A London Patchwork

Monday: Halloween and the Jack the Ripper Tour.
Tuesday: Christmas Lights turned on in Oxford Street.

Anyone else feel like we skipped November in there? No? Must just be me.

You know when you're walking down a tremendously busy street and you feel a little like cattle being herded? That was Oxford Street on Tuesday as the lights were about to be turned on. While standing in a crush of people, trying not to lose my friend Ane or get trampled, I looked up and saw Eric Whitacre crossing about fifteen feet in front of me. (If you don't know his music, shame on you, but you can find him here.) If you've spent any time in big cities, you know that they are loud, and in this ginormous crowd on Oxford Street, it was especially loud. So when I saw Eric Whitacre, I thought I said "Oh my God, that's Eric Whitacre" at a totally reasonable volume. Judging by his reaction (head snapping around to see me staring with my jaw dropped), I was a little louder than I intended. He was very kind to come over and talk to me, but I'll admit I would rather have shown a bit more poise. There is some comfort in the fact that I'm certainly not the first choir geek to react like that when faced with him.

Saturday was Bonfire Night. This was fun (though we didn't see Guy Fawkes burned in effigy). My favorite thing about spending extended time in London is finding all the cool neighborhoods I have never seen as a tourist. For the fireworks we went to Primrose Hill. There is not an official fireworks show there (but there were a awful lot of unofficial fireworks going off all around us), but the hill offers a really great panoramic view of London so we could see several displays in the distance. People who planned better than we did made an evening out of it, packing picnics, champagne, and the like, but we contented ourselves with going to find dinner after the fireworks (I was actually pretty proud that I thought to bring a blanket). If you don't know the story of Guy Fawkes, this site sums it up pretty succinctly. They also sell shirts: Guy gear and Fawkesy Lady wear. I've been giggling about that for about ten minutes.

Princess Amneris Gold Atlas Sandals
(designed for the Royal Opera, London)

For this weekend's cultural outing, we branched out of the typical museums a bit. Instead we went to "Shoes for Show: the Sculptural Art of High Heels." The only bad thing I have to say about this show is that it wasn't big enough, but with shoes from 1850 through 2011, it was certainly interesting. But perhaps the most interesting part of the day came when we tried to get to the gallery in the first place. Four different train lines were down today for scheduled maintenance, including every line that went to the three closest stops to our destination. We got as close as we could and then walked the rest of the way. London is endlessly fascinating to me: the architectural variety (buildings hundreds of years old next to twenty-first century offices), the diversity of the people, and the charming stretches of shops and restaurants interspersed with the residential areas are just a few of the things I adore. Sometimes I think wistfully of streets laid out on a seemingly logical grid, but the unique possibilities when streets intersect at all manner of angles are fantastic. Today we wandered for a few hours, saw parts of London we've never seen but to which I can't wait to return, visited a gallery show of amazing high heels, found a craft market and vintage clothing sale by accident, and generally enjoyed the fresh air and autumn weather. That is an exhilarating day in a fabulous city.

Fawkesy Lady. Good stuff.