Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Lunch at Waitrose Supermarket





Joy of Life Fountain in Hyde Park. I have a post with this fountain but we took the picture before the fountain had been turned on. With the water spraying upward the figures really do seem to be dancing with joy.

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Joy of life fountain, Hyde park, UK - images by Sunil Deepak, 2010


Apsley Arch  We are not sure who these mounted uniformed men are.
Some in a dull brown uniform and some in navy blue.  Our guess is military of some sort.
Certainly not the fancy uniformed Horse Guard we are used to seeing.



Joshua Reynolds holding paint brushes stands in the courtyard of the building. 

Image result for royal astronomical society

Image result for royal astronomical society



Special exhibit advertised with Grant Wood painting.
Grant Wood (February 13, 1891 – February 12, 1942) is Iowa’s most famous artist and his painting American Gothic is one of America’s most famous paintings.

SB8_D3_I24_det 



Food market - booths selling food ready to eat.


The British Museum
This is as close as we got. I was so worn out from walking that we took a picture of the lion
guarding the door and decided to go inside another day.

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Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, built predominantly by James Burton. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum.
I am getting a little weary of the fact that every time I google some place the first page is covered with
advertisements and information about hotels near the location.  I am not a Wiki fan but too often
Wiki seems to be the only source of information that I want to have.

Russell Square quickly became one of London’s most desirable places of residence, home to the highest of high society. It is the prime setting for the events of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, which is set at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. “But the tide of fashion has rolled westward,” wrote Charles Knight in 1843, “and left Russell Square to be inhabited by the aristocracy of the City and the Inns of Court.” Knight added that “the scientific section of London literary men” had been attracted here too, by the square’s proximity to the London University and the British Museum.

Russell Square Gardens
In 1852 the trustees of the British Museum proposed to extend the building north-eastward – a plan that would have involved buying and demolishing a number of houses in Montague Street and at the south-west corner of Russell Square. In the end they decided to create more internal space by filling in the central quadrangle, while at the same time moving the natural history collection to a new home in South Kensington.


This fountain interested me.  It is flat and has no outer rim to keep the water in. The edge of the
fountain is a grate where the water runs back into the system to be recycled. 

Image result for russell square in london


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By the time that we reached the British Museum, I was hungry and tired.
We walked past the museum and walked only about ten minutes more to a fairly large outdoor mall.
One of the anchors is a Waitrose supermarket.  While we were living in Paris during the winter of
2016, we went to London.  We stayed in a hotel not far from the shopping center. On a day to day basis, we shop at the mini marts in our neighborhood.  It was amazing to walk into a huge store with shopping carts and aisles and aisles of food. The store even sold some household items like plastic dishes and tumblers.  Next time we go there I am taking the bus while the Professor walks.


Frozen popsicles
The mini grocery stores in our neighborhood have small freezers and remarkably few frozen desserts
We actually bought some Waitrose brand ice cream cones.  Needless to say, it was a challenge 
getting some of them home without melting.   When we ate some in the evening, they were a little misshapen but the flavor was great.

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A few of the items on sale this week.


I really wanted the chocolate frosting cake with that looked like two boxes.

Just outside the store is a small area to sit and eat the quick lunch that you have just purchased at 
the store. A sandwich, some potato chips/crisps on OFFER and water.  Oh and for dessert, ice cream cones. A litre of water from Waitrose was 49 pence.

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A litre of Evian was 90 pence.
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The view of the store from our comfortable dining area. 


Cartwright Gardens

 

The curved row of buildings where we stayed in a room at Room to Let



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Saint Pancras Station


We sat in the front seat of the double decker bus and had a good view of the traffic. Crowded and slow.  And we watched the bus take corners. They are so large that they pull into the adjoining lane to go around the corner then go back to the 'bus only' lane next to the sidewalk. Traffic either coming or going stops while the bus corners. And the city is full of buses.  Stopping at lights or bus stops can be interesting too.  If it was another bus in front of us, from where we were sitting it looked as if there were only inches between the two buses.



