Canadian invasion
I'd better write about Mum and Nana's visit or I'll forget it all!
Mum arrived the Friday before last. She was staying in a flat in Camden, and got there mid-afternoon after some consternation at the airport involving very late luggage and a misplaced pair of glasses. I cycled up there after work and we had dinner at NW1, the Thai pub on Parkway that I like.
On Saturday we went suit shopping, after a quick visit to Mill Lane to use the internet, as it wasn't working in the Camden flat. Susie and Nye were there so we had a bit of a chat with them. Our plan was to head for the Covent Garden area as it houses both a Hobbs and a Next (both stores recommended to me by a tutor for dark, barrister-appropriate suits). However, as we were approaching Selfridge's we were discussing depositing a cheque Mum had for me in my bank account. I said I didn't think there would be many NatWests open on a Saturday. "There's a NatWest!" said Mum, literally ten seconds later "and it's open!" So we got out opposite Marks and Spencer's on Oxford Street and deposited my cheque.
And that was kind of it. Oxford Street sucked us in. At first we said "Well, this isn't so bad -- there's a lot of people by it's not terrible!" But after a full day of fighting with the crowds, poor Mum traipsing back and forth across department stores to changing rooms that were inevitably at the opposite side of the floor from the department we were looking in, and so on and so forth, we decided that we agreed with the received wisdom that Oxford Street on a Saturday is pure hell. However, we did have lunch in John Lewis', which was nice, and we did successfully get me a suit at Hobbs -- the jacket came with trousers, skirt and dress and Mum very kindly (and at a jaw-dropping expense) got both the skirt and the dress, as well as a dress shirt that was on special.
We then slumped back to Camden, exhausted, with some take-out dinners from M&S which we heated up in the oven and ate whilst watching the end of My Big Fat Greek Wedding on Film Four. Mum fell asleep before it was over at nine -- jet lag! I stayed up and watched Wedding Crashers.
On Sunday we had a more relaxed day. We wandered through Regents Park and Bloomsbury and found a lovely cheap little Mexican restaurant on Goodge Street which arranges things Subway-style -- ie, you choose all your own toppings for your taco or burrito. OWe then headed down Tottenham Court Road intending to have a wander down Charing Cross Road and look in second hand bookstores but a couple of errands scuppered that. Specsavers were offering free eye tests, and we also bought a mobile phone for Mum because the phone in the Camden flat wasn't working either (various things weren't working in the Cadmen flat but it was still very nice!). So in the end we only had time for a quick look in Foyles -- but we did successfully buy me two new pairs of glasses (thanks Mum!) as well as a mobile phone for Mum, as well as getting me onto a SIM-only pay plan, which I've been intending to do for ages, so that was good.
We then headed back to Mill Lane and I made us all (Susie and Nye included) pasta for dinner.
Monday, the day Nana arrived, I was working in the day. Nana arrived at Gatwick first thing in the morning, and she and Mum (amazingly) walked ALL of what Mum and I had walked the previous day, PLUS down Charing Cross Road to Trafalgar Square. The plan was for them to meet me at my office after work, but Mum unfortunately got into her head that as I was on Pall Mall I would be near Trafalgar Square, which I'm not, I'm between Piccadilly Circus and Green Park. In the end we met at Green Park to go out to Hackney and see my new house. Nana was already looking exhausted, and the overground journey out to Hackney, plus the stress of having to hurry so I could get to the estate agent's before it closed and put down my holding deposit, plus having to walk to the new house when we got there, didn't help! But they both liked it, and we made it back to Camden in one piece, where we had a big salad with new potatoes for dinner which Mum had prepared earlier.
Tuesday I dined at Middle Temple with Susannah and Janet. We were to meet at the top of Middle Temple Lane at seven, as dinner began at half seven. Susannah was about ten minutes late. Janet was thirty-five minutes late! By all rights she should have been locked out of the inn as doors close ten minutes before dinner. However, she got in somehow, and they asked her "Are you a guest of so-and-so" and she said, yes, yes, I'm a guest -- and was promptly escorted up to the top table where all the benchers sit! She said, "They were all so pleased to see me, too, they shook my hand and kissed me!" but she then saw the namecard in front of her plate and said, "I'm terribly sorry, but this isn't me!" Whereupon she was escorted back down again to find us.
