Boog's Blog

Saturday, a mild and wandering day.

Eats at Gails and dinner at the Fishworks (excellent fish, weak broth, sauces). Mostly visiting the tony shops around St. James. Amazing number of mens shirts, shoes, ties on display. One high end shop after another. Clearly some (many?) still dress in a very traditional manner. Saw some yesterday with bowler hats and umberllas. Ramrod straight, imperially thin.

Was tempted by the great cheese shop there but resisted. Did not resist my favorite hat store.

Fish works dinner

Sunday. Still no rain. We have been here more than two weeks and no rain and no rain forecasted. All the rain must have gone to the terrible storms US and Hong Kong way.

The visit to the British museum was replaced with a nap and reading. Finally got to start Farsighted by S Johnson. So far as good as I hoped.

Dinner by Bobby, last minute and perfect. Anchovy sauce, fresh tomatoes. Yummy.

Monday another clear day.

The air in London seems better than the fire smokrd area we recently left.

Borough market and the southweck cathedral.

First instance is 606. Yes, that early, at the first real crossing of the thames into London city.

Notice the burn mark. Said to be dated to the great fire of London.

This cat wandered in 12 years ago and stayed as explained in note. Longer term readers will remember the chickens in the Spanish church.

Overview

The polychrome includes a poem for the King’s servant.

We came here especially for the organ recital.

The program.

Borough market:

Some of the largest oysters seen in a while.

Mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms. On toast too. No room to eat those,sadly.

Neal’s Yard cheese. Yep we got some.

And we ate some.

Friday edition

Since Tuesday we have been eating, shopping, Italy and France planning, concert going, walking considerably and eating well.

Eating places now on our repeat list:

-Pauls for breakfast baguettes

-Gails for breakfast and pastries

-Fishers for breakfast, with a big Yeah.

Austrian style run very professionally. Puts Kaiser to shame. This is Grostl. Paprika and onions for the potatoes and good eggs. Told the manager how pleased we were with the service and the management. He kwelled as newly appointed and highly stressed.

Daylesford for salad and farm to fresh eating. Had a salad dinner there one night and will return next week.

Bobby’s house. Always fine dining with a unique atmosphere.

And then the roast on Friday. Asked Bobby out for a pre-dinner drink but he replied that he was too busy slaving over a hot stove. Such dedication for the Boogs to be admired.

Naturally picnics in our excellent room now filled with cheese, yogurt, fruit, wine, plates and bowls from Emma Bridgewater.

Fishhouse for tomorrow night, have reservations.

Thursday a double bill at St. Martin’s. A decent Mozart concert and an outstanding choice for the second concert of the evening.

Faire Sans Dire- looked for their CDs but could not find one as they appear to be a group assembled by the conductor, maybe newly formed or temporary. QB, upon leaving, said maybe there is a heaven (she did not mention the clean gym there).

Spare ribs and fries dinner. The results of the slaving.

Our first overcast day. Reason threatened but did not arrive.

After or usual fruit based breakfasted we hoofed to the river to catch a boat upstream to Kew gardens. Nice ride along an interesting and ever changing section.

One of the boat we were on the thames way.

Food, of course, and a long wander around before a boat return trip.

A walk in the garden.

And return to Westminster pier

Dinner with Bobby. Notice especially the tomato salad, rasberry vinaigrette with some prosciutto pieces.

The previous post left out the fine dinner Bobby prepared.  Had neglected to take a photo as I was too busy looking and eating.

Bobby, forturnately, had a photo, and sent to me, herin provided.

Hainanese Chicken Rice, with 3 sauces.Heritage Cherry Tomato Salad with Prosciutto di Parma.

    I will not fail this evening in the photo department.

Visit to Shoreditch. Been gentrified over the past ten years. Not fully there. Like soho NYC many years ago.

Beigels,see the price. They are decent. Chocolate from Ghana.

St.martins choral concert

Absolutely outstanding.

Both QB and I did the same test.  We closed our eyes and tried to guess the number of singers.  Could not.  Sounded like a large group.

Friday.

QB at members lounge of the RA. Asked if we could use as no exhibits and museum empty.

Above is dinner on hotel room. Naturally the power went out where we went for ramen so got a fine picnic of cheeses, prosciutto, salads, wine, good bread. Of course some gazpacho.

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Saturday, field trip to Cambridge. Andy and Sonia as guides.

Andy is an expert on British ales and possibly president of the organisation of Britain British ales. Sonia a Cambridge biochemist now retired from the field.

Trip to cambridge.   Many photos.   Andy, Sonia, Bobby and the Boogs.   Visited Fitzwilliam museum, Kings College and the fab fan vaulted ceiling (largest of course), pub, the Eagle, where Watson and Crick did their dirty, Cavendish and Lord Raleigh plaques, Trinity college, Pimms  gelatin.

Too many pics, several quite good, so made them public on Flickr, date of September 8.  Open link and go to that date.

