An offering wrought amidst the maelstrom of London life

With Nick At Brighton Pier

Well, Nick and I have been in London for about 2 1/2 months now - and it has flown.  We're here for just two more weeks, before the Spanish Pyrenees become our home for another 6.

What's been happening? Weekends away, catching up with old friends, a friend's wedding, numerous trips to the V&A and to Liberty's... I'll start at the beginning (and, as alway, strive to be concise!)

For our first month in London we stayed with Nick's relatives Marie and Clive at their home in Crouch End (also the 'burb of choice for food god Nigel Slater, just incidentally).  

It was lovely to be in a family home, with all the comfort and the feeling of permanence that a whanau home has - lunch boxes, coat hooks, tea pots and a linen cupboard - bliss and sophistication!  Clive and Marie are the parents of Nick's cousins Leo and Joseph, and it's been fun getting to know them better and at the same time gaining a new respect for the work of parents!

Joseph's birthday party

Reading in the Crouch End sun with family cat Stella

Joseph (front) and Leo at the zoo

Clive's family are culturally Jewish, and are part of a very liberal group of families in the neighbourhood who've banded together and hired a rabbi, to do their traditions and religion 'their way'.  For them, this means observing major holidays in a way that educates their kids about their history, whilst at the same time considering the modern, wider meaning of traditional stories and values.  It was fascinating talking to them about how they're making their inheritance work for them now.  We also went along to their pesach celebration, which was a lot of fun and involved a lot of very good food.

Work

Nick got a job pretty quickly at an engineering company in town, and I followed suit a couple of weeks later with a temp job at Imperial College London.  Apparently a pretty swank university; more importantly, Hyde Park is at the end of the road, with the V&A parked conveniently opposite my work - happy!

London life

On coming to London, Nick and I promised each other we wouldn't fall down the rabbit hole of London life - not getting out of town, spending all our fresh-minted pounds on British ales and hanging out exclusively with kiwis.  Well, we've mostly held to that.  But a word in our defence - London is crazy!!  

Soggy trip to Portobello markets 

I hadn't anticipated just how big it is - how long it takes to get from one place to another.  I'm heading to Camden market this afternoon (it's Sunday here) - and that'll be my one activity for the day.  So, I've had to acknowledge that and get very 'be here now' about how long it takes to get from A to B.  Adventures have been mostly confined to weekends, with social outings dictated by the convenience of tube stops and the level of madness on the roads.

This has had the effect of enforcing strict prioritisation of the things we do fit in - which isn't all bad; we've fitted in some pretty fun stuff:

Weekend with Rose:  Brighton, Eastbourne and the South Downs

Brighton beach

Boat sheds, Brighton

Fish & chips with mushy peas on Brighton beach

Walking with Rose in the South Downs

Nick on the cliffs of the South Downs

Tessa and Paul's wedding, Delly End - Oxfordshire

My friends Tess and Paul were married in the local green

Daily life

Bike ride just outside of London - Princes Risborough to Great Misenden (not even making these names up...)

Chelsea FC won two major European football competitions and celebrated in the common next to our house

The V&A

At Kew Gardens

Happy as can be, with old high-school friends Andy and Jess

lunchtime walks in the neighbourhood around work

lunchtime walks in the neighbourhood around work

Dunx at Zoo Lates - Ellie works at London Zoo and got us tickets to their grown-ups-only late-night festival

Zoo lates

Zoo lates

Day trip to St Albans Abbey 

The Cathedral/Abbey - longest sustained place of worship in England (3rd Century) - a fabulous mash-up of architectural styles and fascinating histories.

Painted ceiling in the Norman tower of St Albans

Altar cloth in the Lady Chapel at St Albans

What to make of London?  I think after about three months I'm just starting to get into the groove.  The key seems to be not stressing about what to see, but going with the flow and letting things unfold.  This seems obvious and it's not as if it's the first time this has occurred to me - it's just really hard in practice!!

Here you can rest assured that whatever you choose to do, it will be pretty fabulous. The Royal Albert Hall is next door to work, and I've just booked myself a ticket to The Royal Choral Society's 140th anniversary performance - Verdi's requiem - next week.  This weekend, Nick and Rose and I have 5quid standing tickets to Henry V at The Globe - you can't really argue with that!

Maybe my frustration has been that, amidst all the fabulosity and the bustle, I can't really hear myself think.  And I have been trying to use this time overseas as a kind of soul-searching/figuring-shit-out chapter.  But, for everything a season - it seems that London is a place not to be introspective and meaning-of-lifey, but to stop asking questions and just get out amongst it (I've said it before, I'm a slow learner...)

So for the rest of our time here I'm embracing this and wading into the London tide.   Starting  with Camden market.  'Till next time, 

Sarah xx