Therese

And yet Patrick was willing to attend an evening for which I'd suggested that we might all get tattoos. Not that we did, but I hadn't ruled it out entirely.

As for the real CW, the one on youtube, I already knew about him. It's the mystery man that's the puzzle.

stokebailey

See. My point about Patrick.

Well, enough of my troubles. Carry on with your fun report.

Therese

"You look like a monkey and you smell like one, too"

I was a bit dismissive about the zoo (ZSL) upthread, and realize I should give a bit more detail for any of you who might be contemplating the trip.

It's located in Regent's Park at the northern end, and if you walk along Regent's Canal (as we did on an earlier visit) actually walk underneath next to it. Or rather underneath it, as it bridges the canal. Admission is on the pricey side at 18.50 GBP for an adult, but if you've got paper Travelcards from National Rail (we bought ours at Victoria, remember?) and remember to go to the Days Out web site (http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/) in advance and print out your voucher you can do get a 2-for-1 deal. Since my son wasn't along on this trip my daughter was able to use his Travelcard. She'd have been eligible for the child ticket in any case but that's still 15 GBP, so that was 15 GBP saved.

If you're feeling particularly flush as a result, not to worry, ZSL's got every possible iteration of zoo paraphernalia available for you to spend it on. We managed to resist.

Anyway, lovely zoo, with my favorites being the Snowdon Aviary, the otters, and the birds of prey display. This last event takes place on the Display Lawn, a sort of grassy amphitheatre where the audience sits while sharp-taloned birds swoop low over the heads. Or rather where the audience is supposed to sit, but there are always a few who insist on getting up, and part of what makes the show so fun is the anticipation that one of these individuals will meet with some, um, misfortune.

As it turned the show was cancelled soon after it started when one of birds decided that he'd much rather pursue live prey. His name was Harry, and for a while there we thought he'd come to a bad end himself in the tiger pen, but it turned out that he may have inadvertently dropped his kill into the tiger pen, where a tiger was perfectly happy to finish it off. <burp>

Harry may well still be at large somewhere in the greater metropolitan area. Probably visiting Cholmondley-Warner.

travelgirl2

Enjoying your report...

Therese

Thanks, travelgirl2, and anybody else reading along.

Therese

London swings...

We came home from the zoo to find that Son had not, as promised, tidied the flat, so we dashed around a bit making it presentable, just managing to beat our host for the evening, Fiona, who arrived right on time for an aperitif of elderflower liqueur and Tesco cheese straws.

How very elegant. Martha Stewart and Nigella Lawson all rolled up into one, that's me.

We'd planned on taking public transit to our dinner venue, catching the bus around the corner from the apartment. But when we got to the stop I realized that the ticket machines I'd seen at some of the busier stops in central London weren't at this stop. And neither I nor Fiona (who uses an Oyster so never thinks about it) knew whether it was possible to buy a ticket from the driver. Hmm, if only a certain somebody had helped her mother get her Zip Oyster in time...

So instead of waiting for a bus and possibly finding out that we were out of luck I suggested that we hail a cab, and within seconds we'd all four piled into a proper London cab, complete with jump seats for the kids. Earlier I'd explained to the kids that cabs in the U.S. had these when I was a child, and that sitting in one was of my favorite things about a day out with my mother (who didn't drive at the time). These days they feature seat belts.

So we pulled up to Fiona's private club in Soho in style. She'd planned on eating in the bar, but it was busy, hosting a book party for a slim but compelling book called "Fifty Ways to Find a Lover". So we headed up to the dining room, which was also pretty cool though nowhere near so crowded as the book party. Interesting decor, sort of shabby chic if shabby chic were to drop acid. Nice food and a very pleasant evening.

Home by 11:00 or so, so London would have to swing without me.

stokebailey

Fun reporting, Therese.

Therese

Tuesday on the Thames

Sorry for my having neglected this report for so long---very busy at work, and then a bad case of computer flu (very tedious story) earlier this week).

Anyway, on with the fun.

