Monday, October 31/2022

 Thought we had our market cased. Open six days but closed Sunday. Then we see expanded version on Sunday. So seven days then, and we’ll pick up some more grapes and cherry tomatoes. But today open our door to find no market stalls at all. So occurs every day except Monday. Third guess lucky.

Camden High Street. Not the funky market end but the slightly seedy business end between Camden and Mornington Crescent tube stations. Small changes here as everywhere. There used to be a Lidl store where we sometimes bought a dense German rye bread but seems it closed back in April. Wine was often a good deal here too but the queues were insanely long so not always worth going in for one or two items. On the other side of the street a small Aldi has opened (the Germans have done wonders for British food prices, seemingly unaffected by Brexit. Here wine would again be the best choice - some pretty modestly priced Aldi wines have won international prizes and sell for about £5 - but hard even to see the wine peering between customers at the shelves behind the queue which extends nearly to the back of the store. 

The best part of the visit to Camden Town, though, is finding that my new(ish) HSBC card does in fact work at the bank’s cash point. Accounts have become almost impossible for non-residents to open in this country, so we’re hanging on to ours, though it’s of value mainly for avoiding having to change currencies at the end of a trip as well as for the debit card that goes with it. Definitely not income generating. But with the pandemic it’s been over two and a half years since the account was actually used other than a couple of token £1 top ups with Doug’s assistance. Pleased to find a balance of about £650 remaining.

Regular supermarkets a source of all kinds of treats. Recognise that our semi wilderness existence is showing and suspect that city dwellers would simply roll their eyes at our pleasure in finding a nice tapenade or a jar of ajvar. Also buy a jar of Branston pickle, reminding me as it always does of my annoyance at leaving a large jar of same on a bus in Turkey some twenty years ago. And pleased to finally acquire a new box of Waitrose Earl Grey tea. It’s a supermarket brand but streets better than anything we can get in Canada for much higher prices. Have no idea why; not like either country is anywhere near the tea plantations.

Sunday, October 30/2022

 Time change throughout Europe, though not North America, and my usual lament that if the time is going to change seasonally it would be much more convenient if the world could agree on a date. World peace may be unachievable but surely the end of summer time could be negotiated. Wake up, look at my tablet and think, complacently, that it must actually be an hour earlier until it occurs that the ipad has quietly made all necessary adjustments and only my watch needs human attention.

Out earlyish - well nine - as we’re on our way to Thames Ditton to have Sunday lunch with Jenny and Doug. Had thought that there was no market Sundays on our road but see as we open the door that on the contrary it is much more extensive than on weekdays, extending down past our flat, seemingly mostly farmers’ market at our end. They’re still setting up, but not particularly happily as it’s raining. Not only makes the work less pleasant but will discourage Sunday shoppers.

Tube to Waterloo station, where we’re fairly early for the train as they’re only once an hour on Sundays. Wait not without diversion though. Some young dancers are setting up entertainment and, much more unusual, there is a man of unknown motives carrying a sign with a swastika and another with a picture of Mickey Mouse.

Lovely meal. Could say traditional Sunday lunch except it goes well beyond any we’ve experienced, all the way from roast chicken to crème caramel and a cheese plate. Good company too. Jenny’s cousin Elaine and her husband Hugh have joined us. Conversation as much a pleasure as the food. And Emma stops by afterward with her girls and Cody, the grandchildren all seeming much older, unsurprisingly as it’s been more than two and a half years.

Saturday, October 29/2022

Still slightly stunned by walking down two flights of stairs (really rather more like a carpet covered ladder) and finding ourselves immediately across from an Italian coffee shop - actually two - complete with relaxed customers in the late morning sun. Temperature today 22 in the shade. One of the market’s busier days, with more vendors than a weekday and plenty of buyers from farther afield enjoying the outing, some accompanied by dogs looking delighted to be included.

