We are just not used to coping without air conditioning. We didn’t go out today, apart from me going down to the shop for some salads.

Stephen has had a headache off and on for the past couple of days, a bit like a migraine in that it makes him feel unwell. We hope it’s just a virus and will clear by Thursday when we will be travelling to Birmingham.

Stephen had a shower during the afternoon to help him cool down. I went one better and sat in a bath for a while. We are so glad that the weather is going to change, but in the process of change it has become very humid and we might have one more uncomfortable night. G may have to invest in fans for his guests if this continues. We have an air circulation system but it isn’t strong enough to have the effect of a fan forcing air over us. We have all the windows and doors open to catch any breeze.

Tomorrow we need to pack for our journey northwards. We will need to sort through food in the cupboards and fridge to make sure we only leave what will be in date when we come back in October.

I’ve taken many photos from our balcony and the top floor patio on our other visits. It’s hard to resist as we have uninterrupted views on two sides of the building. There are taller buildings in East Croydon, but they are on the other side of the building.

Central London towers in the distance, this view is lit up with red lights from the many cranes at night.

So, the third day of heat here in southern England. We stayed home today as we thought everywhere would be packed because of the bank holiday. There is quite a strong breeze, but it hasn’t made dealing with the heat that much easier. We are not used to it being this hot without airconditioning.

We hope to go to another seaside town tomorrow. The temperature is forecast to be 31, just slightly cooler than today at 33. This sets a heat record for the August bank holiday.

Today’s blog features a few more photos from Margate.

We wanted to continue our exploration of English seaside towns and chose Margate – no special reason really, but it turned out to be a good choice as it is quite different to Hastings where we went on our last trip. For one thing, it has beautiful golden beach sand and have to say that people were making the most of the warm and sunny weather. The train filled up gradually as we got closer to our destination until there were people standing.

The train to Margate starts at Victoria Station. Stephen booked the tickets online the day before and we picked them up from a ticket machine when we got to the station. We left the house at about 9.30 a.m. and arrived home at 10.00 p.m. – a 12 hour day with around 5 hours of travelling, but still easier to organise than staying overnight. It gave us a chance to experience the seaside experience though we didn’t explore all that Margate has to offer.

My step count for the day was 19,000, and that equates to 10kms. There were lots of stairs as we went up and down from the beach front. We had lots of time for sitting around (on trains and in cafes) and it didn’t seem arduous at all, until we got home and I went straight to bed.

At lunchtime we found a pub with outdoor seating and reasonable prices. A shared bottle of alcohol free beer (.5 instead of the usual .4 alcohol, so called alcohol free beer wouldn’t work for a recovering alcoholic), a baked potato with cheese and salad for me and a green curry and rice for Stephen. There was a breeze and we almost put our jumpers on. You may see some photos of Stephen with his jumper on. By evening, the breeze had dropped and it was quite warm.

The most amazing natural feature was the difference between high tide (12.30 p.m) and low tide (6.30 p.m.). We left just as it reached peak tide to catch our train home. Days like this do not necessarily occur all that often and there were places that hired out deck chairs, beach umbrellas and wind breaks. Some people on the train brought picnics with them, but there was no need to bring other beach equipment, even if you had it.

The day was a little misty, especially noticeable over the sea.

Another phenomenon was a statue of a man looking out to see, which gradually disappeared as the tide came in.

Our longest walk was after the museum visit and afternoon tea. We walked along the beach on a paved path, then up through a gap in the cliffs to the path along the top.

As usual, we find travelling in trains very comfortable and restful. Stephen bought some Kentish Gypsy Tarts to enjoy on the way. He was excited to find we could buy two for 1.5 pounds (I’ll have to find the pound sign on my laptop keyboard, it must have one).

Our dinner consisted of a shared, very expensive hot dog, these tarts, 2 small apples and a stick of Margate Rock. The tarts were very light and I couldn’t pin down the flavour of the filling, perhaps mocca.

Matt rang us at 11.30 a.m. today (Sunday). I was just setting up the laptop for blogging and it was a good time to see him. He seems, as usual, very happy and relaxed.

