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Today’s photos are from August 25, 2014, while we visited South Kensington, England.
And so we begin today’s post…
First off, no words can express how appreciative we are for the warm and loving wishes and prayers from readers worldwide for the loss of my dear sister, Susan. The comforting words have meant the world to us as we work through this challenging period of grief.
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| With the high cost of driving in London, most cars we see other than taxis are high-end vehicles, such as Lamborghini, Bentley, Ferrari, and Maserati. |
Tom was also very close to Susan, and it was a big blow to him as well. Often, over the years, while she and I talked on the phone, he would participate in our lively conversation, yelling out humorous and enthusiastic morsels, often leaving the three of us in stitches. Our mutual love of travel, world affairs, philosophy, and ancestry kept conversations between the three of us quite entertaining. We will miss her, more than words can say.
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| There’s row after row of ornate white apartments in South Kensington. |
And here we are, back to our routine of hotel living, definitely less stressful, now that most of the issues with our new site have been resolved and continue to be resolved. I’ve continued to walk approximately 30 miles, 48 km, each week through all this stress. Lately, it’s been a struggle, but I knew it was essential to continue.
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| We had no trouble finding the distant Laundromat, Bobo’s Bubbles. |
Today’s photos are from this date, August 25, 2014, while we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves in South Kensington, England, staying in a beautiful hotel, The Regency, conveniently located to restaurants, museums, window shopping, and laundry, all of which we visited on foot. Taxi fare was expensive, and thus, we’d opted for this convenient location that never let us down.
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| The boulevard outside the Laundromat. |
It was a long walk to the laundromat, but we filled an empty wheeling suitcase with dirty clothes. Tom wheeled while I navigated in and out of the streets to find the nearest facility. We sat in chairs while we waited for our clothes to wash and dry. We folded everything on a big table and neatly placed them in the suitcase. Able to use several washers at once allowed us to be back out on the street in about 90 minutes.
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| The Royal British Society of Sculptors. |
Nowadays, with COVID-19, I doubt we’d want to visit a laundromat. In the future, most likely we’ll only choose holiday homes with at least a washer, a dryer being of less importance. Wow! I could sure use a washer right now. Although our clothes smell fresh from handwashing, the items we aren’t wearing, still sitting in our luggage, smell musty. Once we get somewhere other than here, we’ll have to wash every item in our bags.
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| On a walk on a Saturday while in London, we stumbled across a Farmer’s Market open from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm on weekends. The smells were amazing. |
Ah, when will that be? It doesn’t appear international airports aren’t opening anytime soon, flying, at least not to any countries we’re interested in visiting. Yes, some flights to Dubai, the US, the UK, and a few other European countries. Still, they only allow Indian nationals to return to India or fly out for a specific reason, not including us. No flights are for general tourism at this point. South Africa is still in lockdown, and we can’t see flying there anytime soon.
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| If we could’ve cooked our meals in London, we’d have purchased some of the items for sale at this Farmers Market. |
Friends we made on a cruise, who’d asked us for some advice when they began traveling the world over a year ago, have purchased a home in Florida and are busy outfitting a house they’ve bought with household goods and furniture. They had also sold everything they owned and now are starting all over. We are happy for them based on their enthusiasm to be settling back down.
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| The produce looked too perfect to be organic. |
But, again, this is not us. We can not conceive of such a thing when we still, regardless of COVID-19, are hopeful for the future. We may not be able to cruise as often as we had in the past, nor will we visit any big cities where the virus is rampant. But, we still perceive many options will fuel the passion we both feel to see more of the world.
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| It was around 1:00 pm when we arrived. We wondered if these chickens had been sitting outside for the last four hours. |
As mentioned in our heading yesterday, it was five full months ago since we checked into this hotel on March 24, 2020. Indeed no cause for celebration. We’re reminded how grateful we are to have avoided contracting the virus. Hospitals here are packed and scary. The overfilled private hospitals, which we heard this morning, have been forced to take the overflow from the public (free) hospitals. Patients are lying on cots, 12 or more to a room. It isn’t very comforting.
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| These baked goods looked appetizing! |
We are grateful. And although this past week or more had been horrible with the loss of my dear sister and the stress of getting this site up and running, we are now settling back into our routine with a little more ease and hope for the future.
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| The larger bread was priced at US $8.12, 4.90 pounds. |
Stay safe. Wear masks. Be grateful.
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Photo from one year ago today, August 25, 2019:
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There is an endless array of shops and restaurants in this delightful area of Falmouth, England, one year ago. For more photos from this date, please click here. |