The Grand Tour Part 8: Buckingham Palace, Camden Locke, and The Upstart Crow

   I don't know if this counts as part of our curse or not, but a week or two ago I tripped in Emma's kitchen and fell on my left knee. It never got a very bad bruise, but it hurts terribly, and after a few days  I noticed that my whole knee, and the surrounding area, was green. So I guess it thought it was bruised, because after that it looked like a healing bruise. Several years ago I tripped over something in our kitchen when being greeted by our dog, Piper, and fell, slamming my right knee cap into the floor. It hurt much more than this knee, and for ages afterward. Just as it was almost better, I was carrying a basket of laundry around to the side yard to hang, when I tripped over a twig and fell on the right knee again. I slammed it into the sidewalk that time. It was so bad for so long that I finally consented to go to the doctor, who told me that I had detached the muscle from the knee, and would just have to give it time to heal. I think I might have detached a muscle this time, and dag nab it! This was my good knee! I suppose it's not as bad as Ken's injury: When we went to Ivy's opera, on Ken's birthday about a week before I got my injury, he fell going down the stairs in the theatre, and hit the side of his face on the arm of one of the seats. He didn't get nearly the great black eye I got in the summer of 2021, but he got a small one, and he bled like crazy from the two cuts on his face, and the side of his face is still swollen and hard and has a big red blotch. 

  For those of you who wanted to see some pictures of the costumes Ivy worked on, here are some pictures from the Gilbert and Sullivan extravaganza. Some of the clothes were what was on hand, (including some of the cast's own clothes.), some were from the costume department, and some Ivy designed. Some of those she actually made. There weren't as many real 'costumes' in this one, because the concept, (not Ivy's idea), was that the ghosts of old timey Gilbert and Sullivan performers were waiting for eternity to go on stage so they were hanging around backstage in their underwear. Ivy wasn't crazy about the concept, and neither was I. In their day, those women would not be hanging around, in front of the people they were haunting, in their underwear, even if they were dead. (I know I wouldn't be caught dead in my underwear!)

  Anyway, this post isn't about black eyes. It's about our trip, (A travel trip, not a falling one!) last Fall. Boy! It's been months already! We left in October and got home in November. We've been home for over  three months already! And I wanted to have the trip posts done by January. HAAAA!!!! Anyway...

  Our second full day in London with the girls was all over the place. Emma went out early on her own and perused the Kinks landmarks in the neighbourhood we were staying in.  And yes, this airb&b was better than some of the others on the trip, and not as good as some. There were stairs, which were still a problem for me, because my leg was still bothering me a lot. My back was also still pretty bad. I kept picking Ken up to stretch my back muscles out. Once I even resorted to picking AJ up, since Ken wasn't doing the trick and AJ is a big guy. 

  Since Emma was on her own, everybody else went off on their own too. Ken and I went out as a pair. We headed first for Oxford Street. We bought a souvenir Queen Elizabeth 70th Jubilee plate. I tried the McPlant, a plant based burger, at McDonald's. 

  That was the first 'burger' I'd had from McDonald's in close to 40 years, since I stopped eating meat in 1988, and  I never ate McDonald's very often anyway. My opinion? The burger itself, which was a Beyond Burger patty, was a bit dry, and not very flavourful, and there was way too much ketchup. I wanted to try the McPlant because I wasn't sure it was available in America, (Turns out they tested it here, but cancelled the test here in August of last year. I don't know what area they tested it in, but I hadn't heard of it. Usually we get a lot of stuff tested in Columbus, because Columbus is supposed to be very representative of the country in general. I hadn't heard of the McPlant being here though.)

  Ken and I saw yet another American candy store. We had already seen one in Edinburgh, and we ended up seeing two in London, and more elsewhere on the trip. The chocolate is so good in Europe, why do they worry about importing American chocolate and paying such high prices for it? Because the prices were crazy.

  We continued on until I found the alley that leads to Soho Square. I used to spend a fair amount of time in Soho Square in the 80's when I lived in London. My train came into Charing Cross every day, and I'd cross the street and walk down Charing Cross Road to Shaftsbury Avenue, and go to Soho Square. I'd sit there and eat my lunch, write my letters, talk to friends I'd met in London, and while I was there, try to get Paul McCartney's autograph, since his office is right there. (You can read my post about meeting Paul HERE.) So it was somewhere I was really familiar with. The place has changed a lot. It was still a little surreal to be there with Ken. 

  I wanted to see if Paul's office, MPL, still handed out promo items to visiting tourists who asked. That's why I dragged Ken there. Guess what: they don't. The current secretary was a bit surprised at my question. I assured her that they used to, back in the 80's. 

Tammy World was disappointed Paul wasn't there, but she wanted her picture taken in front of the office. That's it to the right of her head.

  While we were there we took pictures and got rained on. (Of course. It always rains wherever I go. Remember?) Then we walked to a place in Soho, proclaiming itself as having the best pies in London...oh. Sweeney Todd just occurred to me. But we had the vegetarian pies anyway! And also, I doubt they were the best pies anywhere. They were only okay.

