My Farewell #2- Goodbye to All Things Clapham & #67

My Lovely Home Away From Home


I will miss this carpet. They don't make it like this anymore! :)

All of the fixtures are still in their original glory. And I love them all for the simple fact that I have grown up with them!

I don't think I've ever seen this thing on, and I've never seen rubbish in this bin. The only thing we use the bin for is to sit our luggage on it when we put it on the scale to see how far over the allowable weight limit we've gone. This little contraption makes it easier than having to weigh myself, then weigh me holding the heavy luggage!

Love this photo of Bob, Mom, and John, the Art Deco clock, and the pen and ink drawing that my Grandfather did. I never met him, but as you can see, he's an amazing artist and was a great Architect as well.

Bob and I's "tea" cups that we use multiple times daily. We would just wash them out, put them on the drainer, then they'd be ready for us in the morning. No need to put them in the cupboard (Notice my cup is from Taste of Texas. Bob has quite a collection of Texas mugs we've gotten him over the years including one that says "I Shot J.R." haha).

Bob made this radio out of a box and old parts and it has worked for years! I love it!

Original shade in the kitchen. Groovy right? haha

When Bob had to get work on the roof done, he had to buy this ladder, and being a flat in London, there's not much storage space (or a garage), so this is the only place it can go. I will not miss bumping into this thing everyday on the stairs!

Shade in the Computer Room upstairs

View from the front door. Odd fact-You have to pay to park your car there on the street. Even if you own one of the houses you're parking in front of. Hence why Bob doesn't own a car!

I will miss walking by this sign on the way to the tube station everyday. It has been up for as long as I remember, so we must REALLY need to talk. haha

I will miss the little fruits of wisdom that the workers at Clapham South tube station put on the service board now that they have a new digital service board to tell you how terrible your commute will be. I applaud their effort of going the extra distance to enlighten their passengers. It always made me smile to think of these usually disgruntled workers writing them on the board each morning!

The escalators at Clapham South. Not sure I will miss them, but I will miss the extra work-out of walking up and down them (no, I rarely ever just stood to the right to let the escaltor do all the work!)

My station :)

Bob and I's last Sunday pub lunch (we both got the roast) at the Weatherspoon near Streatham Hill.

I substitute my veggies for more roasted potatoes! That circle is Yorkshire Pudding, and it's a lot like a flaky pancake batter-no actual pudding.

Bob's birthday dinner on my last night. We got fish and chips! (Of course I got batter dipped sausages instead of fish).

Bob looks down right crazy in this shot! About to cut into his birthday cake (yes with a spatula)! He turns 66 on Friday :)

There are SO many things I will miss about London, but the things I will miss the most are the things that I saw/did everyday. I now have my routine down which includes certain t.v. shows (will miss you Hollyoaks and old re-runs of American shows like Veronica Mars and Friends), several cups of tea, and walks to the tube station. While I will definitely miss my independence here to just hop on a tube or train to everywhere and anywhere, I will not miss strikes, planned engineering works, or hearing "There are minor delays due to signal failure." Or now that it is freezing outside, I will not miss getting onto a packed tube and not being able to remove my jacket, gloves, and scarf in time before over-heating!

However, even these things will seem much less annoying to me when I'm once again sitting on 290 in my car in traffic for hours at a time. So many things that I would normally take for granted at home, I have relished here. I will most of all miss Bob and Clair. I have been so lucky to spend so much time with them and really get to know them better. Thank you both for everything. I love you, and I love London.

Wet socks and such...

Clapham High Street

Clapham Common-check out the guy running that looks like he's about to be hit by oncoming traffic. This is how I feel everytime I cross the road!

Even in the cases where they tell me which way to look...

These flags aren't just to show England pride. They are to show World Cup fever!

So I have to admit that I've been fairly boring the last few days. This enitre week is supposed to be rainy from morning to late afternoon, so I've taken this time to catch up on episodes of American shows that they get over here-mainly Friends and Glee (and some Reaper-bet you don't even know that is, I sure didn't!). As I'm going to be here for 5 1/2 months, I don't feel pressured to cram in seeing all the sights just to get wet socks--which I hate.

Yesterday, Bob and I went for a walk down to Clapham High Street by way of winding confusing roads (not by the South Circular route which I am more familiar with). When we finally got there, I couldn't even tell you which way we went or where on the Common we had landed.

Today, I got a little stir crazy and decided that we should go into Balham to buy me some nail polish. Bob was all ready to let me go by myself until I asked which way got me to Balham.haha. He decided to come with me. It started pouring when we got to the end of the road, so we took the bus (which didn't help my sense of direction as it goes a different route than walkers), and just ran into Boots and Sainsbury quickly. This evening, after raining for svereal hours, I decided to go see if I could find Clapham High Street again. The pictures I posted were from today, so obvisouly, I found it. However, it wasn't pretty. At the risk of looking like a full blown tourist, I haven't taken many pictures, and I refuse to look at my map.

So after quite some time (and following people with grocery bags as they obviosuly just came from the Common), I finally came up to Clapham Common, but not in the same place Bob and I did yesterday. oh well.

If you see a few of the other photos, you will see what else I'm fighting-getting run over by traffic. Not only do I look the opposite way everytime to cross the road, but with all the round-a-bouts, I can't even tell where people are coming from once they tell me which direction to look! Bob says they don't give jaywalking tickets, but that cars aren't really expcected to stop for pedestrains. A few people have even gotten killed while walking on the sidewalk b/c cars don't seem to mind speed signs and just go up the curb.

Something else to mention is the World Cup. Soccer that is (or football for the rest of the world). It's apparently this weekend. I rememeber it being advertised on my Coke can when I got one at work, but that was about it in the States. Well here, it's EVERYWHERE! The Brits are so excited. Every pub has their St. George flag out to show their pride for England during the Cup. On the Common, I saw about 30 different soccer teams practicing like you would see guys throwing the football around in America (and that was just Clapham South Side...). Funny/odd thing is, their first game is against the U.S.A. this Saturday, and as like 5% of Americans could actually care (maybe more, but none of my friends at least), the country will be devastated if they lose their first game, to us, the country that doesn't care.haha. So I guess we'll see Saturday how it goes! (I've been told to go to a pub to watch as it will be a little out of hand, especially if they lose...)

My Home Away from Home

So after arriving early this morning around 7 a.m. (U.K. time), I was questioned by immigration for an hour and a half on my visit to the U.K. (as was Clair!). After finally getting out of Heathrow airport and arriving at my home away from home-Bob's flat, the rest of the day consisted of 6 cups of tea (the nights still young), laying out in Bob's garden, my favorite food in the world-batter dipped English sausages (apparently they contain no meat?), and a Shandi at the Windmill Pub in Clapham Common. Quite a good first day (minus the immigration mess). Hello London, Goodbye Houston. Miss everyone already.