It was packed that night, and Susannah and I had only with difficulty found two seats together, so when I saw Janet at the entrance to the hall I had no idea how she'd be able to sit with us. Thankfully, somewhere else in the hall a party of three became a party of four and got up to move elsewhere, leaving their three settings behind, so Susannah and I furtively ran across the hall to join Janet there. All of this when no one is supposed to leave their seats AT ALL at dining once the first grace is said! However, after that the night went without incident and I think both Janet and Susannah enjoyed the grand three-course dinner.
Wednesday I desperately wanted to do laundry, not having been at home to do it all week, so after a brief meeting with Janet to drink some rose on the South Bank, Nana, Mum and I headed back to West Hampstead. I put a load in and we had dinner at a south Asian restaurant near my house which I've been intending to try since I moved in, called the Banana Leaf. It was a good choice, really tasty grub, although I think in future I'd choose plain old tofu instead of "mock duck"!
Thursday was the big day. I headed out in the morning to Chancery Lane to pick up my collarette, which passed without incident. On the way I hit the salon for various "necessary" ablutions and on the way back picked up some shoes in a charity shop. At home I did more laundry, tidied my room, debated between skirt suit and dress suit and plumped for skirt with a tank top, as working best with the collarette, got dressed, did hair/make-up/blah blah and stupidly decided to get the bus instead of the tube to the inn -- shoes already beginning to hurt, and the bus involved less walking either end.
I was supposed to meet Mum and Nana at 4.30, run over to Nye's chambers to borrow his wig and gown, and be at Middle Temple Hall for 5.00. At 4.25 I was still on the bus, just past Piccadilly Circus, so I rang Mum, who very kindly went over to King's Bench Walk to meet Nye, sending Nana, who needed to sit down, down the lane to the pub to wait. She wasn't particularly impressed when he told her to tell me that "If I tore the gown, there'd be hell to pay," but she passed the message on anyway. I was only ten minutes late, and Mum had arrived back at the top of Middle Temple Lane by the time I got there. Then we went to meet Nana, I gown'd and wig'd myself up in the washroom, and we headed for the inn.
The doors were opened promptly at five, the guests were escorted into the hall and the "callees" off to rooms on the side. Mum and Nana had a dull time of it waiting for an hour on benches in the hall. The callees had a dull time of it waiting for an hour away from our guests, with slips of paper in our hands giving us instructions on how to be called. I chatted with Ed and Jessica from my tutor group, and at about quarter to six, Christa, who is very important in Middle Temple but I never quite know her job title, appeared. She welcomed us to our last half hour as student members of Middle Temple, pointing out that when we left that evening we'd be fully fledged members, barristers, etc etc, and gave us the same instructions as were written on our slips of paper.
We lined up (all 128 of us -- and 131 were called earlier that afternoon) in long rows at the end of the hall, and after a speech by Master Treasurer, we were one by one were called up to be called -- as I've already described. I was towards the end, and I was also, luckily, hidden from the audience's sight as I was quite far back in my row, so I kicked my shoes off while I waited. I don't know how I would have managed if I hadn't been able to do that.
After that was a buffer dinner and much picture taking. And all went home happy! (I think!)
Friday evening we went to Janet's new place. The last two years of Janet's life have been embroiled in a building project, the complexity of which I suspect she never fully appreciated until she was too far in to turn back. She purchased some old buildings and turned them into maisonettes. And they're beautiful, and she's living in one now, although there are various battles still to be fought.
The plan was to go out for dinner, but Janet had laid on such an incredible spread of nibblies that Mum and I stuffed ourselves and didn't feel in need of anything else. Nana, with typical former-generation restraint, held back, but as we didn't get back to Camden until after ten it was decided it was too late to go out anyway and she ate a sandwich in the flat before turning in.
The second big day -- party at Tom and Ruth's to which they had invited just about every extended Jones they could find. Luckily not all of them could make it or I don't know how Tom and Ruth's house (despite recent kitchen extensions) would have held them. It was a lovely afternoon.
Sunday morning was the last day at St James Piccadilly for Charles, one of our rectors (possibly the lead one, I'm not entirely certain). He's going to China to teach English. I had promised to be there to sing, so Mum and Nana came along. Unfortunately, because it was a special service it went rather long and Mum and Nana both had to leave before it was over. They missed the dance at the end by some Ugandan members of the community, which was a shame, but they had to catch flights! Nana was off to Gatwick to meet Mark, Amanda, Tirion and Peter -- they've gone to Italy for a holiday. Mum is now back home!
So I'm left with the wind taken out of my sails rather. But there's plenty to do still, preparing for my move next week... boo hoo. I don't want to leave my current flat. But hopefully I'll become just as attached to the new place.
