Thursday 1st December - Traffic, and looking on the bright side

Traffic is what we spent a large part of today stuck in.

Normally, back in the olden days, we would use trains, tubes and buses to travel up to London.  It would be a pleasant day out; I used to have clinic appointments and associated tests up to 6 times a year and we'd make it a pleasant day out. 

I'm a member of the V and A Museum so when we were in that part of London we would have lunch there and go to an exhibition, or visit a favourite part. And the shop!

Other appointments were at a hospital on the other side of London, and the bus went along Charing Cross Road (Foyles bookshop and music shops and walking distance to Covent Garden), and through Trafalgar Square (galleries, St Martin's in the Fields). 

Excellent. A splendid day out.

Now, in these modern times, we slog through rush hour traffic in the car, eyes on stalks and alert for every road sign and junction, arrive, after several wrong turns and 'Now Get Out Of That' situations and find the dark underground car park where we pre booked a space. Then a 45 minute walk (at my pace) shivering through back streets to avoid crowds to the hospital.  No more lunches at the Vand A... just a sandwich at the hospital cafeteria, get through the lung function tests, and a CT scan this time, walk back and retrace our steps.

Am I complaining? Well, yes, actually. I think I am. I miss our excusions.

But, there are always silver linings. I've got 5600 steps today; most days I'm only getting around 1500 at the moment. A sandwich from the snack bar for lunch, and a kit kat and a yorkie bar to keep us going on the way home, is infinitely cheaper than coffee and croissants at Pain Quotidien, followed by lunch in the member's room of the V and A. 

And just think of the money I saved from not going to the shops!

Tuesday 24th May - Full Schedule

Yesterday, we took 5 hours to travel 62 miles; 60 miles in the car, and 2 miles on foot.

We drove up to London (now I really understand why the train is so much easier, but we are still not venturing on public transport at the moment), parked in a pre-booked space in Sloane Square car park, and walked across to the Royal Brompton Hospital a scant mile, for my routine lung function appointment. My average walking speed is around one mile per hour these days, especially is it is even slightly uphill. Wearing any kind of mask also slows me down. That accounts for two of the miles, and two of the hours. 

But I did enjoy the walk. It is such a pretty part of London, and as it was the day before the opening of the Chelsea Flower show, there was plenty to see. Many of the shops, even in the back streets, had exuberant floral decorations spilling out onto the pavement.

 I shall find out more about the results when I speak to someone at the clinic (over zoom) next week, but the lovely man who was operating the machine talked me through the figures in outline, and they were pretty reassuring. I'm always such a doom-merchant as the time for the tests draws near, and usually discover that I have been worrying over nothing.

The drive is only 30 miles each way, but once you get anywhere close to London the the speed of travel slows dramatically!

Both of us were pretty well zombified by the day - it is the most public outing we have been on since March 2020, even including the two trips to the Royal Free Hospital last year, once for routine tests, once for a 'right heart catheter', a procedure like an angiogram, but on the other side, to measure internal blood pressures in the heart. I find myself having these every five years or so, to see how things are progressing ( so far the results have been stable, which is good).

Today I did my experimental sewing for the postcard project. I've bought some stuff called 'magic paper'. According to the information, you can draw on the paper (what kind of pen, I would like to know??), cut out your design, peel it off the backing and stick it on the fabric. Then embroider, using stranded cotton or perle embroidery cotton. Finally you dissolve the magic paper with cool water. 

So I did all that today;

I used a frixion pen to draw the picture. The magic paper sticks nicely to the linen, giving it a satisfactory stiffness which makes it easier to sew. I used some black perle cotton.

The finished embroidery - as usual things changed as I went along...

And when I dunked the sewing in a bowl of cool water, the paper turned into a sticky goo within seconds. I shall know tomorrow when the fabric has dried whether all the goo has come off.

 I'm very pleased with how simple it was to use.

So now you know the theme for my picture this month...

 

Sunday 17th February - London last Tuesday

Tuesday was a routine checkup at the Royal Brompton Hospital chest clinic.

That meant an early - very, very early train. I was counting the houses where it looked as though someone might be awake as we drove through the streets at 5.30am. I reckon about eleven households...

