Sim Carter: Past Tense Imperfect

If it's Friday we must be back in London.   Every Friday I take a virtual walking tour ‘above ground’ on the London Underground. 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 Central Line.  Here are the previous days . This is Day 61. If it’s Friday, I’m usually taking an imaginary walk in London. Today I have to veer off course.  Run, don’t walk—or take a train if you must, the Central Line is quite handy—to the Tate Britain where the museum is hosting an exhibit by Los Angeles’s favorite non-American artist David Hockney. We love the acclaimed British artist here in sunny L.A., in part because he loves us back, reflecting our city’s allure with paintings of sparkling pools filled with beautiful boys, the winding roads of the Hollywood Hills, California houses perched on hillsides, filled with ligh...

Park at Mile End Image via  SublimePhotography.com If it's Friday we must be back in London.   Every Friday I take a virtual walking tour ‘above ground’ on the London Underground. 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 Central Line.  Here are the previous days . This is Day 57. One of the first London suburbs, the East London town of Mile End feels worlds away from bustling London. Still, Mile End isn’t without its points of interest.  The nearby Queen Mary University of London located houses a cemetery in its midst. A strange thing place for a cemetery but yes, the uni came second, the graveyard came first. One of the only remaining Sephardic cemeteries in England, the Neuvo, or Novo Beth Chaim Sephardic cemetery was first used by Spanish and Portuguese Jews—making their hom...

If it's Friday we must be back in London.   Every Friday I take a virtual walking tour ‘above ground’ on the London Underground. 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 Central Line.  Here are the previous days . This is Day 56 . I’m starving! Time for brekkie. I don’t know about you, but I don’t start my day, not every day anyway, with what they call the full English breakfast: fried eggs, stewed tomatoes, sausage, toast, beans (beans, ugh) black pudding (blood sausage, yikes! but my dad loved ’em) and, oh I dunno, mushrooms, avocado, etc. My dad would have added fried bread. Not my breakfast. I’m a cereal woman. Usually Cheerios with a sliced banana. Sometimes porridge. That’s oatmeal to you, Yankee. To be honest, calling my Quaker Oats “porridge’’ is one of my few remaining shout outs to my Br...

Liverpool Station by Liam O'Farrell If it's Friday we must be back in London.   Every Friday I take a virtual walking tour ‘above ground’ on the London Underground. 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 Central Line.  Here are the previous days . This is Day 55. I left off our walk last week bemoaning the fact that I was unable to dine at the members-only Searcy’s, at the top of the Gherkin. Today, I’ll start my day close by on the 40th floor of the Heron with a meal at the Duck & Waffle where they offer a ‘playful take on traditional British cuisine.’ Not only do they serve anyone, they serve anyone 24-7. With a stunning views to boot, from the highest restaurant in London. Take that Searcy’s!  You can see the Gherkin from the Duck & Waffle! Check out the link below ...

If it's Friday we must be back in London.   Every Friday I take a virtual walking tour ‘above ground’ on the London Underground. 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 Central Line.  Here are the previous days . This is Day 54. Following the Central Line from where left off last week's visit to the Roman Ampitheater at Guildhall  , as we walk from the Bank Station along Old Broad Street to Liverpool Station, we can't miss the towering Gherkin rising almost 600 feet in the air. Today it’s definitely a case of a picture being worth a thousand words otherwise how could I describe this tall pickle-shaped building—a missile comes to my mind—clad in glass?  Located at 30 St. Mary Axe—Oh, I do love these odd British names that make you go huh? Why is the street called St. Mary Axe? Did St. Mary...

If it's Friday we must be back in London.   Every Friday I take a virtual walking tour ‘above ground’ on the London Underground. 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 Central Line.  Here are the previous days . This is Day 53. Last week we took a ‘Closer’ look at Postman’s Park , today we’re going to wander down Gresham Avenue until we come to St. Lawrence Jewry. The church was designed by Christopher Wren in the 17th century after the Fire of London destroyed so many of the city's institutions and cathedrals. If St. Lawrence Jewry sounds like an odd name for a Christian church; it gets its name from its location near the old Jewish ghetto, Old Jewry Street is located nearby. As the St. Lawrence Jewry website explains: ‘‘This is where a Jewish community lived from 1066 to 1290. They came t...