One Night In London

by Miss Penny Black

We left Belfast around midday and flew to Luton, the only London airport I had yet to pass through. Our flight was the bumpiest I’ve had in years. I won’t blame EasyJet… but should I?

The trip from Luton into the city was straightforward and we had booked a nice-ish hotel, the NYX London for the final night of our trip.

It was very centrally located in Holborn, close the the British Museum and Seven Dials, where I was hoping to get in a final visit to the Gudrun Sjoden store.

The hotel foyer looking a bit like a Vegas casino.

We dropped off our bags in our room on the ninth floor. It wasn’t high enough to escape the traffic noises but it wasn’t too bad.

We had booked the hotel because it had a pool and I wanted one more holiday swim, but by the time we got there I couldn’t be bothered. We went out for a walk instead.

On our walk we had one of the more disturbing experiences of our trip. We were by the Thames and it was rush hour, with hundreds of cyclists going by every minute. We saw a man on a bike, who was probably in his late 50s and without a helmet, go sailing off his bike. He looked like he’d just fainted while in motion and he just sort of flew onto the road head first.

It was so shocking, we were about 20 metres away and a number of other cyclists immediately stopped to help him. We stood for a couple of moments to see if he’d wake up, which he did, and one of the cyclists called an ambulance. The whole sight was quite distressing and even now, two weeks later, I wonder how he is recovering.

I didn’t even know Twinings had a store. I meant to send this photo to Jess but forgot so here it is for you!

For dinner I did a search of local pubs and booked us a table at The Ship Tavern.

It turned out to be a great way to spend our last evening. We ordered a steak and ale pie for two and sat in a cosy booth drinking wine. Lovely!

Despite being in a tiny room the pub restaurant was full of character. The staff were lovely too.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to spend some of last £20 notes. We had a couple of fancy cocktails but then discovered they don’t take cash, which I hate – if it’s legal tender it should be accepted in businesses. We tried to spend it at the airport the next day and came across the same problem. So if anyone wants to buy £80 off me let me know!

Our flight the next day wasn’t until after 8pm, so we had a whole day to fill.

First up was the hotel’s buffet breakfast, which was quite nice. I forgot to take photos, which Mum will be happy about as she told me there were too many food photos in the blog.

We went for a walk around Seven Dials and Holborn.

There’s a public art space in the area that is a huge screen that wraps around 3 sides of a large undercover area and also covers the high ceiling. Anyone can walk in and it shows a range of artworks.

This is all screens, it was very entertaining.

I went back to my favourite store to find that there were lots of things on sale (yay!) but also lots of things sold out (boo!). I bought a bunch of patterned tops and bits and pieces and the lady gave me a discount if I promised to join the store club online, which took me two weeks but I eventually got around to it. She even remembered me from my previous visit! I don’t think they’d ever had anyone so excited to be there.

After that we went to see the new Wes Anderson movie.

We both agreed that it was the most Wes Anderson that Wes Anderson had ever Wes Andersoned.

Before and after the movie we spent some time in Foyles, a five storey book store with a fairly small sci-fi and fantasy section. I didn’t find anything I wanted but I thought this cover was funny.

Last stop was a drink and some food at a pub not far from the hotel. Unfortunately it was full of day office workers but we were happy to be indoors watching the rain come down.

Some extremely unhealthy snacks for our late lunch.

Eventually we went back to the hotel to collect our bags from storage and headed for Heathrow.

We decided to catch the new Elizabeth Line. The sign at Tottenham Court Road said all trains stopped at Heathrow, but once we got on I noticed it said it was going to Reading (pronounced Redding, just to be difficult). As I anticipated, the train did not stop at Heathrow.

We were very early, which was lucky as I might’ve had an aneurism if we had come near to missing our flight. It was also absolutely pouring with rain when we got off at the next stop. A rail worker on the platform told us there would be a bus nearby but we followed his directions and found no bus stop, nothing.

We ended up catching an Uber to Heathrow and the driver was very happy to have an airport fare, so I guess that was something!

At Heathrow we found a table at one of the bars and ordered some drinks to fortify us for our plane, which had been delayed past 9pm.

The flights weren’t too bad. We slept through most of the first flight, which was the longest (14 hours) and I slept through about half of the second flight.

The changeover in Korea was tiresome as we had to go through security again, despite not leaving that wing of the terminal. After sitting for so long a bit of standing was fine.

In line for security was a woman with a small white poodle. I’d never seen a pet in an airport before, it was kind of weird.

Apologies in advance – from now on there’s hardly any photos as I was too tired and not thinking. Plus there wasn’t much of interest to photograph!

