Are YOU Looking at ME?

Aline writes: It sometimes hits me how much I have adapted to life in the Big Smoke. For example, we went to Tunbridge Wells a few weeks ago, which is a short train ride from London. As soon as we walked out of the train station onto the High Street, I noticed that people seemed to be staring at me. Of course I asked Bill if I had anything in my teeth, but he assured me that I did not look unusually freaky. When I whispered to him that I thought people were staring, he confirmed my worst fears as we walked down the street. But what I finally realized is that people weren’t actually staring more than usual from a U.S. point of view, but only when compared to London behavior. People just don’t make eye contact when you walk down the streets in London. And this is especially true on the tube, where avoiding eye contact is mandatory behavior. It’s even documented in a hilarious website about tube rules.

This led me to my own little experiment on the tube: last week I rode the Bakerloo line with my iPod headphones in (a required accessory). It was during rush hour so all seats were taken. The woman across from me averted her eyes as expected. For 3 stops, I closed my eyes the majority of the time, only occasionally opening them. The 12 times I opened my eyes, the woman across from me was indeed looking at me every single time, but she managed to immediately avert her eyes on eye contact. Maybe my game was kind of mean, but I was fascinated by the results. It’s not that people don’t want to look at each other, but rather it’s a survival technique to deal with being crammed tightly in with total strangers in a metal casket hurling under the earth. It reminds me of Grommet when he hides his head under a blanket – even though his whole body shows, he assumes that no one can see him because he can’t see anyone. Stick in some headphones and don’t look at anyone – presto, you are alone!

More evidence on my adoption of tube etiquette? A few days ago Bill and I took 2 available seats on a tube train, but were separated by one person (as often happens). The woman actually offered to change seats with us so we could sit together. Let me make this clear: she spoke to us. This is the first time in nine months that anyone has ever spoken to me on a tube train, and let me tell you, was I surprised! It was actually quite shocking. I’m starting to wonder if I will seem incredibly anti-social when I get home. I’m sure all of you will let me know ☺

Whales...in London?

Aline writes: The big news here is a whale that has strayed into the Thames. Unfortunately, this seems to be more serious than Humphrey's foray into the SF Bay (remember that?). Since the Thames is tidal, there is a big chance that he will beach himself. Plus he is a bottle-nose whale who usually feeds at four times the depth of the Thames at high tide. Like the SF Bay, the Thames is fresh water, which will cause problems for him if he stays in more than several days. But it seems like the biggest danger is that no one here seems to have any idea how to rescue a whale, and they don't have the equipment needed to safely rescue him. So keep your fingers crossed - I wish they would call the Marine Mammal folks in SF to get advice!

Check out the pictures at the BBC.

Update: Well, they tried using a barge to move the whale back to the sea, but it died before it reached the drop-off point. So sad... :-(

Hidden London: The Memorial in Postman's Park

Bill writes: Hidden away in a tiny park tucked between King Edward Street, Little Britain, and Angel Street lies a most unusual memorial. The park, called "Postman's Park" because of its lunchtime use by workers from the old General Post Office, was turned into a memorial by the Victorian painter George Watts. A social radical, Watts wrote to the London Times in 1887, suggesting that a park be created as a memorial to those who had died attempting to save others. When the Times turned down his suggestion, he proceeded to create the memorial himself. The result is a row of covered benches set into a wall 50 feet in length. Along this wall are a series of Doulton tiles, each detailing a heroic act of lifesaving. What makes the tiles particularly affecting to read is that many of the tiles describe the actions of young children, many of whom died trying to rescue others.

The Californian Mudlarks

Bill writes: London Walks is an outfit here that presents a series of 2-hour long walks throughout London, for a mere 5 pounds a walk. One walk in particular sounded especially interesting, as we'd heard about it from our teacher Molly in our London Class--archeological beachcombing along the Thames. This is something that's gone on for many years, and those who do it are called "mudlarks."

So last week, Aline and I went to Tower Hill station, just outside the Tower of London. The weather was in the low 30's, not exactly the kind of beach weather we were used to, but on we went. The person leading the walk had been an archeologist with the Museum of London, so we were in good hands.

We walked past the Tower and the ice skaters.



We headed west along the Thames for a block and then, just behind Custom House, we all walked down past the pier to the narrow foreshore of the north bank of the Thames. (Now you can see why they're called mudlarks. Fortunately we found a very nice dry part of the shore.) Custom House is a good site, as products went through there for centuries and were often confiscated and dumped behind the building into the Thames. Plus, there was a Roman palace nearby, accounting for the roman remains found on the foreshore.



For thousands of years, junk has been tossed onto this spot or washed up on it as the river flowed past. Material setted down into the soft mud, was covered, and years or centuries later would be uncovered. This pattern has repeated itself for millenia, and about every two weeks material is uncovered, moves down the banks with the tides, and empties into the river.

