Portsmouth & more dinner dates

We're in the eye of the visitor season.

Last week, we had dinner with my cousin, Sarah, on Wednesday night. Then dinner with another set of cousins, Ed & Kathy, on Friday night. On Monday night, we dined with Randall & Deb Maupin, parents of our high school friend, Emily.

That brings the total to 12 visitors in the past 4 months (I think).

Ed & Kathy had found a terrific restaurant in the Notting Hill area online. None of us had been there before. The website claimed Mediterranean, but, after dinner, none of us could find a strong Mediterranean influence on anything we'd eaten. That didn't mean it wasn't yummy, though.

An early dinner meant we almost had the place to ourselves

This was the second time Ed & Kathy took us out to dinner since our move. The last time, however, was about a month after we'd arrived. The recent riots were still on our mind, along with a multitude 'new in town' fears. The tone of Friday's conversation was much different, now that London is home. Even travelling to the restaurant was different; last time, we got lost - this time, we knew exactly where the restaurant was and enjoyed a stroll around Notting Hill on our way. Instead of telling them everything that's new, different, and scary, we got to update them on Kenz's school, my work, and get an update on what they'd done on vacation. It was a delightful evening.

Ed never met a stranger. He befriended the maitre d before we'd even shown up.

None of us expected a 'white tablecloth' restaurant, either. 

We must've spent three hours at the table - a testament to the quality of food and company.

I tried to get a picture of Ed's hat, but the lighting was horrible...

...so I snuck this pic in the taxi back to their hotel. 

We met up with the Maupins at their hotel - the Hotel Russell, near Euston Station, on Monday. Whenever I travel past the hotel on a bus, I'm always sure to look out the window. The hotel reminds me of my favorite building in London: St. Pancras Station. I'm not much of an architecture guy, so for me to point out how cool a building is must mean something. They said the inside of the hotel was just as cool as the outside.

Randall & Deb had been on an 18-day semi-retirement vacation. They told us all about it as we strolled down to a Byron burger place (I'd assumed they would be ready for something other than fish'n'chips by the time they got to London; I was right). Their trip had taken them all over the place; I don't think they stayed in one town for more than two nights. It was cool to hear stories of the warmhearted Irish, their visits with in-laws, and a few recommendations of places for us to visit along the way.

It was a shame that Emily couldn't join us for dinner - she's busy teaching English in Taiwan. Kenz and I did note, though, how similar Emily and her mother are in mannerisms and speech (which is a compliment to both of them).

Yet another 3 hours of visiting that felt like 30 minutes! 

I've had several people email me, astounded, at the amount of visitors we've had. The common thread is that having so many visitors would wear us out. I've maintained that it isn't the case - having people visit is a fun way to stay connected as well as show people our new city.

BUT

Kenz and I had an experience this weekend that may have given me some insight as to what everyone has been saying:

I'd been invited to Portsmouth for a speaking engagement on this past Sunday. Kenz and I hadn't really visited Portsmouth before, so we decided to make a weekend of it. Monday was a holiday in the UK as well, so we assumed it'd be good to be out of London and away from all the tourists. I booked us a room in a little hotel that had a 'garden' in the back (the hotel was an old, converted house). We hopped on the train early Saturday morning.

Luckily, we left from Waterloo Station, which is only 15 minutes from our place.

Kenz wasn't really 'up' yet.

Kenz was pretty interested in the hovercraft, but we didn't do it.

We dropped our bags at the hotel and headed out to stroll around town. We hadn't done much research on the best things to do in town, but we'd gotten some recommendations from locals on where to walk. Our hotel was, luckily, less than a ten minute walk from the 'beach'.

We walked along the shore for about an hour. We stopped and toured Southsea Castle for a bit, eventually finding a place to eat right beside the water.

Kenz over ordered, as per usual

We must've sat outside for an hour, reading, soaking up the sun, and, of course, eating. I got a farmer's tan on my arms - it was the first time I'd worn a short-sleeve shirt outside since August.

The Portsmouth Coat of Arms is everywhere around the city. 

On our walk, we'd seen a sign marking the 'Naked Cycle Route', and noted that it was happening that day - and not long after lunch. We decided to read in the park while we waited...

