fauxklore

One of my theories on travel is that it is worth going somewhere if my time at the destination is at least three times the transportation time involved. I have violated this a few times, generally for frequent flyer related events where the journey is the destination. But, in general, it’s a rule I try to adhere to. It provides an excellent justification for a long weekend trip to London, which I did at the beginning of the month.

United has a daytime flight from IAD to LHR, which is wonderful. You leave Dulles at 9:30 in the morning and get in at about 10 p.m. Seven hours and daytime makes this perfectly reasonable to do in coach. The flight was remarkably empty. It was an older plane with somewhat limited seatback entertainment selections, but I was still able to find two movies to watch. One for the Money was not as good as the Stephanie Plum novels, but still pretty entertaining. Albert Nobbs was, alas, merely dull. Food was mediocre (breakfast was choice of omelet or french toast, snack before landing was sandwich and chips) but not horrible.

I’ve heard horror stories about immigration at LHR in recent days and they did appear understaffed at terminal 1, but I got through in under a half hour. I got some money at an ATM, bought a pay-as-you-go Oyster card (something I really ought to have done a couple of years ago), and took the tube to Earl’s Court. I stayed at Base 2 Stay Kensington, which was relatively reasonably priced and very convenient. The room was small, with a twin bed, but had a refrigerator and microwave and free internet via the television (somewhat slow but useful for things like checking opening hours and weather).

The primary object of the trip was seeing the exhibit at the Natural History Museum on Scott’s Last Expedition and I did that Friday morning. The museum was an easy and pleasant walk from the hotel. I thought they did an excellent job of highlighting the science that Scott’s men performed, which is one of the key differences between his expedition and Amundsen’s. There’s a lot one can criticize Scott for (especially his last minute decision to add a fifth man to the polar party). But seeing the replica of the Cape Evans hut and the samples in the work area, really brought out that his was a scientific expedition and not a mere race to the Pole. I was also pleased that they had a lot of material both on the Western expedition (“the worst journey in the world”) and the Northern party. The latter is truly one of the great survival stories of all time, as the men, who’d planned a six week trip, unexpectedly wintered in an ice cave when the ship was unable to reach them and then managed to walk to the main expedition hut. All in all, the exhibit was well worth a couple of hours.

After grabbing a quick lunch, I took the tube east to the West Ham station. Why was I off to the industrial wastelands of East London? The Olympics are coming up and London Walks had a walk that took in the Olympic venues. I’ve done several of these walks over the years and I’ve enjoyed all of them. This one was largely along a greenway that had been built on top of the sewer system. The guide talked about the history of the area, which included pointing out the gas works where the rockets used in the War of 1812 were manufactured. There was one very dramatic building, resembling a cathedral, which turned out to be the main pumping station for the sewer system. There was also plenty of trivia about the Olympics. Eventually we reached the Olympics Park area and had excellent views of various venues, including the stadium, the aquatic center, and a rather dreadful modern sculpture that looks like it should be a roller coaster. At the end of the walk, we were near the Pudding Mill Lane station of the Docklands Light Rail, making for an easy connection back to the tube and central London.

I meandered over to Leicester Square and bought a cheap ticket to see Top Hat that evening. I had time for a pub dinner at the Wellington (delicious smoked haddock fish cakes, salad, and roasted potatoes, but rather bland Cornish ale) before the show. The stage adaptation of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie was reasonably entertaining. The plot was silly and a bit sexist and the first act could have used some tightening up. (Bear in mind, however, that I dislike farce.) But the Irving Berlin score (which includes such songs as “Cheek to Cheek” and “Let’s Face the Music and Dance”) is excellent. The performances, by Tom Chambers and Summer Strallen as the leads, were excellent, with strong support from Martin Ball, Vivien Perry, and Stephen Boswell. All in all, it was an enjoyable evening.

Robert and I may no longer be conducting the world’s longest running brief meaningless fling, but we are trying to be civilized and made plans to get together on Saturday to do a foodie walk of the West End. Neither of us had quite realized that this was not a tasting tour. Instead, it was just a normal London Walk, but with a focus on food-related sites and stories. That was probably better for us, anyway, and it was definitely entertaining. The sites included the Ritz, Fortnum and Mason, chocolate and cheese shops with royal warrants, Italian delis, a gelato shop (where we did get samples) and, eventually, Chinatown. We took advantage of the latter for lunch after the tour. All in all, I had a good time and we got along well enough that maybe we can continue to be friends.

