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As we round the half way mark on our little holiday we gave ourselves a week in London before we could close the European chapter of this story. But since Clare lived there for 6 years and I've been there a few times, we didn't feel an urgent need to do all the touristy stuff (although we still did walk under the London Eye and saw Big Ben).
We arrived in Hackney and met up with Clare's family friends Marie and Brian at the trendy community garden they own. Here we caught up over a beer or two in between a myriad of random and interesting people coming into the garden to discuss with Marie and Brian what plans they had on how to use their garden as a venue for a Paella party or a Birds of Prey show… or to pick their minds on how to run a community garden in Norway. We eventually left and had dinner at their ex-favourite Vietnamese take-away that went from cheap & cheerful to ultra-contemporary & overpriced. But still... the soft shell crab was good!!
We ventured into the city for a nosey about and ended up in the extremely colourful m&m world: 4 levels of confectionary paraphernalia and good times!! The staff were dancing and looking like they were having a pretty good time, and you could buy anything that's ever been made with an m&m logo on it. We got our little bag to fill up with m&m's of every different colour, peanut centre, crisp centre etc. which you dispensed from these big clear tubes full of m&m's. What we didn't see coming was that when the chick weighed them she would ask for £10!! £10 for a bag of m&m's!! I expected half that. So I gathered my breath and we continued our day… luckily enough the m&m's did last almost the whole time we were in London, so in hindsight maybe not such bad value after all.
In the spirit of nostalgia we visited Clare's old apartment in Clapham Common and had a finger lickin' good BBQ pork rib dinner just around the corner. After which we caught up with Clare's recently engaged friends Emily and Oli for a drink before my old mate The Dog showed up. Clare and I parted ways with our respective friends at this point, but the one thing we did both do was have quite a messy night indeed! The next day, nursing mild-medium sized hangovers, we struggled through a trip to the city to the incredibly busy Borough Market… which was very impressive! The range of quality food and drink was huge. I even had a fancy-pants fruit shake with wheatgrass in it to replenish my lost energy.
Later we caught up again with my mate and some of his friends to go 10 pin bowling, which of course was hilariously fun. Bowling pretty much always is, isn't it? I even let Clare beat me (well, that's what I'm telling myself). Another messy night back at Dog's place ensured the next day would not be too productive… but with the cold, cloudy and drizzly weather in London, that was not a bad thing.
Bring on the heat of Miami!!
Daz
- comments
Pat Again another really interesting blog to read, if I close my eyes a picture of what your describing is played out, some parts even the messy nights and the "next day" are vivid, what a great trip this has been. Luv pat