Sunday 14 November 2010

Creaking back to place

Overcast, cool, temps 10

Sunday in London - that can mean only one thing....walking up to the Brompton Road, getting The Times, and finding a nice cafe or pub to sit in, and read.

A tradition here is the Sunday Roast. It's a pub meal. Most pubs offer three choices...roast beef, chicken or pork. We might wander down to The Kings Road and try the Cadogan Arms for Sunday roast. But, frankly, it's more likely we'll just come home. Via Harrods.

Still haven't been in! and it's just down the road. But I think today's the day. Need to pick up some gifts - and love wandering around the food court (what else!) After I won the Creasy Dagger a few years ago we celebrated by going to the oyster bar at Harrods. I don't actually like oysters, but Michael adores them - so I thought it was the perfect way to celebrate, and to thank him. Such fun to see him and his oyster rituals. He's a very measured man. Unlike me - I hare off all over the place. Michael takes his time, and considers things carefully, often apparently quite gravely.

He studied the platter of assorted oyster varieties for what seemed an age - I got so antsy I also ate the oysters, just to have something happen. Then he carefully placed condiments on each one (a bit of horse-radish, a squirt of lemon, and dash of a kind of vinegar thing. It was his ritual. And he looks so serious doing it, as though if he didn't get it right the oysters would explode and kill us all.

But, when finally finished, he looked up with the most joyous expression on his face.

Then he ate 'em.

It would be fun to go back there today.

On a more prosaic note, we need to do laundry and we can't quite figure out the washer/dryer in the flat. Because space is so precious in London - and the two square feet the machine is sitting on is worth more than our house in Sutton - Londoners don't go in for separate washer and dryer machines. They're combined. One machine does both.

Or neither.

Ours does the latter. We've pressed every button - twice. Stared at it. Even Michael took to staring at it with such gravity you'd think it was an oyster.

But nothing. We called the people who rented us this flat - it's a vacation rental management company - and their person is coming over. Which is a very nice thing to do, on a Sunday. She asked that we perhaps stop pressing every button, which seemed a reasonable request. Wasn't working anyway.

How amazing to have no agenda....and the rough one we have includes the harrods oyster bar.

We hope to get to Westminster later in the week, before we return home on Thursday.

And wonderful news - Aunt Agatha's bookstore, this magnificent mystery and crime bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, named BURY YOUR DEAD one of their top 10 books. You can see the whole list if you go to the aunt agatha website. Congratulations to everyone on the list - including two personal favorites, SJ Rozan and Stefanie Pintoff. yay!

Be well - off for lunch tomorrow with Michael's sister Carol and her husband David - then dinner tomorrow with agent Teresa and her husband Charles.

6 comments:

Jodi said...

That vinegary stuff is mignonette.

Oysters might explode... ha ha ha.

So jealous of your proximity to Harrod's...

Nina said...

My son David also takes such care with his food and then enjoys the heck out of it when he gets it just to his liking! Every Thanksgiving and/or Christmas he says "how about a goose?" (we always have turkey) and we ask him where we are going to get a goose in Nashville TN. Do you eat geese in Canada?

Deryn said...

Well Louise, I'd say you are measured. Because if it were me I'd say forget the laundry and go to Harrod's to buy new clothes.

I'm not ready for you to come home yet, can we stay another week or so? I am enjoying London!

Margaret J. McMaster said...

There is a quiet, quaint area in Mayfair, off Curzon Street, called Shepherd Market, about a five minute walk from Green Park station. It houses shops and pubs and has great atmosphere. We were over in June and found it hard to believe there was something like that in the area. You and Michael might like it too.

Kaye Wilkinson Barley - Meanderings and Muses said...

Louise - I am LOVING your lovely posts from London!

Anonymous said...

Best afternoon tea to be had in London is in Basil Street. The Capital Hotel's tea is outstanding, and I'm a bit of an aficionado on the subject - true, it's expensive but so so worth it. Gorgeous hotel too, we had our wedding breakfast there, after a quick dash to Chelsea Register Office. x