) Here's what we had. We shared, which isn't like me but it all looked so good I wanted to try it all:

Cold Starters:

MERCIMEK & NOHUT SALATASI
Green lentil and chickpeas salad with red onions and coriander.

Casseroles:

BADEMLI TAVUK
Chicken with almonds, green peppers, tomatoes

CHOBAN KAVURMA
Diced lamb, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, peppers cooked with herbs

It was delicious. Tas is a new favorite and we'll be going there for lunches and dinners many times in the future.

The weather right now is very volatile. It has been alternating sun and pouring rain throughout the day. Here are a couple photos during lunch of the intersection outside the restaurant taken 10 minutes apart. Umbrellas required at all times until further notice.

Ping Pong and the Yellow Shoes

Last night we walked to Soho to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, The Grocer on Warwick. We were upset to discover their Soho restaurant has closed. Damn.

So instead we went to Ping Pong, which was fabulous. This time we got seated at a communal table which I don't really like. They have single tables too which is where we sat last time. Although really, the large round communal table is probably less intrusive than having people at the next table for the single tables. Our meal was amazing, we loved it.

I will never understand the connection between British class and their particular accent. While waiting for my champagne I observed the young woman across the table greet her friend when she arrived. Her friend was very attractive, refined, tastefully dressed and then she exclaimed, "Gaw, I'm knackered! All the cabs was full and I had to hoof it. Blimey! But I'm chuffed, saved a few bob dinit."

Um... ok. Translation: "God, I'm tired. All the cabs were occupied so I had to walk. Gosh! But I'm pleased because it saved me some money, didn't it."

It's like being in a movie sometimes.

On the way home we were walking behind the pair of yellow shoes you see in the photo (no, it's not the girl from the restaurant). Ouch. She was having a hard time in them. I would fall and break something within 10 seconds and end up in casualty (the emergency room, haha I'm so British now). The huge red with white spots bag was also a questionable fashion statement. She was as thin as a rail with toothpick legs so perhaps she's a model or actress, there's a lot of that in Soho. There's a lot of something else, if you know what I mean, but she didn't look the type. Too attractive.

Then we walked through Soho Square. See photos, especially the panorama. The little "gardener's hut" has been surrounded with construction stuff for several years.

Once we got to Neal Street I decided to pop up Monmouth Street to take a photo of the Covent Garden Hotel since on the plane I just saw Woody Allen's Match Point which was partly filmed there . There are often paparazzi hanging out in front of the hotel but there weren't any today so I guess no one famous is staying there right now. I heard a rumour Scarlett Johansson lived there while filming. We were living on Neal Street at the time and I'm very annoyed I didn't run into her. Bitch.

Spicey

Although we do quite a bit of shopping here in London we have trouble finding the kinds of things we like, aesthetically and functionally. So, when we see something in California "that would be perfect for the London house" we generally buy it and bring it with us.

For example, here are spice containers that we got at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. This morning, after a sleeping-aid induced night of jet-lagged sleep I hobbled upstairs for my morning latte and found John putting his many varieties of teas in the new containers. Perfect! They're all lined up on the countertop and look, frankly, adorable.

Here we are in the kitchen this morning, I'm a little bleery-eyed. John got up at 3:30 a.m. so he's alert. For now.

Sedation Required

We're back in London, yay!

But wow was that the worst flight we've ever had on Virgin Atlantic. Actually, it's the first time we've had an unpleasant flight on Virgin Atlantic. There were two small children in Upper Class (Virgin Atlantic's version of First Class). They weren't as bad as they could have been but they were pretty noisy. Especially the younger one who was in the talking at the top of his voice 24/7 stage. At least when it was "lights out" they were put to bed and actually did sleep most of the trip. I'm going to try the upper deck on the plane again where children are allegedly forbidden but I had a screaming toddler next to me once. Sorry, I think parents with children under 12 should only be allowed to sit in Economy. Unless the children are sedated. Like pets.

There's a photo of John having soup at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in San Francisco. Do you like his new hairstyle? It was time.

We got home and the construction guys had their ladder across the stairs to get to the ceiling. I felt bad making them move it to let us upstairs. But the house looks great. As you can see, the photo of the piano room with the projector looks perfect. You can compare it with the before photo.

They've been working all the time we've been away and there's still a few more days work for them to do. Then we'll get the cleaning service in to mop up all the plaster dust and construction grime. And then the designer in to install the new window coverings. It's already looking fabulous.

Farewell to the Flowers

Ok, today we're flying back to London!

As always, we'll miss the California weather, amazing restaurants and our friends. And Clyde, sigh. This morning he decided he wanted to be on my lap while I read my book. It's like he knows I'm leaving...

But, as always, we're excited about London and seeing our friends, theatre, concerts, restaurants, etc. We have a lot planned. See you in London tomorrow!

Cars and Construction

We're still in California continues... When we're in California we try to find fun things to do. Yesterday, John and our friend Bob went to Blackhawk Auto Museum. We're not at all "into" cars but John said the museum was amazing. The cars from the 1950's that look like something from the future are gorgeous. They don't even have cars like that now. Yet.

In the meantime, as our stay in California draws to a conclusion we're looking forward to our return to London just to get some peace and quiet. Peace and quiet in London? Well, not likely, but anything would be better than the racket we're having to put up with here. Our sleepy little neighborhood is being disturbed by almost constant construction noise. The house next door is having repairs done due to the fire last February. The noise is annoying but at least I can sympathise with the cause. And the contractors are so lazy that days go by and no work gets done.

But worse is the house two doors down that is having major renovations and additions with the sound of jackhammers all day. All. Day. It's awful, it sounds like machine guns. Apparently she bought the wrong house so she's turning this hideous house into the home of her dreams and creating a nightmare for the rest of us.

So, we're especially looking forward to returning to London this Sunday. Get me out of here.

Sleeping in the Jungle

At least, that's what I assume Clyde thinks he's doing. Or else he's on the porch where sometimes he will sleep all day. Wish I could do that. The flowers are blooming, the garden is very colorful and our stay in California is almost done...

BBQ with Bob

We're still in California continues...

When we're in California we try to spend as much time as we can with our best friend Bob. One of his and John's favorite things to do is go for BBQ. They go at least once a week or sometimes more. Today they did take out from a place nearby so I joined them for lunch in the garden. It was incredibly yummy!

The Move Remembered

We're still in California but today is the one year anniversary of moving into our London house!

I remember what a nightmare it was. Especially when the movers didn't show up the first time. But it was great to get out of that small and very noisy apartment on Neal Street. We love the house so much and really enjoy living there. It has really changed a lot in the last year. We'll be back soon!

Sunny Update

We've been in California for 10 days and it's beautiful. The change from living in London to Berkeley is quite a culture shock. The first week is always the strangest since it takes about that long to recover from the jet lag (it's a much shorter recovery time when going to London). Everything is so different, particularly the weather and, sigh, the supermarkets.

Pictured below is our garden which is particularly beautiful right now. When he's not on the sofa with me, Clyde spends all his time in the garden. He has various bushes he sleeps under so I can usually find him. He's still darned cute.

It's been sunny most days with a temperature sometimes reaching 70 except today it's a little foggy and only 61. John and I are keeping busy (yes, even I'm busy) with several new web projects and seeing our favorite friends while we are here. Two and a half weeks and we're back to London!