I like to visit, but I like to leave even more...
I had a lovely couple of days down in London with a friend - I was scheduled to be at a work training course at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich on Wednesday, so I decided I'd stay overnight and have a girly day in London the next day. Just my luck it was the hottest day of the year, and the Tube is hellish in the heat! But I survived!
I'd never been to the Old Royal Naval College before - it's beautiful. I can't imagine what it must be like to work or study in such huge grand old buildings, right on the river. It's all so impressive, open laws, colonnades, courtyards. You can see why they film so many movies there - including Thor! It was just a shame I had no time to explore - I had a quick wander in the lunchbreak of my course, but no more than that. I must definitely come back some time and do it properly.
Then I headed over to Richmond to meet my friend Melle for cake at Hummingbird Bakery and cocktails by the river before heading back to her place for a barbecue. I was utterly defeated by my huge slice of salted caramel chocolate cake (which has only ever happened once before, at the Cheesecake Factory) - I blame the heat! - and had utterly random tropical slushie cocktails that were served in bags (!), which was useful at least when sitting outside on the riverbank.
Thursday we had an afternoon tea and makeover booked on the Good Ship Benefit, so we had a leisurely morning walking the dogs in Bushy Park before heading into London. The afternoon tea was actually quite disappointing - it was an 'illusion' themed tea where all the cakes were savoury and the sandwiches sweet, which was a fun concept but the execution wasn't mind-blowing and the portions were tiny. Definitely not worth the rather steep price!
So we then wandered about Covent Garden and Soho, and visited the House of Minalima, a pop-up exhibition and shop featuring graphic art from the Harry Potter films. I was SO tempted by some of the prints for sale, particularly a Quidditch World Cup one, but just couldn't quite justify the price to myself.
We were expecting to be crazy full from the afternoon tea, but that didn't happen, so we found a small Mexican place and had amazing burritos, tacos and fresh guacamole. Ohhh, I could eat my bodyweight in guacamole. That would be bad, but I'd die happy. Then a wee pitstop at Crosstown Doughnuts for dessert and off to the train home.
Which, then that happened. There'd been a suicide on the line out of London, so all the East Midlands train were cancelled. It took about an hour or so to scrabble around with Network Rail to find out what my alternatives were, which turned out to be the slow train to Birmingham (and they weren't kidding about the slow, I think it stopped at every station in-between!) and then a change to Derby. Originally I would have been back home for just before 9pm, I eventually got home by midnight. To be greeted with grumpy hungry cats and a smoke alarm with a dead battery that beeped all damn night.
I do enjoy visiting London, but only to visit. The sheer crush of people, particularly on a beautiful summer's day, is just insane. And the Tube is straight from hell on a hot day, and when you're a shortarse like me you're just about on the right level for sweaty male armpits in the face. Joy.
I'd never been to the Old Royal Naval College before - it's beautiful. I can't imagine what it must be like to work or study in such huge grand old buildings, right on the river. It's all so impressive, open laws, colonnades, courtyards. You can see why they film so many movies there - including Thor! It was just a shame I had no time to explore - I had a quick wander in the lunchbreak of my course, but no more than that. I must definitely come back some time and do it properly.
Then I headed over to Richmond to meet my friend Melle for cake at Hummingbird Bakery and cocktails by the river before heading back to her place for a barbecue. I was utterly defeated by my huge slice of salted caramel chocolate cake (which has only ever happened once before, at the Cheesecake Factory) - I blame the heat! - and had utterly random tropical slushie cocktails that were served in bags (!), which was useful at least when sitting outside on the riverbank.
Thursday we had an afternoon tea and makeover booked on the Good Ship Benefit, so we had a leisurely morning walking the dogs in Bushy Park before heading into London. The afternoon tea was actually quite disappointing - it was an 'illusion' themed tea where all the cakes were savoury and the sandwiches sweet, which was a fun concept but the execution wasn't mind-blowing and the portions were tiny. Definitely not worth the rather steep price!
So we then wandered about Covent Garden and Soho, and visited the House of Minalima, a pop-up exhibition and shop featuring graphic art from the Harry Potter films. I was SO tempted by some of the prints for sale, particularly a Quidditch World Cup one, but just couldn't quite justify the price to myself.
We were expecting to be crazy full from the afternoon tea, but that didn't happen, so we found a small Mexican place and had amazing burritos, tacos and fresh guacamole. Ohhh, I could eat my bodyweight in guacamole. That would be bad, but I'd die happy. Then a wee pitstop at Crosstown Doughnuts for dessert and off to the train home.
Which, then that happened. There'd been a suicide on the line out of London, so all the East Midlands train were cancelled. It took about an hour or so to scrabble around with Network Rail to find out what my alternatives were, which turned out to be the slow train to Birmingham (and they weren't kidding about the slow, I think it stopped at every station in-between!) and then a change to Derby. Originally I would have been back home for just before 9pm, I eventually got home by midnight. To be greeted with grumpy hungry cats and a smoke alarm with a dead battery that beeped all damn night.
I do enjoy visiting London, but only to visit. The sheer crush of people, particularly on a beautiful summer's day, is just insane. And the Tube is straight from hell on a hot day, and when you're a shortarse like me you're just about on the right level for sweaty male armpits in the face. Joy.