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ng lastre pass several times a day making dumps along the route and things have advanced enough for industrial scale cement mixers known here as chompipes to start dumping their loads it will be a long job so with luck they will not arrive here before june at the earliest by which time the rains will or should be in full spate which should moisten the soil enough to allow danilo to lift the large plants outside the gates before they are swallowed up in a concrete tomb i have noted that the posts marking the width of the road stop just on the side of the gates on the track leading to the bridge which connects us via a half concreted road to the main road to san jose is this because there are complicated problems of drainage on this section thus needing further study or because they don t intent to join up the roads at all time will tell and nothing could surprise me we have been in the constitutional court several times over the drainage problems so it may be gird up your loins time yet again posted in costa rica local government tagged earthquakes journey into the unknown march 22 2026 helen devries 32 comments i had been staying with an old friend in north london but had had many errands to run while there those to central london posed no problem but i wanted to visit a specialist shoe shop which was situated in the further reaches of the capital terra incognita for both of us accordingly we consulted transport for london s journey planner according to which we took three buses involving two changes fine except at that change two it did not explain that we had to cross the road as a result of which we had an interesting journey in the wrong direction we passed from discreet kensal rise to run down willesden all fast food nail bars and turkish barbers then out into the wilds we passed shopping streets full of halal butchers then south asian suppliers polish stores roumanian supermarkets and finally kosher bakers at which point we realised we were going the wrong way and retraced our steps using fools that we were the transport for london journey planner once again mission accomplished we returned to kensal rise gentrified for some years now no halal butcher no south asian supermarkets no kosher bakeries a plethora of expensive beauty parlours cafes and restaurants the last fish and chip shop closed and shuttered the new residents do not shop locally unless in the organic butcher they order from upmarket delivery firms for their groceries and from decidedly downmarket delivery operations for their drugs on the way to the shoe shop we had noticed a number 302 bus the first one of the three on the tfl list in the other lane just a few stops short of our destination accordingly on the return leg we checked the bus stop signs and found one at which the 302 would call so the three buses and two changes had been inaccurate the next day we wanted to go to somerset house to see a seurat exhibition and consulted tfl again it suggested three buses and two changes and took us on a roundabout route my friend who has an encyclodaedic knowledge of central london bus routes announced that that was rubbish two buses one change and a direct route once could be an aberration but twice looks more like a sneaky way to raise revenue one thing struck me about the buses i used various services nearly every day for three weeks and on only four occasions did i hear passengers speak in english either to their neighbours or on their mobile phones a curious phenomenon one sunday we went to the national gallery in trafalgar square to see the stubbs exhibition extracts from his work the anatomy of a horse published in 1766 the fruit of eighteen months labour in dissecting horses the better to know how to depict them acurately his best known work is the stunning study of whistlejacket a racehorse owned by one of george iii s ministers but the exhibition also displayed another of that minister s horses scrub both studies were to be part of equestrian portraits of the king thus the pose in the levade position but the minister fell out with the king and the horses remained without riders we had noticed that a stage had been erected in trafalgar square which had been closed off and imagined that it had been booked for an open air concert what it had actually been booked for was a celebration of breaking the fast during the month of ramadan and thus offered free food and a great deal of praying entry by ticket only the sight of massed upturned backsides roused great deal of reaction one conservative m p opining that it was less a celebration but by siting the event in central london more a sign of domination in a period of social tension over immigration both legal and illegal the failure to set an enquiry into organised grooming gangs in motion and attempts to reintroduce blasphemy laws by the back door in respect of islam perhaps it would have been wiser in the interests of social harmony to have kept celebrations to the mosques business apart i enjoyed being back in london despite being buffeted by freezing winds every time i ventured outside the house and a damp cold which chilled me to the bone i could shop for things unobtainable in costa rica hello jars of marmite find shoes which fitted me and indulge in the delights of black pudding white pudding hagggis and kippers now if only waitrose and marks and spencer would open branches in san jose life in costa rica would be truly pura vida posted in public transport shopping transport travel tagged london national gallery stubbs trafalgar square back to blighty march 5 2026 helen devries 38 comments it did not start off under the best of auspices herded into a far flung unheated waiting area of san jose airport the only amenity the loo at 6 00 a m to await the departure of the plane for montreal some two hours later the early morning chill enhanced by gusts of even chillier air as outside staff passed too close to the automatic doors to the tarmac i watched as my companions in misery arrrived mostly canadians and british returning from holidays there were an alarming number of people in wheelchairs genuine users with plaster casts pressure boots and assorted bandages as opposed to the usual chancers who leap from their chairs like lazarus once the queues for boarding begin it looked as if the waiting area was an annexe of a hospital outpatients departure why had we been herded into this unhospitable area became clear for whatever reason the plane upon which we were to embark had not the privilege of an airbridge we were to be bussed to the far reaches of the airport and expected to board by mounting the steps you would think that noting the number of those requiring assistance when booking the flight it would have dawned on someone that this was not a helpful idea but dawn it did not or dawned and disregarded as only inconveniencing passengers accordingly the halt and the lame were loaded onto a bus only to be submerged by the able bodied passengers crammed on afterwards and the adventure began the able bodied disembarked and legged it up the stairs the walking wounded me included were urged to the steps with a minder to carry the bags half way up the steps were blocked by two women gabbing i asked them to let me pass no joy so poked one with my stick blockage shifted and finally made it to my seat exhausted by the effort the totally immobile were either carried up the steps by two helpers or in the case of the lucky