Taxis are the only other vehicle that drives in the 'bus only' lane.They far outnumber the buses.
They are everywhere and now they are not only black but frequently are bright colors with
advertisements on the side. You can see a black taxi just in front of us. To its left is a bicycle powered
rickshaw.


A rare sight in London.  A man in a kilt waiting for the bus to pass so that he can
hail a taxi.


A much quieter street than the ones above. The row of moving vehicles in front of us are all
taxis, including the red one.  Taking the bus can often be a more interesting way to travel
than the Tube. 




Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Victoria and Alberta and around the neighborhood



Monday lunch and gelato

We went to lunch at the noodle restaurant again and I tried unsuccessfully to take
a picture of the chef making noodles by hand.  Note the ducks hanging by his side.


Image result for chef making hand made noodles in chinese restaurant

Image result for chef making hand made noodles in chinese restaurant

If you check the link, you will discover that these wonderful pictures are from the
New York Times


Gelato for our anniversary on May 29th


Chocolate and Strawberry


Tuesday visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum


Tuesday walking across the Kensington Gardens.
One lucky little girl on the carousel


Image result for victoria and albert museum clay contents

Victoria and Albert Museum


We entered the museum from the Exhibition Road door and almost immediately walked into
a room with a lot of Rodin sculptures.
The one behind me is the first major work that he did with only part of a human figure

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Image result for victoria and albert museum rodin statues

Getty image of Rodin's John the Baptist peaching



The nursing mother reminded me so much of the pink clay woman in the Rodin Museum
in Paris, but she is not one of his works.


It did not take me long to discover that I do not remember what just about anything is that we looked
at.  There is a reason that I go around taking pictures of information about art that we see.
These screens reminded me so much of ones that you see in Middle Eastern structures.  All I 
remember is being surprised that they were from Europe somewhere. 




Basin that would be filled continually with clean water for washing before entering the mosque


Samson slaying the Philistine with the jaw bone of an ass

Victoria and Albert Museum Inside


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Getty photo of choir screen





There were several effigies from tombs taken from Italy on display.






All I remember is that these saints actually come from an English church.


The large wooden facade behind me is from Paul Pindar's business in London.






The Professor would have to stoop to get through this ancient British door.


This room is filled with casts used in creating works of art.


A very thin Henry VIII with a not so thin Elaine/blogger.



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One of the several triptychs


This piece of crystal is lighted from the bottom in the museum. The vase glows.
Althought it is in the glass collection it is not glass but rock crystal.


The inner court at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  I suspect that we actually only looked at exhibits in one wing of this massive building.

Lunch at a Polish Restaurant


Lunch at a Polish restaurant.
Churchill in the photograph above me. 
Eating brown Polish bread.


We had the set lunch.  It had two courses. The first was a really delicious tomato soup
with tiny noodles.


The menu listed the main course as being breaded pork with mashed potatoes.
We were a bit surprised when we were served the Polish version of Wienersnitzel.


Daquise began life back in World War II as a gathering place for exiled Polish soldiers.
Today the employees are still from Poland. The menu lists 1947 as its founding date.


Kensington High Street


My understanding is that TKmaxx is actually TJmaxx.  However, in the UK there is well-known firm that is TJ something so the decision was made to alter the name for the corporation in the UK


The only picture that I took in TKmaxx.  A wall of sunglasses on the left with a long display counter of them on the right.  It is a mystery to me why they carry so many.  This store has three floors.
On the ground floor are luggage as well as women's handbags and other accessories. It also carries all of the cosmetics and skin and hair products that you can but at a store in the U.S.  The first floor carries men's clothing and accessories.  The basement is both women's and children's clothing and shoes.


Across from TKmaxx was another Aubaine restaurant.


From Kensington High Street, I turned onto Kensington Church Street.