The food on the flights was good and we had an empty seat next to us on the first leg. Luke was convinced we’d have the same on the second but ended up with a fellow next to us.

We arrived in Sydney around 7am to discover my bag was still in Seoul. Sigh. I filled out the paperwork and they estimated I’d have my bag within two days. It actually ended up taking six, rather annoyingly. I did have an AirTag on my bag though so I could, frustratingly, see it sitting at the terminal in Sydney for five of those days.

From Mascot we caught the airport train to central station then a train to Bankstown, following signs directing us to change there for trains to Lithgow. My brother was supposed to be meeting us there, which was very kind of him!

Sydney was a balmy 20 degrees Celsius, lovely! But as we got into the Blue Mountains things cooled down. We also discovered that this train, which a station attendant in Blacktown assured us went to Lithgow, actually stopped two stops earlier at Mount Victoria. You’d think we’d have learned not to trust rail employees by this stage!

Fortunately Michael was happy to drive a bit further to get us and we waited in a cafe to avoid the arctic winds. Luckily I’d put a cardigan in Luke’s bag!

We stopped for lunch in Bathurst then made it back to Michael’s place, where we both fell into bed. Luke was particularly exhausted, having been up for almost 24 hours at that stage.

We waited an extra night in Orange (hoping for my bag to be delivered – it wasn’t), and I had a catch up evening with friends, which was lovely, and spent some time with mum and dad.

Next stop was Albury. I think I was so pleased to be driving a car for the first time in three months that I got carried away and did the whole six hours. We stopped for lunch in Gundagai and I, rather pointlessly, took Luke to a lookout that was shrouded in mist.

We only ended up spending one night in Albury but it was lovely to see Luke’s family and on the following morning we stopped by Kath’s (Luke’s grandmother) to pick up some gigantic orchid pots to take back to Melbourne.

This turned out to be the most harrowing part of the whole cross-planet journey, as I had not really considered what would happen to all the cockroaches and beetles and various other bugs during the four hour drive.

It didn’t take long for them to start exploring the car and thank god Luke was driving or I’d probably have caused an accident. Eventually we made it home and, after giving the house a hug, we pulled the pots of the car and I emptied a can of fly spray into it to fumigate.

Bug drama aside (and what more Australian way could there be to arrive home, really?) we were very glad to be home. The only things left to do were pick up Bonnie, which we did the following morning, and wait for my bag.

Bonnie was predictably unenthused to see us.

If it wasn’t for the fact that we’d trained her to greet us calmly you’d think she didn’t want to leave Amanda and Matt and their three dogs. that’s what we told ourselves, anyhow.

My bag eventually arrived, only six days late.

Now life is almost back to normal. Luke has gone back to work on The Hundred with Andy Lee and I’m enjoying pottering around the house and having lunch with friends. Melbourne winter doesn’t seem so bad after staying in Orange for a few days and it’s mostly been sunny. Basically, if you can manage to be away from home long enough to enjoy getting back then I think you’ve hit the jackpot, travel-wise.

So that’s it for the blog until next time! to finish here’s some food photos of dishes I’ve made since I’ve got home that were inspired by my travels.

Are you looking for somewhere to eat in Greater London? Click here to try looking through recommendations on Restaurantji.co.uk.

6Jun2023

London: The Mousetrap

by Miss Penny Black

Today was a day for clearing out junk, sleeping in and visiting the post office. I sent three packages home, almost six kilos. I’m very happy not to have it all in my pack but posting things is stressful – did I fill in the forms right? Did I send enough stuff home? How long is the line? I didn’t take any photos of that so you just have to imagine Luke being very calm and kind to me to get me through the experience.

The big event of the day was going into Soho for The Mousetrap, the world’s longest running play at 70 years.

I’ve read Agatha Christie novels and seen mystery plays but it did exceed my (admittedly low) expectations.

For a final excursion together it was ideal. A perfect way to end an arts-filled week. An iconic and perfectly-produced performance!

Tomorrow: London to Zurich!

Goodbye Mornington Crescent, such a convenient, quiet station!

We’re finishing off the evening by finishing off our leftover food and listening to Dolly Parton’s greatest hits.

Goodnight!

5Jun2023

London: Greenwich

by Miss Penny Black

Years ago I took my year fives on a very educational and carefully planned trip into the centre of Melbourne but unfortunately along the way we saw a possum in a tree and a Ferrari. Then on the way home two very drunk adults covered in tattoos were sitting right in the middle of our train carriage so all the learning was forgotten and there was no point having the students write a recap the next day because the museum wouldn’t even get a mention.

