Monday, July 19, 2010,
London-Norfolk
Though much remains the same, much has changed. My cell phone number, for instance. Though phone was fully charged and voucher was purchased first thing this morning at the corner Sainsbury that I remembered so well, I could not top up. Turns out your SIM card expires if not used for 3 months. Had to purchase new SIM card but could only do that once I arrived in Norfolk…Bummer!
One more thing has changed–the No 8 bus from right outside my building on High Holborn, no longer plies to Victoria. I let a few of them pass right by me each going only as far as Oxford Circus before it occurred to me to ask the driver if the route had changed–it had! Double Bummer!
Then discovered I hadn’t enough money left on my Oystercard. I usually top that up at the Tube station at Heathrow…but since I enjoyed the luxury of a cab ride this time, I hadn’t the chance to do that..Triple Bummer! So off I went to the Chancery Lane Tube ticket window to top up my Oystercard before hauling my backpack and my butt into a Tube that was bursting at the seams with early morning commuters–it was hellish! Made the change at Oxford Street and took the Victoria Line to arrive at the coach station by the very skin of my teeth…though I’d left an hour earlier from Holborn!!! Good job I’d purchased a breakfast sandwich and a drink from Sainsbury while getting the Lebara top up voucher..or else I’d have been sitting and starving on the coach all the way to Norfolk! Phew!
Lovely ride again through Central London and the East End before we finally hit the motorway–it took a good hour to get out of London’s precincts! Atlas was very useful in helping me track my route. Was pleased to pass right by Epping Forest (had heard so much about it).
Made it to Norfolk with five minutes to spare. Amy, my friend from our childhood days in Bombay, was waiting to pick me up very far from the coach station as her car wasn’t allowed in. And with my old cell phone number dead, she couldn’t reach me–such moments of tension for both of us! After waiting for 10 minutes, I became pro-active and asked questions: where would someone wait if she were coming by car to pick me up, etc? We finally connected…Phew!
Drove briefly through Norwich before we headed straight for Great Yarmouth on the East Norfolk coast where she lives in a tiny beach-side hamlet called Gorleston-on-Sea (it’s pronounced Gaul-ston). Chatted nineteen to the dozen in her car before we arrived at her home–lovely view of the sea from her house (she is a real estate agent, so bagged the prize house on the block). One grand tour of house (very tiny but very English in decor) and garden (fresh strawberries ripening on the bushes!) later, we set out to sort out the issue of my phone.
I finally found a new Lebara SIM card on the waterfront at Great Yarmouth which is your typical English beach-side holiday hot spot with the works–horse buggies lined up to give rides, fish n chips, ice-cream, evening teas, amusement arcades (some really gigantic ugly tacky ones), a nice beach promenade though I did not see any donkeys on the beach–wondered if they’d been banned by animal activists…or maybe I simply couldn’t see them from the car as we zipped by.
Could not spend too much time there as we had priorities–like reassuring my parents and Chriselle in Bombay that I’d arrived safely in the UK. What relief when my phone was working again and I could reach out to the world. Sent my new phone number via email (after we got back home to Amy’s) to Llew (who promptly called me!) and Chriselle who was out having dinner with friends in Bombay.
Amy is one of those people who goes to a butcher for her meat, a fishmonger for her fish, a greengrocer for her produce, etc. She is known here by name as Mrs. Darby and everywhere we went she was recognized and hugged. And I thought Southport was a small place! She is also a health freak–we bought whole wheat pita pockets which we stuffed with ham for lunch. Dinner was pork vindaloo (recipe from a Sainsbury cookbook) was like no vindaloo I’d ever eaten. The fresh veggies stir fry Amy made for dinner was good with fresh strawberries for dessert and a huge helping of M&S Toffee and Pecan Meringue Roulade–a rather scrumptious dessert that I discovered late into my London stay and made certain I bought while we were still in Norwich in the morning! I’m really looking forward to eating all my best-remembered foods…
In the evening, we took a walk along Gorleston Beach which is a nice combination of pebbles and sand. I realized that I’d seen the entire Norfolk coast from our aircraft during descent into Heathrow as we’d crossed the North Sea from Holland. I also saw the Mouth of the Thames and the distinct Lowestoft Wind Turbine which was unmistakeable from the air and is only a few miles from where Amy lives. She informs me that it is called Gulliver.
It was a good quiet start to my UK stay. Tomorrow we will drive up to the North Norfolk coast where my Anglican bishop friend is saying the noon mass at the famous shrine of our Lady at Walsingham. I am going there on pilgrimage. After many years, I have some asking to do–and not just the thanking I have done for so long! So many people asked me to pray for them while I was in India (ageing parents, ageing aunts, sick cousins, troubled friends), I hope I will remember them all…
Jet lag hit me at 8 pm when it was well past midnight in India. I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow…