bird on a lampost

I unexpectedly found myself heading down Wimbledon Hill today to buy a USB connection - unexpected, because I'd thought I'd be at the hairdressers, but that was cancelled (I suspect a bad case of Christmas-shopping-itis) at the last minute.  It's a long-familiar walk - a route since I could walk - one way down to the Public Library, for example.  I'm thinking that I was marched long distances at a very tender age.  I do remember my mother once put me in a horrid contraption on the back of her  bicycle, which was very scary, and probably gave me lifelong jitters about being a passenger.  But the bird was an added bonus - a change to noting which houses have been demolished and replaced, and wonderfully accompanied by a live blackbird singing in the background.