We saw Wil off to work. He has had to sideline cycling due to the broken collarbone and ensuing surgery but he takes an hour and a half walk into work to get some exercise. I scoffed some toast and Britt made me a great coffee from a hissing and spluttering Ferrari of a coffee machine and set off with the dogs while Britt and Johnny got ready for the day out. Kentish town and Camden was just stirring and there were loads of people hurrying to work. I felt like a lady of leisure swanning about with the girls with not a care in the world. I tried to stick to the main street as I did not want the embarrassment of having to call home for directions. I found the nearby lock and we jogged on to Camden railway station.
There is so much interesting architecture around. So reminds me of Fitzroy in 1975, just waiting for the yuppies with deep pockets to move in, renovate and make it unaffordable (or possibly MORE unaffordable). I kept up a bit of a pace and hardly realized that Molly was flagging. When we got back home she limped into Britt’s bed and burrowed out of sight. There will be no moving her for the next couple of hours. It’s a blazing yellow sun out there so it promises to be a great day. Britt will take us by the Borough market and has promised us a scotched egg for lunch (the best in the world according to those that have tasted them). We are becoming old hands at using the tube. Once we finished a couple of jobs at the post office, we headed off to the railway and took 2 trains into the city centre. We were in august company on the train trip. Britt recognized Mike guy, the ceo of the London Transport Authority. He was travelling with a colleague and occasionally speaking into his satellite phone.
Britt took us by the Tower and along the embankment. The tourists were out in force but we were more interested in the streetscapes than the tourist sites. It was odd being surrounded by all that history as monuments hundreds of years old jostled with glass towers. We had planned to take the ferry along the river but the walk was the better option as the sun was out and it let us see the buildings up close. We walked from Tower Bridge to London Bridge and then on to the Borough Market. This place was food central. Our first stop was the Scotch Egg shop and the taste was great. We found a stone step and ate them there on the spot. A loopy lady who appeared to have missed her meds seemed to take some offence at us and began to shout something or other at us but gratefully she moved on when we didn’t respond. We had Portuguese tarts to follow and then off to the Ginger Pig to stock up on various pork pies for the freezer. T
he market was brimming with specialty shops. There was a warehouse of mature cheese rounds. There were stalls of smoked meats. In another stall jamon shavers were working overtime. The coffee shops had long lines of people who take their coffee every bit as seriously as Melbourne hipsters. We moved away from the market reluctantly and took the embankment walk towards the Tate Modern.
The Tate exhibitions were fantastic. Transforming a disused power station into an exhibition space is a brilliant idea. There was a surrealist exhibition, a Pop Art show and so much more. Names, Names, Names, … Picasso, Klee, Dali, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Hockney, Freud….The best thing we saw was the Warhol painting of multiple Marilyn Monroe's. Then of course there was a huge variety of really silly, obscure stuff. Britt and I had a lot of fun renaming these works…The killing of the yellow chickens…you cant get good staff any longer…the blood stained chess board….massacre in the gallery: a trypich. The list of silly stuff was quite extensive. I guess the most obscure was a Polish film about blind people painting. There is only so much avant guard stuff that a person can take before they wonder if they are being taken for a ride.
Feet started to ache. Shoulders started to droop. Bags started to feel heavy. Spirits started to sag. We read the signs and decided to head home for a rest. We took the footbridge that led us towards St Paul’s cathedral and then to the train back to Kentish Town. We picked up shopping for dinner along the high street and headed home to a frenzied greeting by the doggies. A rest and some work on the computer was followed by a LONG walk from the house, down by the canal, through camden to the St Martins Art College. there was SOOO much development going on there. The canal had a bit of a dangerous feel but it was also beautiful. There were so many narrow boats parked along the canal. one enterprising Jamacian has set up a pop up bakery and is selling rum cakes out of his windows to passers by. we walked on to St Pancras station and saw the passing of the Eurostar arriving from France. Then it was a walk through the suburb, back to Kentish town via the pet shop.
As I write this blog, I am being resuscitated by a big glass of cider (thanks Britt) as we watch Britt prepare dinner. Its pork sausages in crusty rolls with coleslaw and sweet potato chips. Yum! A nice way to finish the day. My fitbit says i have walked 19.44 km today. No wonder that I'm tired. Cheers, and see you tomorrow, Lily
