The Spider Hole

Adventures in South London yesterday as I went to visit Blogland's beloved Linda Sue on her sojourn in the Big Smoke! Linda Sue has been here since September and we'd communicated about meeting up, but between my work schedule and her settling in we didn't get around to it until yesterday. She is literally across the city from me -- I took the tube, overground train and bus to get to her in Dulwich, but the journey only took slightly more than an hour, so that's not too bad.

I met up with her at the Spider Hole, the flat she's renting until she goes home to Washington state next month. For those who don't follow Linda Sue's blog, where she has documented the strange drama surrounding this flat, she has nicknamed it the Spider Hole given its owner's enthusiasm for super heroes -- including Spider-Man, who figures prominently in the decor -- and its position, a top-floor walk-up.

To be honest, I was almost as excited to see the mythical Spider Hole as I was Linda Sue herself, given the celebrity status it has lately achieved on her blog. It was like visiting the Taj Mahal, but smaller.

We sat in her lounge (as living rooms are known here in the UK) and chatted a while before venturing out into the street to check out the local charity shops. It was raining pretty steadily -- not pouring, but not drizzling either -- so getting out and about was a bit of a challenge. But as I always say, if you wait for good weather to do things in England, you'll never get anything done. That's why umbrellas exist.

As befits Linda Sue, her neighborhood is a collection of quirky, artsy shops and murals and architecture.

Some artsy elements are large, while others are very small. This looks very John-in-Sgt.-Pepper to me, which I assume was the intention.

A sad, sodden book in a very wet gutter. I'm trying not to take this as a metaphor for the value of blogging.

I thought this shirt was pretty funny, but I didn't buy it. It casts WAY too wide a net, you know?

I did, however, get a cute Christmas ornament and a book about wandering in East London, and I was sorely tempted by a stuffed, handmade-looking toy lizard that I may still send Linda Sue back to retrieve.

We ended our wanders in the East Dulwich Tavern, where we sat by this cozy fireplace beneath coat hangers (?) and antlers decorated with holiday baubles -- that's my bag on the green stool, in fact. We talked and had lunch and a pint before Linda Sue dropped me at the Goose Green bus stop for the journey home.

The bus was taking its sweet time, though, and after Linda Sue headed back to the Spider Hole I decided to walk on toward East Dulwich station. It was a good thing I did, because I popped in to another charity shop where I found a fabulous shirt from the Bahamas featuring colorful reef fish swimming all over it. This poor shirt looked so out of place in rainy gray London that I had to buy it. I figure I can wear it when I go to Florida, and maybe in California in February.

I took a few more pictures before catching another bus at East Dulwich and heading home via a slightly different route. A fun day out, but somehow Linda Sue and I neglected to take a selfie together, so we'll have to get together again before she leaves next month. A plan for the New Year!