goddesstogo and mr. goddess's big London adventure (an ongoing tale)
Sep 19th, 2010, 10:18 AM
#162
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Just catching up on your London adventures and still enjoying them! I'm glad you are having such a good time.
Congratulations to Jonathan on winning the bat - now WHICH captains would they be?
Re puffballs, many moons ago when I lived near Worcester they grew all by themselves in our orchard. The biggest we measured was 37 and a half inches in circumference. But that was too big for tasty eating - it was porous and tough. So in the next years we picked them with a diameter of no more than 12 inches. Always fried them in bacon fat (and maybe a bit of butter), always found them delicious.
When in Shropshire we found them in the field below the house, and used to invite the neighbours for 'puffball parties' where we would serve this delicacy as an unusual first course. We gained a lot of converts who promised never to kick them about in future!
Looking forward to the 7th.
Congratulations to Jonathan on winning the bat - now WHICH captains would they be?
Re puffballs, many moons ago when I lived near Worcester they grew all by themselves in our orchard. The biggest we measured was 37 and a half inches in circumference. But that was too big for tasty eating - it was porous and tough. So in the next years we picked them with a diameter of no more than 12 inches. Always fried them in bacon fat (and maybe a bit of butter), always found them delicious.
When in Shropshire we found them in the field below the house, and used to invite the neighbours for 'puffball parties' where we would serve this delicacy as an unusual first course. We gained a lot of converts who promised never to kick them about in future!
Looking forward to the 7th.
Sep 19th, 2010, 01:58 PM
#164
WH - I don't know who to be more jealous of - you with your cricket bat, or GTG with her tea-loaf made by the lovely Emma.
Are you planning to use it for its designated purpose, or just sleep with it? [the bat, not the tea-loaf]
Are you planning to use it for its designated purpose, or just sleep with it? [the bat, not the tea-loaf]
Sep 19th, 2010, 07:33 PM
#166
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@GTG : (chuckles)...of course I'm jealous of every minute you're there; I'm just too polite (or maybe repressed) a Canadian to say so, though meeting Ms. Thompson and Ms. Staunton casually over a cake stall pushed me over the limit. 
I knew a lass who was crazy over Greg Wise and called him a tea biscuit. If that's the case, you're going to have some 'splaining to do to Ms. Thompson in the morning...
I knew a lass who was crazy over Greg Wise and called him a tea biscuit. If that's the case, you're going to have some 'splaining to do to Ms. Thompson in the morning...
Sep 20th, 2010, 01:57 AM
#167
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I brought my own tea biscuit with me. OK, maybe he's a little past the 'best before' date but still a pretty tasty morsel.
OK. This is getting weird now. I'm outta here. Off to do girly shopping at M&S.
OK. This is getting weird now. I'm outta here. Off to do girly shopping at M&S.
Sep 20th, 2010, 07:58 AM
#170
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So true, jent. I would have been so disappointed if she'd been rude or standoffish.
Well, today was just a normal day. What? No free tours? No cake-baking celebrities? How can this be?
Well, there you go. Life evens out. Today we split up (we're not actually joined at the hip though we do often seem to be). SO stayed home to do some work and is now missing in action, off doing errands like signing up at the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre. I went off to M&S to buy cheap jeans (did so for 12 pounds*). I had lunch at the sushi conveyor-belt stand at Selfridges, then bought my cheap jeans and a pair of stirrup leggings** at M&S, walked around there for a long time and then back to Selfridges for a browse there. I was exhausted -- I definitely don't have the shopping stamina I used to have -- and took every opportunity to sit down, including getting free curls from the young lady who was demonstrating curling irons. To be fair, I told her ahead of time that I wasn't going to buy one but she said she didn't care, that she liked to do people with curly hair (a stretch when it comes to my hair these days). Anyway, I think she saved my life. I had a good long sit while she curled up all my hair and we talked about the various places in the US that she'd visited. To tell you the truth, by the time she was finished I was tempted to buy the curling iron because my hair feels pretty good but I resisted.
