Thames Festival

Well it has been a busier than expected weekend for me this weekend, unfortunately it did have to start with working on Saturday, but I thought I'd keep it a little more interesting than just work. Erin, a friend that I went to high school with back in Christchurch, invited me to come alone with her to the Thames Festival for the Saturday afternoon/evening. So I made the short 15 minute walk from work to Southbank on the Thames to start a wee adventure.

I remember the Thames Festival being on last year but never really knew how massive it was, so I never went. It basically starts by where the London Eye is and follows the Thames all the way up past Tate Modern, and goes all the way up to the area where the Gherkin is (London is too big for me to know all the areas and streets so I'm using famous building locations). Spread out alone the river is Market stalls, food stalls, arts and crafts, and there are 4 stages with live bands. This was most definitely a good late afternoon out.

It's a fabulous set up there, we walked all the way to the top and on the last bridge, there was a big set up of all these amazing looking food stalls then across the bridge they had a massive dinner table, complete with table cloth, old fashioned chairs and sunflower pot plants! Hanging along the side of the bridge was coloured fairy lights. We decided to stop, grab some food and sit here for dinner. Sitting in amongst this set up was so unreal, at one point I turned to Erin and said "this is amazing, you could never do anything like this at home, and I never thought you could do anything like his in London".



Dining table on the bridge

We stayed out until just after 9, we had to be up for an early start to Oxford the next day so we couldn't be out all night. We ended the evening by doing the Helter Skelter ride, which was a lot scarier than I thought it would be, and for a ride that has probably been around for 100 years, it was extremely fun and I will be doing that again. After the Helter Skelter we headed for the Jazz stage, drinking Pimms and having a bit of a dance seemed like a great way to end the evening. The Thames Festival had been a fab way to spend the Saturday afternoon/evening, and for those of you who will be around for it next year, I would definitely recommend it for a day or night out.

Helter Skelter

Why I love London

London is just full of so many amazing things, I think to see them all would take a very long amount of time, but what makes London so fabulous for me? I love that fact that there is just so much history here, you could walk down a street and stumble upon all sorts you never even knew existed. There is always something to do or something going on, I wouldn't know where to start with all that is to offer here, and if I tried to do it all and see it all, I would actually have no time to myself, but what made me think more about how brilliant London is? Well this right here...


The home of Beatrix Potter

A few weeks ago, Neil and I were on our way to meet some friends at a pub, I can no longer remember where we found this, but we were on our way to this pub from West Brompton station when I spotted it! The place where Beatrix Potter once lived! How cool is it to just be walking along without a care in the world when you spot something like this? I could have been looking at something over the other side of the road and completely missed it. Thank goodness I keep my camera on me 27/4 so I was able to go all touristy and take pictures. I remember when I was little I had the whole Beatrix Potter collection in a white box and Mum used to read them to me, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be where she once lived.

London is a bit like this amazing mystical place to me, and though sometimes during the week while I'm in my regular work routine I do tend to forget where I am, though I try hard not to, it becomes so easy to just go along with the whole eat, work, sleep cycle, it's moments like this when I come back to reality and realise I am in London. And though I have my ups and downs with this city, at the end of the day it is simply amazing.

Cream Tea

I've always been very fond of tea and must admit since I've been living in England my tea intake has dramatically increased. Over a month ago, for the first time, while in Bath, I had proper cream tea and it was so lovely, I then followed this up a couple of weeks ago while in Brighton by going for for cream tea again, and I will admit, I love doing this. Some of you might think that cream tea is something their Grandmother drinks, and no i most certainly do not fall into that category, but it most definitely seems to be one of the old fashioned things that seems to be making it's way back into fashion.

So what have I started doing? Making my own homemade scones to have at home with my tea. I love doing this! I have made scones a couple of weekends now and it is so much fun! Bearing in mind that I love baking anyway, but I had never really made scones before, and they are so easy, I can have a batch of scones made in 20 minutes tops! That's thanks to my trusty Edmond's cook book, which I made sure was in my bag when I moved to London. So scones and tea is now my new thing, whether it be baking them or going out to a cafe and buying them, I most certainly enjoy the whole appeal.

But to my friends, watch this space as you will more than likely be receiving an invite for a weekend afternoon to come over and enjoy a nice hot cup of tea and some freshly baked scones made by yours truly x

Birthday in Brighton

Weekend before last was my birthday, so for a birthday getaway Neil and I went down to Brighton on Friday morning for a two night stay away. Brighton wasn't where we were originally thinking of going, but had a last minute change of heart and thought we'd head there, mainly due to every ones recommendation of the town and also being the last weekend of summer. So Friday morning we jumped on the train from Victoria Station and made the short fifty minute train journey down to Brighton.

