Chapel Market

We passed through Chapel Market this morning on our way to perform our usual Sunday shopping run to Sainsbury’s.

At the deli

We returned home for lunch and then set out again, starting with a visit to the deli for coffee.

The clock tower

After coffee we walked to the clock tower and caught a number 43 bus.

Sitting at the back

The bus was crowded when we entered and we had seats only at the back.

Holloway Road

The bus took us to Holloway Road which is a broad and busy thoroughfare lined with shops.

Hardware shop

We explored this shop that sells tools, paint, etc. because Tigger was hoping to find a bedside lamp. She wanted one with a built-in charging pad for her phone but they had no lamps at all.

A fine old building
Photo by Tigger

This area, like most of London, is subject to the creeping plague of “redevelopment” where fine old buildings are destroyed and replaced by ugly modern ones just to make someone rich. We must make a point of enjoying the beautiful old ones before they are done away with for ever.

A bed for us?

There was a shop selling beds so we went in for a look. We didn’t find anything suitable in our price range.

The magic word “Beds”

We boarded another bus but as it started off, Tigger spotted another shop displaying the magic word “beds”. We jumped off at the next stop and visited the shop. We found a “possible” but nothing that we were really keen on.

Aboard the 43

We decided to call it a day and return home. We have a number of possibilities to explore still. We caught a 43 bus back towards the Angel, sitting in the front seat this time.

Caffè Nero, Islington Green

We did, however, break our journey at Islington Green where we entered Caffè Nero for a last coffee.

Tomorrow is a new week and a new month. August already. It feels as though time is speeding up and the days are passing faster and faster, hurrying us to we know not what. Whatever it is, it will arrive, whether we wish it or not.

We have for a while been talking of buying a new bed. Our present bedstead is looking dangerously rickety while the mattress tends to dig you playfully in the ribs when you are trying to sleep. Today was to be the day when we bought, or at least chose, the new bed and accompanying mattress.

Amwell Street

We started by walking to Amwell Street and the friendly deli on the corner.

Outside the deli

While having our coffee outside the deli, we watched, as we often do, the opening ceremony of the shop opposite. This takes place at 11 am and involves undoing several locks and removing the external metal shutters from the door and windows.

Aboard the 73

We started our bed search by returning to the main road and catching a number 73 bus to Tottenham Court Road. (This is same journey that I undertook yesterday when visiting my wrath on Curry’s.)

Tottenham Court Road

We left the bus about halfway along Tottenham Court Road where we knew there was a shop selling beds. First, however,…

Costa’s tiny coffee lounge

…we popped into a branch of Costa Coffee there. The hot weather and walking about makes you thirsty! This Costa has a tiny coffee lounge downstairs. Fortunately, there was only one other customer as I imagine this lounge soon becomes crowded at busy times.

In the bed shop

We visited the bed shop and looked at all the stock on display. We had decided how much we wanted to pay so the price tags came as an unpleasant shock. While the bedsteads themselves are quite expensive, they now price bed and mattress separately so that when you find an item at what seems a reasonable price, you then have to add the cost of the mattress, virtually doubling the total. Even the cheaper beds in this shop would have left us with very little change out of a thousand pounds – well above our own tentative figure.

We returned home to think what to do next. This was where Tigger, making tea, managed to scald her hand. It was very painful and we put cold compresses on it to reduce the pain.

When Tigger was feeling a bit better, we looked online and found a shop in Kingsland Road selling beds more in our price bracket. We set off to visit it without more ado – an error as we shall see.

Aboard the 38

To travel to Kingsland Road, we caught a number 38 bus.

The route according to Google Maps

I checked the route by means of the Google Maps app on my iPhone. (Yes, there is also the Apple Maps app but I find the Google version more reliable.)

Kingsland Road

We left the bus and walked into Kingsland Road. We were looking for number 485. The numbers where we entered the road were in the 500s so we started walking, confident of soon finding the bed shop. We counted the numbers down until… we were past 485 and there was no bed shop.

Coffee shop

Across the road, we spotted a coffee shop and went there to work out why we couldn’t find the bed shop. The result of our investigations was that the shop no longer exists, despite the website still being displayed. Our mistake was to dash there without phoning first to check that they were open. When I did try calling, their number, I found it no longer exists.

