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discovering London and a visit to the British Museum (again)

Posted in Fun Stuff, Historical, It's my life, things to do in London, tagged British Museum, sicilian avenue, The Royal Courts of Justice, things to do in london on May 24, 2011| 4 Comments »

Gothic London

and my latest London #walkabout. Oh how I love to wander the streets of London! I am sure that if you had to track my journey on a map my route would look a bit like a demented fly has been let loose!!! My initial plan was to visit the British Museum, as I have not been for ever such a long time and wanted to see the Afghanistan exhibition as well as explore Temple. So onto the bus and off I went. Enroute CJ suggested that since I would be walking right past the Petrie Museum I should stop off there first….turns out the museum is situated within the University College London complex, which as it turns out is a complex maze!!! But what an interesting maze! I discovered a couple of really interesting items whilst ‘switchbacking’ as one does in a maze! First was a lovely greek mural

mural on the wall in one of the many rooms I meandered through enroute to the Petrie Museum

and the second were the Koptos lions! Awesome.

Koptos Lions

Finally I found the Petrie Museum, only to discover it was closed!!! hahaha. Tuesday to Saturday = opening hours and hey….it was Sunday! Urgh.
Anyhow it was worth the meander, and now at least I know the easier access route.
From there I set off to find the British Museum. One of the most sensible things the city has done in recent years is put up the ‘easy find’ maps. These are positioned around the city on just about every corner and show you not only where you are, even if you are lost it still tells you where you are, but it gives a wider view of the surrounding area. Easy peasy find your way around. Very useful for folks like me who cannot be bothered to carry a map.

maps

When I got off the bus in Euston Road I was delighted to discover more examples of our modern architecture. I am becoming quite a fan of the newer buildings. I also had a good view of the BT Tower so knew I was on the right track.
Never one to take a direct route I meandered here and there following whatever caught my eye. I discovered some fascinating places along the way:
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Bonham Carter House – which has a blue plaque proclaiming: The First Anaesthetic given in England was administered in a house on this site 19 December 1846. whoa!
a wonderful row of Georgian Houses
the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
University of London – Senate House and Library (brilliant building)
a delightful park
and the rear entrance via Montague Place to the British Museum 🙂 yay

rear entrance to The British Museum off Montague Place

The Afghanistan exhibition was meant to be booked, which I had not, so instead I visited the Iranian exhibition, where I got to see one of the first copies of the Qur’an F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. And if you have not yet been and if you live in London…….why are you waiting?
I am sure I wandered around the museum for at least 2 hours. The exhibitions are marvellous. I seldom get past the first floor so this time I made the effort and climbed the stairs to the next level to see what I could see. Wow!!
in all I visited
Ancient Iran and the Middle East in the Raymond and Beverley Sackler Gallery – fascinating.
Enlightenment
Living and Dying – with displays of some of the most outlandish coffins you could imagine, made by the Ga people of Ghana.
Living with Land and Sea – where amongst other fascinating objects I saw a parka made from seal gut!
and then I revisited
the Middle East exhibitions of which the Rosetta Stone was inundated with visitors as usual.
The Clocks and Watches exhibitions
part of the Hans Sloane curiosity collectables collection
as well as a number of others that I have forgotten the names of.
With well over 100 exhibitions and displays to visit you would seriously have to visit a dozen times to see it all. There are so many wonderful treasures to see the mind can’t cope with all the intriguing artefacts and facts on display. Thankfully the British Museum allow you to take photographs for future enjoyment! 🙂

one of the many displays inside the British Museum

I left the Museum via the main entrance and stopped for a few minutes to visit the Australian exhibition in the forecourt. A journey through Australia’s varied and actually mind-boggling landscape.
Also in the forecourt were two vans 1) selling ice-creams and 2) crepes 🙂 and I had no money 😦
Outside the museum I saw a taxi decorated like a Pirate Ship 🙂

pirate ship taxi

and across the road on Great Russell Street, a row of terrace Houses #’s 67 -70 the first works of John Nash – architect 1752–1835.
then Bloomsbury Square
with a statue of Statesman Charles James Fox 1749-1806
the house where Sir Hans Sloane – benefactor of the British Museum lived 1695-1742
It was my plan to visit and explore Temple as well today so from Bloomsbury Square I headed off in the general direction and wandered along Southampton Row where I discovered the delightful pedestrianized Sicilian Avenue… a triangular area of restaurants and cafes. Wonderful.