By the time we'd forgotten why we were waiting, we heard the horns. Then saw the police escorts. And then the string of 30-40 or so naked cyclists, the youngest of which was probably 45. A heavily sausaged train of bicyclers rode past us carrying flags and signs representing various causes, none of which I was all that familiar with. There were air horns and cheers, but the overall effect was pretty underwhelming. We did appreciate the novelty of it.

I'd taken lots of pictures on a real camera while we were down there, but I forgot to upload them to my computer this morning. As a result, I'll have to add some of those pictures at a later date. Allow this statue of Henry VIII (from Southsea Castle) to substitute for the time being:

Portsmouth is steeped in WWII history. I could write 10K words on that topic alone. I'll save you in order to get back to my original point:

As I mentioned, we had planned on spending these two days in Portsmouth really doing the city - visiting museums, taking lots of walks, possibly laying out on the 'beach' (the beach is just a bunch of rocks), etc.

But, when we got back to check into our hotel room at about 4pm, Kenz and I had one of those moments: neither of us knew that the other was thinking the same thing - both of us were willing to go back out and tour the town, but both of us really preferred to just sit and veg out in the back garden of the hotel room. We looked at each other, sheepishly, in the same moment, saying, 'ok, so what do you want to do, because...I mean...I could just...stay...here?'

It was a relief for both of us to find out we were on the same page. We spent the rest of the weekend sitting, reading, eating, and sleeping. Between work, end-of-the-semester school, and visitors, neither of us had taken a breath to realize just how tired we were. On Sunday night, I went to sleep at 7:30 and slept for 12 hours. I can't remember the last time I did that.

So - to those of you who have said that you'd be drained with our lifestyle - maybe you're right! Maybe we just haven't been paying attention. It doesn't mean we're going to stop any time soon - we've got yet another visitor showing up next Friday - but, your point has been taken.

Luckily, there was a restaurant in the hotel itself - we literally didn't leave the hotel for the rest of the weekend.

And it had good food to boot (even though we'd've probably eaten there either way).

This was Kenz's spot all day Sunday. She didn't move. And she finished an entire book. 

Random photo break:

All the kids wear uniforms; this shop is just around the corner from our house - I'd never noticed the sign before.

I saw the fox this morning! 

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend.

Mayfair at Burgess Park, among other things...

Kenz had a group project this semester. The group decided that part of their project was going to involve the community - engaging with them somehow. Luckily, I'd seen that our neighborhood park, Burgess Park, was having a Mayfair event and were soliciting involvement. Kenz got in touch with the coordinator and they were booked in. The entire event was being put on by the Friends of Burgess Park, which is a neighborhood volunteer organization. 

I had work to do that morning, so it wasn't until the early afternoon that I got out to visit the event. 

The static hot air balloon (a fav with the kids)

Kenz (and her group) learned a lot from putting on their exhibit - specifically what not to do. She maintained an exceptionally good attitude the entire day, despite the fact that just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Weather was bad in the morning. The wind blew half of their materials away. Folks showed up late. The first half of the event was simply underwhelming. However, in the afternoon, the sun came out, people came out, and the group finished on a high note.

They had three separate stations

Alejandra was investigating how drawing one's first home sparked memories that had been since forgotten

Another few group members had strangers come draw on top of their drawings. 

I took a crack at drawing the house I grew up in. Notice that the final drawing is not pictured; Kenz is the one in art school, after all, not me. 

Alejandra had stayed over at our place the night before. She and Kenz were up until well past 1am, baking cupcakes to hand out (bait to get people over to their station, really) and finishing their 'books'. The exhibits at the Mayfair were only part of their project. They've each also developed 7 copies of a book, representing the type of work they've been doing on this project. Kenz's is about the structural and decorative elements of southeast London Architecture. Her book is over 1,000 photographs of various architectural and ornamental elements on buildings around town. It covers everything from doors to windows to things I never knew had a name (like keystones and cartouches). It's impressive.

