Category Archives: London

La Rive Gauche

Posted on 20 October 2009 by | Leave a comment

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I forgot to mention the shopping we did in Paris. We had a lot of fun shopping along Boulevard Saint-Germain on the Left Bank, spending most of our time in bookstores. Brodacious was looking at design books, and I was interested in the Asterix and Obelix comic books, Tintin and Petit Nicholas (although those are easy to come by in London) and yes, Babar. Forget Proust or Hugo—I know there’s no chance I’ll be able to read any serious literature in French. But the Babar books I could read. It was great.

We also went on a quest for marron glacé, the sugared chestnuts that are a French delicacy. It was my brilliant idea that we needed to have a taste, even though it required a bit more diligence than I had anticipated to track them down. And what did I think of the marron glacés? They were surprisingly expensive (at 4 Euros for each little chestnut) and a bit disappointing. Kind of like Turkish Delight: it sounds exotic and you think it’s going to be a delicious treat, but really it’s just got a strange texture and isn’t nearly as good as chocolate. But at least now we know.

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Posted in Architecture, Art, Culture, Design, Food, London, Travel

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Celebrating 3 years

Posted on 18 October 2009 by | 1 comment

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Earlier this month, we celebrated our third wedding anniversary. We celebrated over two weekends: on the actual day of our anniversary we spent the afternoon at the Courtauld Gallery on the Strand, and eating wontons in Chinatown.  We also dropped by Konditor & Cook for a late night slice of Curly Whirly Cake. It was fabulous.

The following weekend, we spent three days in Paris. C’etait magnifique! Actually, I realized that within the last ten years, I’ve forgotten the vast majority of the French I studied in high school/college. But never mind, we still had a great time. Highlights included renting the Velib’ bicycles on both Saturday and Monday and riding along the Seine. The weather was perfect for a nice autumn ride. We took an evening stroll through the Centre Pompidou and a late night post-rainstorm ride (the stairs were not an option) up the Eiffel Tower. We found a lovely little restaurant for a late dinner, and spent our last afternoon enjoying the atmosphere in Montmartre, winding through the streets surrounding the Sacre Coeur, and riding on the funicular railway. Both of us think Paris is absolutely beautiful. Hopefully we’ll be able to go back soon.

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Posted in Architecture, Art, Culture, Cycling, Food, London, Travel

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Some favorite things about our new place

Posted on 19 September 2009 by | Leave a comment

I like the view out of our front windows. There’s a church steeple in the distance, and a small park with children’s play equipment across the street. The park gets quite a bit of use throughout the day.

I like our front stoop. There are nine steps leading up to our front door. It’s nice not being in a basement flat anymore.

I like the exposed brick wall in our kitchen area.

I like the plant we have at the top of the stairs. It was a bit of a pain to lug it home from IKEA, but nice to have a little plant life in the house again. Hopefully we don’t kill it too soon…

I also like being able to stroll along the canal in Little Venice, which is not too far from where we live. We’ve had several sunny days lately, and the walk along the canal is really nice. Maybe it’s one of the hidden gems in London.

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Settling in

Posted on 19 September 2009 by | Leave a comment

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We’ve been in our new flat for two weeks now. The process of unpacking and figuring out how to arrange the house has been a slow one, and we still have a ways to go. As soon as find a place for all of our books, we’ll be in good shape.

We had a kitchen table, a wardrobe, and some other small furnishings that weren’t our favorites, and we decided to donate them to charity rather than bring them with us to our new place. So over the past week, we’ve made several shopping trips, looking for some replacement items. It’s been kind of fun exploring different design options and trying to decide what we want. We bought a neutral colored rug for the front room, and a couple of chairs that will go with the kitchen table.  We don’t actually have the kitchen table yet, but hope to get it sometime in October. The one we want is currently on back-order. Next on the list of things to look for are a desk for the second bedroom, bedside tables, and a lamp for the living room.

The chairs we got for the kitchen have an old-school design, quite literally. We bought vintage wood and metal Dutch classroom chairs from the 1960s. Even included are chewed-up wads of gum stuck to the bottoms of the chairs. They’re sturdy and bit rough around the edges and we like their simple design.

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Posted in Design, London

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Moving house

Posted on 30 August 2009 by | Leave a comment

At the estate agency yesterday we signed the contract on our new flat and as we were getting up to leave our estate agent complimented us for “signing the papers well.” That made us laugh. We wondered what kind of clients she normally works with. In a few short days, we’ll pick up the keys to the new flat, load up the moving van (or rather watch the movers loading up the moving van) and be off to our new home on the other side of the river.

We’ve been going through all of our stuff, sorting out the rubbish and the to-be-donated-to-charity items from all the rest that we’ll actually take with us.  Tomorrow’s bank holiday will be spent much the same way.