Sicilian Avenue

Southampton Row is lined with wonderful buildings some of which are adorned with fascinating sculptures and reliefs.
On my way to Temple I walked along Kingsway and discovered the marvellous Aviation House!!
and quite by accident; Lincoln Inn Fields! I was delighted to discover this historic part of London and park. On the perimeter are a number of imposing houses one of which is where William Marsden – Surgeon lived 1796-1867 (I think) the plaque was too far away for me to read it properly.
I walked through ‘the fields’ (aka a park) and passed a beautiful memorial for Margaret MacDonald who spent her life in helping others.

Margaret MacDonald memorial at Lincoln Inn Fields

Enroute round the perimeter of the park I found a slightly decrepit bust of John Hunter; Surgeon, Anatomist, Teacher and Collector 1728-1793! Hmmm, little did I know what i was to discover next!
Leaving the park, I turned left and headed towards a marvellous red-brick gate and what looked like a church; eager to explore. And on the way I passed the Hunterian Museum!!! OMGosh!! sadly it was closed, but no matter at least I know where it is….will just have to find a quicker way to get there. Next stop was this marvellous gate et al and to my dismay I learned it was private property and No Entry! How rude. But I did find out through diligent questioning that they have tours of the place every Friday at 2pm! So guess where I will be at 2pm on Friday! I did not discover what the place was except that it has something to do with ‘The Law’!
And hey presto to my right was the rear of The Royal Courts of Justice…whey hey! Super duper.

The Royal Courts of Justice, London (rear view)

Of course I have been inside these magnificent courts and even got to play at being Judge in the high court last year on Open House weekend in September 2010. heehee. CJ has a photo of me somewhere in my Judge regalia, wig and all!!
My destination at this stage was still Temple and I figured I would get there eventually. Walking past the courts I noticed an old building with a statue tucked away in a niche above the doorway; Thomas More – Sometime Lord High Chancellor of England, martyred July 6th 1535! The Royal Courts of Justice are no less fabulous and imposing at the rear as what they are at the front. A must visit!!!
on my way I passed:
an old silver merchants shop ‘The Silver Mousetrap’ est 1690…mind-blowing
The Union Bank Chambers est 1865
and then delight of delights….King’s College London. I had seen this marvellous building some months ago from the other side when I visited Samuel Johnson’s house, but had no idea what it was. I had it in mind to find out and today I did….quite by accident mind.
Marvellous, marvellous. It looks like a fairytale castle and since the gate was open….I explored. I wanted to explore the building but got asked to leave by the very grumpy security guard. Yeah alright already! God! Instead I meandered the gardens, wonderful. I also met Confucius 😉
from there I did my demented fly thing and suddenly found myself at Fleet Street and the doors to Inner Temple, which as it turned out were locked and I had to do a detour!

the doors to Inner Temple - beneath Prince Henry's Room in Fleet Street

And I will write a separate blog about that….in due course and by this stage I had taken over 400 photos! 🙂 some of which I have uploaded (32) in an album on facebook.

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talk about the weather.

Posted in around the UK, Fun Stuff, It's my life on May 12, 2011| 6 Comments »

the weather, a daily occurance!

When I first arrived in the UK I learned pretty quick that most Brits have a thing about the weather. No matter what you are doing or where you are going, someone will always ask “what’s the weather like?” or “look at the weather” or “what miserable weather” or “it’s really miserable out” or “do you know the weather is for tomorrow?” or whatever……adinfinitum.

One day I decided to find out what the story is and why is weather such a hot topic of conversation. The answer to my question was “we talk about the weather because that is a fairly safe subject. It upsets no-one and doesn’t offend. We don’t talk about politics or religion so that leaves the weather.” This seems to me to be quite a shame!

There is nothing more enjoyable than a good debate on the merits of Politics or Religion, especially if the other person/s are passionate about their points of view. It is exceptionally enjoyable to sit on the fence and argue the points put forward.

So why don’t we discuss Politics and Religion more often. Or is weather just too safe.

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just one last post…..

Posted in Fun Stuff, Historical, It's my life, tagged royal wedding 2011, the royal wedding in numbers on May 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

…..and then I will try my best not to post any more articles about the Royal Wedding. I am sure by now you must be thinking I am a ‘royal pain in the ass’ 🙂 But bear with me on this one! I love statistics and many moons ago, back in South Africa I decided to do a course on Sales Management. One of the modules was statistics and if the course hadn’t been so boring (?) I would have eventually achieved a certificate of achievement! ‘Whatever’!!! 🙂

But it was incredibly boring and I chucked it in after about 2 months. However, my love of numbers never went away and I especially love statistical numbers. So in view of this, one of the first articles I read after the Royal Wedding was the statistics. This is what I found:

The Royal Wedding in numbers:
9 million page views for the BBC’s royal wedding live page
24.5million people watched TV coverage on BBC and ITV
400million people watched online
2,400MW power surge immediately after the wedding service = 1million kettles being boiled

