Playing tourist again

This was a busy weekend, which is not unusual anymore! One of the things we found while we were living in Ottawa was that we had gotten into a rut on the weekends. We tended to wake up in the morning and putt around the house asking what we wanted to do that day. By the time we set off it was already lunchtime and invariably we just ended up going to the mall or some such thing. So here we have pledged to try to make the most of our weekends - we won't be here forever, so we'll try to see and do as much as we can.

On Saturday we took a little jaunt up to check out Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill. This is the market and area featured in the film Notting Hill. (We didn't see Hugh Grant or Julia Roberts, though.) This market is famed for its antique market on Saturdays, and it being a lovely summer Saturday, it was packed. I am not much on crowds, so I can't claim to have enjoyed this part, but once we got through there and into the fruit and veg section the crowds thinned a little bit. We brought Buggy on this outing, and he was very well behaved, and only tried to lick a pastry at one stall. ;) This meant his second tube ride, and he did well. This time we brought paper towels to wipe up after him. We wandered around and bought some fresh vegetables to make a salad for the party we were going to later, and then headed home. Of course we didn't go without our camera and the photos are here.

In the late afternoon we attended a garden party hosted by the practice manager at my clinic. We've been having a bit of a heat wave here with weather more like we are used to at home, so it was lovely to sit out in the garden with a glass of sangria and visit with my colleagues in a social setting. From there we caught the train back into London and hopped over to Fulham Broadway to see a movie. We went to see the Dark Knight (the new Batman movie) and it was fabulous!

Yesterday we went on another day trip and headed down to Brighton on the southern coast. Brighton is an interesting city in that it doesn't have that "old" feeling that so much of England has, yet parts of it are just as ancient. This is apparently in part due to most of the city being burned down in the 1500s during a raid by the French. Only the Lanes remain from earlier than this. The seafront is actually a bit rundown, but that didn't dampen our enjoyment of the day. The beach is rock and goes on for miles and miles, and is very wide. Brighton sits on the English Channel, so of course the first thing I did was go and wade in the water in order to have been in the Channel. It was a gorgeous day, hot and sunny (ooops, got a bit sunburned!), so of course the people were out in droves, but it never felt overly crowded either. We mostly just wandered for the day, with no real agenda. We stopped at a little cafe on the beach for breakfast, then wandered along the beach for awhile taking photos. Then we walked back to Brighton Pier, which is an amusement park built out over the water. We didn't go on any rides, just watched other people taking that risk, had an ice cream and wandered some more. We eventually stopped in at a beachside restaurant for a Pimms and some lunch before leaving the beach and making our way up to the Lanes. This area (the oldest part of Brighton) is a maze of tiny streets and alleys which are now filled with shops and restaurants galore. Nearby is the Royal Pavilion, built for the Prince Regent in the 1800s, which we admired from the outside but didn't go in as we felt the admission price was a bit extreme. At the end of the day we walked back to the train station and got the train to London, and both of us slept the whole way home! We arrived home tired and sunburned, having thoroughly enjoyed the day. Photos are here.

My final excitement for the weekend is that I bought a drinks pitcher and glasses, so now I have myself a Pimms set for guests. So all of those planning to visit, get ready to have some Pimms! I'm not sure if I've talked about Pimms on this blog, but it's an English drink, something I'd never had before and only heard about in British books. It's served mixed with lemonade and with fresh fruit (citrus fruit, strawberries, etc) and mint. And it's yummy. I have a mint plant potted in the garden for the sole purpose of serving Pimms, and now that I have a pitcher guests beware!

So this week begins the influx of guests. My friend J (my oldest friend in the world!) and her sister S are arriving on Thursday for 2 weeks in Merry Olde England. They won't be in London the whole time, but will be around quite a bit. I'm looking forward to some time showing J the sights. Not that I'm an expert! And as she is my best shopping friend, I may take her into some of the London shops as well. :D Then the day after they leave the PetParents are arriving! So much going on! It'll be nice to break up the day-to-day routine a bit now that it's actually becoming a routine.

It has just rained a little bit, and I wonder if that means the end of this heat wave? That was probably it - 5 nice days and now summer is over! One of the interesting things in England compared to Canada is the air conditioning (or lack thereof). It's just not needed the same way. Sure, some places have AC but even then it isn't as ice cold as it tends to be in Canada. But it does mean that when it does get hot you really feel it. We are fortunate to be in the lower ground floor flat as it stays a bit cooler during the heat. I wonder if it'll be cold in the winter but the landlord (and previous tenant) tells us that in fact it stays warmer through the winter because the upper floors keep it insulated or some such thing. We'll see.

Well my laptop battery is running out, which I will take as a sign that this blog entry is long enough! I'd best go plug it in before I lose the whole thing! Until later!