A Stroll Around the Serpentine in Hyde Park

Friday, May 1, 2009
London

Awaking at 6. 30 am today, I was filled with dread wondering if I am slowly returning to my schedule of a 5 am wake time. I really do hope not. I tried hard to fall back to sleep, but it simply didn't happen and, fifteen minutes later, I sat up to read some more of The Order of the Phoenix. I turned next to email and drafted a response to Chriselle to try to figure out how best to work around her new London travel plans. At 9 am, I showered, breakfasted and at 9.45, I left home for my meeting with one of my students who wished to interview me as part of his final ethnographic assignment. This was done at 12 noon by which time I was able to go up and see Yvonne for a while to resolve some tax issues.

I stood at the bus stop on New Oxford Street for a full 10 minutes before I began to suspect that something had gone wrong with the service. Not a single bus had passed by in all that time, which is most unusal, as there is normally a bus every minute. Then, someone passed by our bus stop and told us that there was a May Day March that had caused suspension of bus service for an hour or two. I walked home then and was in my flat by1. 30 pm when I had my lunch (a salad and a cup of broccoli cheddar soup).

By 2 pm, I was transcribing my taped interviews with Henry and Marion Holley that I had done a couple of weeks ago in Windsor. I really struggled with the transcript as the tape had picked up a ton of background noise from the restaurant in which we had sat eating lunch and chatting at the same time. It was with the greatest difficulty that I managed to finish the transcribing by 4 pm at which point, since the buses had started running, I decided I needed to get out again for some air.

I also had to return my books to the Holborn Public Library, so off I went and when that errand was run, I hopped into the 38 bus that took me to Hyde Park Corner. It was a particularly warm day and with only a light jacket on, I had boarded the bus after having crammed a few term papers into my bag. My idea was to get to The Serpentine, the lake in the midst of Hyde Park to which I had never been, and to do some grading after strolling for a bit by the lake side.

In about a half hour, I was there and asking for directions and following my map, I arrived at the Serpentine. The lake is so large, it amazed me. I had never been there before and the scene before my eyes was just delightful. Boats were scattered all over the lake--some row boats (which reminded me of a scene in As Time Goes By in which a macho Lionel tries to show off his rowing skills to a very amused Jean but succeeds in merely taking the boat for a spin and getting them nowhere!) and some paddle boats that were making much greater progress across the lake.

The sky was cloudy and since we were about an hour from sunset, the dying rays made colorful streaks in the sky. Ducks paddled by the banks, joggers and cyclists were on the tracks and a bunch of strollers walked airily by every so often. It was so lovely, I could have sat there forever. However, with the breeze having picked up, I felt rather chilly and was soon pulling my jacket more tightly around me. Interestingly, I was grading a pile of essays on John Constable and his world--Suffolk and the impact of nature on his art. My students had done well overall and I was very pleased with their work as well as the beauty of nature spread out before me in the simple pleasures to be had on the lake.

In about an hour, with all my papers graded, I closed shop, put them away into my bag and walked back towards Knightsbridge to take my bus back home from Hyde Park Corner. In just a minute, I boarded it and some 45 minutes later, I was home. It had been a lovely outing and I was so glad that I was able to tick one more item off my To-Do List in London ("Stroll Around the Serpentine!").

Switching on my PC, I discovered from my email that Chriselle has decided to come to London after all even if we get only 4 days together. I will leave for Paris on schedule (mainly because I have to attend a symposium at NYU-Paris next week) and she will continue to stay on in my flat and spend a few days discovering London on her own. She is trying to see if one of her friends, currently in Belgium, is free to join her here--in which case she will have company while I am away. At any rate, she has a few friends here who, I am sure, will also make sure she has a good time.

Llew called me and I updated him on her plans, then I sat and ate my dinner (salad with Chicken Kiev from M&S) and then decided to write this blog before restructuring my itinerary for Chriselle's visit.