Eastenders

'Ere me chinas, 'ows about a little ol' ball of chalk

Since I had last been to the capital, Brad had found a job and a place to live, and Nadine had arrived to begin her working holiday alongside Brad. I decided I best hop on the bus and pay them a weekend visit. And besides, it's good to see the city once in awhile. I feel like a country mouse out here in the sticks.

After rushing to finish a project at work on Friday (8 March) afternoon I barely got out in time to quickly walk home, pack a small bag and head down to the bus station. Luckily I always seem to think the bus station is farther than it actually is. In just over two hours I was at Victoria Station, a place I'm getting to know all too well. I hopped on the Tube and headed for Russell Square, where I overzealously climbed the spiralling 175 steps to ground level. Brad met me at the top of the steps, as I gradually caught my breath. Brad and Nadine live with friends of Nadine's aunt's. He is an architect and she runs a ceramics shop on the ground floor of their house. When we arrived at the house I greeted Nadine, having not seen her since I left Halifax, and was introduced to Steve and Josie, and their friends who had come over for supper.

We visited for an hour or so, before deciding to head out into Soho to find a nice place to grab a drink and chill out. Unfortunately, on a Friday night, that's not exactly easy. It was past midnight, so all of the pubs were closed, leaving our options down to the chippies and nightclubs. We did manage to find one place that was a little quieter, and managed to squeeze in a half-pint before they scooted us out the door. London, despite its size and bustle is definitely not the city that never sleeps. We grabbed some chips on the way home and then settled in for a night's sleep.

The next morning we planned on heading to East London for the East Festival that was taking place at various venues. We decided before we left that we would return to make a sushi supper for the family. It seems to be the thing we do when we get together, and I think we get a little better at it each time.

We headed out into Bloomsbury walking, eventually passing through Holborn and past the Old Bailey. We caught sight of St. Paul's and walked toward it past the London Stock Exchange. There was a helicopter hovering in the sky in the distance. We weren't sure what it was all about, until we came to the Millennium Bridge. Incidentally we got there right in time, as our question about the helicopter was answered. There was a film crew moving people across the bridge. We had the option of staying or going. We thought for a moment about staying, but realised that once you're in you're in, so we opted out. On the other side of the bridge we stopped behind the barrier awaiting the 'action' call. I asked the bobby at the fence what they were filming. He said it was the new Harry Potter film.

As the director called action, the motionless people on the bridge began walking and the helicopter with the camera mounted on it swooped down to bridge level, rotors virtually over the railing. It passed along the span of the bridge and then moved back up into the sky. It was quite exciting to watch. When the new Harry Potter film comes out, keep an eye open for that millisecond and know that we were standing just out of view, next to the Globe Theatre.

We carried on down the South Bank and eventually came to City Hall, Sir Norman Foster's recent addition to the London skyline. Much like his Bundestag dome in Berlin, City Hall is open to the public and offers not only transparency in government, but great views of London, with Tower Bridge in the foreground. We spent a good long while there enjoying the architecture.

Crossing Tower Bridge we entered the realm of East London, with Brick Lane as our destination. Eventually we found it and all its ethnic glory. There are all kinds of foods on offer, and coffee shops at every corner. What we didn't find, however, were venues for the East Festival. The brochure was very disjointed in its organisation and it was difficult to stumble upon something cool, as we had been hoping to do. After grabbing some jalebi and attempting to direct some kiwis despite being lost ourselves, we stopped in at a very characterful spot to enjoy a cup of coffee.

Locating the Whitechapel Gallery on our map we decided to head that way, and after locating the cryptic doorway, escaped the rain and entered to find Cornelia Parker's exhibit of her filmed interview of Noam Chomsky.

We had to begin heading back to the house so we could begin preparations for sushi. After a long wait for the Tube at Aldgate East, we eventually got to Waitrose to begin the panicked gathering of supplies. Eventually, avocadoless, Brad and I returned to the house, as Nadine carried on to Tesco to find nicely ripened avocados. We just couldn't do sushi without avocados. We apologised to the family for our tardiness. They were not at all put off by it. The two boys were enthralled by the Chelsea v. Barnsley game (which in the end went to underdog Barnsley), so they didn't even notice their hunger.

