Rest Days..........

Tuesday and Wednesday were rest days - no training but plenty of rain!  Tuesday we food shopped - I always find interesting the different foods available according to the ethnicity of the customers - and it definitely influenced our shop.  Thus fully stocked with a selection of ready meals on Wednesday morning armed with our free travel passes we set out to put London Transport to the test.  The targets were I Knit London and Loop, that is not to say that there aren't other knitting shops in London, but they were our chosen venues. 

I Knit was the easiest, Hainault to Waterloo via Stratford and the Jubilee Line all very accessible and the shop is only a 10 minute push from the station.  Lovely leather sofa for Mr S and the shop dog (oh I do wish I had thought to take a pic)  Nothing out of the ordinary in the way of yarns, but lace books - well I was spoilt for choice - and bought two and noted down the details of two more......

 

The next part of journey really put London Transport to the test - Waterloo to Islington, this encompassed, the underground, the overground and the buses and they were brilliant. Waterloo to Stratford was a short hop on the Julibee Line, with a short unnecessary diversion on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) just to test it out, again super access.  Stratford to Highbury and Islington was an overground line, but a lovely conductor got out the ramp and hey presto we were on our way..

Now on the map it looks like a short 'walk' from the tube to Camden Passage and Loop - maps can deceive - it was more like a mile, but exercise is good for you! (or that's what I told Mr S who was beginning make disgruntle mutterings) The shop is not accessible, but I knew that and bumped up on my bum (there are two floors, but lace yarn was downstairs thank goodness) and had a good browse (there were comfy chairs for husbands, but no dog) and I think that I was very restrained - especially as they had the new Brooklyn Tweed in Loft and Shelter! Nice but not very soft.

This is my Loop stash, two Madelinetosh and some soft cotton from Peru.

Mr S rebelled on the return journey to the tube at Highbury, so we caught the bus - just like that!  Out came the ramp up I went and up the road we went - had a chat with a mum and baby about the problems of gaps on the tubes and doing wheelies (which I couldn't demonstrate due to lack of space) the driver let us off at the tube station and all this was free!

At Highbury we held up the train for six minutes as the ramp wouldn't come out of its storage cupboard - but nobody complained - then we were on our way back to Stratford.  I discovered that it is possible to get down from the train on my own (well with a little help from Mr S) so no ramp needed.....and then the journey back to the caravan was a doddle.

You may, dear reader, have noticed that during this expedition at no time did any official attempt in any way to restrain me or my chair - I had complete control at all times - bear this in mind if you read the next episode.........................