Quiz Night #3

On our third attempt at quiz night it was just me and Bill - no out of town pals to help us.  Fortunately, we strategically sat next to The Jedi Knights.  Once they realized we were absolutely no threat to them they started feeding us a few answers.  They should have realized it as soon as they heard our team name:  Weak Sauce.

The Jedi Knights all work together in an office behind Paddington station.  They live up North (Newcastle area) but come to London on Monday and go home on Friday.  That's why they are always here for quiz night on Tuesday.  

We were able to give them a few answers so I felt like we weren't just sponging off them.  Did you know that "pink eye" is an American term for conjunctivitis?  And instead of Affirmative Action they call it positive discrimination?  Whenever the quiz master would ask an American question he would end it with "Keep it to yourself, Jennifer!!" but I whispered it to the Knights anyway.  That was the only way for us to get answers back.  

In the end our cheating  sharing paid off and we were fourth from the bottom!!!  That's the farthest we've been from last yet.  There are about a dozen teams and Jedi Knights were first.  They got free drinks but by then a few of them were leaving so they gave them to us.  We celebrated by taking a whole bunch of selfies.  

And if anyone has team name suggestions, let me know.  We give the impression of being clever, creative people but when the pressure is on at 9pm every Tuesday we freeze up.  Despite the incredible success of Weak Sauce, I'm not sure that's the right name for us.

Unlikely Reunion

What are the chances that someone is going to see this bird, recognize it, capture it, and return it to it's owner??  Not bloody likely.  I think George is already halfway to Florida by now.  While lost pet signs usually bring me to instant tears I can only be happy for George.  I don't like the idea of birds being kept in cages.  It's just plain wrong.  Good on you, George - FLY!!!

A Little Museum Visit and Belated Business

We actually did do something other than eat a big meal on Sunday.  We stopped in at a little museum.  After I started taking pictures I realized that it was forbidden - - and since I don't want them googling us and then telling us off for posting verboten views I will simply say that this was the home of the German psychiatrist who fled the Nazis in 1933 and settled in Hampstead to analyze brits on his famous couch….got it?

 And here it is.  Many brains were picked here….many mothers blamed.

The museum overall was a little lean.  This room was chock full of stuff as our protagonist was clearly a collector of statues and artifacts.  But they were beyond the roped in area so it was hard to get a really close look.  These rooms were where he spent most of his time and they have been preserved to show us how he lived and worked here.

There was also an exhibit of a cartoonist who did a lot of drawings centered around psychiatry and anxiety, depression, etc.  At first I thought it was Ziggy but it wasn't.  They were fairly clever but I couldn't help but to think this was a way to pad the museum once you leave the main living area.

 By the time I got to the bed where our famous gent died I knew I was taking contraband shots so forgive the blur.  

And that was about it.  Which was fine because we were using most of our energy to digest and just wanted to go home by that point.

I also just realized that the blog is late with very important business….Happy birthday, Didi!!! xox

Sunday Roast in Hampstead

This is going to be one of those posts with a lot of pictures despite the fact that not a lot happens (we walk around and have lunch).  

We took the train to Hampstead and found ourselves in a butcher/speciality food shop.   I love these places because I figure you can always find some little treat to bring home that you wouldn't normally buy in your weekly grocery shop. In the back they seemed to have an American Corner - filled with junk food made up entirely of chemicals that you generally can't find in the UK markets.  At first I was excited because the only sugary cereal Bill can get is Frosties.  But then we saw the price - 9.15 pounds for Fruit Loops!!!!  That's $16 for the box.  Insanity!!  (Then again, should we stash our bags full of cereal on our next trip home? )

 Outside the shop they were selling sausage rolls for lunch.  This man looks like the quintessential English gent, doesn't he? His poor dog waited patiently for a bite but only got crumbs.

 Hampstead has a very particular look - with tile street signs, mostly brick houses and lots of little passageways.

After a bit of wandering we found our pub for Sunday Roast.  We wanted a pub with dark paneled walls and lots of nooks and crannies and a fire…and we found it.

Of course, so did many other people. We had to wait for a table.

 But once we got it we were so happy.  

 This is your typical beef Sunday Roast complete with lots of veg (string beans, turnips, mash), gravy and a big airy Yorkshire pudding.

 I had the duck leg which was dee-lish.  

We love seeing dogs in the pub.

 This was our waitress.  You have to have a very cute face to pull off that hairstyle.  Neither Bill nor I could pull one off.

 This older couple was looking for a place to sit for their drink so they joined us as we were paying the bill.  The pub was getting really crowded by the time we left but I could understand why - great food, the smell of a wood fire, dogs…this would definitely be my local if I lived nearby.

 Down stair and through narrow passage ways back to the tube.  

Mystery Fire!

While Fletch and Tricia attempt to make me jealous about their bonding in Arizona, I was at a cigar bar in Marlybone.  Whatever, Fletch.

The Churchill in the Hyatt.

Lovely cigar terrace.  The only negative was that my cigar had a slight taste of soap.  I was obsessed with the origin.  I assumed the Cigar Walla had washed his hands prior to his lighting my cigar.

Mr. Dibley failed in his role as tasting gimp.  He should have warned me about the soapy taste.

Dibley!

Dibley!

 I strolled along Edgeware where the hukka crowd was enjoying a night out.

 Fire at the Sannin!

 Jen and I went by the night after and there was no sign of a fire whatsoever.  She didn't believe me that there was even a fire.  Nice cover up.

Hopefully this visual evidence will convince her.

Fun Friday - The Geffrye Museum

I spent my Fun Friday morning at the Geffrye Museum which is a museum of the home.  I'll cut right to the chase - I loved it.  

 I battled the morning commuters on the tube north of Shoreditch and walked up the busy urban street. As soon as you step into the courtyard you are in a little oasis.  The museum is mostly set up in a very linear time line  - you enter at one end of this long building and go through a series of rooms decorated in different time periods.  Each representing a typical London middle class home for that time.

 I knew I was in for a good time when this was in the entrance.  Did you know the lava lamp is 51 years old??

 Did you ever give much thought to the evolution of the chair? 

 It was so interesting to read about how the structure of homes in London evolved over several hundred years.  As we all learned last Fun Friday, many of the homes in London were timber but were destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666.  So that is why the homes after that date are all stone and brick.  Plumbing is another obvious change over the years.  But houses were also influenced by the fact that most merchants and business men did business in their homes in those early days.  Servants were more integrated in to the house hold in the 1600's but over time the servants' rooms were moved farther away from the family (usually under the attic eaves) and they stopped eating meals with the family.

 The museum did a great job of putting the houses into the context of their time period.  I always like these timelines that tell you how Jane Austen was writing at the same time that slavery was abolished in England and that trains were still 30 years away.

 I love the blue room of 1830 as much as I love the 1890's room below which is representing the Aesthetic Movement.  This was happening in parallel with the mainstream Victorian decorating that I would have expected to see for 1890.  Could we do that blue tile around our unfinished fireplace at home?  

Change moves a lot faster once you hit the 20th century.  

 1910's

 1930's

1960's.  This is where my lifetime kicks in.  Can you look at this room and not think Brady Bunch???

 While the first 300 years of tableaus were in actual rooms, the 20th century was built into this more modern area.  There were several groups of school children at the museum doing drawings of the rooms and learning about things a family might do at home before they invented TV.

I had just enough time to hit the shop and then get back to my own home to start work.