Hi all from London,
Yesterday I arrived at King’s Cross/St Pancras at 5.30pm and caught the
Victoria line to Vauxhall, then the national rail to Barnes. From here I
walked to Shannon and Alisha’s flat.
I met Alisha in 2015 at the school I worked at in Putney that year, when
I covered her class while she travelled home to Australia to renew a
visa. We quickly became friends once she was back and then I also became friends with her
partner Shannon. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them but we talk regularly online - Alisha in
January 2017 in New York, and Shannon in December 2017 at my parents’
place. They’re the loveliest people and I’ve attempted to come to see
them twice through all the pandemic rubbish and failed. They were going
to come home for our wedding but then found out they were having a baby
the weekend before!
Their flat is lovely, I had in mind what it looked like from all our
video calls. I'm so grateful to see them and to them for letting me stay.
Alisha and I ate the cheese and bread I brought from France for dinner,
and headed to bed before Shannon eventually came home from his trip to
Ireland this week.
This morning, Alisha headed to work but Shannon took a day off to hang
out as he was owed some overtime. We caught the train to Waterloo and
then my old favourite, the 76 bus, to near where I used to live. I sat
up the top above the driver’s seat and enjoyed views of the Thames, the
west end, St Paul’s and the Bank district before we alighted near Old
Street station and walked past my old flat. On reflection, it was a
pretty dodgy flat! But it did the job for the ten months I lived here
and was in a good location. The mouse in the kitchen, dodgy toilet and a couple of iffy flat mates weren’t great though!! But it was nice to walk past
and reflect on how awesome living here was and how much has changed since then.
My favourite part of the location of the flat was its proximity to
Regent's Canal. This was where Shannon and I headed next. I used to walk
along here at night in the summer after work, and sometimes on the way
back from Angel if I was feeling strong and energetic after I had done
my grocery shopping. It’s beautiful along here, and not touristy at all.
We had it to ourselves in many spots, and only shared it with a few
cyclists and other walkers. It rained at one point for about ten minutes
despite a sunny forecast (typical London!).
We came across a screen playing Wimbledon at one point, and some cool
apartments build around some old gas storage pipes. Eventually we got to
Camden and headed into the pub where we enjoyed a cider.
Here my Canadian friend Lexi came and met us. I met Lexi in July 2015 on a tour
around Scotland. We started talking outside of the bus waiting for the
tour to start, and five minutes later people were asking us how we met -
to which we would answer “on this tour, five minutes ago!” She’s so
lovely and it was fabulous to see her again. She’s currently visiting
the UK too and is looking to move to NZ with her partner later this
year, so hopefully I’ll see her in Melbourne soon too.
The three of us bought lunch at Camden Market from a food truck. We got a
‘Yorkshire Burrito’, which was a delicious huge Yorkshire pudding with
beef, gravy and potatoes wrapped up like a burrito. Phenomenal.
Then we continued walking along the canal to Primrose Hill. It looked
very different here to when I visited just before I left in November
2015, as today it was beautiful and sunny, and that day it was grey and
miserable. We sat on Lexi’s picnic blanket for a while in the sun,
watching a man let his two macaws fly around who were a brilliant red
and blue. We enjoyed the great view of London that the hill afforded us
today in the clear weather.
Then, we caught the tube to Covent Garden and the three of us looked in
the Transport for London shop. We saw some cool old posters here and the
area was very busy. We then got the tube to King’s Cross where we bid
farewell to Lexi and met Alisha. Shannon headed home and Alisha and I
caught the train out to White Hart Lane. Shannon had surprised us and
given us two tickets to the Guns n Roses concert on here tonight - my first concert since the pandemic. Alisha
and I had a great time! It turned out we knew seven songs all up.
Unfortunately the sound wasn’t working very well for the first hour, but
for the remaining 1.5 hours it was much better. Carrie Underwood joined
them on stage twice. I think my favourite was either ‘Sweet Child of
Mine’ or ‘Paradise City’.
I’ve had a great first full day in London!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
No comments:
Post a Comment