sortof! We started today with a quick breakfast from a local cafe: bacon rolls! And then the entire family was shepherded onto the Tube for a trip across town to St. Paul’s Cathedral for the 11:00 service (they still call it mass here!), a sung eucharist with the the St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir and the City of London Sinfonia. It was absolutely unforgettable: sitting in this amazingly ornate and beautiful cathedral with several hundred other of my closest friends listening to a different version of a service that I pretty much know by heart. A few interesting obeservations:
- The mass was led by the “President” – a woman – but the choir was entirely male.
- There was no old Testament reading.
- Parts of the service that we usually hear spoken – such as the Nicene Creed – were sung by the choir… in Latin!
- There were about a thousand people in attendance, approximately 10% of which actually had a clue what was going on.
- The acoustics were great for a solo a capella voice but the Sinfonia and the sermon echoed terribly.
The sermon was on the City of London Festival and the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the formal ending of the slave trade. It was done by one of the 5 priests in attendance with lots of Deacons, vergers and wardsman helping out as well. Altogether a moving experience that I felt honored to take part in. (“Best 5 quid we’ve spent yet” was Frank’s review.) Because it was Sunday, the Cathedral was only open for worship so there was no looking around and taking pictures – which seemed to confuse many people who wandered in wanting to do just that – so I may have to stop by and play tourist tomorrow when I’m done working.
Then what happens after church in all the historical novels and Agatha Christie stories? The family goes home to the Sunday joint that the kitchen staff has been preparing and the quinticenssial Sunday lunch is served. Well we didn’t have a manor house to return to so we did the next best thing: went to a restaurant famous for just that! Simpson’s-in-the-Strand has been serving the best roast beef and lamb for nearly 200 years. So we took a table in the Grand Divan room and enjoyed our Sunday lunch. The carver rolls the roast out to the table and cuts slices exactly how you want it. Frank, Gillian and I had the beef and Duncan had the lamb. The beef was exquisite! Gravy, horseradish, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and cabbage goes with it… a bottle of beaujolais (which the French sommolier said I pronounced the name of very well!) and of course desert. My bread pudding was lovely but Frank won for best desert with the treacle sponge with custard. Yum!
So after we spend 3 hours eating more food than we normally consume in several days, we decided to take a nice walk to aid in the digestion. But instead of heading to the local park – which would have been nice because the sun was actually trying to come out – we did what any good American consumer does…. went shopping! The girls had been very successful on Oxford Street yesterday but now it was the boys’ turn. We hit the shops looking for goodies for Frank and Duncan and were moderately successful. (I think they were restraining themselves because they are hitting the world’s best toy store tomorrow!) We got kicked out of Debenham’s when they shut at 6 and then we wandered back to the hotel to be moan the fact that we still weren’t hungry!
Eventually, we headed out for a pint to the local pub. This would also be stereotypical English thing to do but for one thing: today England went smoke free! As of 6 a.m. this morning, there is no smoking in any enclosed workspaces. This means bars and restaurants. We ventured into a pub nearby that had real ales and had a seat. Apparently, this was truly for locals because we were the youngest (and soberest!) people by far. So the lure of being able to have a pint without fear of an asthma attack was not enough to keep us in that particular establishment and Gillian professed to actually being hungry so to the chippy we go! Gillian actually got a chicken nuggets meal while Frank had his own packet of chips with a pickled onion and Duncan and I shared some chips with extra salt and vinegar. I’m going to ignore the fact that the only vegetable I had all day today was three tablespoons of cabbage and just go to bed fat and happy. And early – I have to work again tomorrow!
/san/
[Pedometer count: 19,886 or just shy of 10 miles. Definitely not enough to cover all the food I ate today!]
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