A Cold, Wet Monday

Yesterday, it was very Portland here in London. It rained on and off, it was chilly and grey, and Joyce and I spent four hours riding a tour bus around London seeing buildings and neighborhoods and parks and bridges. It was astonishing, then it was interesting, then it was overwhelming. London is so much bigger than Portland, not only in space, not only in population, but also in history. References in the narration on the bus ranged from "this is where Paul McCartney wrote "Yesterday"" to "this is where the Romans founded Londinium shortly after Jesus died". We got on assuming there would be a round trip of a couple hours, and when we hadn't gotten back to our starting point (Trafalgar Square, within sight of the Nelson Column and St. Martin-in-the-Fields) after almost four hours, we disembarked at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and caught a cab back to the hotel.

Black cabs are wonderful. You can get one with an iPhone app like Lyft's -- say you want a cab, the app finds you by GPS, and offers you several sizes of cab within single-digit minutes. The drivers are courteous without being servile. They navigate the maze of inner London streets with calm and The Knowledge, an intimate familiarity with how to get from point A to point B without having to consult a map or tune into a GPS. They calmly offer assistance with eveything from entering and exiting the cab (most black cabs have modestly higher thresholds than I'm used to) to convincing the credit card reader that we are indeed able to pay the fare. And, if asked, they can provide guidebook information about such things as the nose carved into the marble of a gate outside Buckingham Palace that has been rubbed smooth by horse guardsmen rubbing it in passing for good luck. (Its original purpose was to provide backup for sculptures whose original nose might by knocked off. That's what the cabbie said, and I have no reason not to believe him. Why else would there be a nose carved ten feet up the side of a marble arch?)

Last night, we saw a play presented in a low-tech theatre (candlelight only) with magnificent wood work. It was vaudeville plus exquisite puppetry based on four Hans Christian Anderson tales -- "The Little Match Girl plus Some Happier Tales". I was lukewarm at best about seeing it -- "Fairy tales? Give me a break! Where's the dark complex insights into the human condition?" -- but it was excellent. And the discussion afterward ranged all over the place -- great exchanges of insight and understanding.

Tonight it's the winner of the Best New Play Olivier Award, "The Ferryman". We'll have dinner at the Savoy Grill by Gordon Ramsey. And afterward another discussion session. Ain't life grand!