I can’t go to London without a visit to Foyle’s, one of the greatest bookstores in the world. I took advantage of the visit to replace my dated copy of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetables, as well as to buy Alexander McCall Smith’s new Professor Dr. von Igelfeld book, which is not yet available in the U.S. (and was a quick and enjoyable read).

As for Saturday night, I had done a quick look at the website of the Society for Storytelling and found out about Story meal. The concept, eating a meal and listening to stories, was right up my alley. The location was a short walk from a tube station and easy enough to find. The storyteller for the evening, Fema Martin, was more literary than I might have preferred, but she did tell (rather than read) and her pieces were interesting. The conversation was as appealing as the stories, with a wide range of attendees. And the food wasn’t bad, either. I would definitely go again if I were in London when this is happening.

The trip home was pretty painless. It was a newer plane, with audio-visual on demand. I took advantage of that to watch Young Adult, a very interesting movie starring Charlize Theron as a writer struggling against her own immaturity. I also watched The Bucket List, which I had surprisingly never seen before and mostly enjoyed.

Overall, it was an excellent trip. I could have used better weather and I wouldn’t have minded another day, but it was definitely worth even such a short excursion.

Robert and I managed to do remarkably little during the day yesterday. Basically, we went out to have a late breakfast at Amphora (pretty standard diner fare) and I did grocery shopping while he stuck things I'd normally never buy in my cart. I don't actually object to a mixture of tea and pomegranate juice per se, but it's absurdly overpriced. Nor do I really object to potato chips, but there are better brands than the one he decided he had to have. I do, however, cringe at the thought of being seen purchasing the National Enquirer. I think celebrity gossip is fundamentally an unfair invasion of privacy, but Robert thinks that being a public figure makes you fair game for pretty much anything. And, yes, we've had this argument before.

I spent part of the afternoon furthering Robert's education. He noticed the nalbound mittens I finished recently. (They're sitting out in my living room, as I decide whether I will really wear them or donate them to charity.) He was impressed that I'd made them, especially when I said I'd only learned the technique in October. That led me to showing him how it works. He asked me what knitting and crocheting are and I gave him demonstrations of those, too. He also asked about patterns and where you get them and I showed him a few to explain. I had assumed that his mother knitted, just because she was of the same age and background as my mother. (In fact, they went to the same high school at the same time, though it isn't clear whether they knew one another.) But he says he never saw her doing any of this. The net result of the discussion is that he suddenly realized how much time women in pre-industrial society must have spent on producing clothing. I pointed out to him that sewing could be faster (though, of course, spinning and weaving were required first) and, more importantly, people just didn't have much clothing. Even now, it's not really uncommon for somebody in the developing world to have only one or two complete outfits.

We went out in the late afternoon to the city. Robert appears to have much better luck with respect to metro track work than I do and we got a train right away in Vienna and a connecting Red Line train right away at Metro Center. So we got to Dupont Circle with lots of time to spare. We killed the time browsing at a couple of stores, including the "adult" store he had previously balked at going into. I think he was slightly shocked at a few things for sale, but it's really a pretty benign store as far as the sort goes. Browsing at the bookstore is, of course, far safer.

We got to the JCC in plenty of time to find good seats for the movie we had tickets for. "Max Minsky and Me" was being shown as part of the Washington Jewish Film Festival. There were the usual lengthy introductions and thank yous beforehand and a Q&A session with the producer afterwards. The movie was very enjoyable - the sweet story of a nerdy tween girl in Berlin who wants to be an astronomer and fantasizes about the prince of Luxembourg, who is also interested in the subject. She is determined to make the girls' basketball team so she can go to Luxembourg to play in a tournament the prince is sponsoring. So she enlists Max to teach her to play basketball, in exchange for doing his homework at school. The developing relationship, along with both teenagers' relationships with their parents, is handled nicely, with enough tension to make things interesting but no actual danger. There's also a major subplot involving her upcoming bat mitzvah, as she skips Hebrew school to practice baskeball. Ultimately, the story is about finding one's home and figuring out where one belongs in the world. All of this had plenty of warmth and humor. This is the sort of movie that will probably never get a theatrical release, alas, but it seems to be doing well on the festival circuit.

After the movie, we had an excellent dinner at Hank's - good seafood and good side dishes, including the cole slaw (which few restaurants in this region do well). They don't do dessert since their kitchen is really too small to manage more than their limited menu, but the complementary chocolates at the end were really all the sweetness we needed.

As for other aspects of his visit, smile. I just wish he could have stayed here longer. We did manage to get up to have enough time for brunch today (at Eggspectation, near the airport). And we have enough of a plan for a weekend in Paris for me to start working on getting plane tickets.

Thus continues the world's longest running brief meaningless fling.