Richmond Park - An Urban Gem

On Saturday, I met up with my friend Rob. We headed to Richmond Park which is about a 30 minute bus ride from Clapham. Richmond Park is one of the largest Royal Parks in London. According to the website, in 1625, Charles I brought his court to Richmond Palace to escape the plague in London and turned it into a park for red and fallow deer. I caught a glimpse of some deer through the trees.
http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond_park/history.cfm

The park is amazing! You almost can't believe it's so close to London. This park is this urban gem, a mini-retreat from everyday life.



It had been almost a year since I last road a bike and I was really longing to go for a bike ride. For the last three weekends, we've had really nice weather so once again I decided to take advantage of the lovely day. At the park, you can rent bikes by the hour. This was not your typical bike ride along the flat Chicago lakefront. Richmond Park has dirt trails and many hills. I felt victorious as I rode uphill. I felt so free, controlling my own destiny riding along the path. Fifteen minutes later as I was reading the sign, "You are strongly encouraged to dismount," I took a nasty fall down the hill. I scraped my palms and knee pretty bad. I blame it on being a city girl riding on a dirt road and the bald tires. Maybe???

Luckily, I have a high tolerance for pain and a good sense of humor. I picked myself up and continued to ride..back to the bike rental.



We then walked through the park and I must say, it was sensory overload with green everywhere. There were also several creeks and ponds. There was this crane, standing in the water and there were ducks playing and jesting one another.



We exited the park and walked through the town along the river. Richmond is a very posh town as well. I really loved the vibe of the town. The river front was lined with sidewalk cafes and restaurants. Similar to Clapham, there were people everywhere just lounging in the grass and enjoying the day.




This is definitely one of my favourite places in London by far.

My Traveling Partner

People have commented that I am so brave to venture out into another country on my own. They wonder how I do it being so far away from friends and family. The answer is simple. My Mom.

Three years ago today I lost my mom to lung cancer. She was my world - my soul sister, my best friend. In trying to cope with her loss, searching for the meaning of life and the courage to move on, I remembered her words to me as she was battling cancer...."Maybe now this is your time to move to another state or another country." Almost two years later, I dug deep and found the courage to pack up my life and move to London.

My mom had always known that I loved to travel and experience new and different things. She would take every chance to remind me to be financially responsible saying "Oh, you've bought too many clothes. Oh, you should save your money." Never once did she ever question my spending habits when it came to traveling. I remember when I was as young as 9 or 10, I belonged to a church that ran a summer camp in Green Bay, Wisconsin. As a single mother, she did everything in her power to make sure I could attend camp. When I was there, she'd write me letters, send care packages, and accept my collect calls, phoning her to tell her I missed her and was homesick.

So as I am here in London, 4000 miles away from home, I feel my mom with me. The coolest dream I've had is that my mom logs onto Facebook and checks out the photos of my travels.

I often wonder what she would like and dislike about London. My mom would absolutely love the mild weather. Not too hot and not too cold. My mom liked when it rained and the smell of the air that followed before a good rain. She would absolutely love how everyone smokes here. My mom smoked for 35 years. I think she would like the open markets like Colombia Flower Market, Borough Market and Spitalfields. We always loved to go shopping together whether it was browsing or to do some serious shopping.

She probably wouldn't like the transit system and the crowds. She loved having a car and running her errands fairly easy. She wouldn't really like the everyday food here but would like the occasional good restaurant. She would probably go crazy for not having a Dunkin' Donuts on every corner for her convenience.

As I travel Europe, I have these "ah-ha" moments. Last week it was as simple as lounging in the park with Stanley and being a peace. In Barcelona, it was the beauty of being by the sea. It's these breath taking moments when I think wow, I'm really here. I'm really experiencing this and not once do I feel alone because in a spiritual way I know my mom is with me. I know she would love just being with me and that we would enjoy whatever journey we were on. Always and Forever.

Carpe Diem

The last two weekends have been really nice and sunny in London. The streets are even more crowded than usual with people. The cafes are packed with people dining alfresco. Everyone is people watching. The women are dressed in the latest fashion trends for summer weather. Cool, boho chic as I describe it.

From what my friends tell me, this weather is not really common. While we do have our share of sunny days in the summer, these days are few and far between and occur around June/July. I guess that would explain why us Londoners (notice how I include myself now) take advantage at the first sign of great weather.