One of her inspirations was this website, which allows the visitor to explore where the bombs landed during the Blitz. You can see in the link that a building right next to ours was hit by two bombs, as well as Burgess Park and Kenz's school. Apparently Camberwell (as well as most of south London) suffered massive damage because the pilots discarded all of their 'leftover' bombs once they were finished with their mission in order to lighten the load for the flight back. It's mind bending to think about.

As a result, southeast London has a wide range of buildings and ornamentation. Some of it dates waaay back, while other stuff is from the '60s, '70s,and '80s.

I eventually strolled around to look at the other booths.

This park historian had lots of cool old pictures

I quickly realized there weren't many other booths I was interested in. I got a lot of pamphlets for various community groups, complete with a conversation about what their group does and how I can become a part of it. None really piqued my interest. Maybe if I'd planned on living here for good I'd join the 'save the Peckham train station' group or some other one equally as specific, but, alas, I'm not devoting my hours to that any time soon.

There was a petting zoo as well.

Kenz had taken her sculpture to the event. It's about eight or nine pieces, the biggest of which could function as a full-sized bookshelf. She called me at the end of the day to help her bring it back. It's a ten minute walk without carrying anything, but with a bookshelf on your shoulder, the walk feels like an hour. Neither of us were enjoying ourselves. I even had a passer-by say, 'good luck, mate'.

All in all, I think it was a success for her. She finished the project yesterday with a group presentation on their project, books, exhibition, etc. She's happy to be done with it, and has spent much of today asleep.

Random photo break:

Kenz finally dismantled her Diet Coke chair

The veggies are in full force! Carrots, tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini (aubergine), beets, and a fridge full of lettuces.

The Waiting Room is a funny little coffee shop in Deptford

Super old Rover

Approaching street performers from behind in Leicester Square

Waiting on the post office to open

Enjoying the erratic weather

A made for tv HBO movie coming out in cinemas over here

Charlie Chaplin grew up in Walworth - our part of town

I caught Mom'n'Tom on FaceTime while they were walking the streets of Santa Fe, NM. 

Kenz took this pic - a glass hearse with a coffin in it headed down the road

She found the fox again, too

And she took the rare photo of me

Visitor update:

My cousin, Sarah, emailed me on Monday morning, saying she'd just been told she'd be in London on Tuesday and Wednesday. One of the perks/downsides of being a superstar lawyer - you get flown over an ocean at a moment's notice. We organized to get together for dinner on Wednesday night. 

It was thoroughly enjoyable to get to hang with Sarah. We picked her up at her (awesome) hotel and began what we thought would be a ten minute walk to the Mexican restaurant we like. We were all in good spirits on the way, chatting it up. Sarah and I grew up hanging out every Christmas - Tom's side of the family would all get together the day after Christmas for about four or five days at a time. This was tradition for, like, my entire childhood - from about five years old until I graduated high school. Now the family is too big to fit in one place, and most of the 'kids' have kids of their own, so it's hard to get everyone together all at once. These days, we really only get to hang out if someone's getting married. 

So, we had a lot to catch up on. And that was good because the restaurant had an hour-long wait. Scoffing, I didn't even wait to see if Kenz and Sarah wanted to put their name down before I was out the door. We walked for another five minutes, stopped in another restaurant. Hour. No way. Another restaurant. Forty minutes. Nope. Move along. We crossed the river on a footbridge that had Sarah thinking she'd been on it once before when she visited in college. Another restaurant. Hour. We put our name down and promptly left, thinking if we didn't find another place, we could always just come back. 

After about an hour of walking, we ended up at the second location of our original restaurant. We decided to wait the 40 minutes there - Kenz had reached her limit with the walking around and I think Sarah was just being polite by that point. 

Kenz isn't the only one I'll photograph while eating. Salmon, avocado,  and onion on a tostada.

Sarah lives in NYC, so it was cool for us to compare notes on living in a big city. Discussions of square footage, public transportation, teaching 'hometown visitors' how to get around in the city, and acceptable walking pace ensued. We updated each other on various branches of the family, what our current 'plans' are for the future, what work life is like, etc.

All great fun.

Whereas it was a delightful surprise, three hours together simply wasn't enough. Our hope is that Sarah will get more advance notice next time and stay the weekend with us.

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!