  While we were eating our pies we got a message that Emma had been at Battersea power station, which is now a mall (!), and was heading for Buckingham Palace, So we headed over to the Palace to try to run into her. As I said in a previous post, nobody's phones service was working properly, so we couldn't just call each other, and messages were delayed until we were somewhere with Wi-Fi..

Me, at Buckingham Palace. Get the Palace in this time Ken.

Tammy World wanted her picture taken in front of the Palace too. Still raining.

  We waited for ages, but no Emma. We finally decided to move on. My leg was hurting, and Ken needed a bathroom.  We took a walk through St. James's Park, only to find the toilet was closed. It was very pretty though, and we saw some interesting birds. That doesn't help when you have to use the toilet though. 

  We ended up coming out by Sotheby's, while they were loading some very expensive cars into a truck. Ken talked to somebody who said they had just sold a James Bond car. Then we discovered we were also outside St. James's Palace.

   Here I have a blank in my memory. I can't remember what Ken and I did in between St. James' Palace and the next bit, other than sitting, (in the rain), in front of a café to use their WiFi. And unless they suddenly turn up some day, (and I hope they do.), Ken misplaced most of the memory cards from our trip when he rescued them from the house. So I have no way to jog my memory. So let's skip ahead...

  I do have a few pictures on my phone that have reminded me that Ken insisted we try to get to the Victoria and Albert Museum, even though I told him it would be closed before we got there, because I wanted to see Queen Mary's doll house. He wouldn't stand an argument. So we hustled. 

Me crossing the street. Where is the 'wide load' car that should have accompanied me?

Yes, that's a Christmas tree. It was the first week of November.

My leg was killing me. We got there just as they were closing, of course. 

The face of pain. Note the bust of Ken next to me. That's a joke. We always say Ken looks like Einstein now.

  But it didn't matter anyway, because the dollhouse isn't even there! There are apparently several branches of the V & A, and the one we were in never had the dollhouse. (I had thought it was sort of outside London proper. This one seemed way too central, so I was confused anyway.) I guess it's at Winsor Castle. 

  After that it was getting late. We had to be at the theatre in Shaftsbury Avenue to see The Upstart Crow, based on the comedy series by Ben Elton, that evening. Emma had the tickets on her phone though, and we hadn't been able to get in touch with her. Eventually we headed to the theatre because I wanted to make sure there was no way we could be late. I wanted to wait in front of the theatre so we didn't miss the kids when they got there. We were super early, and as usual, Ken was starving. He wanted to go get something to eat and come back. I didn't want to miss them. So I sent Ken off to quell his 'hanger', while I waited at the theatre. He didn't like that, but I insisted. It was raining, of course. My leg was very painful by then. One of the nice men at the theatre arranged for me to be able to sit in the lobby because of my leg, where I watched for the kids through the open doors. Ken got back and it was getting close to showtime. I asked the man at the ticket booth if there was any way we could access our tickets without Emma, in case they didn't make it in time. (I was fully prepared for that, after everything else!) He got some information from me to ty to verify that I knew Emma and was part of her party. It helped that we have the same last name, but not that I could barely remember her email address. (I never use it these days!) He printed out two tickets for me, (and Ken), warning me that if I was lying and the real owner of the tickets showed up and showed their tickets, that we would be kicked out. I assured him that was fine with me.  Fortunately, the kids turned up just in time. We saw the play, which was very good, and even met it's star. David Mitchell, who plays William Shakespeare, afterward and he signed our programs.

David Mitchell and a gushing AJ.

  The next day we had to check out of the air b&b. Ken and I went off and took our luggage to Kings Cross, where we found somewhere to check it for the day. 

Tammy World found a bike at the place where we checked our bags. It was the start of many cool bikes she saw. Luckily she already has one, because they would have been hard to get home without mashing them, 

We had arranged to meet the kids at a place called The Yorkshire Burrito, in Camden Locke. So Ken and I had a look around Camden Locke, and finally found the Yorkshire Burrito, We waited in the rain, (Yes. It was still raining.), and finally the kids showed up and we ordered lunch. The Yorkshire Burrito is so called because they serve a 'burrito' style Yorkshire dinner rolled up in a Yorkshire Pudding pancake. It was actually really good. We got the vegetarian one, which is described as: "Giant Yorkshire Pudding filled with Sage and Onion stuffing, Roast Potatoes, Spinach, our signature Gravy and wrapped up like a burrito."  After we ate, and AJ had ordered some additional food, which, unbeknownst to me, I was supposed to be watching, and then which was eaten on by pigeons, and then knocked to the ground when I discovered it was being eaten by pigeons and shooed them off, the kids went to head off to the studio where they were to see the Russell Howard Show. We went through Camden a bit more. We met this guy, named Milo, who was quite a snappy dresser.

    I don't think I bought anything in Camden Locke. Ken bought some magnets.

Tammy World wanted her picture taken in front of a pub called The World's End, because that's going to be the name of her family's house, (without the 'the'),  if I ever get it renovated. I had trouble getting them both in focus at the same time though.

  Eventually we had to head back to get our luggage, and catch our train for Hull. Since the kids had tickets to the Russell Howard show that evening, they were staying an extra night. 

  The next post will see us return to the north.