There is a public piano in the station, painted to look all jungly;

I did a quick sketch to get the main idea down, and then spent the train journey colouring it in. I suspect the piano has been damaged, as the lid was padlocked closed. I did play it last time we were there.

We arrived at Victoria station as dawn was breaking, pale and pink,

London skyline at dawn

far too early for the first appointment, lung function tests, at nine thirty, but the very early train means that we get seats. Any later and we would like as not have to stand. Our reward is breakfast at le Pain Quotidien and then a leisurely stroll up Dovehouse Street.

Oh my word, but it was cold! Sunny and bright, but COLD.

Once we're in the hospital system, it is just a question of queuing to check in for lung function, waiting for your turn, queueing to check in to the clinic, waiting for your turn, waiting for your blood test, and then - freedom! I'm glad to relate that as nothing seems to have changed, they are
not replacing the medicine which has become hard to get as I probably don't need it,

the blood tests I have every six weeks to check if I am tolerating the various other medicines will now be done every 12 weeks,

after my next appointment they will probably see me annually instead of 6 monthly.

So that's all very positive.

We walked to the V and A museum for lunch and a look-around. There were a couple of exhibitions, and exhibits, that we thought we might go and see, but were distracted by all the things that caught our attention along the way;

the music room from Norfolk House, all white and gold, the parlour from a house in Henrietta Street, an interactive 'design your own chintz pattern' screen, which then emailed me a copy of my design;

the Great Bed of Ware, and another HUGE state bed from somewhere else....

so, all too soon, it was time to catch the train home.

Wednesday 21st August - The Week So Far; Monday

Monday - what shall we do?

Go to Tate Modern in London. I knew that we would be too late join in with the Lego building thingy; when we got there a couple of staff were getting to grips (literally) with the slow and painstaking task of dismantling it. 

I didn't ask if they had to sort the bricks as well. It was eerily quiet, compared to the echoing hubbub in the rest of the building. I had half planned to bring along a brick from home; red, or black, or grey, as a subversive addition...

We went round the Takis exhibition. I didn't take photographs, just one sound recording. How one puts a sound clip onto this blog is rather beyond me.

The views from the Tate Modern building are spectacular;

We timed lunch to perfection; having spurned all the eateries at the Tate Modern we went out of a random exit and found ourselves looking straight at a Wagamama. Excellent (if noisy). And even more excellent because we managed to grab a window table. And even more excellenter still; those threatening clouds in the photographs were for real, and this was the moment that the heavens opened and the rain was bouncing off the pavements and we were nice and dry and chopsticking our way through udon noodles and all kinds of bits and pieces.

Afterwards the sun came out and London was sparkling and clean so we slowly walked along the Thames path all the way upstream; through a sort of festival atmosphere all around the South Bank and Festival Theatre area, through the most touristy scenes of seething crowdsI have ever seen in London at County Hall by the London Eye (with hands firmly clasped around bags - it really felt almost like lawless Victorian Britain updated to the 21st century). Then under Westminster Bridge and into the tranquil stretch alongside St Thomas' Hospital. Past Lambeth Palace, and ending up in the cafe of the Garden Museum, right by the Palace. 

A mystery thriller I read came to its dramatic conclusion in the churchyard surrounding the museum; it was written by Jefferson Tate and I think it might have been 'The Last Queen of England', so I will have to re-read it to check.

We took the bus to Victoria Station, all around the back streets of Pimlico, and caught a train home. 

Great Day Out.   

Leo-the-cat was behaving oddly when we got back, pawing at her mouth from time to time... oh-oh... 

Friday 5th July - a longish week

If last week ended on the Thursday, then this week, which ends tomorrow, has been nine days long. Nine very long days long...

Friday was travelling to Leicestershire for my father's 90th birthday party, held at my cousin's house. Why Leicestershire? (It would have been in Rutland if they hadn't renamed it some years ago). Well, that's a long story involving relatives from Florida who came over for the celebrations and to visit the place where their grandfather, or maybe great-grandfather came from.

That's my father, on the right - so I suppose the photograph must be nearly 90 years old!

It was a great day, and the final part of that part of the junketing which had lasted several days.

