Tag: London

Holidays, Humor, Husband, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links (High Geekery Edition)

“I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.”
― Jon Stewart

Hope American minions had a delightful holiday! I went to an American service at St. Paul’s Cathedral headed by the US Ambassador and his family and then spent the rest of the day doing some Christmas shopping. An intensely Protestant sermon was preached which infuriated my Catholic seatmate, yet electrified the couple who walked down the cathedral steps next to me – so even the tradition of being surrounded by people disagreeing fiercely was upheld! A fortifying plum and almond tart at Liberty saw me through until I had leftover curry for dinner. Jeff meanwhile wrestled with an uncooperative rental bowtie for his tux before heading off to his office’s Christmas party in Bloomsbury. (A visual representation of our differences can be found here. Along with other general London goodness.) An unconventional but very nice holiday all around.

Alas ’tis not a holiday over here so I still have to be productive. Here are your links (actually pretty well connected to a theme this week) and enjoy the weekend!

Apparently my name is Grey Selkirk. Which sounds rather sleek and deadly to be honest. Now, which district would I belong to? Having not read the series I rely on you, gentle readers, to let me know (looking at you, Janssen).

Let’s continue with the geekery, shall we? Hello, sweetie. I got River Song!

All communication technology changes language, but the internet allows us to track it in ways we haven’t exactly used before. Meme language interests me.

tumblr find of the week – first drafts are utterly dreadful. My just finished one is unusually bad, I think. Pearl clutchers disregard the title.

In lady news – awesome.

We’re debating adding Monty’s Python’s Live (mostly) Show to our theatre schedule. Even if we don’t, I just have to say that the registration site is morbidly hilarious. (ETA: this thing sold out in 45 seconds. I’m impressed.)

People, inherently decent.

Fair warning, this is a pen commercial. It’s also downright impressive.

I have nothing but respect for this woman and the legal lengths she went to. Admittedly I have mixed feelings on a lot of hacking culture (which I admit I don’t understand all the nuances of and probably could learn a lot more of), and I take privacy issues very seriously, but  the fact that this site is no more should be cause for celebration.

Quentin Blake, illustrator of Roald Dahl fame graced Stylist (one of London’s many free and gorgeous mags) with drawings of some of his favorite authors.

Humor, Husband, London

Adventures in Haberdashery

“Style, friend, style!”
– Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

We thought we’d solved the conundrum of the Thanksgiving Christmas Party. Not so! One final hitch of the sartorial variety awaited us.

Monday evening Jeff burst in the door after work and exclaimed, “Get up, get dressed, we have to find a tuxedo!”

To explain, I was dressed to go to the gym, not undressed. I’d also had a very long day with some fun but extremely labor intensive freelance projects that had cropped up at the last minute and had barely just plopped down on the sofa for a rest before tackling the next stage of one of them. But I popped up and threw on some real clothes to dash out the door with him a few minutes later. I’ve mentioned before that odd requests without context are fairly standard operating procedure for us.

It turns out that clarification had been given only that afternoon to the dress code on the invitation for the event. Originally it had been one of those modern, unhelpful directions that don’t actually tell you what you’re supposed to wear. “Dress to impress.” It had been confirmed, at this late stage, that it meant, “Black tie,” and normal suits weren’t going to cut it.

So, off we went to hire a tux, just hoping we got to the only store open past 5pm (almost the whole of London shuts down after typical business hours, something I usually don’t mind at all) while it was still open. The Tube is a time crapshoot. As it turns out we fell in the door mere minutes before the hire department closed for the evening. Me with messy hair and both of us a bit winded. I was sure they would demand why a couple of wheezy plebes like us needed evening clothes but luckily we got the thing ordered just in the nick of time (two customers were turned away after us) and with no questions asked.

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James Bond never dealt with this sort of hurried tux arrangement, I am sure.
Holidays, Humor, London

Well Done, John Lewis

“I discovered windows one afternoon and after that, nothing was ever the same.”
― Anne Spollen, The Shape of Water

Lavish department store window displays go back for over a century, but in London during the holidays many stores try hard to outdo each other in creative ideas and design. The more out of the box, the better. There are a lot of great displays, I need to do a post dedicated to them collectively, but my favorite this year is undoubtedly the window at John Lewis.

Initially the display looked pretty basic, just woodland animals. But come closer…

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A stag made of vacuum parts!

 

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A bunny of brushes!

 

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A squirrel of cups and cutlery!

 

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A bird of scissors!

 

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Foxes of dusters.

 

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A badger of lighting.

 

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A bear of basketry.

I can’t imagine how labor intensive these must have been. But I think the results are utterly charming!