5,000 Police officers on duty
35 sniffer dogs on duty
11,000 barriers were used
55 arrests were made
60 known demonstrators excluded from the area
130 street cleaners cleared up
140tonnes of rubbish
£10m = estimated cost of policing, preparation and clearing up – horse manure was the biggest issue

1,900 invited to the service at Westminster Abbey
1,000 of the guests were family and friends
50 were members of the Royal family
40 were members of foreign Royal families
200 members of Government, Parliament and Diplomatic Corps
80 guests from Prince William’s charities
60 Governors-General and Realm Prime Ministers
30 members of the Armed Forces

5 hours and 15 minutes between the first guests arriving at the Abbey and the RAF fly-past
4 minutes for Kate to walk down the aisle
2.7 metres length of the train
2-3mm spacing of stitches on each lace motif
30mins – to keep the lace pristine workers washed their hands every 30 minutes
3 hours – to keep the needles sharp they were renewed every 3 hours

5,500 road closure requests for street parties
2million sausage rolls sold by Marks & Spencer
120,000 royal wedding cupcakes sold by Morrisons
200,000 Union Jack napkins, plates and cups sold by Tesco
120 miles of bunting sold by Tesco
700 miles of bunting sold by all UK supermarkets – enough to wrap around Westminster Abbey 100 times

1 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI (1977)
1 State Landau (1902)
1 State Bentley
9 horses made up the Grey Escort
911 officers lined the route of the royal procession

650 guests at wedding luncheon
300 people attended the dinner at Buckingham Palace given by Prince Charles
10,000 canapes served at lunch reception
2 cakes – 1 fruit, 1 chocolate
1,700 biscuits used to make Prince William’s chocolate biscuit cake and 17 kilos of chocolate
17 different kinds of flower decoration on the traditional cake
900 sugar paste flowers on the traditional cake
21 chefs helped prepare the food

RAF fly-past was made up of
1 Lancaster
1 Hurricane
1 Spitfire
2 Typhoon’s
2 Tornado GR4’s
and:
2 crazy ex- South Africans amongst 1million spectators that lined the route.

royal wedding 2011, the royal wedding in numbers

having fun at a Royal Wedding

ooooops, nearly forgot the credits:
statistics via The Times 30th April 2011 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13248642 various sources

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the day before…………

Posted in Fun Stuff, Historical, Holidays, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged camping on the mall, royal wedding on May 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

What a fabulous event! Kate; or Catherine as she is now to be known, the Duchess of Cambridge looked absolutely radiant, just as every bride should!
I feel as if I have truly fallen through the rabbit hole, it was surreal! The Pomp! The Pagentry! The Ceremony! The Horses! The Traditions! The Colours! The Music! The Troops! The Flags! – only the British can do Pomp and Ceremony like the British! 🙂

Pomp and Pagentry on The Mall

Who would have thought when I sat in front of my TV that day back in South Africa in 1981, and watched the wedding of Prince Charles and the soon to be Princess Diana, that in just under 30 years time I would be in London and at the wedding of her eldest son; Prince William!
To say that I am thrilled and exhuberant to have been part of the fantastic event would be a total understatement. I could probably use every descriptive word in the dictionary and it still wouldn’t describe the fun, the excitement and the sheer unadulterated amazement I felt at being there.

royal wedding on the mall processional route

two very excited people, on The Mall waiting for the fun to begin

Earlier in the month, in a moment of what can clearly be described as madness, I had decided to join the hundreds of other people who would be camping out on the Mall for the Royal Wedding.

my place for the Royal Wedding

You may recall, (or not), that I went along to mark this ‘spot’ a few days before which was great fun. Of course when I did arrive at The Mall on Thursday evening, the whole area was already filled with people camping out – note to self: take leave from duty when these events occur! In other words, there are other people just as mad who get there early too!!

royal wedding, crowds camping on the mall

you gotta get there early

So, there I was, rucksack strapped on, the pop-up 2woman tent that I had purchased the day before in another ‘moment of madness’, (I am not safe with a credit card when I get excited about something!!) in one hand, a bag of food in my other hand and my stomach churning with excitement, wandering about looking for a spot to camp out! I was delighted that my daughter had decided to join me for the night and she was to arrive a wee bit later.

our 2-woman pop-up tent prior to being popped-up

The Mall was a sea of tents, and camping chairs, plastic ground sheets, and thousands of people either already set up or just milling about. And dust!!! Without further ado, I set off to find a reasonable spot and chanced upon a row of ladies who had already set up their chairs right against the barrier. There was a space behind them with a clear view of The Mall in front, a good view of Buckingham Palace and most importantly a good view of the balcony where the couple would appear after the ceremony! And hopefully for a kiss!! In the event we got two, and in the event I missed both coz by the time it happened we had crowds of people in front and many were up on shoulders and that was that.

The Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace - a sea of heads below

The souvenir vendors were out n force and we had people selling flags, badges, buttons, hats, scarves and two enterprisng young ladies on Barclays Bikes selling t-shirts

: enterprising vendors selling t-shirts; getting around on Barclays bikes

One thing is for sure, the Barclays Cycle Hire were making a roaring trade, I saw dozens of bikes being used that afternoon and night! I set myself up behind the ladies who were from Somerset, got to chatting to folks around me and leaving my bags with the ladies in front I went walkabout for a bit. Not too far mind, I had a spot to keep! If you moved away for more than a few minutes, your spot was gone! My question about where to go to the loo was answered as soon as I arrived.

portaloos for a party

There were people from all over the world, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, America, Japan, Germany, Poland and UK citizens from all corners of the country. I saw Piers Morgan being interviewed, I watched reporters reporting, I got to see David Cameron go walkabout,

David Cameron on The Mall, being interviewed by Tim Wilcox

but I missed William and Harry’s walkabout near Clarence House. In terms of distance it is a 5 minute walk, in terms of the night I could just as well have been on the moon….it was impossible to get anywhere near the place.
Soon my daughter arrived and we put the tent up! Now here is the thing, there is something I learned over this episode; a pop-up tent ‘pops’ up a lot easier than it ‘pops’ down again! After numerous fruitless attempts on Friday morning to get it back in the bag, we gave up, strapped it together and that was that!

a fruitless attempt to pop-down the pop-up...........

I was almost happy to see the back of it, however, since it did cost £60, I didn’t just toss it! But it was a great little to tent to sleep in (probably what saved it’s skin), and in due course, at about 10pm we snuggled in, sleeping mats rolled out, sleeping bags spread out and hallelujah my daughter brough a couple of pillows along! All the comforts of a 5-star hotel and we had a view like none! 🙂

settling in for the night.

By this stage we were covered in dust, The Mall sidewalks are after all sand and grit, and despite repeated washing of my hair when I got home the next day, I can still feel grit in my hair. My pores, despite a real scrubbing under the shower still feel clogged. The sand got in everywhere, and by the time I got home Friday night my clothes, the tent, the sleeping bags, my rucksack and my trainers collectively contained at least 90% of the Mall’s gritty sidewalk!

dusty tents on The Mall

The excitement on the night was palpable. It never ceases to amaze me how at these events people who are total strangers get chatting and laughing together, the normal British reserve is no-where to be seen. Reporters from different countries and TV Stations were roving around, looking for interesting people to interview. And by interesting I mean the people that were dressed for the occassion. There were Brides, a Queen Victoria, ladies in hats fit for a Queen, Union Jacks disguised in all manner of items; painted on faces, hats and t-shirts. We had scattered sing-songs, hundreds of flags waving about and the atmosphere was electric.

royal wedding, on the mall for the royal wedding

do not press my button.........

I managed to sleep for about 3 hours between the hours of 1am and 4am through the noise, the shouting, the tramping feet that constantly kicked and knocked our tent, the lights, the shouting, the singing and the occassional Porta-Potty truck! We had Police milling about keeping an eye on the crowds and may I say that I was totally impressed; no aggression, no fighting, no bad behaviour and everyone was in a very jolly mood.
We woke really early the next day, and my very clever daughter went off to find us some tea and breakfast. Lesson #1 dont bother to bring food next time….just buy when you are there! Never has a cup of tea tasted so good! And the croissants even better. We also had red-velvet cupcakes for elevenses!!

very early the next morning

By 7am the crowds had swelled to enormous proportions, we had unsuccessfully packed up our tent, packed away our accoutrements and got ready for a party. The air was electric and in no time at all the party got under way. Wills and Kate went walkabout, The Queen walked by and waved

the 'Queen' goes walkabout

and The Mall looked like something out of Glastonbury.

the crowds at 7am the next day

We had Pomp and Pageantry like you cannot believe. The Police were out in force, armed Police, yer man Plod and the Metropolitan Mounted Police, in regiments and groups all there to Protect and Serve!

royal wedding, metropolitan mounted police

The Metropolitan Mounted Police

They also took no truck with disturbances and if you didn’t obey instantly when they told not to climb into the trees……… !!!!!
As the hours went by, the excitement rose, cheering and clapping, flag waving and music, helicopters, marching soldiers, mounted police, armed police, people pushing and shoving allwanting the best vantage point they could get…. and then the Procession began…….

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making the news!!!!