But, there was more birthday yet to come - we took part in a sort of 'flashmob' tea party in London on the Sunday. The Floridians had already scattered in different directions, some to the Cotswolds, some to Paris, and some on a 'Game of Thrones' tour of Ireland, this this was a separate set of relatives and friends.

Monday could have been a day of rest, but I was teaching for six hours...

And Tuesday was a Brompton Hospital day - a very early train to make sure of being able to get a seat and arrive in time for 9am. The hospital checkup was very encouraging. It looks 

The Brompton checkup was very encouraging - looking back over the years, it seems that although my lung function drops a little in the winter, it picks up again in the Summer in a regular pattern. We were in and out pretty swiftly, and spent the rest of the day at the V and A;

Beatrix Potter Drawings

Huge, ancient doors

A fifteenth century French staircase

We wandered through rooms and rooms full of ceramics on the way to the display of Port Meirion china - I didn't take any pictures of the china, but this set of plates amused me

  It has been very, very warm this week. The cats can't decided where to sleep; inside?

or outside?

Friday 14th December - London, knitting, cooking, this and that

Knitting...

I've finished the scarf that I started back in April! I stopped knitting it over the Summer- being a tube, and colour knitting as well, it was too warm to have on my lap. I'm wearing it round my neck as I type instead of a hot-pack. I was very grateful for it this morning - it is the first time there has been ice on ponds and buckets of water, still there at lunchtime.

Some of the patterns worked better than others. On the whole the second half of the scarf has more of my favourites - the birds, Christmas trees and Scandinavian people. Although I have a fondness for the giant chickens and the purple Rennie-Mackintosh style roses as well.

I was given a couple of balls of King Cole Tinsel 'eyelash' yarn by my daughter, as a birthday present last month.


I asked the assistant in John Lewis about patterns; 'Oh, it is mainly used in knitting toys...' and she handed me a pattern book full of monkeys and squids and stuff...

   

cute, but a bit too much like hard work. However, this gave me an idea, so I bought the pattern



and I have been knitting away. And I'm not making snowmen.

Did I mention John Lewis? We went to London yesterday - how lovely to go up without an agenda or a timetable or appointments. He persuaded our Panda to ease into a highly improbably space - the last one left in the station car park -  and we caught a train at nearly 10 am - tickets costing about £70 less than we usually pay for hospital appointment travel.

The idea was to investigate a new set of plates and bowls as we have never been that fond of what we have had since we were married ('you must choose your dinner service and put is on the wedding list...') My, but we were hard to please then ('oh, I suppose this is the best we can do') and time hasn't changed us. Back then we chose this set, and still have plenty of it left.

  (Poole Parkstone, in the 'oatmeal' colourway)

 We've seen some Belleek that we like, advertised as for sale in House of Fraser and Debenhams but when we looked for it the assistant said 'it's only available on-line now, Madam. You can always send it back if you change your mind', which is not how we like to buy stuff.

The various white or cream china in Selfridges and Debenhams and John Lewis proudly proclaims itself to be 'hotel china', and looks the part. But we don't cook like Masterchefs, requiring oversized bowls with tiny little depressions for a spoonful of consomme

                

so we are continuing to smash our way through the Poole plates.

It was fun, though, riding on the top of a London bus (number 390 these days) along Oxford Street, and browsing through Selfridges again. We bought a few small Christmassy bits and pieces, nothing too heavy or bulky.

Today I did a bit of teaching in the morning, and settled to Christmas Cards in the afternoon, encouraged by some Christmassy bits and pieces, a tea-light, and a cup of tea. 

I've done one list, now for to the Really Long List.

Tuesday 4th December - The Official 'OK'

Today was chest clinic day

That meant setting the alarm for 5 am, and aiming to be in the car for 6.15 am, to catch the early train to London. The moon was a sharp little silver crescent, still shining in through the front bedroom window when I opened the curtains. It has usually got itself round to the back windows by the time I like to get up!

 So - lung function tests followed by a chat with the consultant was the plan for the first part of the day.

Lung function tests mean breathing in special and slightly complicated ways into a machine - sometimes slowly, sometimes fast, sometimes holding your breath, sometimes changing from in to out, or out to in as quickly as you can - it takes a surprising amount of concentration to re-arrange your diaphragm from 'in' to 'out' quickly enough without losing control! They also take a blood sample to test haemoglobin oxygen levels. If you are lucky, they just do a finger-prick. If you are unlucky, they stab your earlobe. I was unlucky, so spent the rest of the day wandering around London with a bulky dressing encasing one earlobe.