What with Daughter's having been ill and so forth, this was our first day of touring all together. I'd initially planned on visiting Greenwich on Sunday (when the market's in full swing) but decided not to put it off in case the weather took a turn for the worse later in the day.

I managed to drag everybody out of bed in time to (at least in theory) get to the Tower Hill tube station in time for the 10:45 start time of LondonWalks tour of Greenwich (which I'd taken with my husband several years ago and was doing with the children at his emphatic suggestion). This meant leaving the apartment a bit before 10:00 so as to be able to walk to the Gloucester Road tube station and catch either the District or Circle line.

But wait, there's something else I'd need to do at the Gloucester Road station, and that was purchase Daughter's "kid for a quid" ticket. And to my dismay the Gloucester Road station is absolutely packed with (mostly) French and Italian tourists who either haven't the faintest idea what they're supposed to do or just like spending lots of time in queues. Or just milling about aimlessly. I did manage to get to a ticket machine quickly (because it only took coins, as I recall) and couldn't find an option for purchasing this type of ticket (presumably for reasons that will become apparent later in this episode) and realized I'd have to get to a ticket window somehow.

So I looked at the time and decided that if we walked very quickly to the next tube station (South Kensington) and the lines were short there that we might just make it. And of course I also knew that if we didn't make the tour we could just proceed on our own.

So after giving Daughter a very stern look (it being her fault that she didn't have her very cool Zip card to make this all very easy) I set off at a breakneck pace. South Kensington was much quieter, and I approached a window and asked for a "child's off-peak day ticket". After he'd figured out what I wanted the agent looked at me, asked to see the child (though he didn't ask specifically for proof of age), asked me if she'd be traveling with me, and asked me what sort of ticket I had (a Travelcard, which I showed him). Finally he was willing to issue the ticket, and off we went.

In the end we did make it to Tower Hill before the tour left, and paid (student rate of 5 GBP for both children, though the guide initially balked when Daughter couldn't produce her school ID, which I'd also told her to bring, and 7 GBP for me + 2 GBP for a discount Walkabout Card) plus some additional amount of money for the boat ride that I can't recall just now.

The tour was fine, but not as much fun as the last time due to (a) our guide being rather more worried about enunciation than about providing lots of information and (b) two of the original (very large) party getting separated from the group when we arrived in Greenwich. They called the LondonWalks office, who in turn called our guide, and we all got to stand in front of the Greenwich DLR station for quite a long time while they caught up to us.

Once the tour was finished we were hungry, and so we stopped for lunch at Trafalgar Tavern (http://www.trafalgartavern.co.uk/), where I had whitebait, Daughter had caesar salad and Son had a sandwich of some sort.

We checked out the the Painted Hall (http://www.oldroyalnavalcollege.org/the-painted-hall/) and then the Maritime Museum (http://www.nmm.ac.uk/). The exhibits at Greenwich all close fairly early (at 5:00 PM), so missed going into the Queen's House or the Royal Observatory, though we did climb to the top of the hill and enjoy the lovely day from our perch on the grassy slope.

By the time we got home we were all exhausted, and ate dinner in (a not particularly amazing curry dinner from Marks & Spencer, if memory serves, followed by bread & butter pudding) and crashed.

Therese

Tuesday on the Thames, continued...

Just remembered that I left out the last part of our day in Greenwich, which was the return trip.

We walked under the Thames via the Greenwich Foot Tunnel (http://www.greenwich-guide.org.uk/tunnel.htm). The kids found this memorable for several reasons. The first was the large number of cyclists riding in the tunnel, despite it being very clearly marked as prohibited. The second was the elevator at the far end that brought us back up to street level. It was the elevator that fascinated, but the fact that it was manned by an operator. The idea of an operator was just entirely foreign to them, and the fact that he was at liberty to play recorded pop music was even more fascinating.

We boarded the Docklands Light Railway at Island Gardens. I find this trip very cool, very much like I've somehow been transported to the future someplace where everybody travels through the air and buildings emerge from the water. Not everybody's cup of tea, but my son found it every bit as interesting.

