Friends Old and New

Thursday 19 October

Today I went to the British Medical Association (BMA) where I worked for all of my time in London in the nineties. It was just lovely to see some of the people I'd worked with and I really enjoyed being there.

Caroline had taken the afternoon off as we were to have lunch in the City with Clive who is a consultant architect to the BMA Estates department. Clive, Caroline, myself, Jo and John (Jo and John couldn't make it sadly) used to have lunch together frequently. It was lovely to see Clive again and we fell into the old banter easily!

Caroline and I went and had a coffee to round off the afternoon.


Friday 20 October

I'd planned to go to Portobello Road but it was pouring when I got to Notting Hill Gate so I turned around and went back to the apartment and changed (it was fine when I went out!). The single redeeming feature of the tube is that you are more or less greeted by a train within a minute or two of stepping onto the platform. Sure beats waiting thirty minutes or more for a train in Auckland!

I ended up covering a lot of ground on a day that turned out to be very warm and sunny. First, back to the National Gallery to finish my rounds. Then to St Martin-in-the-Fields (gorgeous) and to the Crypt cafe for a lunch of roasted veges and gravy for £2! Thanks to Caroline for the tip about this place as it's very expensive to eat in London. If you convert the currency to NZ$ it breaks your heart...

Then I walked down Whitehall and went into Westminster Abbey. It was jam-packed with people unfortunately but it was amazing to see the tombs of people like Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots.

I walked around Whitehall a bit longer then when I got back to the apartment I noticed the capillaries in my ankles had burst and I sported bright red marks on both legs! So I am becoming increasingly decrepit I'm afraid. Think of me when I buy my first pair of support hose thirty years earlier than I'd planned to...

I also need to go to an Osteopath as my back is not good. The fall must have done more damage that I thought and it's affecting me in all sorts of imaginative ways.


Saturday 21 October

Caroline and I met at Victoria station to catch the 'Oxford Tube' bus service to Oxford for the day! £14 return which is really good value and we sat on the top of the double-decker. No arguing about that: couple of kids that we are, we scrambled up those stairs and sussed out the seats with the most window for a good view. Just over a hour later, we were in Oxford.

We were hoping to catch a tour of the city centre and luckily, about 45 minutes after we arrived the Inspector Morse Tour was due to start. Neither Caroline or I are Morse fanatics but we know the series and we thought it would be a great way to see some of the sights and be entertained at the same time by a proper guilded guide with a badge and everything. My friend Paul Grey will be so envious as he's a big Morse fan.

So we had a yummy ciabatta sandwich at a local Italian restaurant then we got back to the Oxford Information Centre to meet the tour party. We got a very enthusiastic slightly eccentric (in that lovely English way) lady complete with perm, big glasses, long macintosh coat and brolly - and the proper badge and everything.

We went along at quite a pace but it was a good tour and we saw many wonderful things. Our guide was authorised to take us into various Colleges including Exeter (gorgeous, dark, gothic stained glass I wasn't allowed to photograph) and Merton where a choir and small orchestra were rehearsing. The music filled the place and it was warm inside and I think we all wanted to stay longer but the lady was motioning us with the brolly...

The guide had a habit of stopping us outside and talking about some murder victim in some episode of Morse which was fine until the weather turned cold very quickly and it rained. My sandal-clad tootsies (the only comfy shoes I could wear that day due to my poor ankles) were wet but the rain was soothing and cooling. At one point it started to sleet. I turned to the now hooded Caroline to tell her and she said I was clearly barking mad (well, she didn't actually say that but later she confessed she didn't believe me!). It was sleet but it cleared and soon the sun came out again.

When the tour was over, Caroline and I went and had coffee and thawed out (Thaw - get it? John Thaw... Morse...? I crack myself up!) and then it was time to meet up with Clive's PA Terri and her friend Sally at the the Randolph Hotel for you guessed it: a cream tea!

Now this was no ordinary cream tea my friends. This was the best one yet. Terri had booked us a table for 5.00pm and we all sat down in the sumptuous tea room and the pots of tea arrived followed by two layered silver plates of scones and little pastries and cakes as well as jam and clotted cream. Terri and Sally are both fantastic and we all got on a treat and felt like ladies sitting there as the sun set outside, sipping our tea and discussing the merits of clotted cream.

What a lovely way to spend an hour and a half!

Then it was time to head off to the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building for the Mozart sonatas recital by pianist Melvyn Tan which was starting at 8.00pm. We walked through the city at night and it is just stunning all lit up.

The concert was magnificent. Superb. Melvyn Tan was amazing and the music beautiful. Sometimes I closed my eyes but mostly I was watching the incredible expressions on his face as he played and I thought about how good my life is: that I am so lucky to be in such lovely company in Oxford listening to this beautiful man playing. Plus I have Paul, Stan the ginger moggy, friends and family, great clients and colleagues and work I adore waiting for me in New Zealand.

Caroline and I said our goodbyes to Sally and Terri (I'll miss them! Isn't it great how you can form friendships with some people in a matter of hours? They've promised to think of me the next time they take tea at the Randolph) then made our way back to London on the Oxford Tube. I was in bed just before midnight and I had a wonderful day and memories I'll treasure.