Early Morning London

I've always loved Portobello Market where the movie Notting Hill is based. There's an unusual honesty in the smiles of the vendors and I found a pair of Prada heels for 40 that I would have bought if I had the money. It's an antiques market, mainly, full of knick-knacks, pottery and vintage prints, second-hand boots and books with yellowed pages. There are Beatles records and pearly hair clips, stuffed moose heads all over the place.
Down the road, I decided to pop into a toy shop. It was a small shop with tiny old collectibles, all safe behind display cases. There was a sign behind the desk that said, "No shoplifting. Persecutors will be prosecuted. (Stomped on!)." Tiny Smurf figures stood beside Tom and Jerry glasses and old Pez dispensers. I even found some circular Simpson's playing cards.
After two hours of walking, it was after noon and my stomach was growling at me. I turned back through the market and walked past Sushi restaurants and pubs, past a small shop fun by a group of Afghan men where colorful throws were hung along the back walls and sparkly sandals were piled high in baskets in one corner. Finally I came to the pub, Paradise by Way of Kensal Green where I was meeting a friend for lunch. It's a Gothic sort of building I walked through the doors and into a large dining area decorated with vintage cracked mirrors next to big red leather arm chairs and sofas. We sat in a little side room on a red leather sofa, next to a fire place and a wall that had bookshelves full of fake old dictionaries that looked real.
Over food and wine, my friend told me how the pub got its name. That is, by this poem by G.K. Chesterton who died in 1936?
"My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green."
After lunch, we stepped back outside and continued our walk along Portobello Rd towards Westbourne Grove and gravitated towards Paddington..