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Published: April 5th 2011
As I lie in at the house of my great friend in Chiswick, I can hear the rain falling on the french doors and can see that the blossom in the yard has grown into pompoms.
The house is a non stop flow of people staying and coming and going, eating great family dinners, talking around the table and laughing and supporting each other. These are the reasons why your home country can beat extended living abroad - hands down. I still hanker for travel to Tibet, India and Bhutan but sometimes, most times, actually - every time, the company of friends and those bi-annual times when you get your kids in the same place at the same time are priceless. Here live people from Mozambique, New Zealand, Uruguay and around the corner, they bring the world into the house.
I'm meeting my friend from Canada again and he speaks with an accent I forgot.
I met Dave on the trip to Tibet in 06. We met yesterday at the monument in front of Charing Cross Station, after almost 5 years and just walked and talked.
London is still full of surprises. Whilst Dave takes photos of
a gem - all of it
St. Pancras Hotelthe Grinling Gibbons in St. James's in Piccadilly, I listen to the pianist, violinist and cello player practicing. I don't know this music but I do understand the beauty. On the pew, inside the violin case, photographs of the tutor or owners of the instrument are carried around. It all has the quality of honesty and hard work. Dave is a carver of love spoons so the Gibbons is his interest, I'm rooted to a pew and listen to the sound of the violin that we are lucky to fall upon.
After, we nip over the road because of the back stairs at the Royal Academy. They're still curvingly, wrought ironly, english and elegantly scrolling around the view above the leather buttoned seating that was made to fit perfectly into the alcove below.
English details at their best.
Two ladies of substance sit in the soft chairs below a projection of a 1970's Jarman super 8 of Avebury, watching my face watching the Jarman.
To me, couldn't be better.
Silent flickering Jarman colours, behind educated ladies, under the solid railings - gems.
Outside we see a hawk resting on the mouldings above a
window. There's a cute guy with a glove on. We find that the hawk is employed to scare the pigeons away from roosting and comes once a week to circle around. He sometimes flies off to the park and has to be tracked. It's a big bird of great beauty and it's in a court yard in London. I'm actually surprised and hawk pest control is added to my list of 'most awesome jobs'.
We walk to the British Library and look at the illuminated prayer scroll that belonged to Henry VIII and all of the other beautiful illuminated pages from old England and across the world. More gems in cases.
And next door, we get shown around the new guest wing of the newly restored St. Pancras hotel. It's breathtaking. Every detail has been restored to a grandeur that I think cannot be matched in London. The stairs, the painted walls and ceilings, the tiles, the curving hand loomed carpets, all match the impeccable manners of the young Estonian girl that shows us around. Tables are still being cleaned, there is a staff meeting with all staff in uniform and the flower arrangement is as big as
a bus and it's all really really splendid.
Dave says - you'd feel very proud to pull off a job like that and I add it to my list of 'most awesome jobs' restorer, architect and hand loomed carpet maker. I'm hoping they were all made in England because - honestly, even though it's economically tough at the moment - there are still amazing quality gems in England - reunions, the kindness of my friends and seeing my kids being among them.
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