LOOSE IN LONDON – A DELICIOUS TREAT IN SOHO: RANDALL AND AUBIN

16 Brewer Street, Soho, London
After leaving Mr. Foggs, we cabbed it over to Randall and Aubin in Soho. Known for their fresh seafood, Randall and Aubin has been a favourite since opening in 1996 and it has a contemporary Manhattan vibe with it’s Subway tile walls, wood floors and marble topped tables. The dining room is a buzz with voices, laughter and music, while the prep kitchen, open to the dining room, affords a view of fresh oysters being shucked and a variety of fresh fish being readied for the table.

Victoria and I have eaten many a meal together and we know what we like – seafood. Especially moules, or as you may know them, mussels. And oysters. Lobster ain’t bad, either. The menu at Randall and Aubin is huge – what to choose?
We needn’t have worried because our server, Adriana, was the perfect hostess. R & A is that rare place where the entire staff – servers, line cooks, chefs and host – are not only consummate professionals, they believe in their product, i.e. fresh seafood. Nothing, really, could be better. 
Arianna, who was not only knowledgeable, but also gorgeous, served us some bread with anchovy butter and then led us through the menu,  suggesting that we try is the mixed rocks huites – in other words, the oyster sampler, served with challot vinegarette, horseradish and Tobasco. This is what’s so great about restaurants like R & A – even the most dedicated foodies will learn, and taste, something new as suggested by the staff, who are passionate about what they serve. 
Tastes of heaven!!
Victoria and I were served two of each type of oyster, so that we could taste them together and rate them as we went along.
Here’s our ranking: 
Native = 5 best!
English = eh, salty
French = salty sweet
Scotch = eh
Irish – excellent

All gone…too fast.
Then it was on to the great moules (mussels) with garlic, parsley and cream.
The sauce complimented the flavour of the meaty shell fish and we made quick work of them. I think it was at this point in the meal that Victoria and I swore we’d never had so much fun digging into fruits de mare. I can’t recall exactly which of us suggested that we eat here at least twice a week when we move to London, but I know I didn’t argue. 
For an entree, Victoria opted for the pan roasted Hake with spring onion. Cooked to perfection, the white fish was melt in your mouth perfect. 

I opted for the crab and lemon risotto, which tasted as good as
it looks. 

Amazingly, we found room at the end of the meal to try a combination of raspberry ice cream and salted caramel ice cream. Sorry, no photos of dessert as, by that time, Victoria and I were in a fabulous meal stupor. 

Don’t take our word for it – if you’re into real seafood, prepared and served by people who are passionate about seafood, Randall and Aubin should be on your “must do” list. 
Randall and Aubin, 16 Brewer Street, Soho, London

WATERLOO WEDNESDAY: DUKE OF WELLINGTON TO SPEAK AT HAUGHTON

Face to Face: Dame Rosalind Savill in conversation with the Duke of Wellington

B1 Monday 15th June, 2.30pm – 5.00pm
In this conversation Dame Rosalind and the 9th Duke of Wellington will consider the Battle of Waterloo and the bicentenary celebrations at Apsley House, its collections and the artistic legacy of the 1st Duke of Wellington.
For Charles, 9th Duke of Wellington, 18 June 2015 is a stupendous day, celebrating the bicentenary of the 1st Duke’s defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. The 1st Duke bought Apsley House at Hyde Park Corner in 1817 as a showpiece for the extraordinary paintings and works of art bestowed on him by the grateful nations of Europe, and today it is the home of the present Duke and his family. The Duke takes a keen curatorial interest in its intimate magnificence, and his passion for the works of art it contains includes the urge to fill it with even more treasures than it has now. This discussion will consider how these collections still represent a remarkable era in our national history, and how vital the family’s interest is in the continuing success of Apsley House.
Prior to the above conversation Dame Rosalind will introduce the historian Count Adam Zamoyski who will lecture on “Napoleon – The Man and the Phenomenon”. Count Zamoyski is the author of several books on the Napoleonic era.
There will be a brief interval between the lecture and the conversation with the Duke of Wellington

“Napoleon – the Man and the Phenomenon”

