{"id":418,"date":"2009-01-16T10:23:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-16T10:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/01\/the-sweet-smell-of-new-cross\/"},"modified":"2009-01-16T10:23:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-16T10:23:00","slug":"the-sweet-smell-of-new-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/01\/the-sweet-smell-of-new-cross.html","title":{"rendered":"The sweet smell of&#8230; New Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Arriving by train from peaceful <a href=\"http:\/\/https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brockley\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\">Brockley<\/span><\/a>, the first thing one notices in New Cross Gate is the smell of <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\">diesel<\/span> fumes.  Then it\u2019s the rotting <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\">wooden<\/span> stairs out of the train station that give way a little bit under each step.  Then the noise\u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/buddhist_philosopher\/1437785613\/in\/set-72157602156289423\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px;text-align: center;cursor: pointer;width: 500px;height: 379px\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1348\/1437785613_c71598c8a1.jpg?v=0\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a>The above picture was taken about a year ago, <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\">literally<\/span> leaning out my front kitchen window in my flat.  The 12 or so feet of sidewalk between me and the mass of traffic did little to soften the noise, <span style=\"font-weight: bold\">a near constant <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\">cacophony<\/span> of horns, stuttering brakes, <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\">accelerating<\/span> diesels, and bus <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\">hydraulics<\/span>, all audible with concert-hall clarity from most any room in my old flat: <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\">Batavia<\/span> Mews<\/span>.<br><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/buddhist_philosopher\/2195122524\/in\/set-72157603688697179\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px;text-align: center;cursor: pointer;width: 375px;height: 500px\" src=\"https:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2385\/2195122524_868a7e79e6.jpg?v=0\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">I\u2019m sure if it hadn\u2019t been for the mice eating away the insulation in the walls, it would have been much quieter<\/span>.  Actually I doubt that made much difference, just another sound in the symphony which is New Cross.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s actually kind of nice to be back \u2013 knowing I don\u2019t live here, knowing there are much nicer and quieter neighborhoods not far from here, and knowing that it\u2019s all temporary in any case.  But then I do get a bit nostalgic.  We did have fun here, my flatmates and I (well, mostly not <span style=\"font-style: italic\">here<\/span>, but in travels elsewhere).  <span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Such is life.  I\u2019m off now to see my advisor, then tonight to see some of those very flatmates<\/span>.  Good times in London.<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-388967040108088625?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arriving by train from peaceful Brockley, the first thing one notices in New Cross Gate is the smell of diesel fumes. Then it\u2019s the rotting wooden stairs out of the train station that give way a little bit under each step. Then the noise\u2026 The above picture was taken about a year ago, literally leaning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The sweet smell of... New Cross<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Arriving by train from peaceful Brockley, the first thing one notices in New Cross Gate is the smell of diesel fumes. Then it&#039;s the rotting wooden stairs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/01\/the-sweet-smell-of-new-cross.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The sweet smell of... New Cross\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arriving by train from peaceful Brockley, the first thing one notices in New Cross Gate is the smell of diesel fumes. 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