Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Caught the train from New Malden to Wimbledon and then transferred to the tube to South Kensington.  Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  Not so much!!  The train/tube ride here was HELL and I almost burst into tears but had Rescue Remedy that I took lots of and just put one foot in front of the other – that’s the only way to do it.      

After I arrived in Wimbledon, I got my ticket to South Kens – then had to FIND the right train to South Kens.  A fellow from NYC and his wife were heading there and guided me in the right direction.  Even got on the right train!  Thank God!

No lift at South Kens tube station and I carried my very heavy suitcase up 3 floors of heavily trafficked steps with a heavy rucksack on my back!  OMG, people CRAMMED everywhere.  I negotiated the stairs with the mantra “one step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time” and slowly made my way up the steps to the outside world at South Kensington tube station in the middle of Chelsea.  OMG – I’m actually here. 

I followed my airbnb host’s directions to the flat – her directions were clear, which was a relief.  Pulling my suitcase – thank goodness for the 2 wheels, I walked for about 10 minutes, stopping here and there to rest as well as take in my surroundings.  Beautiful, majestic buildings lined the streets of Chelsea.   My wrists are absolutely killing me. This trip is all about new experiences and to see that I can actually DO it - I survived.  My host’s daughter, Becky, very kindly carried my suitcase down some very steep stairs to the flat.  I was exhausted and so happy to be there.

After a cup of tea, I spiffed myself up a little bit and went out to wander Chelsea in the autumn light. Went down to Kings Road to pick up some food at Waitrose.  As I walked the streets of Chelsea, I felt confident and comfortable. 

My host, Caroline, is an artist and she invited me to join her and her partner at the Chelsea arts club the next night for a private party and drinks!!!  She said she normally doesn't invite people to things like this but because I am an artist she thought I might like to join them.  So tomorrow evening around 8:30 PM I am off to meet other artists at a very casual event. How cool is that! I'm pretty blown away that I had the courage to say yes – another move out of my comfort zone!

Picked up some soup, soy milk, apples, almond butter and cheese at Waitrose, wandered around Kings Road for a little while taking in the window displays and headed back to the flat.  Made my dinner, sat on the bed and turned on the TV – whew!!  I’m here.  

I’ve come to realize that this blog is not only about my physical travels, it’s about my emotional, spiritual and psychological travels too.  I’m going to write about some of my experiences here – it won’t always be uplifting and it may be sad, disturbing, biased (my biases), challenging to read – you may not always agree with me and what I say and that’s okay.  You may get angry and that’s okay because that’s what I’m encountering on this journey too.  I don’t always agree with people I meet, or they with me.  Sometimes, I feel angry by what I hear and see.  Sometimes I feel helpless and out of control and sometimes, I feel joy and happiness.  Sometimes I am confident and outgoing while other times, I’m reticent and shy.  I’ve chosen this trip to the UK, in part, to walk into all of these feelings and explore them for myself, to find out more about who I am deep down when I face challenges in unknown situations, when I’m completely out of my comfort zone.  Some I’ll share here, others I won’t.  This blog is not only about my travels but also about my experiences, perspectives and the different challenges I face along the path of this new journey in my life.

October 27 – Wimbledon Park in the Autumn

I discovered that Harriet and I have very different values and beliefs – hers are very Conservative whereas mine are more Liberal – she called me a Socialist when I told her if I lived in England I’d vote Labour.  I told her I’m left Liberal not socialist – she repeated “socialist”.   Ok – so to her, Labour is “socialist” – I can accept that’s her perspective….

I keep reminding myself, this trip is all about new experiences, learning to deal with challenging situations, manage people’s expectations and ideas.  In order not to have a difficult morning, I explained that it’s all in our definitions of “socialist” – that to me it means something different in Canada and to her, it means something else.  Live and let live.

After abit of an argument, Harriet and set off in the the car to Wimbledon.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and driving through the town was a pleasure.  I decided within myself that I was going to enjoy this outing – I decided to enjoy it.  It was my choice to move beyond this morning’s challenges. 

Wimbledon Park is massive and the autumn leaves were at their height – gold, yellow, orange, red – beams of sunlight filtered through the leaves and saturated their colours even more.  It was an autumn wonderland!  We parked near the café and wandered to one of the footpaths.  Harriet didn’t want to go for a walk with me and insisted we go to the café for hot chocolate and cakes.  This moment was a turning point for me…. normally, I’m a people pleaser and in the past, I’d have just said “okay” and given up the chance to walk in the park and take photos.  But today, I chose to look after myself whilst also respecting what someone else wanted to do. 

I suggested to Harriet that she go to the café and I’d go for a short walk through the trails to take some photos and off I went.  I’m SO glad I did – the trails were glorious.  The ground was covered in a blanket of bronze, sunlight streamed through the branches and the soft, warm breeze rustled the leaves.   The lake at the bottom of the trails was calm.   

Thirty minutes and many photographs later, I walked back up to the café and bought Harriet a hot chocolate, myself some tea and we sat outside in the autumn sun and chatted.   

Then back to New Malden to meet Nicholas and the 2 girls for a pub lunch. It was okay but there wasn’t much for a vegetarian to eat!  Salad it was.  Afterwards, I joined Nicholas and their dog, Fudge (a golden lab) for a long walk through New Malden.  Nicholas is a wealth of knowledge about the area, a well read and educated historian and I enjoyed hearing all he had to tell me.  Two hours later, we arrived back at the house as it was getting dark and I made tea for everyone.   Quiet evening and off to bed.  Honestly, I was very glad to be leaving the next morning.