Stephen has been reading about the villages of London, suburbs with individual character. We went on a bus journey two and fro through many narrow and winding roads, an amazing feat of driving by the driver, as we could see from our perch on the upper deck. We had a similar amazing journey home, and this time in very busy traffic.

Our first stop was at the Horniman Museum. Donated to the public by a very rich businessman, it is a rather interesting house with a large and lovely garden. The museum is housed in a new building at the back of the main house. It is a very popular place with parents and children, so rather busy and noisy.

After lunch at the museum cafe we had a short walk in the garden before going by bus to our next destination, the Dulwich Picture Garden. I objected to the $26 entry fee, so chose to sit in the garden in the shade and write my blog.

Then we walked through the nearby park to find our next destination. We noticed lots of children in hire bicycles where you lie on your back, but didn’t take photos because they were kids. We asked directions of an elderly man and enjoyed a brief discussion about life.

We were heading to a cafe mentioned in the guide, the Blue Brick Cafe. It was probably mentioned because of having vegan and vegetarian options, but also because in a place with many cafes it is unique. Not many tables inside and curiously no windows that actually open. We sat outside.

Last night I noticed a big splodge on some photos of the city skyline. I took the blower to the sensor and thought it was fixed. This morning I found that I had merely scattered the dust around the sensor, and had to keep trying, taking photos of the sky in between bouts, to get it actually clean.

I’ll have the sensor properly cleaned when we get back to Perth, but in the meantime I hope this will suffice. I’m not changing lenses, which can introduce dust, but the zoom lens going in and out can pull dirt inside. Strange that we have been on holiday all this time before it happened.

Today we have been resting, only going to our local park for afternoon tea. Stephen made friends with the woman who runs the kiosk when we’ve been here on other stays in Croydon, and hoped to see her today, but her daughter was there instead. She was diplomatic and said that her mother has mentioned us to her. We appreciated her kindness, whilst doubting it was actually the case.

That’s where we had afternoon tea and you can see that we are having another sunny day. It is forecast to be about 30 and sunny for the next couple of days. A last burst of summer.

Yesterday we went to see ‘Night of the Iguana’, a Tennessee Williams play. It was very interesting, if not necessarily uplifting. The main characters were actors we have seen in films and British television shows – not that we could see their faces. We had good seats in the back stalls and were high enough to see the stage clearly. It is quite a small theatre, one amongst many in Covent Garden, London.

I took a few photos before the play began, filming is of course forbidden during the show.

In our usual fashion, we left home later in the morning and arrived in the city for lunch, after a bus ride from Victoria Station. The place was in the crypt of St Martin in the Fields, a budget cafeteria style cafe. Apart from the setting, which is very atmospheric, we felt it was the equivalent of the City Place dining room, with slightly better food. We have been there before on a previous trip to London.

After lunch we had time to go into the church before heading off to the afternoon matinee.

The play ran from 2.30 to 5.30 p.m. with an interval. Afterwards we went to see Westminster Cathedral (I mentioned Westminster Cathedral in a previous post, but actually meant the Abbey). This church is actually the Catholic Church, but looks a bit like a mosque. I didn’t take photos inside as no one else was taking photos and I wasn’t sure it was allowed.

In this part of London lampposts, shopfronts and pubs are decorated with flowering hanging baskets.

We were home by about 8.30 and it was nearly dark. We’d stopped for a beer, of course when we actually wanted a nice pub, it was difficult to find. A traditional pub was very noisy and we ended up in the open air, but at a place that was quite modern. The ‘happy hour’ tempted us to have a beer each, which left us very floaty in the head as it was far more than we are used to. Stephen made scrambled eggs and I made the toast for a light supper. I went to bed about 9.00, very tired.

Today we are exploring Dulwich – an area of London described as a ‘London Village’. I’ve just discovered a nasty blotch on the sensor of my camera. I don’t know how it got there as I haven’t been changing lenses. I’ll try the blower on it tonight. In the meantime, it’s possible to remove blemishes from photos in Lightroom, so I’ll still use the camera. I noticed the blob first on a photo from this morning, but when I checked it is large enough to see through the viewfinder if I point the camera to the sky. It wasn’t there when we went to Wandsworth Common because I would have noticed it when shooting aircraft in the sky.

