Finding My Neighbours In The Sand Pit

We moved to Twickenham just over a month ago due to a new job for my wife. We don't know anybody in this area of London, but the good thing is, that there are lots of children where we live and lots of parks and green areas within walking distance. Our little one already has some new friends.

As always it is hard to get used to a new place and new people around us. Especially when we made friends where we lived previously in Lincoln, but I am sure, that we will be fine here and settle.

I was against living in London, because it is too busy for me although I was born and raised in the capital city of Hungary, which can be busy, but not as crowded as London. Just to mention London's entire population is the same as Hungary's population, so when I say it is busy I mean it.

There was another great day today for a walk and to go to my little one's favorite place to play in the sand pit. The place called "Strawberry Woods Play Area"

The park is situated between Fulwell and Teddington and has transformed an area of overgrown wasteland into a innovative play area.

A woodland play area has been created amongst the former Territorial Army Voluntary Reserve sites. The play experience includes a trim trail, numerous climbing features, sand pit and outdoor education features.

There is a small stream that runs through the middle, so appropriate footwear is recommended.

The name for the park was chosen via a local schools competition.

Source: https://www.richmond.gov.uk/services/parks_and_open_spaces/find_a_park/strawberry_woods

There is always somebody to meet for a chat, while our children are playing and running around. For those who don't know London is a very multicultural city, which is fine with me. I like to meet people from other countries from all over the world and sometimes you get to know a little bit of their culture as well.

So today we went and as always there were children already playing in the sand pit. My daughter Liliana loves to play in there and most importantly she loves to play with other children and shares her toys with them. Now that everything is closed down we cannot attend to classes and activities, where we used to go to learn, develop and play.

I have been living in the United Kingdom long enough to recognize different accents especially foreign ones. So I heard other parents chatting and I joined the conversation. We usually say where we are from. One of them was from Slovakia and the other one was from Austria. I smiled and I said "hello neighbour I am from Hungary."

For some reason our conversation was unexpectedly very friendly. Usually with new people it is just a general conversation nothing special. This time it was different, but I think it is probably, because we are sort of walking in the same shoes. Because of the pandemic, we cannot travel, therefore we stuck and the only connection to our family and friend is via face time and messaging.

On the other day I even met Hungarians here on that wooden train you see in the image above. That was a really nice surprise and at the same time a little bit strange to hear my own language away from home. Basically I surprised them, by suddenly speaking to them in Hungarian. They did not expect that.

It is always nice to meet people who are from the same country as you are or close to it.