See if you can pick which event from this excursion was equivalent to a possum, Ferrari and drunken strangers all rolled into one.

We left home at 10:30 and headed to Greenwich, which meant taking the brand new (to us) Elizabeth line! Look at it in all its futuristic brutalist glory.

So shiny, clean and purple (all the tube lines have a colour, this one is purple so there was a bit of purple in the upholstery).

We stopped at Custom House and walked to the cable car. It takes passengers across the Thames to the O2 arena. It rises 90 metres and has great views.

Lea loved it and was keen to stay on it for several trips in a row.

I’d made the critical error of having two cups of tea before leaving the flat so I was dying for the loo when we got off at the other side. Luckily there was a cafe so we stopped for a coffee and pastry.

I’m no connoisseur, but the Portuguese tarts (pastel de nata) were the best we’d had yet. They seem to be very fashionable right now. Lea had a custard croissant that was also the best she’d had.

Unfortunately the cafe was also the place where Lea disgraced herself by admitting she had not brought the teaspoon I had SPECIFICALLY bought for her to use in cafes that don’t offer spoons (she likes eating her cappuccino foam first) and I shook my head and tut-tutted for at least a whole minute. I also said I’d shame her and write about it in the blog. I have kept my promise! TUT TUT!

Anyhow, after I made a big todo about nothing we went out to look at a big headless statue outside the cafe.

We caught the bus to Greenwich.

Front seat up the top! I wonder if we’ll see anything interesting along the route?

Later we read that apart from one person who was treated for smoke inhalation, no one was injured.

Anyhow…

First stop was this unusual sculpture.

‘Sculpture of a Dead Parrot’ (obviously not a parrot but a cockatoo) is a work by a local artist who is thought to have taken inspiration from Monty Python. It’s in the grounds of a hotel and there’s no plaque, I had to look up information online.

Next we walked to the Maritime Museum.

While everyone else browsed the general exhibition, I paid for a ticket to the astronomy photography competition.

It had several categories and entries from around the world.

It didn’t take long to see all the pictures so I went for a look around the general exhibition. They had a replica of a very interesting ship.

The Rawalpindi is one of four ships of the same class that brought immigrants to Australia. Its sister ship, the Himalaya, brought my mother and her family! The display had photos of cabins and ship life that I think Mum would’ve enjoyed seeing, so I took some photos.

After the Maritime Museum we decided on The Kings Arms for lunch, a pub that was almost across the road from the museum.

It was a very cosy and beautifully decorated pub and the food was terrific.

Luke and I both got the steak and ale pie but could have easily shared one. Pete very kindly had a slice of mine, which I would’ve sorely regretted eating if it had stayed on my plate.

Yes that is a quarter of a cabbage. Surprisingly tasty!

After lunch we headed to the Queens House.

You’d think, from my photos, there was almost no one in London.

The building was used by royalty at different times but also for housing soldiers, artists and was also used as a set for Bridgerton. It was currently housing an exhibition of paintings with a nautical theme.

The building itself was very interesting, with some lovely wallpaper (which seems to be a motif of this trip) featuring monkeys and pomegranates.

Also a notable staircase, the first of its kind built in England.

Lovely!

Next was a short walk up a steep hill to the Greenwich Observatory. We didn’t pay to go in but managed to find a spot where we could stand on the meridian line.

Somehow this got the biggest smiles of the day.

Back down the hill to the Old Royal Naval College, where Luke and I left Lea and Pete in the cafe while we went into the Painted Hall.

The Painted Hall is an enormous room with a painted ceiling and far more impressive and interesting than the Sistine Chapel… in my opinion, anyway!

It also has far fewer people jammed in. and padded benches visitors can lie on and mirrors for ease of viewing.

The painting is full of references to history, mythology and legend.

Christopher Wren designed the building and also St Paul’s Cathedral

There’s plenty more to do in Greenwich but it was getting towards 5pm so we walked the short way to the ferry and caught a boat back towards the city.

Lea and Pete went to have dinner with Mark, Luke and I went back to the apartment for a quick change and rest before heading to our evening’s entertainment.

Austentatious was an improvised comedy performance where audience members shouted out possible Jane Austin titles. The suggestions were ‘Pride Month and Prejudice’, ‘Bloodbath in Bath’ and the one that was chosen, ‘Perspiration’.

The story was so convoluted that I’m not going to attempt to retell it, but it was very funny and the audience loved it.

After dinner Luke had booked us a table at Berenjak, a restaurant his old workmate, Mark, had recommended.

How nice to turn up and find out it’s in the guide! Also to find it was worth booking a table, because people were turned away ahead of us at 9:45pm.