Tube to Kilburn High Road, our regular spot in past years for shopping as well as alternative theatre and early suppers. It hasn’t changed much but seems to have faded slightly in contrast to the  liveliness of our new home. Still has two pound stores. And there’s still Aldi, home to some surprisingly good wine as well as J’s favourite Danishes. Note too that they now carry pastéis de nata, Portuguese custard tarts. Wonderful, but not all created equal as we discovered in Portugal. We’ll save them for next time. Still very long queues in Aldi as well, or rather one long queue moving pretty steadily and ending in a long bank of self service checkouts. Faster it seems, though no thanks to the likes of us. Being philosophically opposed to them - and also lacking experience and quite possibly intellectual inclination - we contrive to take at least three times as long as if we’d had a cashier. Well, there’s always next time.

Pick up a lovely hot chicken on the way home and have it with salad, and of course the pastries.

Friday, October 28/2022

 Exploring our neighbourhood. About as far removed from the road we live on in the other half of our life as is possible in the English speaking world, and the distance is the least of it. Lazy day, as the previous two weren’t. Three pubs on our short road - would be four if one weren’t undergoing renovations. A butcher and a fishmonger. Several Italian restaurants, as well as a Korean one and a Moroccan. At least three Indian restaurants. Coffee shops, chain and independent family, and a coffee roastery. Far greater range of ingredients to be had on this 334 metre road than in most supermarkets of our experience. And yes, supermarkets as well. Just outside the entrance to the road are three - Marks and Spencer, Waitrose and Sainsbury. Less spoiled for choice than overwhelmed by it. 

Not all bubbling life of course. As we start out we encounter a funeral procession, full traditional dignity led by a funeral director in top hat and tails walking down the centre of the road. Behind him the hearse bedecked with flowers and the limousines carrying the mourners. While at the other end of the road the market is in full swing.

Thursday, October 27/2022

 

The days of the little family hotel in Bayswater are over, as we knew they eventually would be. Sold, and the family retired, though we’re still in touch. We’ll miss the terraced Victorian charm and dead cheap prices. Not so much the vintage plumbing and lack of wifi, the latter usually a red line for us but one we suspended because of the price and the existence of a particularly humane wifi equipped Starbucks round the corner.

New home is on one of the few streets in London with which we were already very familiar, Chapel Market. It’s a traditional market street near Angel tube station, home also to little independent shops, cafés and restaurants, including Indian Veg, a family run buffet where we’ve eaten for years and now our next door neighbour.

Flat itself is tiny, up a couple of flights of stairs with steps more narrow than the length of an average foot. Small enough that its few contents have had to be fitted in like a Chinese puzzle but it’s clean and reasonably well equipped. And they’ve left us an attractively set table with a bottle of wine and one of Indian tonic.

Wednesday, October 26/2022

First trip since we returned from the lovely lockdown in the TRNC in August 2020. So maybe we’re out of practice and maybe things have changed. Anyway, when I went last night to check in online all was well until, following the passport info am asked for UK visa info. What? Canadian visitors don’t need a visa for the UK. But N/A not amongst the options. And impossible to proceed without providing serious information. Check with gov.uk, which always answers relevant questions thoroughly and without ambiguity and is never out of date. No - Canadian passport, just visiting, no criminal record, no intention of working or claiming benefits. No visa required. Air Canada kindly, and somewhat unusually, provides a help number to call. Help recording proves unhelpful. If question concerns check in requirements it can only be answered by airport check in staff. And in any case AC recommends arriving at airport more than two hours before flight time as airports are unusually busy. 

All of which means we accept Jennifer’s kind offer to take us to the airport at 7:15 on her way to work (which it actually isn’t) in order to sort out our lack of status. Turns out Air Canada assumes that a return flight booked from London in May means that we intend to stay in the UK for over six months and could be refused entry at Heathrow - forcing AC to fly us back to Canada in disgrace. Happily, the man who deals with us understands the problem immediately and it is easily solved by our providing a copy of a British Air booking showing us leaving the UK two weeks after arriving. Well, more or less easily, as the Winnipeg airport wifi isn’t functioning and the agent in the end lends us his own hot spot in order to access my email. 

Fortunately AC’s warning of extremely busy facilities inapplicable in Winnipeg’s case, and we could easily have arrived hours later to sort the problem. Airport next best thing to empty.