The next few days are forecast to be quite warm, possibly up to 30 degrees. Today’s maximum is 25, with a very sunny morning and a bit of cloud about this afternoon.

Feeling that we should get out of the house we went to Wandsworth Common for afternoon tea. We had to catch a train one way, then catch a train back to actually land there. Of course, we visited the Common a few years ago when Stephen wanted to check out the house where he used to live. If you are interested, here is a link to that blog entry.

https://photographyperthwa.com/?s=Wandsworth

We had afternoon tea at the same Neros Cafe that we went to before. Stephen remembered that it had newspapers he could read. The paper he wanted wasn’t available, but the girl on the counter said he could read one of the ones on sale, and just pay if he wanted to take it away. In the end, we took it away with us (paying, of course).

Then we enjoyed strolling around the Common, finding we remembered some things well and other things not so well. There is a beautiful cafe down one path and I think we actually went there last time, as well as going to the Neros. We spent a lot longer in the area that time.

We came home feeling refreshed from being in the open air and greenery.

coot going

coot coming

There were lots of little platforms for fishing, but you do need to have a fishing licence.

coot coming

coot going

On the station at East Croydon Stephen checked with an officer about our train. We ended up having quite a good conversation. We assumed he was British, given that most of the people of colour in our area are, but it turned out he was Nigerian and had only been here for five years. We compared notes on the ease of getting back to our home countries from England, he said he can decide he wants to have dinner back home and be there in 3-4 hours, whereas for us, it is takes such a long time. He and his wife want to travel when they retire. We felt quite a connection and may well see him again when catching trains.

My new lens cap arrived this morning and it felt much better taking the camera out with a lens cap on. The delivery was very prompt, they promise four working days, but it was less than two.

The bed here in the Croydon apartment isn’t all that comfortable. The mattress is a bit saggy. It has a mattress topper where I tuck in the bottom sheet. It usually needs retucking each day. It triggered something for me. The double bed in our motorhome is terribly difficult to make because we have a thick mattress and is in the corner and it’s impossible to really tuck the bottom sheet in properly. Like this one, you have to retuck most mornings. In addition, I’m still having problems with the damaged tendon in my thumb which happened when struggling with the bed making.

What if we got a mattress topper for the bed in the motorhome. Although the bottom sheet might still come untucked, it would be so much easier to retuck it into a thin and light mattress than our big, heavy mattress. The bed is extremely comfortable and we wouldn’t want to get rid of that mattress.

The mattress topper would need to be cut to the odd shape of our bed, but I believe memory foam mattress material can be cut to order. We would just need to measure it very carefully. It might be possible to use safety pins with a mattress topper to keep the sheet tucked in, something that is nearly impossible with our normal mattress because it is so hard to lift up and get access underneath. Anyway, a realtively cheap and simple solution to a problem we’ve had ever since getting the van.

We haven’t been out very much and the featured photo is from Lucerne when we climbed a hill in the city.

Now that we are settled back in London we don’t really feel like we are travelling. In fact, we’ve hardly been out in the last three days. It’s a big advantage of the home exchanges that you don’t feel like you are wasting money by not going out all the time. Having been to this apartment in Croydon a few times we almost feel like it is a second home.  Here in England we know what food to buy and how the public transport works. We’ve been on day trips to many places in the near vicinity.

We like buying small quantities of wine because if we buy a normal sized bottle it often doesn’t get finished. Buying wine in a can may seem a bit extreme, but this brand is labelled ‘Product of France’ which gives it some credibility, surely.

Today we’ve begun planning our move to Yorkshire, with a few nights in Birmingham on the way. Stephen wants to visit the home of Erasmus Darwin in Litchfield, which is about half an hour from Birmingham. After some dithering we’ve booked a private room in a hostel near the bus station for three nights. Bus rather than train because we still have to go to Victoria in London and the bus station is close by. The trip will cost 10GBP, very cheap indeed. From there, we go to Manchester, then out to our village near Hebden Bridge.

This means we will learn something of the route to take when Eversley arrives at Manchester Airport in a few weeks time. We plan to go to Manchester Airport and help her get to our exchange house. It means a couple of extra hours travel after the long flight. We won’t drive to the airport, but may bring the car part of the way to make it easier for her. We have a car for the four weeks we are in Yorkshire and are hoping that driving in the north of England is a bit less frantic than the south. After our trip in a hire car last time I have sworn off driving in England, but the shock has faded. Stephen and I are both on the insurance for the car and could take turns.