The coffee shop served us glasses of iced water with our coffee and that gave me an idea. I asked if they had a disposable plastic glove that we could have. They did, and we filled it with ice cubes and…

Ice cool
Photo by Tigger

…put it on Tigger’s scalded hand. The ice cubes gradually melted, of course, but the glove remained cold for quite a while and that helped calm the sting.

(If it surprises you that Tigger can photograph her own hand, I can only say that she long ago cultivated the art of one-handed photography, a skill that I have yet to master.)

Aboard the 30

From the coffee shop, Tigger set off through a maze of streets – I have no idea where – and brought us to a bus stop where we could catch a number 30 bus to take us home. The bus was crowded so we had to sit at the back upstairs but it brought us back to the Angel and home.

Once again, Tigger has kindly lent me her PC while mine is undergoing repair (see yesterday’s post). It is one of a pair of Toshiba laptops that we bought some time ago. We have both had two Toshibas and been happy with them. I wish now that I had bought one this time around instead of the wretched Dell. Live and learn.

Look – no computer!

Yes, this is shaping up to be a week to forget.

You may recall that in February and March we spent a lot of time and energy (not to mention money – around £100) putting some of our possessions in storage and then taking them out again. The reason we did this was because we had been told there was to be an electrical inspection of our flat and we did our best to clear the way to all power-points etc. Then not only did no one turn upon the appointment date but the firm even denied ever having made an appointment!

A new appointment was scheduled for Monday this week and I made sure to get it in writing. We didn’t have recourse to storage this time but did manage to clear the way to the power-points. The electrician turned up this time, worked away assiduously for an hour and a half and then departed, giving us a clean bill of (electrical) health.

Next up were two dental appointments. The first was supposed to be root canal treatment, followed by installing a crown. After a lot of drilling, the dentist announced that the tooth was cracked and would have to come out. An appointment was made for this.

Next came the second dental appointment, this time for a filling. I thought it would be quick and easy but it wasn’t… While I was there, I discussed the extraction with the dentist and as this worries me (my teeth have unusually long roots) it was suggested (by me) that it might be better for it to be done by St Thomas’s Dental Hospital. I took a couple of days to think about it and today asked the dentist to refer me to St Thomas’s.

Another thing you may remember is that I bought a new laptop PC, a Dell Inspiron, last December from Curry’s. I have come cordially to hate the damn thing. The trackpad pointer kept going mad, making the PC impossible to use. It took me two visits and a phone call get Curry’s to take it in for repair. That was in May.

Curry’s, Tottenham Court Road

The trackpad pointer behaved itself (more or less) until recently but then went back to its old tricks, jumping around like a mad thing. So today I took it in to Curry’s and made a fuss. After a lot of fuss and a raised voice, I secured the attention of a manager. I wanted to swap this dreadful computer for a better one (by part exchange if necessary – I am nothing if not reasonable) but, of course, there was no chance of that. The retailer has the rules all sewn up to their advantage, not to the customer’s.

We resorted to a compromise: I bought one month’s worth of extended warranty for £10.50 and they took the computer for repair. Under terms of the extended warranty, either they return the PC properly repaired by August 7th or they give me a voucher for a new PC. I’m betting they will “repair” the computer and I will have wasted £10.50. I can see myself enduring episodes of mad pointer and bringing the PC in for “repair” until I can finally convince myself to buy another computer. When I do, I will not be buying it from Curry’s, you can be sure of that. Nor will I be buying Dell.

When it came to paying the £10.50 (doing so made me feel slightly as though I was being mugged), for some reason they couldn’t cope with Apple Pay and I had to use an actual credit card. I managed to type in the wrong PIN, yes, three times, thus locking my card. Fortunately, I used my bank debit card and got the PIN right that time.

This necessitated a visit to an ATM to unlock my locked credit card. In the meantime, I checked the PIN and so my card is now back in action – a necessity in these days of contactless payments.

If you have followed my boring tale of woe, even just skimmed through it, I apologise and I thank you. I hope to have more cheerful stories to tell soon.

It’s another warm day, alternately sunny and cloudy, to which we have become accustomed of late.

Sunshine in Inglebert Street

We made our way to the deli for coffee as we usually do. It was very warm in the streets and we stayed in the shade where possible.