The story of Napoleon is epic: a little backwoodsman from Corsica became emperor of the French and dominated Europe, creating and dismissing kings, redrawing the map of the Continent and laying down laws which govern most of it today. Although he was a brilliant strategist with extraordinary intellectual powers and a prodigious capacity for work, Napoleon could never have achieved this on his own. As well as being its leader, he was the figurehead and the conduit for a great movement of national regeneration, political, intellectual, cultural and social, which grew out of the bloody crucible of the Revolution and created not just modern France but much of the Europe of today. The most brilliant men of the time, soldiers, statesmen, scientists and artists combined in this extraordinary enterprise. As established religion had been discredited and pushed out of public life in the course of the eighteenth century, they took their moral cue from antiquity: the Age of neo-Classicism was not merely something affecting the arts and architecture, it was a harking back to the heroic times when everything was possible, great men were demigods and a new world could be created.
Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, which laid the foundations of Egyptology, his looting of works of art from all over Europe, his foundation of the Louvre, his promotion of the empire style in manufacturing, his patronage of the Sevres porcelain works and his monumental building projects were all part of this grand vision.
TICKET INFORMATION HERE

A MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN

A MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, which she does not fancy).
Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
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1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).
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2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ”like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u” and the elimination of ‘-ize.’
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3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
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4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.
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5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
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6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
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7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
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8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
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9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
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10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.
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11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).
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12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
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13.. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.
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14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
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15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!


Note: We found this again on our Facebook page. We’ve no idea who to give credit to – if you do, please let us know and we will edit and attribute accordingly. 

LOOSE IN LONDON: A NIGHT ON THE TOWN

Always looking for a new London adventure, one night Victoria and I took Diane and her sister, Marilyn, to Mr. Foggs in Mayfair for a drink. Hidden away on Bruton Lane, there’s no outward sign that an establishment of any sort is housed behind the Victorian facades that line the street. Up a few steps to the door, one has to knock in order to summon the door keep to slide the peep hole back. It’s at this point that one is tempted to say something suitably snarky, such as “Rick sent me” or “Let us in, we’e got a fresh body for ye” or even “The password is Brummell.” None of these are necessary as, unless one looks truly iffy, the door is typically opened to admit you into another world – the world of Victorian London and the townhouse of Around the World in 80 Days adventurer Phinneas Fog. 

Here a review of the place from The Nudge –

Picture the scene.
You’ve instructed your date to meet you on Conduit Street in Mayfair.
They’re excited. And happy.
You stroll together through Mayfair, past restaurants and designer boutiques; past jewellers and art galleries. There’s a spring in their step, and a smile on their face…
….until you direct them down a dingy back alleyway – menacingly encased on every side by concrete, shadows and high-rise office buildings – which they intuitively believe can only lead in one direction: towards their brutal and untimely death. 
But just around the corner relief sets in, as they spot Victorian lanterns hanging outside the immaculate exterior of a truly glimmering beacon of peculiarity: the fictional home of Mr. Phileas Fogg… which you can call “Mr. Fogg’s”.
Because that’s its name.
After climbing the steps to Fogg’s abode – having possibly just manoeuvred yourself around a horse and carriage in the street, depending on which night you go – you’ll enter the madcap home of one of fiction’s most eccentric adventurers, which overflows with artifacts and trinkets collected from his travels. Stuffed Indian tiger heads, whole crocodiles and umbrella stands made from elephants’ feet; portraits of Fogg’s ancestors; wall-mounted busts of the man’s favourite pets; annotated maps and pictures from his travels; birdcages, bicycles and one large penny-farthing swinging from the ceiling, alongside the very hot air balloon in which he travelled the world for 80 days.

Expect to see staff clad in military uniforms – coloured according to their seniority within the household – serving up absinthe aperitifs, sazeracs and stirrup cups. Expect to enjoy live sing-alongs around the piano; expect monthly visits from Mr.Fogg himself, who will regale you with tales from his most recent travels…
…and expect your date to be excited.  And happy.

And happy we were, as you can see by the photo below – drinks in a Victorian parlor, served up by attractive men in period uniforms . . . . . . bliss.

Period details abounded and were arranged around the walls – and floors, and ceiling – as far as the eye could see. In fact, period details were also found in the ladies loo.

From here we took a cab to Soho for dinner – stay tuned for that adventure, coming soon!

WATERLOO WEDNESDAY: WATERLOO POP-UP PUB

Go back to 1815 with the National Army Museum’s pop-up pub. Marking the 200-year anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 2015 the National Army Museum is launching a touring pub, aptly named the Duke of Wellington, to educate and entertain families and budding historians around the country.

