At Home in London
On Friday night we tried a different sushi place than we'd been to
before. It's not very far from here, in Camden Town, but somehow we hit a
big gap in the bus schedule, so we decinded to take the tube instead. There
were delays on both the Picadilly and Northern Line, so we ended up walking
up to Mornington Crescent from King's Cross. Akakusa was definitely the
best sushi we've had in London--they not only had hamachi, they also do a
great gyuniku tataki (very rare beef with ponzu sauce, also known as niku no
tataki). It's not an especially fancy place, but very friendly and cozy.
We will definitely get back there. The way home was quick and easy, as we
caught a bus just a couple of blocks from the restaurant that had us home in
about ten minutes.
On Saturday we got out of the house fairly early in the day and went over to
the Tate Britain. I'd had a disappointing visit there with Gilly in the
summer and been surprised by what a small, limited collection they had on
display. I had known that part of their gallery space was being renovated,
but hadn't realized it was about 2/3 of the place. It's all been re-opened
now and we spent most of the day exploring it all. There were several
pieces where we thought we must have seen them before, but then realized no,
we'd just heard about them in detail from Anne & George when they were there
last month. We especially enjoyed the far wider range of pre-Raphaelite
paintings that they had on view this time around.
Halfway through we stopped for a break in their lovely restaurant. We could
have picked the more informal cafe, but we weren't in any hurry and the menu
looked good. We shared some chicken liver pate on toasted brioche for a
starter and then I had the beef Wellington while Jason had some lovely
slices of lamb with creamy garlic potatoes and we split an order of
spinach. After that we didn't need dessert, but couldn't resist the clotted
cream ice cream with fresh berries (rapberries, blackberries, currants and
wonderful blueberries) in a thin hazelnut shell. Then we rolled through the
20th century galleries, leaving just before five.
As is often the case after standing around in a museum for hours, we were
both ready to stretch our legs, so we walked from there along the river all
the way up to Leicester Square. At the TKTS booth we discovered that Caryl
Churchill's play, Top Girls, was just wrapping up a four week run at the
Aldwych and there were stalls tickets for the final performance available
for only #15. We had two hours before the curtain, all the museums were
closed and we certainly weren't ready to eat again so soon, so we made a
quick run home to drop off our loot from the Tate, check our email and relax
just a bit. Then we turned around and went back down to the West End.
The show wasn't Churchill's best work. The first act is a dinner party in
celebration of Marlene's promotion and the guests are various notable women
from history (Pope Joan, Lady Nijo, Griselda, Dull Gret, and Isabella Bird)
who discuss their lives. The second and third acts tell about Angie,
Marlene's sixteen year old daughter, who's been raised by Marlene's older
sister, Joyce. The dialogue was well scripted and most of the cast were
quite good, but I think the structure didn't work well and there were some
sections that I think could have been cut in ways that would have clarified
the message and kept the play from wandering.
I'd made a ten o'clock dinner reservation at Y Ming, but realized that the
play wasn't going to be over in time for us to make that. I tried to call,
but directory assistance couldn't find their number. When the show got out
at 10:15, we raced across the whole theatre district and made it in just
about ten minutes to find that they were still holding our table. We had
our usual tasty supper there and then headed home.
On Sunday we went down to Greenwich--construction at Charing Cross meant
that we had a bit of a round-about route, but we made it before 1pm, as
scheduled. We got to see Jim & Claudia's lovely new apartment there and had
a very tasty lunch of quiches with salad and a wonderful cheese plate.
After our meal, we went for a walk along the river. It was raining, but not
hard and we had a very pleasant ramble before winding up at a nice pub. It
was great to see them and catch up on everything. We got home about 6:30pm
and after a couple of good phone chats, were happy to order in some food and
curl up on the couch to watch CSI.
The wind continues to blow outside, rattling all the windows. It's nice to
be tucked up safe and warm with nowhere to go today. I got busy this
morning writing a story that's been coming together in my head for the past
few weeks--it's nice to feel like I'm getting down some of the ideas that I
kick around constantly.
Next weekend we'll be in Dublin to meet the Kehoes' new baby, Patrick, and
hang out with his parents.
