There is something I don't like about the Oyster card: when you top up online you have to choose a station where you will "collect" your top up. I suppose for most people the choice of their top-up-collection tube station poses minimal consternation; for me, the decision is always a pain in the ass.Where will I be tomorrow?
Where I will be when I desperately need more juice on my Oyster is variable and can change with a simple beep-beeping of an incoming text message.
"Meeting brought forward. Let's meet at GPS*."
God damn it!
I suppose I could forget about topping up online and opt for topping up directly at a station. This, however, doesn't feel as efficient as an online transaction. It's sooo bricks and mortar, and I'm a cutting edge kind of girl; which is why I found myself walking from Marble Arch to Oxford Circus this morning.
I had a top up to collect. I don't think I've ever collected a top up at Oxford Circus, and I wouldn't have today if it hadn't been for a meeting I was supposed to have nearby that was subsequently cancelled. When I start my walk at Marble Arch I am slightly annoyed.
God Damn it. If I could take the tube from here it would be so much easier.
I resign myself to enjoy the stroll down Oxford Street.
Quite your complaining. It's early. Not overpopulated with pedestrians. You've got plenty of time. Enjoy it.
I look over at Selfridge's window display. They usually have something good going on. I'll always remember their display when I first moved to London, September 2001: giant posters of cats in seductive swimwear and humanesque poses. It was so odd and so alluring; I took a ton of pictures. That was before I had a digital camera. I wonder if I were to look now if I could find the prints. The window displays today don't seem to be anything worth crossing the street for; at the main Oxford Street entrance, there is a giant marquee with flashing yellow bulbs - like Broadway or the Moulin Rouge or the circus coming to town - that spell out the show: "open since 1909".
Is that year right? God, you've got a shit memory; it was only this morning for Christ's sake.
I stop in my tracks at the sight of a pair of shoes - or actually 4 - in the window of Russell and Bromley. 4 colours of exactly the same model: black, brown, dark green, and gray. I want a pair. I want three pairs. I don't know if I could decide which colour to get. I move on, but my mind lingers over the shoes. I think I haven't been shopping in some time, and I recently got a bonus. Maybe it's time for a little spree. I need trousers.
Would that style shoe go with trousers?
When I get to Oxford Circus, I cannot stomach the idea of descending into the artificial heat of the underground passages. I enter as far as the ticket booth where I touch my Oyster to a reader; it is topped up. A perfunctory stop in the station. I walk up the steps to the other side - the east side - of Oxford Street. I have enjoyed the first half of the walk so thoroughly, I have decided to extend it.
From Oxford Circus to Tottenham Court Road, I notice a building with an Art Deco facade. It is a fantastic glass window construct. I have never noticed it before. It always blended into the chintz, crowds and crap of Oxford Street. A bit further along, there on the front of another building, which also isn't the ugly post-War modern cement box that I usually associate with Oxford Street, is a golden statue of a elegant girl / young lady / muse. She reminds me of Degas' ballerinas.
Sometime after Tottenham Court road, whilst waiting at a crosswalk, I gaze upon a walking stick, whip, umbrella shop. It's historic. I've noticed it before, and as always it reels me in with its quintessential Englishness. I think about buying an umbrella. It would be cool to have one from this very English shop. I chuckle at the thought of a whip. For the first time I notice that the shop announces that it can emboss its products with the government hall mark. That makes me think of Hallmark; I think about their greeting cards and wonder about the origin of its name.
I realise too late that the light has changed. I miss my turn to cross. I have to wait another iteration.
I've gotten into the swing of a leisurely stroll.
16 comments:
A pleasantly observed stroll through the retailer's zone.
I don't know about this special top up thing for Oyster though, mine just refills itself by extraction of small quantities of cash from my bank account when it feels almost empty.
I loved this post. A walk in a proper city like London beats the hell out of a stroll in the country any day. To me, anyway.
Did you know that the term "Art Deco" was not coined until the 1970's?
No idea what an Oyster card is (why "Oyster"? Reference to pearls, or to hermetically sealed people on public transport?),but I get the idea.
Nice when small irritations result in a pleasant activity which you wouldn't have otherwise considered doing.
Topping up online is overrated, get grimey and get with the machine...
Rashbre ~ Oh! Aren't you clever and cuttingier than edge!
UB ~ A stroll through a proper city is full of stimuli; if I'm with The Dog, though, one of the big Common's (psuedo country in the heart of the city) is preferable.
PG ~ I've often asked myself 'Why Oyster?'. It was unexpected.
Daniel ~ I think your advice is spot on. The number of times I'm at a different Tube station than my collect spot ... when I can get it right there and then ... and rub shoulders with the machine!
For PG (and me): Oyster was conceived and subsequently promoted because of the metaphorical implications of security and value in the component meanings of the hard bivalve shell and the concealed pearl. Its associations with London through Thames estuary oyster beds and the popular idiom 'the world is your oyster' were also significant factors in its selection as was the uniqueness of the word Oyster
Well, thanks for checking that out. You know what I say to their marketing people? Pah! I don't even live there, but "security" and "value" (hah!!) are not two concepts I associate with London Transport. The Thames has been too polluted to support life for my entire lifetime. But yes, the world is my oyster, which is why I don't live there any more. Soooo wrong name.
Don't you feel like you're on vacation every day? I don't think I could ever get used to just walking around and working in London. And I want to go to that umbrella shop in the worst way now. London's calling, for sure...
I liked this post. And I love walking around London, especially South Bank, and just taking in what's around.
Hmm, my first thought is, what kind of shoes?
(I love shoes and even though I don't get to wear fancy ones so much,( as in never , really ) I just love them all the same.There's something about looking down a leg and seeing a beautiful shoe on the end )
PG ~ LOL. You should go into marketing I think! The Thames is definitely not the location I think of when I think of getting fresh oysters!
Jo ~ Thanks. London rocks.
Isabelle ~ God damn it! You know, I repeated the walk today with camera in hand, and I thought about taking a pic of the shoes, and I didn't do it! I will definitely take a photo if I get around to buying them; they weren't particularly fancy (I don't really 'do' fancy), but fab.
There's no better way to see the world than on foot - it's the right pace and you're sensually vulnerable. Damn slow, but the right way.
I love walking. If I have time, I always, always, always walk.
If I have time.
I should start making more time.
Free Man ~ Yep...puts you right there in there w/ your environment. I once walked in Phoenix. I was looked at by people in their cars like I was a Martian. The sidewalk there wasn't even a real sidewalk; it was a faux sidewalk that had no proper start or stop, I had to walk over a dangerous road to get to it. Friggin' non-walking city.
Rassles ~ Make the time! Except maybe winter in Chicago ... you might want to not have the time to do too much walking then, no? x
This reminds me a lot of all the walking I did when I lived in Madrid alone and knew nobody. This is all I did, in fact. I love it when you take me through the city with you.
Now in this days for security in all big places we have to walk from computer sensors.We can also called that computer walk.From that they can know that any harmful weapon is we are taking in the place or not?
r4i software
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