The London Eye

 
 
 
 

This tourist attraction costs 15 pounds ($30) but is totally worth it because it gives an amazing view of the city and reveals its scope and size and history. The London Eye was actually being built during my previous visit to London in November 1999, and I remember sitting along the Thames, journaling, watching the cranes and being sad I wouldn't get to see the final product. But when I asked Nikhita if she'd mind going up, she was very happy to oblige, especially as she hasn't done it for four years.

"This is such a brilliant way to see London!" she kept exclaiming. "I can't believe I forgot how clever it is."

It was very helpful having a Londoner there to show me all of the sights. She pointed out Buckingham Palace (the photo that's a bit washed out but with the river leading straight through St. James Park to the palace); her workplace where she is a reporter for the Sunday Mirror; the various football (aka soccer) stadiums; the County House where rich people live and they have various exhibitions (right now it's Star Wars); and several other sights.

Earlier in the day we went to the Tate Modern art museum, which is simply fantastic (to quote N.) It was really great because it was free and the audio tour was only 2 pounds. Trust me, you need an audio tour for modern art. I saw wonderful sculptures and paintings in the modern, abstract, post-impressionist, cubist, futurist, vorticist and abstract expressionism styles. I was particularly impressed with a room where the curator placed a giant Monet water lily painting on one wall and surrounded it with three other paintings done about 40 years later by Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and ... and ... shoot, I've forgotten! But it was someone noteworthy. The point was to show how each of these three painters, who were revered for their new forms of artistic expression after the war, actually were inspired by Monet's impressionism. I also learned that the critics of his day (1916 and so on) actually disliked Monet's water lily paintings and dismissed them as "mere wallpaper" without form, perspective and function and that "they would look the same if they were hung upside down." Their genius wasn't actually discovered until Rothko, Pollock and others made waves with abstract expressionism and it became clear what a great debt was owed to Monet.

I could go on and on about all of the cool stuff in the Tate (which is an amazing building in and of itself) but will restrain myself now. :) I only wish my mom, and Corrie, and some of my other art loving friends could have been there with me.

It's also been so wonderful staying in London with Nikhita. Not only am I staying in a friend's home, but I'm with someone who has a car, who knows the city inside and out, and with whom I get the real scoop. She points out the clubs where the princes hang out and tells me all the "goss" about various celebrities (she gets it all in her job). It's also been nice seeing how real people live in the city and not just staying in a hostel or wandering around on my own with a guidebook (though I like doing that, too). Nikhita's new flat is in a neighborhood that is building itself back up in property value and reputation, and her adorable little place is on a courtyard that's simply bursting with English roses and plants. Apparently special needs adults tend the garden as part of a program, which is a wonderful benefit for the homeowners who live in the building.

We had fun yesterday running errands and fixing things up around her flat (she just moved in last week). Actually, Nikhita had errands to run in the morning and insisted I sleep in, which I did until 11:30 a.m. Ooops. Jet lag is alive and well. (I shorted myself on sleep last night, though, so I can get on schedule tonight). Then I lounged around her place watching the BBC and making breakfast and taking a shower and just not doing anything at all, which was actually a very refreshing change from the manic pace I've been living the last month or so. After Nikhita came home we went out to explore her new neighborhood and discovered the Purple cafe (I am sitting outside it now drinking tea and watching evening fall) and checked out some thrift stores that line the high street (aka main road). I was looking for a hair dryer and hair straightener with English plugs, but didn't find any yet. Sus tells me sadly that in England there's just no place like Unique (our Chicago favorite).

Then we went to pick up Nikhita's car from the dealer where she'd taken it in that mroning, and I had the surreal experience of sitting in a dealership in Surrey as people came in and out chatting with the clerks. Here's the surreal part: I couldn't understand most of what was said! My ears are still adjusting to the many Enlish accents and different words and I've realized I have to listen very closely to follow an entire conversation. I'll get there, though. Nikhita had to transact my train ticket buying today because I couldn't understand the British Rail woman over the phone and she couldn't understand me. She had a very strong Yorkshire accent, Nikhita said.

Nikhita does not know how to cook but is very keen to learn, so yesterday stopped at the grocery store to buy ingredients for what I call Dad Spaghetti and what she calls Spaghetti Bolognese. It was actually very tricky shopping and cooking because of how different everything is: It's not ground beef, it's minced beef. I don't set the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit for garlic bread, because it's in Celsius. In fact, I don't set the oven at all, because it is electric and controlled by all of these funny digital buttons with switches that make absolutely no sense to me. I have to get Nikhita to do it. I do adore, however, the creamy English butter. It made crafting garlic bread a simple joy. Anyway, I showed N. how to make the spaghetti, garlic bread and brownies (albeit from a mix) and she was enchanted and is telling everyone, "Stephanie taught me how to make spaghetti bolognese!" We had dinner with a friend of hers and the meal turned out very well, indeed, despite all of the differences in cookery (their word for cooking). I think I'm going to get a food column out of that experience!

So this post is now incredibly long and my fingers are actually starting to get cold as I sit outside. A purple fan labeled "Bushell's Removals" in bright yellow letters just drove by, horns honking. I have absolutely no idea what that means. There's so much I don't understand here, and I have been bombarding Nikhita with endless questions. "What does off license and fully licensed mean?" I ask as we pass convenience stores (they can sell liquor). "What's a congestion charge?" (an 8 pound fee you have to pay on an electric card to drive into Central London, though the nice man at the corner shop gave her a whole week's worth points for just 4 pounds). "What the heck is going on with the whole public/private school thing?" (Any parent who pays tuition for their kids to go school is sending them to a public school, although sometimes they'e called private schools. The free government schools are called "state schools." A public schoolboy is some privileged kid who attends a really posh school. Very, very odd). And etc.

Love to all from London. Tomorrow I head up to Nottingham, my home for the next 11 months! But Nikhita has assured me that I always have a place to stay in London whenever I want to visit. Bless her.