London

Right. So I'm back from a short trip to London. I had to be there for work, so I thought I'd make the most of it, and so I stayed for three nights.

Thursday.

I arrived at St Pancras with the Eurostar at 5pm and had a pint of bitter with Helen, our manager, and David, her partner, at the Betjeman Arms at St Pancras. We took the tube to Kilburn Park, where they have their apartment.

St Pancras Station with a statue of John Betjeman

Walked to The Clifton in Maida Vale where we had our 'tea'. Very nice residential area.

The Clifton

Taxi back to the flat because of Helen's bad leg. Slept on their sofa bed (gotta get one of those when I move to Brussels) which wasn't too painful.

Friday.

We got up around 7 am, had coffee and toast in their kitchen which has a really big window overlooking a garden. How perfect to start your day with such a view.

We left at 8 and took the tube to London Bridge, where we had a Nero coffee and Helen had a smoke, as we were waiting for friends of Helen's - Ash and Ian - also on their way to the conference. We all got on the train to East Croydon where we met with more Waterstone's staff.

Really nice guy, Kevin, also a bookseller, who is French and who worked for Helen in Richmond was there. He's so amazing, he plays at least 5 instruments, has his own one-man band, and used to make a living as a busker in Belgium!! We chatted on the coach as it took us to Selsdon Park in Croydon where the conference was at. It totally looks like Hampton Court... (well, from the right angle anyway)

Selsdon Park Hotel

So many new and old faces there. Penny our last manager was there too. It was really good to see her again. Talked to some other people about a possible transfer to London. They seemed to think it's possible, I don't know if I'll be able to keep my position in Brussels though, so that's something I'm now working on. We'll see. It'd be nice to go to London for a year or so.

After the festival, back to London Bridge where a few of us, including Penny, Helen, Sharon and Emily had a couple of beers at the George Inn, where Shakespeare allegedly wrote - or drank. It was really sunny and warm still, and so we sat outside for a while, a whole lot of us Waterstoners with our conference goody bags in everybody's way.

The George

Then off to my hostel in Swiss Cottage. The Palmers Lodge. Stop at McDonalds for food and M&S for chocolate - I know. Hostel was neat, slept in a 12 bed female dorm with ensuite bathroom which had 4 showers and 2 toilets, and all the beds had their own curtains too. Very tidy place, friendly staff, free breakfast and internet access, all for £15 per night!!

Palmers Lodge Hostel

Saturday.

Up at 9 am. Breakfast at the hostel. What a great feeling to be surrounded by such an international crowd. So excited.

On the agenda: National Portrait Gallery and meeting Sandy!!

The weather was nice and I really didn't feel like taking the tube, so I set out on foot, from Swiss Cottage and walked all the way to Trafalger Square.

This was my itinerary:
From Swiss Cottage, down Avenue Road, through Regents Park, to Warren Street, stop at a theatre bookshop on corner of Fitzroy St and Warren St.

(checked out moliere translations at the bookshop. If anyone's interested, oxford classics respects rhyme, penguin classics doesn't... but of course the original is not difficult and so much fun - shop talk, oops)

Right, then from there I walked down Tottenham Court Rd, and then Charing Cross Road. I resisted all the bookshops, actually I wasn't even tempted after a whole day at the conference.

Alright I did go into this one (Koenig Books) quickly, nice collection of art books, looked for a book on Barnett Newman but couldn't find one.

Stopped for an ice-cream and arrived at the National Portrait Gallery.

As I was walking through the Gallery, a song popped into my head. I love it when that happens, your brain automatically picks a song to go with your surroundings. Anyway the song was Faces and Names from Songs for Drella. I realized the Gallery didn't have an Andy Warhol! Surely a missed opportunity...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcc8PeC24_s (Faces and Names, fyi)

Names of artists (mostly painters) I wanna check out from the Gallery:

at the BP prize exhibit I liked: Jennifer McRae, Jayne Cooper, Peter Monkman (winner), Mark Clay, William Wright, Emmanouil Bitsakis (miniature paintings)

of the permanent collection: H. Gotlib (sculpture), Nancy Sharp, Henry Lamb, Vanessa Bell, Ernest Procter, Walter Sickert.

