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.

Happy Birthday to my [not so] little baby brother.

Happy Birthday to my [not so] little baby brother. 

You can trust me, I always look after my baby brother!

He is 37 today and he is hopefully celebrating, many miles away.   

He still has the same hair style here circa 2008 as he did in 1980!

We have always treated our birthdays as a joint celebration, usually on the 29th.   It still feels strange that he is not just down the road. 

 

I am so happy for him that is now happily ensconced in his life in Pennsylvania. 

He has worked very hard over the past few years settling into US life with his lovely new family, happily he has definitely found his place in the world.   

We are so proud of everything that you do, you work so hard and put in so much effort you need to slow down a bit 'old man'! 

Happy Birthday to the best little big brother in the world, we love you!

Flashback to our wedding on Huffington Post

Was chatting with GO and I asked whether he knew that we were featured on the Huffington Post wedding site as one of their weddings of the week.  He had no idea, which made me think how was he supposed to know these things if I don't tell him, here is a screenshot or you can click the link above to see for yourself.

Bank Holiday Shenanigans - Part 3

Bank holiday Monday is always a treat, not only does it make the weekend a three day weekend, it also makes the following week a four day week.  

Precious time together

Normally the Oxford May Day celebrations are a major event, which means that the tiny pub the G.O manages opens up very, very, very early (5 am) to provide sustenance for the many jolly individuals taking part in the celebrations.  This year the celebrations went off without a hitch (or so they say), and with May day being on the Friday before bank holiday Monday, it meant G.O was able to spend the day with me.

Bright and breezy on the Monday we set off for the big smoke, parked the car in the usual car park.  It is such good value for your money £3.00 until 4am the next day, and there is a security guard.  Got onto the Metropolitan (my 'home' tubeline for 6 years) and headed on the longest tube journey in the world (obvious exaggeration),  it only took an hour but it takes you past all of the landmark stops and onto the Dockland Light Railway (DLR), which in my opinion is one of the greatest transport inventions of all times.  I have some very fond memories of the DLR, in what was a horrendous time I had a blast.  We arrived at Custom house and it was buzzing.

Watching one of the live sessions - George Clarke's Amazing Space Woman

G.O had purchased ticket to the Grand Designs Live show, it an three day event based on the TV show of the same name.  While G.O are in no position to build, renovate or even buy our own home at this time, I love visiting the show because you never know who or what you will see/meet. At last years show not only did I meet The Renovation Man himself, we also watched a live Italian Cookery show.  "You can make it yourself itsa eezee!  Only flour, egg and water".  Each stall holder is trying to, obviously, get your custom.  I enjoy floating past them with "sorry I don't have a house!"  Why are you here? they all ask.  Reasonable enough question.  

Behind all of the architect, builders, solar panel, hot tub stalls is the food and lifestyle section.  All manner of companies are there and all are giving away free samples.  G.O and I will go past our favourite stalls three of four times and the booty we have at the end is phenomenal.  We don't ever bring or buy our lunch, if you are savvy you can be fed and watered by the stall holders themselves.  We had cheese, wine, sausages, crackers, yogurt, bread, and ice cream all given to us by the companies.  It is a veritable smorgasbord.  Not only is there food to try, there are new gadgets that have just come on to the market.  We were suckered into buying glass cleaner fluid that made my ring sparkle (I later realised it was just the lighting, hey ho), a heated back massager that is amazing at getting rid of all the knots in your neck, back and shoulders and also gives the best hand massage (no double entendre here).

Building a house inside the Exhibition centre

After about six hours of wandering around picking up freebies here and there, we decided to hit one of our new favourite places to eat My Old Dutch in Kensington, on our last visit I had overdone it a tad on the Kaasballen, so this time I knew it was all about moderation, and as always it was delicious. It was the perfect end to what has to be one of the greatest Bank Holiday weekends of my life. 

 A Hoisin Duck Pancake

It was only the tube ride back that I had a feeling of de ja vu, it was exactly a year ago that I went into the Headteacher's office at the Little Village school and offically handed my notice in.  I had told the head that I was thinking about resigning in the April (three hours before Ofsted called to say the were going to pop in and see us), but that weekend, I had no stress and had had an amazing time with G.O so I decided that I wanted a better work life balance which I wouldn't be able to achieve at that school.  Also I wanted to move, but that is another story.

This was me not overdoing it!