I See London, part 2

Tuesday:

Google London, Shakespeare Globe: Theater Tour & Match Stick Girl, Dinner (Indian) Tayyab’s & Alex Horne Show

Ken had a meeting and some work to wrap up so I 'allowed' it as long as he took me into the office with him to see this cool work space he kept describing. Those stairwells look like they could just switch around like the ones in Hogwarts and, like every Google office I've been in, there is such creative decor and details to see. They even have a kitted-out band room, because of course they do.

St. Paul's Cathedral

The Globe Theatre

In 1994 when I was going to school, this replica of The Globe Theatre was just being built. It's a genuine attempt to put Shakespeare's works in their physical context so audiences can get the full effect. If you are reading/listening closely, you can see mention in his various works of the theatre's attributes. Absolutely fascinating!

Unfortunately performances here don't start until the end of April. But we were lucky enough to see part of a rehearsal during our tour of the theatre itself. Hamlet is first up this season. 
To be or not to be....

They do have an indoor theatre replica that staged smaller plays of the time. It's mostly lit by candle light on giant chandeliers. In this picture not all of them are even lit. They are beeswax candles like they were back in the day so that sweet earthy smell would waft over us throughout the performance of a collection of Hans Christian Andersen stories. While well-staged and well-acted, anyone who knows his stories is familiar with how sinister and dark they actually are. Ah well.

Bankside on the Thames, across from St. Paul's Cathedral

London Eye or as Dave P says, the 'giant bicycle wheel'

For dinner we headed to an Indian Restaurant that had lots of buzz in the White Chapel called Tayyabs. The food was better than average but the ambiance left a little to be desired. No matter, one of the aims of this trip was to also sample food and restaurants that we would never get a chance to in the US or with kids in tow. Ken found a late comedy show for us to go to just a block away where we were staying in Soho. It was a practice/run-through for comedy special that a talented musical comedian Alex Horne and his band were due to record a week later. They are hilarious and remind me a little of the 'Flight of the Conchords' with more people and more polish.

Wednesday:

Duck & Waffle Breakfast, Exploring the City of London, Bank of England Field trip

Musical: Chicago Matinee, Dinner Berners Tavern

Duck and Waffle does serve a cooked duck leg with a waffle but you can also go for something a little more traditional as I did. I'm not much into #foodporn or taking photos of food. But this deserved an exception. D&W is also on the 40th floor of a steel and glass building in The City which is the financial district of London with tall buildings and serious people walking around in suits.

Duck & Waffle

I guess this is art? 

Leadenhall Market

The Gherkin

I was really looking forward to seeing Chicago since I liked the movie so much and it just opened in London after a several year absence. Bottom line though: They can't all be good. Especially when you build your show around a charismatic guy who can't sing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Berners Tavern

What Americans call a 'tavern' would be what Brits call a pub but this was no dive. I discovered it on a list of good restaurants with notable interiors. It did not disappoint on any level. Who knew you could brine pork chops or make a pork pie in the shape of a bread loaf or make a creme brûlée with rhubarb or use bacon fat-washed whiskey in a cocktail? Impeccable food, great atmosphere and warm, friendly service from everyone.

Thursday:

Notting Hill & Portobello Road, Guided Tour of Parliament & Afternoon Tea, Play that Goes Wrong, Late Dinner: Spanish Tapas at Barrafina

Notting Hill/Portobello Road: Famous shopping street for little boutiques and antiques in a cute neighborhood

Until about 2 years ago, I wouldn't have had much interest in touring Parliament but with the machinations of our current government and a blossoming understanding of civics in the US, I was very keen to see how the Brits govern themselves. It is fascinating to see how the monarchy transitioned into a Parliamentary government (spoiler: by accident and/or laziness on the part of the sovereign). But we got to stand in the room where the Queen puts her 24 ft robe on before she officially opens Parliament each year and walk the same steps as she would to the House of Lords. Portraits, statues and gothic revival architectural style. Big Ben or rather the tower holding Big Ben was under repair. [Trivia bit: Big Ben is actually the name of the bell inside the clock tower.] Sadly, it doesn't look as impressive.

"Look kids, Big Ben."

We had better luck with our evening entertainment: Play that Goes Wrong which is like another one of my favorite physical comedy/slapstick play-within-a-play construct 'Noises Off'. We laughed so much and thoroughly enjoyed this play. It's also on Broadway and is touring to limited US cities. If you ever come across it, you must go.