Anyway, then I I walked along to the Bond Street station popping in and out of a few stores and took the tube home. Thanks heavens I got a seat. Tonight we're going down the street to David's Deli for a light dinner because someone from Frommer's is giving a travel talk there.
Here's a fashion trend I've noticed here. I see young women on the tube, tall, long-legged beautiful girls who all look like they could win on America's Next Top Model. They wear a sort of loose top and a funky-looking jacket, a big scarf casually wound around their neck (I can never make that look right; why is that? is there some trick to it?), short short cut-off bluejean shorts over opaque black tights and either high-tops or boots. It looks fabulous. It looks like they just reached into their closet blindfolded and grabbed a bunch of stuff and threw it together and it worked. My SO wants me to cut off my jeans and wear them over tights. I laughed and laughed!!!!
*how do I find the pound sign for English money on a North American keyboard?
**does anybody else remember stirrup pants? They were popular years ago and I loved them then. They make your pant legs stay in your boots so nicely
Well, today was just a normal day. What? No free tours? No cake-baking celebrities? How can this be?
Well, there you go. Life evens out. Today we split up (we're not actually joined at the hip though we do often seem to be). SO stayed home to do some work and is now missing in action, off doing errands like signing up at the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre. I went off to M&S to buy cheap jeans (did so for 12 pounds*). I had lunch at the sushi conveyor-belt stand at Selfridges, then bought my cheap jeans and a pair of stirrup leggings** at M&S, walked around there for a long time and then back to Selfridges for a browse there. I was exhausted -- I definitely don't have the shopping stamina I used to have -- and took every opportunity to sit down, including getting free curls from the young lady who was demonstrating curling irons. To be fair, I told her ahead of time that I wasn't going to buy one but she said she didn't care, that she liked to do people with curly hair (a stretch when it comes to my hair these days). Anyway, I think she saved my life. I had a good long sit while she curled up all my hair and we talked about the various places in the US that she'd visited. To tell you the truth, by the time she was finished I was tempted to buy the curling iron because my hair feels pretty good but I resisted.
Anyway, then I I walked along to the Bond Street station popping in and out of a few stores and took the tube home. Thanks heavens I got a seat. Tonight we're going down the street to David's Deli for a light dinner because someone from Frommer's is giving a travel talk there.
Here's a fashion trend I've noticed here. I see young women on the tube, tall, long-legged beautiful girls who all look like they could win on America's Next Top Model. They wear a sort of loose top and a funky-looking jacket, a big scarf casually wound around their neck (I can never make that look right; why is that? is there some trick to it?), short short cut-off bluejean shorts over opaque black tights and either high-tops or boots. It looks fabulous. It looks like they just reached into their closet blindfolded and grabbed a bunch of stuff and threw it together and it worked. My SO wants me to cut off my jeans and wear them over tights. I laughed and laughed!!!!
*how do I find the pound sign for English money on a North American keyboard?
**does anybody else remember stirrup pants? They were popular years ago and I loved them then. They make your pant legs stay in your boots so nicely
Sep 20th, 2010, 09:49 AM
#171
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GTG - on Fodor's (or anything else that uses HTML), you can type "& pound ;" without the spaces to create the pound sign. Not sure what the keyboard shortcut is - it also depends on whether you have Windows or a Mac.
Sep 21st, 2010, 01:22 AM
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GTG - you're making me crack up b/c the majority of girls I see wearing the jorts (jean shorts) over tights look HORRIBLE! I think it's most likely a reflection of the denizens of Bond Street vs the more middle class places I've lived in London ;-) My friends and I have been having an epic debate on who exactly can pull that look off. You're very right...it is a 'look' here that I haven't seen duplicated in NY recently.
Re the scarves - look on the internet! There are a million sites that can show you how to wear them.
Re the scarves - look on the internet! There are a million sites that can show you how to wear them.
