Henley and London

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Flag of United Kingdom London, London, City of, United Kingdom
Saturday, April 21, 2012

On Saturday, my parents paid a visit to a family friend living in the outskirts of London, at Harrow-on-the-Hill. I had no expectations for the visit, and our plans were flexible: if the visit ended early, we’d head to Portobello Market to view the antiques on display. Our friend and his wife were extremely hospitable, and drove us to the beautiful and picaresque town of Henley, the “site of the regatta,” as his wife explained. I didn’t ask her what she meant, as I didn’t want to interrupt the conversation, but I think she was referring to the annual regatta or race between Oxford and Cambridge. Henley is a pretty little town with houses grouped along the river. While I was standing next the river, a young British woman struck up a conversation with me, as both of us were admiring the tiny, day-old ducklings which were valiantly practising their swimming in a sheltered corner of the river. She exclaimed that she loved living in Henley; it was a posh town, she admitted, but the people were friendly and not snooty

Henley Bridge

. She was certainly friendly herself.

For dinner, our family friend drove us back to London to a Singaporean Chinese restaurant, and we had oyster omelettes (oh luak), rice noodles (char kway teow), and for dessert, banana fritters (goreng pisang). What an unexpected feast! Our family friend is a lawyer, and regaled us with stories of the first few weeks of practising (he didn’t know the rules of the magistrates’ court, and “permitted” his co-counsel to adjourn the trial – that was hilarious). My inquiries about practising in London were not met with much encouragement on his part; he said that a solicitor won’t make enough money to support himself in such an expensive city, unless one worked at one of the big City firms. He encouraged me to go to Asia instead. I’ll keep his advice in mind, but I am thinking seriously about qualifying in the U.K.

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