deb solos in london...yikes!
10 august 2000

cheers everyone,

yes, it's true. i actually maneuvered myself around by train and tube, pronounced "chube", the london underground. after all, i would have been stuck in the lovely suburb of milton keynes, where gary works while in england. it was well worth taking the chance of getting lost just to experience being in that most stimulating of all cities. i did, however, arrive on a weekend so that gary could escort me through a trial run. when i first went to london a few months ago, i never could have imagined getting around without his help, so i feel that a personal accomplishment has taken place.

i'm sure no one is surprised to hear that we spent saturday indoors at one of those small, lavish english theatres. the show of choice was one of my all time favorites, "the king and i" sans yul brynner. the show is close to my heart, having done it for five months at boulder's dinner theatre. everything about this production was exquisite. it was obvious that no expense was spared, being physically beautiful to look at. our leading lady was elaine page, with such a clear acting persona and a voice of true purity. the woman was made for the role. there was not a weak performance in the show, including the dancers, and the king, who was actually the understudy. the entire design of the show was tastefully extravagant done in rich colors of reds and golds but without going over the top. it was gorgeous and we were quite impressed. well, that's london theatre for you.

we then made the mistake of going into liberty, a very exclusive department store, famous for its tudor style facade and its beautiful fabrics. what was gary thinking, taking me in there? we both fell in love with a display of bed linens. we recently bought a victorian wardrobe and matching bed so our "target" linens are now tres gauche. when we couldn't stop talking about them a day later, we decided we must have them and without going back into london, attempted to order them by phone. alas, the order was placed and then we were told most of the items were out of stock. "it's okay, they will be worth waiting for", we assured ourselves.

after the matinee on saturday, we hoofed it over to the new tate modern gallery. en route, i saw a somewhat familiar face, and as we passed him gary nudged me and pointed out that it was donald sutherland, the actor. i wanted to go back and gawk but didn't. the tate had some interesting pieces and some weird ones too. i'm picky about contemporary styles and don't connect with alot of them. however we did end up buying a framed print by the artist, rothko { a favorite of gary's}, which we thought might look perfect on one of our naked walls in the living room. since gary is still in england, we have yet to see how it looks let alone how he's getting it on the plane.

on sunday we took a drive over to cambridge where we explored the streets and alleys and incredibly old buildings, although not as old as oxford, which we visited in the spring. one alley in particular really felt like part of another century, the way it was curved towards the river and exempt of tourists. most of the buildings were closed but from the outside quite impressive and the gardens were of course, spectacular. there were many bridges, and as we were standing on one, we noticed that many people were out punting. this is an activity done on a wooden boat with a very long pole used to steer it by pushing off the bottom of the river. no oars in sight. it looked like fun so we rented one with a chauffer. it also looked like a lot of work and it was after all, sunday so we sat back and took the tour, which included some great tidbits of history. and it was the perfect time of day; sunset.

so now it was monday and i was ready for my big adventure. i was planning to go the national portrait gallery and was meeting a friend of our friend, bob's, whom gary had already met. i got there early and i was feeling brave, so with my map {ha ha} in hand, i scoped out the theatre where i would meet gary that evening. back to the museum then, and kerry and i chatted away the afternoon while viewing portraits of everyone from shakespeare to paul mccartney. by the way, this is the only known portrait of shakespeare in existence. he had an earring! there were some beauties of the elizabethans and the victorians among others, many of which were painted by unknown artists. what a fascinating place, seeing history through faces.

back at the theatre, we saw the whodunnit by agatha christie, "the mousetrap". it's the longest running show ever, 48 years and still going! it was great fun but don't ask me to tell who did it because at the curtain call, one of the actors requested that we keep the ongoing secret near and dear to us.

on tuesday, with my newly founded travel confidence, i went back into the city, this time to the national gallery, which houses centuries of art. i never want to see another reproduction of van gogh's "sunflowers" again because the original is breathtaking and looks nothing like those prints so i wish they'd stop making them. i just had to say that. the textures and colors alone invite one to spend a while with this one, but there were so many people, i had to move on. there were about three entire rooms filled with impressionism where every single painting on those walls was truly awesome. the museum also had an exhibition that i found to be really interesting. they had asked 24 contemporary artists to choose a painting and make a new work, taking that painting as the inspiration. in doing so, most were non literal and in listening to the audio tour, i was able to understand the creative thinking of the artist. it was fascinating to me.

later, kerry and i met and strolled over to covent garden where we were to rendezvous with gary and our other friend, frank, also on biz in london. after a great dinner, not to be taken advantage of in london as the food can be fairly mediocre, we got a late start home. normally it's a 45 minute train trip but on this night we had to sit on the train for an hour before it actually went anywhere. signal problems outside the station. how unfortunate that i had an early flight the next morning. this was only the beginning of my travel woes.

we got to bed around 2am and woke up at 7 in order to make my 9:15 flight. as we sat in traffic on the M1 superhighway, it became apparent that i would miss my plane. we were going absolutely nowhere fast. luckily gary was able to conduct business from his mobile phone; it was also obvious he wasn't going to make it to work anytime during the morning. long story short, i stood in a very long queue and they put me on the next flight, sheduled to leave at 12:45. that one was, of course, an hour late and since a'dam is an hour ahead, by the time i got my luggage, took the train and the tram, it was 5pm when i finally walked in the door. basically it took me the entire day to get home from london. what's wrong with that picture? i guess some travel days are just smoother than others.

cheers,

with love, deb