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Parklife

mood: cheerful cheerful
The lovely jm_horse came over on Sunday for a frugal lunch of soup and bread, followed by an improving stroll in Crystal Palace Park.

I have been living in Crystal Palace for nearly 18 months now, but I still haven't explored every corner of the massive park. On this occasion we checked out the little museum, found the centre of the maze, visited the dinosaurs, and said hello to the animals at the petting zoo city farm before getting a drink at the café.

To do when weather improves: pedalos.

The best new fact I learned about Crystal Palace was that Hiram Maxim, inventor of the machine gun and inhabitant of West Norwood, raised money for more serious projects by designing fairground rides based on his aeronautical theories.

Posted on Mar. 8th, 2016 at 04:12 pm | | Leave secret message | 10 secret messages |

Comments


allaboutweather

Crystal Palace? Where the namesake football team is? Oh how i wish i were at that liverpool-cp game back in may 2014 when liverpool gave up a 3-goal led to tie with cp and lose the title (unfortunately to manchester city the plastic club). Watching suarez cry sure was fun! XD

So you're a Londoner then. :)


Yeah, i'm a manchester united fan like dave (howlin_wolf). ;)
Posted on Mar. 8th, 2016 04:31 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

huskyteer

Yeah, I've been living in south London since, ooh, 1999? And yes, home of the football team, though mercifully the supporters stay out of my way :)
Posted on Mar. 8th, 2016 06:13 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

allaboutweather

Ah. Selhurst park's actually a mile or so southwest of CP park itself. :S
Posted on Mar. 8th, 2016 06:16 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

sandman_jazz

Ah I haven't been on a pedalo since back when I was in short trousers. Every summer Shaggy and I would go up to the Town Centre and spend many a happy hour or so tootling around on the lake, usually when younger we would pretend we were Blake and Avon and the pedalo was the Liberater... we were pretty much a Bart and Milhouse friendship, as you may guess I was Milhouse. Sadly with the Southwater redevelopment, new generations of Telford kids are going to miss out on the simple pleasure of an afternoon pedaloing around the lake. Though if it were still an option I very much doubt there would be kids pretending to be Blake and Avon while tootling about.
Posted on Mar. 8th, 2016 04:48 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

huskyteer

Blake's Seven pedalo paddling? Adorable. I'm sure I'd have come up with some similar narrative if boating had been more a part of my youth!
Posted on Mar. 8th, 2016 06:14 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

sandman_jazz

Well Blake's 7 was a big influence on me, I named my first dog Vila after my favourite character from the show. I was kind of enthralled and equally disappointed when Chris Boucher wrote his original Doctor Who novel Corpse Marker ( a sequel to the Robots of Death) and it was announced a character from Blake's 7 was a key part of the narrative. Sadly it wasn't Avon or Vila but Carnell from Weapon, but it works and it ties the two series together even if B7 has a much nastier world.
Posted on Mar. 8th, 2016 07:05 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

huskyteer

I didn't watch B7 as a child - I was a bit young for it or my parents weren't into it or something, I don't know. I saw a few episodes at university during meetings of the Dr Who Society but it didn't grab me the way Who did (it didn't help that my first ever episode was the one with the GIANT SPIDERS).

Vila is a great name for a dog, though!
Posted on Mar. 8th, 2016 10:06 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

porsupah

I haven't been able to independently confirm it, but Dad claimed the architect of the original Crystal Palace was in the family tree. ^_^ (The prospect of which cheered me tremendously - the copper leaves up at Chatsworth are just wonderful, let alone the gardens' design. I'd be delighted if such lineage proved to be true!)

If I ever regain a beau, I should most certainly want to cajole them into a romantic pedalo ride. ^_^
Posted on Mar. 13th, 2016 04:08 am (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

huskyteer

Wow, that's something to be proud of indeed! There are plans afoot to recreate the Palace itself, and the Victorian subway might be opening permanently too (at the moment it opens for tours on special occasions).
Posted on Mar. 13th, 2016 09:02 am (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

allaboutweather

Cool! So you have English blood as well? I had an English great-grandfather, that much I know. Where he was from, i don't know. I really don't know that much about my ancestry beyond my great-grandparents. :(
Posted on Mar. 15th, 2016 12:59 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply