We made arrangements with Anna and Andy (Bill’s sisters daughter and her fiancé) to meet at 10 am at our hotel to go for brunch, museum, dinner and mayhem.
They had picked a really good restaurant Dishoom, (which is Indian) for brunch. We did get there in time for the Breakfast menu. I had the Big Bombay, which was the Indian version of a British Brekkies, eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, beans and toast. It was really good and very filling. The others had the various roti breakfast rolls. Everyone seemed quite happy with their choices.
We decided to walk over to the British Library Museum and on the way, Andy spotted a macaron place and had to have some. It is clear to me, if you love these little French pastries, you really, really love them. There is no “I just like them”, it’s love and must eat as many as possible when finding a shop!
Andy got an assortment, I was keen to try the chocolate and Foie gras one. Andy suggested a few others after staking out his favorites! This is a man with macaron experience!
We arrived at the British Library and their current exhibit was on Harry Potter. We could get tickets for the 3:00 entrance. That gave us some time to look at the permanent exhibits and to try out some of the macarons. News flash, the foie gras was a big disappointment, it tasted of neither foie or chocolate!
Having never read any of the Harry Potter books, the exhibit was sort of lost on me. What was clear was that J.K. Rowling cribbed a great deal from origin legends, the Bible, and various other ancient texts. By her own admission, she tweaked them to fit her needs and used them to propel the story line forward. I had forgotten that each text was a year at school, which is why kids were so motivated to obtain a volume at publication date. Anna said that the books came out at her year in school. I’m not sure which year this was, meaning high school, or college, but she read each volume multiple times and clearly feels that they contained information to help her deal with the various stressors in her life.
What was fascinating to me, was the intricate time lines that Ms. Rowling created in order to write the books. On graph paper, that was divided into various width columns, she plotted out each chapter in a particular volume. The amount of detail and creativity was astonishing.
We left there and headed to a pub called the Lamb. We had a couple of drinks and then Anna booked us a table at Zelman Meats. We strolled over and were settled into a booth. We ordered picanha, lamb chops, beef ribs, along with some sides and fries with “fucking” sauce. It was very good and quite filling. Andy and I had a lovely Spanish Tempranillo will Bill was happy with beer and Anna enjoyed her G & Ts.
We left the restaurant full, slightly tipsy and so very glad to have spent time with each other. They graciously offered to put us up on our return leg, which we were very happy to accept. Anna and Andy are a delightful couple.
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