12. The Messiah; V&A; Pearl and Bill Arrive

Wednesday 18 December.  Waldorf Hotel, London.  Clear and icy breeze this morning.  We buy the Christmas tree, hose it off, stick it in a bucket of water, clean the house and make the 4:30 Stanstead Express to London.  Arrive in London at 5:15.  In the taxi on the way to the hotel Thomas mystifies us all by saying "Bope Ge-o-ahge" slowly and carefully many times.  We all quiz him amidst our laughing, but try as we might, we cannot figure out what he is trying to tell us.  We check into our old rooms at the Waldorf, 211 and 215 (very warm).   Thomas stays at the hotel with a babysitter and the rest of us go to see "The Messiah" at Albert Hall.  The children are quite bored at the concert.  During the second half, Robert writes a message on his program: "Oi, don't look now, but I can't take it any more!"

Thursday 19 December.  Waldorf Hotel.  Jeffrey, Mara and I take a guided tour of Westminster in the morning.  Robert is feeling ill and stays with Thomas.  In the afternoon we see "The BFG."  I squirm, Jeffrey feels the same way; Robert likes it; Mara does not.  Aladdin was much better, but this is a play, not a pantomime.  Cathy and I go to the Guinea for dinner.

Friday 20 December.  Waldorf Hotel.  Jeffrey and I jog to Waterloo, cross the bridge and run back to Westminster Bridge, then stop at McDonalds.  (They are out of pancakes!)  Later, Thomas and Jeffrey and I visit Dickens' House.  This is not a particularly good duo with whom to explore the place, especially just before lunch time!  In the evening Cathy and I go to Veraswany for dinner, then to see Vanessa Redgrave in "When She Danced" about Isadora Duncan.  I squirm.  We walk back to the hotel.  There is lots of City traffic.

 Saturday 21 December.  Waldorf Hotel.  Jeffrey and I go Christmas shopping at Garrards.  I buy a wool hat on Jermyn Street.  We meet Cathy and Mara at the Victoria and Albert at two.  Jeffrey and I have lunch there, including Christmas pudding and brandy sauce. We take the 3 o'clock tour at the V&A.  Wow!  Back at the Waldorf, we meet Cathy's parents in the lobby.  The four of us have dinner at Brown's Hotel and then walk back.

I am not quite sure what to do with/make of all my lawyer dreams, such as the other night, dreaming I was persuaded into taking over a big trial as lead attorney.  Either I still feel guilty about not practicing law, I miss it, or, an intriguing thought, I am "sweating it all out" or something like that.  Perhaps I am reversing what Professor Anawalt remarked on in 1972, when he said he felt badly about taking all of our minds with diverse backgrounds and making us all think like lawyers.  I have been thinking like a lawyer all this time, and, now that I do not have to think like a lawyer, nor have any reason to think like a lawyer, I am getting rid of the extra effort to think like that by dreaming it all out of me!

The Norweigian Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square

Active Tourists

Thomas and his Babysitter