Sleeps, Barbican and the Pub

We both slept well which, after a number of challenging nights in Bologna and the early start to get this country, we were really hoping for. However, it was clearly not enough, for after a lovely slow breakfast of fruit and coffee, we both had to shut our eyes again and have another sleep. We had thought about going out to a café, but we were simply not up to it. Instead, we listened to our bodies and fell asleep on the bed for second sleeps. I do think it was worth it because when we did awaken again, we both had a little more energy and enthusiasm for the day.

After showering and cleaning away the brekky things, we headed out for a short walk around the neighbourhood which was a nice thing to do. You get to see how the streets are connected and where all the parks and the pubs and the cafes are, and in our case, the graveyard too. We did stop in at a rather hipster café and had a tolerable coffee and a Portuguese tart each, or as they call them here, pastel de nata.

We then made our way to Barbican, that post-war brutalist piece of architecture, which just happens to be right next to our building. We have visited before, in fact, we’ve been to the theatre at Barbican, but today we were keen to once more look at its snazzy lefty book and gift shop, which we did. Overpriced, but not too much, it contains things that are not in the general run of things, so it is always an interesting half hour to meander around and pick up and put down various bits n bobs and books. In the end, Chris bought a paintbrush, a book and a pair of socks, while I contented myself with a Nigerian coming of age LGBTQ book called Blessings told from the point of the view of the young man and his mother. It will go on the existing pile, and I will get to it in the fulness of time.

This afternoon, we took a load of laundry to a full-service dry cleaner laundromat. We followed that up by another walk and decided to stop in for a beer in a local pub called the Masque Haunt, a corner pub, a long rectangle in shape and a curved bar on the small side. Above the bar are all the beer glasses hanging upside down in racks the length of the bar. It’s quite a site and something I think of which they are quite proud, as there is a framed description of the glasses as though they were an objet d’art, which frankly, they could be.

Dinner tonight at home and another episode of Hostage. We’ll catch up with Chris’ folks again tomorrow.Read more