2010-11-23 East London Walking Tour

Borough Market

I finally got to Borough Market yesterday, after living here for 7 months. There is so much to do in this city that I will never make it through my list, even after a year. Of course, I forgot my camera, though some of the images of dead animals will stick with me and I would rather not remember those images and post them on a blog, lest I offend my vegetarian friends and frighten the children. Deb and I wandered the market, had coffee at a great little local place across from the Starbucks, wandered some more, made mental notes about all the fabulous restaurants and food stuffs to come back for and then headed over to Covent Gardens for some shopping. We had a great day! London, the more I know you, the more I love you. After a full day of wandering the town, I came home and had to head out again to meet Julia and her friend at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. I get on the bus, sit down and the bus is not moving. The bus driver is shouting at a young man to get off the bus, as the letter he was presenting her was not valid. He won't get off and she won't budge. This goes on for far too long. Strangely, not one other passenger on the bus gets involved. They just sit and wait. And he won't get off and she won't drive. And I am running late. I finally got up, bought him a ticket and we were on our way. Oh, so strange. And not one thank-you from the little ingrate, or the bus driver for that matter. Gotta love the urban moments. Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park - amazing. Polenta chips, butternut squash soup and mulled wine = one happy me. My favorite part of the evening, however, was in the mundane act of riding the bus home with Julia, sitting upstairs and eating the gingerbread she had decorated. We both had a fun evening and just spending the time alone with her on the bus enjoying the time together and marveling at the fact that we are in London, on a double decker bus and only a short ride from Hyde Park to our apartment

Cyprus

Devon

I will get to the bottom of this.........

I will get to the bottom of this. I will get to the bottom of this. I will get to the bottom of this........... pile of laundry!!!! Just in case anyone thinks expat living is all fun and travels, I must interject that I spend a large portion of every single day trying to get through the seemingly never ending pile of laundry on my kitchen floor. Yes, my kitchen floor, because as I am sure I have mentioned previously, my washer/dryer combo unit, yes, combo as in all in one unit, is located in the middle of my kitchen. This is a fact of life here in London that I both love and hate all at the same time.

Autumn at Windsor Castle

Around and About

I want to get back into the habit of blogging regularly, so there is no time like now. Life is moving at warp speed at the moment, so I will just move forward with a quick update of what we have been up to. We had a wonderful visit with Nancy/Grandma who was here for a week and for Rosh Hashana. Yom Kippur was spiritually uplifting at New London Synagogue, where we have joined. The Minyan Chadash is warm, welcoming and feels much like home. Sukkot arrived. This is the first time I have been homesick, as we don't have space to build a Sukkah here and it is my favorite holiday. Julia spent hours making paper chains and pictures to decorate our porch. Though this is not a "kosher" Sukkah, it provided me with tremendous joy and our little space has been transformed for the moment.

Karen and Dan arrived on Friday. We visited the Kenwood House and had lunch there. This is my favorite thing to do in London, so it was fun to share with them. Dan is very knowledgeable about art, and though this was my 5th visit to Kenwood, I learn something new every time I go, and from Dan I learned about a rare painting. We knocked a few more things off of our London To Do list: fish and chips at a very yummy place, the Imperial War Museum and high tea.

Today, I spent a wonderful day and some money (though not as much as I could have spent) at the Origin Craft Show in Spitalfield Market.
That's is all for now.