ones loaded on the hoist that brought the fodder aboard conversation later in montreal revealed that the people concerned were not exactly delighted by this feature of their trip still despite all the transfer at a snowy montreal was painless and i finally made it to london heathrow and thence to the house of a friend in north london no not the north london of the chattering classes but recently gentrified kensal rise boasting the obligatory gails over priced coffee shop an organic butcher and any number of tanks in which the yummy mummies panzer their young between one and the other easy to slide back into london life charge up the oyster card and public transport is yours we decided to go shopping for fresh fish the fish shop opened by the owner of the organic butcher had had but a short life people no longer seem to want to cook fish themselves in kensal rise so we took the bus down to the edgeware road little lebanon where the shop fronts have arabic subtitles and most of the women customers wear head coverings and long clothing meeting on the bus a gentleman who saved me from annihilation by a lady wielding a shopping trolley damned nearly as wide as herself and who revealed himself to be a spanish speaker you meet all sorts on a london bus the fishmonger a middle eastern gentleman had a vast display of fresh fish and shellfish but took a step back as two bare headed women entered his shop culture shock writ large upon his face however he recovered himself and proved to be most helpful scaling and gutting our choice though it was an odd sensation being regarded as somehow abnormal a few bus stops north of oxford street still normality returned as we took the bus further down the edgeware road to shop in waitrose not a head covering in sight among the customers just on the lady on the only manned till and oh the delight of a british supermarket after the banal offerings of those in costa rica the palate jaded by variants on rice and beans could rejoice in row after row of sheer temptation and rejoice it did heavily laden we crossed the road and took the bus home to stock the fridge with our booty i am on cooking duties while here and intend to make the most of the opportunity while taking the chance to indulge in the vast array of preprepared meals for the days on which we are going to be home late scoff if you like but given the opportunity not to have to make cannelloni oneself or scrap around to find the spices for exotic foods i m seizing it with both hands roll on the marks and spencer ready meals one drawback i had forgotten how cold it could be in early march despite taking heavyweight by costa rican standards clothing and a padded coat which made me resemble a boiled maggot the chill got to me and i trotted into a charity shop up the road from the house to buy a woollen sweater the eastern european lady running the joint had no change so i arranged to call in on the following day to pick up the two pounds fifty pence she would owe me next day dawned a different eastern european lady on duty who knew nothing about it i shall return until i the trap the first one i took buses acrosss the city to liverpool street station to meet up with adullamite tynecastle to you tom who kindly came in from essex to meet me i felt guilty as on our last meeting i had said i would travel down to meet him on his home turf but ever the gentleman he would not permit it as i was if no longer hors de combat somewhat fragile still and having to use a stick to get about it gave me a lot of pleasure to catch up with him and his news well laced with that pawky scots humour which makes his blog something to which to look forward and a genuinely kinder man you could not wish to meet now i just hope he did not catch pneumonia by insisting on accompanying me to the bus stop and waiting there in the cold in my days of using liverpool street station it was a gloomy grimy hole these days it is light clean and welcoming and about to be wrecked by some office development being installed above it why build more when offices lie empty all over london on thing has struck me and pleasantly at that the thoughtfulness of people on the buses from drivers to passengers in not hurrying me and making sure i am seated before the bus sets off again apart of course from that woman with the shopping trolley perhaps i have just been lucky so far but it gives a good impression of london posted in blogging cooking costa rica cultural differences public transport shopping tourism travel tagged airports friends london oozlem bird directions february 3 2026 helen devries 36 comments costa rica has in theory street names and numbers they are even marked as such on maps not i suspect however maps produced in costa rica the capital san jose once had cast iron plaques on street corners these like many of the cast iron manhole covers were removed by enterprising gentlemen for purposes of their own so not only did you not know where you were but it was probable that the sewer you had just fallen into could not easily be identified built on a grid pattern as san jose began to expand following the earthquake which wrecked the old capital carthago anomalies crept in someone would buy a piece of land put up buildings and run an access road between them the grid began to become irregular no longer a compact city people needed to know how to get to your house or your place of work so a new system arose the house we bought in san jose was officially on transversal 19b which has since morphed into something else entirely but as no one had a clue where or what that was it is for purposes of directions in front of the american bar across from the park of the escuela de chile how this is supposed to help you if you are a stranger in town is beyond me especially since although the escuela de chile is still there the american bar has long gone the way of all flesh which is mostly what frequented it this came to mind recently when applying for a certificate from the elecricity board ice if the anglophone reads that as ice it is appropriate as it normally moves at the speed of a constipated glacier i duly produced the necessary information my id card an official plan showing the property and a map where x marked the spot shock horror the young lady on the desk could not accept a map no she required exact directions accordingly i supplied the information that it was to be found two hundred metres south of the local school well it is but there are two crossroads inbetween two days later a gentleman from ice phoned me where exactly was the property trying to avoid foaming at the mouth it inhibits comunication i gave him directions from his office to the site to a man with local knowledge it obviously rang a bell ah there s a lot of bananas growing on one side yes rashly i asked if a map would not have been easier yes for him it would have been but the it system could not accept maps could not the young lady have just passed him the map as well as entering the exact directions on her computer she could have done but to do so would be to admit she had received it and the sytem did not allow her to give a reciept as said system did not accept maps posted in costa rica the immortal memory january 25 2026 helen devries 21 comments burns night is with us again a celebration of the life and work of scotland s great poet a night of cullen skink haggis and whisky all in abundance for this is a fitting night for the selkirk grace to be said some hae meat and ca...