The market and the first culture shock experience

We headed out this morning for the Blackheath Farmer's Market--a brisk, 25 minute, uphill walk which started out cold, but got warm fast. If we come back skinny, it's because we're walking a lot more than we used to. If we come back fattened up, it's because we have been going to a lot of pubs, eating cheese and bread for almost every meal, and adding milk to our tea and porridge...and it's not low-fat milk either.

The Farmer's Market was really neat--much smaller than the one in Dallas and stocked with local farmers' produce: farm raised and produced cheese and milk, fish, beef, chicken, eggs, bread, flowers, pies, jams. We purchased broccoli, salad veggies, some delicious herbed goat cheese (lunch), two loaves of bread, garlic and onions and trekked a few feet to a deli/cafe, where we crammed into a corner and had porridge (Claire) and pesto muffin with mushrooms and eggs (Jim). We are definitely not starving in London and thought it was funny that the "American Breakfast" at this cafe consisted of pancakes with scrambled eggs in between them, bacon as a side, and smothered in maple syrup--a combination of ALL American breakfasts!

Upon returning to our flat, we decided to do some laundry, which, apparently takes a rocket scientist (or at least a Brit) to figure out. Washers and driers in London seem to be typically very small and located in the kitchen. The one in this flat is a combo washer/dryer. You can fit about 2 pairs of underwear and a sweater into it and we have yet to discover how to get the soap to go from the drawer you put it in, to the actual load of laundry that you are doing. Also, once it gets started, the door seals shut and there seems to be no way to stop it, soap or no soap. And the wash cycle goes on for HOURS...doing laundry must be a day long process. Of course, if we can ever get our clothes out of the washer again, there is no way that they will dry in that thing, so we'll hang them on the drying rack in the bathroom. I suspect that our jeans won't be dry for a few days. If anyone in the US ever complains to me about their washing machine again, I will have no sympathy.

Jim goes back to work tomorrow and I will have to get around the neighborhood and the city for the first time by myself. With my incredible sense of direction and map reading abilities, I'm sure that I will end up someplace unplanned.