Peggotty said, "I’ll stay with you till I am a cross cranky old woman. And when I’m too deaf, and too lame, and too blind, and too mumbly for want of teeth, to be of any use at all, even to be found fault with, than I shall go to my Davy, and ask him to take me in." (David Copperfield) Well, a pandemic, global economic collapse, Brexit, two Tory twat PMs and the death of the Queen couldn't stop me from going to Blighty and London has taken me in. It's been far too long.
The journey over was a bit of a nightmare that started before I'd even boarded my plane in Hartford. In the years B.C. (Before Covid), Aer Lingus offered a brilliant route from Hartford to London via Dublin, but that was suspended in 2020 and hasn't resumed. So, I booked myself on a really cheap flight on American Airlines with a tight connection in Philadelphia -- a mistake, apparently. I was one of the last people to board the first flight. The gate staff came around saying there was no more room in the overhead compartments and they seized the bags of the last three of us in the queue for stowage in the hold. I had a really bad feeling about this. I had been so careful about packing light in the smallest roll-aboard possible (it even meets the stringent size limitations on Ryan Air). I begged and pleaded to no avail. The guy in back of me said not to bother complaining as the AA gate staff are always assholes. When I got to my seat, there was indeed a space right above it, perfectly sized for my wee bag. I stuffed my backpack with all my electronics, etc. under the seat in front of me and buckled up. The plane had barely moved away from the gate when it stopped ... and stayed for over an hour because, we were told, of bad weather in Philly. I talked to a nice cabin steward who told me that everything in Philly was delayed and odds were that my connecting flight would be leaving late. Well, it left without me. Fortunately, AA rebooked me onto a later flight that night to LHR, where I had an entire row of three seats to myself and got some kip, but unfortunately my bag stayed in Philly, which I only discovered after all the bags from our flight had come off the carousel at Heathrow. That meant going to the customer service desk, filing all the relevant details, and hoping I could believe that my bag would be put on that night's AA flight and would be delivered to me the next day. Long story short, the bag did arrive on my doorstep at 8 pm Thursday, by which time I could have used some good drugs to bring my anxiety level down.
What to do on my first day without my luggage? Go to a charity shop! There must be six or eight of them within easy walking distance and I lucked out. At the first one I went to, I got a t-shirt and leggings for 11 quid, then made it back to my AirBnB in time to unroll the yoga mat I had ordered from Amazon, log onto the wifi network, and be ready for the 3 pm livestream mat class (10 am EST) from my local Pilates studio. Feeling a bit more human afterwards, I went out again to go to the shops for food items. And I got caught in my first (brief) torrential downpour.
Day two started with the weekly walk around the Primrose Hill area, sponsored by the Primrose Hill Community Association. Some of the walks are social rambles and others are guided with a theme. For this walk, local resident Martin Sheppard, who has written a history of the area, walked us around the park for an hour and told us about how it was used during and impacted by World War Two. There were anti-aircraft guns on the hill, various shelters for the troops, and part of the park was used as allotments. He was full of interesting factoids, including some about how London Zoo dealt with the war. Fearing that a bomb strike would result in animal carnage and escape, they moved many of the animals to other locations outside London and euthanized some. Others remained in the zoo, and some were really freaked out by the noise of the shelling (this area sustained a lot of bomb damage due to proximity to the rail lines, a prime target), including a zebra who got out and had to be rounded up and returned.
Mid day was consumed with errands. I ordered a burner phone from Argos and needed to schlep up the Finchley Road to Sainsbury's at the O2 (an even more dreadful place than it was the last time I was there in 2004). On the way back, I stopped into another charity shop and bought a scarf (I had forgotten to bring one) for 3 quid -- a bit scratchy, but it matches my plum raincoat perfectly. I might be cheap, but I aim to be well turned out. Back at the flat, I faffed around with the phone to great frustration.
Finally, in late afternoon I set out for a tour of the Islamic gardens at the Aga Khan Centre in King's Cross. I had wanted to see the inside of the building when I was here in 2019 -- it was featured during Open House weekend, but when I got there the queue was so long that I didn't try for it. The garden tours are announced on the website every three months, and I had pounced when they opened up dates for autumn tours. We had a knowledgeable and funny guide and the six gardens are beautiful -- scattered on various balconies and roofs throughout the nine-storey building. And the views over Coal Drops Yard and Granary Square were great.
Friday was my day to mooch around in Bloomsbury. It started with a trip to the EE phone store in the Brunswick Centre to see if they could get my burner phone working properly. They couldn't, but helped me to connect by phone to customer service tech people. After 45 minutes sat in the store while on the phone, the problem finally seemed sorted and I was on my way. The next stop was the Wellcome Collection to see a small exhibition about air -- not the best exhibition I've seen there, but there's a new one coming in a couple weeks so I'll be sure to come back. This is one of my favourite places in London -- the library is a fantastic place to chill out in comfy chairs and the caff is lovely. Unfortunately, they shuttered their wonderful bookshop for Covid and haven't reopened it.
I grabbed a sandwich in a convenience store and walked over to Tavistock Square, where I sat on a bench next to Gandhi and ate my lunch.
My final stop before heading back to Belsize Park was the Crypt Gallery below St Pancras Parish Church. This, too, is a favourite stop for me. The current exhibition is Beyond Nature by Jeff Robb -- holograms of flowers, hung singly in the arched niches in the crypt. Art meets horticulture meets technology.
Wednesday, October 5th
£10 to top up Oyster card
£26 groceries and wine
£11 t-shirt and leggings from charity shop
13,871 steps
5.71 miles
Thursday, October 6th
£47 mobile phone and SD card
£10 EE top up for phone
£3 scarf from charity shop
£7 Rescue Remedy pastilles -- I REALLY needed to de-stress
£3.35 Kevin pie (Waitrose was out of my favourite Heidi pies)
22,072 steps
8.99 miles
Friday, October 7th
£147.50 one-month travel card
£2.20 sandwich
£10.20 apples and wine
15,700 steps
6.43 miles
3 seats! Almost makes up for baggage stress. Mat class devotion! Gardens sound wonderful.
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