England 6: the rest of Wednesday in London with added Baker B Drama

FINALLY. I am doing a very poor job with this. As I recall I did a very poor job last trip too – I think it took me till February to finish writing about the trip we took in October– so I suppose there’s no use in berating myself about it. I think I keep dragging it out because I want to go back. Right this minute. This way I kind of get to keep experiencing it anew.

SO. After Westminster Abbey, we hopped on the tube to Covent Garden. Kim wanted to get a psychic reading from a place called Buddha on a Bicycle. No need to laugh — I also had a mission in the same area, which was to find a pastry shop called Masion Bertaux. Because it has an art exhibit by the lovely Noel Fielding who is one of the two stars in my currentish obsession, The Mighty Boosh. I HAD to see it. And conveniently enough, Masion Bertaux and Buddha on a Bicycle are in fairly close proximity – Maison Bertaux is a few streets over in Soho, maybe half a mile.

We went to Buddha on a Bicycle first, and although it was a very interesting new-agey shop, sadly they only do psychic readings by appointment and had no psychics in that afternoon. (Obviously they were not very good psychics, and did not foresee that Kim was on her way). However, the guy at the counter pointed us to another psychic-shop in the vicinity called Mysteries. Odd name but I like the fun front page of their website. OH! And I see her psychic is listed- Eamonn) So we found our way over to Mysteries without too much trouble even considering how bad our senses of direction are. I used a really nice map app I have on my iPad, but it’s kind of awkward to keep hauling it out (despite it being a teeny Mini- I remain terrified of dropping it so can’t just whip it out nonchalantly and it’s normal wireless and not 3 or 4G so I have to find wireless to get online– which didn’t matter so much for the map as it was also an offline map, although being online helped a LOT with getting directions from one spot to another spot, but my point is that BOY an iPhone would be REALLY REALLY handy in London) and I ended up trying to read my scrawley directions on bits of paper.. but we found it.

Kim was able to get an appointment for a half-hour reading pretty quickly, so while she did that, I walked around the area. I loved it– it’s on my list for The Return Trip. Along with about fifty gazillion other things. I walked up and down the nifty little streets, and thoroughly enjoyed it – although her half hour appointment ended up being an hour, so I also spent quite a bit of time sitting on a bench outside the shop, because I was afraid of us getting separated and having no means of contact since we only had the one phone.( See previous Phone Drama Entries). I was (kind of illogically) worried that she would come out of the reading, not see me there, and start walking around trying to find me and we’d never see each other again for the rest of our lives. Which makes no sense at all and she would of course hang around the shop till I returned, but never mind logic!!! I didn’t want to be wandering around elsewhere when she got done. We certainly did not need to invite more disaster.

She finally appeared, post-reading, and was very pleased with it. Eamonn had given her twice the time for the money, although he did admittedly spend most of the extra time talking about himself and his issues, which Kim gave him advice on. Because Kim needs to be doing readings herself and not paying big chunks of money to have other people do them for her. But the half hour she paid for was money well spent, she felt. I hadn’t been too tempted myself – it was pretty pricey and seriously, if I want a tarot reading, HELLLLLO, I have Kim to do one for me. See? She needs to set up her own shop. But I greatly enjoyed a little meandering around on my own, and so it worked out well.

Then we made our way over to Maison Bertaux, finding it pretty easily (mostly by wandering around, saying, “Okay where the hell are we, it should be right… OH! Here it is!!! Right in front of us!!!!!”) And I got to have the enormous thrill of being in the same room with Noel Fielding’s Art!!!! Wheeeeee!!!!! And getting to sit there staring at it while drinking surprisingly good coffee!!!!!

Going down the stairs:

Part of the teeny dining area:

I think this one is my favorite:

Maison Bertraux is a tiny place, and mostly the art was in a teeny downstairs room. But it was not a busy time of day so we had the downstairs all to ourselves. Well, except one couple who was sitting right in front of the Bryan Ferry Vs. The Jelly Fox Mirror and I kept hoping they’d leave and they never did so I finally had to ask him if he minded scooting over a bit so I could take a picture of it, and he did (NOT very graciously, I might add) and I realized later I had better pictures of it without him moving.

Annoyed Man Reflected Beside Bryan Ferry. Along with my obsessive head and camera-face there on the left.

A better picture of Bryan Ferry vs. The Jelly Fox which didn’t require asking Annoyed Man to move:

Bliss! Noel Fielding apparently intended to be an artist, and went to art college, but his professor felt like he should become a comedian instead since he spent most of his time sending the rest of the class into hysterics. His comedy does cross bizarrely over into surreal art, though. Especially Luxury Comedy.