Mum arrived the Friday before last. She was staying in a flat in Camden, and got there mid-afternoon after some consternation at the airport involving very late luggage and a misplaced pair of glasses. I cycled up there after work and we had dinner at NW1, the Thai pub on Parkway that I like.
On Saturday we went suit shopping, after a quick visit to Mill Lane to use the internet, as it wasn't working in the Camden flat. Susie and Nye were there so we had a bit of a chat with them. Our plan was to head for the Covent Garden area as it houses both a Hobbs and a Next (both stores recommended to me by a tutor for dark, barrister-appropriate suits). However, as we were approaching Selfridge's we were discussing depositing a cheque Mum had for me in my bank account. I said I didn't think there would be many NatWests open on a Saturday. "There's a NatWest!" said Mum, literally ten seconds later "and it's open!" So we got out opposite Marks and Spencer's on Oxford Street and deposited my cheque.
And that was kind of it. Oxford Street sucked us in. At first we said "Well, this isn't so bad -- there's a lot of people by it's not terrible!" But after a full day of fighting with the crowds, poor Mum traipsing back and forth across department stores to changing rooms that were inevitably at the opposite side of the floor from the department we were looking in, and so on and so forth, we decided that we agreed with the received wisdom that Oxford Street on a Saturday is pure hell. However, we did have lunch in John Lewis', which was nice, and we did successfully get me a suit at Hobbs -- the jacket came with trousers, skirt and dress and Mum very kindly (and at a jaw-dropping expense) got both the skirt and the dress, as well as a dress shirt that was on special.
We then slumped back to Camden, exhausted, with some take-out dinners from M&S which we heated up in the oven and ate whilst watching the end of My Big Fat Greek Wedding on Film Four. Mum fell asleep before it was over at nine -- jet lag! I stayed up and watched Wedding Crashers.
On Sunday we had a more relaxed day. We wandered through Regents Park and Bloomsbury and found a lovely cheap little Mexican restaurant on Goodge Street which arranges things Subway-style -- ie, you choose all your own toppings for your taco or burrito. OWe then headed down Tottenham Court Road intending to have a wander down Charing Cross Road and look in second hand bookstores but a couple of errands scuppered that. Specsavers were offering free eye tests, and we also bought a mobile phone for Mum because the phone in the Camden flat wasn't working either (various things weren't working in the Cadmen flat but it was still very nice!). So in the end we only had time for a quick look in Foyles -- but we did successfully buy me two new pairs of glasses (thanks Mum!) as well as a mobile phone for Mum, as well as getting me onto a SIM-only pay plan, which I've been intending to do for ages, so that was good.
We then headed back to Mill Lane and I made us all (Susie and Nye included) pasta for dinner.
Monday, the day Nana arrived, I was working in the day. Nana arrived at Gatwick first thing in the morning, and she and Mum (amazingly) walked ALL of what Mum and I had walked the previous day, PLUS down Charing Cross Road to Trafalgar Square. The plan was for them to meet me at my office after work, but Mum unfortunately got into her head that as I was on Pall Mall I would be near Trafalgar Square, which I'm not, I'm between Piccadilly Circus and Green Park. In the end we met at Green Park to go out to Hackney and see my new house. Nana was already looking exhausted, and the overground journey out to Hackney, plus the stress of having to hurry so I could get to the estate agent's before it closed and put down my holding deposit, plus having to walk to the new house when we got there, didn't help! But they both liked it, and we made it back to Camden in one piece, where we had a big salad with new potatoes for dinner which Mum had prepared earlier.
Tuesday I dined at Middle Temple with Susannah and Janet. We were to meet at the top of Middle Temple Lane at seven, as dinner began at half seven. Susannah was about ten minutes late. Janet was thirty-five minutes late! By all rights she should have been locked out of the inn as doors close ten minutes before dinner. However, she got in somehow, and they asked her "Are you a guest of so-and-so" and she said, yes, yes, I'm a guest -- and was promptly escorted up to the top table where all the benchers sit! She said, "They were all so pleased to see me, too, they shook my hand and kissed me!" but she then saw the namecard in front of her plate and said, "I'm terribly sorry, but this isn't me!" Whereupon she was escorted back down again to find us.
