milly, morgan and korrina

 
a display at the library desk when i picked up a book on hold.

resting with milly . . it's been very hot again (yesterday's walk home was steamy and sticky) . .

i think this cute little boston terrier was feeling the heat.

morgan's peg children she is making from peg people the three year olds painted while in preschool today.

a little chef . . 

here is the back of his chef's hat . . his "toque."

speaking of toques, korrina was reminiscing today and posted a photo of her medallion from achieving the top toque award at her culinary graduation . . ten years ago today!

graduation!

waiting for the ceremony to begin with korrina and greg (and texting with my sister and morgan) . . it was a very exciting day and though i'm writing this friday morning, i still feel tired and am just going to post a few photos from the day and maybe add more words and pics another time. we all had a great time and far away family members were able to watch via streaming.

this man waiting for his relative to arrive reminded me of my dad . . the care in how he searches, finds and greets him is so touching. of course the purpose in filming was that the students were entering the auditorium!

parents went nutso and crowded around the balcony waving and trying to get a photo. i thought they were all going to tumble head over heels into the orchestra. thankfully, they dispersed once the speeches began, though several of us in the seats had to tell stragglers to sit down or move. people can be so inconsiderate!

i'll do more over the weekend!

department get together

it's chanda's graduation week and i met her at the school for a get together with her interdisciplinary science department.

the students' teachers gave them each a gift . .

cleo and chanda received robin wall kimmerer's the serviceberry and ed wong's an immense world. it was wonderful to meet her teachers and to exclaim to them about how much she loved the program, and to hear how they enjoyed having her as a student. through the past four years i've heard from chanda how her teachers have helped her and inspired her, and it felt good to hear from them how her thoughtfulness and curiosity contributed to the class and to the program.

another student joined the gathering near the end . . 

and one more photo with a friend who graduated two years prior.

the lab where they took many of their classes . . 

now i know what's behind the windows when i walk by.

it's been a wonderful four years . . of hard work!

----

steaming the stole . . 

are the rascals keeping an eye on things?

september 16, 2022, graduation!

 
morgan's graduation from 2022 . . i finished writing it up in 2023, a year and a half after the event, and decided to wait until today to post it.

click here for the post in it's proper time frame. the prior london days are up, but stay tuned for september 17th, 2022 which i'll post tomorrow.

gail's cafe, a book from my childhood, and a party in wimbledon

early saturday morning korrina and i found the loveliest gail's cafe on fulham road, a few store fronts south of park walk (the third block south of beaufort street). it had a skylight and white washed brick walls with wood tables and chairs. it felt cozy and warm with so many varieties of bread displayed in the window, several different breakfast sandwiches to choose from and a myriad of pastries. i had a decaf americano and a salami and pickle sandwich on a small roll with poppy and sesame seeds. this turned out to be my favorite cafe and breakfast during our stay.

afterwards, we visited a special produce store a few blocks down from the cafe, natoora, that korrina knew about from work and then went in search of a bookstore as i wanted to buy a copy of ballet shoes by noel streatfeild . . 

 we ended up at the intersection of millman's street and king's road at world's end bookshop. they did not have ballet shoes, but they did have . . 

catch me a colobus, by gerald durrell which i received for christmas one year as a teen from my sister and brother-in-law. it was just funny to see it in the window selling for forty pounds . . mine was sitting on a shelf somewhere back in nyc . . 

also, the bookstore was situated next to the fetter lane moravian church . . chanda and i had once attended a special moravian service at my sister's church, but i had never walked by one of the moravian denomination before (one of the oldest in christianity, dating back to the 15th century), so i found that exciting. 

we walked back to the airbnb then, picked up greg, and took the underground to wimbledon (stopping at waterstones on the way to get that copy of ballet shoes) for a special celebratory graduation party with morgan's friends. i wrote in my journal that night:

lunch was out in the garden amongst sunflowers, tomato plants, plum, pear, apple and crabapple trees, grapes on the vine, along with european robins and sparrows singing and chirping away. as the afternoon went on many friends gathered: aisha (whose house it was at), harley, zoifi, jenny with her parents martin and lee, brieve, james, quinn, olla, ben and many others. aisha cooked up a storm and my favorite was the rhubarb crumble (fresh from the garden). we left around 6 pm and walked back over the bridge and took the train home to mulberry close.

one of the many cafe windows filled with delectable pastries that we would walk past every day.

morgan's graduation, also known as the second (and very busy day) in london - part ii

i had no idea what time morgan's graduation began, and i still have no idea. in london i was not in charge of setting the agenda or the times for events, and since i was so enamored with seeing all the new buildings, parks, people, museums, and with riding london buses and all manner of other touristy things (such as having coffee and pastries at gail's cafe), my mind was not dwelling on appointments and schedules. thus, to the best of my recollection, i believe we were out of the airbnb and walking along king's road to the sloane square station at around 2:30 pm (and i'm guessing the graduation for morgan's class was around 4 pm). we transferred at westminster for a train to london bridge, and from there we got on the southeastern line for sidcup.

sidcup station, in southeast london.

warning: there are too many photos in this post. i took way too many photographs, but they are proving to be a lot of fun to look through, for me at least. scroll quickly if you like . . but the videos are short. the longest one is no more than a minute. 

sidcup is a sweet little suburb of london and morgan's school, the rose bruford college, is accessed by walking through a beautiful park.

a sunny day for the graduation . .

entering the barn theatre . . 

where there was an exhibit of costumes and an ongoing video with excerpts of past performances and rehearsals.

tucking in his shirt to look more presentable. we were dressed very casually! (other guests were decked out in dresses, heels, ties and dress jackets. at least we weren't wearing sneakers.)

here's the check in table. supposedly, each student was only allowed two tickets, but we were four people (morgan's friend jenny met us there).

greg and i walked away to wait for morgan and korrina to work things out. you can see them talking to the ticket monitors on the right, between the man sitting in the grey jacket with his arm outstretched and the man standing. i think morgan reserved a total of four tickets but split them up by requesting them with two different emails. whatever it was, they were polite and allowed us to stay.

inside this building was a cafe which morgan is pointing out to us on the right of this photo. we were all hungry. i think morgan picked out a granola bar along with a cup of tea (and then disappeared for a rehearsal) while i shared a plate of delicious roasted vegetables and couscous with greg and korrina at one of the outdoor cafe tables.

