Escape From the Clutches of Winged Doom

Perhaps that’s a bit much, to describe the Circle Pond in Hyde Park as winged doom, but it did harbor an unsavory quantity of malicious water fowl. Granted I would count even one foul fowl too many, but there were several dozen swans bigger than a third grader there.

And no one stops them from… being there! I don’t know what I’m trying to articulate precisely but I found their degree of freedom to stalk about and flutter most disconcerting.

That aside Chloe and I spent the better part of the afternoon wandering the park and it was gorgeous. Unfortunately it greatly reinforced Chloe’s desire to attain dual citizenship and live here forever, and I will miss her dreadfully if she insists on not living in the same country as me.

Prior to that we navigated dismal tube closures to China Town, only to discover that there wasn’t much in the way of exploration to be done there. Just some paper lanterns and restaurants really. But then we realized we were near the National Portrait Gallery and that was awesome, particularly since I’ve not yet lost all my hard-won AP Euro trivia knowledge of historical figures and it was neat to see them.

All of the above occurred and was composed on Saturday. Today, Sunday, involved a moderately successful trek to Portobello Road market and the Victoria and Albert museum and an extraordinary event wherein I had heard of a place I wanted to go (Hope and Greenwood’s Candy Shop), looked up the address, found the corresponding tube station, navigated a map, and somehow actually got there. I cannot recall that ever happening before.