Quick Trip Across The Pond. 5/27/2019

Greetings from London.

As most of you know our big annual trip is in December (stay tuned for Armenia and Uzbekistan — and maybe Tajikistan and Georgia), but we usually take a short trip to Europe in August. But Mike’s niece Emma had a baby about 8 weeks ago, so we flew to meet the new family member named Finley Sam Weber Patel (Finn for short). Warning, these postings will not be as exotic as previous ones over the past years, but perhaps no less interesting. That said, if you don’t like babies you might want to hold off reading until Friday when we depart London for Helsinki!

Got to London yesterday early afternoon (Sunday). Flight was fine, and I managed to watch at least two movies before digging into some work and serious napping. We’re staying in the “city” — as Londoners call their one-square mile financial center. We’re at the Threadneedle Hotel (where I’ve stayed several times before – older, business, upscale, with a fantastic domed-lobby). The hotel is conveniently located near Shoreditch and Spitalfield, very quiet on weekends when banks and financial institutions are closed, and very “buzzy” during the week. It’s located within a bevy of narrow, winding streets from another era. Took Heathrow Express from the airport to Paddington and then hopped in a cab for the remaining few miles to the hotel.

Was extremely pleased to be able to use the London FastTrack for entering the UK and avoiding all the lines and the customs guys who always complain that I need to have a completely “clean” page in my passport in order to enter UK. (???) But as I reconnected to the world by turning my phone back on prior to leaving customs area, I noticed I had some messages and a missed call from our burglar alarm company about our house in Oakland. It seems the back door alarm had gone off. Called Bay Alarm and they assured me that the police had come to the house and it was now “secure.” Not sure what that means but I took it that “all was well.” Still, no matter what I did I could not re-alarm the house on the phone (as usual). So, we had very good friends go to the house to see what was up; when they got there they called to say that the back door was left open (not so secure!). They entered the house through that open door while they called us and then the alarm got set off. Anyway, disaster averted; neighborhood safer than we realize; open door and apparently no one inside. Friends locked up and we realarmed remotely. So all good on the homefront.

Once settled in, we headed to Leyton where Emma and Hem (and now Finn) live. Easy ride on the Tube (5 stops) and then either a 5-minute bus (#58 or #158), 20 minute walk, or 5 minute taxi. Not seeing any bus, we headed to the taxi stand and took a five minute ride to the house.

Finn is quite adorable as you can see, and clearly the focus of everyone’s attention.

Leyton is an  interesting neighborhood to the east.. and the terminus of the Central Line of the Tube. It has a long history, but in World War I a significant number of houses were damaged by zeppelin raids and so it was then built up as an industrial area apparently becoming quite known for neckties and also for the Thermos factory. During World War II it was a target because it was close to the London Docks and the railyard. This was followed by decline, but has benefitted recently from the development of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and a lot of renovated little neighborhoods, parks, and homes. As part of the development of Olympic Park for the 2012 games, shopfronts were restored and the demography also began to change (with Hem and Em part of the new wave of young professionals seeking affordable homes a bit further out from the center city or even East London (where they had lived previously). But it’s a very mixed demographic with a majority of residents being Black, Asian, Indian, Pakistani, or other ethnic minority — with large numbers of immigrants from Africa, Jamaica, Portugal, Ireland, and more – and very recent immigrants from South Africa, Serbia, and Poland.

Originally blue collar. the area is gentrifying and increasing in price. Indeed, Emma said that some friends recently tried to buy in Leyton but it had increased in price significantly since they had moved in, and the friends needed to move further east and north. We were told that in 2015 Vogue said it was becoming a “hot neighborhood.” Fortunately Em and Hem (who are often called by friends : “Hemma”) bought their house just a bit prior to this proclamation.

Many of the streets, including theirs, are comprised of townhouses from the early 1900s (or so I think). After getting acquainted with the new family addition, Mike and I headed out to dinner – thinking we’d go to Dishoon (Indian/Iranian small plates, in Shoreditch), but the line went on forever, and we hadn’t had any sleep yet. So we opted for Albion across the street, where I had been before several years ago. Dinner was fine.. and then we walked back to our hotel, for a good night’s sleep.

On Monday we opted to skip the hotel breakfast and walked to Ottolenghi Spitalfield (about 10 minutes from our hotel) for a great shakshuka breakfast. Then we headed to Hemma’s for a traditional Indian lunch cooked by Hem’s mom and dad. Totally yummy; you needed to roll us out of the house. After visiting a bit more, we all took a leisurely walk to and through the Olympic Park, with a stop for wonderful gelato and on to Stratford Station where we caught the train back to the city. We returned to our room and realized it had been extremely hot with no air circulating. We changed rooms — a pain in the neck but worth the trouble. And then a few hours later we headed out for dinner… gee do we do anything but eat and baby stare? Since it was a night where the following morning would be a work day, and it was almost 10pm, we figured we could get into Dishoom… Indian again, but perhaps we were inspired by the lunch. Great drinks and some lamb biryani, chicken tikka, some side dishes.. and we were in heaven.

OK.. Tuesday we will actually do more than eat and baby gawk — will tell more.

All the best,

Fern