lenny&jay

My Mum followed me back to London in part because my brother was already here on business. They had plans to go to Paris the following weekend. It was a usual work week for me, but it was really nice to have her around in the evenings and to share a cup of coffee in the morning.

On Wednesday Joe and I took my Mom to the theatre to celebrate her birthday. It was a few weeks late, but we got to do it in person! We saw The Importance of Being Earnest. A great Oscar Wilde, British classic with a wonderfully British cast. Penelope Keith starred and it was very cool to sit in the second row and be so close to such an icon of British television and theatre. The show was at the Vaudeville Theatre, another British classic built more than 100 years ago. It wasn't noted anywhere, but I wondered if the play had previously been performed in that theatre. I did learn that the play made its debut at the St. James's Theatre in London in 1895. It was a really great evening.

On Thursday it was more birthday celebrations. This time we took my brother to Skylon for dinner for his birthday and my Mom for Mother's Day in the States -- which is in May -- since I won't be around for that.

While we were waiting for our table about a half dozen staff members stopped by to say hi to Joe and I. My Mom got a real kick out of that. The food was great, the wines were wonderful and they brought a plate of petit fours with "happy birthday" written in chocolate for Jay.

I had the cheese cart for dessert again...couldn't resist, but the amazing thing was the guy who serves the cart remembered exactly which cheeses I had, had last time. There must be close to two dozen cheeses and you get five or six, very impressive.

On Friday they jumped the Eurostar to Paris and I started packing for our holiday in Rome!