Sep 21st, 2010, 03:19 AM
#176
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GTG, loving this report. I used to live in the less salubrious Kilburn and spent much of my time hanging around West Hampstead. It's a great area for star spotting - I've spotted Emma T a few times, I once sat near Kate Winslet in a greasy spoon cafe with her tucking into a huge fried breakfast (good girl), saw Glenda Jackson pounding the streets campaigning for election to Parliament and I've bumped into Helena Bonham-Carter so many times I'm starting to think she's stalking me.
Sep 21st, 2010, 04:25 AM
#177
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<<Yay, it works -- thanks! I don't think it works in gmail, though.>>
Either copy and paste the £ or in MS word, goto 'insert' and 'symbol' and you should find it there - it will give you the key board short cut.
Re the shorts over opaque tights, that's a been a trend here since the Reynold's girls.
scroll down http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3632388.stm
Take a look at the office workers, they don't do denim but often do 'city shorts' - black shorts with the same tights.
Either copy and paste the £ or in MS word, goto 'insert' and 'symbol' and you should find it there - it will give you the key board short cut.
Re the shorts over opaque tights, that's a been a trend here since the Reynold's girls.
scroll down http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3632388.stm
Take a look at the office workers, they don't do denim but often do 'city shorts' - black shorts with the same tights.
Sep 21st, 2010, 03:43 PM
#179
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I really think you have to have the magic touch with scarves. I can look at the diagrams and do what they say but you can practically see the 'now fold A over B and tuck into C' instructions when I do it. It just doesn't have the same je ne sai quois if ya get my drift.
I saw some cute shorts/tights sets for little girls at M&S and I think I'll buy some for my little niece. She's going to be 9 next month and it will be a good birthday present. I think she can pull off 'the look'. I was planning to send a box of stuff home for the little kids but boy is that ever expensive! I'm just going to send a few small things and bring the rest home with me in December.
I haven't seen any other movie stars around here. Or maybe I have. As I've said above, I'm really bad at that. However, now I'm going to be walking around the streets looking for Kate Winslet. Maybe she has a library card...
Today was very interesting. We split up again, with my SO going off to meet a friend for lunch and me going to Buckingham Palace for a tour of the State Rooms. This is a direct result of me never having gotten into the White House. We've been to Washington a hundred times and everytime I said I wanted to go on a tour of the White House, my SO and friends pooh-poohed it (snobs) and I wimped out. Finally, I put my foot down and said that's it! next time we're in DC, I'm going to the White House come hell or high water! And then they made the rule that says no more foreigners in the WH. You have to get permission from your congressman and I don't have one of those.
So instead I went to Buckingham Palace and it was absolutely gorgeous. You really don't have to be interested in the monarchy -- you can look at it strictly as an art gallery and there's more than enough there for that but I was interested in the history as well. The details of the rooms are incredible and the art was gorgeous. Beautiful Rembrandts, Van Dykes, Reubens. So much to see. The audio tour was pretty good too. I took about two hours, though it can be done in less time if you don't look at all the paintings and skip the 'offshoots' of the audio tour but I did the whole thing.
You leave the grounds by walking through the beautiful gardens and I walked around to Victoria looking for a place to have lunch and plunked myself down in the Pret a Manger right across the road from the Victoria Palace Theatre where Billy Elliott is playing. Well, this was opportune because we'd been planning to see it anyway. I got us two tickets for this evening's performance -- 60 gbp tickets for 35 gbp each, which was a good price for good seats. We were in the 5th row centre of the dress circle (which, where I come from, is called the first balcony).
I spent the rest of the afternoon browsing on Victoria Road and met my SO for dinner at a place called Ha Ha Grill before the theatre. We'd both liked the movie Billy Elliott and liked the play well enough but not as much as the movie. For one thing, we both had trouble decifering the dialogue because of the accents combined with the shouting of the lines. The dancing was good and for me, the high point by far was the first act finale which I thought was outstanding. In any case, it was a nice evening. Home on the tube and that's that for today.
Tomorrow, Bloomsbury.
