So quiet

 A fashion store on the Kings Road sells Jackson Hole clothing. Maybe , before we go, we'll buy something for the farmers wife...or her daughter.

London is quiet. Unnaturally so. In fact its so quiet it's positively spooky. Something seems profoundly off. Cab drivers all ( without exception ) comment on how few visitors and locals there are. The Kings Road is as deserted as we've ever seen it. Perhaps things will pick up next week when the kids go back to school after the Easter break ?

We take a brief detour into a side street. Forty plus years ago we used to live here. The small road suffered then and suffers now from being a cul de sac. Driving in to park was easy but to get out again you had to reverse all the way back down and onto the busy main road. In those days people would happily stop to let you out. I'm not sure that would happen today. The house was memorable for once being owned by a Swedish actress who glazed over the garden and installed an enormous round jacuzzi in the basement complete with a gold swans head water spout. To this day the life sized swans head remains the louchest thing either of us have ever seen.

We stop to admire a gentlemans dressing gown which has pride of place in a shop window. What an Edwardian look !

A Japanese restaurant with a nondescript exterior is home to a good and very stylish basement bar :https://www.archdaily.com/999379/mayha-restaurant-mariagroup  The chef tells us they used to be in Beirut before moving to London. That turned out to be a wise choice. Sadly, they have a party from the Japanese embassy coming in later so there's no room for two walk ins.

We opt to have dinner in a new Italian. We'd heard positive things about it but the place proves to be merely 'goodish' . When the bill comes  'The Font' delphically wonders if a combination of eye wateringly expensive and cooking that's merely good is a recipe for commercial success . The staff tell us that bookings have fallen off by 40% since the start of the Gulf war. With the exception of an American couple who order one starter and main course that they then share between them ( is this a health or cost thing ? ) we have the place to ourselves.

Thoughts on the Gulf. Here's a pretty grounded take from a sensible guy in the region. As he rightly points out a lot can happen in six months :https://x.com/taufiqzrahim/status/2042747281678402043

Birds in Chicago :https://birdhistory.substack.com/p/the-ornithologist-in-the-white-city