Trip to London for 2018 New Year’s with Barb and Allie, staying with Ada.
Sunday, Dec. 31
The plan for this New Year’s Eve Day is to mostly take it easy, heading down to Fortnum & Mason for some (now) traditional New Year’s shopping and tea, then back to Ada’s to prepare a nice dinner.
The evening before, when we were walking up to Hampstead for dinner, we passed a nice looking butcher shop and it occurred to me that would be a good place to get steak for tonight’s dinner. Fortunately it was open on this semi-holiday and I was there shortly after 10am. The Hampstead Butcher & Providore turned out to be a very nice shop indeed, with a range of gourmet food and some great looking meats. I selected a few ribeye cuts, trying not to think too hard about the price per pound, and headed back down the hill to get more dinner groceries (potatoes, asparagus and wine) at Budgens near Ada’s.
With dinner mostly taken care of, we had a bit of late breakfast at Ada’s and took our time getting ourselves together to head into town to shop at F&M. We got champagne, poppers and some gifts for back home, but realized the plan to have tea in the lower restaurant was not a good one — they don’t serve tea down there after all, despite our memory of having it there a few years ago. No matter. We had a back up plan and went instead to Brumus at the Haymarket Hotel. It was a pleasant afternoon for the four of us, though I had too many sandwiches. We waddled home for a nap to get ready for our low-key New Year’s Eve festivities.
We noshed through a selection of cheeses and charcuterie that Ada provided, then I cooked our steak, roast potatoes and asparagus for dinner. We actually enjoyed watching Graham Norton’s show with Hugh Jackman and others and then Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. We are old. Cracked open champagne and poppers at midnight and stayed up thru Hootenanny until 2am. What more do you need??
Monday, Jan. 1
New Years Day of rest. We all slept until nearly 11. Barb cooked up bacon and eggs for everyone and we settled for a while with various books and screens. In the afternoon we walked down the hill to Camden Market. I finally found two nice manly wool scarves. 
We all shared some cheesy pasta with pancetta and mushrooms with Barb (can you find her in the picture?). Barb found some souvenirs for home over in the always-crowded street of tacky tourist shops.
Back to Ada’s for an endless marathon of Great British Bake Offs and Harry Potter top 25 moments. Got bread and wine to finish cheese and charcuterie for dinner. Allie headed out to see her high school friends Nathan, Kyle and Minnie who all showed up in town.
Tuesday, Jan. 2
We’d been slow to realize we could get a nice croissant or other goodies at several small bakery/coffee shops near Ada’s. We got a quick bite at Gail’s Bakery, then caught the Tube to the Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibit at British Library. This exhibit has become a big deal (coming to NY this fall so expect another wave of publicity) and we were lucky to snag reserved tickets a month or so earlier. Poor Ada felt sick just as we got in the exhibit and headed back home. She spent most of the next week or more in bed with a bad case of flu.
The History of Magic exhibit ended up being a mix of J.K. Rowling book and movie artifacts along with historical texts on witches, alchemy, spells, etc. I more enjoyed the historical items though the biggest crowds seemed to cluster around Rowling’s notes and markups. It’s an interesting approach to ground the development of many of today’s sciences in the magic of yesteryear, leavening the history lesson with the economic juggernaut of Harry Potter. It’s also a reminder of how remarkably important the Potter universe has become to the British culture, identity and economy…for better and worse.
We took a little time to revisit the Treasures Room at the British Library. It’s easy to be repeatedly awed by items like DaVinci’s notebook pages and the wealth of other landmark documents on display. It’s also healthy, I think, to have a reminder of cultural heritage with a longer track record.
At this point, Barb headed back to Ada’s while Allie and I (without Ada, who was to have joined us) headed to an early dinner at Ottolenghi Spitalfields, in honor of Laurie, and a play. Yotam Ottolenghi is a chef and author that has created quite a London-based foodie empire. He also became friends with Maggie and Laila through the overlap of their Gaza Kitchen cookbook and Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook. Laurie had badly wanted to go to one of Ottolenghi’s restaurants when we were in London together two years earlier, and finally made it there this year. She urged us again to go, so this was our chance.
We’d made a reservation for 4pm with thoughts of a leisurely pre-theater meal. The restaurant host let us know that the kitchen was closed until 5pm and only cold dishes were available; he suggested we come back and held a table for us. So Allie and I took the hour to explore the Old Spitalfields Market. It’s not old at all, at this point; it’s a modern mall of mostly local shops and food stalls. We found tea infusers for Barb and a spice grinder for Ada, then got a drink. At Ottolenghi’s, we had a very nice meal including Padron peppers, olives, tuna with Asian lime sauce, fried sardines with great little potato chips, and grilled cauliflower. Allie tried a flight of orange wines from Georgia that were a featured special. They were interesting, some better than others, though I can’t really say anything more authoritative. Overall, the meal was very nice indeed and well worth the praise from Laurie and others.
After seeing the marquee for the Girl From the North Country a few nights before, and some positive reviews, we decided to get tickets. We’d hoped to bring Ada as a thank you, and it was very unfortunate she didn’t feel well enough. Allie and I were eager to see what the show was about. It’s a new play build around Bob Dylan songs that had just opened in West End. I found it to be an odd mix of Dylan songs wedged into comings and goings in Depression era rooming house in Minnesota. Lots of characters and back stories to navigate, each getting their featured song, some of which fit, others seemed forced. It was an enjoyable evening and I’m glad we saw it, but the play’s structure seemed to get in the way itself.
Wednesday, Jan. 3
Flagged down a cab early to get to Heathrow for our 11:35am flight back to Dulles. Got out quietly without even a chance to say bye to Ada who was still mighty sick. We had a very chatty cab driver who told us about his American wife, the house he built outside London, and his opinion of Uber (not positive, needless to say). No difficulties checking in at Heathrow but then we had a two-hour delay sitting on the British Airways plane due to communication problems. Fortunately, the seats behind us were empty so Allie got the entire row to herself and Barb and I could spread out. Once at Dulles, it was very nice of Mary to pick us up at airport at 5pm. Rather than fight rush hour traffic, we had dinner in Reston at Not Your Average Joe’s (it was, in fact, average). We got ourselves home by 8pm or so and said hi to George and Buster. The next morning Allie was on a plane back to Boston and 2018 was underway.
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