Ruth in Spain!: the last couple of days in London

following on from where I left off - 2 days left in London. Emma had these 2 days off and it was great hanging out with her. We visited the Jeffrye Museum, which is dedicated to the ' history of the home' and shows how homes and gardens reflect changes in society, behaviour, style and taste over the past 400 years. As it turned out this means middle-class homes! The museum is in Shoreditch, East London, and is set in 18th century almshouses. It was interesting to see how the styles and furnishings of rooms changed over time from being rather plain and sparsely furnished to begin with and becoming more fancy and cluttered as time went on. We thought it was rather interesting even though the gardens weren't up to much, being winter. I think that Emma got more out of it than me because I felt a kind of a lack of energy, possibly due to a lack of sleep the night before. She charged around looking at everything that was there to be seen.

Jeffrye Museum

We also saw 'The Dallas Buyers Club' which, I have to say, I knew nothing about it, not even the subject of it, before I saw it and I have since learned quite a lot. I'd never heard of 'buyers clubs' for starters although I remember some of the aids related news items from the late '80s. Neither Emma or myself thought much of the film and I wasn't convinced that the 2 main actors were worthy of awards but Emma thought they were. Neither the film nor the performances pulled me in, I never felt involved with it, or the characters, and we both thought that it didn't convey anything really about the wider context of what was going on at that time re Aids and the stuff that was being put out regarding at 'risk people', where it came from, the religious crap etc etc, and buyers clubs generally within the whole scheme of things at the time. For example, when his office/distribution center was being shut down would all of those people in the queue waiting for their life -saving drugs just have quietly melted away? What did they do??????

Thinking about it now, my general feeling is that it was a ho-hum film that didn't do it's subject justice, and that it was just as well that I was ignorant about it before I saw it because I certainly would have been expecting a much bigger film and would have been sorely disappointed. And, it's the first film I've seen in almost 2 years!!!!

Holly and Brit met us for dinner and Brit said that she'd no wish to see it and Holly thought much the same as Emma and I.

Anyway, we had a really good pub dinner at the Market House in Brixton along with a beer or two. What a busy place it is, this was a Monday night and it was packed. Fortunately, we'd arrived in time to procure a table and it wasn't long before Holly and then Brit arrived.

We had thought that we'd eat there on Thursday night when I first arrived but while Emma and I were quietly supping away and catching up the place filled up and was jam packed, Brit had come in and couldn't see us, no tables were free and didn't look like we'd get one before it got late so we met Brit outside and mooched off to Lounge where the waitress remembered me from being there either when we stopped off in London en route to Azpeitia or before I went back to NZ in June last year. I don't know what I'd done to be remembered and she wasn't telling me!

So that was on Monday and we went to the Jeffrye Museum on Tuesday, getting back to Brixton in time for me to finish packing and be on my way to Heathrow - Bilbao - Azpeitia. Fortunately, there wasn't any problem with the taxi not coming - it came early!

Another damn good holiday - I missed Sam though, and a few times I almost said something to Emma about calling him or meeting up with him and then remembered that HE WAS IN NEW ZEALAND ... humph. I did have a great time with Emma, and spending time with her and Sam, the other times I've been in London, have been everything I had in mind, when I first hatched my plan to live and work in this part of the world, and so much better than that.

So, it was back to Azpeitia. I was very lucky to be met at the airport by Jaione, the teacher with whom I went to the cider house with, and driven back to Azpeitia. It was extremely kind and generous of her because she doesn't actually live in Azpeitia but is a further 45 minutes down the road, in Beasain.

The next day it was up and off to school. February had turned out to be an interesting month - visitors, excursions and travel. March wasn't looking to have so much going on but it's been pretty good so far. The weather was pretty good in London - chilly with lots of sunshine and just a little rain and since I've been back the weather here has been fabulous - Zaragoza sunshine every day - so so lovely. However, today it's back to drizzly cold which means that I can't pack my big coat away just yet.

I did my usual 'going to ground' after being in London and then got on with enjoying all that Azpeitia has to offer.

11 days until Barry is back - just saying in case anyone is wondering.

Now it's time to finish this up and post it. I've been doing this in Etxe Zuri while Davia, the cook, cooked my dinner, got shouted a beer by a guy because, as Miren told him, I come from NZ! I've drunk the beer and eaten my dinner and had a chat to Miren - It's time to go home.

Some random photos -

some shoes in Camden