I didn’t write my post last night because I was a drunken fool – as in the ‘fell into bed and passed out’ variety. It doesn’t take much to get me sozzled, so when my fella and sister, unbeknown to me, were buying me doubles, it only took a couple for me to be well on my way to a stupor. I knew something was up when my fella was telling us about an old dear who is being nominated for an OBE, and I started crying. This didn’t bode well, as it was just pre-dinner drinks. As proof, here are the photos I took on the way from the bar to the restaurant.
The photos are of Royal Victoria Dock, where my sister and her husband were staying, and where we decided to go for dinner, at a lovely restaurant called Top1Forever, which had beautiful views of the river. At least, they would’ve been beautiful if I had remembered to take my glasses.
We all had a lovely time, and it was great to see my sister and her husband again. They had come down from Cambridgeshire, where they live, to see the exhibition. Things didn’t get off to the best start, as my fella and I were late for the meet-up, on account of the fact that we were lolling about in a luxurious movie theatre watching Antman (a treat for my Marvel-loving fella). When I say luxurious, I mean big, couch-like seats, and cocktails brought to you during the pre-screening adverts. The movie went longer than we anticipated, and then I lost my phone and had to go back for it, plus, the actual location of the theatre was confusing, all of which added to our lateness and my sister’s understandable displeasure at having been left travel-weary, drinkless, and with no idea where we were.
Things didn’t really improve when next I frogmarched everyone to the exhibition, in an effort to get there before it closed. We made it in the nick of time, allowing us to have a quick look around and ohh an ahh at all the things on display, and take the obligatory photos of my painting.
After the exhibition, we stopped off at our hotel for a pre-dinner drink, only there was no where to sit. Leaving my still travel-weary, drinkless sister and her husband standing around, my fella and I popped up to our room so I could drop off my bag. But we dillydallied too much (him putting cream on his sore feet, and me changing out of my 4-day-old clothes and having a wee zhuzh). My sister was not amused by our antics, but all was forgiven once we got to a bar that did have seats and drinking commenced.
Today we went to the morning service at West London Synagogue. A lovely young man had his Bar Mitzvah, which is always a pleasure to witness. Also, a 90 year old woman her much-belated Bat Mitzvah, fulfilling her long-held dream of learning Hebrew. It was very moving and naturally made me cry.
My fella and I then made our way to London Bridge, so we could take a good look at the river. Once there, we decided to visit our old haunt…the Shard. For our first mini-break together 3 1/2 years ago, my fella, in an effort to impress me, took us to the Shangri-la. I most certainly was impressed! Anyway, we thought it would be romantic to have a drink in the bar. However, the bar was full, so we went next door, still in the Shard, and had a drink there. We managed to get a table by the window, and had a wonderful time sipping on our White Russians, eating spicy nuts, and surveying London as far as the eye can see.
bexODESSA 