Mr C had a good idea… We would upgrade to Fibre Optic broadband.

The process should have been completed on 9th March but do to miscommunication between the various services this did not happen. It also led to our internet connection being cut on 16th March. Despite all the internal and external works being completed on 24th March we still had no internet access.

We weren’t able to follow the lack of service up with the provider until today due to a day trip to London Yesterday (more on that soon).

Today our service provider diagnosed the problem and a simple tweak to the router fixed the problem. Later in the day after a further phone call to our service provider our phone line was also reinstated.

For now everything seems to be working perfectly…

Now I need to catch up on posting about my recent adventures and finish my posts about St Fagans.

A few days prior to a procedure to fix Mr C’s unexpected health condition that caused us to cancel our Madeira trip in October we had a last minute day trip to London.

We enjoyed a special meal deal in The Ivy looking towards Tower Bridge, our destination for the day. Tower Bridge with its glass walkways and views of London from above is well worth a visit. After our tour of the bridge we had hoped to visit the nearby Tower of London but in winter months it closes earlier, meaning we had run out of time. Instead we visited Foyles book shop where neither of us were tempted to buy anything.

A couple of days later I took Mr C on the 50 minute drive to the hospital (in appalling weather) where his procedure to remove some anomalous non-malignant cells was due to take place. General anaesthetic was administered but when the consultant prepared to do the procedure he found that the anomalous cells had vanished…

He was allowed home rather than having to stay in hospital overnight. Another 50 minute there and back again journey for me. We stopped on the way home to pick up something for our evening meal. A cup of tea was in order and we were tempted by naughty cakes.

― Rudyard Kipling

As the end of 2024 was drawing to a close, we intended for one last day trip to London. We were looking forward to seeing London with its festive lights all aglow.

Sadly, we were not able to visit London to enjoy the festivities because mum became unwell again and was admitted to hospital at the end of November. Mum is not home yet but is being assessed and looked after in a care home.

Knowing that she is safe and being looked after meant that we could take time out for a day trip to London.

The train ran smoothly and we arrived in London in time for lunch in The Square Pig, Holborn. Several dishes including steak and pie were off the menu, leaving Mr C a little disappointed. However, we both found the fish and chips delicious.

Next, we visited the Sir john Soane’s Museum. Sir john Soane, one of the renowned English architects, built and lived in the house until his death in 1837.

“In 1833, Soane negotiated a private Act of Parliament: to preserve his house and collection, exactly as it was arranged at the time of his death, in perpetuity – and to keep it open and free for inspiration and education. Upon his death in January 1837, a Board of Trustees took on the responsibility of upholding Soane’s wishes – as they continue to do today.”

There were so many things on display in close proximity that it was impossible to take everything in although Mr C spotted all three commanders from the battle of Waterloo. This left us feeling rather overwhelmed. We found one of the exhibits, the sarcophagus of Seti I, particularly interesting. The sarcophagus, made of alabaster, is carved inside and out with Egyptian hieroglyphs showing the text of ‘The Book of the Gates’. The text describes the rituals needed to pass safely into afterlife. Drawn Inside the base of the sarcophagus is the figure of Nut, goddess of the sky, whose role is to guide and protect the dead.

Next, we walked the short distance to the Museum of Freemasonry. The museum displays artifacts with accompanying text that explores the origins of Freemasonry, which lie in the traditions of medieval stonemasons who built our cathedrals and castles. The guiding principles of Freemasonry are; Integrity, Friendship, Respect and Charity.

Part of the museum display shows the myths surrounding freemasonry and how these were made popular by news media outlets and popular novels promoting conspiracy theories.

We hope to go back and book a tour which takes visitors into the ceremonial areas of the Freemasons Hall including the Grand Temple, shrine and vestibules.

We had some time to spare before catching our train home so we walked to Foyles bookshop, hoping for tea and cake along the way. We entered Covent Garden but found the area loud, noisy, full of mundane shopping outlets and lacking in suitable cake opportunities (a shadow of its former self), I was reminded of why I don’t like cities.

We quickly continued our walk to Foyles, but decided not to indulge in cake there either. The café was full and the cakes were enormous, leaving me to wonder when a nice tasty sweet treat had turned into a full-blown meal option!