The cuisine was Persian street food and the flavours were fantastic.

A great way to end an action-packed day!

5Jun2023

London: War Rooms and the Mithraeum

by Miss Penny Black

On the advice of a large number of people, we bought tickets to the War Rooms, the tiny rooms and and tunnels that Winston Churchill and the British government used as their operations headquarters in WW2.

After a breakfast at home we caught the tube to Embankment and then walked via St James Park.

The War Rooms were very interesting, even for someone like me, who will actively avoid war-related things. We got audio guides and then walked through the narrow and dim corridors, peaking into rooms and trying to imagine what the space would be like when full of tobacco smoke and people rushing around.

In between the historical sections is a large room with lots of detail about Winston Churchill’s life. When buying tickets they said to allow 2.5 hours, but if you really wanted to see and read everything I’d say 3 hours minimum. Unfortunately, in the past I’ve found those sort of estimates usually overdo it and I’d booked a table at 1pm at a nearby pub. Lea and Pete had to rush a bit, which I felt bad about, but it’s hard to predict these things.

It was quite dark the whole way through.

Winston Churchill, a man after my own heart, had noiseless typewriters installed.

We had lunch at the Blue Boar, a pub not far from the War Rooms. It had recently been voted the best pub in London but, being in an office area, was quiet on Sunday.

I left before everyone had finished eating as I was going to meet a friend and everyone else was going to see The Play That Goes Wrong. Luke and I saw it on our last trip but he wanted to see it again.

Luke and I had met Patrick on our Haggis bus tour last time we were here and added him on Facebook. He’d offered to come meet up in London as he only lived an hour away so we arranged to meet at The Crosse Keys.

The Cross Keys is one of the Wetherspoons chain of pubs, which are somewhat notorious for being downmarket but this one was in an old bank building and quite grand.

Patrick hadn’t changed a bit and we had a good catch up about all our travels then headed to the London Mithraeum, which was just around the corner.

Patrick had said he’d wanted to see it so I invited myself along. It’s a Roman Temple that was unearthed by developers and remained a mystery until the last day of the excavation when the head of a statue of Mithras, a Roman god, was unearthed on the site. Not much is known of the cult except that it was male-only (I have no idea how they know this) and there would have been a statue of the god slaying or wrestling a bull at the alter.

The exhibition was in the original location, under an office building. Before going down to the site we looked at an installation of urns, all suspended from the ceiling by rope and fitted with microphones. As we walked around them the microphones picked up the vibration of the urns and each one had a different note. Two of the urns were from Roman times.

Downstairs, the temple was in a dark room. Once a group was in they lowered the lights and played sounds of people speaking Latin and the atmosphere became a bit smoky. There was an outline of the god statue and it was all very evocative. Apparently the cult lasted around 400 years.

Next we walked to Postman’s Park via St Paul’s Cathedral and the ruined church park.

The park has a very sad memorial to everyday heroes who died trying to save someone – a mosaic wall with names and short descriptions of what they died doing. For example, people who died trying to save someone who was drowning.

After that we said goodbye and I caught the tube back to the flat, where Luke, Lea and Pete had just returned. They enjoyed the play a lot and reminded me of many of the funny scenes I’d forgotten.

We all had a rest before finally heading to Dishoom for dinner.

We arrived at almost 10pm and, unsurprisingly, were seated straight away. We shared some rather spicy curries, cheese and chilli toast, broccoli salad and naan. It was at the high end of our spice tolerance but we all coped and no doubt it made us stronger.

We walked home, glad Friday and Saturday nights were past and our noisy neighbourhood would be a little quieter.

4Jun2023

London: Portobello Road and Kensington Palace

by Miss Penny Black

First on the agenda today was Portobello Road. Possibly London’s most famous market and one I hadn’t been to in my many London trips.

We caught the bus there and encountered what was possibly London’s crankiest bus driver. We tried to pay with coins and he exaggeratedly gestured at the lack of a hole for us to hand them to him and snidely said ‘It’s 2023, use a card’. Well excuse us, but every bus we’d caught in every other part of the country took coins. What a jerk! Anyhow, apart from a child with the plague sitting right behind us, the bus journey was otherwise uneventful.

When we got there the markets were just setting up so it wasn’t crazy-crowded. We got a coffee and pastry (no point having a boring breakfast at home when there’s market food to be had) then decided to spilt up.

I ended up buying two spoons – I wanted a large one for learning to make rochers (when fancy food comes in a little roll) like this:

I found a really good one and I also found a little teaspoon for Lea because sometimes cafes don’t offer spoons and she likes to eat the foam off her cappuccino before drinking it. Also the little teaspoon would be perfect for making tiny rochers.

