My AMAZING Month in London

Sometimes fate is kind and you find the perfect house and pet sit with a most generous, and hospitable homeowner, who has a loveable, if very vocal feline, in a location that has fantastic transportation, a mile-long High Street Market filled with fresh fruit & veggies, and vendors of all kinds, in walking distance to local pubs and shops, plus a historic church and the home of the famous William Morris.

Welcome to Walthamstow – a suburb of London with both underground and overground transportation to every corner of The City that you might be interested in visiting. You can even access, with one quick train change, all 4 airports. This is a perfect place to explore one of my favorite cities in the entire world!

I have been living in a historical row house that has been in my homeowner’s family for decades. The only issue with these old houses is that they have LOTS of stairs! Sweep, my loveable lap kitty, is 15. He is very vocal and demanding when he wants to be fed, but spends most of his day lazing outdoors in the beautiful garden or curled up on the sofa. And he keeps an eye out for our almost daily visitor, Mr. Fox, who loves to dig the dirt out of the flower-filled pots on the patio.

My hostess had asked if I would stay while she took two back-to-back trips, with a 4-day return home in between. She said I should just stay while she rested from her first and repacked for her next trip.

I have always arrived a day early for my house and pet sits, to meet the homeowner and learn the ins and outs of the house and any special needs of the pets I would be caring for. But I have never spent any time with a homeowner, so this was to be a first. Trying to be non-obtrusive and get out of the house during the day as much as possible turned out to be unnecessary. We had a great time getting to know each other, deciding what and who would be cooking dinner, and solving the world’s problems. What a truly special housesit this was.

And then there were all the wonderful and fantastic sites I have seen, and performances I’ve enjoyed while spending a month here!

First, the local attractions…..ROW 1 – The mile-long Walthamstow Market, a lovely row house on my street, and the Weaver Line direct to Liverpool Station! ROW 2 – The William Morris Gallery, where the Arts & Crafts movement was born. ROW 3 – Gods Own Junkyard Neon Artwork Gallery, a totally funky experience. ROW 4 – St. Mary’s Wathamstow has a wild-flower-filled ancient graveyard, and I attended a live evening concert featuring the music of Lerner and Lowe!

And then….LONDON!

ROW 1 – Liberty of London. If you are a fabric connoisseur, this is the first stop you make! Plus, they are celebrating 150 years of Arts, Crafts & Design with a huge exhibit on the 4th floor. ROW 2 – 4 – I did a walking tour of the SOHO district, which dates back to the 1600s. It includs Carnaby Street, Shakespeare’s Head Pub, where he survived peaking out the window during the WWII bombings, an ‘Ah, Relax’ sculpture which was how I felt after walking for 3 hours, a bulldog standing watch outside what was a ‘very exclusive club’, a great pub sign, and a huge wall mosaic. The Spirit of Soho, which features many who made this area famous. (Enlarge and zoom in to see a lot of very famous faces.) Soho is where the Beatles, Stones, and Bowie all played the clubs and recorded their first records. We ended the tour in Soho Square, where I noticed this very stylish vintage dresser that seemed to be waiting for someone. Then along came this handsome man, dressed to the 9’s, and guess who he was meeting! People watching at its best.

I was thrilled to get seats in The Stalls to see a fabulous production of Moulin Rouge!, preceded by a delicious dinner at Boco di Lupo in the West End. Walking back to the Underground to catch my train back to Walthamstow was a great show of London lit up at night, with some really weird window displays! I spent a Saturday wandering through Spitalfields Market and the surrounding neighborhood, including Petticoat Lane and Shoreditch. And I just had to have lunch at one of my favorite London Pubs, Ditry Dick’s, where I was invited to come behind the bar and pull my own pint of ale! My bestie Joyce and I had found this place the last time we were in London and loved the fish n’ chips – the secret is apple cider in the batter!

And I did even more exploring…. I headed into The City to take a walk around Covent Garden and found this well-dressed gentleman having his morning cuppa. The pubs never disappoint, overflowing with flowers. I also found the shops in Covent Garden have changed and are now way out of my price range! I decided it was a great day to just stroll and get lost – one of my favorite things to do in a big city. I walked through a small archway and came out in The Strand, where light posts are beautiful and have their own identity. The massive Charing Cross station was down the road, where Eleanor’s Cross welcomes all travelers, and a fake Venetian Rialto Bridge can be found connecting the buildings over the walkway that leads to the Thames Embankment. You need only climb a few stairs to have a view of the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, and of course, Big Ben. For my last big treat, I took myself to the Royal Albert Hall and thoroughly enjoyed a performance by none other than the fabulous Bonnie Raitt!

I only have 1 day left before I return to Belfast, where I will stay once again with my friend Ruth, this time to house and kitty sit for her while she takes a well-deserved break after the end of the school year. From there, I will be heading to the South of France, which is probably when you will once again hear from me – unless I find something new, wild, wonderful, and exciting while in Belfast that I haven’t already told you about.

Until next time…..