Humor, Husband, London

My Man Plays the Blues

“You couldn’t not like someone who liked the guitar.”
― Stephen King, The Stand

We spend a lot of time in the West End, it’s where some of our favorite restaurants are, obviously the theatre district, and frankly it’s just a great place to wander. One of Jeff’s favorite areas to meander therein is Soho. Once it had a nicely sizzling reputation as a sex industry district and the site determined as the source of the outbreak of cholera that helped form the science of epidemiology. More recently it’s reputation is as one of the real music centers of the city.

Denmark Street is particularly famous for its shops selling musical instruments and sheet music. At one point several major artists lived, worked, or recorded music there – we’re talking Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie… It’s basically Jeff’s nirvana (who, incidentally as far as I know, did not record there). Many an evening after he’s indulged me in some window shopping, I head into Soho to return the favor.

Because if Jeff ever makes his fortune, I know exactly what he would collect. Guitars. He’s played ever since he was a kid and even inherited a bass and a custom built electronic guitar (shared with a brother) from a great uncle.

I never went in for the sensitive troubadour types (of which our university had hordes), and Jeff didn’t win me with his musical talents. But I’ve got admit, the dark and deep blues and jazz tunes didn’t at all hurt. I might do for indie and some blues but for Rock in our house, Jeff’s your man.

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You can’t see it here, but there is some serious musical lust on his face.

Like all true admirers, he’s found his favorite local shop: Macaris, with locations on both Charing Cross Road and Denmark Street. And its goods are pretty impressive. They are the only authorised Gibson guitar dealer in the near area, a fact they are pretty proud of, and they sell everything from simple starter guitars for kids and soulful university students right up to the 80’s-est of 80’s rock n’roll royalty gear. Even I, who know nothing about guitars but for what I’ve learned from the devotee I’m married to, was knocked back to see some of their treasured stock – NOT for sale.

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Oh. Just guitars signed by John Lennon, Oasis, and other major British rockers. Nothing much to look at. (*clutches self a bit to see them just hanging there!).

They sell other instruments as well, but I think it’s pretty clear their heart lies with the thrumming and plucking sort. But it’s not just guitar lovers we’re talking here!

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Fun family fact – among my exceptionally nifty mother’s talents (Classical Greek and Latin included) lies the banjo! She decided she wanted to learn as a girl and worked out the scheme for an instrument and lessons herself. She’s plucky like that. Interesting enough, a sibling followed a bit in her footsteps…

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Brig’s teenage wooing and general cavorting choice: the ukelele! Ignore my thumb at the bottom, if you please. But for Jeff, there’s only room in his heart for the one true stringed instrument.

Jinstore

Humor, London

In Character

“I’m cool dad, that’s my thang. I’m hip, I surf the web, I text. LOL: laugh out loud, OMG: oh my god, WTF: why the face.”
– Phil Dunphy, Modern Family

The US has Black Friday, that day of dubious renown, to kick off the Christmas season. Here in London, we have the lighting of the annual displays on Regent Street. Every year thousands crowd to watch the lights turn on. Usually there is some kind of sponsor (this year a film) and plenty of performers. Goodness knows I didn’t see much besides the spines of other people – drat my height! – but we got to listen to Leona Lewis and Passenger before several guests of honor took their places to throw the switch, including actor Ty Burrell.

…and nothing happened.

They had to try three times, the last after a bit of an awkward delay when they turned off all the large screens and shuffled around the stage a bit awkwardly. That part I did get to see, since I found a handy curb.

Luckily they did get it all to work eventually, but I rather like the idea of Phil Dunphy doing something to make the lighting a bit more difficult.

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Humor, London

The Moderate British Bake Off

“Empty?! You took all the cookies!”
“They were crying to get out of the jar… Cookies get claustrophobia too, you know!”
― Charles M. Schulz

Britain, I’m devoted to you, but the size of your packages of baking chocolate chunks leaves something to be desired.

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You. Vanilla extract with actual vanilla seeds. You can stay.

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Holidays, Humor, London

A Holiday Issue Arises – Advise!

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes.”
― Erma Bombeck

An admittedly American conundrum. (Among many, apparently.)

Jeff’s work Christmas party is scheduled for Thanksgiving evening and everyone is “highly encouraged” to attend. Spouses aren’t invited. I have thoughts on this, both as to the scheduling (Christmas parties in November violate my sense of order) and the no partners policy.*

I also have a reservation for dinner at The Mayflower – because that was the most on-the-nose Thanksgiving I could possibly have come up with and I thought it would be fun to eat in a pub that commemorates the group that kicked off the holiday to begin with. Very apropos, if not slightly meta.

So. Who can I befriend in less than a month that will go to a major holiday dinner with me and not find it weird? Or do I just ditch the reservation and spend take myself out to a fab day and night on the town and go utterly native by forgoing the only real American holiday? Which I’m not opposed to, but if left to my own devices I feel I should at least do something interesting, but what? Advise me, minions!

