Another beautiful day in London.  Especially this evening.  Hoover and I went walking about 9.30 PM and ended up walking all the way from Kilburn down to Marble Arch–about 2.5 miles.

It was a busy Saturday evening–and everyone was out.  All the fresh fruit stands–stopped by an Egyptian shop that had a whole bunch of Korean phones and Burberry/Gucci/etc iPhone covers.  They had a woman’s phone, gold, with diamonds around it–faux, but oh, how pretty.  Next door I had a quick chat with the chap who is selling hookahs, globes made out of gold and jewels, and King Tuts cut out of marble.  Shop like an Egyptian.

I took so many photos that I decided to make a collage.  We stopped at the Maida Vale Little Venis Café there; we were both getting tired.

Have you rented a BorisBike yet?  Boris Johnson, our Mayor of London, has been actively expanding his bike rental scheme:  The Barclay Cycle Hire, which is part of the Transportation For London project.  The bikes can be rented for free for the first half hour, then (I think) £1.00 per day–or an annual plan.  There are bike paths everywhere–we just got a flyer through the post yesterday announcing that they’re going to put a contra-flow bike lane right outside our front window.

I thought it was time to sign up, and since I had Hoover with me, I decided to see if he’d fit in the front carrier/basket thingie–complete with a strap.  Like a little piggie on the way to Market, gentle little Hoover patiently let me balance him, untangle his leash, fiddle with the iPhone, and posed for his Bon Voyage photo!  I actually was going to take the bike up the side street for a block or two, but it all became too complicated.  I do think when we hire a bike, I’ll have to use a big brown knapsack with his pointy little head sticking out.  Another venue on which we can travel!

Hoover all ready to go in the carrier/basket/strap of a Boris Bike!

I’m letting you visitors know right now that London is going to be, um, a nightmare with traffic–if it’s anything like it is now.  Lord.  We took the 98 bus home–one local nutter started pitching one at the Bus Driver:  ”How long is this taking?!  It’s taken a half an hour to get from Marble Arch!  Why are you creeping along?  You made me miss my train!”  The Driver was concerned with a.) The Road; b.) Whatever Planet he was wishing he was on.  The harried dork stomped off the bus in a pique.  Traffic was just not moving!  They’ve got road works AND Thames Water re-digs going on–all the way up and down the Edgware Road AND Abbey Road.  Abbey Road is all full of the yellow arrow graffiti for the Engineers to decipher and dig.  This restoration of the old cast iron/stone poo-tunnels has been going on for two (?) years now!  It’s a huge job that removes a LOT of, um, dirt. We’ll stay above ground, thank you.

Finally, I can’t resist telling you about Hoover’s doggie treat.  Sadly, I didn’t film it. Right across the road from the Edgware Underground Station is a big billboard which rises straight out of the pavement.  There was a little patch of dry dirt about six inches square.  Hoover was tired, so I distracted him by stopping and giving him a short strip of Schmakos.  He was still busy watching for pedestrians and being alert next to the busy traffic, so instead of gobbling it, he instinctively decided to bury it and come back for it later.  You should have seen how . . . accomplished . . . his JRT skills have become!  He quickly, but carefully, scratched and dug a hole.  There were a few cigarette butts and some twigs there.  He put the Schmako in the shallow hole, pushed the butts and the twigs to the side–filled the hole in with dirt, and at the end, he distributed the butts and twigs over the top–Completely buried and camouflaged!  Remarkable.

I hope you all are having good weather where you are–it is such a joy to see everyone in good moods–and all this sunshine and people being out in the open has been such a boon and a blessing to the shop keepers!  There were so many people out eating good food tonight–smoking hookahs, eating lubia pulu, rice, lamb, yoghurt, and drinking mint tea.  The smells were great!

I’ll remember this Saturday night walk for a long time!  ’Nite!