A Cooks Tour of London.

[Pushka]

We ended up purchasing an Octo card to use the sub to get around and it worked well.

First off to Oxford circus. And Carnaby street after.







Creative. Loved the Queen wave noddy dolls. The one in red is an umbrella.



Not the only ones filming.

 

[Pushka]

Then back on the sub for obligatory Palace and Park walk.

 

[Pushka]

The view across the Thames is just not the same at the moment. We saw it just over a year ago on the last day it chimed.





St Paul’s and the Shard.

 

[Pushka]

I really need this drinks fridge. In red of course.



And this fridge in our new kitchen.





Love the symmetry here in Picadilly Circus



Of course.



17,000 steps today. Early start tomorrow. Thursday.

 

[Pushka]

Weather today has been strange. Very windy. Hot when sun emerges. Cool when it’s very cloudy. A few drops of rain. The one consistent thing is that the subway is stifling!

Fire alarm just went off. First thing I opened safe to retrieve passport and laptop. Everything else was irrelevant.

 

[love_the_life]

......

And this fridge in our new kitchen.

View attachment 136472.

Our local Winning Appliances has a similar fridge in the window.

Cute though the squirrels are it’s a pity that the red squirrels have been driven out by the grey ones. Not a lot of places where they can be found now.

 

[Cossie]

We are staying in a very British Hotel.

View attachment 136421

Had a chat to him when I walked past that hotel in May. Some good secondhand camera shops in that area and some interesting bookshops as well.

 

[JohnK]

Sounds like an interesting trip.

You've spoilt the kids for life. My wife has mentioned that she'd like for us to travel business class occasionally. I don't want to spoil the little one. I'm trying to convince wife on the idea of her travelling business and the little one travel economy with me but wife prefers we travel together.

 

[Pushka]

Today is Lords Oval Tour. It was really good. We left @8am deciding to go via tube. Worked well.


Tour started at 9am with first off a visit to the Pavilion. Sacred secret Cricket Men’s Business. The long Room and MCC committee room. No photos allowed. The Queen when in residence sits at their window - this view taken just outside. She dislikes cricket apparently but Phillip is a fan.
The view just outside her window.



Inside the Museum. WG Grace. His shoes were enormous for his day.



Random shots.

 

[Pushka]

@QF WP The Holy Grail. The Ashes. The original urn.

The Urn is in such poor condition that it is kept under special lighting in a sealed cabinet.









When Australia won the first Test series on British soil the above obituary appeared in the paper. Thought to be done by the Cremation guild as an ad for their foray into the Funeral market.

The ashes urn was later given to the English captain when they won the next test in Australia by a Lady someone. She then went on to marry him a year later. It was their personal momento of their marriage until his death when he had asked for it to be put in a museum. And thus the story began.

 

[Pushka]

We walked around the oval and were then taken up into that (I think) awful media spaceship.



Spectacular view. Media were there to cover the County final.





A work station.



A behind ‘selfie’ of media in situ



Media relax area where they are treated to a lot of food.

 

[JohnM]

I won't clutter your TR, but when we catch up in Adelaide, I'll tell you the story of how my dad was a 'fixture' in the Long Room at Lords and had better recognition than an English captain!

So he was the barman?

 

[RooFlyer]

With Pushka's OK, here is my story from up-thread.

Dad was a Tas state cricketer and footballer post WW2. He went into sports TV in the 1960s-1980s and was a bit of a 'Eddie McGuire' figure locally. Very gregarious and he could mix effortlessly with the Great and the not-so-great. Through shared interests he became friends with Sir Robert Sangster, the Pools millionaire and horse breeder/racer (every year the Christmas card that took pride of place on the mantle piece was from 'Robert and Susan' ). Keith Miller was a great friend of his, along with Garfield Sobers and many more - they used to come for a BBQ at home whenever they were in town.

From the mid '70s to late '80s he and mum went to England every second year and dad caught up with his cricket cronies at the Lords Test; he was a MCC Member (egg and bacon tie) and got to know simply everyone at Lords, from the gate-keepers to barmen and the President.

At dad's funeral, Keith Miller gave a eulogy and told the story that he (Miller) was in the Long Room at Lords when a local member asked him: "The chap with the white hair over there is [name], but who's that he's talking to?"

Answer: Mike Smith, 25 match captain of England

 

[Pushka]

From the mid '70s to late '80s he and mum went to England every second year and dad caught up with his cricket cronies at the Lords Test; he was a MCC Member (egg and bacon tie) and got to know simply everyone at Lords, from the gate-keepers to barmen and the President.

The current wait list is 30 years! First time I’d heard the colours referred to as Egg and Bacon was today and now you’ve repeated it. To us it’s been egg and tomato sauce. The colours are in honour of something I can’t recall right now. Too many reds consumed.

Back to the cricket.

As the bell rang for start of play the heavens opened. We decided to go visit another memorable place and return to the cricket later. So a quick trip up the road.

Where are we?



(Not us).

 

[Pushka]

The graffiti wall outside the studio is repainted every month to allow others to sign

We ventured inside and it was fab to hear the great Beatles hits. LP’s for sale.

They make a feature of the graffiti wall. Purchased the Jelly Bean tin which is cute.

 

[Pushka]

Back to the cricket. Weird pricing. For the tour it cost £24. For seniors over 60 - £18. We purchased seniors. First time we’ve done that since that not so wonderful birthday. This gave us the tour and then entry to watch the game if there is one being played. There was.

To gain entry to the game cost £20. Go figure!

The cricket. Play started as we returned. We saw a ton being scored and 3 wickets fall. Quite satisfactory.



Take a guess on which 3 international cricketers - batsmen - have never scored a ton at Lords and hence their name is not on the Honours board in the players room. Quite surprising it is.

 

[Pushka]

Then back on the sub to


Christmas stuff in full force.





Plus the usual luxuries.

 

[Pushka]

Gorgeous blooms and a steal at £250!







I purchased a tree decoration in the Union Jack colours dated 2018 for the bride.

A long day and we needed a drink. This is the closest I can come to drinking English beer.



In the Wirral I tried an IPA Brit style. Awful. Flat. Warm.

Just a pizza tonight. It’s our last night here before Eurostar to get to CDG for early morning flight out Sat on QR. We’d thought about a last minute trip to Brit Museum until we remembered that early morning there is an AFL match on!

 

[QF WP]

Now that the family business has long gone

I think I'll get that feeling in about 9 years...

rn the earlier trip we had flown Adl-Sin-Muscat?-LHR

I remember my QF flight stopping (re-fuelling and a leg stretch for pax) in Abu Dhabi (during Gulf War 1).

Tomorrow we’ve booked a Tour of Lords!

Can't wait (okay, I'm excited for your both)

I won't clutter your TR, but when we catch up in Adelaide, I'll tell you the story of how my dad was a 'fixture' in the Long Room at Lords and had better recognition than an English captain!

Story sounds like my uncle (a cricket tragic), who has been known to have used a former Australian Captains membership to get in..with him having used it more than once (and got my Dad in as a Guest)

 

[QF WP]

Take a guess on which 3 international cricketers - batsmen - have never scored a ton at Lords and hence their name is not on the Honours board in the players room. Quite surprising it is.

I thought there were 5 (but am still gob smacked at the line-up) - Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar