Busy so far!
Today's forecast: 23C/73F sunny.
Yesterday was busy as we went to London for several things! The first thing was afternoon tea at the Waldorf Astoria hotel which was lovely as it's one of our favourite venues and we've not been there since before all the C19 shenanigans! It was yummy! Under the cut for details.
We started with an 'amuse bouche' of Pimms jelly with fruit (raspberries and cucumber) and mango sorbet
Followed by finger sandwiches (lemon tuna and black pepper; coronation chicken; cream cheese and cucumber), blini with smoked salmon, cream cheese and keta caviar; rye bread with quails egg; roast beef open sandwiches.
Followed by two freshly baked scones, with clotted cream and strawberry conserve or rhubarb and apricot preserve (which I didn't photograph). Then a selection of cakes - glazed mint chocolate mousse; bombe glacée royale; raspberry macarons and blackberry and peach choux.
There was a little teapot decorated with a crown (to commemorate the platinum jubilee this year)
... which later was filled with dry ice to make a fun display on the table! LOL!
And of course to accompany that there were lots of pots of tea!
We then made out way to the London Transport Museum as we've not been for ages and it's a great place to visit. There are displays about the development of transport all around London from the sedan chairs to Hansom cabs, horse-drawn tram cars and omnibuses (horse-drawn, electric and steam!) to modern-day buses. There are also displays of the very first underground tube trains (pulled by steam trains, so very unpleasant!). No windows in these underground cars!
It was really interesting as we've been watching the TV series 'Secrets of the London Underground' and there was loads of stuff we already knew! This is how they made the first underground tube lines - cutting down into the ground and then covering (cut and cover method).
Finally, after that, we walked to one of the old disused tube stations nearby for a 'secret underground' tour of that which was fascinating. The station is the old Aldwych station near Strand and is used extensively for filming these days (including Sherlock, The ABC Murders - the 2018 version - The Darkest Hour and lots of other films and TV series). Under the cut for some photos.
The station opened in 1907 and was originally called Strand Station. It was designed by Leslie Green with the iconic oxblood coloured tiling (or faïence) in the art nouveau style. You can see these stations all over London. Originally the site was the Royal Strand Theatre, but once it was built it was never really more than a shuttle station. It was renamed Aldwych (old trading place in old Norse), and continued in use up until the First World War when it was used to store paintings from the National Gallery in part of a disused tunnel. During the Second World War it was used again to store art for the British Museum (including the Elgin Marbles) and the station was closed for nearly six years as it was also used as an air raid shelter.
Over the years the closed tunnels have been used to try out new ways to decorate the underground stations - for example with new ways to adhere the tiles to the walls.
It finally closed in 1994 as it was never really busy, and in the end, only ran at peak times. When the lifts needed refurbishment it was decided not to spend the money on doing that as it was going to be uneconomical.
This is the outside - you can see the sign at the top saying it's the Piccadilly Railway.
Not original posters - these are from a film where Aldwych 'doubled' for a different station.
Some of the gorgeous original art deco decoration - this shows that this is the second lift... I love it.
Very atmospheric tunnels!
Parts of the station have never been finished - and there are stalactites!
But where it has the original lovely teal tiles it's rather beautiful. Leslie Green's underground stations all have their own unique colour scheme inside.
The station is now a listed building so this wouldn't be allowed now, but here you can see where they've done some experiments with sticking new types of tiling on the wall over the original 'Strand' signage (which was actually done in tiles with the letter baked onto them).
It was a good visit and we got home at around 7pm - we'd walked around 5 miles and climbed 145 steps LOL!
This morning we've been on a Nordic walk which we led which was fun. There were 9 of us and we walked around a local historic woodland owned by the National Trust. It was nice that no one else had been there before, so it was all new to them, and afterwards, we went for lunch which was delicious.
Now we are back home and I am going to make up a double hammock that we ordered from a sale, and that's about it. I might lay in the hammock and read later LOL!
Today's question: 27. When you leave a room, do you turn the lights off behind you or keep the lights on throughout your house most of the time?
All our lights are on timers so it looks like we are home even if we aren't and are in the main living areas. They adjust automatically to come on 15 minutes before sunset so we don't have to do anything to adjust the time they come on. It works for us - the other lights get turned on and off as necessary, and we do tend to turn them off if we aren't in those rooms.