*Half of me understands the financial desire to keep numbers down, the other half of me gives this policy serious side eye.

Humor, London

Loyalty Rewarded

“What a fuss people make about fidelity!” exclaimed Lord Henry.
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

It was the weekend, we were placing our regular curry delivery order (like a good pair of Londoners) when we were faced with a conundrum. A new curry place had announced its opening via flier earlier in the week and we debated whether trying it out might be a good idea or not. The prices were comparable, as was the distance, the menu was largely the same, etc. Decisions decisions. In the end we decided to stick with the tried and true, if for no other reason than they have our number on file and don’t even have to ask for our address anymore.

This was tucked into the unassuming brown paper bag that showed up.

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I WILL NEVER FALTER AGAIN.

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links (This Girl is On Fi-hyah, Edition)
“Nobody gets a nervous breakdown or a heart attack from selling kerosene to gentle country folk from the back of a tanker in Somerset.”
– Roald Dahl
Covent Garden has had its Christmas decor up for a bit, but in view of the fact that there is no Thanksgiving here, I'll allow it in November
Covent Garden has had its Christmas decor up for a bit, but in view of the fact that there is no Thanksgiving here, I’ll allow it in November

I was in a bit of a funk this week, ducklings. So I gave myself leave to (temporarily) neglect you while I found some equilibrium. It was also the week of Jeff’s first three certifying exams (he passed with flying colors) so things were understandably a bit tense so we preferred to hang out in Covent Garden with each other of an evening than anything else. But a good dose of perspective from a friend has quite busted me out of my three day break.

So far today I’ve done laundry, worked out, sent out a small but decent batch of cold emails for editorial work, put in some work on a novel (yeah, I’m one of those. Blame buddy and future YA bestselling author Caitlin Jacobs), did some freelance work, submitted a couple invoices, and did a load of washing up. I’m feeling downright energetic! This evening I plan on dragging Jeff to the British Museum to check out their Beyond El Dorado exhibit, and then possibly wander a bit in Westminster to take in some November. Here are your links, tell me what you’re up to this weekend!

I confess I might have squeed a little…but these are awfully cute creations.

Wow…heartbreaking and beautiful (h/t Caitlin Kelly)

These shoes are all kinds of great.

The kingdom was briefly in peril it seems, but crisis has been averted.

You must admit, his outlook is very soothing. Also, Jeff thinks he’s the greatest painter that ever graced the earth. In his words, “He paints with a freaking knife!”

Halloween is but one day behind us. Here’s something historical and grisly for you.

Gardening for the win! (h/t Kerry)

It might be All Saints Day, but Kate Beaton’s holiday quizzes always require sharing.

Guard your gardens!

Leaving aside that CNN’s headlines are looking more and more like Buzzfeed, this gallery pleases me. I wonder what the leg wraps are meant to achieve.

Friends, Humor, London

The Buddy System

“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

My friend Chris set me up on a blind friend dinner date with his sister the other evening. She was going to be in London for a couple of days having some dental work done. She and her family live in Turkmenistan (which she laughing described as one of the lesser “-stans”) but have lived all over the Slavic world as part of her husband’s career.

It was such a nice evening. As it turns out she’s attended my alma mater and had personally studied with a number of professors and researchers at whose shrines I offer academic devotions. I may or may not of geeked out slightly. She also once worked for Oxford University Press in New York before deciding that teaching was her vocation and got a masters in it. Now she volunteers with the expat community and the American school as well as a number of charity organizations. I got to hear all about the national dress, the dictatorship of the country, and the gleaming white marble buildings of the city over lamb kebabs and naan.

We both grew up internationally and had similar family situations so we spent the better part of four hours swapping stories and then wandering around Covent Garden and Westminster. She was snapping some shots of the Houses of Parliament when we both happened to look up at Big Ben (illuminated nicely) and exclaim, “What’s that?” For a second it looked like someone had thrown a bucket of water off the top of the spire which was heading straight for us. The penny dropped a second later as the skies opened up and drenched us both. We dove for the umbrella and ran for the tube station where we parted as old friends.

It was fun.

I knew I’d been missing friends and family but after I got home to debrief Jeff on my evening I realized how much I’m missing just palling around with people. I miss long gossip sessions with my godmother after the monthly Sunday family dinner, I miss sitting around listening to old radio shows with my sibs, and I definitely miss the Girls. I’m an equal opportunity do-er, I enjoy people and I enjoy being by myself. It’s actually been downright relaxing having just a bit of time alone. But clearly I’m missing my people.

Resolved therefore, I need more local mates. Now advertising, accepting all Londoners!