A view from the Thames

Today, my something new learned is that London is one of the smallest cities in the world, coming in at just one square mile in size.  Goes to show that good things come in small packages.

After a shopping trip in the morning to Canary Wharf to buy shoes for Mat, we decided to spend the afternoon on a river cruise of the Thames.  I like a change in aspect and I always enjoy being on the water.  It's remarkable that in the last two days I have stood where Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are buried, I have heard the chime of Big Ben, and I have seen the observatory where Greenwich Meantime was launched.  I am in a delightful dream.

We popped out of the underground, directly beneath the altitudinous St Stephen's Tower (aka Big Ben)

St Paul's Cathedral 

A bit of the old on the river ...

... and a bit of the new

Someone should write a song about this bridge

Tower of London

Tower of London

Doorway into Westminster Abbey Boys' School

Westminster Abbey

Never-ending staircase at The Monument

Lights out!

Keep the Peace,

M

We are all worms. But I do believe I am a glow-worm.

I can't go past a great quote and two of my favourite notable quotables are Mark Twain and Winston Churchill.  How lucky, then, for me that today we visited the Churchill War Rooms where the walls were covered in WC's most famous comments, including the title of this post.

I scribbled some down that especially struck a chord:

"Like chasing a quinine pill around a cow pasture" - commenting on the game of golf

"Never trust a man who has not a single redeeming vice"

"Eating my words has never given me indigestion"

"The great thing is to get the true picture, whatever it is" 

(this one reminded me of a quote by Flannery O'Connor - 'the truth doesn't change according to our ability to stomach it')

And probably one of the highest compliments I could ever imagine receiving was said about WC - "He mobilised the English language and sent it into battle"

Keep the peace,
M

Brick Lane

Mat came up with a challenge of who could take the best 'what the?' photo while at the market. Send me a comment on which you like best!

1 2 

1) Take your pick - jumbo sized goose eggs or pixie sized quail eggs?
2) Serious teddy bear negotiations in progress

3 4

3) What happens to our brains when we watch too much telly
4) Objectively speaking, the cat suits the person holding it

5 6

5) Next year's Christmas card motif?
6) Most unusual item spotted at the market

7 8

7) Meat grinder that looks like the animal it's about to grind
8) Imported mangos in the middle of London that are cheaper than mangos on the Sunshine Coast you buy from just up the road

9 10 

9) A mural of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air - you're kidding, right?
10) Flogging 30 year old ski boots in the heart of London. Good luck.

They had other ships for dwarfs

Sunday in London ... certainly less haste than the manic Saturday evening that preceded it. I often say 'everything bites in Australia'; here I've found myself thinking 'everything shouts in London.'  It's a loud city.  On a Saturday night, the streets and squares and train stations and restaurants are teeming with people who seem to be set on being heard as well as being seen. For a country mouse like me, it's a cacophony of noise, some pleasant, some not, that takes a bit of getting used to. I'm tempted to have pamphlets made up that read 'Ssh, use your indoor voice.'

All is quiet now and Mat is blissfully using headphones to watch t.v. It's been another long day on our feet. We started with a walk to Whitechapel to take in the Brick Lane markets, where we didn't buy anything but saw some unusual sights.  We then headed off to climb the never-ending spiral staircase at The Monument, a passive pillar commemorating the Great Fire of London. The views are good but the height gave us both the willies. We clearly didn't get enough of going up and down stairways because following The Monument we walked across London Bridge and spent a couple hours scrambling around the HMS Belfast, a retired warship from WWII (it supported the Canadians at Juno).

Quote of the Day: 'They had other ships for dwarfs' - Mat, in response to my comment that I thought the ship's ceilings would be lower. 

Must turn in for the day. 

Keep the peace,

M

Tower of London & All Hollows church

Tower of London

Tower armoury

Tower armoury

Where's the beef?

Prisoner graffiti, circa 1538

'Lerne to feare God'

Tower of London - infamous Traitor's Gate

All Hallows by the Tower church

Something old in the church that's pretty - google it if you want details

Rejuvenation

I'm going to sprinkle you on my toast every morning

This trip is the first time in nine years we've been in the northern hemisphere outside of the summer season. Memories long faded from my life in the sun are coming back to me ... tying my jacket around my waist when I go into a store or building ... waking up to my nose feeling like it's stuffed with sawdust because the heater was on all night ... rain that's not really rain but mere spit from a fickle cloud.  In Oz, I step from the refrigerated indoors to the heat of an oven outdoors, and here it's the opposite. 

