Missing London....................

We just watched Paddington Bear, the movie. It made me miss London. I think Gerry wanted to see the movie more than Tristen. It wasn't too bad for a kids movie I suppose. Hugh Bonneville from Downton Abbey was the lead guy, he was funny.

Well it made me think of the stations, Paddington, Kings Cross and St Pancras for a start. I used to travel back and forth on weekends, home on Friday and back to work Sunday night. I was 18, I have no idea why I didn't rebel, my parents really could not make me go home weekends but I did as they asked. I worked for NAAFI and I loved that time of my life. Brief it was but indelible in my mind and heart. In the evenings we (friends or boyfriends) would go into the city and just walk around. The lights, the shops it was magic.

Sitting on the Embankment in the night time, quiet for a city. Beautiful, long before the famous wheel was there. Long before the Ghurkin or whatever its called. Sitting on the steps of St Pauls

Or Piccadilly when the traffic still spun around old Eros. The lights of all those advertisements. I think of an old BBC program called "In Town Tonight" always began with that roundabout. If you liked people watching that was the place to sit. Or Trafalgar Square. I loved sitting in Trafalgar, never dark there because of the city lights. We would also walk back in the East End, Soho and some more remote places. My boyfriend at the time liked to smoke Hashish and we would go to some very seedy places for him to get it. I never did try it myself, probably because of what I saw when with him. Its a wonder we were never stopped by the police, we saw others who were but he said that I looked too respectable, we never were stopped. I also didn't like what I saw, I didn't like how they (he and his friend) behaved when they were high. So stupid. I was determined never to behave that way. So I never ever even tried it. If it were not for that my curiosity may have got the better of me. Who knows.

I visited London on other occassions before I lived there and did the tourist things. The museums and art galleries. I loved all of that. When I was younger we would go up to London at Christmas time to shows and also some Thursday evenings for the late night shopping. I lived out in the countryside about 1/2 hour to St Pancras on the non stop train. From work for shows we had a coach trip. Loved that.
We would shop in Oxford Street. It was especially wonderful to go up there at Christmas just to see the shop windows. When I was a kid I wanted to be a window dresser. No idea what happened to that idea.

Tower Bridge, we carved our names there. I loved walking past the Tower, thinking of all the history. I remember waiting for a train (underground) at Tower Hill at 4am one morning all on my own, I can't imagine doing that now. I always felt safe.I guess I just never thought about not being safe.

Where I lived was between Wimbledon and Putney so it was very close to the city. Very easy to get there for a movie or show. Mainly though I just enjoyed wandering around and seeing the great parks, and the squares. I love the history and I just want to give London a great big hug. When Paris was attacked recently, I felt as I would if it had been London because I know that it is the same thing there. Just a wonderful city and one that some day I want to visit, but nothing will ever touch my heart as London does.