I woke up this morning to silence. Beautiful silence. You might wonder why this morning? Well, there were no trains going "ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk" over the gap in the tracks! They are re-engineering the tracks this weekend, so there are no trains running all weekend. I lay in bed relishing the silence for a while, but decided it was time to get my weekend started.
Despite the advantage of the silence, this also means that I have to take the bus if I want to go anywhere! The buses run quite frequently down Chiswick High Street, which is just a block away from my flat (the blocks here are smaller than the blocks in Canad!). Plus, they have buses running to take the place of the train, so it shouldn't be too hard to get around.
Where do I want to go, you might ask? Well, tomorrow I'm off to Covent Garden. It's an area (not an actual garden) that traditionally was a market area and now had some great eclectic shops and lots of great pubs and restaurants. There is a Canadian pub there called the Maple Leaf, which is supposed to be pretty good. At the very least, I can order beer that I recognize! St. Paul's Cathedral is there as well, which mom said is absolutely stunning, so I'm really looking forward to that.
Today, I'm going to finish off a bit of work and then head down to the river (yes, the Thames), which is walking distance from my flat and forms the south boundary of Chiswick. Jane has invited me for supper tonight, and she's a fantastic cook, it will be a nice ending to the day.
A bit of local history - Chiswick is famous as the home of a fairly well-known artist named Hogarth. His house is a tourist attraction and there is a statue of him on the High Street. I may go to see his house today as well.
Another interesting term used here is High Street. In London, the shopping or main street of each area is called the High Street or High Road, so you have Chiswick High Street, Kensington High Street, etc. They use the term as part of the vernacular referring to any retail. For instance, in advertising, they will say that you can get whatever they are advertising on the High Street. I can't really think of a Canadian alternative term.
Anyway, time to get my day started! The sun is shining and London is calling!
Cheers!
3 comments:
You're making me 'homesick'! It's been soooo long since I went shopping 'in the High Street...'
And my favourite phrase when I was living there was Pure Dead Brilliant. Heard it a lot in Scotland, and hearing it with that accent was, um, ... brilliant! LOL
(Saw your mom at church yesterday, she said it was okay if I commented on your blog)
hmmm...my saturday consisted of laundry, bookkeeping, and watching TV. Don't suppose you'd want to trade...?
I was struck by your reference to Hogarth. When you go to see his art, you'll probably recognize the scenes of poverty and degradation in city settings from your Social Studies textbooks. I'd love to go with you.
Clarence
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