Putney and Pancakes

Two weekends ago, I headed out to Putney in southwest London to spend the day with my friend and colleague Cristina. She lives in Putney and invited me to come around for a visit and lunch. Cristina and I both started working at the school this year, and she is also an English teacher, so we naturally became buddies right from the start of the year as we helped each other adjust to life in a new school. Putney is just a short train ride away from my part of south London, but it feels much more relaxed and suburban than Brixton. We met up in the early afternoon and had lunch in a gorgeous Thai restaurant. Mmm, my favorite! Then we took a nice long walk for at least a couple of hours up and down the Thames river. It was drizzling a bit, but that's pretty standard for London, so we didn't let it stop us.  Cristina not only lives in Putney now, but she also grew up in the area, so she knows it well and pointed out lots of different sites to me. It was a fabulous afternoon!

Cristina and I on the Putney Bridge

We started our walk through the old church called All Saints and its creepy graveyard. 

What's that in there?!? I tacky statue of Michael Jackson? What's it doing inside the Fulham Football Club gates?

Turns out Mohamed Al Fayed (Dodi's father) owned the Fulham FC and was also
a close friend of Michael Jackson. The statue is hideous and SO very random. 

There was a big rowing competition happening on the river that day, so we got see lots of teams come by.

Hahahaha! I think this might be the funniest sign I've ever seen! And it's engraved into the pavement! 

Neat old Harrods warehouse

We came back across the Hammersmith Bridge, which is gorgeous!

What a lovely day in Putney!

My other exciting news from last week is that last Tuesday was Fat Tuesday...except here they don't call it Fat Tuesday or even Mardi Gras. They call it Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday. Catholics in England have a tradition of eating pancakes on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday as a way to use up all the goodies in the cupboard that won't be back out on the table until after Lent. I had never heard of Pancake Day, and was so excited when my school had its own little celebration. One of our staff members took orders the day before and then spent the morning making delicious pancakes for only "50 P" (50 pence/half of a pound) each. Of course, I had to try one, and it was delightful! Pancakes in England are more like crepes than American pancakes, and the British put all sorts of different things on them, like lemon and sugar, Nutella and even fruit spreads. Maple syrup doesn't seem to be quite the fashion here yet. I had mine with what they call "Golden Syrup," which is kind of like maple syrup only not maple-y. :) It was tasty and such a fun and different way to celebrate the day!

Pancake day! Anna is helping me decide what to put on it.

Fabulous colleagues and I enjoying our pancakes!