Posted in Fun Stuff, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged 2012 Olympics, hootsuite, royal wedding on April 27, 2011| 4 Comments »

OK, so next time I say that I won’t be blogging for X number of days or till after whatever…..don’t believe me!!! 🙂

If I had thought my day could get any better since my daughter told me she had uploaded my 3 Days in London itinerary yesterday morning….I had no idea just how!!!

I went into hootsuite last night to do some #TravelTuesday tweets and saw this: from @abcnews – We’ve featured you in our #royalwedding #storify. Have a look here – http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/storify.htm?id=uk-gears-up-for-royal-wedding

I nearly fell right off my chair with excitement when I saw one of my photos on their page!!!! 5th photo down! how exciting is that!

and then just while I was jumping up and down with sheer excitement my phone rang!! and it was my brother and sister-in-law to tell me that I am an Aunty 2 times over since mid-March; they’ve adopted 2 little kiddies, and on top of that they are expecting a new arrival at the end of August!!!

Then later on my daughter suddenly decides we should buy a tent for our camp out on Thursday night to secure our place for the wedding on Friday…..so I guess I will be collecting that Wednesday afternoon!

And then to finish off a marvellous day…. at exactly 23:48 and with 11 minutes to spare I placed my order for my 2012 Olympic ticket selection!!!! hooray!!!!!!!!!!!

How absolutely fabulous, Tuesday 26th April 2011 will go down in history as one of my best days!!!

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an auspicious day……

Posted in Fun Stuff, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged london itineraries, london mint office, royal wedding on April 26, 2011| 1 Comment »

: not just a granny……

thank goodness I am a woman!!!! I can change my mind 🙂

Ok, so yesterday I said I wouldn’t be blogging again till after the Royal Wedding…..but hey!!! guess what? heehee, here I am again!

And the reason for this is coz two very exciting things happened today that I simply have to share:

1) My first London Itinerary went live!!! whoo hoo! Thanks to the herculean efforts of my wonderful daughter, who is a genius, the 6 Hours in London Itinerary was uploaded and went live this morning. A special edition for the wedding.

2) I received my ‘Prince William and Catherine Wedding Coin’ – Royal Wedding Crown in the mail this morning!! A commemorative coin to mark the occassion of their 29 April 2011 wedding!!!

Royal Mint edition of the Royal Wedding coin

The itineraries have taken a year to get up and online. Firstly coz I was paralysed by fear; fear of it not being perfect, fear of it not being good enough and the fear that no-one would like it or find it useful!!! But, thankfully my daughter gave me a good metaphorical kick in the ‘you know what’ and hurry scurry I edited the itinerary that had been waiting for the last 12 months to get completed and downloaded! Nothing like the excitement of a British occassion to get me going. 🙂

and the thrill of receiving my coin was the cherry on top!!! I applied for one a few weeks ago never expecting to actually get it, since they are only printing 50,000 and I though for sure that they would already be sold out. Also you had to apply with no guarantee of getting one, so when I open the bulky envelope this morning and realised what it was…..I nearly went ballistic.

So that’s my tale for today………..see you maybe before the wedding, maybe not!!! depends on what other exciting things happen in my life. In the meantime – Bye for now.

Bearing in mind that I had said when the wedding was announced that I was NOT going to buy any paraphenalia or memorabilia, I now have the coin and the hat!!! what’s next I wonder? Thankfully the wedding is only 3 days away now and there is not much time left for me to go mad and break the bank!!!

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with only 4 sleeps to go…….

Posted in Fun Stuff, Historical, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged barclays cycle hire, london gets ready for the royal wedding, royal wedding of prince william and kate middleton on April 25, 2011| 4 Comments »

: this spot has been reserved for Cindy Eve who is @notjustagranny 🙂

whoo hoo!!!!! 🙂 with only 4 sleeps to go I am way beyond excited now!! I keep jolting out of sleep in the middling hours of the night, when it is still dark outside – my heart racing with excitement and the Royal Wedding on my mind!!!

I have finally persuaded my chica to join me at Buckingham Palace for the Royal Wedding celebrations, and against her better judgement….. to sleep over on The Mall with me the night before. 🙂

Today I went walkabout along the Royal Wedding route to revisit favourite places and to reserve my place on The Mall. A large part of The Mall has been pedestrianised and the barriers are already lining the sidewalks. There is a real sense of anticipation in the air and one of my favourite celebrities was seen at the Palace interviewing a Royal Correspondent! And finally I know for sure….he is a real person!!!

