London Visit. October 2018: 1. Getting There.

How many things can you do / do you want to do/ should you do  when visiting London over four days with a couple of mates?

Having just returned from such a trip I’m pleased to report that we managed to get the balance just about right. Not easy, especially with three people involved. I’ll write several separate blog posts about what we did but first of all some background:

My friend Hardie did a house swap with his home in Hebden Bridge and a house in Tulse Hill, SE London. We were to stay for four days in a Victorian terraced house which had been vacated by a very trusting family of four. None of us had ever done anything like this ever before. What could possibly go wrong?!

There were various happenings, which made this a memorable trip, and here they are, more or less in chronological order.

The first thing was getting there. To me, one of the best bits of a visit to London (or anywhere) is often the journey there, especially if it involves trains. My friends travelled separately by train and had no problems, but I could write a complete blog post on just getting to London in the first place. My train to London was cancelled at short notice whilst I was waiting for it on the platform at Halifax station.

Those electronic indicator boards at the station are great aren’t they? They tell you your train will be the next to arrive and it is reassuringly expected to be “on time” – but how do you react when it suddenly goes to “Cancelled”?  See below. The reaction with me was surprise, and then not inconsiderable panic.

But, amazingly, and to cut a long story very short, I got to London via Leeds instead and was “only” 43 minutes late into Kings Cross.

Having got to Kings Cross the next thing was to get to Tulse Hill. None of us had ever been to Tulse Hill before. All we knew was that we would be staying a long way, maybe 30 minutes walk, from Brixton tube station. Victoria Line to Brixton all the way from Kings Cross. Easy. But coming out of the tube station into the Brixton High Road. Not easy! The melee there demanded a sudden and brutal change from our laid back Yorkshire ways. I knew the bus numbers we were looking for, but didn’t have a clue as to which was north or south, or which side of the road we needed to be on. The pressure of people and the speed they are moving demands that you can’t hesitate or even slow your step to think, you just have to sort it out on the move. Fast!

Anyway, we got there. We had to collect the house key from a location a few streets away so we actually had a very pleasant walkabout and introduction to the suburban streets of Tulse Hill. Rows and rows of very neat two storey Victorian terraced houses. A welcome world away from Brixton and the traffic of Brixton Hill.

Slotted Spoon.    We loved the house and enjoyed finding our way around it. It had everything. Lots of space on three levels, it even had a toilet on each level. Heaven! It also had a very well equipped kitchen living dining room. But try as we may we could’t find a slotted spoon. The relevance and importance of this will become clear as you read subsequent blog posts.