London: Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Greetings

We began Tuesday back at Ottolenghi Spitalfield to grab a quick breakfast (I opted for the unbelievably wonderful dutch pancakes with raspberries and blackberries and some other goodies like yogurt with orange zest, and Mike went for the strawberry and plum birchermuesli)… accompanied by pear basil fresh juice. The plan had been to meet up with Emma, Elizabeth (Emma’s mom), and Finn at the Serpentine Gallery, located in Kensington Gardens. It’s a really small gallery (perfect for me since many of you know I really don’t like museums). They had a one-woman show of the work of Lucretia Hurtado (Venezuelan, but has been living in California for decades). She’s 98-years-old and this was the first one-person showing of her work. Needless to say it spanned about 70 years during which time she went through many different styles.

During breakfast we got a WhatsApp from Emma saying that Elizabeth wasn’t feeling well and decided to hop on the next plane home to Geneva so as not to spread any germs to the baby. Since the gallery was about an hour from Leyton, requiring taking the tube, Emma felt it was too much (would have been the first time on the tube with the baby). Doing it alone seemed tough. So she suggested we meet up for tea late afternoon somewhere near Liverpool Station as she could take the bus which was much easier and she’d already done that alone. We were also supposed to meet up with our god-daughter at the gallery as well. She also lives in London. Quick shift in plans and we all would meet for tea at 3:30 at the Ace Hotel (ultra hip) in Shoreditch in the restaurant called Hoi Polloi (!!).

But Mike and I decided to head for the Serpentine anyway–which included a long walk through Hyde Park (we are racking up our walking mile at about 6-7 miles per day, per the trusty app on our phones). We stopped briefly in the restaurant addition to the Serpentine – a very chic space designed by Zaha Hadid – which I actually liked a lot.

From there I dragged Mike to one of my favorite little boutiques on Kensington Church Street, where he proceeded to take a little nap while sitting on their couch – they seemed unperturbed. Chatted with the sales folks a bit – all immigrants (Italy, Latvia, Ecuador). Made a small contribution to the British economy and then we headed back by tube to the Ace Hotel for our tea date.

Emma with Finn—who seemed to really like this new environment (trust he might be a little hipster), Lara, Mike, and me. Lots of reconnecting (Lara hadn’t seen Emma in a long time and first time to see the baby). Lara had spent a few weeks one college summer being an au pair for Mike’s nieces (Emma and Julia) when they lived in Copenhagen.

And then we were off to our hotel to get some work done (yes there is always that pesky work issue popping up).

A few hours later we headed to meet Lara and Elliott for dinner at Rovi (near Oxford Circus), a new restaurant and a first for all of us. It was very good. No one particularly liked the interior design, but we came for the food! I’d recommend it. Details in tomorrow’s posting if I can remember.

Tomorrow will be a long and crazy day. We are headed to Paris to meet some old friends from NY for lunch – taking the chunnel both ways in one day; I’ve done it before and it’s fine. It’s a long and interesting story about our friendship. But, they have an apartment in Paris where they live part time, and they just so happened to be arriving in Paris early tomorrow morning. It was the only day we could possible come over to see them, so we decided it could be a plan. We leave on the 9:00 am train and arrive around 1:45 (1 hour time change); we will return on the 9 pm train and arrive back in London around 11 pm. The Eurostar is quite comfortable and I’m planning to get 2.5 hours of uninterrupted work time in each direction. Or so I hope. Mike thinks it’s perfect napping time.

Jusqu’à demain (I think that is the correct term for “until tomorrow”)..

Fern