20th April 2024

It’s a beautiful, sunny spring morning and I have just made first use of my London 60plus Oyster card for an early morning trip to my daughter’s past of town. The joy of crossing Blackfriars bridge, the old and the new mingling together to form a stunning array of architecture, the beauty of the glass constructions captured in the sunlight. A stripy multicoloured bus passes and I’m struck by the modernity of London, returning here to live after nearly 40 years. The energy and the buzz fills me with delight. There is always something new to see and so much to do.  A friend recommended a series of books “Hidden walks of London” and yesterday we embarked on a trip to the Barbican taking in the remains of the old London wall and a clutch of churches, some still resplendant, some but a shell of their former selves,  damaged either by the fire of London in the 17th century,  enemy bombs in the 20th century or just decripit by age and time. A visit to the Barbican centre to see half a five storey building  covered in 2000sq meters of amazing purple cloth, hand sewn together by locals in Ghana, organised by  Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama. It coincides with a new exhibition,  Unravel: the power and politics of textiles in Art. It inspires a great sense of wonder and worth seeing if you are in the vicinity before August 2024.

Walking through Postman’s Park (a location used in a film called ‘Closer’) it was very humbling to observe a wall of Edwardian tiles,  each one describing an act of self sacrifice, such as an 8yr old boy dousing the flames on his younger brother,  only for him to die when his own clothes caught alight.

Have you strayed onto the wrong blog? Where’s Naomhog and what happened to the narrowboat dream,  you may be wondering! This, my friends, is a detour and everytime you see it’s a “Later London Living” post, feel free to ignore if it is of no interest.  However, I have missed writing my blog and as the counterpart of our canal life is now a flat in central london, I thought it might be fun to share the juxtaposition of life on a narrowboat,  predominantly countryfied and life in the big metropolis.  Both are at times equally fascinating.

If we could, we would by now be back on the boat, heading along the Kennet & Avon towards Bath and Bristol. We cannot control the weather! Record rainfall means the Kennet river levels remain high and the streams flow too fast for boats to navigate safely. The delay has enabled us to move house and start settling into our new life. There have been some funny moments.  Like the first time we had to leave London,  for a thanksgiving service close to our old home, picking up our car en route, a bus journey away.  The bus stop is opposite our front door.  We managed to miss three buses before we eventually sorted ourselves enough to commence our journey.  Not helped by R deciding to use the ‘communal’ recycling,  unaware that if the door shut behind him, he could not get out. I suddenly received a panicked phone call from him, trapped in the cupboard. Thankfully, he had his mobile with him.  It may have been a while before I realised he was missing. I was busy making friends with the postman! Then, as we stood at the bus stop, he said he thought he might have forgotten something.  “The car keys” I remarked as another bus came into view!

Our move itself went reasonably smoothly and I can recommend our removal company,  who couldn’t have been more accommodating and helpful.   It was more problematic for the couple we bought from – although they were in receipt of our remittance, their bank did not release payment to their vendors, thus denying them access  to their new property.  My biggest stress was realising just before bed,  that the duvet I had thought was coming out of storage was  infact two pillows. Not much comfort to our friend D, who was staying the night. In the two days she was with us, she deep cleaned the kitchen and two shower rooms and helped us unpack all our boxes.  Almost fourteen years to the day, we helped her move house and she wanted to repay our kindness, which she certainly did. In a short space of  time we have painted some of the walls and hung all our pictures.  So now we are out and about exploring the locality, becoming familiar with our new surroundings.  Perhaps one reason we feel so at home is that we are a ten minute walk from the flat we lived in when we were first married.  And a stones throw from the canal – it was coming into London by boat almost two years ago that seeded the idea of a return to the capital and a radical lifestyle change.