Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, Day Four

Elizabeth, then and now. Subway billboard.

The Queen's four day Diamond Jubilee has finally come to an end. Lovely event. The Queen was Her usual regal but human self; classic and modern. She had History to make and did.

Silver hand, V&A Museum

The luncheons, carriage parades, concerts, horses, ships and river boats, jets (the RAF finally got to do its flyover), cheering throngs, snipers lining the rooftops. The rain. The stress put poor Prince Philip in the hospital. Today our neighbors on Huron Street started taking down the flags and cleaned up the detritus from yesterday's Jubilee block party. Done. Good.

Whitechapel High Street

Today, we took the tube to the Museum of London Docklands. Excellent exhibit. Wonderful life-size, walk-though dioramas to draw you in. Afterwards we went to the Whitechapel Gallery in London's East End. It has a prestigious history but I can't say much for the exhibits we saw today. Seems the place is more geared to events and projects like their writer-in-residence program and workshops. It has the only store I've ever seen that carries art books by Yoko Ono.

Whitechapel High Street

It's been raining since mid-afternoon and we are home and tucked in early. The opera singer who lives across the street has been practicing again today. Her soprano voice goes well with the rain. I was going to read at the open mic at the Poetry Cafe tonight but we have to get up really early tomorrow morning to accompany M. Lee's mom downtown so we need to get to bed early tonight. I'll probably read next week instead.

Dockland walkabout

Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, Day Three

Holy cow! Day Three of the Diamond Jubilee is almost over and I am only just now beginning this post. Big day at the Palace. Ten thousand people were Her guests for a lovely basket lunch in the garden and it didn't rain. Fantastic. We took the tube to central London to visit the Victoria & Albert museum. Overwhelming.

Royal chamber....or is it?

As lions watch

Lovely museum goer

The alter of fashion

Man on the street

Big concert at the Palace tonight. We enjoyed a pleasant walk around Tooting Bec.

Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, Day Two

Rainy day in Tooting Bec

A.M. It's raining in Tooting Bec. Too bad. Today is the Queen's grand river pageant on the Thames. We decided not to attend. To begin with, M. Lee's mom is 82 so we thought, with over a million people jostling for a view, we'd do better watching the broadcast from home instead. So, we're taking the tube this morning to the nearest grocery store to pick up some things for our own version of high tea and watch all the fun live online via the skyNEWS feed.

High tea and Jubilee

P.M. It is almost 6. Nearly the entire flotilla has now passed by the Queen as she stands in review with her entourage on the Royal Barge in furious rain. They are saying that it's cold enough to see your breath. The fly pass of military jets, the grand finale, had to be cancelled due to the weather but the Queen has stayed strong through it all. My hat is off to her. In the brief time we've been in London I have really come to appreciate the fine standard she has set during her 60 years as Monarch. We have no such thing in America and have torn ourselves apart trying to establish a reference point.

London Philharmonic Orchestra and choir's grand finale serenade.

Finally, the London Philharmonic Orchestra boat arrives before the Queen. They serenade her with several rousing numbers including a happy little sea shanty which brings smiles then laughter from Her, Camilla and Kate. And at last they sing the National Anthem which thereby brings this glorious Pageant to a merciful close.

Footnote: An especially big hit around here today was the unexpected appearance along the river of Joey, star of War Horse currently playing at the National Theater. Swami, Ella and Minerva were thrilled.

Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, Day One

This morning we walked over to the Saturday market and got og veggies, British pasties and eggs from hens who supposedly spend their days in an orchard nibbling soft fruit and tasty bugs. Last Saturday we went to the Portobello Road flea market instead but regretted missing the local market so today it was at the top of the agenda.

Wild Country Organics, great greens!

After bringing everything home and putting it away we took the tube to central London. Our first stop was a Salvation Army store Kathy read about online. That's M. Lee's mom. The three of us are traveling together. She read that people from the nearby College of Design and Vogue Magazine offices check the place early and often with good results. She's like a bloodhound when it comes to these things and actually did dig up a treasure, a fabulous cashmere top coat for £75 that would sell new for about £1000 but it turned out to be a heart breaker. Too small.

Sleeping Venus by Paul Delvaux on display at the Tate Modern

But no matter. We went to a nearby park and ate our sandwiches. I couldn't help but share a tiny bit with the pigeons but very much on the down-low as there's a £500 fine for such things. After lunch, we took the tube back to London Bridge then walked along the Thames to the Tate Modern. Wow. What a great place. Like the other museums we've visited in London, we saw only a fraction of what's on display. We'll try to make it back again before we go.

