My apologies for the long gap in posts.  Somehow with all the travelling and work, plus difficulty in internet access I have not had time.  I have so many blog ideas in my head, so I start a post and get distracted with something else….they are all lined up for completion.  I have to make a start somewhere, so here is the account of our London trip 14th October 2012.


Southerners are strange people.  To the rest of the world who visit London they represent “English”  but they are not English at all.  

First of all they talk funny. They use rounded vowels instead of the normal flat sounds that we “proper” English use. They say “Hayse” instead of “Howse”  for house.  When did the “o” become an “a”? and they say “baath” (as in the noise that sheep make) instead of bAth)

Secondly they have funny ways of describing meals, dinner is called “lanch” and tea is called “dinner” or the even more pretentious “supper”… or rather “sapper”  ( when did the “u become an “a”)…  and the other thing is they say THE all the time…. so unnecessary!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzNDM2ekSio

Anyway this morning I woke up and for a few minutes I didn’t know where I was.  Bolton, Paris, Birmingham, Boston now London.  I have been waking up in so many different places recently.

Michael and I, arrived yesterday by train.  Actually we could have been in a foreign country because I don’t think we heard  AngloEnglish spoken till we got to the hotel.  the Best Western Premier Shaftsbury, near Earls Court tube station.  We have stayed here before in March and it is very conveniently situated for getting about London as the Piccadilly and District lines cross here…. and a very nice hotel in a typical Edwardian London street.

http://www.bestwestern.co.uk/Hotels/Shaftesbury-Kensington-Hotel-London-83867/Hotel-Info/Default.aspx

The first afternoon we hung out around Covent Garden, watching the street performances and people watching the tourists.  We were enticed to the London Comedy club by a very nice lady giving out flyers in the street, where we spent an entertaining evening laughing at the four stand up comedians on the bill.

The day after we had a ride on the 74 bus to Chelsea harbour.  Here we actually found  English people, Londoners, albeit very posh ones, looking around the Design centre for expensive furniture and fabric for thier very expensive houses.

You would need a very strong house to support this marble bath!

We strolled around outside the ultra modern exterior

..and we popped into the Wyndham Grand Hotel, which is a nice place to stop for tea, overlooking the harbour.

Some good people watching.

No trip to London is complete without shopping so Monday afternoon was spent on Oxford street, buying a winter “capsule wardrobe”  and in  the evening we saw ” Cabaret” at the Savoy theatre. With Will young and Michelle Ryan

I had never seen Cabaret before and didn’t realise it was such a dark and sinister story about the decadence of Berlin in the 1930’s and the rise of the Nazis.  The show does not exactly leave you with a feel good factor.  Will Young as the nightclub owner, was very good, but could not quite hide his niceness playing this very sleazy character of   and Michelle Ryan as Sally Bowles, the  does not have the passion of  Judy Garland.  Still we enjoyed the show, all part of the London experience.

To be continued, tomorrow I go to Kensington Palace.

Love Denise