We switched at Bank/Monument, which you shouldn't do because it's almost impossible to do at the moment (explaining the signs in all the trains that tell you to avoid doing it, but of course I wasn't paying much attention). Since we were tired I decided to switch at Victoria for a bus that would take us all the way home (rather than a 10-15 minute walk from a tube station). I withdrew some cash (my first and only withdrawal for this trip, as I'd arrived with about 80 GBP from a previous trip and paid for most things with a credit card) while we waited, and we hustled right up to the upper deck to score seats (easy as this is relatively early in this particular route's journey) which offered a great view of London from up high (again, a bit like the DLR). Lots of disappointed tourists downstream on this trip, and a testy driver who insisted they not stand on the upper level (eventually leading to my explaing in Italian to a large group why she'd stopped the bus and was pounding on the ceiling of her compartment).

Finally, home.

Lauratg

Therese,

Your experience with the foot tunnel was the same as ours -- lots of cyclists who were simply not amused that a group of people might be walking under there. My thought about the elevator operator was that it must be the worst job ever. Let him have his pop music!

Therese

Walks on Wednesday

Wednesday AM featured another LondonWalks tour, this time to a site that I'd never previously visited, the Tower of London. I'd considered doing this visit on our own, but knew that I'd likely have difficulty getting the kids going as early as I'd like (to avoid lines), so we once again headed out the door a few minutes before 10:00 but this time went directly to South Kensington rather than Gloucester Road (where I had no doubt that some of the very same tourists might still be standing).

We made good time to Tower Hill and met Brian, our guide. No nonsense about my daughter's needing her student ID, and he did an excellent job of herding his very large group around. With the tour you get a break on the admission fee and get to enter through the group entrance. Much more information, much brisker pace. A woman who'd been in the Greenwich tour the day before said hello, and we talked for a bit, and she asked if I'd been on any of the pub walks. I answered yes, and that I was considering going on one that evening, and she was as well. Also in the group was a guy I'd swear was an old boyfriend with whom I'd parted on bad terms. We did not speak, so I don't know for sure (and if I never know that will be just fine), but it lent an eery quality to the tour. The world is a very small place.

The tour ends at the line to see the Crown Jewels. The guide continues to speak to the group (now standing in line) until right before you enter the building, so the wait goes quite quickly. Were it not for this inducement I'd have skipped them, as I don't find them all that compelling and the actual experience didn't change my mind.

We had lunch at the New Armouries restaurant. Self-service, but the food was good and reasonably priced, and the dining room pleasant (or as pleasant as a large dining room full of children can ever be). We finished out the afternoon at the Tower, and headed home, more or less whipped, again.

CAPH52

Thanks for mentioning your lunch at the New Armouries restaurant. The day that we "do" the Tower we're probably going to need to grab something close and quick. So, though I'm guessing it'll be a lot busier in June, it's a good thing to keep in mind.

Anxious to hear the rest when you have time, Therese.

Therese

This is taking me pretty much forever to complete, isn't it? That pesky job... Oh, and there was the hideous computer virus last week, the first one ever that's required that my entire hard drive be wiped clean. Very tedious.

I should have a few minutes of downtime today.

CAPH52

Believe me, I understand, Therese. If you were to look at my trip report list, I think you'd find that it took me <i>at least</i> a month to finish most of them! So, compared to me, you're zipping right along!

Therese

More Walks on Wednesday...

You'll likely have gathered by now that when I say that we returned home from the Tower "whipped" I really meant that my children were whipped. I was tired, of course, but I'm not going to let that sort of thing get in the way of having a good time, so once I'd gotten them home and provisions laid in for their supper I headed back out, this time via tube to Mansion House to meet Shaughan for the Along the Thames Pub Walk. The group was again a bit larger than I'm used to for London Walks tours, again presumably due to it's being a holiday for many people (and nice weather so far as well). I met some people on holiday from Norway, and an English couple (just in London for the afternoon---some friends had done the tour and told them about it, so they thought they'd do it as well), and the woman I'd met from the earlier tours (who turned out to be from Singapore, on her via to a wedding in Paris). Ever smaller, the world.