Borough High St. street party

Today is day one of Queen Elizabeth's four day Diamond Jubilee Celebration. I hear she went to opening day at Ascot. On our way back to the Tube and home, pub and street parties were well underway. I'm not sure people were celebrating anything in particular, just having a good time. Tomorrow we'll do our best to catch a glimpse of the historic Thames Jubilee Pageant. The Queen will travel in a flotilla of up to one thousand boats for what is expected to be a seven and a half mile long water parade and largest fleet of ships to be assembled on the River Thames in 350 years.

Photo dump

Gargoyle, Windsor Castle

Once again, I'm overwhelmed.

London Saturday flea market

I've already taken far too many photos to manage and we're only just over a week into this trip.

Huron St., London
The flat we're renting is on this street.

It happens every time.

Wedding photo shoot.
St. Paul's cathedral.
The groom standing off to the right.

Anyway, we came upon this fun scene the other day while walking to the tube.

These gigantic, multi-location, muli-costume professional photo shoots are the current fashion at the weddings of young Chinese couples.

They didn't seem to mind me taking a few of my own.

So, that's it for now. As usual, I'm up too late lost in the hodge podge. 

Chelsea reflections

English or American

I agree with Ghandi when he wrote, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” and, by that measure, both the United Kingdom and the US are neither truly great nor even very moral. However, since we arrived in the UK, I have been enjoying how differently they use of our common language and am wondering just how deep those differences go.

Perhaps I have merely succumbed to novelty but, at the moment, it seems more polite to ask drivers to "give way" rather than "yield" like we do in the US.

And even though I'm vegetarian, I find this unobtrusive window sign both amazing and delightful. "Proper Hamburgers"?

American restaurants advertise "fast" food, even "healthy" and "organic" food but "proper" hot food? Never! I believe I speak for the majority of my countrymen when I say that no one shall ever enforce the eating of "proper" food on an American. By god Southerners, cued by their Corporate Overlords, thoroughly vilified the First Lady for merely suggesting that parents feed their children healthy food.

Hyde Park, London

Perhaps I am belaboring the point here but I also thought the dog poop bins in Hyde Park were pretty civilized.

Thought for the day

London Tube
That blurry blue line is a speeding train.

Alrighty then.

The Queen is home but I am out

It's going to be hard keeping track of our experiences in London. Tonight again I am far too tired to retrieve the mental notes I made during the day. All that's left is bits and scraps but I'll do, well not my best, but I'll do what I can.

We took the tube to the center of London. Because I like horses we started with the changing of the Horse Guard. It was not conducted in the regular field as that area is being turned into a volleyball field for the upcoming Olympics. The entire city is preparing, not only for the Olympics in July, but the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June.

Anyway, after watching the Horse Guard, we wandered through Admiralty Arch and ate our peanut butter and banana sandwiches on the steps leading up to a bigger than life sculpture of someone or other then made our way up The Mall, the giant red carpet like road leading to the Palace. Along the way, The Mall passes through Green Park, a lovely area "acquired" in the 16th century by Henry VIII from a colony of female lepers. He desired a convenient place to shoot deer. But what can I say? The grim old structures, the gothic spires rising above the trees, the enormous royal residences and pompous towering halls of government facing The Mall had the desired effect. I was impressed. Even the obviously phallic stylized ship's masts topped by red and gold crowns lining the parade way between the Arch and the Palace hold their own.

As it turned out construction is also underway directly in front of the palace and the last part of the way barricaded. The flag was up on the Palace which means the Queen was in but we were out of luck. No big deal. Even with the construction, barricades and walk arounds, I am here to report that London is still a great show, an extravagant display of great world power, incalculable wealth, ruthless, fearful and magnificent.

But enough of that. M. Lee and I went for bike ride after getting back to Tooting Bec. It was rush hour so traffic was horrendous. The cool thing is that motorists are pretty accustomed to cyclists, much more so than in Nevada anyway, so it seemed quite natural being in the flow. This is partly due to the efforts of London's cycling mayor Boris Johnson who is bent on making London a more bike friendly city. We brought our own bikes with us. I think I failed to mention that before. Bromptons. Folding bikes. They take a little getting used to but are great fun. Along the way we stopped to pick up some maps of bike routes at Crazy Horse, a bike shop in Tooting Bec. We got to talking with the owners and discovered that the woman and I are actually related but more about that later. It's already too late. I've got to try to sleep now.

London, hello and good-night

A couple of photos is about all I can do for now. It's been over 30 hours since I last slept. We're in London. We arrived around noon today and are staying up to catch up with the new time zone.

Travel buddy stowaways, Swami and Minerva.

Our apartment is in Tooting Bec, an interesting, very diverse neighborhood in south London. M. Lee found it on AirBnB.

London customs.
More a concept than a place.

We had dinner tonight at a tiny nearby restaurant our landlords recommended, Chennai Dosa. Yum. It was perfect comfort food. Anyway, it's finally getting dark so, for now, good night.