12 Dunworth Mews

Well, we have been back in the States for one very busy week and now it is time to wrap up 12dunworthmews.com. We’ve never considered ourselves as “bloggers”, but www.12dunworthmews.com has been a great way to keep in touch and to keep you all abreast of our adventures and travels in Europe. Thanks much to those of you that have tuned in. It is hard to believe that it has been 9 months since we arrived in London. This has been an absolutely phenomenal experience. We have met some fantastic people and have had so many great experiences that it is hard to know where to begin this post.

Top 10 list of what we’ll miss the most:
1. Our new friends – you all know our issues WRT putting names on the blog but it’s time for the cast of characters to be revealed. Margaritas and picnics in the park with Erika and Keith. Tapas at Galacia and cookies with Nicole and John. Pizza w/ Karla and Roberto. Memories of India and Sagar with Colleen and Nathan. Bloodies at the Castle w/ Kelly. New Years Eve with Erika, Keith, Kelly, Julian, Kara and Chris. Technogeek conversations with Neil. We’ll miss you all loads and look forward to our friendships deepening over the coming years. (These partners in crime are revealed in images taken by Lara Ferroni at The Castle on our last night in London and can be viewed here.)

2. The Underground – Londoners love to complain about the public transportation, but the Underground is great. All journeys begin with a quick assessment of which line/station is closest to the destination and a quick check of the TFL website for live travel updates. The station names are entertaining – and are so Britishly literal, e.g. Bank is the station for the Bank of England. We’ll miss our favourite lines – the Central for its speed and the Bakerloo and Jubilee because we like saying those names. SP loves the logic (though not the scale) associated with the TFL Underground schematic and he loves the way that all of the different types of public transportation actually work together. All these praises and we only went out of zone 2 once

3. A Pint at the Castle – Pints over here are “imperial”, think 20oz instead of 16oz in the States. Within an 8 minute walk of our flat you can get to the following pubs: The Castle, The Elgin, The Pelican, The Metropolitan, The Earl of Lonsdale, The Duke of Wellington, The Cock and Bottle, Sun and Splendor, The Prince Albert, The Prince Bonaparte, Portobello Gold, Portobello Star, Ladbroke Arms, The Walmer Castle, The Ground Floor, The Market, The Fat Badger, and The Mitre. To be honest, I’m sure that I’ve missed several, but you get the picture. Our favorite local pub has become the Castle, it is less than 100 meters from our front door. Over the holidays we managed to become friends with the bar manager and the head bartender. We’ll certainly miss being able to pop in, say “hello” to Remy and Adam and enjoy a pint.

4. The sound of suitcases rolling across the cobble stones of Dunworth Mews – This one may be odd, but suitcases make a very distinct sound when rolled over uneven cobbles. To SP, this sound is now associated with coming back from a business trip (nice to be home), or heading off on a fun trip to the Continent.

5. British honesty/transparency – Twice we had been waiting for the tube when we heard announcements apologizing for the late train as ‘there was a person stuck under the train’ at a preceeding station. Also, several times BA has made oh-so-honest announcements as to why our flight had been delayed. Sometimes too much information!

6. Being called Darling and Love – SB’s favourite Portobello Road fruit vendor and SP’s favourite barista both call us Darling. It makes us feel special. Never mind that they call everyone else that too; we ignore that as it might cheapen the experience.

7. Sunday Roast with a jug of Pimm’s – Choose your meat (veg sausage for SB), smother it with gravy, add roasted veg and throw in a side of Yorkshire pudding – what more could you want on a Sunday afternoon. Oh yes, a jug or two of Pimm’s to help you digest all the food.

8. Restaurants – It’s hard to even begin this topic. Whoever said that London/UK doesn’t have great food hasn’t been to the city in awhile, as the food here has been fantastic. Eating and drinking at Galvin Bistrot Deluxe, Bumpkin, Sagar, Galacia, Memories of India, Ping Pong, ffiona’s, E&O, Taqueria, Coffee Plant and The Lonsdale have been fabulous experiences.

9. Being on Europe’s Doorstep – Final country count for the two of us (business and holiday): 15 (some countries visited multiples times). Not bad for nine months work/play.

10. 12 Dunworth Mews – This is the place that we’ve come to know as home for the last 9 months. Our 900 sq ft (100 sq meters) is quite large by London standards, yet cozy relative to our place in Seattle. We’ll miss the fabulous art work hung in the flat, we’ll miss the shower that takes layers of skin off your back because of the high water pressure, we’ll miss the 100,000 BTU hob. We’ll miss walking out the mews on a Saturday morning to find 1000s of people wandering our Portobello Road market. We’ll miss the local newsagent who displays newspapers in 15 different languages on the rack outside the door. We were lucky to be able to call it home for 9 months.

Limiting to a top ten list is tough as there so many others things that we’ve enjoyed and appreciated about London:

• Age Concern Kensington and Chelsea and the Soup Kitchen – Both places were welcoming and appreciative of SB’s experience even though I was the one absorbing and learning. Both orgs are staffed with lovely and warm people who do amazing work happily and selflessly. I will miss many of the regular guests at the Soup Kitchen, many of whom knew my name and always asked if I was alright before I could finish pouring them their tea.
• Diversity – it is so nice to see so much diversity, e.g. newspapers in ~15 different languages at the local news stand, World News that is truly world news, hearing multiple languages spoken as you walk down the road.
• One and two pound coins – it is so much more efficient than having dollar bills (SP is convinced that the US should adopt this model). These coins just feel like quality pieces of currency. SP also likes that a pocket full of change can easily exceed $20. This stands for the many countries we have visited – even Croatia has a 2-Kuna coin, with a tuna on it, so we named it the ‘Tuny’ (not to be confused with the Canadian Toony).
• Sharing our favorite sites and experiences with visitors from the States: Jen, Karl, Cam & L, Todd & Carolyn, Helga & Josef, Steve & Laura, Anne & Neville, Jodie & Leland, Tom & Vanessa.
• British newspapers (but not the free morning and evening tabloids) – There are multiple London newspapers, they span the political spectrum and their slants are obvious. They cover true world news and are always critical of GWB, much to SB’s pleasure.
• Picnics in Kensington Park – even if the Royals once rudely interrupted by flying in and landing their helicopter

• The art in our flat – our flat came w/ some interesting art, we’ve quite enjoyed this art. We have two favorite pieces, the upstairs “Greater London in Blood Smear”, as we now call it, and “Liz Taylor”, which hangs in the guest room. We didn’t know “Greater London” was greater London for the first 5 months that we lived in the flat. It took an evening of drinking and Keith to figure it out. We’re not quite sure how we missed it but it is Greater London. The blood smear addition came from our landlord, who told us the artist was HIV positive and painted GL as a depiction of his blood. When we first moved in, Liz was actually behind the guest room headboard but we discovered her and hung her. Many of you have participated in the debate as to who she is and we found out from our landlord, who once stopped by, that it is Liz from Antony & Cleopatra. But he found the Ann Margaret and Blondie suggestions good ones.
• English foodstuffs – Branston small-chunk pickle, lime pickle, HP brown sauce and Marmite. Rhubarb yogurt, Quorn products and ginger beer.

While there are many people and experiences that we will miss about London, now that we are back, we are looking forward to seeing friends, family, the cats, Danny (the dog) and spending some time at Whidbey. We’re quite pleased that we had the opportunity to live in the UK for 9 months and have certainly enjoyed every minute; we look forward to returning!

Cheers for reading and sharing our London experiences!

S&S