Tales from beyond the Mound
Oct. 17th, 2021 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingboot'That thing?' Said the taxi driver, as we passed Marble Arch, spotting the artificial hillock which has been dubbed the worst tourist attraction in London, and cost £6 million. 'They tried to charge people £7 a ticket for climbing it!' She laughed heartily, 'now it's free. But you don't know the best bit; it was designed in Winter, built for looking down the streets when all the trees are bare. What do you reckon those views are of in Summer?'
I spent much of the day in Hyde Park, because our hotel was nearby. R has been in London for work, and this weekend we were seeing friends for birthday celebrations; my hopes had been to drift around the BM, but I was just too tired to bear the tube. Instead I tried to shop on the ever useless Kensington High Street, and wandered around Lancaster Gate into Diana Land.
Diana and Fergie were news when I worked at the Korean embassy nearby. The attaches were a bit sniffy about Diana's looks ('too tall with a big nose,' was the general judgement) and poor old Fergie was treated as a thing of horror. All I could really say about her was based on spotting her once leap out of a car and run bow-legged down the road, pursued by her bodyguards. It wasn't a dignified moment. Another PA working at the embassy described seeing her dining with Andrew. 'They gobble like a pair of pigs,' she said.
And yet, for all her crassness, she survived. Sometimes it pays to be the ugly sister; to just take the money and run, charisma free. The love of the people is a hungry dangerous thing.
Kensington Gardens couldn't stay the surreal landscape of Autumn 1997, an endless park lawn of heaped up bouquets and photos and lit candles under all the trees, but there's the memorial fountain and the memorial playground and the memorial statue... Looking back at the house I could imagine Diana standing at one of those high windows. 20 years and counting, she's still all over this place.
I couldn't stay solemn because London doesn't stay solemn; few people are wearing masks now, social distancing is a joke, and the place is as crowded as ever. Everybody wants a good time; ours was waiting for us at the Cork and Bottle and next day at a fab little mezze place in Southwark. There were friends and food, a lot of laughter and even more booze. Yes, there are closed shops, and more beggars again (not quite at 1980s levels but getting there) but people are determined. They're spending money, they want a party.
The return journey was an utter mare. 2 hours on the runway because of technical hitches, lack of ground staff and finally the misidentification of a piece of luggage, meaning they had to empty the hold, etc etc. I returned very late to a rain-lashed Edinburgh night with no taxis and my phone out of juice. Fortunately a couple let me share their taxi home, but I'm still absolutely shattered.
I spent much of the day in Hyde Park, because our hotel was nearby. R has been in London for work, and this weekend we were seeing friends for birthday celebrations; my hopes had been to drift around the BM, but I was just too tired to bear the tube. Instead I tried to shop on the ever useless Kensington High Street, and wandered around Lancaster Gate into Diana Land.
Diana and Fergie were news when I worked at the Korean embassy nearby. The attaches were a bit sniffy about Diana's looks ('too tall with a big nose,' was the general judgement) and poor old Fergie was treated as a thing of horror. All I could really say about her was based on spotting her once leap out of a car and run bow-legged down the road, pursued by her bodyguards. It wasn't a dignified moment. Another PA working at the embassy described seeing her dining with Andrew. 'They gobble like a pair of pigs,' she said.
And yet, for all her crassness, she survived. Sometimes it pays to be the ugly sister; to just take the money and run, charisma free. The love of the people is a hungry dangerous thing.
Kensington Gardens couldn't stay the surreal landscape of Autumn 1997, an endless park lawn of heaped up bouquets and photos and lit candles under all the trees, but there's the memorial fountain and the memorial playground and the memorial statue... Looking back at the house I could imagine Diana standing at one of those high windows. 20 years and counting, she's still all over this place.
I couldn't stay solemn because London doesn't stay solemn; few people are wearing masks now, social distancing is a joke, and the place is as crowded as ever. Everybody wants a good time; ours was waiting for us at the Cork and Bottle and next day at a fab little mezze place in Southwark. There were friends and food, a lot of laughter and even more booze. Yes, there are closed shops, and more beggars again (not quite at 1980s levels but getting there) but people are determined. They're spending money, they want a party.
The return journey was an utter mare. 2 hours on the runway because of technical hitches, lack of ground staff and finally the misidentification of a piece of luggage, meaning they had to empty the hold, etc etc. I returned very late to a rain-lashed Edinburgh night with no taxis and my phone out of juice. Fortunately a couple let me share their taxi home, but I'm still absolutely shattered.
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Date: 2021-10-18 03:07 pm (UTC)(Your description of Fergie as the "ugly sister" made me laugh with its spot-on-ness. Yes, ugly sisters are the survivors! 😊)
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Date: 2021-10-19 07:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-19 11:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-20 06:54 am (UTC)It would be absolutely wonderful to wander London with you!