Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Greenford, London
My day began with another series of interviews with Anglo-Indians in Greenford. This meant taking the bus and traversing parts of London that I had never seen. I passed St. Mary’s Hospital, for instance, where in a room on the second floor, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin and changed the course of medical history. Down Edgware Road, I passed Little Lebanon with its Middle Eastern restaurants and delis. I actually saw the outside of Paddington Station (where Paddington Bear who completed fifty years this year was born). I passed through Portobello Road for the first time in a bus and could barely recognize it without the Saturday antiques stalls. This gallivanting all over London on the top deck of a bus beats walking through it any day and I am enjoying this immensely. It really is taking me through the farthest reaches of the city which I would never have seen on my two (fatigued) feet!
However, I have to admit that it takes forever to get to these London suburbs on the bus and at East Acton Tube station, I did transfer to the Tube to get to Greenford from where I needed to take another bus to get to the home of the folks I had arranged to meet. They were fascinating people with completely different experiences from the Anglo-Indians to whom I have been talking so far. It is amazing how varied are the points of view and the conditions that Anglo-Indian immigrants in the UK encountered. What’s more, I found a fellow freelance writer in the gentleman I interviewed who happens to be the London correspondent for The International Indian magazine that is based in Dubai, a magazine for which I once served as New York correspondent! Talk about a small world! I find it grows tinier by the day!
Upon returning to Central London, this time on the Tube–a fact that made my journey MUCH shorter–I arrived at Leicester Square having made plans with Chriselle’s colleague, Ivana, to see The Duchess at the Odeon. She, however, was swamped with work and had to cancel our plans. Finding myself in the Covent Garden area, I popped into one of my favorite places, Stanford’s, the Travel Book store, to find information on Belfast, Ireland, to which I will be traveling next weekend. I spent a good hour in there and gleaned a great deal of helpful information.
On my way back home, I passed by Carluccio’s, the wonderful chain of Italian restaurants to which my next door neighbors introduced me. I popped in to buy myself a tub of their caponata which is the best I have ever eaten and their Lemon Tarts and picked up some for Tim and Barbara as well.
And since I was in a rather self-indulgent mood, I stopped at Hope and Greenwood, the cutest old-fashioned chocolate shop in London and bought a few of their precious morsels–chocolates in the most unusual flavors. I picked up geranium and lavender flavored truffles, praline centered dark chocolates, rich rum truffles shaped and decorated to resemble miniature Christmas puddings, and chocolates with strawberry and black pepper centers. So though I did not see the movie, it was not half bad an evening.
I got home with my precious goodies and decided to spend the evening with my caponata and my lemon tarts and chocolates and a good movie–P.S. I Love You–a real tear-jerker of a chic flic but one I completley adored. It stars Hilary Swank and a really sexy Gerald Butler (whom I had first seen in Dear Frankie and loved) and whose Rocknrolla I just missed. But hey, that’s why I have Love Film!