 

i actually didn't think this graduation was going to happen; i didn't think there would be a real event! perhaps because of all the craziness with covid (so many of the classes were online for a year) and also because greg and i never received any information about it from the school itself, and also because morgan kept saying that they couldn't get any information about renting a cap, gown and stole. (i had actually brought my own stole from my alma mater, university of california, santa barbara, thinking it could be worn if needed . . but it really wouldn't have been appropriate.) of course it all became very real when i walked onto the campus to the sound of cheers from ceremonies occurring before ours, the sight of other guests all dressed up for the occasion, and the announcement from morgan that caps, gowns and stoles could be rented for $20.

not only did this graduation happen in person, it was also streamed online via zoom. we found out about the zoom while waiting for it to begin and we immediately contacted aunt kathy and uncle warren so they could watch, if they were home (which they were) . . and we didn't contact chanda who was at work at merriweather cafe. (did we not think of it, or did we think it would be too difficult for her to watch while serving a crowd of hungry neighbors?)

(i loved seeing the large murals in the courtyard.)

guests on their way to the graduation venue which was in one of the theatres. there were several different "schools" within the college and each school program had a specific time for their ceremony throughout the day. there was a total of four different ceremonies honoring graduates in acting, actor musicianship, stage and events management, actor performer training, theatre for young audiences, opera studies, costume production, scenic arts, lighting design, etc., and collaborative theatre making (morgana's area of study). (i think we were the fourth ceremony that day.)

appropriately, the ceremony was held in the rose theatre. 

an opening announcement was made by the chair of governors (jennifer sims) before the trumpeters called for the entrance of the teachers and the students into the building.

the trumpeters! (i think my favorite part of the ceremony)

there were several speeches . . one by the acting principal, mary oliver, and a keynote address by dan holland. there was also a conferral of fellowships, and a special change maker award followed finally by the conferral of degrees (graduands from the rose bruford college of theatre and performance).

there was also a very sweet musical performance of an abba song . . 

in which the students joined.

the president of the college, bernadine evaristo, gave a speech about their inner strength as performers before announcing the recipient of the change maker award . . 

which went to a fellow student of morgan's in the collaborative theatre department, aisha kent.

after the degrees for the bachelor of arts in acting, the master of arts in actor musicianship and actor performer training were given, it was time for the master of fine arts in collaborative theatre making to be conferred:

huzzah!

congratulations morgan!

and the call to end the proceedings was given.

cheering for the students as they joined their families and friends . . 

morgan telling funny behind the scenes stories of the ceremony . . 

talking to aunt kathy and uncle warren . . 

waiting for students and teachers to finish with group picture taking . . 

jenny was morgan's fourth guest and we all enjoyed the ceremony immensely.

three of the collaborative theatre students . . (it was time for group photos) . . 

congratulations on work well done, morgan.

waiting in line for a celebratory cup of champagne, sparkling water or orange juice.

more wonderful music from the students which i really enjoyed and filmed for kathy and warren to hear as i thought they would like it also.

it was cold out with not many people watching . . not easy to keep up the energy but i thought they did well.

before leaving, morgan treated us to a tour of the classrooms/rehearsal rooms and the costume shop.

in the hallway that leads to the costume shop . . 

looking out to the courtyard off the classroom hallway with the cafe on the right and the entrance from the barn theatre in the background.

time to head out through the park . . 

there was a discussion about dinner plans . . morgan picked dishoom in covent garden and was checking about reservations (which weren't accepted after 6 pm for parties less than six people).

getting on the overground back to london bridge . . 

we were able to talk with chanda who was at work (she had school all this week also) . . 

 

back at london bridge where it was determined that we needed to walk to the northern line . . 

out on the street by charing cross station . . 

i was surprised to see the sign for the play mousetrap. i think it would be fun to see! years ago i saw ira levin's deathtrap on broadway with my sister. we sat in the very last row up in the balcony and still screamed in fright at some of the plot twists.

finally . . dishoom!

where we waited on a long line that actually moved quite quickly . . 

making decisions about the menu . . i think i was the only one who hadn't been before . . 

they had several different lassi flavors: rose and cardamom, mango and fennel, and salted with crushed cardamom. i'm guessing that this was the latter, but korrina will have to confirm.

i think two of the dishes we had were masala prawns and okra fries and i'm not sure about the chicken or about the sauces in the bowls. (the other dishes were ruby chicken, black dahl, naan bread and chicken tikka.)

they brought out a bowl of dishoom chocolate pudding with a scoop of ice cream (either cinnamon or kashmiri chili) with a candle on top to celebrate.

we also ordered the caramelized basmati rice pudding with blueberry compote . . it was an amazingly delicious meal.

and a bus ride back to the airbnb . . 

(korrina and i sat up front on the top deck. the conversation was from a couple sitting next to us . . i scanned the camera to the left when the dean street/chinatown stop was announced as the brightly lit orange lanterns were so pretty.)

i think we were all very tired.