Fake flowers around doorways seem to be a big thing here.

One of my highlights of the markets was a laneway next to the vintage end where there was a giant wall of climbing roses. The smell was unbelievable and several people were stopping to take photos. Imagine having this along your fence!

My new cardigan did clash with it somewhat.

After a wander up and down we found the main food section. There was food from all around the world.

I went for a Peruvian arepa, which always reminds me of Charmaine as she taught me how to make them – although so long ago I’ve forgotten. This had plantain in it, which I haven’t had for ages.

The lady making the arepas put all the ingredients on the grill, including a big handful of cheese and cooked them all together. Watching people at stalls work with bbqs makes me realise how limited our use is at home and it makes me want to be more creative.

By the time we’d bought food and walked to both ends the market was getting very busy. We met Lea and Pete again and Lea and I headed to Kensington Palace, a short walk away.

On the way we saw some interesting fashion!

And some very bland fashion. I’ve given up taking photos of people dressed entirely in white as there are so many, so then I was taking photos of couples dressed entirely in white and now I can’t even be bothered doing that. It’s a mysterious trend. Also.. how do they all stay so clean?

On to the palace, which looked pretty dull on the outside (albeit with lovely gardens) but inside was very interesting.

We’d come to see an exhibition on fashion.

Apart from booking tickets I didn’t actually know that much about the building or the exhibition. It turned out to be a combination of iconic modern pieces, such as Met Gala costumes, combined with examples of historic royal gowns and suits that illustrated the origins of modern trends and inspiration.

But first a visit to the toilet and a look at some wallpaper designed to commemorate Diana, who lived here for many years.

I think the wallpaper was one of my favourite items of the day, actually!

Some of the modern items were really amazing art and political statements, such as Dan Levy’s beautiful Met Gala outfit, which celebrated the LGBTQI+ community and used fine embroidery and interesting techniques to create a really joyful and also comfortable outfit. I loved it!

I don’t really know a lot about the Met Gala but some people seem to use it for good, like Billie Eilish collaborating with a designer on the proviso they stop using fur.

Other pieces were funny, such as this piece worn by Katie Perry.

And some were just stupid, like this Beyoncé piece which was designed to make her look like a goddess for her VMA performance (fine, whatever) but has her own face embroidered on the front. If you need to know someone has reached a level of celebrity where they have no one left around them who will tell them the truth, this is an indicator.

Anyhow, as beautiful as many of the old and new pieces were, the exhibition seemed very focused on glamourising fashion and even going so far as it to say the need for specific items enriched communities around the world. No mention of the devastation of animal populations such as beavers for hats or the slave trade that funded/allowed these lifestyles (and still does), no mention of current ills such as the blinding of the children who sew the fine detail in dark workrooms on India, let alone the global impact of fast fashion.

Art like this is beautiful, but only a handful of the displays were ethical in any way. Emma Watson’s dress was fashioned from Oxfam-collected wedding dresses and Tan France’s Indian outfit, that celebrated his immigrant roots, was another favourite.

After all the slow shuffling along with the crowds my feet were aching so we walked in the direction of the nearest tube station and found a pub for a drink. Lea likes lemon, lime and bitters but it has been impossible to find anyone here who will make one so this time I asked if the barmaid had any angostura bitters and could she please add a dash to the lime and soda… voila! Almost as good as the real thing.

There was a Waitrose near the tube station and so we popped into to compare it to Booths, the fancy northern supermarket. It wasn’t bad but didn’t have a cheese counter so I’m going to have to say that Booths is still my supermarket of choice, although one of the cheeses we bought there was possibly the meltiest Brie-style cheese I’ve ever tried. For future reference it was:

Despite the rail strikes on the day it was a quick trip home to rest our feet. Pete and Luke were not long in getting back, they’d been to see the most recent Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

We had planned to go to the pub up the road, The Camden Head, for dinner and their free comedy night. Luke and I got there first and ordered dinner, which was late and unremarkable. What was remarkable was how little the bar staff were doing, particularly one young guy who spent all his time looking at his phone, vaping, drinking and high-fiving the security guard while the female bar staff cleared tables and served customers. My parents would have fired him in minutes if he’d worked at one of their pubs!

Unfortunately it turned out that, although this pub was called the Camden Head and there was comedy on, the free, unticketed comedy was at a different pub, also called The Camden Head, which was in Islington, not Camden. The comedy at the one we were at was ticketed and sold out. Sigh.

We ended up going back to the apartment and eating cheese and playing cards until about 10:30.