My last London trip by car as I know it

Wednesday, 23rd of August 2023 [83]

I was updating my spreadsheets with Hive posts today. First time in over 3 weeks. That’s also when I realised my last post was also 3 weeks ago, so in total I wrote 2 posts in the whole month of August.

I looked at the numbers and first question that came to mind was:

‘Are you seriously in competition with yourself in who can write less? Are you trying to beat your lowest score of 5 published posts in a month?’

And then I remind myself to be gentle with myself. Although feeling a little angry felt refreshing. While I don’t really like my angry self, after feeling nothing but fear and anxiety for the past 3+ months, feeling an emotion that is different than those 2 and that emotion happening on a normal work day does feel refreshing.

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I also had to remind myself that while this account seems rather idle these days, my @fantagira7 is busy posting my #Actifit reports pretty much daily and while those are like my daily diary entries, I must give myself some credit for consistency and perserverance.

That said, I decided it was time to grace this account with a new entry for August and since it is #WednesdayWalk by @tattoodjay today, I’ll take you guys for a little walk around London today.

I say a little walk, even thought there was a lot of walking, but somehow I didn’t take as many pictures on this occassion. I guess I’m a little bored of taking pictures than never get to see the daylight anyway. I’m tired of my own bullshit in other words.

The picture above came out really nicely. I did think of taking more of those every few meters as the hanged street art was changing, but yeah… as above 😉

Most of the other pictures from this walk were of flowers really. It could as well be in any other city/town/village other than London, but it so happens that I’ve always had a soft spot for flowers and these #alwaysaflower nicely decorate most of my Actifit reports.

Never too many pictures of a beautiful red rose! I’m sure @dswigle would agree with me on this 😍

Or white rose for that matter 😉 Or a beautiful clouds formations on a sunny day that it was. I can always go back to my photo gallery and remember that last day when I drove to London without paying ULEZ charge.

I get it… environment, pollution, global warming etc. I’m not denying that these are the real issues we’re facing on Earth at this time. My gut however tells me that there is more greed than genuine concern for the environment in this decision to expand the current Ultra Low Emission Zone to the remaining parts of London, all the way up to M25.

Congestion zone was not enough. LEZ zone was not enough. Now we have a 3rd type of fees to pay in order to drive in London. It’s pure madness. As if anyone was so naive to believe that all these fees will go towards helping environment. Sure thing!

Let’s push the pricey electric cars, despite known fact that those batteries take centuries to decompose and we are not yet aware of the impact it might have on the environment. Why worry now? Another generation will be sorting that problem 🙄

Anyway… Rant over!

At least for now 😉

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The day when I took those pictures was however a little bitter sweet. While I was enjoying a sunny day, a solitute drive, a sunny day, plenty of flowers to photograph and admire and 3h of dancing with some top dancers in the country, I was also very aware that it was the last time I can enjoy all this without paying extra £12.50 or £25 depending whether the party I’ll be attending ends before midnight or not.

A passion fruit flower or Passiflora fit really well in between those sentences. It’s my passion for dancing that drives me to drive 60-70 miles one way for a few hours of dancing.

I have a passion for environment too. Although I also believe that there are many ways of offsetting our environmental print on Earth than to stop driving altogether. Eating less meat for example makes a huge difference. Not many people know that meat production is very high on the list for air pollution.

I make sure to plant flowers for the bees. I use zero chemicals in my garden. I recycle and upcycle. I use less electricity and gas whenever physically possible. Even now, I sit in my dark garden while writing this. I walk to the nearby shops and when I do use the car, I make sure to plan my journeys in a way to kill a few birds with one stone. I pick up rubbish in my neighbourhood while walking. I do my best to make conscious choices.

Then I go to work and see all the waste our company is producing and sometimes I wonder if all my efforts make any sense. While many individuals do their best to reduce their carbon print on Earth, buisnesses are mainly concerned with the profit.

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But I digress again.

Back to my walk.

I parked my car in South Ealing and that’s where I snapped pictures of the flowers growing in the gardens of the houses I passed by.

From there I walked to the underground station and took the usual trip to cenral London where the YMCA club is located and where the regular salsa parties take place on most Saturday afternoons.

Usually I get off at Leicester Square station, but this time I fancied a longer walk, so I got off the train at Picadelli Circus.

Like a mentioned, it was a lovely day for a walk, but my goodness, this area of London was packed to the brims. So many people wondering in all direcfions and some sat down… mainly to play with their phones.

It reminded me of sci-fi movie I once watched and of course can’t remember the title 😉 What I rememeber though was aliens who wanted to live on Earth, because on their own planet there was simply no space. It was totally overcrowded and everyone was spending all their lives in the thick crowds.

I like watching sci-fi movies, as many of them are like watching documentaries from the future. Many things that were a sci-fi mayerial when I was a child we already can’t imagine living without now.

How long will it take before we get as overcrowded as those aliens from the movie here on Earth?

Those and many other thoughts were running freely through my mind as I was walking the streets of London to follow my passion for dancing. Before I knew it I started recognising the buildings I usually walk by when I get off the tubr at my usual stop.

Something else was screeing here last weekend, but I dug up a picture from month ago to add here to my walk. Dirty Dancing was actually a movie that got me interested in salsa back when I was a child.

Dancing was incredible that day. I don’t go out as often as I would like to these days for various reasons, but absence makes is all the more pleasant whenever I get back on my beloved dance floor.

On my way back I also chose to walk one extra stop to Picadelli Circus. It was past 7pm, but the crowds were still thick.

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Before I got back to my car and drove home, I just had to capture that Passion Flower once more. Who would have thought it will become so relevant to my Wednesday’s verbal diarhoea? Or was it the flower that caused it? 😉

Until next time 💙

Camera:	iPhone11
Photographer:	@fantagira