At Least It's Not Delivered on Horseback

One of the things I like best about our new apartment is that I can sit at the kitchen counter, eating my Golden Grahams, or surfing the interwebs, and watch the 'hood. I have become the nosy neighbor that is always peeking out the window anytime a car door closes or people walk by. Yes, I am an 85 year old in a 30-something's body. But I find this pastime quite helpful, as I learn about the many quirks that come with living in London.

For instance, do you know that our mail is delivered in a black cab? No? Well I do. One day I saw a black cab pull up and out stepped a guy in a Royal Mail vest, and he proceeded to walk around the area delivering mail. I now see the black mail cab (as in a cab used to deliver mail, not a cab used in blackmailing people, although that would be kind of awesome too) most days, or at least those days I am able to spy, so it wasn't an anomaly. Need proof?

See? There's the back cab, and the guy in his Royal Mail vest. Pretty fancy.

The other curious thing, both in our neighborhood and in other areas of London, is that horses freely move about the streets. In our old apartment I used to hear the clomping of hooves early in the morning, as I was trying to force myself to get up. Then finally one morning I saw a group of about 14-18 riders coming down Fulham Road, a rather busy street. We moved, and lo and behold, I hear the same clomping, although not as regularly as I did at our old place. But, about 2 weeks ago I was walking Riley about 7:30 in the morning and we saw another group of about 14-18 riders, this time coming down Sloane Street, also a busy road. Riley was so fascinated and insisted on stopping and sitting and watching the horses go by. She refused to move until they passed us. Her piggy nose was fully engaged the entire time, as I'm sure horses are aromatic to say the least. I have no idea if these are the same riders as the Fulham Road crew, perhaps they ride around the area in the mornings, after all our new and old apartments are only about 1 mile away. Need proof?

Sorry, bad picture. I took it with my blackberry while simultaneously trying to get Riley to finally move.

So not only do I see rather huge groups of horses making their way through the streets of London, a city of almost 8 million people, but I also see horse-drawn carriages. Need proof?

This picture was taken from our living room window, while I was either eating cereal or surfing the interwebs, not sure which. So while groups of 14+ horses may not ride down our narrow street (although I did hear an enormous amount of clomping early yesterday morning, I was just too darn lazy to get out of bed to investigate), as you can see horse drawn carriages are normal modes of transport in the 'hood. I've actually seen this carriage, or a similar one a few times while out and about.

I always find it rather quaint to see horses making their way through London. I would never expect to see such a thing in San Francisco. Maybe if you're in Golden Gate Park or the Presidio you may come across someone riding a horse, and even then I feel like you'd be prone to say "oh wow, someone's riding a horse in San Francisco," but not down your street, where you live. I can't begin to imagine a group of horses casually walking down Chestnut Street in San Francisco. I think such an event would make the papers, it would seem so unique and out of place. But in London? Booorrrring. It just shows up on blogs.