Yesterday was busy as we went to London for several things! The first thing was afternoon tea at the Waldorf Astoria hotel which was lovely as it's one of our favourite venues and we've not been there since before all the C19 shenanigans! It was yummy! Under the cut for details.
We started with an 'amuse bouche' of Pimms jelly with fruit (raspberries and cucumber) and mango sorbet
Followed by finger sandwiches (lemon tuna and black pepper; coronation chicken; cream cheese and cucumber), blini with smoked salmon, cream cheese and keta caviar; rye bread with quails egg; roast beef open sandwiches.
Followed by two freshly baked scones, with clotted cream and strawberry conserve or rhubarb and apricot preserve (which I didn't photograph). Then a selection of cakes - glazed mint chocolate mousse; bombe glacée royale; raspberry macarons and blackberry and peach choux.
There was a little teapot decorated with a crown (to commemorate the platinum jubilee this year)
... which later was filled with dry ice to make a fun display on the table! LOL!
And of course to accompany that there were lots of pots of tea!
We then made out way to the London Transport Museum as we've not been for ages and it's a great place to visit. There are displays about the development of transport all around London from the sedan chairs to Hansom cabs, horse-drawn tram cars and omnibuses (horse-drawn, electric and steam!) to modern-day buses. There are also displays of the very first underground tube trains (pulled by steam trains, so very unpleasant!). No windows in these underground cars!
It was really interesting as we've been watching the TV series 'Secrets of the London Underground' and there was loads of stuff we already knew! This is how they made the first underground tube lines - cutting down into the ground and then covering (cut and cover method).
Finally, after that, we walked to one of the old disused tube stations nearby for a 'secret underground' tour of that which was fascinating. The station is the old Aldwych station near Strand and is used extensively for filming these days (including Sherlock, The ABC Murders - the 2018 version - The Darkest Hour and lots of other films and TV series). Under the cut for some photos.
The station opened in 1907 and was originally called Strand Station. It was designed by Leslie Green with the iconic oxblood coloured tiling (or faïence) in the art nouveau style. You can see these stations all over London. Originally the site was the Royal Strand Theatre, but once it was built it was never really more than a shuttle station. It was renamed Aldwych (old trading place in old Norse), and continued in use up until the First World War when it was used to store paintings from the National Gallery in part of a disused tunnel. During the Second World War it was used again to store art for the British Museum (including the Elgin Marbles) and the station was closed for nearly six years as it was also used as an air raid shelter.
Over the years the closed tunnels have been used to try out new ways to decorate the underground stations - for example with new ways to adhere the tiles to the walls.
It finally closed in 1994 as it was never really busy, and in the end, only ran at peak times. When the lifts needed refurbishment it was decided not to spend the money on doing that as it was going to be uneconomical.
This is the outside - you can see the sign at the top saying it's the Piccadilly Railway.
Not original posters - these are from a film where Aldwych 'doubled' for a different station.
Some of the gorgeous original art deco decoration - this shows that this is the second lift... I love it.
Very atmospheric tunnels!
Parts of the station have never been finished - and there are stalactites!
But where it has the original lovely teal tiles it's rather beautiful. Leslie Green's underground stations all have their own unique colour scheme inside.
The station is now a listed building so this wouldn't be allowed now, but here you can see where they've done some experiments with sticking new types of tiling on the wall over the original 'Strand' signage (which was actually done in tiles with the letter baked onto them).
It was a good visit and we got home at around 7pm - we'd walked around 5 miles and climbed 145 steps LOL!
This morning we've been on a Nordic walk which we led which was fun. There were 9 of us and we walked around a local historic woodland owned by the National Trust. It was nice that no one else had been there before, so it was all new to them, and afterwards, we went for lunch which was delicious.
Now we are back home and I am going to make up a double hammock that we ordered from a sale, and that's about it. I might lay in the hammock and read later LOL!
Today's question: 27. When you leave a room, do you turn the lights off behind you or keep the lights on throughout your house most of the time?
All our lights are on timers so it looks like we are home even if we aren't and are in the main living areas. They adjust automatically to come on 15 minutes before sunset so we don't have to do anything to adjust the time they come on. It works for us - the other lights get turned on and off as necessary, and we do tend to turn them off if we aren't in those rooms.