WELL, that was QUITE exciting! We hung out there awhile as I soaked up the vibes, and then we decided we should go get some dinner. So we wandered around looking for a likely spot, walked nearly to Piccadilly Circus – everything was crowded or much too expensive. We wanted Indian and Kim remembered seeing Indian near where we were at Maison Bertaux, so we walked back up there and found an Indian place right beside it – Bay of Bengal.

Which… wow! I see got REALLY bad reviews on Trip Advisor. Well, ours was quite good — we sat outside because it was so crowded (this is near the theatre district) and it wasn’t the best seating ever — teeny table, feeling like you’re in the middle of the sidewalk, wobbly and not that comfortable — but the food we had was great. I had vindaloo and a beer and it was excellent, and not overly expensive. I actually forget what Kim had – some kind of curry — but she liked hers too.

Several people have asked about what we ate—I’ll start being more conscientious about including meals. We actually mostly ate pub food— it’s reasonably priced, usually, and is nearly always excellent. We wanted real Indian hence Bay of Bengal and also wanted real Thai, which we also got later down the road. We always had breakfast at our lodgings – cereal and yogurt with fruit, toast with jelly. I love how the cereals are like ours, but different. We agreed they seemed much more substantial — for example, Rice Crispies just seemed sturdier, somehow. So did the corn flakes. But we’d do that for breakfast and then we’d usually have a restaurant/pub dinner. Lunch was a snack generally. And of course we had gallons of delicious beer, which I will strive to note too.

Here’s my delicious Bay of Bengal beer!

I don’t remember what it was like now, but I’m sure it was bitter, as most beer in England seems to be bitter. Oddly the only stout I could ever find was Guiness, and porters apparently don’t exist there. But I do love the bitter beer. Kim was not so crazy about it, and got Stellas often – -then she discovered Ginger Beer — with alcohol!! Which we do not have here, at least not in stores, at least not where I live (we do have non-alcoholic ginger beer). They are DELICIOUS, although a little sweet. She also got mixed drinks a few times. I stuck with beer.

After we ate, we walked back down through Soho and Piccadilly Circus and caught the tube there back to Stratford. And had our usual evening pint. And Baker B called me while we were there- he usually called about 10ish— and…

DRAMA FOR POOR BAKER B!! He was accosted!!! In Devizes, of all things, at an old CHURCH of all places. It had just happened when he called me, and he was all shaken up of course. He’d gone over to this old church that’s right in town, and was looking around it. He’d walked down a public path, stopped to talk to a cat that was hanging out there, and when he turned around this huge guy was menacingly blocking his way. Well, hugely wide, apparently not too tall but Baker B is not a huge person himself. Baker B said hello to him, and the guy said, “What did you say?!?” and continued to block his path, and kept saying “What did you say???” Baker B even asked him if he was okay, he was acting so weirdly– the guy finally kind of shoved past him, to his great relief, telling Baker B to get out of his way. It doesn’t sound quite so terrifying HERE of course, but he was not expecting that at all and was quite unnerved. He told the bar’s landlord, beside where he was staying, and the landlord said they have a lot of problems with drug dealers in the cemetery by the church, and he was lucky there was only one guy or he probably would have gotten mugged.

At that point Baker B decides he wants out of Devizes. The parking situation is awful (there’s nowhere to park and he keeps having to move the car around), the guy he’s staying with is a total slob, and now he nearly gets mugged….I was shocked too; I told him we’d been walking all over London late in the evening and never felt a bit uncomfortable. Yet he nearly gets mugged in Devizes???!! ANYHOW, he considered just going to Marlborough and getting a motel, or even coming to London and staying with us for the rest of the week.. but he LOVED Wiltshire and was having fantastic hikes so didn’t want to leave. He decided he’d think it over that night.

BUT, despite his continuing trials and trauma….. he was really not at all freaked out. I mean, he was freaked out in that he’d never expected something like that to happen, but he was still as calm and rational as one could possibly be after being threatened while out wandering around a seemingly quiet little country town. He wasn’t ready to go home, although he was kind of ready for me and Kim to get out there so he wouldn’t be having all this drama by himself.

WELL, of course I have gone on and on as always, so will leave with a few more pictures of our Covent Garden/Soho/Piccadilly Circus etc stroll. And more of Eventful England to come.

We went in Foyles — Biggest Bookstore on the Planet, I think — sadly didn’t really stay long. It was very impressive, and very overwhelming.

Okay, I’ll save Piccadilly Circus for later. We made another trip there as well and this has gone on far long enough.