A Weekend in Pictures

Well, here we are, in January -- another month of thin blueish daylight and chilly (although thankfully so far not frigid) temperatures. I went to Kensington yesterday, to the V&A, and found that some shops and cafes still had their holiday decorations up. (At least, I assume that doorway is a holiday decoration. Surely it's not like that all the time?)

I passed this intriguing stack of wrapped boxes next to a trash can. I'm sure they're empty, used for some type of store display, but I couldn't help having an urge to unwrap them! (I bet someone did.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself, because that was yesterday. On Saturday I stayed home and read, for the most part. I churned through a stack of magazines that accumulated during our absence in Florida, and I took Olga to Fortune Green and the cemetery.

She found her namesake!

On Saturday evening, Dave and I watched Netflix's new movie phenomenon, "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch." It's a sort of choose-your-own-ending adventure in which the viewer is presented with options at several points, and can select one or the other. I told Dave before we watched it that I was a bit nervous because I was sure I'd have to see all the possible outcomes, and indeed that's what happened. We watched it once, making our choices, and then we flipped through it again to see what would happen had we gone another route. We basically watched it at least twice, and we still didn't get to all of the endings, according to what's been reported.

Fun fact: Part of the movie was filmed at Trellick Tower, a building that has long interested me and that I once visited.

On Sunday morning, Olga and I walked through Kilburn. The gigantic scaffold covering some new housing over Kilburn Grange Park is looking a little windblown these days.

After our walk, I cleaned the house and even vacuumed under the bed, which was an involved process. I basically had to take it apart -- upend the mattress and the frame, both of which are heavy, and run the vacuum on the floor beneath before reassembling and remaking it. Now I don't have to think about it for another six months or so.

Afterwards I went for my Kensington walk. I saw this mob of rollerbladers -- at least 50 of them, I'm guessing -- rolling down Harrington Road while blaring Kim Wilde's song "Kids in America." Kind of surreal. Not something you expect to see in January!

At the V&A I explored the new photography galleries and some other areas too. It's a fun museum for getting lost -- and it's so vast it's almost impossible not to. As it got dark I took the bus back home, where I ended the day with a martini as Dave and I watched (and mocked) the Episode 2 film of "Star Wars." I'm not sure I ever saw that movie before. I'm also not sure I care.

Austex

Remember how my stepmother gave Dave and me some old cookbooks that belonged to her grandmother? We found this little pamphlet tucked inside one of them. I love the bright color scheme and '30s graphics!

I looked up Walker's Austex to see if the brand still exists. Austex chili sauce is still available, and I assume it's the descendant of this earlier brand, having been bought and sold by different food conglomerates over the years. Apparently Austex and some related brands were connected with cases of botulism about ten years ago. Yikes!

Mexene chili powder still exists, too, produced by another manufacturer. That fun bright red devil is no longer on the label.

This is the inside. The recipes seem rather uninspired, but maybe they weren't back then, when surely Mexican food was a very exotic thing to many Americans.

(I'm just noticing that the brochure spells chili like the country, Chile. Apparently this is a Spanish-language spelling often used in the Southwest. To make things even more interesting, the British use two Ls, spelling it "chilli.")

By the way, you may notice that "NRA" logo at the bottom-right corner. It gave me pause, too! But it's not the NRA we all know and, um, love. Instead it's the National Recovery Administration, a federal agency that existed between 1933 and 1935 to curb the excesses of capitalism and ensure better treatment for workers -- a forerunner of the National Labor Relations Act.

And there you have it -- a colorful little piece of history in our cookbooks!

Four Historic Views

Dave and I went to the Black Lion, one of our local pubs, on Wednesday with some of our pals from school. At one point I noticed the staircase was adorned with old photos of West Hampstead, including several areas I frequent. It was cool to see images of the 'hood from 100 years ago!

Above, for example, is Achilles Road, one of the "Greek Streets" adjacent to Fortune Green. (None of the pictures are dated, unfortunately.)

Here's the same view today. Cars, cars everywhere!

