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Posted by off kilter quilter on June 12, 2006, 8:25 pm
And will this be the plan for when I manage to drag my sorry Yank butt
over to see you??? LOL not to worry, the children have to get a bit
older before I can leave them with grandparents for a long time.
Larisa
Kate Dicey wrote:
> I had a LOVELY day today.
>
> I went to London, and met Big Sis Anne Marie at Victoria. Haven't seen
> her for a couple or three months, so it was great to catch up. We then
> fought round 1 with the London Underground* and went out to Gloucester
> Road station... We trotted out into the sunshine (it has been BAKING
> all day! I feel steam cooked, like factory bread!) and up the road, and
> round the corner, and into one of those big ole London houses that has
> been knocked together with three others inside and turned into a hotel
> and met our own dear Karen Maslowski! :)
>
> I'd roped AM in as 'Native Guide' for the day, as I'm not good at London
> - duzz me 'ead in, innit! We toddled off and fought round 2 with the
> underground, then walked the tunnel to the Victoria & Albert museum,
> where we wandered through the India/Raj section, admiring the
> workmanship of the costumes, delighting over fabric and details, and
> marvelling that one man's coat has a 75 metre hem! It was made of the
> lightest and finest cotton muslin, with every tiny stitch set by hand.
> Cloud like and incredible! AM earned her stars for the day with the
> bits of history that went with things like Tipoo's Tiger
> http://tinyurl.com/fu8fq (a musical organ beast that growls and mauls a
> soldier! One of my favourite things in the museum!).
>
> Then we trotted off to the costume galleries, and once again our eyes
> were out on stalks at the fineness of some of the workmanship and the
> hand worked buttonholes to die for on the Tommy Nutter suits, and other
> glorious things. We exclaimed over the tiny costumes of the 18th and
> 19th centuries, and the exquisite stitching that went into some
> seriously ugly garments!
>
> We discovered that some designers and some pieces were loved by all
> three of us, and we diverged markedly on others. I could spend MONTHS
> in there with such company, jest gazing and speculating...
>
> Two things all three of us wanted was mirrors so we could see the backs
> of things, and corners turned up so we could see the finishing on the
> insides!
>
> Lunch was delicious and friendly to my diet! We ate salmon or chicken
> in the V&A cafe, and salad with lovely dressing.
>
> Then we trotted off through the shop and back down that lovely cool
> tunnel (always a cool breeze in the tunnel from South Kensington station
> to the museums!) and fought round three with the underground! This
> round we almost lost... The train was PACKED and hot and evil... But
> we didn't let it defeat us, and we made it to Liberty! :)
>
> That shop is almost a museum by itself! Karen looked at the lovely
> scarves, and then we trotted off and lazed in the tea room, eating
> scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, washed down with Earl Grey
> tea!
>
> And we chattered... and chattered and chattered! Like a trio of busy
> sparrows! If any donkey had wandered past, he'd have lost all four legs
> and the tail, and needed help getting home!
>
> Karen bought her scarf, and we left the shop as they were closing the
> doors! I've never needed to be let out of Liberty's after closing, but
> this came close! We none of us bought fabric, though it came close with
> the vinyl coated stuff... A couple of us were slightly tempted for bag
> making. But it just wasn't *quite* right, and the selection was nothing
> like as good as the last time I was there when they had fabric. They
> had a few years when they didn't sell fabric at all...
>
> AM and I escorted Karen back to her hotel, more to prolong the
> conversation and the pleasure of her company than to stop her getting
> lost (*I'm* the one that can't tell left from Tuesday, after all!), and
> I got back to Victoria with AM in time for the 21:03 from platform two
> to Dover. AM waved me a fond farewell, and trotted off to get her train
> to Balham.
>
> It was a HOT day...
>
> It was a BUSY day!
>
> It was a truly LOVELY day - and I am all walked out and talked out!
>
> *So hot that they were sending teams round with water to revive fainting
> passengers!
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