Today we began using our 6 day London Pass to see the tourist sites.  Buying the pass a few weeks ago was a deliberate strategy on my part to ensure we kept our vow of making the most of our time here.  Both of us are notoriously consistent at eschewing the fun stuff in favour of being responsible and 'getting on with things'.  Not this time baby!

We spent several hours at the Tower of London, a historic castle on the banks of the Thames River, which is a royal palace and was famously used as a prison for several hundreds of years. From there we visited nearby All Hallows by the Tower church, which is the oldest church in London and predates the Tower of London by 300 years.  There's an Italian cafe across the road that serves the most delicious, lightly toasted baguette sandwiches, which, when accompanied by an Earl Grey tea and a skinny cappuccino respectively, hit the spot perfectly.

Quote of the day: "Not to worry, you're going to be cremated. I'm going to sprinkle you on my toast every morning" - Me, on Mat's comment that he wouldn't want to be buried in a crypt.

Cheers for now!

Keep the peace,
M

The Pigeon Condo

Singapore Sling

Tower Bridge - the pigeon condo

View from the pub beneath Tower Bridge - looking to Tower of London

It's always Beer O'Clock somewhere

Ah - the glorious selfie

The weirdly nicknamed 'Gerkin'

My favourite subject Mat-ter

Any train, one stop!

Welcome to ground zero of my Laughing Matter blog.  It's a bit rough 'n ready, but it will do for now.  

So - London!  Mat and I have been in the country 24hrs now and we're full of congratulations for each other on our early successes:

• Jumping on a mini city tour of Singapore, during our transit layover
• Breezing through UK Border/Customs
• Finding my 'lost baggage' before leaving the airport - it had fallen off the back of the conveyor belt behind the scenes
• Picking up Oyster travel cards for public transportation and hopping on and off three train lines to get to our destination like we're proper Londoners already (ok, except for when we double and possibly triple swiped our travel cards ... live and learn)
• Discovering our Airbnb hosts are incredibly kind and hospitable, not to mention very generous with breakfast supplies and tea/coffee/biscuits, etc.
• Getting onto wi-fi and sparking off a couple of emails and then, bonus!, Face-Timing with Judy 
• Figuring out how to get the SIM card we bought for my phone from an airport vending machine to work (no small feat)
• Taking two trains into Oxford Circus to get a more proper mobile phone account set up for Mat (again, no small feat)
• A quick grocery shop and then home-cooked chicken & pasta with salad and bottle of South African pinot gris

My early impressions:
Shadwell is an ethnic neighbourhood where we are in the minority. I would hazard a guess most folks here are muslim, given the number of berka-clad ladies we passed on the street.  With all the different languages and dress I don't feel like such an obvious tourist - here everyone is from somewhere else.

Our little flat is cosy and well-appointed. There is an eating nook in the central hall that the bedrooms are off of so if you want company it's easy enough to sit at the table and catch someone on their way past.  It's a thousand times nicer to be with very kind locals for the first few days than in a sterile and lonely hotel (kind of like when Jo and Pete took Mat in nine years ago). The flat is also just 2 mins from two different train lines and about 10 min walking distance to Tower Bridge.

Groceries are WAY cheaper than Australia, even with the conversion to pounds and paying city prices.  I.e. a loaf of Burgen soy & linseed bread was the equivalent to $2 AUD.  I kept asking Mat to check the expiry dates because I thought for sure there must be a catch, but there isn't.  I realise other commodities, such as petrol, will be far more expensive here, but still reassuring to know we can save a bit on our food budget.

Unexpected or divine interventions:

• realising on the side of the road that we needed a small pin or something to pop the SIM card catch on my phone and looking down to see a paper clip at our feet
• Singapore Airlines follows the script of 'mostly gin with a dash of tonic' in their G&T mixers
• Mat finding his way back to the accommodation after realising he was lost and had no way of contacting a soul here (this was before we got our mobiles sorted)

Hiccups or challenges:
My back has seized up so I'm writing this while lying on a hot water bottle, with a couple of ibuprofen taking off the edge. My back was fine during the journey though and I'm grateful for that. 

Quote of the Day:  'Any train, one stop' - train station attendant's reply when we asked which train to catch back from Bank St to Shadwell.  Fabulous London accent!

Good wishes to all and sundry.

Keep the peace,
M