Of Trolls, Bengalis, and the marquis de Carabas (er...Cornwallis)

Well. Hello, London! Where do I even start? I guess I could go chronologically, but not try to be too crazy-detailed.

Day 1 - lots of backups on the Circle Line, which meant LOTS of me lugging my horrible suitcases all over the underside of London. I am sore yet today, and I have to move again tomorrow! Why oh why did I pack so much? Bad life choices!

Anyways, after that was hanging out with Lisa-Raine at the church for a bit, meeting lots of people - Alice, Iseah, David, Tamsen, Julia...there were probably more but you all know how I am with names (and spelling of them). Lisa-Raine took me out for some excellent curry on Brick Lane, the heart of the Bengali neighborhood in the east end. It's got some great shopping, too, but I've not taken that much of it in yet. I went visiting some Bengali families with Alice, spreading the word about the Holiday Club at the Hanbury and Allen Gardens (which happens to be right next door to 35 Buxton Street, where I'm moving too tomorrow. Rod and Joanne, who own that flat, are out of town until next Wednesday so I'll have it to myself for a bit - won't that be a strange feeling!

Then I met Brent and Caroline Clark, absolutely lovely people who are putting me up until tomorrow. (who wouldn't be lovely with a last name like Clark!) I settled in with them and grabbed a bit of supper, before...

At night a bunch of ladies got together to get ready the crafts for the Holiday club - in the evening the older girls are doing handcrafts and the boys are playing football at Allen Gardens.

Day 2 - morning off (slept in till 10:30...shame shame!), got quite a bit lost & ended up walking round Liverpool station for quite some time before I found Brushfield Street and the office again. Late lunch with Alice and more visiting (adorable Bengali kids and their families!), then back to the Clarks' for the evening. Learning the delights of the no. 8 bus...oh joy!

Day 3 - tooled around the west end (Soho, Trafalgar Sq., St. Martins-in-the-Fields, Picadilly, British Museum), mostly just walking and looking for a few things for the Holiday Club. Then met Alice again who took me through Christ Church and then had plenty of errands/shopping to fill up my afternoon.

On the way to Bethnal Green (where I did a lot of shopping), I passed under a railway bridge on Vallance Street that had not a few shops set up quite snugly underneath it...how strange! A matress shop and a junk shop, I believe. It make me think of trolls, living there comfortably under the bridge :)

Once on Bethnal Green, I recognized my surroundings quite a bit, for the no. 8 bus goes quite a way down it. There's a pub on the corner of Vallance St. and Bethnal Green called the "Marquis of Cornwallis"...oh my, the pub names are so great here - I'd forgotten. Just down the street from that one was The Shakespeare, and in Spitalfields you've got the Ten Bells, and don't forget, by the Highbury & Islington tube station - the White Swan and the Famous Cock. Leave the boring names like the "Lion" and the "Crown" for the really touristy areas...you've got to have an imagination to be a pub-owner, or at least a pub-namer, anywhere else!

Well I believe that'll be it for now. I don't think I'll keep up this day-by-day thing, but it's nice to be able to process it all. Took a couple film pictures today, but will try to get the digital camera out soon. I'll post a link. Love you all!