Tubes and Hockney, and a Bad Play

September 12
Morning coffee with Tom at his house. We wait for a call Tom is expecting from a travel agent we had put him in touch with in Dehli, Shonali Datta, who planned two wonderful trips for us in India. Tom and Judith were intending to go (back, as they’d been there before) to India and had been put in touch with another travel agent who had put together a trip that had ignored their explicit instructions to the agent. They had decided they just would not go, but visit Sicily, instead. When we sang Shonali’s praise, Tom decided to give her a try. And I think that we may have a match. Fun to be able to facilitate these kinds of connections.
It’s so nice to be back in London. The feel and scale of the place is so comfortable to us. Though I’m sure there has been much change in Highgate since the 1960’s, and Tom has pointed some out to us, it still feels the same as the London we knew and came to enjoy so much. We have not been to Central London yet, though we’ll get there later today, and that may have changed more. Note: we did get there, and the feel really hasn’t changed.
Here are a few London shots, in the tube station and outside, one of which shows the Starbuckization of London pubs.

Carol and I separated from Tom, who was running some errands, and had a very nice lunch (Carol said it might have been the best quiche she’d ever had) at a restaurant on Picadilly that specialized in sweets and ice cream.

We then met Tom and Judith at the Royal Academy and saw a wonderful David Hockney show entitled “Eighty-two portraits and one still life,” which he painted in his Los Angeles studio over a period of only a couple years.  The portraits were great and the audio tape contributed to our appreciation of the show.  If it travels to the US to a city you’re in (I would imagine it will go at least to LA), see it.

The four of us then returned to the restaurant just to make sure that the ice cream was as good as the lunch that Carol and I had eaten.  It was.

We then happened upon a wonderful London restaurant, where we had a fine dinner.

It was our pleasure to introduce Tom and Judith to this fine establishment.

We went to the theater to see The Entertainer, starring Kenneth Branagh, a very hot London actor.  It sucked.  The other three would have been slightly more generous, or tactful, but, trust me, it sucked.  That’s a risk that you take, though, when you go to the theater.  My only regret is that I was unable to convince the group to leave after one act.

We returned by tube and bus to Tom’s house, blogged and went to bed.