Monday 28th August
Another warm and sunny day in merry old England today, some may even call this a heatwave. I am certainly happy to don the shorts and head out into the sunshine. Phone issues have once again dogged us this trip, the US phone numbers we had with T mobile have died a horrible death, we were assured they would work internationally but they lied they do not.
Today we go in search of new numbers that will take us through Europe and maybe beyond.
After breakfast we walk across the common, through Wimbledon village and down Wimbledon hill road, scene of roller skating exercises and bicycle escapades maybe an occasional go kart ride too. Looking at the road now though I wonder how we made it backup the hill. At the bottom of the hill is a pub the Alexandra, Mum always talks about careening out of control on her bike when she was young on an icy day and crashing through a pubs doors, this is probably the pub as it is ideally located for such an event.
The red 93 buses are constantly passing us by on their route in and around Wimbledon and Putney. We walk down the high street passed the library and the tube station until we find a Vodafone store. Being a bank holiday (a public holiday) we took a risk in coming as the store maybe closed, but many stores are open and Vodafone is one of them. The store only has one employee though, with two customers in front of us. Luckily they are not demanding a great deal of service and it’s soon our turn. We explain our needs, but the tall bruiser of a salesperson with knuckle tattoos and eyebrow piercings is interrupted by an African gentleman who is clearly on something and it’s not water. He has lost his phone and wants to block his SIM card, only he just wants to do it now! Our server politely tell him to wait his turn, but he keeps on muttering under his breath and interrupting saying he wants it done now. Finally our server, quite an intimidating person that’s is clearly not happy at having drawn the bank holiday shift, threatens to call the police. Still muttering the customer quietens down and he can proceed to deal with us. He worked for Telstra in Melbourne, also Vodafone he tells us. Thankfully we are soon out of there not asking all the questions we should have but glad to be on our way with our new phone numbers.
We walk on further past an official looking building that may once have served as the town hall or maybe a bank, the grey white stone, with copper, top floor window surrounds and heavily varnished doors with brass fittings definitely put it in its own category but it is now a Tesco supermarket, somehow unfitting. On the opposite side of the road is the Odeon cinema, still showing films today in IMAX format, but in our day the scene of Saturday matinee fun, showing early black and white sc-fi and the Three Stooges, Curly, Larry and Mo. Further down we pass by the old Edwardian Wimbledon theatre, now the New Wimbledon Theatre with its painted cream and red brick facade and copper domed tower, topped with a golden statue of an angel, in fact Laetitia, Roman goddess of gaiety holding a laurel wreath in celebration. This theatre was the venue for many pantomime performances in our day, pantomime being that peculiar of British shows put on by celebrities at Christmas time.
We walk on a little further before turning back to retrace our steps to take photos of the Broadway as this street was known. We stop off at a more modern shopping centre that seems to link into the tube station and then back out on the street start our ascent of Wimbledon Hill. Down the hill is definitely less trendy more working class, we can see the rows of houses down streets that travel away from the Broadway a far cry from the mansions on the hill. There are plenty of realtors with shop windows displaying a wide range of properties for sale, by this we can see that what may have passed for working class homes are certainly much more expensive now and the mansion sized homes around the common are astronomically priced.
Once back up the hill we are both feeling peckish, we find a nice looking cafe called Light, being a bank holiday most cafes are flat out, a free table hard to spot, even those that spill out into the pavement. Light however does have a free table and we settle in for a late lunch. In fact the brunch they are still serving at 2.30pm looks great. Usually reserved for breakfast we indulge in eggs Benedict with bacon and spinach with a glass of Rose. This hits the spot perfectly, I ask about the coffee, is it good? Can you make a serious cappuccino? Our young server looks worried but say yes, I take her word for it and order one. Amanda though, at home with the home of English breakfast stays with her tea.
True to her word the coffee is hot and excellent with a good topping of dense rich foam. I tell her we are Australian and that Australians are coffee snobs, she is surprised, explains only the Italians usually give them cause for concern here. Now she is on the watch for Aussies too! Afternoon tea is about to happen just as we are about to leave, a table is set with today’s dessert choices, ready for the high tea brigade.
We walk back across the common to insert our SIM cards back at the hotel our Vodafone guy in no mood to offer assistance or even a paper clip, that I have to ask reception for so that we can extract the T mobile SIM’s and ceremoniously bin them. We have to load our know Vodafone accounts with some money for calling and texting to the USA and Australia, this is more difficult than one would believe, you would think Vodafone would be happy to take our money, but no! we manage to load one phone but not the other, looks like another trip down the hill tomorrow.
Another day is quickly over, the sun setting once again over the manicured lawns and gardens of Cannizzaro house throwing a pink light off the the few clouds that remain in the darkening sky.