Had a salad and a coffee at the Gallery's café, and then off to see Sandy!!

So Sandy is a friend I met in Mulhouse, France when I was an exchange student there. I hadn't seen her in 8 years or so, so I was very anxious to meet her again. And facebook is so amazing for making these things happen!

(Soundtrack: Boy in the Bubble - Paul Simon www.youtube.com/watch?v=GykbnvufIZE&feature=related )

So we meet at Bond St Station. And it was really great, it was so good talking to her again, we went for a drink first, then a long walk to Mayfair, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, St James Park, where you have a beautiful view on the bridge with the London Eye in the background, then through the War Cabinets, past Downing Street, and back to Trafalger Square where we had another drink. Oh yes, and we used the restrooms at the very posh Park Lane Hotel on our way, beats public toilets, wow! Hand lotion, the works.

St James Park - view from the bridge

We then went to Leicester Square, where we were meeting her friend Amy for dinner. There was this five minute downpour out of nowhere, and so we took shelter at the nearest pub, The Brewmaster. Amy met us there, and we went to a Wine bistro just on the other side of the street. It didn't look all that promising from the outside, but it was lovely inside. We drank two bottles of Alsacian Pinot Noir, for old time's sake, and because we like it of course, had some cheeses to go with it, and then a salad. We talked and talked and just had a wonderful evening.

Tube back to the hostel. Happy thoughts.

Sunday, and more extraordinary encounters...

Up at 9.24, shower, breakfast

Walk from Swiss Cottage:

Finchley Road, Wellington Rd, St John's Wood Rd (getting pretty), Clifton Grounds (I would love to live in one of these houses!), crossing the canal near Little Venice (Wow!!), Royal Oak, along Queensway, through Kensington Gardens, down High St Kensington.

The Canal between Clifton Villas and Royal Oak

(Soundtrack: Road to Nowhere - Talking Heads)

Sat myself down on the terrace of Côte Bistro (Kensington Court) with a capuccino to relax a bit before meeting with Tim, friend from college in Antwerp.

Met Tim at the station, went back to the same bistro for lunch, had a lovely chat in the sun and then went for a quick browse at muji before meeting with Daisy!

So Daisy is a girl I went to school with in London 19 years ago, I hadn't seen her since! Earlier this year, in NYC, I saw another girl (Shannon) from my ACS (American Community School) years. That was so incredible! I knew they were all really sweet people, but you don't know what to expect after so long. It was great seeing them again.

I think maybe because I had seen Shannon in NY, that I was less nervous seeing Daisy now in London. But it was still pretty awesome. It was funny, because I was standing outside High St Kensington station, and I realized that I might not even recognize her, after all, the last time we saw each other we were 13.

Unbelievable. She hadn't changed a bit. Of course we recognized each other right away. So, we went for a quick coffee (in a prêt-a-manger), because we didn't really have a lot of time, but it didn't matter. We updated each other on our lives, and it turned out we had a few things in common. We're both staying with mum and dad again. What I thought was amazing was that it felt like we hadn't been out of touch at all. She was still exactly the same sweet person. Although I was very shy in those days, I think I must have talked to her more than I realized or something, because she certainly didn't feel like a half stranger to me. Or is it that we develop a strong connection with people from the past anyway. Anyway, I think we had a lovely class in Middle School and that most of us have fond memories of those days. It was home for a while after all.

Speaking of which, how can you not have good memories of a school that looks like this!

ACS Hillingdon

So that was my perfectly lovely London weekend. I went back to St Pancras, to catch the Eurostar back to Brussels. I ran into David there, Helen's partner, who works for Eurostar. The circle is complete.