The crimes Ron is committing in London

I know we look really happy in this photo, but a new rift has opened in our relationship. The problem, as always, is Modern Art. I long ago gave up on getting Ron to see that the mattress and box spring at the Tate Modern are “art”. And I justified his blind art ignorance with the knowledge that Kris and Jim are my art allies and I didn’t need Ron. But Kris and Jim arrived in London before us and took a quick stroll through the Tate Modern. They came across the breathtaking Fountain by Marcel Duchamp and immediately traitored themselves over to Ron’s anti-art camp. The three of them are ganging up on me and are now refusing to enter the Tate Modern. This is Fountain:

Equally troubling – now that Jim is here, Ron thinks nothing of finishing a pizza for his dinner and then walking right into Krispy Kreme for a donut to round out his all-bread meal:

We’re staying in a new neighborhood on this trip. It’s a fabulous area right near Covent Garden. There’s endless pedestrian streets and stores:

And we’re trying a new hotel: on the outside, the ME Melia is a perfectly cheery place:

But the interior hallways were designed by someone with training in both standard architecture and murder mystery set design:

By way of actual touring news, we headed to the Imperial War Museum today. We have been there before and we spent all of our time in the World War II exhibits. Since I had already toured that exhibit and gleaned every single possible piece of historical information on offer, I thought I would focus my visit on the World War I installation. I was reminded of how little I grasp and so, because I could not process what I was seeing, I lasered my focus to one item: understanding the hard tack biscuits and MREs used in WW I. I took some various pictures that I share with you here and will supplement with more WW I information as I gain it:

After we left the Imperial War Museum, we had the opportunity to relax and converse with Kris and Jim at The Savoy, as we had our $120 PER PERSON tea. Here is Ron as we entered the beautiful tea room:

Here is Ron as I forced him to have his high tea photo taken. (Note: this was before he saw the menu and knew the price of the tea).

I did not realize the level of his growing budgetary outrage as we dined. I failed to get an actual picture of our tea spread, so here is one I dug up online, but it should give you a realistic sense of the value we received:

I think this is where Ron went astray. It’s probably my fault. Kris and I left the bill-paying to Ron and Jim, and went to check out the fancy Savoy bathroom and lobby, happily taking photos of ourselves:

We didn’t see Ron again until he exited the tea room and he walked out, all proud of himself, and told us he stole a pen from the Savoy to offset the price of the tea.

And then, once we cleared the hotel premises, Ron told us that stealing the pen was not his only effort to gain some value, and he pulled out a washcloth he had stolen from the men’s bathroom. Here’s his haul:

Here’s Ron shopping a bit later and I’m pleased to report he paid for his Hoka purchase instead of shoplifting it: