Thursday, April 7, 2011
London England
Beautiful day, hot and sunny, and another day of Culture, some high and some low as it turned out. Leanne is up to her tailbone in board meetings and company events this week.
Jan and Tara made arrangements for tonight to have dinner and see a play, but I was being a party-pooper and opted out of the play. Maybe a mistake on my part, as the play was called 'Betty Blue Eyes' at the Novello Theater near Covent Garden. It was the story about a small village celebration of Liz II and Prince Phillip's wedding in 1947, and trying to deal with the severe austerity that existed in England (and the world, I guess, post WWII) at that time. In the end, the villagers ate 'spam' and kept the pig, Betty Blue Eyes, as a pet. Nice. But you know where 'Spam' comes from, don't you ..... It just wasn't their pig that was eaten.
I, choosing low culture instead of high culture, did a walkabout of Soho and nearby areas. Nothing bad happened, in fact nothing happened at all. I just covered a lot of ground on a warm late-spring evening, popping in to the odd pub along the way to capture the essence of the English view of life. In the Soho area, I was propositioned by both male and female pimps, which I didn't think was legal. They were offering men or women, whatever your perversion, equal opportunities for your particular tastes in vice. I didn't get as far as asking prices, as I didn't want to give them any encouragement at all. As it was, they pestered and followed me as I walked along saying 'no' at each step. 'Come on in', they said, 'no cost and no obligation, if you don't like what you see then you can leave'. Right, sure, you bet, thought I as I continued wandering. Eventually found my way to Picadilly Circus and caught the Number 22 bus which went along Old Kings Road past Imperial Way where I got off in front of The Southern Cross, an Aussi pub near Tara's home.
Tara phoned about then, she and Jan were out of the play and wondered where I was. They took a taxi to The Southern Cross where the three of us had another pint (Jan a Magner's cider) and then walked home.
Another wonderful and happy day.