Barrafina on the same street as our AirBnB. Always crowded. Amazing food.

To Be Continued...Part 3

I See London, part 1

It's no secret that London is one of my most favorite cities in the world. The theater scene alone is unrivaled. But one of the things I love most about it is that it's a very old city that built up over the centuries. The old and the new co-exist all at once and you can see it everywhere. 

Also you're hard pressed to find a street that runs truly straight or doesn't rename itself past any random intersection. 

Navigating the city via surface streets can be a challenge (in the early 90's I only used a small book of maps called A to Z --no cellphone, no GPS) but the very best part is how all the curved and angled streets create alleys, passages and corridors around every corner. So just walking around the city--even on a habitual route--you're bound to see something new every time. I really missed that. 

Our trip wasn't the first time I've been back since the college days but it was significant that I spent a solid week there. Ken had already been in London for a week for work by the time I arrived, so he spent a total of 2 weeks there. My goals for this trip were to see a variety of theater shows, eat well, cover some touristy (and not so touristy) things I'd missed during previous trips and just reconnect with the city again. I'm happy to say that all the boxes got checked.

Sunday: 

Arrival, Soho/Leister Square Wanderings, Shake Shack

As expected, Soho is swarming with tourists and the West End Musical shows are all located here. Great energy and easy access to food and entertainment. We chose to get an AirBnB in this area due to it's centrality but next time I think I'd opt to stay in one of the quieter neighborhoods. Nevertheless, the area was buzzing and there was no mistaking that I was not in Seattle anymore. (Except for the rain. That was very familiar.)

Monday:

Droitwich Spa, visiting Stella & visit Hanbury Hall

The connection I have to the UK was also rooted in people. American students I met/lived with, media folk from all over whom I worked with at CBS and especially an elderly British couple (Betty & Ron) out of SW England. They were friends of my step-aunt & step-uncle and I unofficially adopted them as surrogate grandparents.

During my college year in London, I spent both Christmas and Easter holidays with them at their home which was a 2 hour train ride from London. When Ken and I took our fateful European trip in 2004 (during which we got engaged), we stayed with them for a few days before moving on to Italy. The last trip Ron & Betty took to America was in 2005 to Oregon for our wedding. Ron passed in 2009 and Betty died in 2014. Their estate was settled by Betty's cousin, Stella, and we began corresponding a little. She was focused on her solemn task and was very kind to me, an American woman she'd seen in a few pictures but never met. I told her that one day we'd come to visit. 

So finally we made good on that promise. Stella lives NW of London near Birmingham. We'd never been to her town (Droitwich Spa) which used to have salt mines and famous spas. Both are now obsolete but it's a charming town that seems to rarely see tourists and especially Americans. Our accents stood out and hung ungracefully in the air like the dance moves of a rhythmless, awkward teenager. But other than that it was delightful. She took us around the town to the church she was married in, where she & her family once owned a mechanic shop, her new home flat, to the shopping center, a historical manor & gardens and to a restaurant with great fish and chips. We also got to meet some of her grandkids who now live in Australia but were visiting. Lively conversation at dinner about the differences between English, Australian & American terms for things. That day was a definite highlight of our UK trip.

A Catholic church with detailed mosaic inlay. Also where Stella was married.

Remembering Betty

Dinner with Stella & her visiting Australian grandkids, Lauren & Alister.

Hanbury Hall & Gardens

That line on my head is a raindrop heading for ground.

Epic gardens but so glad I don't have to weed & water it!

To be continued....Part 2.

March For Our Lives, Fight For The Future

I grew up in the country. I grew up with guns. I had my own weapon when I turned 12 years old (a Daisy Multi-Pump BB Gun). It kinda looked like this:

I used it to shoot the pigeons in the barn. I was a decent shot. They would poop all over the hay bales that we'd store and sell to neighboring farmers and those birds had to be dealt with because no amount of netting or deterrents could keep them out of the barn. 

Everyone had guns where we lived. In fact when I went to high school, if you went out in the parking lot, you'd see the typical county-living stereotype of gun racks stacked with rifles in many truck rear windows. But we never heard of any incidents and no one was concerned. In college, guys I knew from all over the state brought their guns to school with them and we'd sometimes go shooting at a nearby quarry on weekends. They did have to register their handguns and rifles with the local police department but it was more of a formality. Again, I never heard of a shooting incident in the 4 years I was on campus in Pullman. This is all to say that I grew up around guns and felt comfortable living with them in my home, in my various communities and even around my schools as a young person and student. 

