Blackheath Village

I've been going to Greenwich Market every Sunday, and a couple weeks ago started going to Blackheath Village immediately thereafter. It's a quick bus trip from Greenwich and then just a short walk down a hill to get back to my house from Blackheath.

It's a lovely little quaint area and feels particularly fall-ish. I could sit on this street and watch the passers-by for hours.

This church is situated on the large heath (as they like to call big patches of land) in Blackheath and I can see the steeple from my house.

Oh boy, what a wonderful city!

I'm loving the chance to familiarize myself with London. There's lots to explore but it took me awhile to get settled in the first place, so I'm still working on getting my major bearings, as far as where things are in relation to each other, how to get from one place to another, what's in walking distance, etc.


I spent some time on Saturday near the amazing St. Paul's Cathedral and walking down Fleet Street. A few days earlier my friend Seana had taken me to "Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese", a pub REBUILT in 1667. It's right out of Charles Dickes, just like almost everything in London.
















This is St. Bride's Church, also on Fleet Street. "Legend has it" that wedding cakes are tiered to look like the steeple. I'm doubtful.

To market, to market

It was a beautiful Sunday, and my friend Sarah and I met my friend Odette at the lovely Greenwich Market. It's filled with incredible foods, jewelry, art, etc.


Sarah and Odette - do I have gorgeous friends, or what?

Sarah is Scottish so naturally I made her pose with this.












After that Sarah and I went to the much less lovely but much more humorous Lewisham Market, which is my local market run by Cockneys trying to barter with anyone who walks by. Check out some of the classy merchandise.

I know I'm right

OK Americans... help me out. What is the nickname for this place?
Quite clearly, quite obviously, it's Mickey D's.

Yeah, well over here it's Macky D's, I kid you not. Not only is it Macky D's but they pronounce it MACdonalds with the stress on the first syllable and a definite "Mac". Not only THAT but I got made fun of for a good 15 minutes at work for my "Mick-donalds" pronounciation and stress on 2nd syllable. And blank stares of disbelief that - no really, 300 million people call it "Mickey D's".

Stuff like this happens allllll the time in my life now. Here's a few more examples off the top of my head:
They have Where's Waldo, but it's called "Where's Wally"
They have the boardgame Clue, but it's called "Cluedo"
They know The Hokey Pokey, but they call it "The Hokey Cokey"
They have T.J. Maxx, but it's called "T.K. Maxx" !

Probably my favorite was when I walked into a dry cleaners the other day and asked them if they hem pants. I forgot that in the UK "pants" means "underwear". (They say "trousers" for what we call pants). So yeah, that was humorous.


It's a bit like living in just a slightly alternative universe. It's almost the same but a few things are askew.

Working late

My dear friend and coworker Deedee, with whom I now spend most of my life since we both started temping for NHS Direct at the same time and she sits across from me, and I had to work late tonite. While we were both pretty annoyed being the last ones in, the nice thing about it was that I could take a few pictures of our amazing view without being too embarrassed. Plus London is a whole different kind of pretty at night.

From the chief exec's office


Out the windows facing one direction


35 degree turn to snap this one


One side of the empty office


Other empty side with an angry Deedee refusing to have her picture taken after our long day.



I had such a lovely walk to London Bridge station along the Thames on the way home, but my camera just couldn't capture much in the near-dark. Oh well.

Open House London

This weekend is the annual "Open House London" event, where there are free tours of buildings and properties around the city. You can go see things that normally people wouldn't be able to see, like the inside of old banks and homes. Also if you book in advance, you can go on the London Eye for free. It was a BEAUTIFUL weekend in London (amazingly) so totally perfect for this.

I didn't do much with it, but there is this very odd misplaced estate about one second from where I live that I got to visit. I hadn't even noticed it until more than a week after I'd been using the bus stop right in front of it, because it's behind a gate and set back from the road. But it was part of the event weekend so I was thrilled to be able to go inside the little chapel that is oddly on my street that leads into the huge front yard. It's beautiful.




The chapel from the inside of the gate



My normal view of the chapel when I get off the bus right in front of it!


Immediately across the street are these shops. It's SO strange that the old manor is there. Clearly it was there before everything else!



PS. Happy birthday Mom! :)

Seeing more of England

My friend Joe and I took the train on Saturday to visit friends on the south coast. One lives in Southampton and the other in Portsmouth. Those towns have huge rivalries dating back to when they were competing port towns, but now the (actual) hatred (!) exists mostly because they are rival football teams.


Joe and Kate in front of a medieval wall in Southampton. The rest was destroyed by the Luftwaffe.


Joe, me and Kate at her apartment. Nice face, Joe.


Katie and Joe in a very cute pub in Portsmouth.


The pub was on a hill overlooking the city. Here's the view:

I'm still getting free glass, even in England

This little place is just down the street from me and made me really happy when I first noticed it. I half expected to see my mom inside. :)

I popped in there Saturday morning to see if they'd sell me a piece of glass to rest my hair straightener on (I am very fire safety conscious after my years as an RD) and they cut me a piece right on the spot and gave it to me for free. I'm a bit of a novelty in my area, so I think they enjoyed an American woman walking in talking about her family's similar shop!

Not really a town

My friend Jason and I went to Chinatown the other night for dinner. It's pretty and interesting, but I particularly like it because my favorite English comedians used to talk a lot about how Chinatown's "not really a town".

Someone recently animated a short clip from one of the many times they talked about Chinatown on their old radio show.

I moved, and how

About a week ago and a half ago I started to move into my "permanent" flat. Before I left the US, I set up a temporary living situation and now I'm in my own place with a regular lease.

The place is great, but moving without a car, and on my own was definitely an experience. And I had more than week to move so I decided to just take trips on the bus to get everything over there. The 321 bus goes from right near the one flat to the right outside the other, so it seemed do-able.

And it was, mostly. I had one large suitcase with wheels which took a few trips, but mostly it was the good old granny trolley that did it! In fact it now feels very odd to walk around without it (although it continues to accompany me to the mall and IKEA etc!)

A few shots of the thing in action. Best £20 I ever spent, by the way.















It also happens to work pretty well as a clothes rack. :)