Brixton, June 30 & July 1

 

It's been an intense 24 hours and I am pretty tired, so I don't know how long I will last in this post. Nic and I decided on Wednesday night to go visit his cousin in Brixton, which is a suburb of London. After a hearty breakfast with Rob, Oliver and James, we packed up the car and headed out to the dreaded M1 or A1, I can't remember. They are both awful.

Remember when I mentioned that our International plan was over and we were on the fence about extending it? Well, I made an executive decision in the middle of the night to extend it, and I am pretty sure it saved our relationships. I am also thankful that Google Maps seems to have overlooked our previous relationship problems and made up with us. She is a relationship goddess. I love her forever.

Did I mention we drove to London? Let me clarify that - we drove through London. Like, we literally drove past Westminster, Hyde Park, all of the fancy squares - WE were the people in the cars. That was us and it was as bad as you might imagine. It was worse. Only Google and our deep love for each other got us through. I took a picture. See above? It was horrendous. To be fair, Nic only drove on the wrong side of the road once, and in the bus/taxi lane for a few seconds. Thankfully I am mostly blind and cannot see and I stared at the phone and worshipped Google Maps while we inched forward through the absolute mayhem. It was that bad.

Before we move on to what we actually did in Brixton, we need to address driving in London. To drive a car in London you pay a fee. To drive past a certain point in London, you pay another fee. To drive past another point in London, you pay ANOTHER fee. All of this is registered by cameras who take photos of your car on the roads. Gas fueled cars are charged these fees every single time they enter these zones. I didn't understand this until I saw it in action. People in England do not speed. There are digital speed limits that adjust based on the traffic. There are cameras taking pictures enforcing these speeds. People in England DO NOT break rules because there is a camera watching and a ticket on the way for the slightest infraction. Everyone follows the rules. Everyone drives the same exact speed - and the traffic is better. In 4.5 weeks driving across the entire country, we have not seen a single car accident. Not one. It is weird. People are paranoid about getting fines and fees. Big brother is definitely watching - there is not one question that he is not, but people seem to accept it and life goes on and might even function better for it??? But the fee situation is London is extreme. It makes owning a car in London punitive. 

Some other time we can talk about convertible cars in England and the addiction English people have to them, which is ridiculous because the weather here sucks and one could only use their convertible twice a year. It is hilarious to see the English try to use them though, convinced that the 10 minutes of sunshine two days a year will make this purchase worthwhile. 

Anyway, we made it to Brixton and it turns out that Brixton is a super duper fantastic part of London and I am so glad we went.  I had no idea of the history or diversity in Brixton prior to my arrival there. When Nic and I pulled up two hours early at his cousin, Dominic's house, he told us, "Head to the Brixton Market, it is very interesting and diverse." So we did. We walked the 1.5 miles from his front door to the Brixton Marketplace.

I was not mentally prepared for the diversity I experienced there and I was not super comfortable looking too touristy there because it was clear it was not a highly touristed area. It was the most diverse experience I have had in a long time and for sure in the UK. Brixton Marketplace fills an old train station and town center where vendors sell fresh fruit, meat, vegetables and fish, along with a huge range of ethnic foods from Afro-Carribean, to Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Latin American, Congolese, Middle Eastern, Indian and anything and everything else you can thing of in the entire world. Think of a place and there is likely a vendor in Brixton with food from there. We saw fish of all varieties, fruits I have not seen in my life, and snake heads. Yes, snake heads. 

It was a busy, busy place. There were more people than I have been around in a long time, a long, long time - pre-pandemic times, I think.  There were people everywhere of all walks of life. It was so invigorating. 

Nic and I had a lovely time poking about this neighborhood. We found a lovely coffee shop with Chai and lemon cake to recover before we headed back to Dominic and Lindsay's house for dinner.

This tea revealed my deep confusion surrounding the Victoria sandwich - I am still confused and our deep and abiding love for chai. 

Dominic and Lindsay were so welcoming and lovely. We enjoyed their baby, and their house - which was remarkably quiet despite being in London. It was great to meet more of Nic's family. I have a firm tableau of people and their relationship to Nic. 

We had steak and potatoes. It was only a little weird that I don't eat meat, but the potatoes were great. We stayed up late worrying about the state of the world and talking about all of the things in the UK and USA.

We woke with the baby and walked to a nearby cafe to have lattes made with love and then had a fairly quiet day with Lindsay, Gigi, and Dom.

We walked to Clapham Common to see the sights of the neighborhood

And admired wildflowers.

And hung out just long enough for a very memorable cup of tea with Aunt Barbara, Dominic's mom who flew in from Ireland that very day, which was a surprise to Nic and I. 

And then, just like that, we were back driving in London again, hoping Google still loved us. She did and she guided us to Surrey and the Surrey Hills, and Shamley Green - which is quite posh. Stay tuned because here we are hanging out with Nic's old friends Geoff and Helen and tomorrow promises to be eventful!