There are a lot of ways to get around in England without driving. Trains, buses, the underground, walking, and bicycles. If you need to carry something more than will fit in a bag hanging from your handlebars, there is this.
We’ve seen several of them riding around London neighborhoods with kids and groceries in them. You can buy one from the Amsterdam Bicycle Company. They’ll ship.
We got different kinds of street performers. Really good singers, check. Really good musicians, right. Juggling flaming torches, got it. And then there was this guy,
Whacking PVC pipe with flip-flops.
Making a surprisingly good sound!
All the way home now. We get to sleep in our own bed tonight.
And yes, it is common. In Great Britain. Not in the U.S.
We’re back on U.S. soil. Flew most of the way home today. We’re in Austin for the night. We’ll fly the rest of the way tomorrow.
We can say words from one country that have different implications in other countries without sniggering.
The word at hand is tit. A tit is a small mostly European bird. They’re a lot like our chickadees. There are many different kinds and we have seen several this trip. The Great Tit is not big, but it is the biggest of the ones we’ve seen.
Blue tit. Slightly smaller.
We also saw Coal Tits; they look almost exactly like our black-capped chickadees at home in the U.S. And long-tailed tits; they look a lot like our bushtits at home.
Good for us. We’re mature enough to have made it through without giggling. Even though, when I hear the woman’s voice on the loudspeaker for the underground announcing the train stops, I still flinch when I hear her say Cockfosters. I know, it doesn’t mean anything, but it just feels wrong to say it out loud.
It’s not an elf on a shelf.
It’s Chepstow!
He’s not part of the décor. He has been with us since Chepstow Castle.
And now he has a partner. From York. His name is Shambles.
They stay together. Wherever we are.
