London Cheese

London did not disappoint; it rained all of the ten days I was there. Upon arrival, I was presented with Pecorino Romano that Alain had bought in Rome, vacuum packed and saved. Four cheeses from Rotterdam followed. Two cow, two goat. The most delicious chewy bread with chocolate had been brought from Paris on the Eurostar that very morning, and it took us all week to get to the sausages from Spain, little sweet waffles, and the densest and yummiest cake known to man.

We did a few other things besides eat. Like attend a seven-hour play: Angels in America. Amusing for the first three hours. Enough said. We were VIPs at a Formula 1 Grand Prix. When we sat down in the shmancy VIP tent to eat our shmancy VIP food where the monitors were blaring with the race, Alain asked the waitress if she would mind turning the TV off. We eventually made our way out to the track and watched, um, maybe ten minutes before being tempted away by the free massages, ice cream, and salsa band.

We also went to a contemporary dance show at Saddlers Wells Theater http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/DANCE. Each routine consisted of over 20 dancers whose movements were so interesting and to such great music that we were shocked to find we had been watching for an hour and a half when they took their final bow.

During the week, Alain worked, and I stayed home while it rained and rained. I wrote stories and drank tea and then, when the sun came out for a few hours, I walked around and ogled at old buildings and made friends with the booksellers (I was even offered a job at The Children's Bookshop!) and poked my head into libraries.

I cried when I left. Cried on the tube and right on through the announcement to "mind the gap".