Hit the Road Jack

Today I move into my corporate housing at Tower Hill, Byward St, Flat 9. How else to celebrate but to christen the place with some friends and food. It was going to be a big day. Simon and I decided to take the easy way out and call a cab with our 4 suitcases plus. We arrived and OMG! Thanks Uncle Ernie!

I have an amazing bedroom and living room window view of Tower of London (literally at my doorstep) and the Tower Bridge! Once I had decided that I had sufficiently found everything I could possibly ask for, it was time to head off to Borough Market.

Now Huong had told me about this place before I left for London. If anyone knows me, they know I'm a market girl. Perhaps it was the regular Sunday trips to the local Farmer's Market in VA Beach that got me addicted to it all. Borough market was what I expected and more....overwhelmingly more! Note to self, when in a rush to cook dinner for a get together - do not try to do this at Borough Market - especially your first trip to Borough market. I felt like I was on that Dinner Impossible show on the Food Network. I couldn't find anything I needed!! Perhaps it was too late in the day, perhaps it was my internal monetary conversion aversion (holy crap! you mean a cut of prime rib costs $42 dollars!!).

After not being able to find what I wanted, and rushing through what I'm sure what would have been a really pleasant lazy Saturday morning activity, I ran off to the closest Sainsbury Local grocery that I could find. What I found was NOTHING! So then I shamelessly asked the fruit guy at Sainsbury where the nearest Tesco was, and I ran to Tesco Metro. What I found as my beef option was "Traditional English Beef Cut."I'm sorry but what the heck is that?? If I had only had my camera out! So I went with it. Can you feel my frustration??

A couple of crazy moments later, Tony, Bintal, and Chris showed up - yay! After dinner the plan was to go to a roof top bar with a nice view. [Like how I skipped the part about eating dinner?]

We ended up at Vertigo 42 at the top of International Financial Centre Tower 42 on Old Broad St. At Vertigo, Chris was nice enough to buy the group a round of champagne (yes, we did). Well, it was all they had to serve - no spirits. But heck - it was an amazing view.

Then we all piled into a cab and headed into Shoreditch to the Light bar. After deciding with a random girl that we would turn it into a dance party, and 2 pint glasses later (now placed on my shelf), I have a place to call home.
......Well at least for the next 30 days when Uncle Ernie says - Hit the Road!

Waterloo

It was looking like it was going to turn out to be a really nice day in London. Simon and I decided to make the most of it and head to Hyde Park. After going to the Serpentine Art Gallery, Simon decided he wanted to take me rowing along the Serpentine. He rowed me all the way from one end to the other.

After Hyde Park we decided to head back to Notting Hill to see if we could do some shopping. It was a whole different area compared to the scene from the festival. We made our way towards Portabello Rd and on the way, found a myriad of vintage clothing shops, antique jewelry, kitschy fun, and most surprisingly a burst of sun! Very strategically placed as we turned the corner around a pub called Sun in Splendor.

Privacy sidebar: I have found it customary for people to post their opt-out preferences right on their door!!

After a very long day of walking about, Simon and I retreated to Atlas restaurant/pub near Mike's place, one of their favorite dining spots. We both had sausage a mash, even though we had seen a pretty disgusting documentary on what is really in sausage the night before. Then we went to the cinema nearby to watch Mama Mia. We walked out humming ABBA because we couldn't help ourselves.

Run Baby Run

Simon's turn to choose the adventure. We decided to take the westbound District Line train to Kew Gardens, which has extensive gardens and botanical glasshouses. Simon had heard about a treetop walk-way and had been talking about it all week - I was imagining something from those Asian films where they run through the tree-tops. According to Wikipedia, "a new treetop walkway opened on May 24th, 2008. This walkway is 18 m high and 200 m long and takes visitors into the tree canopy of a woodland glade." After walking up the staircase, I thought I was a bit winded and didn't notice at first - but I soon found that I was not going crazy and yes, the walkway is not steady - it sways. Kew Gardens covers a lot of land and it was good to know that nature was only a few tube stops away.

















Another goal of this day trip was to get some much needed exercise (even through we'd been walking soo much over the last couple of days). So we sported our running shoes and decided to run from Kew Gardens to Richmond. It was a great thought in theory, but not having run in a while, it was a bit of a struggle. But we made it.




















We ran all the way to a boat parked at Richmond that was serving food and we ate on the top desk. The boats and the overall all scenery were soooo classic. We saw tons of tug boats and row boats and even watched a man carving out a row boat.















