Dana's Trip to London
 

As Dana is currently being wined and dined in the Houses of Parliament, and I am stuck here at work because we're too busy for me to take a day off, I am jumping in first with my version of the evening.

I'm sure Dana will update you on today when she gets back home, but I'll tell you about last night.

Dana travelled down from Halifax to London mid-afternoon and made her own way to Greenwich. She stopped into my workplace and picked up the key to my house, so when I got home at about 17.15 she was there on the sofa, hurray! We both freshened up and were ready to go out and start the night by about 18.00.

First we went to the Pelton - my pub. We sat in the garden with a pint and had a quick chat with some of the locals. Then inside for another because D was feeling the cold. She liked the pub, which I was pleased about. It's a traditional "locals" pub - all dark wood and relaxed atmosphere. I'd told the guys that I had a friend coming to visit, so they were all interested in meeting her. Success.

Then we walked down by the Thames to HM's pub. I won't name it, as we got staff discount on the drinks ;) It's more of a tourist pub, larger and quite impersonal in some ways, but it has a gorgeous view over the river and an outside seating area. So we had our pints and decided to push on into Greenwich. I think both of us felt the effects of 3 strong pints on an empty stomach and didn't want things to get too messy.

So onto the Greenwich Wheel. It's nowhere near as big as the London Eye of course - just a temporary structure in front of the Maritime Museum. It gives people something extra to visit with the Cutty Sark under wraps. We walked up and bought our tickets, then waited for the wheel to stop. In less than 5 minutes we were on it, and they kindly let the 6 customers waiting into 3 separate carriages, rather than packing us into one. This meant we paid £14 for a £30 ride effectively. Inside there are just two grey padded bench style seats facing eachother. It didn't feel small because of the see-through top.

This is us. I don't really need to say anything else because you can see how much we are enjoying it. I think it's well worth it for £7.


Then off for pizza! I had a Buy One Get One Free voucher, which made it well worth a visit to Pizza Express - a place I hardly need dragging into anyway. Dana made the sensible choice to have a soft drink with her meal, so I followed suit. We were served quickly despite the fact the place was rammed. We started with dough balls (quickly dispatched, nom nom nom) then Dana had
Parmense:
A classic combination of flavours, asparagus, Parma ham and grana padano, then finished with a free range egg
and I had
Diavolo:
Devilishly hot with spicy beef, pepperoni, onions and Tabasco, plus extra fire with hot green peppers or jalapenos

We had to go to a little shop for supplies, and when we were there an woman with the haggard face and demeanour of a bride of alcohol staggered into the shop and tried to hand a bundle of cards and some keys to the shopkeeper. She claimed to have found them on the wall outside and was blorting about the poor little girl who wouldn't be able to get home.

Shopkeeper wasn't interested and just told her to take them to the police station. Dana and I leapt into action as Super Citizens and offered to take them. We rifled through (ostensibly checking for a contact number, but in my case being nosey) and read the little love note tucked in from her boyfriend. Ahhhh, cute. No credit or debit card, no Oyster (travelcard) no money. Hmmmm - Dana was suspicious of Lady Alcohol and suspected that she didn't turn in everything she found. Still, we figured she'd be glad to get back what we had. So we handed it in to the (apparently attractive) policeman and went on our virtuous way.

We headed back to HM's pub, which is on the way home after all. And got another discounted pint each. We were slowing down at this point, and had already vetoed a side trip to another pub to try their strawberry beer.

We sat and chatted and laughed and took a couple more photos.
Us & beers:

Me trying to retain my beer as Dana makes me laugh:

By now it was pretty much closing time.
I cheekily asked HM for carry outs, even though I knew Dana didn't want any. He came through with 2 half pints left outside for us, and I drank them while wandering home.

I have to say I only stumbled once, despite wearing my sky high shoes on cobbles. At this point Dana took the carrier bag from me, but kindly let me keep the beer.

And that's the end of the story really. She's gone off to meet the great and good, and will pop back in to collect her bag from me before going home tonight.

