Jean and Jeff’s European Adventure

Tuesday, Jean and I took a tour of the BBC with the Hampstead Women’s club. OK, so I’m not a woman - they just considered me their mascot for the morning. The BBC’s headquarters is across from the White City stop on the Central line. Not much of a neighborhood, but Westfield is building a shopping center across the street, so it may pick up. The BBC itself is comprised of a number of buildings spanning a couple of blocks. The tour focuses on the original building opened in 1960 as the first purpose-built TV studio in the world. We got to see the newsroom, several studios where they were filming a game show and a children’s show, and a dressing room. I was hoping to see more behind-the-scenes production stuff, but I guess it was too much to fit into 2 hours. We did learn that JLo is completely out of touch with reality. Apparently, her entourage came in early to redecorate her dressing room in a cream color and she is the only person other than the queen to be driven to her dressing room door. Even Blair walks the 100ft from the car park (that’s parking lot for you Americans - more on language in a later post). Overall, a recommended, if somewhat disappointing, tour.

I’m not so sure what is so tough about maintaining a blog, but it’s time to make a better attempt. After 4 months in London, we have seen and done alot that we would like to remember and share with friends so, while I can’t speak for Jean and while I probably won’t try to relive the past 4 months (well, maybe a little!), my slightly-later-than-New-Year’s resolution is to write here more often.

So what’s up now? Well, we had a busy weekend with friends. Saturday night was dinner at Fino, a tapas restaurant near the Goodge St. tube stop, with friends Lauren and Todd. Overall, we were quite impressed. Prawns, croquetas, some pork, and a couple of bottles of wine later, we rolled out and down Charlotte St. to the bar of another restaurant whose name I don’t recall. OK, add a mojito, some limoncello, and a single malt scotch to the list and you’ll see why I don’t remember the name of the second place.

Sunday was traditional Sunday roast in Holland Park (right next to Notting Hill) with friends Penney and Dan. Penney and I go all the way back to Lehigh. She and her husband, Dan, have a great place in a historically listed building that they have renovated beautifully. So we spent the day with them, their son Jack, friend Christopher, and two basset hounds, one 15 years old! Jean had her fill of doggy time with the younger basset, Margo, on her lap almost the entire afternoon. Of course, it wouldn’t be England if more drinking wasn’t involved, so we started with Champagne and moved to white and then red wine with the meal. The wine was terrific and the roast chicken and rest of the meal was delicious. Leave it to Penney and Dan for hosting with taste and class!