Fortnum & Masons Tea for Three

Youngest sister very generously provided a tea for three at Fortnum & Masons for mrs maytrees, herself and myself as a birthday present which we enjoyed enormously  earlier this week. The picture above was taken after we had consumed  not only much of the tea but also the top up sandwiches wihch were kindly provided for no extra cost.

Mrs maytrees and I arrived slightly early so were able to enjoy looking at the Fortnum & Masons food and wine shopping areas. Sweet Alice biscuits which I recollect from a visit some 50 years previously are no longer on sale presumably because the manufacturer has disappeared. None the less there were some wonderful  foods, teas, drinks and biscuits, beautifully displayed for sale in the crowded shopping areas.

Some 15 minutes before our high tea was due to commence, we took our seats in the restaurant foyer on the fourth floor. There was a comfortable sofa for us to occupy whilst we waited and an excellent pianist played on the nearby grand piano.

An elegant lady soon came over to guide us in to our table where shortly afterwards we were joined by youngest sister,

The  tea was of course delicious especially as I had opted for the savoury version whereas mrs maytrees and youngest sister had chosen the normal cream tea.

The waitress told me that the large tea room had been opened to celebrate HM Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, explaining why last time I had visited the F&M tea room, the venue had been much smaller and on a lower floor.

The tea itself was delicious as one might expect, though the price had risen somewhat since my visit  years ago.

After tea, we walked  through crowded Piccadilly to nearby Hatchards bookshop,  taking the Jubilee line back to London Waterloo, thence home.

 

Maurice and Maralyn

A friend of mrs  maytrees gave me the above as part of a birthday present from her husband and herself a couple of weeks back. 

Thank you Lynette, a very interesting read.  of an exciting true story and quite unforgettable.

The account starts with the  couple buying a suburban house and preparing to live  normal suburban lifestyles. However they fairly quickly become bored  and decide travel for a new life in New Zealand.  They sell their house and use the proceeds to build  and stock  a sailing boat whilst avoiding installing any modern communications instruments such as a radio, on board.

Eventually the voyage commences and the couple travel alone in the Atlantic across to the Pacific Ocean with a view to arriving in New Zealand several months later where Maurice already had new employment organised.

Disaster then strikes when their sailing boat is struck by a whale and despite attempts to prevent  sinking the boat goes down leaving them with a dinghy and raft. Before the boat sinks however the couple were able to store tins of food and water onto the dinghy including a bithday cake which had been brought to celebrate Maralyn's biithday due to take place during their voyage.

The account continues with details of the couple's attempts to survive and the passing by of many ships which failed to spot what must have been a small speck in the sea..

The absorbing account  also details dreadful pain, diarrhea and illnesses affecting the two of them. Their fishing attempts given that the absence of fishing hooks  and their eating of turtles, flying birds as well as fish are set out and are fascinating. Yet when almost faced by death,, salvation occurs..

The book continues with details of their survival; radio and TV appearances and how they felt but the above is sufficient for this blog post leaving any blog reader who is interested, with the task of buyng the book to read the full story.

UK Politics Today

 

Politics in the UK has changed substantially  in recent years though in my view, not for the better.

Reform is a comparatively new political party that people are voting for probably because Nigel Farage and his team have not yet been in full national government. Reform's local government victories meanwhile do not appear to illustrate that they are any better than the more established political parties, as many of  the local councils they now hold are  embroiled in arguments.

The Green Party has altered from being a party principally  concerned with the environment, to being a political  party on the left of Labour. 

Like Reform, the Green's political successes to date have not given the areas  they have  won, any advantages over those previously 'enjoyed'. Like Reform's leader Nigel Farage, the Green's leader, Zack Polanski is embroiled in argument. In the former's case about  failure to declare  promptly, large donations and in the latter's case about non payment of Council Tax over some years.

The Conservative Party has previously had so many issues  of malfeasnce that it was trounced  by the Labour Party in the UK general election some two years ago.