Because of the action of the water against the rock, you can only find fragments and shards. Yet it's amazing the amount and variety of material that is laying exposed along the shore, particularly as you learn how to sort out the modern junk from the ancient. For instance, medieval bricks lay next to victorian ones. As you can see in the photo, one of the most common finds are the clay pipes, dating from around the beginning of the 1600's. The white pipes are the clay stems and the brick with the hole in the center is a medieval clay roof tile (the hole is where the tile was pegged to the roof).



Here is the result of a less than two hour's worth of mudlarking over two days:



In order to get some remaining bits and pieces identified, I made an appointment with Faye Simpson, an archeologist at the Museum of London. She was extremely kind to spend a half hour with us going over the remainder of our finds, and consulting with her colleagues as needed before describing the material to us. She then took photographs so that she could add our material to the museum's online database. She has a dream job--half her time at the Museum of London as an archeologist and the other half at the British Museum. And she loves her work. It's good to know such people exist.

Here's a sampling of what we found, arranged in chronological order.







It's especially wonderful knowing that these are handmade artifacts, for instance, knowing that the long indentation along the roman brick where it bends into a ninety degree angle was created by the brickmaker running his finger down the brick before he fired it. It's a tactile reminder of the past.

Celebrating 12th Night

Aline writes: I bet you didn’t know that the traditional celebration of 12th Night (6 January) was once bigger than Christmas. This was one of the many interesting tidbits I learned at the celebration of 12th Night at the Geffrye Museum. You can see the crowd beginning to gather in the garden to celebrate the traditional ending of the Christmas season and the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus.


The celebration began with a brass band


You can see that there was a good size crowd, even though it was pretty chilly outside.


We all had a nice cup of mulled wine and a piece of 12th Night cake (a kind of fruitcake).
I took a picture of the goodies before I dug in


But the 12th Night cake isn’t just something yummy to eat. One tradition of 12th Night is the crowning of a king and queen for the night, who then run the household. The boy or man who finds the bean hidden in the cake becomes the king, and the girl or woman who finds a pea becomes the queen. We had a king and queen for our celebration, chosen by finding a gold or silver coin (much easier than trying to find a bean or a pea in a fruitcake!) Here they are with the announcer. You can see their laurel wreath crowns. We all curtseyed to the queen and bowed to the king.


Then lots of Christmas Carol singing, a favorite English pastime (by this point, I even know the alternate tune to Away in the Manger.) And, of course, it seems that at every English celebration there is always either a fire or fireworks. 12th Night is a traditional time to burn the holly and ivy that have been used as decorations, so it was a bonfire this time. As you can see, it burns really brightly!



I really love having an actual end to the Christmas season, where you take down the decorations and burn them. It's so satisfying somehow!

Ghosts of Christmases Past…

Aline writes: I went to a wonderful Christmas exhibit at the Geffrye Museum last week. Our loyal readers may remember that the Geffrye Museum has a series of rooms showing English furnishings over the last several hundred years. For Christmas, they decorated each period room with Christmas decorations appropriate to the time, which made for a fascinating display. I learned a lot about Christmas customs – here are a few examples:

In early Tudor times, holly and mistletoe were prominently displayed with citrus fruits. The confectionaries were quite elaborate, in the shapes of all sorts of funny things. See the close-up for an example – sweets in the shape of bacon and eggs!




This next photo shows a recreation of Samuel Pepys’ Christmas dinner in 1662, recorded in his famous diary. It consisted of a “mess of brave plum porridge and a roasted pullet… and I sent for a mince-pie abroad, my wife not being well enough.” The decorations are modest, since it had not been that long since the Puritans (during the Civil War) had banned all Christmas celebrations.



In the mid 1700’s, the influence of Dutch customs came to England: on St. Nicholas’ Day, December 6, children left out their clogs filled with straw as fodder for St. Nicholas’ horse, which would then be exchanged for presents and sweets.


By the late Georgian period, Christmas had fallen out of favor, but the middle-class used it to throw elegant parties. This room is set up for a whist party, and the greenery in the room is limited to laurel, reflecting the value that the master of the house placed on classical traditions.


In the mid 1850’s we can see many of the traditions that we still have today. A Christmas tree dominates the room, with the children’s presents below it. It was probably Prince Albert’s enthusiasm for the Christmas tree tradition that made it so popular in England during Victorian times (it had been a tradition in Germany since the 16th century.)


I thought the most interesting thing is how Christmas decorations and celebrations had fallen in and out of favor over the years!

New Year’s, or, Will We Ever Stop Feasting?

Aline writes: We also had a wonderful New Year’s. We spent New Year’s Eve at home – a 24-hour tube strike meant it was too difficult for us to get down to the Thames. So we had a lovely feast of British food at home from the Borough Market in London: vegetarian pate made with Stilton and Guinness, savory pies from Pieminister with ale chutney, and another Christmas pudding, although we didn’t like this one as well as the one served at Christmas dinner. British television is lots of fun over Christmas – full of movies, mysteries, and dramas. They have been running a new production of Bleak House for the past few months – 15 episodes! - and although we were enthralled, we missed a few episodes. But we lucked out - they ran the whole series on New Year’s Eve, from 7-12, so that was our entertainment. As it ended a few minutes before midnight, we climbed up to our roof terrace and were able to see an amazing array of fireworks at midnight – I counted at least 12 major displays visible by turning around 360 degrees on our roof. I have probably seen more fireworks in this year in London than in the rest of my life – they love fireworks here! The display at the London Eye was spectacular, even on television.