Image result for st mary abbots church

Image result for st mary abbots church

St Mary Abbots Parish Church, Kensington - Home

www.smaw8.org/

DAILY WORSHIP at St Mary Abbots Morning Prayer is said in church each week day at 8am (9.40am on Saturday). Evening Prayer is said in Church each day at ...



An alley way behind an iron fence.


Ordinary houses along Kensington Church Street.



Lace curtains have not gone out of style in London.  They still are an excellent way to let in
sunshine while providing privacy.



Just a few interesting houses along the way.



The Churchill Arms


Something tells me this is no longer a timber merchant.


And I do not remember even taking this picture so I cannot tell you its significance.

Back in our Neighborhood


 

A motorcycle policeman stopped all of the people on the sidewalk so that 
this convoy of cars to turn into a private street leading to Kensington Palace.


I have decided that two architects who could not agree with each other designed this house
on the corner of Palace Court and Bayswater.


The buildings across the street from where we live.

 

Our building. We live on the third floor where there is a metal railing and the window is open.  Our other window on the left has the concrete balcony.  However, there is no door leading out onto the balcony. The other half of the BYU Centre is to the left with the rounded window on the second floor.



This is the house on the corner of Moscow Road and Palace Court.  It looked exactly the
same two years ago. It is the house that will never be completely renovated.  There is still
scaffolding on the front of the building as well as the green wall that surrounds it. 



The house that will never be finiished.




Because new scaffolding was being constructed on the side of the house, there was a temporaty gap in the fence.Mjuch to my dissappointement the interior doesn't look finished either.

   




Interesting apartment building at the end of our street.



Greek Orthodox church on Moscow Road

Image result for greek orthodox church moscow road london


Image result for greek orthodox church moscow road london

Some day I am going to check to see if it is possible to go inside this church to see
what it is like.

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A Christian presence in every community




As I have looked at web pages online, I have noticed that some sites say the church is Church of England.  Others list it as Anglican (familiar to Canadians by this name) or Evangelical.





St Matthew's Church, Bayswater

www.stmatthewsbayswater.org.uk/

Welcome to St Matthew's ChurchBayswater. We are an Anglican church in west London, just north of Kensington Gardens. Our congregation is made up of ...

Contact


Contact. We'd love to hear from you so please get in touch using ...

Ekklesia


ekklesia is an exciting new place of community, discovery, and ...


St Matthews is a friendly and traditional parish church which welcomes people from all traditions – or none. Our services are distinctive within the local area for the use of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) at most services. We find it has a beauty of language that is hard to match and it helps us to engage with the beauty and holiness of God. 



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St Matthew's Church John Johnson (d. 1920), Designed 1880; built 1881-82. Bargate rag-stone with Box-ground and Bath-stone dressings; interior, Corsham stone. St Petersburgh Place, Bayswater, London W.2.
St Matthew's Church stands out in its narrow road because of its spire, which Osbert Lancaster once described as "lofty and uncompromisingly Evangelical" (41). At 240' or 73 metres high, the spire is, in fact, one of the tallest in West London. John Johnson had a knack of making his buildings prominent. He was also good at suiting style to purpose: the other noticeable feature of the church, which replaced an earlier Italianate chapel on this spot, is its unusually wide clerestoried nave. Intended to accommodate the expanding congregation, and to provide an unobstructed view of the altar, this is fifty feet or over 15 metres wide — making it even wider than Westminster Abbey's (all figures from "The Parish Church of St Matthew"). Since the side aisles are in the buttresses, and the transepts are shallow, almost all the width can be used for the main seating area. By one estimate, the church was able to seat over 1,500 people (Elrington).


This looks like a single family dwelling just down from St Matthew's Church on the corner
of St Petersburgh and Moscow Road





St Matthew's spire above the roofs of buildings on Palace Court


Three rows of parking on Palace Court. Both sides of the road and one parking area down the center/centre of the road.


27 Palace Court



29 Palace Court, City of Westminster, London
The BYU Centre
We enter the house at the door of 27 but we actually live on the third floor of  #29.