Day Five Thursday 21st September

-

 Start off the day with a Full English Breakfast. Well not so full since I asked for the Black Pudding to be removed. Never tried it and am not too keen to start now. Sleep is nearly working now so I think today might be a good and not so tiring day of carrying around jet lag.

After breakfast, I go by myself for a walk around Ealing. I like to have a destination so I Google Ealing Studios. Very famous studio as I have mentioned before. In the Seventies, the Ealing films seemed to be on the telly on Sunday afternoons all the time. But a bit of investigation revealed a lot more including Harry Potter and Star Wars. Anyone it's a beautiful walk and the sun is shining and I can't get over the number of houses with top-of-the-range vehicles in the driveway including the odd Maserati or two. Bump into the Red Lion Hotel which was known as Stage 7 because everyone from the Studios drank there. Turn left and there is the studio. The small building at the front leads to a much bigger complex behind its walls but there are no tours so a quick pic is what I get.

There is a rock and roll place in Ealing I want to check out. The site of the Ealing Jazz Club where Brian Jones first played with Mick and Keith. Find it opposite the Ealing Broadway train station. A small alleyway which absolutely stinks of urine. I walk down the steps looking for the plaque but the fumes are so atrocious I go straight back up. It may be legendary but there's not much pride here. At the Ealing Broadway shopping centre across the road, they have a mural which has a history of rock and roll in London. Not as cool but without the stench.

Walking back to the hotel after buying a roll from Pret a Manger I bump into the girls who are walking up to Ealing Broadway. We will meet at 3pm to go back to central London. We're off to the Paul McCartney Exhibition. Walking past the Police Station I admire the story told on their windows. I think it's a story but even so, it looks cool.

The Exhibition is a bunch of photos Paul took with his 35mm camera back in the "eye of the storm" as they say. Behind-the-scenes photos of the Beatles in Paris, London and the USA. It's a really good exhibition and the photos really capture the mood of those times. There is a picture of George where he is the spitting image of Remi. All of us agree.  In particular, I liked the Miami pics. Wait I also loved the Paris pics. It's really good anyway and after the show, we walk around the rest of the gallery for a bit. Then we hear the heavens crack open.






Looking out the front door we see torrential rain. And this morning was so pleasant. However, rain was predicted and Ruby picked up some umbrellas for us (Mel's broke in the first gust of wind so we had two left) The girls and I had our usual argument about how to get to places and set off for a musical I booked tickets for. Close Up The Story of Twiggy.

It's a pleasant walk down to the Embankment past Trafalgar Square and Big Ben with a glimpse of the London Wheel. We jump on the Tube and 7 minutes later we're at Tower Bridge. In those 7 minutes, the rain had begun again but even wilder. There is plenty of time to get there but not really enough time to sit and order so hopefully we can get some bar snacks. This doesn't happen and we miss dinner.  



The musical is by Ben Elton who is famous for the Young Ones and Queen We Will Rock You. It's the story of Twiggy told through the music of the day. I actually learned a bit about the famous supermodel but I loved all the songs and the dance routines. There were a couple of really colloquial jokes but most of the humour I got. An enjoyable romp in a small theatre. Oh, but we were at the side so my neck was strained a bit and Melody




kept telling me off for shuffling just as my Mum used to. Mum used to call me "Shuffle Bum" I think the girls liked it but not as much as I did. Ruby thought there was too much attention to the males in Twiggy's life.


Made our way home. Straight upstairs to bed. Still a bit hungry but Mel gave me half a sandwich leftover from lunch. I think they had a bunch of snacks next door so hopefully their hunger was not too painful.



 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Thirteen Friday 29th September

-
Image
  Packing day and time to get out of Lytham. doesn't take long and the car is packed in no time. Swing around to the Elms to pick up the girls and we do the Tetris thing with baggage and eventually get it just right. The girls say goodbye to Michael and Brenda however we will be seeing them in a few hours. But they are very gracious to their hosts. Soon we're off across the Moors and then the Yorkshire Dales. I'm not much of a nature guy but the Dales look pretty amazing and not something I expected to see. I'm driving so I don't get any pictures but I might try to get some on the way to London. Find our way easily to Scotch Corner and the Holiday Inn we're staying in. We grab a Gregg's sausage roll for lunch then try and check in early.  The girl at the desk says they should be ready in 30. 90 minutes later we are still sitting in the lounge and eventually, we get rooms dead at 3pm which is the check-in time. Even then our rooms weren't ready so they ga...
Read more

Day Eleven Wednesday 27th September

-
Image
  The weather looks quite miserable outside so what better day than to go grey Manchester. Sharon and Ellie are going there to pick up some things so I pile into the back seat of Ellie's car with Ruby and Mel who start bickering because none of them want to go in the middle. We park in the Selfridges Car park and as soon as we get to the first floor cosmetics I split from the girls and start heading to the North Quarter. Retro shops, record stores and pop culture. It's a 10-minute walk from where we are but the weather is horrible and I forgot my umbrella. I think Mel still has it. The record shops are full of new records starting with Vinyl Revival and then Piccadilly Records. Picadilly is the most well-known and has a great selection of records but sadly they all cost more than me buying them off Amazon and getting delivered to my door.  I'm after some used records which I found at the one shop I can't remember the name of. The only record that takes my fancy is the M...
Read more

Day Three Tuesday 19th September

-
Image
3 a.m. Tuesday Morning in London and I'm staring at the ceiling in a hotel in Ealing. There is no chance of going back to sleep so I put on the sleep channel and watch patterns squirt along to New Age music. And read. And watch Netflix and wait for the light to come through the window. We had agreed to eat at 9 but moved the breakfast time to earlier since we were starving. There is a bit of banging coming from outside my window so at first light I check out what's happening. At first, it looked as if they building a new bus shelter but then I noticed there was snow all around and lots of tracks and Xmas decorations. They're filming outside the hotel. For Christmas, I'm guessing it will be something like a John Lewis commercial or Sainsbury's. I asked the receptionist on the way to breakfast but she wasn't allowed to tell. I strolled around outside looking for familiar faces and saw one TV star but I couldn't find her on Google. They build a beautiful Xmas s...
Read more