Lazy Sunday

'Allo every one! So as the title suggests, its been a pretty lazy day for me.

I woke up at around 9 so I could get showered and dressed to go to church again. The walk to church was much better than time around though because I wasn't a dead man walking. Rachelle and I kept up a good pace and we were there in no time. The church service was loud, again. Little kids just running all over the place. Rachelle and I walked in and she asked where we should sit, me being a creature of habit, decided to sit in the exact same spot. It was nice beacuse all the same families and other people sat around us. It reminded me a lot of St. Als and how we have sat roughly the exact same area ever since I can remember. I did notice a couple differences in the mass today (I was too out of it to notice them last time). They change just a couple words during the Apostle's Creed and they don't sing the responsorial, they just read the verses out loud and everyone replies the chorus. Its different but not bad.

I got back from church and just sat around for an hour or so. I didn't really have anything that I wanted to do. I ate some lunch (mmm, PBJ) and just watched a little tv and read some articles online. Then I decided to do something with myself. I went to the Chelsea neighborhood.

In one of the books (Eyewitness London) they have walking tours of just about every neighborhood in London so today I picked Chelsea. Its a famous neighborhood for fashion. Mini-skirts started there in the 50s and 'Punk' was invented there in the 70s. It was a riverside town back in the day and Sir Thomas More, among other famous writers used to reside here. Chelsea is also just a 5 minute Tube ride away from me.

So I began the walk at Sloane Square (picture 1). Not much to say about the Square. It's actually a rectangle which is interesting I suppose. I continued on and walked for quite a ways along King's Road. This road has tons of shops and stuff along it. It's like High Street Kensington but fewer name brands. I walked by The Chelsea Town Hall and made my way by The Old Dairy (picture 2). That is a house that was built in 1796 when it was surrounded by cow pastures. I walked by Old Chelsea Church (picture 3) and just stepped inside for a minute. The old church was basically destroyed during WWII but they rebuilt it to almost the exact same dimensions. There is a sculpture of Sir Thomas More gazing across the Thames in front of the church. I walked along the Cheyne Walk (picture 4). Its nothing more than a path next a street which is next to the river but there used to be no road so the Walk was a little bit more romantic and scenic. Now, not so much. I walked by Thomas Carlyle's house. There was an admission charge to get in and I wasn't particularly interested so I didn't pay. Apparently a bunch of famous people used to visit Carlyle here. Dickens and Darwin are two. By the way, James Carlyle was a historian who wrote some famous books.

I continued on, walking by a ton of different brick row houses (picture 7). Very pretty and probably very expensive. I walked by Albert Bridge (picture 5). It is a suspension bridge over the Thames that has a huge amount of light bulbs along each suspension wire. It is very spectacular at night (I wouldn't know I suppose, but it was nice during the day). I walked around the Chelsea Physic Garden but it wasn't open during 'the winter'. Winter? It was like 50 degrees out today. Whatever. I moved on to the Royal Hospital (picture 6). Its not so much a hospital as it is a retirement home. It was built and designed by Christopher Wren (designed A TON of stuff in London). It is home of the Chelsea Pensioners (retirees, they call them pensioners here). I saw a couple of them as I was walking around. They have a very nice dining hall. I was looking out when at the end of the road I was walking on, I saw a bench with a wooden pensioner on it (like the ronald mcdonald things you see), and a little girl walked by with her mom. The little girl jumped up and stood on the bench and hugged the fake pensioner with all her might around the neck. Pretty much the cutest thing ever. It made my day.

I walked back to the Tube and headed for the flat. I stopped and bought some italian sausage and ham tortellini and tomato sauce for dinner. It was delicious. Then I talked to John on Skype and went out and bought some cookies for dessert. I also read for my classes tomorrow sometime during today, I don't really remember when. Anyway, it was a lazy day and I loved it. I hope everyone else had a lazy, relaxed day as well! Bon soir!