Monday August 23, 1982 – London Barbecue
I went for a
run this morning but had to cut it short as my ankle was playing up again. We
caught a bus up to Oxford Circus after breakfast. Matt and Rab sat right in
front and enjoyed the views – the consensus was that travel by bus beats going
on the Tube.
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| A safari suit! Cool or what? |
Having
de-bussed we window shopped up Oxford
Street with a side trip into New Bond Street. Incredible prices – one
that I can remember was a safari suit for £295.00!! (For those who may not know what a safari suit is, it was a cool poplin
or cotton loose jacket worn with shorts or long trousers – and no shirt in India
and Africa although the Australians tended to wear a shirt and tie under the jacket, which
rather negated the design.) Despite the price some of the goods displayed were far
from attractive, although they might well have been fashionable. I find this
kind of day trip very tiring and a little boring but Rab loves it. We landed up
at Selfridges, an enormous department store that we had never really heard of.
We didn’t spend long there although the toy department was huge.
The day was
getting pretty hot and the shops were also too warm for comfort. We had lunch
in a restaurant in Regent Street
which was OK but nothing special for £11.50. after lunch we split up. Matt and
I went to the British
Museum and Rab went on
her way for more window shopping on her way to the National Gallery. We only
had a couple of hours at the Museum as Matt was flagging, but as was the case
on every visit I made I loved what I saw – Ancient Britain this time. (One of the consequences of this particular
trip was to realise just how much guesswork there is in archaeology – and most
science! What focussed my attention on that issue was the magnificent Roman
shield which was part of a hoard that had been unearthed. I couldn’t get over
how well it had been preserved - at
least until I looked more closely at the exhibit and saw the very small rusted
fraction of the original and realised that the shiny shield that had caught my
attention was largely a figment of the imagination – what it might well have
looked like!)
Tuesday August 24, 1982 – London
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| One of the 'regulars' I met on my run |
Up bright
and early on a dull morning. I didn’t run this morning though because this
darned ankle of mine is quite painful after all the walking of the last couple
of days. I nipped along to buy a zoom lens for my camera at a very reasonable
price – can’t wait to use it now. (I had
a Pentax Spotmatic and loved that camera. I wanted the zoom lens for shots of
wild life on Lake
Kariba especially.)
John A-S (the travelling insurance director of a
large international mining group who I had met on his last visit to Zimbabwe)
was meant to pick us up at 10.45 so we just sat around reading the newspapers
until then. Mrs Quin, who we have found is the housekeeper not the char came in to tidy up and she
and Rab were soon chatting away like old pals. We were just going down to wait
for John when he called to say that he had been held up and would be about half
an hour late.
So we duly
trooped down just before 11.15 and waited and waited and waited…Not a great
start. Rab wasn’t looking forward to the outing anyway being not too keen on
John and I wasn’t charmed about standing on the pavement in a drizzle. We did
have a good laugh at some of the passing sights while we were waiting, but it
was still annoying. At 11.45, now an hour late, I had just decided to go back
to the flat to try to find out what was going on. Of course, no sooner had I
got up there than he arrived, full of apologies about the traffic. As Matt
said, though, when we got home this evening, it was hardly surprising thst he
took a long time because even he could see that John could have taken a much
more direct route.
We got to
his house in Bromley at about 12.45 and met the family. His wife Jacquie is
very pleasant. Their three daughters all reminded us of little mice on pipe
stem legs but Matt had a good time with them. John had suggested on the phone that we might
have a barbeque – very original, said Rab (since
we come from barbecue country) – and that is what we had despite the
cloudy, windy conditions with occasional scattered showers. I stayed inside for
as long as I decently could, talking to the ladies, while John made the fire,
but I finally thought I should join him.
Matt was
having a great time in the garden with the girls and their Labrador
pup Ollie. We had heard frfom Jacquie about the barbecue which John had built
so it was a bit of a disappointment to find that it was just a two foot square
brick box about four bricks high. When I got there he had a couple of sticks
burning away in this, covered by seven large potatoes in foil and was trying to
cook chicken pieces on a grill in the warm air which managed to get past the
potatoes. One stick was flaring every now and then so he kept shifting bits of
chicken onto the flame to brown them.
After a
while he moved the chicken bits and put on the sausages, some of which were
badly burned by the flames and others of which were warmed up a little. He made
no attempt to turn the potatoes which of course landed up being burned on one
side and raw on the other. By the time he came to put the steak on, I suggested
(breaching barbecue protocol which
requires non-interference in another man’s barbecue) that he might take the
potatoes off, which he did. That was the saving grace really because he managed
to cook them a little and then put all the rest of the meat on again to warm it
up. The chicken wasn’t on long enough to cook but at least most of the sausages
lost their pallour. Rab’s face was a picture when she and Jacquie came down the
garden to inspect the cooking.
We had a
very happy time though, even if the food was not too good. After lunch the kids
disappeared upstairs and rehearsed a play for us – and what a laugh it was.
They put on Cinderella with Matt taking the part of the stepmother, the fairy
and an ugly sister. Debbie was Cinderella, Sarah was Prince Charming (inclusive
of Adam Any make-up!) and Rickie had a cameo part as a horse. I took a couple
of shots – hope they come out.
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| The Cast of Cinderella in London |
We got back
home about half past five and just watched TV.
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