Fancy meeting you here, Billy!

Billy just happens to be in England during the same time that we are.  Since Bill had some work to do at the British Library, it seemed a fine time between the Leeds conference and the students arriving at Durham to see our fine lad and for Bill to do some work at the library.

Billy is attending a workshop on T.S. Eliot at the University of London.  He is being lodged in Canterbury Hall.  Can you believe that!

On the first night Billy got into town, we took him to Joe Candido's favorite Indian restaurant down Brick Lane.  Here again are the guys.

After Bill finished up at the BL the next day, we went to St. Pancras for lunch.  Bill and I had been there once before and we wanted to share the experience with Billy.

Billy would like to own a Ferrari one day, and I don't think he'd mind having a woman in a designer uniform watch over it, either. 

 

This is the dining area where we ate.  I ordered a smoked mackerel pate thinking it would be rather light fare.  Yes, it was a pate on the bottom with a piped topping of pure butter on the top!

We walked about the train shed some...it was my turn to impose lectures on the boy.  A Eurostar pulled into the station proving my point that an addition to the train shed needed to be built during renovations to provide cover to all of the cars.  By the way, the newer shed begins at the arced window.

 

There are several bronze statues in the platform area.  At the base of the man and woman kissing are some interesting smaller vignettes.  I love the next one.

 

 

After lunch we decided to walk along the Thames.  Compared with the preceding day when Bill and I went up in the Eye, our Friday excursion was crazy with tourists, and hot, too!  We chose to walk through Whitehall Gardens to avoid some of the sunlight.

Then we crossed the river and saw a man blowing a huge bubble.  You have to look closely to see the iridescence of the bubble.

There was really a carnival-like atmosphere along the Thames. 

Here is Billy snapping a picture from the Jubilee Bridge while I try my hand at a panoramic view.

We ended up in Billy's neighborhood of Russell Square at Mabel's Tavern.  I caught Billy watching the semi-finals at Wimbledon with Andy Murray.

We saw him briefly for lunch (his breakfast) on Saturday before his workshop started (but he wouldn't let me take anymore pictures of him).

It's fun to bump into your boy in a faraway land!