A Ruby Weekend

After another working week, we had the pleasure of Ruby staying with us again on Saturday and Sunday.  She was full of news about Rome, Florence, Paris and Bath but also quite excited about going home.  She spent Saturday with friends (Grant caught the train up to meet her in London so she could hand over her very heavy bags) and on Sunday we all went up to London to do some exploring. 

First stop was the Leicester Square ticket booth – we wanted to take Ruby to a West End show that night.  Jersey Boys was the best on offer that morning, so we got our tickets and then went sightseeing.  On the recommendation of Grant’s colleague, we found our way to the Spitalfields and Brick Lane markets (the Borough Market isn’t open on a Sunday).  We walked up along the Thames to do this and found that the North bank is not as easy as the South bank.  We kept being directed inland away from the river but it was still quite a nice walk.  The markets themselves were certainly very busy, and we found some great ethnic food for lunch, but it wasn’t nearly as much fun as the Borough Market.  Maybe we didn’t find quite the right place.

Ruby was quite keen to see Harrods, so we got on the Tube for this.  I didn’t really feel up to walking from Liverpool Street to Knightsbridge.  Harrods was kind of fun, especially the pet section (we all had a good laugh at some of the ridiculous clothes and accessories people buy for their animals) and the toy section (some awesome Lego sculptures) but I certainly wouldn’t do any actual shopping there.

From here we walked to Hyde Park, and found a nice café beside the Serpentine where we had a rest and a cup of tea.  On our way to the café we saw lots of squirrels, and one couple were feeding nuts to them while taking some great photos.  I decided to keep a couple of our chips and see if I could coax a squirrel close to us as we left the park.  It did take a little coaxing, but I did get one to come and take a piece of chip from my hand.  He was too quick for photos though, and clearly chips are not nearly as enticing as nuts as he wouldn’t come back for seconds.  Now I know what to take next time.

We made it back to the theatre very early so found a bar to have a quiet drink before we went in.  We were going to the 5pm show so planned to have dinner afterwards.  Jersey Boys is about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and while I thought I knew a couple of their songs I wasn’t overly fussed about going to this show.  I was pleasantly surprised and found the story really interesting and many of the songs familiar (admittedly from films such as Dirty Dancing rather than from the radio!).  The show was very well done, the actors were great and we all had a good time.  Just goes to show, turn up for discount tickets and you might be surprised.

This was Ruby’s last night with us; the next day she was staying with friends closer to Heathrow and then travelling home to NZ.  We were so glad to have the chance to take her out London-style, and in keeping with the Italian (think Mafia) theme of the evening we found a lovely looking little Italian place close to the theatre.  I thought I wanted pasta but their pizza selection was just too tempting.  We all decided on pizza and what we got was a 75cm long pizza – 25cm each with our individual choice of toppings.  It was absolutely delicious and we managed to eat the whole thing!  It was a great end to a fun day.

One of the things that probably hasn’t made it to the blog yet is that the Cooperation and Competition Panel that I work for is headed up by Lord Carter of Coles. Apparently, this is very handy if you would like to do a tour of the Houses of Parliament. Lord Carter very kindly arranged a tour for a group of the new people at work so we got to have a visit on Wednesday morning.  So, I got to go on a tour of the Palace of Westminster without Siobhan. We weren’t allowed to take photos though, so I bought the book so she could read about it.  Both the book and the tour were very interesting. If you're really interested, they have a virtual tour which looks surprisingly like the real thing at www.parliament.uk

You enter into Westminster Hall which was where the Queen had that big lunch event on the Jubilee weekend. It is part of the original structure that was around when William the Conqueror showed up. A lot of the rest of the building was lost during a big fire in 1512. St Stephen’s chapel (which became a hall) was then used to hold Parliament until they had an even bigger fire in 1834. After that, they had a competition for who could design the coolest building and Charles Barry won it. So he designed it as you see today with Big Ben at one end (but you’re not supposed to call it Big Ben), and the Victoria tower at the other end.  From there we were whisked down to the Victoria tower to see where the Queen enters Parliament. She comes in through the royal entrance, and we got to follow the route that she takes when coming in to open Parliament. Part of the reason that she comes in through this different entrance is apparently to remind her of her place in the overall scheme of things – that the monarch no longer rules over the people – that is what Parliament is there for. 

Next up was the robing room, where HRH gets into all of her snazzy finery for opening Parliament. This room is really interesting, as unlike the rest of the palace, it doesn’t have pictures of old dead dudes. Instead, it has pictures of scenes of King Arthur, as it was built when Queen Victoria was young and she and everyone else was really into King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table at the time. The other cool thing it had was the throne built for Queen Victoria that she used to use. It was interesting as Queen Victoria was very short apparently, so it is built for a small person with a dinky foot stool too.

After this we got to head into the House of Lords debating chamber. It was all very red and luxurious, except for the very bright and shiny gold throne and surrounds for where the Queen sits. You nearly need sunglasses in there it is so bright and shiny. We got to see the Woolsack, which is still stuffed with wool. We didn’t get to go through the corridors around the sides to determine whether we were “content” or “not content” with our visit. 

From there we went into the central lobby where there are statues of Gladstone, Granville, Churchill, and Thatcher. Down the corridor is the House of Commons.  So we got to stand where David Cameron was going to be standing in about an hour or so fielding questions in question time at noon on Wednesdays. While we think (correctly) that we have too many MPs in New Zealand, they have over 600 here. Funny thing is that they have seats for about 300 I reckon. If they all showed up, it would be more than cosy. Not sure how they jam them all in. After that, we headed back to Westminster hall and then back to work. But, all in all, a very interesting excursion.