Until a few weeks ago, I was on the fence about my neighborhood. It was recommended to me by my colleague, Patrick, at work. He asked me which neighborhood I liked in Chicago (he's an American expat from Chicago) and he would give me the equivalent in London. I told him I really liked the Bucktown/Wicker Park area in Chicago. I loved the little cafes, cool restaurants, and boutique shops that you could find there. Patrick recommended Clapham in Southwest London. You can read more about my town here - http://claphamhighstreet.co.uk/Content/chshistory.htm and http://www.loveclapham.com/clapham-common-guide/275

Patrick has made many friends here and really talked it up. He said that Clapham is a really cool place in the summer with outdoor music festivals in the park. He said that usually people just hang out in the Common and have picnics. People run and there are organized 5Ks in the Common. Moving to Clapham in Autumn and Winter months when people tend not to go out as much really didn't help give me the full appreciation.

Clapham is starting to grow on me. Patrick has introduced me to some of his friends. We went to a neighborhood pub on a Monday night for a pub quiz. Once after pizza in Brixton, we headed over to this other pub and played card games. Over the last few weeks, I've been exploring a bit more. I love to have breakfast and checked out a French cafe. It was followed by boutique shopping where I bought this really cute dress.

The most recent highlight was this Sunday. It was an exceptionally beautiful day. I had taken it easy most of the weekend and it was more of a go-with-the-flow kind of day. No hurry to do anything. I decided that I would have enough patience to take Stanley for a long walk to the Common. The Common is not really far in terms of "human" walking distance but with a partially blind, small dog that likes to sniff and mark everything, the peaceful experience can become frustrating very easily.

Not this Sunday. I kept Stanley focused and we made our way to the Common. To my expectation, there were tons of people out. You would think people were queueing up to watch some event. I liken it to July 3rd in Chicago when people stake their spot along the lakefront and Grant Park to watch the firework display. The only difference is that people were just lounging around to enjoy the day. It was funny because you'd see people with orange Sainsbury bags from the supermarket filled with goodies for a nice impromptu picnic.




I couldn't help but feel like a tourist and document this for my friends back home. It was really cool.

Stanley and I made our way through the Common and found a nice spot in the shade. We did our share of people watching.

I texted Patrick to see if by chance he was around because it seemed like everyone from the neighborhood was in the park. To my surprise, he was at the local Starbucks. We met him there and then found another place to relax. I let Stanley off the lead and let him sniff and mark to his heart's content.


It was a perfect day - eerily quiet and clear skies because of the flight restrictions in the UK caused by the Volcanic ash but perfect nonetheless. Life is really good. You have to seize days like this. Carpe Diem.

My Workout Plan

Slowly, I am taking steps to establish roots in London. A few weeks ago, I found a hair stylist even though I almost freaked out as he was cutting my hair. I had been going to Ella in Chicago for 6 years. It felt like I was cheating on her....I have my favorite Thai place that I go to often. A certain brand of bread that I really like. Little things that are becoming routine for me.

I haven't quite been able to commit to a mobile phone package yet.

The biggest commitment I made so far was to join a health club. I joined Virgin Health Clubs which is a popular chain of gyms throughout the UK. Note - I only signed up for 3 months. I had to pay a bit more however because that I walk everywhere, I am afraid it won't be convenient enough for me so I am on my own personal trial basis. I also decided to sign up for two personal training sessions to give me the extra motivation. Today as I met this young 20-something girl, I wished for my old trainer Lisa. My new trainer was really nice though.

She asked me the typical questions - What are your fitness goals, how much weight do you want to lose, blah, blah.... We proceeded to take my BMI measurements. The first obstacle to overcome - how to convert my height into centimeters....no idea....Second obstacle - translate my weight in pounds to kilos and stones....She had no clue so she had me go on the scale at the gym. It was so funny.

As we proceeded to develop a workout plan, I went on the treadmill to warm up. When I was initially on the treadmill, I noticed I wasn't going as fast I would have expected had I been on a treadmill back home. She pointed out that I needed to be on the treadmill that calculated miles per hour. We were trying to figure out what my mileage would be in kilometers. How complicated. I swear the treadmill I used at my old gym gave me the distance in kilometers.

My experience pointed out the obvious that I already knew - only Americans have their own metric system. The rest of the world uses kilometers, centimeters, celcius, the correct date format. However, it's sooo hard to unlearn all the years of thinking in a certain way...Sometimes I get a headache when I have to write 13/04/2010 or 12-Apr-2010. Imagine big project schedules??

After my training session, I went home and converted my weight from stones into pounds! I turned to my trusty google tool bar for a conversion tool. Geez I have some work to do!