Saturday, October 10, 2026

The ‘Hood

I took some photos of what we see on our way to East Putney Station each morning…it’s our ‘hood!πŸ˜†

All homes in the London area (and most of where we’ve been thus far) are brick. And each one so lovely!
Our rail station πŸ’•.
A pre-school just around the corner from our apartment.

Cutest little classic Fiat ever!


We had our last dinner here this evening. Just wanted to stay close to home. 😌 More on that later.
POST BOX! πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚
🎡Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry 🎢🎼
Our hometel for the past seven, glorious days!πŸ’•
A cute little playground nestled between our apartment complexes!


Friday, October 9, 2026

Vignettes

Some random funnies to share…

About 90% of the kids that attend school in London are required to wear uniforms. This is to minimize the difference between the wealthy and the not so wealthy (name brand clothing versus not, etc.).  The uniforms are very smart in appearance, but I can’t help see little Harry Potter‘s running around! πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚ Seriously! I giggle every time I see a school boy…especially if they wear glasses! The uniforms are suit jackets, always with a tie, and dress slacksπŸ˜‚!

Kiddos on a field trip to Warwick Castle. I went to see Indian mounds. They go to castles. πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

Uber drivers… we’ve had the most fun with our Uber drivers since we’ve been in London! And even in Amsterdam and Belgium, although we didn’t use them much there at all. But last night, after we couldn’t make it home by tube, we got off at Earl’s Court station and dialed up an Uber. The gentleman that picked us up greeted us, got us settled, and then set out into quieter traffic seeing as how we were on the SOUTH side of the Thames. 

“I am on a phone call,” he said, “do you mind?”

We assured him we did not, and so he continued to converse in fluent French. For several minutes πŸ˜‚.  When the phone call ended, or so we thought, he began to engage with us. I asked him if he had heard anything about the demonstration scheduled for Saturday.  He hadn’t. He then asked where we were visiting from, and when we told him the United States.  After conversing about that for a time, he shared that he had come over from France about 20 years ago. I ask him what he thought about what was happening in France…

“What is happening in France?” he asked. 

πŸ˜±πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜±πŸ˜±πŸ˜±πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜±πŸ˜±πŸ˜±πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

Twenty-two miles across the ‘Channel’ is France, and he doesn’t know what is happening in France?πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜±πŸ˜±

“Uhh…the mass protests?” I offered.

At this point, the person he had been speaking to was obviously still on the line, and just then said something to him. I am guessing it was his wife or his girlfriend, because it was a she, and she commented she had attended a protest just the day before πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜±!

So now she was part of our conversation, even though we could not hear her. He would launch into French in between speaking to us, and we just had the greatest conversation!  But before we knew it, we had arrived at our hometel. As we got close to our drop point, he said, “Is here alright?”

“Oui,” I said. “Ici.” (Yes, here.)

He glances at me over his shoulder and reiterated, “Oui, ici.” 😱

Jumping out of the car I smiled and said, “MerΓ§i, monsieur! Au revoir et bon nunit!”  (Thank you, sir, and good night!)

As I shut the door I could hear him laughing.

 “That’ll freak him out,” I grinned to Nettie. πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

“How much did you understand?” She asked. 

“Hardly anything,” I said, “but he’ll be wondering, I am sure!” πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

First glimpse of the beautiful, Brighton sea coastπŸ’•.

πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜†πŸ˜†πŸ˜†πŸ˜†πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘! 

And now I must get ready for our date with Alan.  He is an 83-year-old man that I met on my Cosmos tour this past April. He was probably one of my favorite people on the tour, along with Michelle (California), and if you recall my posts from back then, we would always sit across from one another on the bus so so we could point out pretty things we didn’t want the other to miss. Nettie and I will take the tube up to North London again, but being it is early Saturday morning, I don’t expect nearly as many people to be on it. Alan will then walk us a safely to Covent  Garden so we can avoid the demonstration areas. It will be so nice to see him once again. 

Alan πŸ€—πŸ€—πŸ€—πŸ€—πŸ€—πŸ˜Œ. 

Bridges

Over our past six days in London, we have noticed the inconsistency and unreliability of the public transportation here. Making our way from North London, back to our flat in South London last night, after we were dropped at the FlixBus terminal, left us trying to reroute our path back on routes we are unfamiliar with. We got as close as we could to our neighborhood, and then ended up calling an Uber to get us the rest of the way, which was about a 20 minute ride. Two of our Uber drivers have explained that there are two bridges down over the Thames, and the city does not have the funds to fix them. That forces millions of people (9.1 million currently living in London/Greater London, where we are, PLUS tourists/tour busses), onto just 35 remaining bridges…which has led to mass congestion throughout the entire day and into the later hours of evening. And to complicate matters, the people who choose to use the underground are affected, as those numbers have significantly increased because of this, which has led to severe congestion BELOW ground 😱. Several lines were down last night due ‘repairs’, leading others just sitting on the tracks due to  the mass number of folks trying to get somewhere. We were on a tube two nights past, returning to our flat from London city center, and our train literally just slowed to a stop in between stations. The operator came over the loudspeaker to report there were severe delays, and suggested alternate routes. As we inch towards the next stop, I suggested we just get off and walk the rest of the way, which we did.  About 35 minutes later we were safely tucked away in our hometel. 

I’m not complaining mind you, just pointing out something the people living in, around, and near London have to live with day in and day out. Each and every time I’ve traveled out of the country, I’ve been so grateful for what I have in my own! Especially living in a rural area, without a lot of high tourist activity, and with a stable infrastructure.

We are planning on taking the tube to Heathrow tomorrow, and now there is a measure of uncertainty there. But it will be a Sunday, and we will be heading south just one station after our ‘East Putney’ station.  But I will be offering up some plentiful prayers nonetheless πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ™πŸ™πŸ™!

Views from the train πŸ’•…
Which arrived 1.5 hours late…

Because of heavy traffic moving back into London 😬. 

Swept Away in Brighton

LITERALLY!  I’ve not been in such horrific wind in a LONG time!πŸ˜‚ But it sure made for some fun selfies! 


We assured our server we don’t always look like this. πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚ And yet, he served us a delicious lunch!

The little guys were unexpected and unfortunately got left behind πŸ˜‚. Not a fan.

Wind-blown and THEN some!🀭🀭

Still giggling on the bus home!

And a similar shot we pulled from our trip to Santa Monica Pier πŸ˜‚…

The weather was so severe in Brighton that we cut our visit short by three hours, but still, we had an amazing day there!

Brighton Pier
The ever present historic cathedralπŸ’•

We saw this upon arriving at the sea front…

Brighton 360. Of course, we had to try it! And we had the ENTIRE capsule to ourselvesπŸ˜±πŸ˜†πŸ‘πŸ‘!

Entering in…
And starting to ascend 😊
At this level, we started to descend again.
It was funny…we were the only ones there, but our guy/guide still wanted to speak to us through a microphone πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚.
Just after we got off, all these people got on…
How fortunate and blessed were we!

An amazingly fun day in Brighton! 

After we got off the sky capsule,we wandered down towards the pier.  We came across a musician performing, despite the stormy weather, for an audience of one.  Three, if you count the two of us walking by. πŸ€—

Off to bed now! Tomorrow we will meet up with Alan, a friend I met on my first solo tour last year 😊.  He lives in the UK and will meet us in Covent Garden.  It will be so nice to see him again. 😌



Uber

If you recall, I was singing the praises of Uber just this morning.  We had scheduled our pick-up 8 am. As the rule runs, they can come five...