The Lib/Dems seem to me to change their policies from time to time. to suit their political situation, Thus when in power with the Tories they dropped their promise to reform the university student  finance system, though to me, their current leader Sir Ed Davey, is their largest failure given his various non political gimmicks.

Not being Scottish I know nowt about Scottish politics save for their enthusiasm for independence.,They apparently signify that  England should pay them  on independence  rather than the Scots bearing their share of the national debt if/when going alone.

The Labour Party is currently in turmoil. There is as yet no leadership contest but their current leader Sir Keir Starmer is weak having made U-turn after U-turn. Whether Andy Burnham the current mayor of Manchester wins the by-election that a resigning Labour MP has created for him is as yet unclear but that will take some weeks, during which time the grand ship UK will be almost rudderless. 

Currently the Tories in my view are being led by a competent politician  Kemi Badenoch but she will need time to secure more support in the country given her predeccssors' many failings.

Labour is in disasster territory but as the picture above, of the PM visiting AFC Wimbledon illustrates, they did well in the recent local election in Merton having seen off the Lib Dems, possibly assisted by the huge payment received by Merton Council upon selling off their company CHAS,  owned since 1996,for £186m.

Still, other international democracies are suffering their own problems the USA  for example. I hesitate to add the EU which is not actually a democracy though that trading group is undoubtedly suffering..

70th Birthday Party at The Goring

 

A huge thank you first of all to birthday girl youngest sister who organised and paid for what was a very successful and happy occasion of lunch and tea, which we all enjoyed.at London's Goring Hotel situated just behind Buckingham Palace.

Seeing all living brothers and sisters gathered together for the frst time for many months was a treat and the weather held good for us all.

The event was a great success hosting  in the case of the maytrees family, our four children and three grand children.

Oldest son flew over from his home in Jersey Channel Islands and youngest son overcame his damaged leg with crutches still managing to attend on time.

Oldest daughter came with her 12 year old daughter and 9 year old son and youngest daughter attended with her husband and 6 month old daughter. 

Speeches were excellent as was youngest  brother's film show, which included some old family pictures one of which showed nana in a great photo along with a hideous looking  7 year old maytrees. There were also some .recently taken short films by each sibling and some grand children  

A great  birthday party and maytrees family as well as siblings and their families get togethers.

Richmond Park

A beautiful spring day led to mrs maytrees and I deciding on a trip to nearby Richmond Park.

Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park is a very popular venue for wedding receptions which may be the reason that the cost for lunch certainly by today's standards is quite inexpensive. We were informed that the fish for my selected fish and chip lunch would take three more minutes. A Chinese girl next in line also decided to wait which surprised me as fish and chips used to be a  meal  mainly appreciated by the British and Irish. For example during a visit to Iceland which is surrounded by  fish, we could not find any straight forward fish  and chips.

The fish duly arrived and along with a pile of carrots and peas put on my plate by the waitress serving behind the counter. The meal was delicious to eat at the nearby dining room overlooking Petersham. Cheap but very tasty. 

I wonder if the costs of restaurant meals will soon increase though, given the war in Iran and the blocking of the Straits of Hormuz.

After the main meal, mrs maytrees and I adjourned for ice creams at the Pembroke Lodge  cafeteria outside. Joining two girls at a large table  in the shade, we began to chat. One of the girls was from Ontario Canada and was holidaying in England for her first time. It turned out that she was a student at a university in Ontario. The expense  for higher education studetnts today reminded me that years back  in the UK university fees were non existent though only about 4% of the school population reached university. Today of course that percentage is far higher but substantial fees have to be paid by most students.including it turned out, those in Canada.

After our ice creams and saying farewll to the Canadian girl, mrs maytrees and I went for a stroll in the glorious sunshine before returning to the car.

Memorable/Terrifying Train Journeys

 

Maybe my most interesting and terrifying train journey was that taken with my old Beaumont friend John Farr (may he RIP) in about 1970 from London to Istanbul via Munich. Munich itself was still being excavated for constructing a subway but we were able safely to board the train with reserved seats bound for Turkey.