The pop-up pub will be starting its journey at Waterloo Station on 1 May 2015, where Napoleonic soldiers will serve commuters pints of history. The pub will then travel across the country – serving up Waterloo facts to the nation. The Duke of Wellington pop-up pub will be visiting the following locations:

•       Halifax: Woolshops Shopping Centre (9 May)
•       Taunton: Castle Green (16 May)
•       Liverpool: Paradise Place (28 May)
•       Royal Norfolk County Show (1 and 2 July)
  
Inside this family-friendly pub are also a number of fun activities; each designed to teach a little more about Waterloo.

•       Meet the publican, bar maid, soldier and civilian and hear them recount their stories from the time of Waterloo
•       See if the styles of the time would have suited you by dressing up in period clothing
•       Take the place of one of Wellington’s soldiers at the fun photoboard
•       Play an iPad game offering brave souls the chance to try their luck on the Battlefield, and work their way up the ranks
•       Pick up a ‘pint of information’ and a Waterloo medal sticker


New research released early this month from the National Army Museum revealed that three-quarters of Brits have little or no knowledge about the Battle of Waterloo. Just half of Brits know Wellington led the British Army at Waterloo and it showed that young people associate Waterloo with the London station, ABBA song and BBC’s Waterloo Road over the Battle.
The National Army Museum’s pop-up pub is the perfect way to ensure you know your Waterloo history in time for the bicentenary. Designed to replicate pubs from the early 19th Century, visitors will be greeted by one of a number of period characters all with their own Waterloo tales to tell. Find out what Waterloo was like for those who affected by the Battle. Meet Private Edward Dooley, a returning solider, whose battalion was very inexperienced and known for recruiting underage soldiers into their ranks.  Or John Harrison, a 19th Century farm labourer who refused to join the army a year before the Battle. Visitors may even come across the Joseph Hill, the publican and ex solider, or his barmaid Elizabeth McMullen, whose husband was badly wounded at the Battle.

All newly qualified Waterloo experts will be served up a ‘pint of information’ and given a Waterloo Medal sticker to take away with them. Furthermore, for one lucky gamer there’s even a chance to win a trip for four people to stay on the battle ground at Hougoumont, Belgium, courtesy of The Landmark Trust and Eurostar.

The Battle of Waterloo was the first time soldiers were awarded with a medal and pension. Upon returning home, a number of soldiers used their pensions to open their own pubs. These publicans named their pubs after Waterloo related events – ever drunk in The Calvary Arms, The Cannon or The Wellington? – these are all nods to Waterloo.

The Duke of Wellington Pop-Up Pub tour is a part of the Waterloo Lives programme from the National Army Museum, offering a number of entertaining and educational events across the country, including exhibitions, art displays and lectures.





The Battle of Waterloo took place on 18 June 1815, when the British and Prussian forces, under the command of Duke of Wellington, halted the advance of French Army in Belgium. The bloody battle claimed the lives of 65,000 of the 200,000 men that took part, and saw the defeat of Napoleon, ending his reign as Emperor of France and ushering in a period of peace following years of war in Europe.
The National Army Museum is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo with a this with a nationwide programme of events, activities and displays, under the theme ‘Waterloo Lives’. This stream of events aims to bring Waterloo to life through the stories of those who fought in the Battle. Through family-friendly and captivating activities NAM hopes to educate Britons of all ages about the importance of Waterloo. The events include a number of Pop Up activities and regimental museum exhibitions.

For more information about the National Army Museum’s Waterloo Lives programme, or to learn more about the Battle through digital gallery of 200 objects please visit www.waterloo200.org

The Pop-Up Pub activity and Waterloo Lives programme is part of the National Army Museum’s ‘Building for the Future’ project, which has been generously funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. 


About the National Army Museum:
Founded in 1960 by Royal Charter, the National Army Museum was established for the purpose of collecting, preserving and exhibiting objects and records relating to the Land Forces of the British Crown.
The Museum seeks to tell the story of the British Army and the personal experiences of the soldiers who have served in it. Working to inspire, challenge and educate, the Museum aims to connect the British public and its Army, demonstrating how the role of the Army and its actions are still relevant today. 
HM The Queen opened the National Army Museum in 1970 but a major transformation, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund means the Museum’s site in Chelsea is currently closed until 2016.  In the meantime, visit: www.nam.ac.uk for a wealth of British Army history, research tools, learning facilities and details of outreach events around the country.
The Museum is now closed for preparatory activity for the project, set to reopen in 2016. For more information and updates on Building for the Future visit www.nam.ac.uk/future.
About Heritage Lottery Fund
Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) aims to make a lasting difference for heritage, people and communities across the UK and help build a resilient heritage economy. HLF has supported 36,000 projects with £6bn across the UK. www.hlf.org.uk @heritagelottery