Back on the Bike

I'm soooo glad to see some Spring and blue skies,and was so glad to get back on the bike again yesterday after weeks of not cycling.

I've been going to the gym (ugh) and jogging in the rain. (I hate jogging so much it doesn't matter if I do it in rain or shine).  In fact, as I jogged slowly down the road recently, feeling like a human sack of potatoes as usual, I slipped on a kerb and fell onto a parked car. I don't think I dented it but I twisted my shoulder. It's still hurting, so I've started to wonder if the statins I take are affecting the muscles, so I've stopped the statins. I hope that's OK to do.  All that lack of exercise means my weight's crept up too so it's back on the lettuce leaves again. And there are also problems at work ....

Despite these niggles, I'm definitely counting blessings. A close family member fell ill abroad in early January, and has just managed to get home in an air ambulance. He is far from better, but we are so pleased he was well enough to leave the foreign ICU and travel home, and it's much easier now he isn't thousands of miles away. 

The twins are adorable and I'm secretly sure I already know which one will be the boss, but I'm trying really hard not to typecast them when they're only 2 weeks old. I'm having fun planning the children's storybook launch, too.

Back on the bike again, the day before yesterday,  I was delighted to pass this display of crocuses at Embankment Gardens. 

I was on my way to a good exhibition  at Two Temple Place, about normally unseen curiosities from the museums of Cambridge. The picture below shows a very old snakes and ladders board from India in mahogany and mother-of-pearl. It seems they've played the game in India for over 800 years - I never knew it was so exotic. How I would love to own this board.

I also liked this statue from the Nicobar Islands. It's over a century old, and apparently it was a life sized charm to protect the local chief's wife against illness spirits. When she died of an illness, though, the family chucked the statue out in disgust. Luckily it was rescued by a Royal Navy commander, who took it back to Cambridge.

There are all kinds of intriguing things in the (free) show, which is on till April 27.  If you click the link, you'll see more of Two Temple Place.  Even most Londoners don't know about this Victorian mansion at the Inns of Court which used to belong to billionaire Lord Astor. It only opens to the public in February, March and April.each year.  I was very taken with this particular interior door, which leads from the grand salon. 

Talking of doors, when I cycled through Clerkenwell yesterday, I spotted a dog which might have been grateful for any door at all.  It had to use the window if it wanted to see what was going on in the world, and was watching everyone go by with great interest

I thought it looked rather fetching draped in that lace curtain. 

Piccadilly, Peas in a Pod and some pricey Christmas Crackers

The gold macaroon has gone to the great digestive tract in the sky (or wherever it is), but getting these lovely presents was a delightful change from lying awake at night. Actually, when daily life is a strain, T and I try to make time to go out and take a walk, or better still a cycle ride.  We use the London Transport specialist cycle maps, (FREE from tube stations) which help choose quiet and pleasant routes.  

We decided to go and look at the Illustration Cupboard's winter show in the old and interesting area of St. James's, just off Piccadilly and minutes from Piccadilly Circus.   It was just an excuse to go out really, and it was a slightly surreal experience when we reached Regent's Park, because in some parts, it almost felt as if we'd returned to summer.

So it seemed almost odd to turn around and see this lonely creature in a crowd of sticks....

We spotted a man wading in the mud of what is normally a pretty lake.  They're doing maintenance, and he described how they had passed a weak electric current through the lake before draining it. This stunned all the fish, which were then "relocated" in another pond.   We couldn't help thinking there must have been some mighty surprised fish when they woke up - assuming that fish feel surprise, that is!

More animal welfare issues of a less amusing kind arose when we reached the very expensive shopping area around Piccadilly.  The men putting up the feathery Christmas window display at the clothes boutique "Joseph" were pointedly ignoring animal rights campaigners with a megaphone who were noisily picketing the shop because of its use of fur.    

If even half of what they said was true, then I'd boycott "Joseph" too (assuming I could afford to shop there in the first place, which I can't).  I won't repeat what they said here but I gathered that some of the methods used on furs used by "Joseph" are illegal in the UK,  and the details are not for the squeamish.   Nobody tried to move the protesters on. Was that a victory for free speech, or was it a reluctance to turn a protest into a more major incident? 