The guards used to  check the wheels' soundness  by hitting the train wheels from time to time with sledge hammers.   After one such check in Greece after a minor earthquake,  the train  was deemed dangerous so  we had to disembark.  Another train was found but without reserved seats. At Bulgaria the engine was switched to a steam train which then headed slowly to Istanbul, About a mile from the terminus people who were living on the tracks had to rise to make way for the train but finally it arrived at our destination.

The next  difficult  journey a few months later was  on a train from Cairo to Luxor. The train was full of prisoners in chains which was unnerving. Going to the WC was difficult as the WCs were taken up with prisoners in chains. On one occasion solders agreed to stand guard whils I pee'd through a gap between carriages. That was hard enough but the experience was made more memorable by the soldiers firing their machine guns through the train roof.

Another memorable journey was what started as a routine commute from London Vauxhall to Wimbledon. I blogged about this at the time: Memorable commuter train journey

A far happier memorable train journey was one which mrs maytrees and I took from London to Aberdeen on the overnight sleeper. This was in many ways matched by our journey years before on the unmodernised sleeper from London to Inverness. See both

Train to Inverness and Train to Aberdeen

The whisky on the Aberdeen journey and  the Haggis enroute to Inverness were both of course also memorable.

Then comes our summer holiday train to St Ives Cornwall where again we had reserved seats. On the return journey to London there were terrific thunder storms in England and the lightening brought most trains to a halt. However the train from Plymouth from which we were bound to London, was not directly affected. Indirectly though, being the sole London bound  train, it soon became packed to overflowing.

All of the HCPT overnight  pilgrim trains  from Bolougne sur mer to Lourdes were  exciting and one or two were terrifying.

The most terrifying was when one night at a remote French railway station where for some reason the train had halted, three men fleeing from the station bar  tried to board. The gendarmerie fired tear gas at the men who were caught. The tear gas cannisters missed the rogues but hit the open window of one of our compartments in which three HCPT Group 35 asthmatics were sleeping. They woke up and  were sick. I protested to the gendarmes but the row  was defused by the train driver who came over and said: moi asthmatic aussi. 

Another exciting HCPT train journey took place during a national French railway strike when a lady HCPT helper  who had been in the resistance during WWII persuaded a union leader who had also been in the French resistance, to drive the train personally to Lourdes.

Overall train travel now seems likely to increase partly as a result of the war in the Middle East.

 

Rasputin

 

                                    

                                Setting off to war - above

Retreat from Moscow by Napoleon's army - below.

The fact that the Russians under the Tsar took the train east,  then marched off to fight the Japanese and were  then defeated probably did not help the Tsar survive the revolution when it came.

Antony Beevor's biography about Rasputin makes for fascinating reading. Coincidentally the biography is  largely set in Russia at about the same time as the Summerfolk play about which I blogged last week. 

In much the same way  as the wealthy Summerfolk by their indulgent behaviour really  helped speed the way to the Russian Revolution so did the behaviour of Rasputin.

Rasputin appears to me to have had part of him who from time to time seemed almost holy yet almost simultaneously appears as a dreadful womaniser rapist and. absurdly friendly with the Tsar Nicolas II and his wife Alexandra, who according to Antony Beevor were besotted with him. 

History was never a strong subject of mine but from what I can fathom, Russia at the time had no constitution and was ruled at the whim of the Tsars. Ordinary people were treated really as serfs.

Interestingly England  still has no written constitution but the Magna Carta signed as long ago as 1215 by King John, successfully divided power and usually kept our monarch in check.

  

The Russian Empire by failing to have an equivalent to our Magna Carta, in my humble opinion, led to their revolution and the slaying of their former Tsar and families, essentially leading to the USSR and then to the Russia of today.

My Summerfolk blogpost is at:

Summerfolk