Tuesday 7th May 2024

What I am learning about parking….. we had a carpet delivered last week, 5m x 5m, so the carpet fitter wanted his van close by.  A traffic warden appeared.  I said I was new to the area and was happy to pay for a visitor’s permit once the carpet was out of the van, but wanted to avoid paying £47 for a trade permit.  The kind traffic warden gave us the necessary leniency to get the carpet unloaded and told us, with a visitor’s permit we could park in a pay by phone space.  When I checked this with Camden Council, they said we can only park in a permit holders space. The warden’s advice could have led to a fine. At the weekend you only have to pay to park for five hours,  from 0830 to 1330 on a Saturday morning.  However, the maximum time allowed for a visitor’s permit is 4hrs.  Our son P arrived on  Friday night by car and parked in a Pay by phone space, ready at 0830 to pay for an hours parking.  Then at 0930  the car had to be moved to a permit only space with a 4hr visitor’s permit. As well as getting one’s head around the parking, there is the congestion charge to manage, which is only free until midday on Saturdays and Sundays and then after 6pm.  Far easier not to have a car and make use of our travel passes and our feet!

Sometimes, though, a car is useful.  How do you get rid of a moth invested carpet if the carpet fitters and the council refuse to take it? It’s tricky getting to the dump without a car – I rang a waste removal service  recommended  by the council and Mr B quoted £100 for removal of carpet, having assessed quantity of rubbish by photographic evidence.   The men who actually collected the carpet charged us £150 which was considerably more than anticipated.  After challenging this with Mr B he agreed to refund us £37 but it made me wonder if we were being ripped off by the van men!

Fortunately for us, we do have friends and family with cars at the ready, which we appreciated greatly today.  All our daughter H’s belongings had to be relocated  from one storage facility to another,  after her unit was crowbarred open by thieves. We had no idea what to expect on arrival and were greatly relieved to find nothing had been stolen,  just a few things forced open to reveal the contents.  It was, however unsettling to feel someone had tried to rifle through her private possessions.  H lost her confidence with the company storing  her things, so we moved three car loads of boxes, across London. One car decided to avoid the congestion charge by taking a longer route and one car went straight through the centre of the city,  which took a far shorter time. The payback of the congestion charge was enjoying the spectacle of the various architecturaldelights through the ages. Every time I find myself  involved with H’s removals, and I have lost count of the moves she has had, I say ‘never again’.

We’ve found a wonderful piano bar down the road,  with a daily two hour happy hour.  The piano is constantly being played with requests from the clientele whilst a singer meanders through the tables. Coupled with a two course early bird set menu at our local pub en route home,  it makes for a reasonably priced night on the town, all done by 9pm!

There’s a swimming pool within a twenty minute walk.  Membership for the year is £7.30 and enables us to swim weekdays 8am – 4pm with no extra cost! The second time we went, a voice called out my name – the daughter of an old friend from Farnham was in the changing room with her three children.  What was more extraordinary was that she didn’t live nearby – she was just on a day out and decided the children might like a swim.  The bargain cost of swimming is negated by the wonderfully stocked health food shop on the opposite side of the road,  that happens also to sell delicious pastries and homemade bread!

We’ve been taking to the streets and walking hidden parts of London. R decided he wanted to see ‘The Monument’, so I found a 3 mile walk that began at Tower Bridge, with The Monument near to the end. Knowing how difficult it is to follow a walk back to front, we started from the beginning,  only to find there was so much of interest to see that by the time we got to Liverpool St Station we had run out of energy to complete the walk.  We shall pick up where we left off and eventually get to see The Monument, marking the start of the Great fire of London in 1666.  We may think we have it bad in this day and age but it’s sobering to think that the fire was only the year after the Plague that had wiped out a good many people.

For those of you who are Abba fans, I can recommend Abba Voyager as an entertaining experience.  I went with son P, who kindly gave me an Abba outfit to wear.  He himself ran out of time to find one,  so in a last minute dash,  R and I walked to a wonderful fancy shop which was a cornucopia of delight,  with very helpful staff.  I managed to kit him out with sale bargains rather than rent an outfit I would have to return the following day.  Walking to the venue alone,  a very kind man saw me looking a little lost and,  even though he was on a bike,  slowed his pace to walk with me – it was obvious from my dress where I was going! Not nearly so many people were dressed up as I imagined would be,  so I felt a little conspicuous, but I received quite a few positive comments for my efforts and P definitely looked the part too!

One stress of flat living is how to do the washing, without clothing taking over every radiator. I can put it outside,  as long as it’s not visible or drape on a clothes airer in our upstairs sitting room on sunny days. After much research into heat pump tumble dryers (which appear to be the most economical of the tumble dryer options)  I decided I would hang clothes in the utility room and use a dehumidifier to extract the water.  With only one small clothes airer the prospect of drying bedding still loomed as a challenge. Imagine my delight,  when walking back from swimming,  I  spotted a large clothes airer abandoned on the side of the pavement.  With my daughter’s voice ringing in my ears that this is the way people get rid of stuff for others to take home and use, if useful,  I felt uplifted at my first pavement bargain!