you'll have noticed a small break from the ordinary around here. yes, i've been busy. little old me; busy! who'da thunk it! i promise the rest of the travel tales are coming... soon. but before that, let me tell you about a thing that happened while i was off gallivanting around the cotswolds last weekend...
what happened was that this wee smily cherub you see below - dee, was making plans. plans that involved her getting on a plane on sunday afternoon from adelaide, and me heading to heathrow around lunch time on monday to collect her... a spur of the moment, time to collect some thoughts, holiday on a whim type affair. well, it was a surprise, but a bloody nice one, let me tell you. she's staying with me this week, and will be heading home again on tuesday. short but sweet, and plenty of time for me to show her all my favourite london things. so, without further ado, let me show you what we got up to on tuesday...
ok so monday night i may have taken her out in new cross and got her drunk with my mates and made her sleep on my mate's sofa. probably not the nicest way to sleep off a 24 hour flight, but.. harden up. this is london. she was lucky there was a sofa! i kid. well, kinda. so we made the walk of shame home from new cross just after 8, and the weather was bleak. she was smug because she has in her mind that london is some twee foggy town. i've tried telling her about our summer, but she looks at me with disdain and laughs. like i forget where i come from or something.
we fed the hangovers, washed, changed and headed out. the weather was no better. i'd been wanting to check out the poppies at the tower of london for ages, and so that was our first stop. we got off the tube at shadwell and walked the back streets of east london until the overflowing floral exhibition was in our sights... it was soooo pretty. and a bit haunting too. over 888,000 ceramic poppies have been "planted" in the moat of the tower; one in memory of each man lost during world war one... truly a fabulous display of commemoration. if you get a chance to see it, do. it runs right through until november 11th (rememberance day), and it's totally free too.
from there, we made our way over tower bridge and along the southbank. we stopped in at borough market, and i was pleasantly surprised to find that a lot of the vendors were actually trading... on a tuesday! i mean, the market stalls were not all open, but a lot of the foodie stalls were, which meant one thing: pulled pork bap lunch! i introduced dee to her first english pimms (ever), and we happily slurped on them as we walked the rest of bankside, me pointing out things of note as we walked; millennium footbridge (she's a harry potter fan), shakespeare's globe, st. pauls, the tate, westminster and big ben, as well as regale her with informative facts about london that i probably made up but hopefully retained from my best london walking tour a few weeks ago.
we walked and walked and walked, and before we knew it, we were banging on liz's front gates. she wasn't home though, which was a shame as i would have quite liked to intro the two of them, but alas, being so close to central then, and with madge not being in, we kept heading in. i hadn't really set out a plan for the day, we were just going to see where the day took up, but so far... it had taken us about four miles across london. it was almost three pm, and we had plans to meet some of my old work mates at four, so... we headed up into soho so i could show her the real tourist spots.
carnaby street. shaftsbury avenue. piccadilly circus. liberty. johnny cupcakes. dahlia. monki... you know, all the important shops on carnaby street. totally more interesting and important and meeting the queen at her giant house. so. that happened. four o'clock came, and so we headed back to my old local haunt, gem bar, to meet my old crew. the next couple of hours were spent laughing, catching up, and consuming all of the pretentious cocktails. oh, and then wahaca... because that's how i roll.
that was dee's first full day in london, and also - funnily enough, her first night in a bed since she left adelaide on sunday. so, when we pulled up back at my flat after ten that night, we were both absolutely shattered. with a list as long as her arm ticked off and seen with her own eyes, dee was certainly not regretting her last minute holiday planning, not one little bit.
from there, we made our way over tower bridge and along the southbank. we stopped in at borough market, and i was pleasantly surprised to find that a lot of the vendors were actually trading... on a tuesday! i mean, the market stalls were not all open, but a lot of the foodie stalls were, which meant one thing: pulled pork bap lunch! i introduced dee to her first english pimms (ever), and we happily slurped on them as we walked the rest of bankside, me pointing out things of note as we walked; millennium footbridge (she's a harry potter fan), shakespeare's globe, st. pauls, the tate, westminster and big ben, as well as regale her with informative facts about london that i probably made up but hopefully retained from my best london walking tour a few weeks ago.we walked and walked and walked, and before we knew it, we were banging on liz's front gates. she wasn't home though, which was a shame as i would have quite liked to intro the two of them, but alas, being so close to central then, and with madge not being in, we kept heading in. i hadn't really set out a plan for the day, we were just going to see where the day took up, but so far... it had taken us about four miles across london. it was almost three pm, and we had plans to meet some of my old work mates at four, so... we headed up into soho so i could show her the real tourist spots.
carnaby street. shaftsbury avenue. piccadilly circus. liberty. johnny cupcakes. dahlia. monki... you know, all the important shops on carnaby street. totally more interesting and important and meeting the queen at her giant house. so. that happened. four o'clock came, and so we headed back to my old local haunt, gem bar, to meet my old crew. the next couple of hours were spent laughing, catching up, and consuming all of the pretentious cocktails. oh, and then wahaca... because that's how i roll.that was dee's first full day in london, and also - funnily enough, her first night in a bed since she left adelaide on sunday. so, when we pulled up back at my flat after ten that night, we were both absolutely shattered. with a list as long as her arm ticked off and seen with her own eyes, dee was certainly not regretting her last minute holiday planning, not one little bit.
i certainly didn't mind having a good reason to bunk off work and spend the day with one of my best friends either to be fair. hey, tell me about your tuesday?