The results weren't as good as last time, back in the Summer, and I was a little apprehensive when it came to the time to discuss them. But the consultant decided they were 'fine' - considering that I had a cough and a cold and had just finished a course of antibiotics everything was in line with expectations. Good-oh. We went merrily on our way to enjoy the rest of our time in London.

At the beginning of the year I took out a membership of the V and A museum - sheer luxury - but it has transformed our visits. We can have a reasonably priced meal in the member's room -  a peaceful haven on the fifth floor, and then free entry to an exhibition, and explore whatever catches our attention on the day.

At the moment they have an exhibition on computer games;

So we went for a look-see. It was very interesting (and loud, and colourful and energetic). My main interest was in the art and story-boarding. There were lots of pictures and sketchbooks to look at.

Some of the games were of the doom and horror and blood and gore variety.

Time for a cup of tea or coffee? We went to the cafe on the ground floor in one of the three rooms created as refreshment rooms when the museum was built. Look at the beautiful tiles in this room, which was designed for serving 'broiled and grilled meats'.  Aren't they fabulous?

Presumably the meats were broiled and grilled on this enormous range.

So how they can furnish the room with white plastic tables and chairs, and serve cakes on paper plates, and milk in paper cups, and tea in cups without saucers?  That's just distressing. (And espresso coffee should always be served IN HOT CUPS. Just saying)

Oh well. We made our way through the shop, buying almost nothing for once, and caught the bus back to Victoria. 

Home sweet home, and happily so.

Thursday 26th July - what we did yesterday part 3!

Yeah, we haven't finished with yesterday yet!

The C1 bus takes you all the way from outside the front entrance of the V and A to Victoria station. Perfect. We sat and slowly melted as the bus jerked its way through the early rush hour - He sat next to an elderly man and discussed antiques and computers and how you used to look things up in books but now you just google. Made a huge difference to the antiques trade, he said. I sat nearby and people-watched; such a variety of people from all cultures... and clothes.

You would be hard pressed to know what the current fashions were anymore... long floaty dresses, short close-fitting skirts, retro fifties blouses, T shirts, short sleeves, no sleeves, wide-leg trousers, skinny-leg trousers...

The fashion shops, Burberrys, Joseph etc, are all displaying winter wool coats. No comment.

I mean to have a go at sketching this later, snapped while the bus was stationary at some hold-up or other

;

It seemed such an encapsulation of a London street corner. The plane tree, with the variegated peeling bark, the red telephone boxes, the railing, the bicycle...

It was a good day for sketching. This was across the lounge as we were having coffee and cake; four women. I think the two nearer women were trying to persuade the others to buy something... All very London and "modern" and bustling and like a magazine scene. It was an Apple tablet, of course. 

This was the scene outside the pub next to the theatre; we were sitting at a table belonging to the theatre bar. There were two huge empty wine-glasses on our table, left by the previous customers, which did a good job of making us look as though we were real customers instead of just seizing an opportunity to sit down.

The London "meeting for drinks after work, standing on the pavement in the evening" crowd was in full swing everywhere. 

There has been a great regeneration all around Victoria, making it a "happening" sort of place.

The Other Palace Theatre is part of the Lloyd Webber Group; there was a packed out musical called "Heather in the main theatre, but we were there for "89 Days", about a gap-year student in New York on a tourist visa (but working as an au pair) discovering that New York is not what she expected.

The studio is down, down, down down into what must be a sub-basement; a small performance space with a bar and chairs and tables... I don't think I'll go there again... too far down, down....

But I thoroughly enjoyed the musical, and thought there were some witty lines, both in the script and the songs, and the performance was slick and confident and engaging. The Edinburgh production will apparently have a larger band (although one each of piano, cello and violin worked very well) and a larger cast, and costumes (the cast all wore different black clothes and managed to portray their ever-changing parts very well). Well done everyone (and especially Clare, of course!)

Home - late - fed the cats - opened the windows (the house was like an oven, much cooler outside!) and so to bed. 

