Chiswick House

kid-free day in the neighborhood

This morning Bill and I sent the kids off to school on the bus without us (they did great!) and we walked to see one of our neighborhood’s most famed landmarks, Chiswick House, an estate built in the early 1700s. It has all of the British pomp an American could want: stone statues, tall hedges, dramatic architecture, expanses of grass, a picturesque pond, and cred for being a Bridgerton filming site. In fact it’s a popular site for just about anything that requires a stately British backdrop, including other tv shows and lots of magazine fashion shoots. Today there was some kind of ad being shot that involved a woman prancing about in a horse head and angel wings. Got a photo just before they told me not to.

One odd thing about this gorgeous and elegant estate is that it’s directly in the flight path of Heathrow landings, meaning that as you’re strolling around peacefully, suddenly jet engines go roaring overheard . . . every 30 seconds. Honestly hard to imagine how they film anything in this area with that kind of disruption but I’m sure many film crews have great stories.

The walk home was lovely with lots of hidden pathways, lush walls of ivy, and old stone and brick walls. I finally got to see a bin lorry (garbage truck) after spending weeks here trying to figure out their rubbish collection system. It’s all intricate enough that it’s motivating to sort things carefully, especially since while recyclables and compost are picked up weekly, actual trash is only picked up every other week.

For lunch we joined a couple who moved to Chiswick on the same day we did, who we connected with through the local Chiswick Friends facebook group. Bill had posted an open invitation to watch a football match last weekend, so Ryan of LA and Rebecca of Notting Hill had joined. They run their own travel business so have had the luxury of traveling all over the world and living in different home bases, the most recent of which was a somewhat random year in Nashville. They live a short distance from us in Chiswick and invited us to try The Hound with them where we had a surprisingly spectacular gourmet meal and swapped stories about our impressions of Chiswick so far (verdict: all of us love it).

Bill and I headed home to await the boys’ return, and it was a joyful reunion when they walked in the door. We swarmed them with hugs while they proudly told us of the ease of their commute, and we were happy to hear that day two went better than the chaos of day one for both of them. It’s fascinating to hear their perspectives of such a different and international school, and also the small class sizes: Ben’s intro to French only has 4 kids and is taught by his favorite-so-far teacher. We all had a relaxing evening with a pasta dinner by Bill and then some well-deserved time to zone out on screens.

If you count up just our time in London, it’s really only the end of our second week and it’s nice to see what things are becoming natural. Laundry is now thoughtlessly easy, a seamless system that I don’t have to stress about anymore. We’ve adjusted to living without a garbage disposal. I rarely have to check bus numbers for rides down the High Road.

Best of all, I’m really absorbing British English and incorporating just a few words more naturally into my vocabulary, like “trousers” (pants) and “pavement” (sidewalk). I’m trying to not affect any accent but I must admit that often now, especially when texting locals and even when journaling, I’m hearing my words with my own imagined British accent, which is so amusing! I’m truly approaching it like learning a new language which makes it really fun to learn new words and phrases.

When I texted my friend Emily (who I see tomorrow) an additional invite to something on Saturday, she replied, “oh that sounds fab but I’m not about Saturday night sadly” and I just delighted in her phrasing: there really is such a spectrum of British speech and hers is so charming. It will be a pleasure to chat with her as we stroll around a gallery in Kensington gardens tomorrow afternoon.

Fashion update: during our trip to Scandinavia where I was constantly stashing sweets in my daypack, some kind of delicious oil leaked out onto the Al Dente shirt I love, staining it permanently. Since there’s a print shop literally one block from our house I figured I’d see if they could print the same text onto my new favorite H&M t-shirt, and they had it to me the next day. I wouldn’t care so much if I hadn’t made a handful of Italian friends already (and for sure more to come, they’re everywhere!). I love it.