This is West End Lane, right near the West Hampstead tube station. In fact, you can see the "Underground" sign between the two ornately gabled roofs.

Here's that view today. Different "Underground" sign, but the buildings are pretty much the same.

This is Mill Lane, at the corner of Aldred Road. Again, no cars!

And here's the view today. The Tiffin Tin, which has replaced the "Elliott" shop on the corner, is a good place for Indian food. I can't tell from the old photo what "Elliott" was, but a sign in the window says it sold both Rowntree's Chocolates and Fry's Chocolate. Was it a grocer, or specifically a candy store? Hmmmm...

And finally, here's Fortune Green itself. I think the child on the right is pushing a hobby horse.

And here's Fortune Green today. Lots more trees! The area to the left is now a fenced, dog-free football field, while to the right are some dog-friendly grassy areas. I take Olga here for a romp fairly often.

It's remarkable how little the streetscapes have changed, overall.

My Famous Ex-Flat

Dave and I had a surreal experience yesterday.

It began at work, where I was talking to some co-workers during our morning "visioning" exercise regarding the school's mission. One told me in passing that a fellow colleague had recently been featured on an episode of the American TV show "House Hunters International." The show follows the efforts of a featured guest to find an apartment in some overseas location -- in this case, obviously, in London.

Now, I knew that this particular co-worker had been living in our previous flat in Notting Hill. So I asked her whether she'd moved. No, it turns out -- the flat featured on the show was our old one. The show simply documented her search before she moved in.

What?! THE FLAT WHERE WE'D LIVED FOR THREE YEARS WAS ON A TV SHOW?

Needless to say, when we got home last night, Dave and I tracked down the episode right away. And here it is! Our flat is the no. 2 option on the show -- the one eventually chosen by my co-worker and her partner, with the help of a real estate agent and his over-anesthetized puppy.

It was so bizarre to see our previous bathroom, our wardrobes, our spacious kitchen, the view from our balcony, the fireplace that Olga loved so much -- all on TV. It's weird that the flat was mostly unfurnished, because when we rented it it had furniture, and it was all still there when we moved out in 2014. Maybe the interim renter or the owners disposed of it for some reason.

At any rate, if you feel like watching a fun and entertaining show about London real estate, as well as having a look at our former abode, click the link above. I'm just one step removed from reality TV! (And maybe a few steps closer to Kevin Bacon?)

(Photo: Graffiti on the train tracks in West Hampstead, shot during an early morning walk with Olga.)

Afflicted, and a Ditzy Moment

I've come down with a cold. Argh! I'd blame the airplane, but I think it was already hitting before I left Florida. I was sneezing and my nose was bothering me even then. Now it's a full-on, eye-watering, nose-running extravaganza. Fun!

And of course today is my first day back at work, and I can't miss it because -- among other things -- we're meeting to discuss the school mission. (You'll remember that I'm on the committee to possibly rewrite our mission statement.) So I'll be chugging the Lemsip and toting Kleenexes in my pocket, and doing my best not to touch anyone, and hopefully that will get us all through with a minimum of hazard. (The students aren't back until Monday.)

I've been thinking of a few odds and ends about our Florida trip that I never blogged. Since I have nothing much else to report today, let me take note of those:

-- I spotted the sign above outside a motel in St. Augustine. I love its retro feel, but clearly it's pretty modern, since it references both the Internet and Airbnb! That's one tech-savvy mermaid.

-- On the plane from England, I was amused to see a woman wearing a plain gray sweatshirt bearing the words, "My dog thinks I'm cool."

-- Speaking of sweatshirts, I have one from a British tree-trimming company called Tree Wise Men. (It was abandoned on a fence years ago at the housing estate where we used to live. After I left it there for about a week and no one came back to claim it, I washed it and kept it myself.) Anyway, I was wearing the shirt in Ocala when we stopped for lunch at a Burger King. A man sitting behind me said, "I like the name of your company. Clever!" And instinctively, I said, "Thanks!" -- even though of course I had nothing to do with naming the company.

-- Dave and I saw this car in a parking lot in Jacksonville. Have you ever heard the B-52's song "Devil in My Car"?