I saw some cute shorts/tights sets for little girls at M&S and I think I'll buy some for my little niece. She's going to be 9 next month and it will be a good birthday present. I think she can pull off 'the look'. I was planning to send a box of stuff home for the little kids but boy is that ever expensive! I'm just going to send a few small things and bring the rest home with me in December.
I haven't seen any other movie stars around here. Or maybe I have. As I've said above, I'm really bad at that. However, now I'm going to be walking around the streets looking for Kate Winslet. Maybe she has a library card...
Today was very interesting. We split up again, with my SO going off to meet a friend for lunch and me going to Buckingham Palace for a tour of the State Rooms. This is a direct result of me never having gotten into the White House. We've been to Washington a hundred times and everytime I said I wanted to go on a tour of the White House, my SO and friends pooh-poohed it (snobs) and I wimped out. Finally, I put my foot down and said that's it! next time we're in DC, I'm going to the White House come hell or high water! And then they made the rule that says no more foreigners in the WH. You have to get permission from your congressman and I don't have one of those.
So instead I went to Buckingham Palace and it was absolutely gorgeous. You really don't have to be interested in the monarchy -- you can look at it strictly as an art gallery and there's more than enough there for that but I was interested in the history as well. The details of the rooms are incredible and the art was gorgeous. Beautiful Rembrandts, Van Dykes, Reubens. So much to see. The audio tour was pretty good too. I took about two hours, though it can be done in less time if you don't look at all the paintings and skip the 'offshoots' of the audio tour but I did the whole thing.
You leave the grounds by walking through the beautiful gardens and I walked around to Victoria looking for a place to have lunch and plunked myself down in the Pret a Manger right across the road from the Victoria Palace Theatre where Billy Elliott is playing. Well, this was opportune because we'd been planning to see it anyway. I got us two tickets for this evening's performance -- 60 gbp tickets for 35 gbp each, which was a good price for good seats. We were in the 5th row centre of the dress circle (which, where I come from, is called the first balcony).
I spent the rest of the afternoon browsing on Victoria Road and met my SO for dinner at a place called Ha Ha Grill before the theatre. We'd both liked the movie Billy Elliott and liked the play well enough but not as much as the movie. For one thing, we both had trouble decifering the dialogue because of the accents combined with the shouting of the lines. The dancing was good and for me, the high point by far was the first act finale which I thought was outstanding. In any case, it was a nice evening. Home on the tube and that's that for today.
Tomorrow, Bloomsbury.
Sep 22nd, 2010, 06:52 AM
#180
I haven't seen any other movie stars around here>>
possibly being a tad greedy here, gtg? you've had your ration for now and then some, IMHO.
shame that you struggled with the accents in billy elliot. i seem to remember that it is set "up north" [shades of CW and his obsession with kestrel strangling, or whatever it was]. perhaps you should have warmed your ears up with a spot of Corrie watching. ok, wrong side of the penines, but you catch my drift].
I remember taking DD to Buck House quite a few years ago now, when they first opened it to the hoy poloy. [glad to see that WE are not discriminating against non-brits!] my overwhelming impression was that it was no wonder the royal kids turned out like they did being brought up in that lot! we didn't get to see the gardens either, which would have been my major interest. doubt that I'd bother again.
how was bloomsbury?
possibly being a tad greedy here, gtg? you've had your ration for now and then some, IMHO.
shame that you struggled with the accents in billy elliot. i seem to remember that it is set "up north" [shades of CW and his obsession with kestrel strangling, or whatever it was]. perhaps you should have warmed your ears up with a spot of Corrie watching. ok, wrong side of the penines, but you catch my drift].
I remember taking DD to Buck House quite a few years ago now, when they first opened it to the hoy poloy. [glad to see that WE are not discriminating against non-brits!] my overwhelming impression was that it was no wonder the royal kids turned out like they did being brought up in that lot! we didn't get to see the gardens either, which would have been my major interest. doubt that I'd bother again.
how was bloomsbury?