This entry was originally posted at http://lillibet.dreamwidth.org/584336.html. You can comment either place! There are
comments over there now.
before. It's not very far from here, in Camden Town, but somehow we hit a
big gap in the bus schedule, so we decinded to take the tube instead. There
were delays on both the Picadilly and Northern Line, so we ended up walking
up to Mornington Crescent from King's Cross. Akakusa was definitely the
best sushi we've had in London--they not only had hamachi, they also do a
great gyuniku tataki (very rare beef with ponzu sauce, also known as niku no
tataki). It's not an especially fancy place, but very friendly and cozy.
We will definitely get back there. The way home was quick and easy, as we
caught a bus just a couple of blocks from the restaurant that had us home in
about ten minutes.
On Saturday we got out of the house fairly early in the day and went over to
the Tate Britain. I'd had a disappointing visit there with Gilly in the
summer and been surprised by what a small, limited collection they had on
display. I had known that part of their gallery space was being renovated,
but hadn't realized it was about 2/3 of the place. It's all been re-opened
now and we spent most of the day exploring it all. There were several
pieces where we thought we must have seen them before, but then realized no,
we'd just heard about them in detail from Anne & George when they were there
last month. We especially enjoyed the far wider range of pre-Raphaelite
paintings that they had on view this time around.
Halfway through we stopped for a break in their lovely restaurant. We could
have picked the more informal cafe, but we weren't in any hurry and the menu
looked good. We shared some chicken liver pate on toasted brioche for a
starter and then I had the beef Wellington while Jason had some lovely
slices of lamb with creamy garlic potatoes and we split an order of
spinach. After that we didn't need dessert, but couldn't resist the clotted
cream ice cream with fresh berries (rapberries, blackberries, currants and
wonderful blueberries) in a thin hazelnut shell. Then we rolled through the
20th century galleries, leaving just before five.
As is often the case after standing around in a museum for hours, we were
both ready to stretch our legs, so we walked from there along the river all
the way up to Leicester Square. At the TKTS booth we discovered that Caryl
Churchill's play, Top Girls, was just wrapping up a four week run at the
Aldwych and there were stalls tickets for the final performance available
for only #15. We had two hours before the curtain, all the museums were
closed and we certainly weren't ready to eat again so soon, so we made a
quick run home to drop off our loot from the Tate, check our email and relax
just a bit. Then we turned around and went back down to the West End.
The show wasn't Churchill's best work. The first act is a dinner party in
celebration of Marlene's promotion and the guests are various notable women
from history (Pope Joan, Lady Nijo, Griselda, Dull Gret, and Isabella Bird)
who discuss their lives. The second and third acts tell about Angie,
Marlene's sixteen year old daughter, who's been raised by Marlene's older
sister, Joyce. The dialogue was well scripted and most of the cast were
quite good, but I think the structure didn't work well and there were some
sections that I think could have been cut in ways that would have clarified
the message and kept the play from wandering.
I'd made a ten o'clock dinner reservation at Y Ming, but realized that the
play wasn't going to be over in time for us to make that. I tried to call,
but directory assistance couldn't find their number. When the show got out
at 10:15, we raced across the whole theatre district and made it in just
about ten minutes to find that they were still holding our table. We had
our usual tasty supper there and then headed home.
On Sunday we went down to Greenwich--construction at Charing Cross meant
that we had a bit of a round-about route, but we made it before 1pm, as
scheduled. We got to see Jim & Claudia's lovely new apartment there and had
a very tasty lunch of quiches with salad and a wonderful cheese plate.
After our meal, we went for a walk along the river. It was raining, but not
hard and we had a very pleasant ramble before winding up at a nice pub. It
was great to see them and catch up on everything. We got home about 6:30pm
and after a couple of good phone chats, were happy to order in some food and
curl up on the couch to watch CSI.
The wind continues to blow outside, rattling all the windows. It's nice to
be tucked up safe and warm with nowhere to go today. I got busy this
morning writing a story that's been coming together in my head for the past
few weeks--it's nice to feel like I'm getting down some of the ideas that I
kick around constantly.
Next weekend we'll be in Dublin to meet the Kehoes' new baby, Patrick, and
hang out with his parents.
This entry was originally posted at http://lillibet.dreamwidth.org/584336.html. You can comment either place! There are
comments over there now.