It was packed that night, and Susannah and I had only with difficulty found two seats together, so when I saw Janet at the entrance to the hall I had no idea how she'd be able to sit with us. Thankfully, somewhere else in the hall a party of three became a party of four and got up to move elsewhere, leaving their three settings behind, so Susannah and I furtively ran across the hall to join Janet there. All of this when no one is supposed to leave their seats AT ALL at dining once the first grace is said! However, after that the night went without incident and I think both Janet and Susannah enjoyed the grand three-course dinner.
Wednesday I desperately wanted to do laundry, not having been at home to do it all week, so after a brief meeting with Janet to drink some rose on the South Bank, Nana, Mum and I headed back to West Hampstead. I put a load in and we had dinner at a south Asian restaurant near my house which I've been intending to try since I moved in, called the Banana Leaf. It was a good choice, really tasty grub, although I think in future I'd choose plain old tofu instead of "mock duck"!
Thursday was the big day. I headed out in the morning to Chancery Lane to pick up my collarette, which passed without incident. On the way I hit the salon for various "necessary" ablutions and on the way back picked up some shoes in a charity shop. At home I did more laundry, tidied my room, debated between skirt suit and dress suit and plumped for skirt with a tank top, as working best with the collarette, got dressed, did hair/make-up/blah blah and stupidly decided to get the bus instead of the tube to the inn -- shoes already beginning to hurt, and the bus involved less walking either end.
I was supposed to meet Mum and Nana at 4.30, run over to Nye's chambers to borrow his wig and gown, and be at Middle Temple Hall for 5.00. At 4.25 I was still on the bus, just past Piccadilly Circus, so I rang Mum, who very kindly went over to King's Bench Walk to meet Nye, sending Nana, who needed to sit down, down the lane to the pub to wait. She wasn't particularly impressed when he told her to tell me that "If I tore the gown, there'd be hell to pay," but she passed the message on anyway. I was only ten minutes late, and Mum had arrived back at the top of Middle Temple Lane by the time I got there. Then we went to meet Nana, I gown'd and wig'd myself up in the washroom, and we headed for the inn.
The doors were opened promptly at five, the guests were escorted into the hall and the "callees" off to rooms on the side. Mum and Nana had a dull time of it waiting for an hour on benches in the hall. The callees had a dull time of it waiting for an hour away from our guests, with slips of paper in our hands giving us instructions on how to be called. I chatted with Ed and Jessica from my tutor group, and at about quarter to six, Christa, who is very important in Middle Temple but I never quite know her job title, appeared. She welcomed us to our last half hour as student members of Middle Temple, pointing out that when we left that evening we'd be fully fledged members, barristers, etc etc, and gave us the same instructions as were written on our slips of paper.
We lined up (all 128 of us -- and 131 were called earlier that afternoon) in long rows at the end of the hall, and after a speech by Master Treasurer, we were one by one were called up to be called -- as I've already described. I was towards the end, and I was also, luckily, hidden from the audience's sight as I was quite far back in my row, so I kicked my shoes off while I waited. I don't know how I would have managed if I hadn't been able to do that.
After that was a buffer dinner and much picture taking. And all went home happy! (I think!)
Friday evening we went to Janet's new place. The last two years of Janet's life have been embroiled in a building project, the complexity of which I suspect she never fully appreciated until she was too far in to turn back. She purchased some old buildings and turned them into maisonettes. And they're beautiful, and she's living in one now, although there are various battles still to be fought.
The plan was to go out for dinner, but Janet had laid on such an incredible spread of nibblies that Mum and I stuffed ourselves and didn't feel in need of anything else. Nana, with typical former-generation restraint, held back, but as we didn't get back to Camden until after ten it was decided it was too late to go out anyway and she ate a sandwich in the flat before turning in.
The second big day -- party at Tom and Ruth's to which they had invited just about every extended Jones they could find. Luckily not all of them could make it or I don't know how Tom and Ruth's house (despite recent kitchen extensions) would have held them. It was a lovely afternoon.
Sunday morning was the last day at St James Piccadilly for Charles, one of our rectors (possibly the lead one, I'm not entirely certain). He's going to China to teach English. I had promised to be there to sing, so Mum and Nana came along. Unfortunately, because it was a special service it went rather long and Mum and Nana both had to leave before it was over. They missed the dance at the end by some Ugandan members of the community, which was a shame, but they had to catch flights! Nana was off to Gatwick to meet Mark, Amanda, Tirion and Peter -- they've gone to Italy for a holiday. Mum is now back home!
So I'm left with the wind taken out of my sails rather. But there's plenty to do still, preparing for my move next week... boo hoo. I don't want to leave my current flat. But hopefully I'll become just as attached to the new place.