We had a busy weekend just gone that started with a visit to Paul and Lorraine
with Sue’s sister Deb so that the girls could pre-prepare some of the curry
dishes for Lorraine’s forthcoming birthday. While the girls were busy in the
kitchen Paul and I settled in to watch Edge of Tomorrow with a beer or two.
On Saturday Sue and I ventured out into the big smoke of London town
using our Two Together discount rail card and prepay Oyster card to navigate
the public transport system. We were going out to a gig in the evening but as
it wasn’t schedule to finish until the wee small hours we booked to stay overnight
in the Ibis Euston St Pancras budget hotel next to the station. We dropped our
back off at the hotel (a clean and modern affair with good facilities and friendly,
helpful staff) and then we ventured out to do some Christmas shopping (early
for us this year due to our holiday plans in December). We were looking to
start with a coffee but ended up at a nearby real ale pub called The Bree Louise and had to sample a couple of the many refreshments on offer with lunch,
leaving before the rugby started. In town we made good headway with our
shopping interspersing this onerous activity with a lovely coffee at Café Vergnano1882 on Charing Cross Rd and a visit to see the Grayson Perry exhibition ‘who are you?’ at the National Portrait Gallery (we greatly enjoyed his work and
loved the ‘comfort blanket’ tapestry). We finished our shopping at the fabulous
Foyles before starting to make our way towards the hotel again. As we were
passing through the Bloomsbury area the heavens opened and we ducked into a
nearby Greek restaurant, Konaki, where we had a lovely meal and waited for the
rain to ease enough for us to continue back to the hotel (picking a bottle of
wine up on the way) and putting our feet up before we headed off to the gig
later that evening. The event was at the Forum in Kentish Town and was
headlined by the Berlin Acid Jazz band Jazzanova supported by UK Jazz/Hip-Hop band
The Herbaliser and also Rodney P, Werkha, Slowly Rolling Camera, DJ Irk and
Cosmo Lopez! The acts were good but as is the case with this venue the music
was loud and bass heavy meaning some of the subtlety of the performances (such
as lyrics and proper instruments) was sacrificed for a thumping beat. It was
due to end at 2am but we were exhausted and left at around 1am, catching the
bus back into town and to the comfort of the hotel.
It was Remembrance Sunday the next day and we saw a moving commemoration
at Victoria station as we waited for our train home. Once home we decided to
take advantage of the glorious weather and drove out to the RHS Wisley Gardens
where we strolled around in the sunshine for the afternoon before returning
home for a roast beef dinner and an early night.
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