Police vans lurking
From a photo by Tigger

As we continued after coffee, we noticed some police vans (with officers inside) parked around Myddelton Square. As this is unusual in our peaceful neighbourhood, I made bold to enquire of a officer whether they were expecting trouble. He said that there was a protest expected near Angel Station and that they had been put on stand-by in case needed. I don’t think they were needed in the end because we passed the station later and there was no sign of a protest or any disruption.

Emaciated fox
Photo by Tigger

As we walked through the square, a fox appeared from the gardens of some houses. I am usually happy to see foxes – and any wildlife – but this fox looked very thin. I know that some fall victim to mange and that might be the case here. Very sad.

Oblivious
Photo by Tigger

We were amused – and somewhat surprised – by this couple who passed within inches of the fox, apparently without noticing him.

Textured sky
Photo by Tigger

Tigger took this photo of the sky which looks like a fluffy blue and white blanket.

Tigger’s iPhone now started misbehaving: the screen would go completely black and because nothing can be seen in a black screen, it is very difficult to manipulate it and the settings to make it work properly. We took it to a local shop that repairs electronic devices. The man flipped a setting and the screen lit up. However, it went black again as we left the shop…

Jumping ahead: Tigger later tried the trick of powering down the phone and switching it back on. The good news is that, so far, that seems to have cured it. If it starts happening again, though, we shall have to take it in to Apple to see whether they can deal with it. It is perhaps only when they go wrong, that we realise how essential to our daily lives our phones have become.

The Shakespeare’s Head

I’ve been keeping tabs on the pub vine and informing Tigger as to its progress but today she wanted to see it for herself. So we entered Arlington Way and approached the pub and Myddelton Passage.

The vine – very healthy

The vine looks very healthy and is full of luscious green leaves. It puts out new shoots which sometimes stretch across the Passage and then the owners trim it.

The grapes are growing

The bunches of grapes, which were tiny only a few weeks ago, are growing larger. I don’t know whether they are edible. Perhaps I’ll go into the pub one day and ask about them.

Camden Passage was busy

At lunchtime, we set off along the High Street and then Camden Passage. The Passage was very crowded and there were market stalls all along its length. That surprised me because in the past, the antiques market has been held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Inside Crêpe Affaire

We had come to have lunch at the branch of Crêpe Affaire that is in Camden Passage. We easily found a table inside as many diners preferred to sit outside.

Sitting on Islington Green

I paid a visit to Waterstone’s bookshop and afterwards we sat for a while in a bench on Islington Green.

The reason for my visit to the bookshop is as follows. I have a Waterstone’s card which enables me to collect points when I buy books. Just lately, Waterstone’s have been sending me emails to say that I am about to lose my points because the account has been inactive. To save the points, I must simply log in to my account. I do so, and then a few days later, I receive another email warning me to log on or lose my points… I hoped they might be able to solve the problem in the bookshop but apparently they cannot. I must contact customer services.

Sun dried grass

As with Newington Green yesterday, the grass in Islington Green is dried up and brown. This episode, when Britain for the first time ever, experienced a temperature of 40°C (104°F) should send a warning to governments around the world to get on immediately with the necessary changes to stave off runaway climate change. I fear, though, that they will, as always, do too little too late and that the fate of the planet, and ours with it, is sealed. Please, world governments, prove me wrong!

Caffè Nero

Across the road from Islington Green is a branch of Caffè Nero. When the bench on Islington Green began to make its hardness felt, we made our way thither and found soft seats wherein to drink our coffee.

Inside Caffè Nero

Inside Caffè Nero, it was pleasantly cool and we tarried here a while, even after we had finished our drinks. Then we made our way home to rest in the company of our electric fans.

It has been a rather quiet week. Tigger has been going to work and I have kept busy at home, staying indoors to avoid the famous heatwave.

Today, Tigger has a half-day at work. She leaves the office at 11:30 am for an early start to the weekend. We are meeting for lunch. Happily, the weather has cooled off somewhat and walking in the streets is afain quite pleasant.

Bus stop in St John Street

I left home just after 11:00 and walked to the bus stop in St John Street. As you can perhaps see, it is a cloudy-sunny day but there is also a gusty breeze that is helping to keep us cool.