As always it was a pleasure to spend time with D. She's naturally funny, without the solemnity you would expect from someone with a passion for history and politics. She is always complimentary and makes you feel like you've laid on a big treat for her - I think this is from her appreciation of the simpler things in life, and always seeing the world as fresh and exciting.

I imagine she'd be great company on a long trip as she isn't scared of falling quiet, but will have something interesting to say on most topics you can raise and is a good listener.

Fingers crossed she'll come down in the Autumn and we'll do two or three of the two or three hundred things we planned last night!

most excellent, thanks for the pics!

this is the kind of thing you just can't get anywhere else. thanks Sundae, Dana.

Cool! Thanks for the on the spot reporting. :)

This is great! I giggled just thinking of you two laughing and having a great time! Thanks for this. :)

I felt like I was right up there in the Ferris wheel with you. Well done.

This brought an amazed smile to me this morning--a really good Cellar greeting! So lovely to see SG and Dana, to hear their voices. Very fun!

I must say, you're really raising the bar for Cicero and me when we meet!

What fun, I felt like I was there only slightly more sober since it is 11 am..

Just make sure it's fully documented :)
Anyway, just wait til she comes down next time - we'll have more time together and a chance to plan properly.

Oh I had forgotten Dana is out of the Cellar now until Friday.
I didn't kill her I promise.

Cool trip, great reportage, thanks.

You have carry-out beer? Whoa.

Hey, I watched that whole video, waiting for "the see-through top". :(

Wow, great job you two, love the video and the pictures. What a fun visit.

It appears in post 2 instead ;)

This is what makes the cellar more than just a forum on the interwebz. thanks for a glimpse into your lives ladies.

How cool! Looks like you two had a great time. :) Thanks for sharing.

I love how the cab behind you was plastered with the name "Wheel of Excellence." That's so very British. (Or maybe Japanese. :)) Thanks so much for sharing!

at first glance I thought it said, "Wheel of Ecstasy . . . "

kinda like mine better.

You're thinking of the "wheer of excerrence"

Not so much British really. I only saw it when playing it back and it made me smile. If it were properly British it would be a small sticker in a corner stating which safety marks it had been awarded and whether it was By Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen.

After all the current advertising slogans of our top supermarkets are, "Try Something New Today", "Every Little Helps" and "Why Pay More?" (and the last one is American).

I think a reasonable advertising slogan would be, "Quite a nice trip, and still cheaper than the London Eye."

Although Dana could be in their advert - watching the clip back she is completely amazed by the view. I was too of course, but I was claiming Dad's prerogative and being behind the camera.

I can't get over Dana's pizza... I've never seen anything like it. Do they not slice your pizza for you? Do you eat them with knife and fork???

yeah . . . ham and egg pizza. mind-boggling.

FAB.

U.

LOUS!!!



Thanks, that was so cool you 2!!

Pizza Express only serve individual Italian pizzas - on the pizza menu I mean.
Having been to three Italian cities I can confirm it is in the real Italian style (with variations by region of course).

They have some trans-Atlantic toppings of course, but with rocket, asparagus, artichoke, egg, pine nuts etc it's much closer to the Italian traditions. I always go for the American style toppings I admit ;)

Link to Pizza Express menu.

I'm more concerned with the arrangement of the toppings.

Again, it's consistent. It disconcerted my ex first time we ate there.
He didn't like me telling him about my previous visits as they'd been with previous boyfriends.

But at least we were both prepared for our first pizza in Venice.
On Italian pizzas, tomato is a topping in itself. Cheese (and everything else) appears to be a scattered afterthought. There might be an art to it... Hard to tell.

In Merka, we prefer our pig to be perforated for pizza.

Killer !!!
Looks Like a Fun visit !!

Thanks you two! That was the next best thing to being there. Thanks for sharing.

:D
Cloud didn't mention that she would be driving through my town this weekend! Hold on to your hats!!

Now how in the hell are we going to be cuter than that? Fu**. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to work on at least having some fun.

*I can't even get a beer that big here.*

This isn't a competition to see who can be most cute. Although, if you insist on making it so, may I humbly suggest that one or both of you flash the camera?

SG, Dana...that was *awesome*!

