Wednesday/Thursday
-Mental soundtrack ---> The Kinks
-Flight over sandwiched between a cool UC Davis physics professor and a woman from San Diego who demanded explanations of both my liberal Christian theology and my vegetarianism
-Dangerously good shopping on the walk from the Hampstead tube stop to my guest-house
-Dropping my bags off and running straight to the British Museum
-Discussing Herzog's remake of Bad Lieutenant with the nice boys at Gosh! Comics
-Udon noodles with a sweet tamarind sauce, teppan-fried with egg, fried tofu, leeks and beansprouts topped with crushed roasted peanuts and a wedge of lime at Wagamama
-Yay Beard Papa now in London! Much more unfortunately, so is American Apparel.
-Wow High Street fashion looks like Nu Rave barfed on everyone. And you think Agyness Deyn is over-exposed in the States? Woo boy.
-Jumping straight into the disturbing art with Jake and Dinos Chapman's remake of Hell at White Cube
-Graffiti going seriously giant all the way up the outside walls of Tate Modern
-Tea and cookies on the seventh floor
-Street art scavenger hunt in Southwark - gotta catch 'em all!
-Across the Millennium Bridge and into the City, land of handsome well-suited types
-Pilgrimage to the foot of 30 St Mary Axe, aka Norman Foster's Gherkin
-Rain, interspersed with sun
-My room on the second floor at the Hampstead Village Guesthouse, complete with a shelf of books in Dutch, a kitty painting, and a view of more gorgeous Victorians across the street
-Slice of Margherita pizza and a lager near the London Eye
-Jacobean horror-play meets oontz oontz oontz in the National Theatre's production of Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy, starring an incredible Rory Kinnear and featuring some of the best set and sound design I've ever experienced
-An art installation of sound-activated columns of shimmering light on the South Bank and a walk across Embankment Bridge cap off my first night in town quite nicely
Friday
-Mental soundtrack ---> The Troggs
-Apricot pastry from Louis Patisserie
-Morning constitutional among the overgrown gravestones and chirping birdies in Abney Park Cemetery
-Geeky monster fun from Tom Friedman at Gagosian
-Gravity defied, architectural interventions, and oh yes a damp paddle in a makeshift rowboat in the Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward
-A crocheted coral reef
-Roasted pear, gorgonzola and radicchio sandwich + celeriac and apple salad + wasabi-dressed bean sprout and seaweed salad at Concrete
-Sara VanDerBeek's kaleidoscopic photographic universes at The Approach
-Highly personal time-lapse, young Bogota goths, and sewing up wounds in bus upholstery from Colombian photographers and artists at the Photographers' Gallery
-Caramel-coated shortbread + a vanilla chai latte
-The back garden of my guest-house
-Amazing veggie food and truly delightful company in the form of Ally and Mike at The Gate. My main course was mushroom duxelles & goat’s cheese rolled in thyme-infused potato, served on a bed of french beans with a white wine, cream & cep reduction, topped with deep-fried leek matchsticks. We also shared mind-bendingly good appetizer and dessert mezze platters. I will be fantasizing about that meal for months.
-Sucking down Oranjeboom and watching the Dutch soundly defeat the French 4-1 in their Euro Cup game at De Hems, surrounded by fellow roaring fans. Hup Holland!
-I could have continued drinking until last call without paying for a single beer myself, if you know what I'm sayin'
Saturday
-Mental soundtrack ---> Tin Tin
-Roasted mushrooms, veggie sausages, baked beans, potato wedges, toast and scrambled free-range eggs at Giraffe
-A quiet moment in the newly-restored St Martin-in-the-Fields with Shirazeh Houshiary's beautiful new window
-Thomas Schütte's Model for a Hotel atop the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square
-The Edwardian grandeur of the Admiralty Arch, barely diminished by the hordes of tourists on their way to the Queen's birthday celebration
-Helen Frankenthaler's luminous color field paintings at Bernard Jacobson
-David Attenborough-curated illustrations of the natural world at the Queen's Gallery, including a page of cat drawings by Leonardo da Vinci that I wanted to steal right off the wall
-Watching a procession of 70 years of British military planes go right over my head. For the Queen, of course. Totally awesome, and also totally terrifying.
-Asparagus in butter sauce + a mushroom Wellington with aged cheddar, spinach and organic spelt at Inn the Park
-Michael Smith playing with ideas about students and study at Hales Gallery
-Gorgeous artists' books on display at the V&A, including Anselm Kiefer's weighty tomes. I'm only sad I wasn't allowed to flip through them.
-Tea by the fountain
-Meeting my guest-house's resident cat, aka The Monster
-Vegan Thai platter at Manna including tom kha gai, spring rolls and green papaya topped with fake duck. All this plus Mazzy Star, the Stone Roses, Velvet Underground, the Cure and Primal Scream playing as background music.
-The view from the top of Primrose Hill
-In Search of a Midnight Kiss breaking my heart in the best possible way at the Curzon Soho. Instantly one of my favorite movies ever, all witty banter and salty language and a killer soundtrack. And of course I'm going to adore a film about looking for love in LA.
-Last night in London sadness
Sunday
-Mental soundtrack ---> Dodos
-Bus to Paddington, and then the magical Heathrow Express making itself well worth the splurge
-Giving in to temptation at the Smythson of Bond Street outpost at Heathrow. I blame the charming sales associate who saw me lingering and took his moment: "A small indulgence, madame?"
-Making it home relatively unscathed despite having to sit next to a posse of 19-year-olds from Fresno for the 11 hours back to SFO
I'll post pictures tomorrow night!
