Dateline: London, Day 4

Geoff was moving slower (much) than Terry and Ken after the martinis at Dukes – and the red wine with the pizza when we got home. Ken and Terry thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the paintings of dead people, by dead people, in the National Portrait Gallery. They both thought it gave them insight into the fashions and hair styles of the last few hundred years. Alas, there are no photos since, once again, there are no photos allowed. But then, I guess that’s fair since they don’t charge admission. Geoff could only find an uncomfortable wooden bench to sit on…

And so we moved on.

We had lunch on the banks of the Thames. Nice little restaurant – Las Iguanas. Good food, great service and we got to rub shoulders with an awful lot of Kingston University grads, since it was their convocation and the building is right on the river, next to the restaurant. Surprised to see many smokers among the grads.

We continued on our stroll and finally got to the Tate Modern Gallery. Geoff found  a semi-comfortable padded couch and attempted to get an hour of sleep. He was unsuccessful. Terry and Ken, however, viewed a number of works of art which they then described as dark, depressing and artistically unintelligible. They FAR preferred the paintings of dead people by dead people, which, apparently were much more lively and alive.

We soldiered on (No Martin, we did not stop at the 400 year old Anchor Pub), marching through Borough Market, where you can get anything from

to

Ever heard of The Shard? It is the tallest building in the European Union. Now, it certainly isn’t Taipei 101, the Shanghai World Financial Centre or the new Shanghai Tower, but at 68 stories it does provide a fairly good view of London. Plus, unlike the latter two, there isn’t smog blocking the view 95% of the time.

Part way through our visit, these three helicopters appeared and circled over the city for a good 10 – 15 minutes. It must have been quite unusual, since all the staff were lined up at the windows as well.

I miss my train set…

We were knackered (English term meaning tired – we are in London, you know) by then and took the tube back home to get ready for our big night out.

We had tickets to see “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical… a jukebox musical…that tells the story of the early life and career of Carole King, using songs that she wrote, often together with Gerry Goffin, and other contemporary songs by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Phil Spector and others.” (Wikipedia article). To put it simply it was Beautiful.

It did get off to a shaky start, however.

She came back after about 5 minutes and we were on the way. It was absolutely fantastic. I would certainly go again. If you get a chance, go. You certainly won’t be disappointed.

The Shoe Blog

Half an hour prior to seeing this woman, Terry and I had an interesting conversation about how people, men and women, should dress. There were/are many contradictory opinions:

1. Wear whatever you want
2. Be age appropriate
3. Men shouldn’t wear singlets/”wife-beaters”
4. Women of an age shouldn’t wear sleeveless tops
5. It’s your body, your life – live it your way and don’t care what others say/think

And then, as we were having lunch, this 50-something woman came by. You decide.