London

17/05/2008 by admin.

If I go to London I am usually there with a purpose; seeing friends, going to the theatre or the opera (seldom nowadays since we like to be comfortable and have good sight lines) and, also eating out. Eating out in London is as variable as it ever was, some restaurants still offering very good value for money and others, mainly the chi-chi and highly-priced, committing a refined form of daylight robbery.

The contrast between the two types of establishment is greater than ever. I think that to pay over £100 per person for any meal is obscene and I am determined to keep quiet about the good-value-for money restaurants I know where an excellent meal with wine can still be had for around £40.  I keep quiet for fear they may become too popular, get their chef on TV and raise their prices.These are mainly NOT near theatres or opera houses but would pay the cost of a taxi, even at the outrageous price of these, to get there.  I ate at two such establishments this week. Lucky me!

I still like London but also like to have time to take it slowly and watch people scurrying about, totally oblivious sometimes to their historic surroundings, better appreciated probably by the better type of American tourist or even educated middle European newcomers than to ‘Londoners’ whatever the colour of their skin. Perhaps we ought to add a test of knowledge of  English history, not only to aspiring subjects of Her Majesty (not ‘citizens’ if you please) but to all born in this great city in the last twenty years. God knows they have a slim chance of learning much about this in British schools.  So they rush past the Banqueting House or Westminster Hall with no thought for the purpose of these buildings, their origins or their sometimes magnificent and sometimes horrible past. Pity!

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