Making lemonade

Take what the day gives you...if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.. and all that.  

So I wrote to alska (the Swedish cider company) on Messenger to ask them where I could buy their product in London.  It took them a while but they replied!  They said I could find it in Aldi - unfortunately it's not available for delivery so I had to look for the nearest store and I finally found one (with a car park) a few miles away.  3.1 to be precise.  Now in London, the concept of distance is very different from Singapore.  In Singapore I never have to check how long it would take me to get anywhere because I would have a pretty good estimate just based on experience.  Here you can't take that for granted as conditions can be very dynamic.  Traffic may be unusually heavy (as I found out last week when it took me something like 20 minutes to move a few hundred metres), there might be road works, there are always lots of traffic lights and so on.

I had wanted to go on Saturday when they opened at 8 am, but got up late and decided to go run first, thinking I would go later in the afternoon but inertia took over - and I was tired after the run.  So I decided I would go Sunday morning.  I arrived at the Aldi car park around 9 am - it was empty.  Didn't think anything of it - maybe people are having a lie-in on Sunday morning.  I walk up to the entrance and nothing... the doors didn't open and I realise from the sign on the door that they open at 11 am on Sundays.  (And close early too)

Hmmm... I could drive home and then come back later but I decide to check the map and see what's nearby.  As it turns out, Greenwich is just 10 minutes away.  And so I make a totally unplanned serendipitous side trip.  I decide to head for the park which would probably make for a nice walk, and be a gentle bit of rehab for my back.  Found some free parking by seeing what the locals do and found this little nice entrance to the park.

One of the first sights on entering the park.  That's the City (or what you call the financial district of London.) in the far distance.  It felt really good to get out there and I was glad I made the detour.

The back of the Royal Observatory where there is a little garden (right).

I didn't manage to see the prime meridian - it might be inside the observatory which hadn't opened yet.  Mummy and I had been there many years ago on our first trip to England.  Just googled it and learnt that France had originally refused to go along in 1884 and established their own Paris meridian.

As I turned away from the observatory, I was greeted by this magnificent view of the City across the river.

Sometimes you just are in the right place at the right time for a dramatic photo.  The clouds, the hazy view of the City in the background, and the sun somehow shining on the Queen's house in the foreground made for a magical shot.

 

The large ship in a bottle at the front of the maritime museum.  And a real full size ship, the Cutty Sark, a short walk from there.  It was built in 1869 and is a tea clipper, carrying tea from the Far East before steamships took over after the Suez Canal opened and provided a shorter route. (Cutty Sark whisky features an image of the ship on the label.)

This is a tunnel for pedestrians and cyclists to get across the river.  There are stairs and also an elevator. to get down to the tunnel.  Maybe one day I will bike there to use the tunnel.

The Greenwich Vintage Market which Mummy told me about.  Maybe it was too early, but only a few stalls were open and it looked a bit miserable.  I think many of these vendors that depend on tourists will be hurting.

As you already know, I left Greenwich to head back to Aldi but as I approached, I saw a long line of people waiting to get into the store - probably people stocking up ahead of the lockdown, and likely also due to social distancing measures that limit the number of people allowed in.  The carpark was full and I decided it wasn't worth the wait to get in.  It was nice that I had managed to visit Greenwich unexpectedly and made my drive out worthwhile.