The bagel and the meatball

This is not referring to new names for Sadie and Parker (although it's not a bad idea) but rather to our triple mission yesterday: obtain bagels, consume meatballs and buy some flatpack furniture. Achieving this involved a complex set of tasks: a) ride foldable bicycle to where Zipcar is parked; b) drive Zipcar home (with bike in the back); c) pile family into car; d) try not to damage car backing out of driveway (only possible thanks to intervention by Karen); e) brave the narrow, poorly-signed, opposite-side-of-the-road London streets with the help of an iPhone navigator that regularly lost contact; g) drive north through Hampstead Heath and look for bagel store with Italian name. And onward.

It started out badly when we hit a street closure in Hampstead Village and headed into a series of exceptionally narrow two-way streets barely wide enough for a single car, involving several high-stress games of chicken (which we tended to win, because other drivers seemed to sense I can't drive in reverse). But somehow we avoided scratches... and the iPhone always seemed to kick into action when it was truly needed. We finally got to a neighborhood called Golders Green and knew we were in luck when we spotted a few yarmulkas. I can't say that Carmelli's bagels blew us New Yorkers away (no everything bagels? and no cream cheese??), but they certainly weren't bad and they managed to quiet the unruly passengers in the back of the car.

Next stop was a certain Swedish furniture chain. Amazingly, we got there in one piece, and unlike bagel shopping, Ikea shopping truly is identical everywhere on the planet, down to the Swedish meatballs and potatoes. Kids had fun it and we emerged, victorious, with a changing table. Mission accomplished.

The fact that we were able to hop into a car at all and attempt this is thanks to one of two innovations that have swept into London since I lived here, the impact of can't be exaggerated for vagabonds like us. The first is the above-mentioned Zipcar, which more or less eliminates the need to own a car. This is an inexpensive, high tech, very well managed alternative. Admittedly, it would be nice it there were one parked a little closer (although there are several within a 10m bike ride), but we're hoping that will change. The second innovation is the Boris Bike -- the brilliant new cycle hire scheme that I'll write about later.