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Posted in London

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Goodbyes at church

Posted on 30 August 2009 by | Leave a comment

Today was our last Sunday at the church we’ve been attending for the past three years. Brodacious had been asked to speak, and was prepared to do so, but it was kind of funny the way things worked out. There were a lot of big changes in leadership today, and so all the new-comers and the out-goers were asked to share some thoughts. Brodacious ended up with about two minutes for his talk.

All of our friends from church were so thoughtful. They had taken several group photos and prepared an album for us. Everyone had signed a card as well, and they put together a pretty elaborate munch and mingle. Between the hugs and kisses, people were even giving us gifts. It was completely unexpected and extremely generous of them. We’ll miss seeing everyone each week. It’s nice to know we’re still close by and can hang out from time to time. And we’re hoping to enjoy our new neighborhood and new church congregation in the coming months.

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Another week

Posted on 9 August 2009 by | Leave a comment

This past week included the following:

Sitting at work every day, hearing protestors outside shouting US! US! Shame on you! And variations on that theme. This is a protest related to Iraq and has been going on EVERY DAY for two weeks now.

Falling asleep during yet another movie. We were watching Hitchcock’s 39 Steps at home. I lasted for about 20 minutes before zonking out.

Spreading the word that we’re moving next month, and getting sentimental about leaving and not being able to see our friends from church every week.

In preparation for our move, collecting boxes from work (very easy) and lugging them home on the bus (not easy at all on a crowded bus with two prams).

Lounging around at home all Saturday, trying to convince myself to get organized for our move, but spending the day on the couch reading Nick Hornby’s The Complete Polysyllabic Spree instead. Brodacious was sick and stayed in bed the entire day.

Making two batches of cookies yesterday. The first batch was really crappy, and went straight into the trash. In trying to figure out what went wrong, I realized I had forgotten to add sugar to the dough! And without the sugar, the cookies turned out dry as dirt and were not worth eating at all. It was so disappointing, I had to try again later in the day. I was more focused the second time around, and now we have some good cookies to snack on. The cookies are helping me to resist eating all the birthday candy we still have in the house.

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Posted in Art, Culture, Film, Food, London

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Musings from a state of illness–induced semi–detachment

Posted on 8 August 2009 by | Leave a comment

Sick in bed on the weekend. Is there anything more ironic?

Spotify non-stop, New York Times, Facebook…
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Lately, every day begins and ends the same way. 18°C, 98% humidity, heavy gray skies, drizzle—the commute. Exhilaration of cycling through the great city. The long unsettled summer days as autumn approaches.
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My sore throat has me craving Matsumoto Shave Ice…pineapple-coconut-guava, with vanilla ice cream and an azuki bean.
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We’re quickly advancing towards 3 years of living here. London. Is there anywhere else with as much diversity of history, culture, arts, humanity? Maybe…not. We will move back to the states eventually, but when we do I will miss the quality of life found in the European city. The beauty of a downsized lifestyle (why is over-consumption the basis of western living?). Not needing to own a car. The food. The culture. The urban fabric. Having 28 vacation days a year.

Of course, there are other things I won’t miss so much.
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Certainly the point of having these experiences is their propensity to change a person.
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Busy weeks and months ahead. A week in China this month to wrap up a project I’ve been working on since last year. Moving to a new flat in September (from Clapham to Maida Vale; southwest London to west London). A much needed break in November—a week in Spain. A weekend in Paris in October. Finally, the States for Christmas.

But for now some more sleep…

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Posted in Culture, London, Travel, Urbanism

Top question from tourists

Posted on 8 August 2009 by | Leave a comment

Where’s Harrods? This is the number one question I get from tourists on the street. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked that question. Many, many times and just about every day this past week.

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Posted in London, Travel

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A little Greek tragedy

Posted on 2 August 2009 by | 1 comment

We took a break from flat hunting last night to head over to the National Theatre for the play Phèdre. I’d never seen a Greek tragedy performed on stage and thought it sounded really interesting. Plus the play was by Jean Racine (another first for me), which made it very appealing, and it was translated into English by Ted Hughes, which also appealed. None of this made Brodacious excited about the production, however. In fact, he went in which such seemingly low expectations that I think he couldn’t help but be surprised that it was better than he anticipated.

It was extremely intense, I will say that. Here’s a scene I won’t be forgetting soon: Aricia, in a blood-stained white dress, dragging a body bag across the stage, leaving behind a trail of blood. Colorful stuff. Typically Greek, I suppose, with strange family relationships…passion…jealousy…a father praying to the god Neptune to curse his son (who is innocent of the accusation of raping his step-mother but subsequently doomed). That kind of thing. It was very good, though, and both of us liked it. Now if I could only convince Brodacious that we should see War Horse.

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Posted in Art, London, Theatre

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