London Calling

I noticed this incendiary phrase plastered across a 10 meter wide billboard on the Edgeware Road in London’s Little Lebanon.  I was on a bus headed into town and must have done at least a triple-take to make sure I was reading it correctly.  Came home a different route and didn’t get back by for a couple of days, but I wondered who could have been reckless and crude enough to make such a public statement.  Sadly, it turned out to be a marketing ploy.  The following week the billboard was changed to read, ” Who said nothing good ever came out of America?”  It was an advert for a new Channel 5 television station broadcasting exclusively US programming.  Probably the worst thing to come out of America in recent years.  Someone needs to do some serious work on their karma…

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Had our first brush with royalty yesterday.  School conference day so the kids were out of school.  Sarah went out to an amusement park in Surrey with some friends.  Erin, Tom and Hilary hit the Natural History Museum then went for a stroll through Kensington Gardens.

After a brief visit to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground(great pirate ship), we stopped in at the Kensington Palace Orangery for a very pleasant and affordable afternoon tea.  The Orangery is an elegant, early 17th century building.  Long and narrow with 10 meter high ceilings, it has a row of floor-to-ceiling windows running along the full length of the south wall overlooking Kensington Palace.  The light was spectacular, the tea was Earl Grey, the pastries were traditional and the cucumber sandwiches looked as unappealing as ever.  What do they do with all the spare crust?

After tea we wandered over to the lawn behind the palace where we saw a sleek helipcopter waiting.  London Bobbies were clearing some footballers off the lawn, so we decided to stick around and see who was coming.  Well, we weren’t disappointed.  After a brief sweep by police dogs a black sedan drove out of the back gate to the palace and pulled up next to the helicopter.  The Prince of Wales and Dutchess of Cornwall got out of the car.  Camilla offered Charles a curtsey and a kiss and got back in the car.

Charles hopped on board, the rotors started turning and off he went.

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We actually arrived in London without pre-arranged housing other than a one week vacation rental in St. John’s Wood.  We chose this neighborhood because it was close to the girls’ school.  We made note of the Abbey Road address, but we didn’t really apreciate its signifigance until we arrived.  We discovered that Abbey Road–like many streets in London–is quite abbreviated.  Most streets seem to change names every three or four blocks.  One continuous street may run on for several miles with a dozen different names.  This meant that we had landed on the most famous street in London, within two blocks of Abbey Road Studios and the famous zebra striped crosswalk, above.

Cool, right?  For about as long as it took to figure out we’d been suckered into an over-priced, under-furnished, four-floor walk-up.  We hauled our 15 bags up the stairs, piled them in the small living room and decided we needed some fresh air(16 hours of travel may have had something to do with this, as well).  Down the stairs, out the door, walking down the street, and there they are.  Tourists by the busload.  Cameras out, shoes off, all walking back and forth trying to create their own Beatles souvenir photo.  Ground zero for Beatlemania.  It’s a miracle no one’s been run down by a bus…

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Hello everyone!!!!

I just wanted to post this up because we just got our new blog!!!!!

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Here’s where you can find us for the next year…

We landed in Maida Vale, a leafy neighborhood of apartment buildings–called mansion blocks here–on the west side of central London.  We’re in a modest, but comfortable three bedroom flat on the top floor of a 6 story building.

Cropthorne Court is a simple, pre-war, brick building, most notable because its architect, Giles Gilbert Scott, is also responsible for those iconic red telephone booths found all over Britain(and in our masthead).  Apparently, it was also a refuge for Soviet spies preparing to infiltrate Italy on behalf of the Allies during WWII.

The location is pretty great.  Buses into the city stop out front.  The Tube is two blocks away.  School is a 10 minute walk for the girls.  Lord’s Cricket Ground is around the corner.  All of central London, from the Tower Bridge to Kensington, is within 30 minutes by public transportation.  So far, so good.

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