Sim Carter: Past Tense Imperfect

If it's Friday we're back in London, taking  a virtual walking tour ‘above ground’ on the London Underground. Think of me as an armchair traveler, using  my Tube guide & my fitbit® device, my goal is to walk 10,000 steps a day roughly following along the Underground route, reporting back here on Fridays with my findings. We're currently following the  District Line.  Here are the previous days . One last post before I fly off to London (and beyond) for real. This is Day 66. Next week at this time, my husband and I will be walking the real streets of London. We like to walk, measuring our Fitbit steps but we could hop on the District line at the Aldgate East stop in Whitechapel and take a ten minute tube ride to the BlackFriars Station. From there, an 8 minute walk gets us to the Old Bailey. The Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand are close by. When one hears Whitechapel and the Old Bailey, it’s only natural to think about crime and punishment. Jack the...

That’s me cringing behind my big brother at Trafalgar Square.  Eek! What’s happening to me? Every Friday for the past year and a bit I’ve writing a series of posts under the Above Ground on the London Underground heading. Week in, week out. I’ve written over sixty posts, long, extensive, thoroughly-researched posts that take ages to put together, in an effort to deliver a virtual travel series in which I cover sights and sounds at the stops along the tracks of the London Underground. But this week I forgot. I just forgot. It skipped my mind. Friday came and went and it never occurred to me that I should be writing a post to contribute to Joy Weese Moll’s British Isles Friday meme . Is it a sign of the Alzheimer’s that took my mother marking its hold on me, letting me know what lies in my own future? Or is it simply the case of an over-worked mind, a mind so happily preoccupied with all the planning and decision-making that comes with taking a real  trip to London...

Updated April 14, 2017 The closer I get to taking our trip to England—and a few other European Vacation spots—the harder it is to keep posting my virtual, make-believe, imaginary, walk in London! For this week’s British Isles Friday, I’m taking you back to the beginning again, to see where I started which was at Heathrow. Funniest thing? For our real trip, we’re flying into Gatwick! You know what I like to say—life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. Just a little over two weeks and a few days until we get there for real. I can’t promise to write as much as I’m want to do—probably a relief for some of you—but I hope to post lots and lots of pictures. Cheers!  Welcome to Day 1 of my virtual walking tour of the London Underground system. After earning Fitbit’s London Underground badge   for walking the equivalent of the Underground ’ s 250 mile length, I got the bright idea of walking the real one .  Er, not exactly the real  one: I ’ ll be...

Our passports. His from the USA. Mine from the UK. In the background, the new bag I bought for the trip. Less than a month until we head across the pond. We’re beginning our 25th anniversary trip with a week in London and then we’re heading across the channel to Paris. I’ve double checked that our passports are up to date, we’ve booked our London lodgings and we’ve almost narrowed down which lightweight luggage to buy for the trip. I’ve bought a brand new bag to sling across my body. It’s large enough for my phone (camera), a small brush, lipstick (even though my hubby prefers me without) a little tube of sunscreen, a bottle of water, passport, moolah etc without weighing me down.  ( Note to self: remember to ask our son if he can give us a lift to the airport, or do we need to book a Lyft? )  And we’ve finally pre-booked our Chunnel tickets on EuroStar. Fly or take the train, it took us ages to decide. Frankly, we were surprised to learn how inexpensive flying co...