And even with all of that influence, how I felt about guns could best be summed up by: "Have them, don't have them. Whatever."

But the world has changed and so have I.

In 1999, a few years after graduating from college I found myself staying home from work with a cold on my couch watching cable TV. Suddenly breaking news cut in about a shooting in-progress at a high school in Colorado. 'Columbine' would soon become a household word and a euphemism for destruction of innocence and safety in the most violent and deadly manner. I watched that coverage all day and into the evening--horrified to consider that this was even an option of what could be done. 

A whole generation of kids have now grown up knowing what a mass shooting and an active shooter/lockdown drill are--some even know first hand what a gun sounds like when it fires inside their school. The most unlucky know the searing loss of family, friends, teachers, innocence...and the loss of feeling safe ever again.

I know that guns are tools and they can be used for good or ill. But this is different now. The access to guns is plentiful and the weapons are military-grade. I no longer live out in the country, and I now have children who are students themselves. The way I grew up--that time and place, that acceptance of being surrounded by guns without concern or action--is over. 

A machine that can kill people so easily must have tighter restrictions, the process to get a weapon must be more rigorous. The rules around them simply have to be shored up for all of our sakes. 

• Banning assault rifles/military grade weapons
• Banning high capacity magazines
• Raise the buying age to 21
• Expanded background checks
• No guns for abusers, mentally ill or violent criminals
• Ban anything that modifies an semi-automatic into a fully automatic

The world has changed and many people in this country, especially children, are needlessly dying because politicians, lobby organizations (NRA), gun manufacturers and zealous gun enthusiasts refuse to see it. So as Ken marches, I show up for Moms Demand Action. We keep calling to our Members of Congress and keep donating to gun reform groups. But most importantly, we never stop advocating so that our kids (and your kids) can live in this country with more safety and less fear from a preventable problem.

These are photos from the Seattle #MarchForOurLives Event that Ken attended on Saturday. Incredibly inspiring to see local folks, the big one in DC and all the national sister marches.

#Enough #NeverAgain #GunReformNow #GunSense #MomsDemandAction #Everytown

Dr. Jeremia Bernhardt & Ken (#MarchBros)

Gun Violence Community Forum with Rep. Jaypal and Awesome Local Teen Organizers

Today with other members of Central Seattle Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America, I attended a Town Hall featuring our WA-07 Congressional Representative Pramila Jayapal (progressive rockstar!) and a group of high school students who are organizing the March for Our Lives Rally & March next Saturday the 24th. It was a Gun Violence Community Forum and an opportunity to meet these local teens from Ballard, Roosevelt, Rainier Beach, Ingraham & Tahoma High Schools. Some of them were also instrumental in organizing the gun reform walkouts and other protest events earlier this week on March 14. But they each spoke about what made them want to step up and motivate others to call attention to and make gun law reform. 

These students fill my heart with such pride, determination and resolve. This engaged and articulate generation is going to rock our world--for the better.

They spoke about how they are sitting targets in their schools while many politicians, the gun lobby and the general public have traditionally done little to nothing to change that. They spoke about how the lockdown drills and false alarms at some of their schools have created a heightened anxiety in everyday student life. One spoke through tears about her younger autistic sister and how when stressed the little girl gets louder, not quieter. If a school lockdown situation arose and the young girl had to hide and keep quiet, she literally could not do it so the greatest fear is that she would be an easy, locatable target. 

One of the students mentioned how when she first heard of the Parkland shooting that she was numb and it was just another day in America, but something in her reached the breaking point. She watched her peers in Parkland rise up, use their voices and get vocal. This young woman, Scout Smissen, helped organize the event on March 14 where local students marched to Red Square at the University of Washington. She mentioned how some adults would have preferred if they had just observed 17 minutes of silence and returned to their classrooms, accepting and normalizing gun violence, but she said, it's more important that they get LOUD.

"Your right to own a gun should not override our right to live." 

There will be 4 million newly-minted voters in the 2018 election. Candidates need to be on the right side of history and right side of humanity if they wish to keep their jobs. Gun reform and gun sense is front and center.