(Day 7) Train “disasters,” Curry and curry and off with your head!

 Where to begin today?  The first picture has to be of the food porn, as it was that kind of day.  My friend Nicole, who is always envious of my coming to London, will die if she sees the pictures, followed by a text about what she has on offer in Lock Haven.  I guess other than both starting with Lo and ending in n, they have little in common.  :)

The train trek down from Liverpool was NOT uneventful.  First, there were several Man United fans on board; the two I observed briefly were on their third Budweiser.  It was not yet noon.  I think it’s called pre-gaming.

At some point they came on the intercom and said there was a problem on the line.  It turns out it was a switch that turned off the electricity.  Their solution (which they announced) was “we’re going to turn everything off and turn it back on again and hope it reboots and works.”  They’d obviously been talking to their IT person who was at home, annoyed they were calling. :)

It worked. 

The most interesting other thing about the trip was the guy who sat next to EH.  His name was William (so goes the text exchange among us).  I guess William was a bit hen=pecked — EH kept referring to his wife as “William’s bird.” 😂

At one point William’s bird gave him a newspaper with the crossword.  It was reported that she’d filled in part and left the hard part for him.  Based on our text exchange, this might have happened twice.  William was a sprawler — he leaned against EH while also having his legs in the aisle.  English gentleman that. :)

We arrived in London running late.  On the way we had decided that the plan was to drop our bags at the flat (fingers crossed teh code worked) and then get to the Tube and get to the Tower for the last group of the day, stopping at Wagamama’s near the gate for lunch. 

Wagamama’s is a family London tradition (right Michael?) going back years and years.  A friend and colleague recommended it; I ate there; and have been taking people there for years.  It’s a Japanese noodle place, which means they are kind of “automated” and the food, though good, comes quickly.  As we went in I said we had 45 minutes to eat.  We got seated quickly, got our meals, and made it in so early we had 7 minutes before the Yeoman Warder arrived to start our tour. 

But back to the Tube.  Google maps, in its infinite wisdom, took us to Great Portland St. Station, which isn’t the closest to the flat, ostensibly because we didn’t have to change lines — we could take the Circle line all the way to Tower Hill. 

Uh huh.  

(Remember that the big train from L’pool had gone, as EH said, “tits up” on the way). We were suddenly told, halfway to Tower Hill, that our train was terminating and if we got off, there’d be another along in no time.  A lot of people got off immediately but we went to the next stop, me thinking it would be the same. 

It wasn’t. 😡 It turns out at Moorgate they changed our train to a Hammersmith & City and it was going back west, and we needed to get to the eastbound platform. 

We did, losing precious lunch time.  OJ was talking eating someone’s arm (it was about 230 and breakfast had been a pastry in the train station — not his beloved full English).

We get on the next Circle line train and at Aldgate they announce they aren’t going any farther!!! They are shutting down the circle line.  

We look at OJ’s google maps and decide we might as well walk.  Clock ticking.

It’s really not far from Aldgate to Tower Hill (I’ve done it a number of times), so we were there with that 45 minutes to spare, which at one time I had calculated as closer to an hour and a half. 

Here’s today’s food collage.  I will try to tell you what everything is. 

From top left, that’s pad thai (I think), chicken katsu curry, gunpowder potatoes (Dishoom), lamb empananadas; bottom row: Krispy Kreme’s (blame GB, she made the collage), spicy mackerel, I don’t have any idea, and ruby chicken. 

We made it in time. 

This is Mark, who was our guide through the Tower.  It was my third consecutive year of hearing the Warder’s spiel, so I knew some of the jokes.  Though some, like the West Virginia incest joke, and the “you Yanks could have all this if you’d just paid your taxes” joke never get old.  

He did a great job of recounting several beheadings, and we won’t sleep at all tonight. 😱

After the Tower tour, and everyone saw the Crown Jewels that are housed there to this day (no pictures allowed) we worked our way back towards the flat.  

We did a quick stop at St. Paul’s, so here’s the requisite photo.  Sorry, James.

After a pint at our “local” (it’s catty-corner from the flat, which we think is 👍), EH,, RR and I went to Carnaby St (famed in Beatles lore and during the 60s cultural revolution) and ate at Dishoom.  We waited 30 minutes in line at 9 PM, but it was worth it.  It is the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant (I have to be careful here).  The ruby chicken is the best butter chicken you might ever eat. 

There was a gelato place on the way, so we all got the gelato we didn’t get outside of the Tower, where we got “whipped” (joke included)..

FYI: as we walked by Oxford Circus Tube Station (the closest to our flat), they announced they were evacuating the station!  We didn’t hear why.  But it was train disaster #4 of the day. 

PS Today’s post script is about the convo we had with our Uber driver to the train station this morning.  He asked about understanding the L’pool accent (called “Scouse”) and we admitted we struggled.  He said you should hear them among themselves. 😁 He asked if America had anything like that and EH told him about Creole and recommended he watch Disney’s The Princess and the Frog and look for the firefly named Ray.  Who knew? 

And on that very EH note, I bid you adieu.