Shopping, Cabbages and Frocks and a Really Good Beach

My latest greatest adventure these days is furnishing the house, which we should move into mid-month. (I say should because moving does hinge on having beds for sleeping...)

Thursday Ava and I measured rooms and photographed spaces in our house, which is an old Victorian home (no, I don’t know when it was built) in St. Johns Wood. It’s on a lovely street lined with other brownstones; behind us is a private garden shared by us and our future neighbors.

Anyway, since we left all of our forks, hangers, pillows (not to mention couches, TVs and beds) in North Carolina (and no, we really haven’t missed anything, certainly not enough to go get it) it’s SHOPPING TIME!

Ava and Eva hung out (Eva being our Polish babysitter, Ivonne was from Bolivia – international childcare at its best) while I shopped at John Lewis, which I’m told is your all around good service/quality/price provider.

Actually I was helped by Tony from Perth (you might wonder if anyone I interact with on a day to day is from England), who was a great help in figuring out what would work best in our narrow, 4 level place. He’s a John Lewis furniture advisor and seemed to “get” what we’re looking for – furniture w/ clean lines, neutral, casual and comfortable.

Round 2 of shopping will take place later today: rugs and electronics.
I’ve also spent a good deal of time on Amazon, seeking out the deals on house wares. All fun and games but a bit time consuming.

Friday evening Joe and I had a date, this time to a pub called The Engineer in Primrose Hill, not far from us. It’s a neat little gastropub with the best fries I’ve had in I’m not sure how long – really thick and meaty, with just the right crisp salty but not too salty coating, meaty warm potato inside.

The lamb was superb, too; we finished the evening with desserts at a French café in St. Johns Wood.

And Saturday we all slept in, then wandered down to the Cabbages and Frocks market near Baker Street. It didn’t live up to its name, not a single cabbage to be found, and there were a few frocks but nothing to write home about.

However, we did enjoy some farm-fresh sausages a young guy was diligently grilling and serving with freshly grilled onions. The Lincolnshire ones are his most popular, so that’s what Joe and I had; Ava had a curled up beef sausage and Claire went with a big, meaty burger. All served on homemade rolls.

We also loaded up on hot chocolate at the café truck, which apparently pulls into the Cabbages and Frocks market (in a green “circle” near a big Methodist church off Marylebone Street) each week.

Oh, the other thing that rocked were the cupcakes – we hit the cupcake lady’s stand after a little sojourn down Marylebone High Street (not to be confused with the former Marylebone).

The area is packed with cool cafes, and since it was a very nice day, everyone in London was sitting outside, drinking beer, wine or coffee. (Those people who worry about waiting until 5:00 don’t live here, apparently.)

I stopped in a couple of great cheese, meat and bread shops. Claire’s the bread picker these days so we got our loaf and found Joe and Ava in a park. That, too, was cool; London’s green spaces and playgrounds are awesome. (Of course coming from India we’re probably easy to impress in the playground department.)

We ended our outing w/ a few errands and a Stella Artoise at home.

Sunday we made haste to hit Westminster Cathedral for Palm Sunday Mass. We slid in a couple minutes late, but then so did half the congregation. A lovely place for worship, it’s hard to take in the enormity of the place.

Some info…

The Cathedral Church of Westminster -- dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ -- was designed in the Early Christian Byzantine style by Victorian architect John Francis Bentley. The foundation stone was laid in 1895, the fabric of the building completed eight years later.

The interior, though incomplete, contains fine marble-work and mosaics. The fourteen Stations of the Cross by sculptor Eric Gill are world renowned.
The Cathedral site had a varied past – it was originally known as Bulinga Fen and formed part of the marsh around Westminster. Reclaimed by the Benedictine monks (the builders and owners of Westminster Abbey), the space was then used as a market and fairground. After reformation the land was used as a maze, a pleasure garden and as a ring for bull-baiting (I’ve heard of bull fighting, but bull baiting?).

In the 17th century part of the land was sold for the construction of a prison which was demolished and replaced by an enlarged prison complex in 1834. The site was acquired by the Catholic Church in 1884.

I must say Westminster’s 9:00 mass was the shortest Palm Sunday experience I’ve ever had. We were done before 10. (Apparently they had a bigger service with procession (?) later in the morning, so opted for the shorter reading and passed on a homily.)

Afterward we wandered through the cathedral, then went up to the bell tower to check out London from above. Nice, clear day so we saw plenty of buildings, old and new, and a plethora of cranes. We could see St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, Canary Wharf, etc. And a great view of the main part of the cathedral below. (It has a name, I just can’t remember it.)

From there we set off walking to Buckingham Palace, where changing of the guard was not happening (it’s every other day) but a big crowd was gathered anyway. We joined them for a bit, watching the guards occasionally stride, then wandered on to find a pub for lunch. We passed guards on horses at the Household Cavalry Museum, which of course captivated the kids.

And for lunch we landed at a pub near Trafalgar Square, a sleepy breakfast/paper reading kind of place with decent bar food, where we perched at a tall table.

Yesterday (Monday) the kids and I, after a slow start, headed off to the National Portrait Gallery for one of their family events. The place offers workshops for lids over the age of 5 (ok I fudged a little on A’s age); today’s was an hour and a half program on mobile portraits. (The gist: creating from felt a representation of yourself and the things/people you enjoy and making a mobile with them.) First step was drawing the ideas, then the kids had at it with glue and scissors.

They seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves, then we caught lunch at a spaghetti restaurant, shlepped up to the grocery store and collapsed at home.

Ava was talking about various countries yesterday, so I asked which was her favorite – Australia, the US, England, India, Singapore. Her very firm answer was: “A country with a BEACH.”

So there you have it. The secret to choosing the best place to live is not culture, infrastructure, standard of living, weather or lifestyle.

It's simply access to a good beach.