We both enjoyed browsing our favourite sections in Foyles; for Mr C that is the military history section and for me the religious and spiritual section, historical fiction and the board game section.

We eventually found ‘cake’ in a nearby Costa where the service was painfully slow and impersonal…

We took the tube back to Euston for our return journey home. We always purchase sandwiches from Pret before our return journey but the sandwich options were limited and we found the nearby M&S options in a similar state (almost sold out). After choosing the best of what was available, we made it to the platform just in time to catch the train home.

It wasn’t a classic day out in London compared to our previous day trips but our adventure gave us well needed down time.

John Keats

In summer 2022, to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, the moat transformed from a barren, flat lawn into a haven for bees, butterflies and other pollinators in the heart of the city. The moat was filled with wildflowers, grown from 20 million seeds.

But Superbloom was not just a spectacle for 2022. It was the first year of a permanent transformation of the Tower Moat into a beautiful naturalistic landscape.

In 1736 Mahomet Weyonomon, a Mohegan Sachem (chief), died in Alsermanbury in the City of London. He was 36 years old. Foreigners could not be buried near St Saviour’s church, now Southwark Cathedral. The exact location of the grave is inknown. The sculpture behind you is his memorial.

Mahomet’s presence in London was the result of injustice and exloitation. His tribe had helped the first settlers in New England survive bitter cold and repel Indian attacks. The Mohegans became allies of the English but settlers began to steal tribal lands. Despite support for the Mohegan cause from Queen Anne’s Commissioners in1705, the lands were not returned.

Mahomet sailed to Lond in 1735 with three supporters to petition King George II for the return of the stolen lands. While awaiting an audience, Captain John Mason and Mahomet contracted smallpox and died.

This memorial was erected at the request of the Mohegan tribe to honour a fallen chief. A stone was brought from Mohegan lands and carved with forms that reflect ancient custom by Peter Randall-Page. It was unveiled by Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, on 22nd November 2006 with the tribal chairman Bruce Two Dogs Bozsum and the U.S. Ambassador – symbolically granting the audience Mahomet never received.*

*from a sign board next to the memorial (see photo for further detail)

Information from Southwark Cathedral website:

The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie stands at the oldest crossing-point of the River Thames at what was for many centuries the only entrance to the City of London situated across the river. A verbal tradition passed on to the Elizabethan historian John Stow suggests that the first Christian establishment was a community of nuns in the 7th century, but the first written reference is the mention of a ‘minster’ in the Domesday Book of 1086.

In 1106 the church was ‘re-founded’ by two Norman knights as a priory, whose members lived according to the rule of St Augustine of Hippo. The church was dedicated to St Mary and later known as St Mary Overie (‘over the river’). The Augustinian Canons created a hospital alongside the church; this was the direct predecessor of today’s St Thomas’s Hospital opposite the Houses of Parliament and originally named in honour of St Thomas Becket who was martyred at Canterbury in 1170.

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, the last six canons were pensioned off although they continued to live in buildings north of the church. The church itself became the property of King Henry VIII who rented it to the congregation. It was re-named St Saviour’s, though the old name remained in popular usage for many years.

St Saviour’s Church became Southwark Cathedral in 1905. The diocese which it serves stretches from Kingston-upon-Thames in the west to Thamesmead in the east and Gatwick Airport in the south. It has a population of two-and-a-half million people, served by over 300 parishes.

Cutty Sark was built exclusively for the China tea trade. Tea had been enjoyed in Asia for centuries, but it did not reach Britain until the 1650s.

Initially hailed for its medicinal qualities, tea was mainly enjoyed by the wealthy. But thanks, in part, to an extensive smuggling network, its popularity exploded. Tea taxes were slashed to end the smuggling, and by the early 19th century working families were consuming it twice daily. It was also huge business, with over 28 million kilograms imported in 1869 alone.

A fashion developed among Victorians for consuming the first tea to be unloaded in London. This spurred the ‘great tea races’ and a spirit of intense competition: get home first and you could command huge prices. That’s why, as a clipper ship, Cutty Sark was designed to be fast.