A pleasant tour, my first visit to the other side of the Thames this trip, and afterwards I had a late dinner with my new friend from Singapore at Wine Wharf (http://www.winewharf.com/index.cfm). Nice food, nice wines, convivial atmosphere, open late. I had a veal and beef burger (unusual for me, but I was quite hungry by that point) and it was excellent. By now it was getting fairly late, so once again time to head home.

lmf

Where did you go Therese? Please post more!

Therese

Back, finally, though still with entirely too much work on my desk. It's Friday, though, so time to give myself a mini-vacation. Or at least re-visit my most recent one.

So...

I'd been trying to decide whether to try for theatre tickets at Leicester Square, and if I did this was going to be a good morning to go do it. I'd been checking the web site all week (http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/tkts/) to see what had been available, though, and based on our tastes didn't really see anything that was going to make all of us all that happy, so instead decided that we'd do something else that evening, precisely what to be determined.

It's also entirely possible that my late evening the night before had something to do with my decision to sleep in.

So, another not very early start to the day, such that we managed to make it to our first stop, Borough Market, by about 12:30. None of us was too hungry yet, so we walked around a bit until we were, and by that time it was getting late for a sit down lunch. So instead we all chose something from a vendor. Ravioli in brown butter and sage for Daughter, bacon butty for me, and a mixed butty for Son. Very nice, if ridiculously large. No actual grocery shopping, as we were headed for a museum.

The museum in question was the Imperial War Museum, where we spent an interesting afternoon. I spent most of my time in the Children's War area of the museum. None of us visited either the Holocaust or Genocide exhibits.

We caught a bus home and dined in, picking up something at one of the shops right at the corner of our street (Drayton Court? must check) and the Fulham Road. There's a set of cinemas just catty-cornered from the shops, and as I'd suspected there was a movie showing that I thought we'd all enjoy. I'll wait to tell you what it is, but here's a hint:

Radio Caroline

Anybody old enough to remember it (or similar)?

CarolA

Love the report

""Do you want to go to London with us on spring break?"

"No, not really."

"Would you like to go somewhere else?"

"No, not really.""

But I am worried. I live in Atlanta.... Are you married to my boyfriend? (Just kidding but this sounds JUST LIKE our conversations...So tomorrow he will drive me the Hartsfield and give me a kiss goodbye while my mother and I fly off to Spain and Portugal. That's if I ever pack!)

flanneruk

Not sure how historically accurate it is - or is meant to be.

'The Boat that Rocked' is supposed to be about Radio Caroline South, which really started the pirate radio thing in Britain, and therefore forced a change in the way radio was run in Britain.

It didn't start offshore broadcasting: before Caroline we used to listen to Radio Luxembourg for pop music in the 60s, and previous generations had listened to Radio Normandie or even AFN (broadcast from Frankfurt, I think). Britain wasn't unique: Italians listened to Radio Capodistria (beamed out of that shrine of free markets and free speech: communist Yugoslavia) and the French listened toFrench-language Radio Luxembourg or Radio Monte Carlo. The Dutch had had the pirate ship Veronica for years (and it had had a following in Eastern England for years too). There's a bit of serious exaggeration ion all the nostalgia about Caroline etc.

Not least about Radio Caroline South's popularity. It was rapidly overtaken, at least for street cred, by fellow-pirate Radio London, which was the radio station all my southern peers listened to. For them Caroline was a bit of an old fart.

What did retain street cred, though, was Caroline North which 'The Boat that Rocked' pretty much ignores. Caroline North was anchored off the Isle of Man, which gave it even more complicated defence against prosecution, and practically monopolised pop music broadcasting from mid-64 to what was still, just, the pop music music capital of the world. It DIDN'T play wall to wall Merseybeat: it played Southern and US pop music, and its playlist was probably a bigger influence on what Liverpool record stores stocked than what the Cavern DJs were into. Roughly as important as Ready Steady Go - and much, much, more omnipresent.

PatrickLondon

It's a Richard Curtis film - nuff said. But apart from that, Therese, did you enjoy the film?