We had an enjoyable time on Facetime with Matt. To help him to know how long we will be I keep telling him that we will be home for my birthday in October. He knows it is a fairly long time to go. He always appears well and happy and we think he doesn’t mind us being away.

We’ve had a little walk late this afternoon. Up in our 9th floor apartment it appeared to be quite chilly. It’s windy and quite cloudy and we did have a few drops of rain when we were out.

Our only other excitement has been that I ordered some underwear online from M&S and two things came on Saturday and one this morning (Sunday). Very strange to have deliveries on the weekend. I’ve ordered a new lens cap for my camera (I lost one in Brig), and that delivery is scheduled for Tuesday. This is what it is like to live in Greater London.

This evening we are watching highlights of the cricket, followed by Chernobyl. We started watching the TV series in Albi, many weeks ago during the heat wave. Time to finish the series, with two episodes to go.

What is Glyndbourne? It’s an opera house in the country near Lewes. It was set up for new and upcoming opera singers almost 100 years ago. There is a tradition of black tie and formal dress for attendence, which meant we had to bring formal clothes from home, mainly for this one event.

Thursday was a day spent mostly at home. Stephen’s phone wasn’t able to make or receive phone calls and a visit to Three.co was in order, plus some shopping. We picked up vouchers for our next top up of our pre paid SIM cards and they tested his phone with a different SIM and it worked fine. A suggestion was made to take it to Apple, but I did a hard reset of the phone and it then worked just fine. It was only phone calls that didn’t work, he still had internet access, which suggested to me that it wasn’t a hardware issue.

Friday, yesterday, was another bucket list item for Stephen, a visit to Glyndbourne to see/hear an opera. I insisted that it be an opera I would enjoy and we didn’t have much of a choice as it is fairly heavily booked. We were sitting up in the gods, back row, but had a very good view of most of the action (apart from the flying water nymphs) and the sound was excellent.

Access to the venue would be difficult, there are lots of trains running to Lewess from East Croydon, but the actual opera house is at least a couple of miles away. Fortunately it is well organised with shuttle buses (big ones) running to and from, before and after.

We felt a bit intimidated by not knowing the ropes at the venue, including precisely what sort of food was available and where we could sit during the intervals. Now that we know we feel that it could become something we would like to do when/if we come to England again. Although, it does involve coming in the English summer, which is our winter and good travelling weather in Australia.

Stephen had been watching the opera on Youtube and I tried, but didn’t find it engaging. Fortunately, once we were seeing it live with surtitles I found it thoroughly enjoyable. Dvorak’s Rusulka, a very silly story about a mermaid who falls in love with a human, has herself transformed into a human so she can marry him, and tragedy inevitably follows. Still, the singers/actors made it a very emotional experience.

We have watched a Glyndbourne version of The magic flute and I felt there was too much silly stuff happening on stage to really enjoy the music. There was some of this in Rusulka, but not nearly as bad.

The weather failed us, of course, this is England. It was wet, with light and persistent rain, with a strong wind when we arrived back in Croydon. Even so, Stephen and I enjoyed walking around the grounds, locating different eating places and admiring the gardens. We only had one umbrella at the time, but it wasn’t cold and walking in light rain was rather nice.

We had about a 50 minute train journey home, then one stop on the tram, then up the hill to our building. I was extremely tired, but found it hard to get to sleep because of being over stimulated.

We bought food for our tea, snacky stuff, and had a $20 champagne each. There is one short interval and one long interval. In the long interval we didn’t have anywhere to sit and ate and drank standing up. Later, we found a bench for a while.

We enjoyed the pre opera talk, which wasn’t about the opera, but about the production. One of the speakers was one of the flying water nymphs and that is why it was a bit disappointing that we couldn’t see her face during the opera. In the production the director wanted singers to do the flying, which involved a lot of training. There are no safety nets and everything depends on the technicians getting it right. She said that for herself, she isn’t frightened and was easily able to adapt her body for singing in a harness, but some of the others had problems.

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