The rice was on, the miso soup was on. Within an hour-and-a-half, we were sitting to a nice meal. Despite some panic and snags, it turned out really well. The family were impressed. Even the boys thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Tired, we all stayed in for the evening. It had been a very eventful day afterall.

In the morning, our plans were open, so we decided to head to the Academy to take in some art. On the way out the door, Steve suggested checking out the Barbican and the Museum of London. We opted to take his advice, and headed back toward the East. As the three concrete Barbican towers came into view we came upon St. Bartholomew's, a church that Nadine's ancestors were a part of many centuries prior. We meandered through the streets and eventually came to the bricked roundabout of the Museum of London. We carried on toward the Barbican.

The Barbican is an area along the old London Wall that was built as an enclosed estate. Though it appears very brutal along the street, inside is a very green and multi-levelled space. At the heart of it all is The Barbican Centre. Entering the centre, despite the deserted atmosphere outside, there was a flurry of activity, and we realised from the writing on the backs of the staff T-shirts, that we had inadvertently done what we had intended to do the previous day: stumbled onto an East Festival venue. There was a drum group, some spacey hairdressing show, and a spy on stilts, trying to act inconspicuous. We stopped in at The Curve Gallery to take in Hans Schabus' exhibition, then made our way around to the Guildhall, a well-known music and drama school. Nadine enquired about practice space, and we checked out some music/dance rehearsals. We stopped back at the Centre for a bite at the cafe, before heading back to the Museum of London.

Unfortunately half of the museum is under construction/renovation, so we only got to see the story up to the Great Fire of 1666. It was family day, so there wasn't a lot of space to move around. We came back out into the post-rain sunshine, and headed back toward the West. Nadine headed home for a rest while Brad and I continued along the Victoria Embankment toward Covent Garden, where I had arranged to meet up with fellow Canuck Allan and his partner in crime CeCe.

Along the way Brad and I stopped in at Somerset House, another gallery, that had a great exhibition that was relevant to our work. It was about school design, and getting kids involved in the process. The project I had rushed to finish before heading to London, was incidentally, a secondary school ground.

We came to Covent Garden, and I realised that, though I had walked through the area marked as such on the map, I hadn't really been to Covent Garden before. The main square (the garden itself) is like a big open air market, with little alleyways feeding into it. At the Underground station, Allan and CeCe eventually emerged, and asking where we ought to go, it was CeCe, the Brit, who suggested The Maple Leaf, a Canadian pub. Fine by us. I hadn't yet been there.

The Maple Leaf is a great museum of Canadiana sterotypica. There is a stuffed black bear in a glass case, poutine on the menu, and Canadian sports memorabilia adorning the walls. Nadine joined us, and we ordered our food, which took ages to arrive it seemed. The time was passed with conversation, reminiscing about Kipling, where all but CeCe had been for Kyle and Dom McDonald's Housewarming Party (the biggest in Saskatchewan's history). On the TV, Gordie Johnson played O Canada on his double-neck SG to kick off the previous night's Hockey Night In Canada game between the Leafs and the Devils. As we ate, the gentle voice of Don Cherry aided our digestion. Again CeCe was the only one really interested in the game.

Allan and CeCe had to rush off to a play, and soon after paying our Hamiltonian server, Brad, Nadine and I were on our way as well. Brad had boasted about having his first London celebrity sighting whilst fetching Nadine. He couldn't think of her name, and attempted to describe her. Eventually we realised it was Adele, an English singer with a current chart-topping song in the UK.

At Caffe Nero I got the last three stamps I needed for a free drink. We sipped our hot chocolates and watched the London evening go by. Soon it was time for me to head back onto the Tube to catch my bus back to Bristol. It had been a very full two days in Londontown. I was happy that, along with seeing friends, I was able to see things and places I had not yet seen. I would end up back in London sooner that I had expected.

Cheers.

Photo credit: Brad