Aboard the 153

We are meeting at Black Sheep Coffee in Bishopsgate and the way I have chosen to travel there is to take a 153 to Liverpool Street Station.

Liverpool Street Station

In due course, the bus brought me Liverpool Street Station, which is its terminus. The two towers indicate that this is the station’s main entrance, despite it being tucked away in a sidestreet.

Liverpool Street

Here is Liverpool Street. Unusually for such an important station, this one is named after a relatively obscure street. To be fair the main entrance is here and the side-entrance in Bishopsgate.

Bishopsgate

From Liverool Street, I turned into Bishopsgate, a broad thoroughfare among the tall City buildings.

A settee at Black Sheep

I was the first to arrive at Black Sheep Coffee and, having procured a coffee, was fortunate enough to occupy one of the comfortable outside settees. Tigger soon joined me.

Parade!
Anna Lomax

There was a new eatery that Tigger wanted to try and after our coffee break, we set off along Bishopsgate into Shoreditch High Street. We came upon what looked like objects from the toy box of a baby giant. It seems that it is an artwork by Anna Lomax entitled Parade! If you want to know more, you will find information about it online, for example here.

Sohaila

We reached the restaurant. It is called Sohaila, and is in Shoreditch High Street. It presents as a “Middle-Eastern” restaurant and many of its dishes are marked ‘V’ for “vegetarian” or ‘PB’ for “plant based”, which is virtually the same thing. The menu contains a simple list of dishes and you choose however many you think you can comfortably eat.

Inside Sohaila
Photo by Tigger

We were the only customers which may have been a bad omen though I suppose that as the restaurant is still fairly new, it may not be well known yet.

The food
Photo by Tigger

I left the choice of items to Tigger in consultation with the enthusiastic waitress and so I don’t know what the items are called. Verdict? As it was Tigger’s treat, I won’t criticise it, just say I won’t be in a hurry to return there.

Waiting for the bus

After lunch, we went out into Shoreditch High Street to take a bus for the next part of our outing.

Aboard the 149

We boarded a 149 bus. It was crowded though we did find seats.

Stoke Newington Road

We left the bus here, in Stoke Newington Road.

Church of God World Fellowship Inc.

We walked up Barrett’s Grove and passed this church covered in scaffolding. According to the sign it belongs to an organisation called Church of God World Fellowship Inc. Is the church being refurbished or is it being converted for some other purpose – perhaps to become residential? I don’t know.

Church of St Matthias

We also passed this church, St Matthias, with its unusually tall tower. We saw it only from a distance.

Looking back along Barrett’s Grove

One reason why Barrett’s Grove claimed our attention is that it sits on the boundary between the Boroughs of Hackney and Islington. In the photo, Islington is on the righthand side of the road, Hackney on the left.

The Army and Navy

In Matthias Road we passed by this attractively styled building, the Army and Navy pub. Though it is not ancient (built in the 1930s and opened by 1936), it has merited a Grade II listing.

Newington Green

We eventually arrived at Newington Green. Tigger had a special purpose in coming here, it turned out.

Polski sklep – Polish shop

The purpose involved this establishment, a polski sklep aka Polish shop, selling food and other items from Poland. Here she was able to buy a box a chocolates, favourites of a Polish colleague of hers whose birthday it is.

Sun-dried Newington Green

Afterwards, we crossed the road into Newington Green itself, though I an tempted to call it “Newington Brown” because the grass is dried up and burnt brown by the sun.

Mary Wollstonecraft
Maggi Hambling

While we were there, we visited the sculpture by Maggi Hambling in honour of Mary Wollstonecraft, “the Mother of Feminism”. This work, as you no doubt know, caused controversy when unveiled in November 2020, having cost around £143,000. It consists of a (to me, at least) unidentifiable column-shaped mass, from the top of which emerges a tiny naked female figure, the whole in shiny silver finish. Does this do honour to the memory of Mary Wollstonecraft? Each person will have his or her own answer to that question and rightly so. An outline of the controversy will be found on this BBC page.

Aboard the 73

We now repaired to the nearby bus stop where we boarded a 73 bus which carried us back to the Angel and home. As we often do when travelling on these 3-door buses, we sat in the rear-facing seats at the back which gives you a curious feeling of time and space combining as you watch the places you have visited retreating away into the past, an Einsteinian vision of the world of spacetime.