Thursday 26th July - What we did yesterday part 2

Before I leave the topic of the V and A Museum, I must just mention this;

the courtyard between the sculpture gallery and the main cafe in the red-brick building in the photo.

By the end of the afternoon the space was full of families enjoying a relaxed afternoon. You can see all the children playing in the large, shallow paddling pool - some in swimming costumes, some in underpants, and some just soaked through in their T shirts and shorts. I waded through the pool instead of walking round - when I took my shoes off, I found the paved area was too hot to walk on in bare feet. The water was luke warm - delightful - and deeper than I thought, so soon the hem of my long dress was soaked. No matter. It kept me cool as I walked round the rest of the museum, and my feet had dried off before I needed to put my shoes on again.

What a lovely, lovely place for families to take their children to! Free entry, toilets, cafe, seating, shade, sun, paddling pool - no wonder so many people come. And if they should pause and look at  some marvellous object on the way in or out, so much the better.

Oh, and I meant to mention this statue, close by the entrance to the courtyard, in the sculpture gallery;

Thetis is dipping Achilles into the Styx, (all except his heel, of course)

Achilles doesn't seem to be appreciating his mother's efforts. See, read the information label;

"The heads of Thetis and Achilles are portraits of the client's wife and baby". What a sweet idea.

from wikipedia re Thomas Johnes:  (he seems a Good Egg)

His marriage to his wife Jane, a beautiful and highly intelligent woman, brought great happiness to Thomas. They enjoyed a close relationship, sharing an interest in improving Ceredigion and a love of Hafod.

Their first child Mariamné was born 30 June 1784. Johnes was completely besotted with her and was closely involved with her upbringing. No expense was spared in her education; tutors from all over the world were hired. He shared an especially close emotional bond with Mariamné. He was heartbroken when she preceded him in death on 4 July 1811.

His son Evan was born in 1786, during the time his wife Jane had laid the cornerstone of their home. The boy died in infancy.^[4] 

Thursday 26th July 2018 - What we did yesterday - part 1

But first I must say, when I clicked on the blog to start this post, the picture that I drew of flowers  came up, and looked across at the fireplace where they all are, and saw

they don't look so happy this morning! But I can't easily go and get some water for them yet, as all doors to the kitchen are closed to prevent the cats escaping - they are due for their annual trip to the vet in half an hour and we don't want to spend that time hunting them round the house. At least they can't get under the bath anymore.

We spent the day in London yesterday - it was sweltering. I can't remember it being this hot since 1976, but at least we haven't started water shortages yet. The plan was to visit the V and A museum and see an exhibition called "The Future Starts Here" or something similar. Then to go to see a musical called "89 Days" at "The Other Palace Theatre", which has been written and is being performed by a group of students in and around Bristol University. My reason for going is that I know the lyricist, Clare Packham; she did her grade 5 theory with me, and I accompanied some of her violin exams (but chickened out of her Grade 8 - too many notes for the pianist)

We never made it to the exhibition - it's like looking something up in an encyclopaedia (remember those) or a dictionary - you meet so many interesting things along the way...

In a fit of extravagance after a particularly tiring morning at the Royal Brompton earlier this year, I took out a membership of the V and A, which gives free access to exhibitions, and also access to the Member's Room, a lovely, lovely lounge/restaurant on the fifth floor. At the time I tried to pretend to myself that I hadn't been totally reckless - the truth is that it was a brilliant idea. We had lunch in the member's room - He had steak, I confused the system by having two starters. All the dishes were excellent. Then we started. There were a few things we wanted to see;


Gloucester candlestick, falcon flagon, Serilly Cabinet,


and a whole load of things we didn't set out to see such as the Mirror Cabinet, glass virginals

this extraordinary wallpaper in the children's area of the silver collection

where some of the boxes had doors, with little showcases of silver models inside

and an exhibition of early computer generated pictures

and, right at the beginning of our visit, I saw a flight of stairs... Roman? or Greek? going nowhere...

Having trawled through various floors and rooms (how my mother would have loved the Gilbert collection, and also the Dutch items from when Amsterdam was the richest city in the world) we went back to the Members' Room for revivifying tea or coffee and cake, before heading to the theatre.

(Is this post too long? OK, I'll start a new one)