It has been a busy couple of weeks since my last post. My good friend, Sharon, continued the tradition we’ve had for over three decades of her coming to visit me anywhere in the world I live. It was lovely to have her around (and DH really appreciated the help!).
We did all kinds of scooter accessible fun things, including many museum visits, theatre, and market research tours of shops. (You can read about our tour of Burberry’s flagship store here.) More entertaining elevator stories, but at least in Burberry’s they gave us champagne while we were waiting for them to get the elevator working.
Drinking is a huge part of British culture. The UK ranks among the top alcohol consumers in the world, well above Canada, the US, and even France. It is also high among frequency of consumption, not just amount. One sees this with the crowds outside the many, many pubs every day after work. (There seem to be pubs on pretty well every corner.) The “What’s On in London” listings are invariably dominated by alcohol-related events. Pubs, apparently, are losing some business to fancier bars. In London, rooftop bars are hugely expensive, but also hugely popular.
Never one to miss out on a trend, we stopped for with Sharon and a London-based friend for a drink at one of the oldest pubs in London, Ye Olde Mitre, built in 1546. It is down a tiny alleyway: blink and you miss it. But many Londoners are in on the secret and, like all the other pubs in central London, its tiny patio gets crowded with people standing around beer barrels chugging and chatting at the end of the work day.
While Sharon was here we went to two contrasting plays. At one extreme, we got to sit in an old-fashioned theatre box, in the elegant Noel Coward Theatre, to see the Lieutenant of Inishmore. A comedy about, of all things, the violence in Ireland during the IRA years. It was amazing how it managed to be funny yet appalling at the same time. With brilliant acting, especially by lead actor, Aidan Turner (whose character was described as so violent even the IRA wouldn’t have him) it made its point powerfully about the senselessness and tragedy of historical feuds.
The other play, The Jungle, was even more powerful. It tells many of the stories from inside what was dubbed “the jungle” in Calais, where refugees eager to make it across the channel to England lived until the French government ultimately plowed it all down.
The performance brought the audience inside “the Afghan Cafe” to watch and feel the hopes and anguish of those desperate to flee. We saw the struggles to get along despite the vast cultural differences among the occupants, who came from so many different countries and cultures, and the mutual caring and support against perceived enemies (aka the French government trying to destroy The Jungle).
The set was amazing. They had covered over the main floor section of the Playhouse Theatre, and built a recreation of the tent-based cafe, with a floor of packed dirt, posters and flags on the walls, benches and cushions strewn around as the audience seats. (The balconies were also used as seating.)
To add to the feeling of authenticity, some of the cast were — in character — wandering around offering chai and flatbread to audience members as we settled in, and at times of celebration during the play. Also, as we got seated, other cast members were distributing a notice about an emergency meeting, which is where the play began.
It was total immersion theatre. Impressively done.
Another new cultural experience for me: I finally took a British, wheelchair friendly bus. They all have a ramp that can come out to the pavement from the middle section of the bus, which is designated for wheelchairs and scooters.
One detail they overlooked: there is nowhere to pay if you enter at the middle. I guess the assumption is that you will have a caregiver with you, who can go the front of the bus to pay the fare. Now I understand why others had told me that most users of the wheelchair section don’t end up paying. (I was with DH, so he went and paid for both of us.)
