“Life isn’t all beer and skittles.”
-Thomas Hughes
Day 174, Monday, July 15, 2019
Lesson Learned: Home insurance is great. It works even when you aren’t home. We had two computers taken today, and filed a claim with State Farm. They took care of our loss, even though it occurred in London, England (minus our deductible, of course). I do, however, highly discourage checking this feature of your policy on your next trip.
In addition to that, never, never, never leave your passports or spare cash in your apartment or hotel room while you are out. If you do experience the unimaginable, and have a break-in you don’t want to be dealing with the State Department on replacing travel documents, and it could really wreck your travels. We were supposed to fly out the next day, and that would have been a disaster. I wear a money belt every time we go out the door. I don’t really like it, but I’ve gotten used to it. I figure it’s the same bother as strapping on a bra is to women. So, protect yourself. Hold your passports close.
Afternoon Tea
This was supposed to be our last full day in London. So, to make it eventful we scheduled ourselves for Afternoon Tea, and then an evening at the Globe Theater to watch The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Often the phrases “afternoon tea” and “high tea” are used interchangeably as many mistakenly believe that there is no difference. I definitely didn’t understand the history. Both tea traditions are so British, and we lowly Colonists don’t understand its history and the differences, which are apparently a direct result of their origins.
Afternoon tea is the British afternoon repast of tea, finger sandwiches, scones, and cake. Afternoon tea is served around 4 p.m. When afternoon tea became fashionable in the early 19th century thanks to Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford (a lifelong friend of Queen Victoria), it became popular sustenance for the hoity toity to fill in the long gap between lunch and dinner at a time when dinner was served as late as 8 p.m.
To have afternoon tea was common for the rich in the 19th century, but, the common workers had to wait until after work. So, by 5 or 6 PM (17:00 or 18:00) tea was generally served with heartier dishes substantially more filling than just tea and cakes. The word “high” in the phrase “high tea” is believed to differentiate between the afternoon tea that is traditionally served on low, comfortable, parlor chairs or relaxing in the garden, and the worker’s after-work high tea that is served at the table and seated on high back dining chairs which kind of sounds like a pub to me.
Well, whatever the name, Ellen and I had a lovely tea at 4 in the afternoon and then took a nice walk over the Thames to the Globe Theater to watch Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.
A Night with the Bard
The Globe Theater was an early theater in London associated with William Shakespeare where most of his famous works were performed. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare’s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and his son, Nicholas Brend. The original building was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theater was built on the same site by June 1614 but was closed by a City Ordinance issued in 1642.
The theater was probably completed by the summer of 1599, in time for the opening production of Henry V or maybe Julius Caesar. This was probably the same year that the Merry Wives was first performed.
On 29 June 1613, the Globe Theater went up in flames during a performance of Henry VIII. A theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale. It was rebuilt in the following year.
Like all the other theaters in London, the Globe was closed down by the Puritans in 1642. It was pulled down in 1644–45 to make room for tenements. Gimme that old time repressive religion.
A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe”, opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of the original theater. It seems the Thames was once much wider in the time of Shakespeare and the original Globe was on the waterfront. The original site is now blocks away from the river and serves as a car park. William Shakespeare held most of his productions in the Globe Theater throughout his professional life (born in 1564 – died 23 April 1616). Everyone knows who he was as a writer, and is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist, but he also acted in many of his plays. His library of works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Bummer, he didn’t get to enjoy retirement long. I expected to be entertained by the play, but was very pleased to find that the production was far better than expected. We went to see Fiddler on the Roof while we were here (it was fabulous) and the Merry Wives was on at least the same level of entertainment. Go! Enjoy!
The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent
All perfect days must come to an end. Hopefully, the ending comes in the form of a good night’s sleep, yet others end poorly, removing the events of the day from the list of perfect. When you become lax, there always seems to be some asshole out there to take advantage of the situation. This day was our turn.
We had been in Notting Hill for 10 days without event. Our apartment was on the second floor facing a busy street, the neighborhood safe, and we felt secure because the street door was locked and the door to our apartment was a heavy metal external door with double lock. We felt secure in this flat, but we should have locked the window.
Returning home from the theater, our key wouldn’t open the door to our flat. It was as if someone had changed the lock to the door. After multiple attempts and unable to contact the host (this was at 11 PM), I took matters into my own hand.
In front of the flat, renovations were under way on the next door unit. The ground to roof scaffold was wrapped in wind-break sheeting, but I found a way inside, scaled the scaffold onto the second floor patio. Hopping over rails, like Cary Grant in It Takes a Thief (or perhaps Charade) hoping no one was inside the neighboring apartments I made my way to our unit. The window, fully open with the night light shade (canvas pallets used to keep the street lights from shining into the window) knocked over showed forced entry into our flat and let me inside.
We’d been robbed!
The door had been double bolted from the inside to prevent us from surprising the burglar. Undone, I let Ellen in so we could survey the damage. Cabinet doors flung open, drawers exposed and pulled out, couch cushions on the floor, suitcases emptied of their content, you could tell the thief tore through the apartment quickly searching for valuables. Missing: Ellen’s Apple Macbook Pro, my Dell laptop, my Briggs & Riley duffle bag with all its contents, copies of our passports, our international drivers licenses, copies of our home drivers licenses, and my canvas messenger bag with all its contents.
Strangely, they left the laptop chargers, hmmmm. Other items they left which surprised me: 1-JBL sound box, 2- Kindles, Ellen’s $300 suitcase, the mice for the laptops, 2- portable power supplies, and a 5 year-old pair of flip flops. All in all, I figured they got away with around $3,100 worth of stuff. What they didn’t get included cash, prescription meds (we don’t use any), credit cards, or jewelry which we had with us. I’m sure what they got was less than expected for the risk.
Then things got strange.
We called the police, filed a report, and rescheduled our flight to Ireland, because we had things to do to replace our losses. We bought new computers, because there is no Apple store in Ireland, I needed a new computer to track our expenses and do my blog, and I needed a new suitcase. You can’t carry all your clothes onto an international flight in a plastic garbage bag after all. While undertaking these tasks, actually in a store to buy a suitcase, Ellen gets an email.
A local store owner, while emptying the trash for his store found my suitcase, with all its contents. Inside was Ellen’s and my email addresses. He reached out to Ellen and we left the luggage store to meet him. The shop was about a mile away from the flat. Sure enough, he had my suitcase including some clothes, all our document copies, two trek poles, shoes, etc. Ellen rummaged around more in the dumpster and turned up my messenger bag with all this content as well. Still missing were our laptops and a selfie stick. All told, probably about $500 worth of personal items, plus things which worried me about identity theft. We were really happy to get those back.
Strangest of all, there was a set of car/apartment keys in my messenger bag. I hope the son-of-a-bitch had to walk home. After a days delay we are off to Ireland. Don’t let your guard down. Lock your windows. Keep your passports and surplus cash/credit cards in your money belt.