Love Letter to London

Dear London,

You were my home for almost two years. I loved taking my A-Z and getting off the tube and just wandering aimlessly. I loved the London atmosphere. I loved the safe feeling I had, pretty much everywhere I went. I loved that the three times I've been back to visit since I moved home ten years ago, I felt at home the moment I stepped out of the underground and onto the cobbles.

I have some good friends in London still. I heard from one on Sunday and she expressed sorrow over the riots on Saturday night. Little did either of us expect that today would mark the third day of rioting...dear London, can you please keep my friends safe. And the other 7,820,293 people who live in London who are not rioting. And the police officers and paramedics and fire fighters and other emergency personnel. And maybe in all your London-ness you can convince the rioters to stop. Vancouver had its own riot in June. Its origins were suspect, but it only lasted one frightening, disgusting evening.

So dear London, I hope for you and your inhabitants that tonight is the last night of this disruptive, horrifying unrest. I hope that you keep those people safe, that they again feel the same security on your street I felt ten years ago. I will be back to visit you and perpetuate my crush on you in the (hopefully) near future...so stay safe and rioters, go home...please. Just go home.

xo

Happy Birthday Pax Lodge

I have a lot to say about Pax Lodge and what better day to say it than on the 20th birthday of that white building in Hampstead.

Well, there is going to be a better day because I need to go to bed instead of blogging.

So instead, a few thoughts and a few pictures. With promises of a few more stories and a few more pictures later. I have lots of pictures...just saying...

Thoughts:

• Pax Lodge was my home during a few of the best years of my life (so far)
• Pax Lodge introduced me to many of the people I consider my closest friends
• Pax Lodge made me happy. Or maybe more, I was happy when I lived at Pax Lodge (that sounds like I'm not happy now...but that's not true either...it's just different)
• Pax Lodge taught me more than I learned during my four year degree
• I miss Pax Lodge. I miss my Pax Lodge ladies
• Look at the happy faces in these pictures...Pax Lodge is a happy place!

Photos: (please excuse the quality or lack of quality of the pictures...our computer is still out of commission and I ended up taking pictures of pictures, not scanning them like I should have...)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAX LODGE!

For Sarah - London in Vancouver

Look what's sitting beside my desk... (yes, I know it might not be entirely geographically correct)

Thanks Sarah! I still love it and now I have a toddler-safe place to keep it.

A little bit of London's history

Someone I know is headed to London at the end of the month and I'm just a wee bit jealous.

But that's okay. I'll be back one day.

She asked me about places to eat and one of my favourite places was Fortnum and Mason. My grandpa took me to lunch there. I'm positive it was leagues out my price range at the time (probably a little more within reach but still out there now), but it was so good. That got me to wandering around their website.

And discovering that there wasn't a General Post Office until 1839! Can you believe it? Royal Mail, one of the most talked about mail services in the world, is older - it was founded in the 1500s, but anyone who wanted to could deliver the mail and you paid for the mail when you received it...I had no idea.

The other thing I had no idea about was baked beans. They're such a big part of pub fare and English breakfast and lots of meals with chips that I thought they had been around forever. I have no idea when baked beans were introduced, but Heinz baked beans were first introduced to the UK by Fortnum and Mason in 1886...

Of course I recommended the Hampstead Creperie...so now, here I am, on a rainy Vancouver afternoon wishing for baked beans and a crepe on Hampstead Heath. Now that's a strange combination!

Such a silly girl...

For weeks I've been pining for London. I dream about London. I get giddy when I see London on TV. The topic of a trip to London keeps coming up (don't get excited, it's not happening for a long, long time! Life has seen to that!) I've been avoiding watching Love Actually, even though I really want to, because, well, I always want to go back to London after I see Love Actually.

And then. Then I checked my stats. And someone came here from Google. Because they'd put Pax Lodge and a handful of other things in the search. And that randomly sent them to me.

