Love and Herrings... more on London

Even if it was only a day with arta, it was jam-packed.... after the better part of a day at the National Gallery, we decided to stick our heads in the National Portrait Gallery. This meant a short walk across Trafalgar Square, where we were treated to not only the usual series of buskers dressed as statues, and folk with their instruments, but a guy with a microphone and a powerful baritone voice calling us all to Jesus. I think the 'call and response' stuff he had in mind is really powerful when it happens inside a southern baptist church. Here, it was a lot of 'call' with nothing in the way of 'response', but he was undeterred, and seemed to be taking on both roles. At one point I was a bit worried he would pass out from the hyperventilating required by the task, but he was still there and still going when we return on the same route later in the afternoon!

So...we passed around the corner to spent some time with photos of Mick Jagger and the Stones from the 60s. We were just enjoying the portraits when my cell phone rang: steve asking me what the bank had said about getting me a new PIN for my debit card. [ooops.... i guess i had not completely finished those other tasks!] As background, my new debit card had arrived in the mail, with a note telling me the PIN would arrive a few days later in a different letter. Unfortunately, that was the same day they announced the postal strike. so there i was, with a bank card but no PIN code. The plan had been to just have them re-stripe it for me at the bank in London, but I had been too busy to get there before closing hours. Luckily, the head office was only a few blocks away, so Arta came with me and we tore off to the bank. That was an interesting experience. I explained the problem, showed all my documents and identity cards. They agreed they could help: they would cancel the PIN they had sent me, and mail me out a new one. Now, I don't really like to be judgmental re systems in other countries, but I have to say, this one baffled me a bit. ... it turns out they cannot re-stripe your card, but can ONLY give you a new PIN through the mail. Maybe they presume Mail in the rest of the world functions like Mail in England? I don't know.... but it seemed a bit odd, and am still waiting here in Canada for my PIN to arrive...

Back to our day. After learning that I would need to still stick with the Canadian banking card for a while longer, Arta and I headed off for dinner at a restaurant Wyona likes in the theatre district. The pre-theatre dinner special was an appetizer, main course, and glass of wine (I got mine AND arta's!) We both wanted the salmon for the main course, but the difficult question was whether to go with the Onion Soup or the grilled sardines. [these are of course photos of Arta and I looking pensive as we try to figure out what to order.... they are also hear to show of yet another of
Arta's new scarves, and my necklace of glass beads that Mary made!... I wore them to London!] I did ask the waitress to tell me a bit more about the soup? Was it like french onion soup? What else was in it? She seemed not so interested in the recipe, telling me, it was just onions. OK. Why not? We decided to try one of each. The soup, it turned out, was a quite delicious blended soup that I would have identified as a warm version of vichyssoise.... WAY more potato than onion, and quite tasty. And the grilled sardines? (which was Arta's choice, and which she shared). They arrived whole, their little fishy heads gazing up at us. But they were yummy. Arta said they reminded her of granddad, who loved them. We probably could have stopped there, but then the main course arrived, which was a honking big piece of salmon and a ton of vegetables. Uncle Dave might have even been satisfied!


And then... off to the theatre to see Love Never Dies. If you read the comments section under my last post, you will get a longer account from Arta about the performance itself. It was my first time, though she has seen it on many other occasions. For those of you who haven't seen it, it is Phantom of the Opera, part II. ... totally interesting from so many perspectives. It has not been as popular as the first version, and part of the fun for me is trying to think about "why"? This tale of love is far more complicated than the first version, and it is not the typical love story. It has all the elements you would come to expect from musical theatre, but it sort of unpicks some other parts of love stories. strange. and the music is fantastic. Lots of fun stuff to think about too in terms of 'fathers', and the difference between social and biological parents (oops... spoiler alert!) :-)

We headed home to pack. Wyona and Arta were to head off on the cruise in the morning, but needed to get to Liverpool Street Station, with FIVE pieces of luggage. I had only ONE, so the thought was that if I came with them that far, we could get them AND their luggage to the station. All I can say is, given that some of the lines were closed, and our connections involved stations with stairs instead of escalators,... well....it was an adventure. I also have to say that Wyona can back a suitcase fuller than I thought was physically possible. Plus, the two of them have these new (cruise style) suitcases that are so wide that you knock people over as you pass them on the street! So....the plan was generally for one person to go to the bottom of a flight of stairs, one to stay at the top with the rest of the luggage, and then for me to run up and down and move suitcases either up or down depending on the place were were on the voyage. (so you don't have to leave your bags alone at the top or bottom of the busy traffic areas). It works. Of course, Wyona and Arta are also great at looking frail, and co-opting strapping young folk to help. Getting all 6 pieces of luggage ONTO a train before the doors slammed on us, well, that was also something of an adventure. But we made it. We arrived at the station with at least 10 or 15 minutes to spare, sweaty but triumphant. You will have to wait to hear a more fulsome account of the cruise from the women themselves!