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The regulation visit to Marks & Spencer Food Hall on Kensington High Street has always involved a walk through Kensington Gardens. This year I am blessed with a late Spring with flowering trees in full bloom with others budding red in the parklands this week, and already green by the time I am leaving. I even catch the end of the ‘waves’ of daffodils that welcome signal of the approaching warming days to come. It’s sweetest-ever blackberries from Mexico at M & S that are this year’s ‘find’.
I am not too interested in ‘fancy’ restaurants these days, but I’m pleasantly surprised at a meticulously re-crafted Colony Grill at The Beaumont in Mayfair – a typical New York Grill Room from the Thirties. An old South African friend invites us to the less hectic Weekend Brunch in this ‘temple’ created by the previous owners of Caprice in St James. Every brunch dish that I’ve ever tasted in New York is there. Where to start? I end with a simple grilled cheese on toast and a pickle.
I am lucky to have two Sundays in my stay this time. That permits me to attend the sung Latin Mass at the Farm Street Jesuit church across the park on two occcasions, which I always enjoy. Both sermon and music are very uplifting. Still in a religious vein, I also enjoy the West End performance of “Book of Mormon”, hilarious and sacrilegious in equal parts but at least getting a ‘Jesus’ message out to a largely younger audience.
In Eddy’s world, taxis are relegated for ‘the rich’, and I can never leave home without my ‘Oyster Card’ for buses and trains. Also, I’ll never go hungry living with Eddy – we seem to be eating all the time, at home and catching up with friends for a bite. But, it’s easy, and is the most relaxing kind of holiday on so many fronts!