I'm naturally curious.

So I clicked the link that took me to their search. And found a couple of blogs (well, found one blog that led to a couple of other blogs) of current/recent Pax Lodge staff.

OH NO.

Sucked in.

So, I know life at Pax Lodge is very, very different than when I was there. I first arrived eleven summers ago and left for good in 2002. But I've been back three times since then to visit. And even though it was different, it still smelled the same. And there was that Pax Lodge-ness about it that made it still Pax Lodge even though it had changed sooooo much. And. Yeah. I miss it. A lot. And Hampstead and the Heath and Belsize Park and Trafalgar Square and Charing Cross Road and all the places I went occasionally, rarely, or often, they're all pretty much the same, just a few years older.

Last night, as I was doing the dishes, Alex was flipping through the channels trying to find something decent to watch. There wasn't much on. He settled on Law and Order: UK.

I saw the London I miss and love.

I said to Alex we should move to London.

I was only sort of kidding.

Last day

Liz, Hugh and Alice came and met us on our last day in London and very kindly took us to the airport (we had planned on going to the Hyde Park Christmas Market, but the torrential downpours changed our minds very quickly!)

J was very quiet while I was packing and I wondered what she was up to...I discovered her on the other side of the bed, sitting under the bedside table, reading the menu!




J and Alice got along very well. J idolized Alice and Alice loved having someone smaller than her to tell what to do! When we got to the plane, we had a new baby doll for J. She's been calling the doll Alice ever since!


We had a great trip, but as you can probably tell from this picture, we were definitely ready to come home...we look a little tired!

Visiting Persis and George

We stopped in to see Persis and George who, at 88 and 93 respectively, still live at home. They have some help, but they are very independent!

Shannon, J and Persis

George, J and Shannon

Around the hotel

(click for larger image)

Cologne Christmas Market...in London

Yes, there really was a Cologne Christmas Market in London...it seems strange to have the Cologne Christmas Market on the south bank...but it was fun! and yummy. Very yummy! First we went to Covent Garden, then walked down to the South Bank via the Jubilee Bridge.

Covent Garden reindeer

The Strand

London Eye

Parliament from the Jubilee Bridge

J and Shannon on the windy Jubilee Bridge

Market

Goodies

Haribo Stand

Christmas Pudding!

J and Alex share a Christmas pudding

Carousel

Carousel Horse

Shannon Mix

Shannon Mix...yummy!

London Lights

More Christmas lights to check out! We couldn't believe how many lights and decoartaions were up so early in the UK. We thought Christmas stuff started early here, but it was crazy over there!

Lights on Oxford Street

J checking out the London lights

More Oxford Street lights

Oxford Circus lights

Canopy of lights at Regent Street

Carnaby Street

More Carnaby Street

Visit to Harpenden

After our busy morning in London, we hopped on a train out to Harpenden to visit my friend Kristine and her family. J and Martha were quite taken by each other, but J loved baby Beatrice. She wanted to sit in her seat with her and give her lots and lots of kisses. It was so nice to have a nice dinner with friends. I wish my friends lived closer to Vancouver (or I lived closer to them!)

Shannon and Beatrice

Alex and Beatrice

Kristine and Martha

J and Beatrice

Kristine, Shannon and J

I hope we get to see Kristine again soon. We saw her two years ago (much better than the seven or eight with some of our friends!), but so much has changed since then (like three babies between the two of us!)

Morning out in London

Our hotel was right at Paddington station (I'd most definitely stay there again!) and one morning we decided to walk through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace (to catch the Changing of the Guard) and then over to Kensington to visit Harrods. It was a long morning and we were glad to get on the train later that afternoon for a bit of a rest.

Paddington side of Hyde Park

J and Alex in Hyde Park

Houses along Hyde Park

Buckingham Palace

Guards at the Changing of the Guard

Victoria Memorial

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Crowd control at Changing of the Guard

Harrods

Harrods