Been a bit cold ain’t it?!...
But, in London at least, it’s been super sunny – how very
lovely.
I’ve been doing quite a lot this week; some fun, some not
so much. And on that note, Tuesday I was at a training day at one of our
offices over in West Kensington. It ran from 9am until about 4.15pm but it felt
a lot, lot longer… The rest of the
week was much better though! On Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I met up with
friends for dinner which involved a couple of beers, lots of laughing, and
learning of an amazing recipe ‘cake in a mug’! As we wandered down Oxford
Street (‘oooh’ing and ‘aaah’ing at all the Christmas lights), Gemma introduced
me for the first time to the Selfridges Food Hall and Christmas window displays
– pretty impressive!
I’ve also been making progress with planning my trip to
NZ/Oz in April next year (ages away, I know but I’m excited!) and have found
flights and options for getting around bits of NZ – I really should learn to
drive at some point…but not right now. Already wishing I had more than 4 weeks
but I’ll definitely be making the most of it!
 |
| Where the author met the inspiration for the story |
Friday was Children in Need and I was fully prepared for
staying awake until the VERY END for the first time ever… I failed. And if I’m
honest, and possibly controversial, I thought it was all a bit… ‘meh’ this
year. From the awful CiN2011 song by The Collective (entered the charts at #24…)
and the cringey EastEnders Queen medley to the awkward and unfunny Dragons Densketch it was all somewhat disappointing. I donated so I feel OK slagging it off
a bit and I know they do great work with all the money raised. And if you want
to check out another organisation doing something equally amazing please visit
THIS FACBOOK GROUP.
 |
| Memorial in the sunshine |
This weekend was the last until late January that I didn’t
have any plans so I probably should have spent it with my feet up watching
films and doing nothing much else… instead, on Saturday morning I headed to
Lancaster Gate to visit Hyde Park for the first time. I walked round the edge
of the Serpentine and past the famous(?) Peter Pan statue, the more famous(!) Princess
of Wales Memorial, and finally into the Winter Wonderland – a mix between
German Christmas market and huge fun fair. I jumped back on the tube to
Waterloo where I walked down to Royal Festival Hall – lots of people were
wandering in…so I followed! There was a photography exhibition on so I had a
look around and then had a brew and a seat facing the stage. All of a sudden
the lights dimmed and a jazz band appeared on the stage and started playing!
Turns out I’d wandered in on the BBC Radio 3 Jazz Festival!...which was nice.
After listening for a while I made a move between bands (I'm still unsure whether I was supposed to have a ticket for it!!) and headed out towards the
South Bank where I found yet another German Christmas market! All these markets
and not a single Bratwurst for me – I’m saving that for Manchester in few weeks
time.
 |
| The Serpentine and fun fair |
 |
| Playing games on Brick Lane |
Today I headed to find out what all the Brick Lane hype
is about… and I wasn’t disappointed! What an awesome area… Sunday is the big
market day and I visited a fair few. Before I got to Brick Lane I walked around
Spitalfields Market, Petticoat Lane Market, Up Market (love what they’ve done
there..), Backyard Market and Boiler House Market!! All very different, but all
great. Favorites were Spitalfields – where I saw several things I’d like to add
to the Wish List and Up Market – where I saw more food from more different
countries in one place than I ever have before. And this all happens EVERY
Sunday! Before heading back I had to try one of the Brick Lane Beigal Bake’s
beigals, open 24hrs a day and always busy apparently – smoked salmon and cream
cheese for me – best £2 I spent all day.
 |
| Scran! |
I’ve got three 4-day weeks coming up! That means I’ll
more than likely not be able to post blogs until Tuesdays, maybe even Wednesdays…
but I will get round to it at some point in the week. I’m always keen to make
sure I have something write at the end of the week and keep these interested
but as a wise man has just told me, ‘not every week can be exciting love’. No,
they can’t, he’s right… but I think I’m doing OK for now. Next stop, Durham.
Until next time,
Bren x
PS, Been watching Grease whilst writing this - still fabulous. And yes, I do know all the words!
Some other pictures from the weekend:
 |
| Wheel |
 |
| German Markets |
 |
| Gherkin |
 |
| Hyde Park - sunshine |
No comments:
Post a Comment