Another lovely London weekend

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Properly gray and rainy, yet thought provoking and full of beauty. We had a wonderful dinner at the Fat Badger, were chased by an adorable rat along the Thames, wandered among Henry Moore sculptures and gorgeous foliage at Kew Gardens, went out in Soho - twice, saw the Crack and a Louise Bourgeois retrospective at Tate Modern... We laughed, we cried, it were better than Cats!

Cab-Free Clubbing

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

After a couple years in the neighborhood, Steven & I finally paid a visit to Neighbourhood: a great venue with excellent music and a fun crowd. Since it couldn’t be closer to home, we can kiss those $50 weekend cab fares from Soho and Vauxhall goodbye! We say gay-schmay: now, it’s all about the mix.
Today was grey and gloomy. Except right around dusk the sky turned the prettiest shade of lavender.

South Bank Saturday

Steven & I had one of those amazing "only in London" days. After the best coffee in town, we took our time wandering in all the Portobello Market arcades. It's just astonishing what's for sale there. Then we walked up Golborne Road to Harrow Road (where they thought some of the suicide bombers were on Friday) and along the Grand Central Canal to Paddington. We had lunch at Beiruit Express on Edgware Road, followed by a stoll through Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens. We met up again after Steven's workout and hopped in a taxi to the Tate Modern for the Herzog & de Meuron and Frida Kahlo exhibits. We then made our way along South Bank and across the Hungerford Pedestrian Bridge to Soho, where we did a bit of a bar crawl, had a David Schwimmer sighting, and ate our supper at Boheme. BTW, David's kinda short.
Jubilee Bridge & St. Paul's
Book stalls
Hungerford Bridge
Big Ben
The Eye & Parliament

Weekend 1, Part One

We wound up not going to the Stella Artois Championships. After supper at home last night we did go to Barcode, where it was rather crowded and the boys were quite frisky. Then we took the 94 Night Bus back to Holland Park Avenue.

Barcode
Waiting for night bus

Today Steven went to the gym and then came home to take a nap. I went to meet Suzette and her sister Rachel at the Tate Britain because Steven said the Turner Prize short-list work was there. Turns out it wasn't. Niether were Suzette & Rachel, who were at the Tate Modern. Taking advantage of the perfect excuse, I hopped the Damien Hirst-designed Tate to Tate boat. After lunch, on the way to Waterloo Station, we passed a procession of hundreds of naked bicycle riders. I had to force myself to stop ogling and take a couple of pictures.

Naked cyclists
More naked cyclists

Day One

Last time I locked myself out on day one. This time I shaved off my eyebrow. Kath (who saved me last time) suggested that I never attempt to do anything on day one. I won't get into the details. It's a man thing. OK, maybe it's a gay man thing...

I went to switch my phone from pay-as-you-go to monthly service and wound up getting a whole new phone. It's a fancy expensive phone that came free with an 18-month contract. Sorry friends in America, but now I have to stay at least 18 months. I also tried to spend some of the £70 in coins that I found in various nooks & crannies around the "flat": 7-day subway thingie; charger for my Palm; glass kitchen canisters at the Bodum store...

Around 5 I was in Soho trying to find a place I could get a pint and still feel OK with my one brow (the left one). Called Kath, who told me to call Craig. I met him at his office on Noel Street and we walked up Marylebone Road, through Regent's Park to Camden Town, where we met Kath. We had tapas at a place called El Parador. Not bad, but Moro is super-duper delicious (though considrably pricier). My idea originally was that nobody would look at me funny in Camden Town, but El Parador wasn't that kind of place -- I had to remove the gigantic brow-obscuring sunglasses and people were staring.