10/18/2015
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| Garrick Arms restaurant |
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| Foodie Market on Southbank |
Mom spent yesterday in the apartment resting because she was
feeling a little under the weather (London’s damn cold!)...and so she could store
up enough energy for Petticoat Lane today. We bought her a gorgeous magenta
coat from Petticoat last year so she was really looking forward to checking out
the selection herself. However, after going to Walthamstow yesterday, Petticoat
seemed a tad expensive—plus the selection of coats wasn’t as good this year.
Sure, there’s the usual Primark, Zara, River Island, TopShop clothing on sale
here, but most of the sizes are 8 and up. In the UK, 6 is around a 2 (a big 2),
and 8 is already too big for us. Angel did manage to score some 2/5 pound
dresses (Quelle horreur! She’s wearing dresses *gasp*), a 5 pound black
peacoat, and some 3-5 pound blouses, but it wasn’t as satisfying a shopping
trip as last year. Mom didn’t find anything she liked. For some delusional
reason, I thought Petticoat would be cheaper than Walthamstow but Petticoat’s
in London so of course it’ll be more expensive. Don’t know what I was thinking.
Now I’m just thinking of that gorgeous black leather jacket with fur lining and
gold zippers at Walthamstow yesterday for 30 pounds. Ah well. Already got a lot
of jackets, I guess.
We rode the subway back to King’s Cross to drop Mom off back home, then we went to Southbank for the 2:30 showing of the play Three Days in the Country at the Lyttelton Theatre.
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| London Eye |
A massive portion of the tube is closed this weekend for renovation (Hammersmith, Circle and Metropolitan lines were closed! Crazy! Especially when the Rugby World Cup is this week!), so the way we went was a little weird. We went via the northbound Northern line to King’s Cross, then caught the southbound Northern line to Waterloo. Weird, right? Go up, then down. We arrived with plenty of time to spare, and—providential for us—there’s a Tesco Express, M&S, and Sainsbury’s right across the Waterloo station. We shopped at all of them, though the M&S is more expensive here for the same products than the ones near us. What’s up with that?!
Heading toward the theatre, we stumbled across an outdoor
gourmet festival/market on Southbank. They had duck confit burgers with blue cheese (or goat
cheese) and truffle honey! But it was a steep 7 pounds and we have dinner
reservations tonight, so we didn’t try it. There was a stall selling gigantic
Polish sausage dogs which looked so, so salivating for 5 pounds. Argh! So
wanted to eat everything here!
Angel broke down when she saw a salted caramel gluten-free brownie at a bakery stall:
It was 2.25 pounds, which we’d never pay for at home (exorbitant!), but it’s her last day in London, so I thought why not? It was pretty good—gluten-free means a lot more dense and moist. There was a hint of salted caramel on top. Could’ve been more. Angel’s had a gluten-free brownie craving ever since she bought the M&S version. It was pretty expensive too because it’s gluten-free. But it was really good, so I plan to go home and make it. J (update on 10/30/15: just made gluten-free brownies! We'll see how they taste tomorrow morning)
The National Theatre is showing Husbands & Sons. We've never heard of it, but it's funny because we love Wives & Daughters. We joked that this is what a woman looks like when she has to put up with husbands and sons:
Statue in front of the theatre is of Sir Laurence Olivier, who was the founding director of the National Theatre. People were putting up feel-good post-its on his statue for some reason:
If you’re facing the river Thames from the theatre, look left past Waterloo bridge (there’s a used book market under the Waterloo bridge, incidentally. I found a UK version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!). There’s a gorgeous building across the river that looked vaguely familiar. It’s the MI5 building in Skyfall! I remember the unique architect in the movie, and remember thinking to myself at the time: where did they find this building? It’s lovely! All along, it’s in London!
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| Used Book Market |
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| MI5 building |
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| Waterloo Bridge |
The main drawing point of why we decided to go to Three Days in the Country is Mark Gatiss, the co-creator of Sherlock:
He plays Mycroft on
Sherlock and the banker of the Iron Bank on Game of Thrones. We love him. He’s
so delightfully wicked in his performances. We saw Sherlock himself (Benedict
Cumberbatch) on Tuesday with Hamlet, and now we get to see Sherlock’s brother! Mark
didn’t disappoint. At first, both Angel and I were wondering why he wasn’t
playing one of the confounded admirers of Natasha, the heroine (or anti-heroine)
of the play because those men have bigger roles. But it soon became apparent
that the “hapless” doctor Mark played was perfect casting. Someone who thinks
so highly of himself that he’s blinded to his faults and loses the woman he
“could” love, someone who schemes and plots using the rich and powerful as his
pawns—perfect Mark Gatiss character! Throughout the first act, I—along with the
rest of the audience—was laughing out loud at pretty much every line delivered.
Perfect comedic timing, fast and witty banter, the complete idiocy of the
characters serve to make the first act truly very entertaining. The second act
gets more somber as consequences (to their actions) rise to the fore, but every
actor was superb in the play.
Based on the book A Month in the Country by a
Russian writer, Chekhov adapted it to the stage. John Light, who played Henry
Lennox in North & South, was great as the cockolded husband. Frustrated yet
still loves his wife. In the role originated by Helen Mirror more than two decades
ago, the actress who plays Natalya brilliantly alternates between the rich,
haughty, bored wife of the landed gentry and the brittle, insecure woman who
yearns for love. She yearns for the love of passion and youth, and doesn’t
recognize the long, deep—constant—and enduring love her husband and Rakitin display
toward her. For Doctor Who fans, John Simm aka The Master plays Rakitin.
We met Mom and Dad out in front of Garrick Arms for dinner.
The pub was packed with people drinking beer and watching the Rugby World Cup on the giant tv screen. I had a reservation, so luckily we went straight in—otherwise, there were no available tables left! There were pink and white balloons at the table, which I thought was a lovely décor touch—then I realized the restaurant had done it to celebrate my birthday! How nice of them!
We had 4 free two-course dinner vouchers, courtesy of LoveTheatre from buying Phantom of the Opera tickets, so we got the house-made Scotch Egg as appetizer:
Dad got the pea soup:
Sausage Roll:
Mom's wearing the new sweater we bought her yesterday at Walthamstow. Gorgeous, isn't it? It was such a steal at 4 pounds; it's the brand Wallis, which is kinda like Mango or Anne Klein in the UK.
Prime Steak Burger:
Mom got Fish & Chips because she's been wanting to eat it
ever since she arrived in the UK and we just hadn’t had time until now. Dad got the
The atmosphere was convivial, the music fun and playing my
kind of music, and the food pretty good. The meal was the perfect way to end
our trip together. Tomorrow, Mom, Dad and Angel will fly home while I stay on
another week. For the past several years, we’ve pretty much skipped my birthday
because we were always on a plane and the time zone difference just skipped the
day completely. This year, finally we get a sit-down meal together. Mom gets to
eat her fish & chips, Dad visited the Imperial War Rooms again today (he
loves the place!), and Angel and I had a perfect combination of a day of shopping
and a hilarious play—thanks, Mom and Dad, for bringing me into this world to
experience all this wonderfulness with you!
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| Garrick Arms |
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