Piers Morgan at Buckingham Palace

London is bustling with excitement, the bunting is up, the sun was shining and love is in the air. In preparation for the Royal Wedding, London has donned her finery with Regent Street lined with marvellous flags,

Regent Street all dressed in finery

Admiralty Arch is dressed in her finery, and high above the west tower of Westminster Abbey can be seen the Sovereign’s flag.

the Queen's flag above the West Tower of Westminster Abbey

the ‘Boris’ bikes aka Barclays Cycle Hire bikes are everywhere to be seen as visitors to London make the most of the fabulous weather and cycle about town. The fountains at Trafalgar Square have been emptied…. ? and the 2012 Olympic Clock ticks on!

the 2012 Olympic Clock ticks on

I bought a hat for the occassion….do you think it is suitable?

my hat for the Royal Wedding....

and now with only 4 sleeps to go to till wedding of the century; the much anticipated wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on 29 April 2011……this is your London correspondent signing out till after the 29th. 🙂

I will be tweeting on the 28th and 29th (or for as long as my battery lasts). Look out for the updates on @3days_in_london and the hashtag #RoyalWedding and #3dil – hope to see you there!!!

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a walk with Shakespeare…….

Posted in Fun Stuff, Historical, It's my life, things to do in London, tagged shakespeare trail, shakespeares life in london, sweetie pies bakery twickeham, the city of london, the guildhall on April 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

…….and my daughter!!! As mentioned in a previous post, yesterday was my birthday and I had the joy of spending this special day with my daughter and enjoying a couple of adventures in London.

: one of my favourite views of the City of London; just a glimpse

I slept over at my daughter’s house the night before and our day started with a lie-in (unusual for me with the type of job I have), then tea and cake (chocolate of course) in the garden. The weather was perfect , already warm and the heat a precursor of the temperatures ahead. After a lazy morning we set out on our adventure: first into Twickenham to Sweetie Pies Boutique Bakery for tea and cupcakes. Along the way we stopped to smell the roses

if only I could have captured the heavenly perfume.......

and admire the wisteria, now in full bloom just about everywhere you look! Of course this is the easter weekend too so naturally we had easter cupcakes!! 🙂 We sat out in the courtyard, in the shade and enjoyed our tea, chatting away enjoying the slight breeze that wafted by.

: tea and easter cupcakes at Sweetie Pies

From there we headed off to Richmond and onto the first train out, into London Central for the next leg of our adventures – first a guided tour of The Guildhall in the City of London, then a guided Shakespeare Trail. Exciting!!! We alighted from the tube at Temple thinking to get a bus from The Royal Courts of Justice to St Paul’s Cathedral to meet our guide. We were ever so slightly behind schedule, so when we got to Strand and discovered massive roadworks going on in the area had pretty much wrecked any chance of getting a bus, our hearts sank. However, not all was lost and quick as wink we hopped into a London Cab and within 5 minutes we arrived at our destination. Love that you can just hop in a cab in this city!!

: getting about the City in a London Cab

We met up with the lovely Zoe who is a City of London tour guide and set off for the Guildhall. I have been to the Guildhall a couple of times before but never on a guided tour! So cool! I wish I could have recorded all the interesting little snippets she told us! Suffice to say it was brilliantly interesting and I loved all the little details she pointed out. The Guildhall is so worth a visit, it is fabulous inside: the memorials are fabulous works of art and the stained glass windows; breathtaking

stained glass windows at The Guildhall

After the tour, we parted company briefly with our delightful tour guide and headed over to the Guildhall Art Gallery for a look at the Roman Amphitheatre and it was fun for me to play tour guide for a wee bit and show my daughter around. We had a quick look at some of the beautiful paintings on display and marvelled at the talent and work put into these paintings, some of which look like photographs the detail is so perfect. In fact in many ways they are better than photos coz they have texture and depth. Then it was a quick look at the massive painting in the foyer of gallery, stunning!! Exiting the Gallery we saw a wedding party; the outfits were a glorious spectrum of rich colours, and what a perfect day for a wedding!

We then strolled across the city back to St Paul’s to meet up with Zoe again who would be conducting the Shakespeare Trail. Along the way we discovered all sorts of interesting things and items of historical note. I love just walking about this city, you just never know what you will find!

a world of discovery; historical sites

This time we were joined by a young man and the four of us set off on a jaunt around London and through the portals of history, to discover more about Shakespeare and the places in London he frequented. There was however, one piece of information that gave me quite a jolt……Shakespeare pre-dated the current St Paul’s Cathedral!!!! I just never really even thought about it and just kind of assumed that this was the building that he saw on his daily walks.!!!! And…..in order to cross the river to the Globe Theatre he would have had to use a ferry!! How about that!

don't pay the ferryman till he gets you to the other side... Globe Theatre is just to the left of the bridge on the other side of the river

The weather was perfect, hot and sunny and the city was quiet/ish with not many people about. Wonderful.

We learned so much that I can’t even begin to tell you everything, so instead I will give you a brief run down and suggest you book yourself on one of the tours for a more comprehensive view of Shakespeare and the London of his time.