On New Year’s Day, we went to a party at a friend’s house who we met in our London Retrospective class. Our host lives in a semi-detached house in the outskirts of London, which are apparently incredibly common here. In fact, she advised me ahead of time that they “lived in squalor,” (typical English self-deprecation) and not to expect too much. What surprised me is that walking into her house was like walking into a copy of Bill’s cousins’ house, which is also a “semi” on the outskirts of London. Apparently they are all built on the same plan. I think her warning reflected a view of Americans – that we all live in big splendid houses. She has obviously never visited anyone in the Bay Area ☺.

Anyway, we were invited to come at noon, for what we assumed would be Sunday lunch. It was a delightful party. They must have served 3 courses of appetizers, including hot morsels like egg rolls and cheese tarts, plus nuts, cheese biscuits, crackers with cream cheese and pickles, etc. And, of course, champagne. Then about 2:30 we started on lunch, with seafood pie (with mashed potatoes on top) and a chestnut and bean casserole for the multiple vegetarians in the group. All was delicious. But it doesn’t end there. Oh no. Then a cheese course. And the first dessert course: another delicious Christmas pudding (flaming!) with brandy sauce. And if that wasn’t enough, another dessert course, pecan pie (just like home!). We rolled back to the lounge (living room) for coffee and (gasp!) candy. By this time it was about 5:30, and it took us another 1.5 hours to be able to get up from the couch to leave.

But of course, it wasn’t just about the food. The company was really splendid – a variety of people of all ages. Interesting things I found at this party: no one talked about work – we discussed London, travel, books, movies, and politics – but not work. Also, after all that amazing food, not one person complimented the cook or mentioned the food at all. I was amazed, but perhaps it is a cultural convention. I of course privately told her how delicious everything was, since I couldn’t resist years of my own cultural conventions! We didn’t get home until after 8:00 – it was a wonderful way to spend the day, and to begin the New Year!

Christmas Day Lunch

Aline writes: as you can see from our earlier Merry Christmas picture, we had a delightful Christmas meal at a local restaurant. Since all public transportation is shut down on Christmas, we needed to find a restaurant that was open and within walking distance. A wonderful restaurant just down the street, the Formosa Dining Room, fit the bill. They served Christmas lunch until 4:00 – lunch seems to be the traditional holiday meal here, probably related to the traditional Sunday lunch everyone seems to eat. As you can see from the picture, the restaurant is on the ground floor of a lovely old Victorian building.


So we had a delicious meal off the Christmas set menu. I chose to celebrate with cider, while Bill opted for beer since the dining room is attached to a great pub, the Prince Alfred. We popped our Christmas crackers and put on our paper crowns. We got quite nice prizes in them: playing cards for me, and a mini-screwdriver set for Bill. Our meal started with a pear sorbet, and then we had a watercress, Stilton, and walnut salad. For our “mains”, I had sea bass with greens and gnocchi, while Bill had a traditional turkey meal with stuffing, roasted potatoes and the ubiquitous brussel sprouts (England’s favorite winter veg). Then we opted for Christmas pudding. It was a yummy steamed pudding with dried fruit and nuts. We resisted the mince pies at the end, and went for a nice chilly walk along the Regent’s Canal afterwards to recover. And then home – and no dishes to do!

But we did do more than eat on Christmas - as you saw earlier, Grommet played in his own way with the Christmas tree while we were out, and we exchanged our Christmas stockings and had fun playing with our presents (the rules for our stocking stuffers - they have to be small, edible, readable, and/or disposable.) It was a great relaxing day.

Christmas Eve, or Carols by Candlelight

Aline writes: We celebrated Christmas Eve by attending Carols by Candlelight at the Royal Albert Hall. The Royal Albert hall is an amazing space – we were lucky enough to have fabulous seats that actually swiveled around to face the stage!


As you can see, it was a jolly affair, as all the performers were dressed in 18th century dress, and we all had Santa hats.





It was a wonderful mixture of classical music and sing-along Christmas carols. And this brings up something I have been astounded at – did you know that even though we share many of the same Christmas carols with the English, we don’t always use the same tune? I have attended several sing-along Christmas carol events in the last month, and when I open my mouth to sing – I then realize that everyone else is singing a different tune. For example, Away in the Manager here has a tune that sounds like a Shaker hymn. Fortunately by the time we got to the Royal Albert Hall, I had already embarrassed myself at enough other venues such as Trafalgar Square so that I was prepared to let others start and then follow along. I wonder how this happened?

It was a splendid festive evening, since despite the fancy dress and wigs, the conductor kept up a steady patter of truly bad puns and jokes. But the fun didn’t end there! As you can see from the picture below, we managed to spread cheer throughout London after the concert too. I hope you all had as merry a Christmas Eve as we did!