-- Here's another rehabilitated old sign. This one stood outside a legendary downtown Tampa burger joint that closed years ago. A well-known restaurateur bought the sign and the name and resurrected the business in a fashionable neighborhood. We ate there one morning and loved it.

-- I've talked a lot about Dave forgetting his computer, but I haven't mentioned my own brainless mistake. We popped into a Winn-Dixie in Bradenton to buy Dave's mom some flowers. When we took them to a cashier, he rang them up and I chose to get $20 in additional cash from my debit card. That brought my total to $36. "Those flowers are $16?!" I said to Dave, incredulous. I was so shocked that I walked out of the store without my $20, and didn't realize it until several hours later. By then it was too late to do anything. Argh!

Fromage

After a morning of puttering around the house, doing things like vacuuming (how does a house get dirty when no one is in it?) and adding soil to a cyclamen on the front porch that had been excavated by a squirrel, I inaugurated the new year by taking Olga to Hampstead Heath.

We passed these posters on the way. Olga had hoped to go to the NYE party at Club de Fromage. Look at her -- she's so disappointed she turned her back to it.

We found this chewed-up rainbow dog ball on the Heath. The stratified layers remind me of a class I took in college called "Geology of National Parks," in which we learned all about the rock layers of the Grand Canyon. The only one I remember now is the Vishnu schist, clearly represented here by that red area.

London's earliest clump of snowdrops is once again blooming before any others. At least they're consistent!

After all the cleaning, organizing and walking, we took it easy in the evening. While Dave worked on music for school, I watched "Buster and Billie," an old favorite, even with its ultimately tragic outcome. I like the rural Southern atmosphere, although it struck me this time that there are no black people in that movie, which is pretty bizarre considering it's set in rural Georgia in 1948. I suppose their absence conveys the depth of segregation in that society. Jan-Michael Vincent was certainly a looker; it's a shame his life later took such a turn for the worse.

Happy New Year!

Here we are back in London, where the light is flat and gray and the winds are chilly. Today's lows are supposed to be just above freezing -- a far cry from Florida, where I was sitting out in shorts and a t-shirt!

You may remember that as I wrote yesterday's post, I was sitting in an airport bar with Dave, waiting for our plane. Well, no sooner did I finish writing than Dave came back from a trip to the bathroom, hurriedly looked through his stuff and said with a touch of panic in his voice, "Where's my computer?"

Yes, folks, you read that right. For the second time on this trip, Dave had lost his school laptop.

At first we thought someone took it out of his shoulder bag while he was in the bathroom and I was typing away on my blog. In fact, I announced as much to the bartenders, but they seemed skeptical. And sure enough, Dave learned from the TSA agents that he'd left it at security, and it had been sent to a police office in the main terminal.

Of course our flight was boarding as all this unfolded, so Dave wound up sprinting through the terminal to the police office, retrieving the laptop, sprinting back, going through security again while I sweated wondering if he was going to make it in time. (I pondered the ethical dilemmas: Should I get on the plane alone? Why should both of us have to pay for a new flight? Would that be selfish or sensible?) Obviously, in the end, he got there.

I told him he is NO LONGER ALLOWED to travel with that damn computer. Of course, I don't make the rules, and he needs the computer, so that declaration isn't going to stick. But I felt better saying it.

And surprise, surprise -- Olga came back last night! No, not because of bad behavior. I texted Simone yesterday afternoon to let her know we'd returned to London, and although I could have sworn she'd originally said she couldn't bring us Olga on New Year's Eve, she did. So Olga was reunited with her Kong and her back garden -- you can see she's distracted by squirrel activity in the photo above. We were all able to ring in the new year together! (And no, we didn't stay up until midnight.)

Yesterday I sorted laundry and organized the house a bit. I haven't had a chance to take many pictures -- the top photo shows a dunnock on our suet feeder. The feeder itself was knocked off the pole and completely empty when we got home yesterday morning. Squirrels, I'm betting! I took that photo through a window, and you can see the reflection of our Christmas lights in the glass, like a fading holiday apparition.