Reminiscence Territory: Day Trip to Surbiton and Kingston

Okay, as promised, here is my Surbiton/Kingston blog. Four years ago, during my undergrad, I also studied abroad in London, or rather at Kingston University. Seething Wells are the Kingston University flats where I and my flatmates (Stephanie, Jessie, and Courtney) lived during that month. As I grow older and visit more places, I find that I also have more places that I miss, even if they were just temporarily home. Surbiton is one such place, so I spent part of Friday to take a trip into reminiscence territory. Awww, the blue gates. I’ve missed those.
 

While I lived in Surbiton, I became very well acquainted with the three-block walk to the area of town where the corner grocery store, shopping area, and pubs were. I remember the orange and white gas station, the bike shop with the huge, stuffed animal lioness in their front window, the cracked tiling outside the flooring place, and so forth. I remember Steph getting excited over stuffed animal meerkats in smoking jackets (she wanted to buy one) on display in one of the store windows. Oh the memories. Sadly, most of the things I remember are missing. The gas station is still there, as are all the shops, but no meerkats. The cracked tiles have been replaced. And the worst shock, for me, was the missing big kitty in the window. I took a picture of the bike shop and the red arrow points to where she used to sit. I wonder what became of her.

A while back I wrote a poem that referenced the Thames swans. Some people back in the U.S. seemed surprised to learn that there are swans swimming in the Thames, so I took pictures this time. You don’t see the swans in central London. I think they may only live in the quieter, residential areas like Kingston and Surbiton. Technically, these towns are suburbs of London.

I walked along the Thames all the way to Kingston’s shopping center. The walk takes about half an hour at a leisurely pace. Having forgotten my cameras external memory, I had to be picky about what pictures I took, but this odd display was too intriguing to pass up. I have no idea what this depicts, if anything, and there was no sign to explain it, but I took a picture anyway. If you click on the photo, you can enlarge it and get a better sense of the oddity.

And, of course, this is part of why I found the display so fascinating: a penguin in a hat. Now that’s my kind of dapper penguin!

 

I spent a couple hours in the shopping center. The penguin on the dockside display reminded me that I keep forgetting to bring Topper on these outings with me. I felt bad about leaving Topper behind, so I bought him a friend! This is a little penguin eraser that I found at the card shop in the mall. He’s about an inch tall and adorable. I still have to think of a name. I also found this penguin card and decided I had to buy it too. No wonder I love this town. So many penguins!

And in closing, here is another aspect of the Brits that I noted with interest: they enjoy watching tennis at the pub. At the end of the day, I returned to Surbiton and ate dinner at the Duke of York pub, where I ate dinner the final night before returning home four years ago. Their ice cream is still delicious! Half the pub crowd was enthralled by the tennis match on the tele. In fact, one bloke asked the owner to turn it up so he could hear the announcers better. Granted, I haven’t been to a lot of bars or pubs in the U.S., but I could swear American football, basketball, and baseball rule in the U.S. restaurant and bar scenes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tennis match broadcast in any eating establishment back home. But these Brits were very excited, cheering over scores and everything. I don’t know whether the locals realized that I found this all very amusing. Apparently, the Brits get excited over sports other than football and cricket.

Note: If you visit my Facebook album "Day in Surbiton and Kingston," there are a couple of additional photos. I didn't feel I needed to include every single photo in this blog.