Back to Kensington Park...

The following day I was back in Kensington Park to see some art at the Serpentine Galleries. Along the way, I came across several green parakeets...

….The Arch by Henry Moore...

…and the Round Pond...

….with Kensington Palace in the background.

I also passed by the Prince Albert Memorial, in the foreground, and Royal Albert Hall, in the background.

 

A Lovely Spring Hash Trail...

In mid-May we did a West London H3 trail that started in Paddington. Across the street from the pub was this clock that looks like a man is trapped inside. It’s actually Dutch artist Maarten Baas in a 12-hour film; I’ve also seen his larger version in Schiphol Airport. 

Here’s silly Opee doing his Superman impersonation as he changed into his running clothes in a phonebooth. 

It was a lovely spring evening as we ran through the Rose Garden in Hyde Park...

…along the Serpentine...

…and past the Italian Gardens in Kensington Park, which was created in the 1860s as a romantic gesture from Prince Albert to Queen Victoria. 

 

Halloween in London...

On my last day in Boston, Sally and I popped into Goodwill so I could look for Halloween costumes and I found this bright combination: a new football jersey and used candy corn leggings.

The West London Halloween Hash was a fitting way to end my crazy year of hashing in nine countries around the world (in chronological order): The Netherlands, Korea, Belgium, Australia, Sweden, Scotland, Germany, America and, finally, England.

Although we managed to get lost and missed the final bits of trail, we thoroughly enjoyed running through parks and neighborhoods in Wandsworth. The high point of the night was when Opee decided we should go trick or treating at a house decorated for the occasion. Imagine our surprise when we were greeted by a mini-Trump. And imagine his mother’s surprise when two Americans, one in an American flag tie, just happened to stop by to beg for some candy. She said he was a big hit when they circled their neighborhood, posing for lots of photos. 

The hash started and ended at Ram Brewery, the UK’s oldest continuously operating brewery which opened in 1581, but is now mostly abandoned. This was formerly the stables and now houses the men’s loo.

Dinner was pizza and I was sure to grab a few slices for Opee as he got stuck on a business call just as the food was delivered. 

While the brewery officially closed in 2006, the lead brewer, John Hatch, who has worked there for 31 years (18 years for Young’s and 13 years on his own), got special permission to operate as a nanobrewery until the area is fully redeveloped. Thus he can still make hand-crafted beer, but can’t sell to stores or restaurants. Apparently he made two of the beers with the hash in mind: Laughing Juice...

...and Any Old Fool. We thought down-downs were hilarious despite not knowing very many of the hashers. We had planned to leave shortly thereafter, but is often the case, the beer was flowing and we got into some interesting conversations. At 11 p.m., John kicked us all out and we headed back to the overground station with a bunch of hashers.

The nearest Tube station to our hotel was closed for the weekend, so we walked from London Bridge Station which gave me a chance to try my hand at some night photography along the Thames...

...of Tower Bridge...

...and the Shard.

Even caught a glimpse of some fireworks in the distance.

More of Richmond...

The following day Jimmy had a meeting about two hours from London, so he got up early and drove west. Seanette and I enjoyed a leisurely walk with the dogs along the Thames. 

It was quite remarkable to learn that due to the tides of the Thames, these stairs are underwater for up to 12 hours per day.

We saw several artists along the way. In a small world moment, I ran into the ex-PTA president of Ashlynn’s school, who had recently relocated to the area. 

After lunch, we took a guided tour around the historical center of Richmond, which is a suburb of London. The theatre built in 1898 is still used for its original purpose, but the building next door from the same era has been converted into the library. I didn’t take a photo of what little remains of Richmond Palace built by Henry VII in 1501; Queen Elizabeth died there in 1603.

This is one of Richmond’s oldest pubs from 1770, although the original building burned down in 1834. After the tour, I joined Seanette and some other expat women for Happy Hour before heading to the train to catch my ferry back to Holland. Jimmy had a crazy afternoon of over five hours of driving to get from his meeting to return his car before catching a train to the ferry. It was tight, but he made it with about 15 minutes to spare. 

Veronica’s New Job...

Rather than register for a traditional three-year Bachelor’s Degree, Veronica registered for a four-year Bachelor’s with a Year-in-Industry, which sounded like a great way to get some practical experience before graduating. I assumed that the university would help her secure a position, but I was wrong as she had to find her own job. While she could have applied anywhere in the world, after contacting a few US companies, she discovered that their internships were structured differently than the one-year positions offered by companies in the UK (primarily, the UK positions pay a living wage and US internships often do not). After several interviews that resulted in rejections, she secured an offer that led to her relocation to West London in late June. 

Jimmy and I caught a bus to visit Veronica at the global headquarters of GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), the sixth largest pharmaceutical company in the world, where she is the only IP (Industrial Placement) working in the Sustainability Department. The building was quite impressive with the ground floor set up as a street with restaurants and shops for the employees.

Veronica was very excited about taking us to the ramen restaurant, which was very nice for cafeteria-style dinning. She’d hoped that she could show us around her department, but that wasn’t allowed. However, we did go to an upper floor cafeteria to have dessert with her boss. I'm thrilled that Veronica has this great opportunity to get real world experience. Hopefully this will help her further narrow down what she wants to focus on for her Master’s and future career as I suspect she’ll walk away either loving or hating corporate sustainability. 

Richmond with Seanette...

Seanette and Richard’s rental house is incredibly nice with an excellent location in the city center. Unfortunately, due to our late arrival each evening, we missed seeing Richard, but at least I got to spend some quality time with Seanette. That first morning we took Wylie and Willa for a great walk.

They live quite close to the Thames.

Compared to the parts of the river that I’m used to seeing in central London, this section of the river is quite sleepy and beautiful.  

I refrained from taking many photos of the city since we’d be taking an official walking tour the next day, but I was definitely impressed with what I saw.

Moving Day...

We then walked back to Veronica’s house, where she had been living for the previous week with just the bare essentials. As you can see, she didn’t waste any time decorating by putting up a photo wall. Her bedroom is significantly bigger than in her last house, but then the rent is significantly higher. 

Her room didn’t look quite so great once we moved in all of her junk, but there’s no doubt that she’d have it organized quickly.

As you can see, the kitchen and living room are open plan. We had a quick chance to meet Veronica’s four roommates.

After unloading the car, we walked back into Chiswick to have dinner at the pub which had a lovely terrace and yummy food. Since Veronica didn’t have space for us, I made arrangements to stay with Seanette and Richard who had recently relocated from Amsterdam to nearby Richmond.

West London...

Jimmy and I arrived by ferry in the UK on the morning of July 3 with a busy day planned as we needed to rent a car, drive to Norwich, pack up the car with all of Veronica’s stuff and then drive to Acton, West London, where Veronica was living in this house with four other students doing industrial placements.

Since we arrived before Veronica got off work, we took a walk into the nearby town of Chiswick where we had a snack at an Italian shop that had the craziest looking hunk of cheese I’ve ever seen.

After wandering the high street, we came across Chiswick Park, a massive business park where we found this funky sculpture.

If you stood in just the right spot, you quickly multiplied.

It was pretty cool from both inside and out.

It was great when we spotted our beautiful daughter heading towards where we were lounging on the lawn.