Just one for the flavor.

Thursday.

Wandering, eating, socializing.

Walked to Bourough Market via Carnaby Street and Soho. Outstanding lunch at XU teahouse and restaurant – char sui, large pan fried soup dumplings, and more. Dinner was at a Beer Hall where we socialized with a number of Bobby’s friends. Might have been a far more interesting evening if the noise level was not at 90dB. Overall good but could have been far better.

On the way along the embankment, the obligitory shot. Nice, from a Cali perspective, to see some clouds. Never rained, maybe got a sprinkle of .01 inches if you use a ruler on a warm day.

The famous market

Finally dinner

Saturday: Trip to cambridge. Many 4. Andy, Sonia, Bobby and the Boogs. Visited Fitzwilliam museum, Kings College and the fab barrel vaulted ceiling (largest of course), pub, the Eagle, where Watson and Crick did their dirty, Cavendish and Lord Raleigh plaques, Trinity college, Pimms gelatin.

Too many pics, several quite good, so made them public on Flickr, date of September 8. Open link and go to that date.

Where we do some touristing and find a very large ball of string – lake side attraction. Other good stuff too.

Sunday. A shopping and entertaining day.

QB with shoes. Not the ones acquired.

We ended up doing diner in our hotel room. Bobby and JD came to share the fare. The Camenbert we got at the fancy cheese shop was over ripe and had no crema. Tasted OK but a complaint will be lodged. “Did you offer this to us sight unseen as we are foreign? “. The Italian fontina was excellent. Marks and Sparks supplied the Mis in Bouteille Bordeaux and Bobby pronounced it good. Bob brought over a very good chorizo or imberico ham. All food consumed and enjoyed.

Monday, start of touristing.

Walked to the Starbucks Reserve place near Marble Arch out of nosiness. Not up to the standards of Redwood city Cali. Not by a long shot. Then a longer walk over to London Eye and the boat to Greenwich and the Royal Observatory.The Clipper boat takes about 30 minutes, nice ride on the Thames.

First a stop at Greenwich Market, an old one.

Managed to NOT eat the 7 inch sausages which looked so good. Waited and we

found a Vietnamese place. Roast Duck Banh Mi along with papaya salad.

Walked up to the Observatory. Great views including one from the Camera Obscura.

From my camera

From the camera obscura, with people walking.

And, of course, the obligitory Meridian line picture. Apparently required.

Tuesday, a shopping and wandering day.

One of very many in the city. Rhino time, but not rino time.

Wednesday, a tourist day.

A very large, both metaphorially and physically ball of string. Christo put up oil cans, 75000 of them in the Hyde Park Serpentine. The art piece is clearly in the water. No signage, nothing. Ends Sept 9. Got there just in time.

Off to the V&A museum. Overwhelming amount of “stuff”. We enjoyed the silver, Turner’s, Constable’s, library, and the tapastries and finally had enough.

QB in there at a table.

Amazing set of tapastries.

Doombar with Bobby. An ale named after the bar of Doom where ships were directed to get stranded and looted. Located in Cornwall. Our favorite by far.

Dinner, ragu,venison,eggplant parmesan with fine soup noodles, handmade by Bob. Quite fine noodles and filling they were. The final few steamed batches were soupy.

Well enjoyed.

Friday: We slept late and missed breakfast but had a fine lunch at Le Fromagerie,  pictures below,

Hotel story:   The hotel is a mess, only in the wing that we are in.   The lobby and other areas are being upgraded.  Our favorite room, renovated last year, is in the messed up wing.  We were not told when we booked.   Wrote a note to the Guest Manager and got the proper response:  20% discount for room rate and complementary breakfast.   He remembers that I write reviews :-).  We will stay.

 Cheese board at La Fromagerie

A nice brunch after a late morning sleep in.

At a pharmacy, a very good one, we saw high end mobilty chairs, very Elvis.

As we wandered by the RA museum we noticed that there were no exhibitions.  Stopped in to check on when and why and ended up with a tour of the new expansion.  There are now four places to eat, including a garden spot and full menu dining.  A lovely members lounge.  There will be an exhibit late in September on the art of Oceana.

Saturday, another jet lag day of just wandering in Regents Park (rose garden) and hanging out with Bob and, for a bit, Muru.

  There are 12500 or so roses in this park.  Apparantly the big Rose Test garden in Portland has a mere 10000.  Both are spectacular.   Surprised today to see the large number still in full bloom.

Musu was in full bloom saying hello to many park visitors, engaging some in his very cheerful non-threatening way.

Dinner, pizza, new place, was terrible.  Never to return there.  Fine Piel de Sapo melon in the room.   We are slowly redecorating the room.   Added some bowls from Emma Bridgewater, had the hotel provide an empty fridge, added wine and today got anther table for eating on.

See this link for the original post, updated.

http://blog.boogs.net/2018/08/26/boogs-escape-midterm-politics-bemp/