Red Letter Day at LHR!

A thing about bricks.

Romeo and I took the bus to Euston station today to buy 2 tickets to Scotland at the end of July. Does anyone know if you can buy 2 tickets online and get the seats together if one person has a railcard and the other doesn't?
Some people in front of us on the top deck were discussing the architecture of the buildings we were passing.
'Look at all that glass and concrete on these modern buildings!' they said.
'No', said the man, pointing backwards to St Pancras station, 'I prefer that - I have a thing about bricks!'
Well - certainly, plenty of them have been used to build St Pancras!!
I wonder what dealings he has had with bricks. Was he a bricklayer, or had he baked them in the sunshine in his village. I wonder if he has a preference for red ones or yellow ones.
What have you got a 'thing' about? My mother had a 'thing' about brass and bone china.

Another happy Saturday at Malvern Manor. Some of us were snoozing at opposite ends of the settee, or in Grandma's bed, while others were hard work at the kitchen table creating a book about our recent trip to London Zoo. We enjoyed a lunch of fish and chips and later two of us baked a Victoria sponge cake!

Spotted in Cheshunt - a kind thought, but only if you are English!

More about the neighbours!

Leaving home the other day on my way to do hosital visiting card, I waved a greeting to a neighbour, Christine, and another lady I know, but whose name I don't know.
A second later, Romeo appeared round the corner calling to me that I'd forgotten my hospital ID card.
He was dressed in shorts and a tee shirt. One of the ladies called across the road ' he's got better legs than mine!'
I collected my card from him and went on my way thinking it was nice to have lived in one place for 29 years and to know the neighbours so well.

East v West.

Recently I spoke to a someone who had afternoon tea in a teashop in Hampstead. he was with a ladyfriend - you may have seen them, she was reportedly dressed in pink from head to toe.
the tea and cakes when they came were served on a silver tray with a silver teapot and hot water in a silver jug.
Two cups of tea and three buns cost £13.80.
The same week Romeo and I had reason to be in Hornchurch. I'd had a sandwich on the train but R wanted some lunch. We went into a cafe right next to the station. There was an elderly gentleman tucking into a plate of rice pudding. I shudder at the thought of rice pudding but at the same time I felt glad he could get a hot meal somewhere if there wasn't one at home.
A plate of chips with two sausages, a Tunnocks caramel wafer, and two huge mugs of very nice tea cost £3.80.

Are they all there?

Every Thursday morning I go to the nursery in Lissa's school to read stories to the children. As I left today I said to one of the staff how much I'd enjoyed the trip to the Zoo earlier this week. She told me that one of the fathers had told her that a friend of a friend had a child ( in a different school), who on the way home from the zoo had sat on the coach hunched with his coat buttoned up and his head bowed. On arriving home, without saying a word, he rushed upstairs and started running a bath. His mother, increasingly suspicious that something was going on, went up to see what was happening. There, splashing in the water, was a penguin from the zoo!!

As I signed out of the school I said to the receptionist and another woman standing at the desk, that I had just heard an amazing story and related it to them. They burst out laughing - loudly - and assured me that it was an urban myth. Oh well.

On the way home I met a neighbour who told me I had been speaking to the head teacher!

Oops!

These are all pictures of visitors to our garden. The red flowers are poppies, the middle row is made up of foxgloves growing out of the wall at the bottom of the garden and the purple flowers are veronica (longifolia).The pigeon is the only bird that has deigned to use the bird table. A recent blog - 'More from the garden' contained pictures of a variety of geranium in the top row with a Love in the Mist flower in the middle. The middle row has 2 pictures of a purple Hebe and a group of flowers (of which the blue one came from Ireland) and the bottom row is made up of 3 colours of osteospermum.

A very happy father reading his daughters' blogs! First is Goinggwada in yellow and later is Got Passion for which he wore green!

More from the garden

Queen Salote of Tonga 1918 - 1965

This lovely lady came to London for the Queen's Coronation in 1953. Everyone liked her because she kept the roof of her coach open in spite of the pouring rain. In Tongan society this shows respect to a personage of higher position.
After the Coronation she did a tour of Britain. When she passed our house she still had the top of her car down and waved enthusiastically to us.
I was thirteen then.
Tonga is situated between Hawaii and New Zealand, probably nearer NZ. It is ruled today by King Siaosi (George). I haven't yet worked out if he is a greatgrandson!

The garden yesterday

These are Sweet William - dont know where the rest of the flowers are?? They didn't upload as far as I can see!



And the sun is shining again today!

more bus rides

There were two or three more outings last week - mostly for shopping purposes I think. On one occasion I sat opposite a man wearing blue suede shoes! I spent the journey waiting for him to burst into song!!

And if I can find out how to upload photos, you'll see who we met in various cafes along the way.

This week's journeys

On the underground on Monday we sat opposite a lady wearing technicolour stilettos. I think they were made of canvas with random blotches of primary colours - glorious!
At LHR we spotted some red blazers. Trying to see who they were, I got too close and discover they were a rugby team from Tonga here for a world cup in Wales. I told one that I had seen the Queen of Tonga when she came to Britain for the coronation in 1953. She did a tour of Britain and drove past our house. She was probably the first black person I'd ever seen, living in the depths of Scotland as I did.