London in Shakespeare’s time was miniscule in comparison to the size it is today, and the great urban sprawl we know wasn’t even a figment of his imagination I am sure, and the Great Fire of 1666 would have destroyed much of what he did know. Our first stop was the remains of Roman walls discovered during excavations for new buildings, I constantly marvel at how these places are largely preserved and not ripped out…..thank goodness. Zoe gave us a glimpse into what London would have been like in Shakespeare’s day; pretty grubby and smelly by all accounts!!! Not at all the romantic images we tend to carry around.

Next stop was the remains of the historical site of a wee church where Shakespeare was likely to have worshipped: the Parish Church of St Olave’s. We learned some delectable tidbits about his connections to this church and one of the families he was closely associated with. We also got to see the site of the lodgings where Shakespeare made his home in later life, just over the road from St Olave’s. On our way to the next stop of the tour we walked past the remains of St Alban’s Church and I finally discovered a) the name of it and b) that it is now privately occupied!!! How amazing is that! To live in the remains of an ancient church, albeit only a very small part of it. This area of the city is closely associated with The Museum of London (in my opinion the best museum in London and totally underrated) and the road we briefly walked along; London Wall marks the boundaries of the Roman City. Of course the area is now filled with towering skyscrapers and busy roads, but you can still catch glimpses of Roman, Mediaeval and Tudor London in hidden corners.

Our next stop was the ancient site of St Mary Aldermanbury Church, now a tiny little park, where you can find relics of the original walls, and Love Lane where you will find a decorative memorial with a bust of Shakespeare looking towards the River (a good 5-10 minutes walk away), as well as a carved marble book depicting his first folio; published according to the ‘True Originall Copies London 1623’. Compiled by John Heminge and Henry Condell, close friends of Shakespeare’s, these two gentlemen are in fact buried at this site. The memorial commemorates John Heminge and Henry Condell – fellow actors and personal friends of Shakespeare.

memorial on Love Lane

Next it was back to the Guildhall where once again I was surprised and delighted to discover the links that Shakespeare had with the Guildhall, albeit not very pleasant links.

Also to be found at the Gallery are the busts of four famous citizens of the city: William Shakespeare, Christopher Wren, Oliver Cromwell and Samuel Pepys.

Heading back towards St Paul’s Cathedral we next discovered his associations with Carter Lane, The Cockpit Tavern, St Andrews-by-the-Wardrobe Church and many other interesting snippets and fascinating sites. These are places that we tend to walk past without even the tiniest clue of what went before. At the King’s Wardrobe we parted company with Zoe and meandered once again along ancient lanes to take ‘sup at one of the oldest pubs in London; with links to Charles Dickens!!! Guess who is next on my list! 🙂

the centre page, dickens pickwick papers

The Centre Page, near St Paul's - for the best darn chips and onion rings in town!

We enjoyed a delicious meal of Burger and chips with onion rings for CJ and baked spud with bacon and cheese, chips and onion rings for me. A draught of apple cider (juice) slaked our thirst!!! Replete, we strolled down to the riverbank passing a headless man along the way,

a headless man......

then we meandered along the Thames Path. I love these views of the river!! By now the horizon was black with rain, and the wind whipped the rushing incoming tide into a frenzy of choppy peaks and troughs! As we hurried along (not too fast mind), we felt spots of rain, but not enough to discourage a number of stops along the way to take photos!

rain on the horizon

By then we had come full circle and reached Temple station where I said goodbye to CJ, she heading into the underground and me on my way to Charing Cross. I discovered a memorial to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the entrance to Inland Revenue, And then the rain came down and I got soaked along the Strand! 🙂

Charing Cross - the story

A marvellous day and what an adventure! I have created a short video with more views of our wonderful city that you might enjoy.

p.s. you will notice some of the photos have a wide border….it seems I am having some HTML issues. I have no idea why it’s doing this!! So, if you do….please let me know 🙂

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so who is this man who shares my birthday?

Posted in Fun Stuff, Historical, It's my life, things to do in London, tagged Saint George's Day, Sweetie Pies Boutique bakery, William Shakespeare on April 23, 2011| 5 Comments »

: Bluebells in spring

For some reason I have always loved my name and my birth date. Now this is not from any egotistical aspect, merely that my name is quite lyrical and somehow my birthday, especially the April bit (not so much the year anymore 🙂 ), appeals to me.

Back in South Africa I was an autumn baby. April is the start of autumn in the Southern hemisphere, and as far as seasons go it’s not too bad. Of course what it did mean is that growing up I could never have a ‘pool party’. Not that that was an issue since we didn’t ever have a pool in our backyard, but it was the thought of the delightful possibilities of having a ‘pool party’ that appealed to me.