Oh how wonderful and thanks heaps. I used to live in Brockley, ten or so minutes from Greenwich where we always came to the market and the flicks, the Vietnamese restaurant and of course, the pubs. I think our 'regular' in Greenwich was Admiral something or other and the windows opened onto the river so's mariners could step straight from deck to bar. Many's the few who didn't quite negotiate the return leap.

Many years ago as a Student Nurse I did three months training in the 'Special Clinic' attached to HMS Dreadnought, huge learning curve there for a girl fresh up from the country!:o Loved your ride on the wheel, huge treat for a homesick ex-Londoner.

You are right sir, it isn't a "cute" competition. I'm jealous of the size of those beers! Maybe we can find gargantuan silver coin margaritas.
:D

Umm, okay. I didn't read that as pizza. I just figured it was something really british that my mom had kept quiet about when I was a kid. The phrase that came to mind was Dana refering to "fry up", only it looked like proscuito instead of bacon.

And SG, exactly how gay was your ex husband that you aren't married to him any more?

Good lord! Where have you been?!!

Apparently, we're using different dictionaries, here.

Not fair. I'm sure he'd reveal another side to me if he posted here, and not one in my favour either. My bad for mentioning him.

Howdy all:) Got my comp back and new 3G internet installed. Actually it's kind of slow, but at least the laptop can now be genuinely mobile ;)

The trip down south was delightful. I love Greenwich! It's such a pretty place. The view over the Thames when we were sitting outside the tourist pub (hey, I's a tourist!) was adorable. It's such a different feeling down there, the sky is huge and comes right down to you. In my part of the world, it's so hilly that the sky seems much smaller, though when high on the hill it also seems very immediate. Being so near to sea level feels very odd for a Pennine girl I can assure you:P

Sundae and HM are wonderful hosts (though, very remiss of me I don't think I actually thanked HM for his hospitality! SG if you can pass along my thanks I would appreciate that). They made my stay great fun and they are both wonderful company. SG is just as funny and charming in real life as she is on these boards, you'll all be pleased (and not remotely surprised) to hear.

The pizza was delicious! A much more delicate blend of flavours than I am used to on pizza, which was very nice.

The wheel trip was great! What a view! Sadly, I cannot play the little video (boo!!!) until I get my desktop fixed up (a friend is offering to do in in the next couple of weeks). This damned corporate laptop with it's security features and lack of any useful programmes! They've even blocked Youtube now :(

Going into Westminster was delightful. The interior is staggeringly beautiful and you can feel the weight of history all around you. Funnily enough the architect who completed the design for Westminster also designed my town's Town Hall. Anyway, it was a really nice visit. L bought me lunch up on the Terrace and asked me to sit in on a couple of her meetings (one with the Refugee Council and another with a woman from WRAP, who promote recycling and innovative approaches to reusing materials). Sooooooo glad I wore my suit and didn't turn up in skinny jeans and baseball boots as I usually do! Especially since L introduced me to a bunch of different people as "one of my Councillors". Shook hands with Dennis Skinner MP, whose always been a bit of a hero of mine:) Engaged in a little corridor politics with another MP who has an interest in our sister constituency's selection race. Oh and got the mini tour from L, who let me peep into the House of Lords (with the instruction not to stand still on the red carpet! apparently only the Lords can do this :P)

All in all a delightful trip. Only downside being I managed to not use my camera once! I only remembered I'd left it at SG's house when I was stood outside the Houses of Parliament looking across at the anti-war picket that's been there since the invasion. I'd have liked a photo of that, even though it was raining heavily.

*smiles*

Great stories, thanks for sharing. Sounds like you'all had a good time.

I'm confused is HM the same as Happy Monkey?

I don't remember what Sundae's HM stands for, but he's not Happy Monkey.

House Mate

Not sure I understand...?

...as in, not in The Cellar much? Well, retirement is fast and furious and I travel a fair bit but log in here from time to time. Off back to South Africa in August and maybe Scotland en route to Sweden in a couple of weeksl, but London first, last, and always.

I don't recall having seen you post much lately...?