I went into work for a meeting (although I had not yet officially started) and I met the Director that had helped me on the UK side come to London. I supplied him with a Sams Club size box of Ziploc Double Zip Freezer bags - a special request that he had made for his mother in law before I arrived. I remember thinking at the time - if they don't have Ziplocs what else do they not have??


Later that evening, Simon and I met up with his college/uni buddies at the Porterhouse (very popular - almost too popular) pub in Covent Garden. After a couple of pints we decided we were hungry and made our way to Wagamamas with Tony leading the way. We managed to get a table with the group. I sat next to one of Simon's friends' from Mauritius, Rich. Funny thing...the next day I got an email from Holly about one of our friends who is moving to Mauritius.

Waiting on an Angel

We had our rental car for a few more hours in the morning so we took a road trip to Windsor Castle. It was quite impressive and a true testament of the past - well, if you ignore the Starbucks, McDonald's, and Cellphones4U that surround the castle. We didn't have much time, nor did we feel like paying the entrance fee to see the castle so we walked around the perimeter. Simon found a gazillion of his favorite trees after his year long search.

We stopped at the crookedest house in Windsor and on our way back to the car we ran into a street parade of guards in full uniform marching through the main street - perhaps the changing of the guard?

Prior to my arrival I had done some independent polling research amongst all the Brits I knew, trying to get some idea on options of where to live. Angel/Islington/Upper Street received the most consistent marks. I verified those results with guide books and read that there was youth, nightlife, live music, coffeehouses, etc. As we approached the "Way Out" of the Angel tube stop and proceeded towards Upper St, I braced myself and cautiously lowered my expectations. What I found instead....simply put.....Angel is perfect!!!!

Great big trees lining Upper St and flowers hanging from the median, cute shops, and restaurants galore. For icing on the cake, in the middle of Upper Street there is a huge metal structure shaped in the formation of Angel wings that are perched above the Angel Flower Shop. The shop had hydrangeas larger than the size of my head (for those who know me that flower rivals my favorite magnolia). They also had super miniature lemon and olive trees - granted they were 40 pounds per pot!!!

We checked out the Angel cuisine and ventured into The Angelic on Liverpool St. It was fantastic - lots of energy, big cushy leather chairs to sit and relax and a second floor with much of the same.

When I walked around I got excited about thoughts of entertaining visitors - most definitely! There's even a nearby Hilton in the middle of Upper St. We thought about going to watch the sing a long version of the Mama Mia movie but decided against. We also thought we'd watch a live music gig but passed when heard a taste of it. So we called it an early night, went back to Earl's Court and stopped into a Blockbuster. And yes, I got a Blockbuster card before I was able to get a phone.

Arrivals Gate

Straight out of the arrivals gate we rented a car. True to expectation the sky was grey. We drove north to Letchworth, where Mike's parents live to get a spare set of keys to Mike's house (thank you Mike). In classic tradition, Mike's mom served us English scones with butter and home made blackberry jam. Then we headed to London – to Mike's house in Earl's Court to drop off our luggage.

My pre-departure independent research uncovered that Monday, August 25th would be the annual Notting Hill festival (every August bank holiday since 1966). We went to the festival, not knowing what to expect. We found a lot of rump shakin, rockin jams, and smells of roast jerk chicken. The streets were filled with spectators and the main streets were set alive by load speakers loaded into large trucks, dancers in carnival costumes, and puppeteers.

We spectated with Red Stripe in hand as even the police were pulled into rump shaking activities. It was a much different Notting Hill that we had experienced last new year, when we went to Beach Blanket Babylon, where the scene was very much posh and uppity.

Side note about London – there are few to no public trash cans. And when you do find one....well....

We made it safely out of the carnival commotion; however, for a split second, I did become concerned about being trampled while in line for the tube. The next day's headlines indicated that later in the night the crowds turned to riot – good thing I had decided to wear ridiculous heels to the festival, which meant we had to leave fairly early as my feet began hurting.

Simon's turn to lead the way – we headed to the city and ended up at Icebar London. 12 pounds got us entrance to the bar, furry ponchos with mittens attached, and a free absolute passionfruit contained in an ice block cup formation. This place was the size of my old bedroom, not as grand as we had imagined – but literally very cool.

By then we were hungry. I saw the sign for O'Neills. Yes, I know we had one in Charlottesville – but after a day of all of the new London culture, it would be okay to slip into something somewhat comfortable. In classic form, I ordered....you guessed it, fish and chips.

Best formula for avoiding jet lag.....take the red eye to London, arrive on Notting Hill carnival, take a shot of Absolut, and top off with fish and chips.