My birthday usually signified the slow slide into winter and was a time of chilly winds and mornings, not t-shirt type of weather at all. Not that I minded, since I am a ‘wrap up warm in lots of layers’ type of person; one of the reasons I love the UK so much!

So when I came over to the UK, it was to the sudden realisation that I was no longer an ‘autumn’ person, I am now a ‘spring’ person!!! and how marvellous that is. I adore spring in the UK and it has become quite my favourite time of year. Of course I still do love autumn and that season in the Northern hemisphere is something to behold. So lucky me, I have the best of both worlds.

Now a little secret here…..I never progressed very far in school and left as soon as I reasonably could without being considered an uneducated dunce! 😉 haha!! In fact I left school in what is Standard 8 (should have been Standard 9 but I failed one year! What was that I said about being a dunce?). heehee!! ( f.y.i. Standard 8 in South Africa is Grade 10).

So the sum total of that is I never got to study any of the subjects that were on the higher curriculum, one of which was Shakespeare! or the classics for that matter, not that it matters now, since I can read up on whatever I wish, coz thankfully I did learn to read!!! and we have google!

So where am I going with this? Well here’s the thing. I learned about Shakespeare at some stage of my life (don’t we all?) and of course his sayings and quotes and stories are quite well known, aka Romeo and Juliet! But more than that I did not know! So when I came to the UK, it was quite a surprise to discover that this dude shared my birthday!!! and not only that, he also died on that date!! how weird is that?

William Shakespeare - born and died April 23rd

So, now of course when I celebrate my birthday I always think of ‘our Will’, and remember that he shares such an auspicious day with me! Of course I have thoroughly enjoyed discovering all the places he hung out in London, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre is one of my favourite sights in London (of which there are many). My daughter and I have visited Stratford-Upon-Avon (his birthplace) and walked through the house where he was born (which was beyond awesome).

In London you are quite unable to miss the man, he is everywhere. I have seen him in so many places, that if you didn’t know who he was before, you would most assuredly get the message that this is one important dude! So who is Shakespeare? Here is a wee biography courtesy of wikipedia (of course).

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist.
He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men.

He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare’s private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, a successful glover and alderman originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual birthdate remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, St George’s Day. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholar’s mistake, has proved appealing to biographers, since Shakespeare died 23 April 1616. He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son.
Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare probably was educated at the King’s New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but the curriculum was dictated by law throughout England, and the school would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar and the classics.

And as if that is not enough!!!! I also discovered that I share a date with……….St George! He who slays dragons. St George’s day is 23April!! Which in a weird way is quite apt, since I have often been referred to as ‘a dragon’ and one of my very ex-boyfriends put up at sign at the entrance to my house in R.S.A. ‘Never mind the dog, beware the dragon’. He didn’t last long! 🙂 The boyfriend that is, not the dragon!!

So what do we know about St George? Well first of all he is the Patron Saint of England; of course!! heehee. Secondly he is a Saint (I can’t lay claim to that title for sure), and like the bard, he is everywhere to be seen.

Saint George and the dragon

Saint George (ca. 275/281 – 23 April 303) was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic (Western and Eastern Rites), Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox churches. He is immortalized in the tale of Saint George and the Dragon and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. His memorial is celebrated on 23 April, and he is regarded as one of the most prominent military saints.

Many Patronages of Saint George exist around the world, including: Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, India, Iraq, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Serbia and Russia, as well as the cities of Genoa, Amersfoort, Beirut, Fakiha, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Kumanovo, Ljubljana, Pomorie, Preston, Qormi, Rio de Janeiro, Lod, Barcelona, Moscow, Tamworth and the Maltese island of Gozo, as well as a wide range of professions, organizations and disease sufferers.

The episode of St George and the Dragon was a legend brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance. The earliest known depiction of the legend is from early eleventh-century Cappadocia, (in the iconography of the Eastern Orthodox Church, George had been depicted as a soldier since at least the seventh century); the earliest known surviving narrative text is an eleventh-century Georgian text.

In the General Calendar of the Roman Rite the feast of Saint George is on April 23. St George is very much honored by the Eastern Orthodox Church, wherein he is referred to as a “Great Martyr”, and in Oriental Orthodoxy overall. His major feast day is on April 23 (Julian Calendar April 23 currently corresponds to Gregorian Calendar May 6) and that very coincidentally is the birth date of my youngest sister!

We, my daughter and I will be celebrating the day with a visit to Sweetie Pies Boutique Bakery in the morning and in the afternoon going on a walk……check it out!! heehee!!!

And, in order to celebrate not only my birthday, but Shakespeare’s too, as well as Saint George’s Day I have created a short video. Hope you enjoy it 🙂