There are some lovely shops in the area.  We stopped at Paxton and Whitfield, cheesemonger, because they were giving away free samples of magnificent brie and goats' cheese from an upturned barrel outside the shop......

Also took the chance to visit St. James's Piccadilly, one of my favourite churches, and a place with a lot of history and associations.  You won't find it on many tourist itineraries, (which just shows how hidebound tourist irineraries can be.)

Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St. Pauls, the church was consecrated in 1684, and is associated with well known people  like Daniel Defoe, author of "Robinson Crusoe" and  the anti-slavery campaigner and ex-slave, Ottobah Cugoanom, who was baptised there in August 1773. Cugoanom worked and lived nearby, and wrote several books, including "Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species," and campaigned against the slave trade and worked on behalf of the poor.

Inside,,I noticed a beautiful and most unusual font, showing Biblical scenes. Here's Noah's Ark

Wondering who had made it, I bought the church guide for 50p and discovered the font was a stone carving by Grinling Gibbons. Gibbons was one of the top wood carvers of his day (and arguably one of the best ever), a friend of Christopher Wren and the diarist John Evelyn.  Click this Youtube link to find out more about his interesting life and see some of his work at Hampton Court Palace.).

And when I reached the altar of St. James's, I found that the reredos, the bit behind the altar, was carved out of lime wood by Gibbons.

 
I looked to see if I could spot Gibbons' trademark pea-pods.  The story is that when the pods were carved open, showing peas, it meant Gibbons had been paid for the work. When the pods were closed, it meant he hadn't been paid.   I can't see any open pods, but there looked to be some closed ones towards the top of this detail here:  sorry it's a blurry picture, I had to enlarge it right up. What do you think? are these closed pea pods?

So it seems Gibbon's St. James's carvings were for the glory of God, and perhaps he had an eye on future commissions from Wren, (such as St. Paul's Cathedral, which was then in the pipeline).

We  finally got to the Illustration Cupboard, to admire the work of many of my favourite illustrators, old and new, such as Dick Bruna, creator of dear little Miffy.
 
 

 
 
And Graham Oakley - this is a picture from his lovely Church Mice series of picture books. 
 

  
So that was the purpose of our visit achieved, and we left the gallery with the idea of having a bite to eat.  What about Fortnum and Mason's, the grocers established in 1707? After all they have lots of delicious food, not to mention beautiful Christmas decorations - such as these crackers at a "mere" £500 a box.

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  Ah, well, it costs nothing to go in and try some free samples and soak up the atmosphere, and wish I had a bit more of this

I love the elegant counters - this one sold mainly dried and crystallised fruits. Fornum's "colour" is this charming sea green or pale turquoise which you see in the piled up boxes.

The tailcoated assistants

Something of the ringmaster in those tailcoats - I'm sure the male assistants all used to wear black, but in fact since the shop has an 18th century ambience, bright colours are more appropriate.

Here's their symbolic green-coated page, who stands on the newel post of the main staircase.

The lady with him isn't a customer.  She's part of Fortnum's Christmas theme this year, which appears to be  along the lines of "burlesque" or "Las Vegas".

The outdoor window displays were certainly entertaining passers-by.

For old times' sake, I  put 50p in the Gruber polyphon, which has been in the shop since the 1880s. Polyphons are a kind of Victorian jukebox, a giant musical box worked by steel discs, found in pubs, clubs and shops.  Fortnum's is, of course, a very posh one.

 When one of our daughters was about 5 or 6, it was her joy to go into Fortnums when we were passing, and we would put some money in the polyphon and she would dance, prance and pirouette to it - to the amusement (I hope) of the other customers.

Money collected in the polyphon goes to the Prince's Trust, Prince Charles' very interesting charity for young people.  It's a good cause, but this time when I put my 50p in, nothing happened.  When I complained, a very nice man in a black tailcoat came along with a big key and wound it up and it played "Silent Night."

I am ashamed to say I didn't buy anything in the shop today.  I do, sometimes, on special occasions, when I'm feeling rich.  But I went across the road instead to Pret A Manger which is always my recommendation for good cheap takeaway food.   We had some nice soup and yogurts for what I guess must be approximately the same price as one of those beads on one of the Christmas-crackers.

And set off home in the evening sunshine.   I felt as if I'd paid a fleeting visit to several centuries in a single day.