Renzo Piano at the Royal Academy

Outdoor Bathroom Exhibit at Royal Academy

New Caledonia Renzo Project

Gentleman in Kilt at exhibit

Cathy

Library at The Ham Yard Hotel

Cocktails in the Library

Deep Fried Beef Tendons

Ox Tongue Hot Pot

Fried Oysters

It was an off and on rainy day. We were dressed for it, and like all good Londoners we just trundled on. London would be the best city in the world if it wasn’t for its dreadful weather. The city compensates for the terrible weather by having what appears to us to be a continual cocktail party. Everywhere there are pubs and bars and people overflowing onto the street holding a glass in their hand.

Our first stop of the day was to visit Selfridges Department Store. This huge store was featured in the TV series Mr. Selfridge. Selfridge was an American who came to London and invented the modern department store. The Oxford Street Store is enormous and chocked full of wild fashion clothing. The clothing was much more radical than you would see in the States. We were amazed at how many women we saw with perambulators. It could be that lousy weather keeps them out of the parks and indoors, but we don’t see as many in Los Angeles. After our shopping we returned to our hotel to drop off our purchases.

We had decided to visit another museum. The Royal Academy is located in Burlington House another one of those giant palaces / homes that have been converted to public use. It is located quite close to where we are staying. The mansion has many different learned societies located in its various wings. The Royal Academy for over 250 years has taught and exhibited art and architecture.

The Royal Academy had an exhibition of the work of Renzo Piano. He is one of our greatest living architects. He has several buildings in Los Angeles, primarily at LACMA. He is currently overseeing the nearly completed addition at LACMA designed to hold The Motion Picture Museum at LACMA.

The exhibit featured scaled models of many of his projects, including an arts center in New Caledonia. We had no idea where New Caledonia was located (we Googled it, the answer is an Island near Australia and New Zealand).

The highlight of the show was a video interview of Renzo. He is extremely philosophical as he describes the creative process of architecture.

There was also an exhibit of mix-use living, featuring an outdoor bathroom. Doesn't seem to practical in a crowded city.

We returned to our hotel and strolled around the neighborhood checking out various stores. Cathy had her hair washed and dried and I took a glamour shot of her using the iPhones Portrait mode.

After cocktails in the quiet library of The Ham Yard we  proceeded to Scully Restaurant. This small, exceptional restaurant was created by alumnae of Ottolenghi’s restaurants. It has a Malaysian influence and to us was notably spicier and more inventive. We ordered way too much (on purpose). Among the highlights were Fried Beef Tendons. They were nothing like what we expected from the menu. The Tendons were ground up and reconstituted and fried like potato chips. They were served with a spicy tomato mayonnaise. It was very rich. An Ox Tongue Hot Pot was perfect for a rainy night. Some very noisy people were eventually seated at the next table. I am sure to compensate us, the restaurant send out some excellent Fried Oysters.

We returned to the Hotel for after dinner drinks in the library, then went to bed hoping Jet Lag would go easy on us. It hasn’t. I am writing this at 4:00am having awakened at 3:00am. I took a sleeping pill and smoked some CBD and am waiting for them to hopefully take effect!