Brighton has to be the funnest place to go for a weekend away! There is a lot to do there, and isn't what you except a beach side town to be like at all. Brighton pier has all these arcade places, small snack bars and sweet shops, there is even a roller coaster! On a pier! It's nothing like I imagined, and coming from Christchurch where we have New Brighton, our 'new' Brighton is nothing like the real English Brighton at all.

The first day we just spent getting to know our way around and general exploring. We went for a nice walk along the pier, then along all the back streets of Brighton to see some of the more unknown shops and cafes. We came across a lovely looking restaurant where we decided to come back for my birthday dinner. It was a wonderful way to be spending my birthday, just walking around seeing this new place, relaxing, not having a care in the world and not having to keep an eye on the time. This birthday was definitely the best thanks to Neil making it such a wonderful day.

Games on Brighton Beach

Saturday morning Neil and I went to the Royal Pavilion, where King George spent his time in Brighton in the late 1700's early 1800's. This building looks like a typical English Kings far less glamorous version of the Taj Mahal on the outside, and on the inside it seems to have had a lot of Chinese influence, all in all though, this is a lovely place to walk around in and explore and even luckier the audio guide is free for use as well. After spending about an hour touring the Royal Pavilion we headed out to see some more of Brighton, and dodging the rain we went and had a look at all the talked about Lanes. The lanes are great, they have small nifty shops and cafes, market stalls are crammed into these little narrow lanes and there are people everywhere, but the atmosphere is fantastic and it was great to see a less commercial side of Brighton. After this we headed back to the sea front we're we spend some more time walking along the promenade and playing in the arcade on the Pier.

Royal Pavilion

Saturday night we headed out for a few drinks to check out some of Brighton's bars. First stop was a place called the Black Dove, a small cocktail bar with a '40's themed approach, it was a fantastic way to kick off our Saturday night out, and the cocktails at the Black Dove are amazing, anyone planning on going to Brighton this is definitely my recommendation for a pre-drink night out. We then started to make our way more into central Brighton, though we didn't get very far as we managed to stumble along the Mucky Duck, and it was karaoke night, so the rest of the night Neil and I spent singing along to karaoke.

Sunday, last day in Brighton, and though sad to be leaving we had seen what we wanted and had a great weekend away. So Sunday was a take it easy day before having to catch the afternoon train back to London, we went for one last walk around, which was so nice to just mill about. Still dodging the rain, when we had a sunny break we made a stop for cream tea (tea and scones). After we'd spent the best part of an hour or so drinking tea, eating scone, and talking about all sorts we thought we'd make our way back to Brighton Pier for one last walk around the pier and the beach. We also thought we'd try our luck one more time on one of those games were you use that claw thing to try and get out a soft toy. They had an Angry Birds one there, and we'd probably spent enough money over the course of the weekend to go out and just buy one of the birds, but I had 30p left in my purse and thought I'd give it one last go before heading back to London. So putting my 30p in the machine moving the claw over a bird to get it, the craw went in, gripped a hold of the bird and lifted it into the air. At this point this had happened enough to us already over the course of the weekend, but both of us froze to see what happened, I think we most likely stopped breathing. The claw started to move towards the drop point and dropped the bird in!! Neil and I both yelped with excitement! We'd finally one a toy from these machines!! So off we went for a walk along the beach with our new Angry Bird in hand.

On Brighton beach with our new Angry Bird.

After the fabulous birthday weekend away it was time to be packing up and heading towards Brighton station to head back to London.

Brighton is a wonderful place to get away for a weekend, or even for a day, and I would most definitely recommend it. By far this weekend trip away has been one of the best weekend getaways I’ve had and also the best birthday I’ve had x

I'm still here

I have been a bit blog anti-social lately and not writing as many blogs as I would like, London life is so busy and sometimes I wonder where all my time as gone. I don't want to be one of those people that seems to always have the "I'm to busy" excuse for everything, but sometimes when it comes to writing a new blog or going out and doing something around London, London will take priority.

I find myself reading other blogs and I do wonder where all these bloggers seem to get their time from! I am rather envious of this and would love to sometimes have a day that went on for a few more hours, or even just have a devoted couple of hours for me time at some stage during the week.

So my goal for the next two weeks, is to catch up on all my blogs I am yet to write, as well as still get out and keep exploring (I have a day trip to Oxford coming up with some girlfriend's this weekend and I am very excited). So note that I am still here, and watch this space for exciting new blogs.

xox