Day out on 2 January 2012

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1 January 2012 was Sunday, so it game us the Bank holiday next day. We had planned visiting St Marylebone Church and walking on the Regent’s Park. After reaching Regent’s Park station, we headed for St Marylebone Church. On the way to the church, we were talking about Great Expectation and Charles Dickens, and then came across the relief of Charles Dickens and his family.

St Marylebone Church was associated with his family and his novels, e.g. Dombey and Son, the description of baptism ceremony for his son at St Marylebone Church. Marylebone is associated with one of his most famous novels, e.g. David Copperfield. We strolled through the nave and looked at the pipe organ, altarpiece, mahogany choir stalls, archangel carvings on the mahogany furniture and marble mantelpieces, stained glass, and some of the Christmas decorations. St Marylebone Church was established as a parish church in the mid Victorian time, and there are a number of celebrities’ monuments and reliefs, e.g. Charles Wesley, the marriage certificate of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett displayed on the wall. All of the historic monuments, treasures, and decorations and carvings on the furniture looked immaculate and have been beautifully maintained. The beautifully preserved interior encouraged me to buy the CD performed by the Choir of St Marylebone Parish Church inserting a £5 note into the donation box. Mark paid £2 for the booklet of history of St Marylebone Church.

Afterwards, we walked to Regent’s Park. As it was approaching the lunch time, we headed for the café. We both had sandwich with ham and piccalilli and a half slice of orange & lavender cake and a cup of team.

After the lunch, we strolled through the wintry garden with beds of pansies and primulas. Surprisingly, we saw quite a few roses opening in the Queen’s Mary Garden. Some friendly and cheeky squirrels appeared to the footpath and they requested visitors to offer bits of food. We roamed along the lake. A wide variety of waterfowls, e.g. ducks, goose, swans, moorhens, coots, herons, etc were swimming and receiving food from the visitors. English people are really fond of caring for animals and birds, but I didn’t think it was a good idea that they were eating the humans’ food. Sunny weather seemed to encourage a lot of Londoners to explore the Regent’s Park. We saw many families with young children and dogs and people playing football and flying kites. As well as conifers, there were a number of shrubs with buds and vivid coloured stems and leaves shown here and there in the park. We carried on a long walk in the afternoon on 2 January.

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