A Morning Walk Along the Thames and a Canal
After this morning’s work video chat, I went on a brisk walk along the south bank of the Thames. Few people were out, just joggers, construction workers, and random blokes. I wore no jacket but the walk kept me warm. I chugged along, white steam puffing out of my mouth like an old locomotive.
After heading east for a while, I turned right and followed a narrow canal linking Surrey Water to an area called Canada Water. As I sat watching the gulls, I got a call from work. I needed to head back to the hotel to complete some tasks on the internet. I reluctantly hoofed it back to my computer in about forty minutes. I was just in time for the internet to be cut off due to the property management company having a dispute with the internet company.
My route.
Yellow doors are for staff only.
The stairs to the river Thames.
Tower Bridge above a view.
Iron walkways between old apartments.
Renovated buildings along the river.
Lifesaver and little fishing boy.
A garden barge for the use of people living in houseboats.
Man walking across the bike parking barge.
SMART car parked on an austere street.
Vacant lot.
A warning that due to vandalism the tree has been coated in grease.
Rusted security camera.
Oliver’s Wharf.
A sad little boat.
Tower Bridge as seen from a vantage point some distance away.
A memorial garden near a smaller residential cathedral.
NO PARKING PLEASE writes the maniac.
Rusty anchor chain.
Double-crested cormorants hanging out on a buoy.
The green cog of an old drawbridge.
Another view of the bridge.
Gates to the locks.
Yellow-eyed spunky duck of Surrey.
Old lady in an electric wheelchair stops to light a cigarette.
Reflections.
Male mallard in liquid metal sent from the future to kill John Connor.
Walkway along a narrow canal.
Dali’s lesser known “Melting Fence.”
The projects.
Doorway.
The loner’s chair in a construction lot.
I ate lunch alone: udon and ginger beer.
The afternoon brought work, which lately has involved sitting in a darkened room drinking fancy water and looking at colorful things on a variety of screens.