What a nice surprise

Hey C, I've booked the Cricket club tomorrow night for my mums suprise 60th birthday party. If you and GO aren't busy you're more than welcome to come. Got a band booked, pie & peas so plenty of dancing. I didn't invite you both earlier because you don't really know my mum and M didn't think you'd want to come but then I thought we're all family and my mum is lovely so if your free and fancy a dance your more than welcome to come xxx 

We had nothing planned, and as GO said, you can only turn people down so often before they stop asking.   We arrived at the club and we're greeted by GO's brother, shortly after Finlaw and Minlaw arrived.  It was a great evening and a real surprise for the birthday girl.  The band, which I thought were called Pie and Peas, were brilliant. They had me up dancing from the start, but as I said to GO if I don't dance then I have to talk to people.  

London Baby

It was so nice to visit my old stomping ground.  Yes we always visit London every year at Christmas and during the summer holidays, but we never venture further than zone one. We had left booking our hotel until the last minute, surprise surprise, and were planning on giving AirBNB a try, hipster wannabes that we are.  I had mentioned it at school and the few people who had heard of it weren't overly enthusiastic about it, so I decided to give it a miss this time.  That left us with nowhere to stay, Tall Girl 1, had offered us some space on her floor, just as I was about to take her up on her offer GO had booked a hotel. It was a travelodge (nothing wrong with cheap and cheerful, especially in London) and it was in the Docklands.  Right around the corner from Custom House where I lived when I first moved to London, all those many moons ago.  See, before I was a North Londoner, I was an Eastender.  

We arrived and almost immediately I took charge (what's new there) I got us onto the tube towards Tower Hill (Hello Babs and Rog) we then changed onto the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) towards Bank and settled in for a relatively pain free journey.  Until we arrived at Custom House which was closed, I was convinced that we had gone a stop too far and made GO get off the train and walk around the EXCEL building towards the hotel.  It was after we had gone down the lift that I decided to just check on the phone.  I have tapped the screen a few times and as if by magic the hotel popped up along with our location. We/I were/was going the wrong way, and we hadn't missed our stop we had gotten off the DLR three stops early.  Anyhow we added a nice big total to our Fitbits that day, a theme for the week that had begun on our Saturday walk.  

As we settled into the hotel we decided that while we both knew London really well, especially the North and West sides,  we'd explore more of the East and South East.  We decided to spend our time in the Docklands, Greenwich, and Canary Wharf.  What fun we had,  more on the later.

London Baby

I had originally planned to meet up with a couple of my besties this weekend.

I wasn't feeling great, I wasn't up for a big night out.  I fancied just meeting up for a meal and a good natter.

We said this it was decided to postpone the evening for a couple of weeks.

As GO had already booked the time off we decided to go into the Big Smoke and just have some fun.

We did the tourist thing visiting Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square,Trafalgar, Covent Garden, Parliment Square and The South Bank. 

It was so much fun being a tourist again.

Reminiscing about our time living in London (separately) and the fun we had.

We even managed to find a few places we had never been to before.

We stopped off for a lovely dinner and went all out with a three course meal.

The venue had a very nineteen twenties vibe.  I won't spoil anything by telling you what the venue was called (oh, alright it

was Nando's).

We felt we must visit the M and M world.

GO bought £100 worth of chocolate (I'm sure it wasn't far off that price).

I got a reasonably priced Christmas decoration. A little M&M wreath.

We spent a lot of time in the shop, it stank of chocolate and made me feel quite queasy.

We then made our way to Trafalgar Square to marvel at the "new" fourth plinth display, a horse's skeleton.

We visited The Clarence Pub, which GO used to work in in 2000.  

He reminisced with the staff behind the bar and swapped tales of working in the pub.

He persuaded me to write his name on the wall so that when we return we can see it.

We made our way toward the London Eye and just marvelled at how Bustly London is st night.