Pull up a cosy chair and get comfortable – I have so much to tell you. It has been quite a week of colourful excitement, fun and frolics. It’s been my birthday week so let me suggest a mug of hot chocolate topped with chocolate drizzled marshmallows…. Why not? Or if you fancy a Martini Espresso do join me in a moment…
In the meantime what about a journey back in time in my special phone booth… I am getting older by the minute… on the bright side I’m not as ancient as these dinosaurs
We have a tradition in my family – my mum and dad decided that birthdays should last longer than a day. So when it’s anyone’s birthday we celebrate for a whole darn week! Not just a single day, we like to make it last, and last and last, …. ad infinitum.
So my fun week started off last Sunday with a trip to London with my two daughters. We made quite a day of it visiting Camden food market, (eating yummy Beef Rendang – which is a spicy Malaysian dish,) walking along the river from Camden food market, and then taking a bus to Covent garden, as the tube station was shut. My poor wee legs.
Here’s some photos that I’d like to share with you.
My keen photographer daughter Georgina is on the right clutching her camera, Natasha is to the left of her, our model for the day!
What about a little oriental charm along the way? A beautiful Chinese restaurant that we discovered floating on the water!http://www.fengshang.co.uk/
We were in search of graffiti to photograph and we found plenty.
Sometimes you need someone special in the foreground to make it especially interesting….
What else did I do this week?
I went to a make up evening with my youngest daughter – the launch party for the new John Lewis beauty hall which was great fun. I nearly won the raffle prize but unfortunately I lost it by one number. My raffle ticket was something like 365, and the winning number was 364. A bit of a disappointment – but life isn’t all about winning, is it? It’s about experiences. Doing the things you love with the family and friends you love. That’s what truly counts.
I bought a couple of new books at Ruth Hatfield’s book launch. I’ve got a bit of catching up to do, I read the first in this series a while ago:
I went out for a lovely birthday lunch with my hubby, and youngest daughter.
So before this week ends I’d just like to raise a glass to you, my followers, to thank you for your continued support in this here blog. It means the world to me. In fact I’d love to raise a glass of Espresso Martini to you.
Cheers. Love ya..from the real me, no cartoon this time!
The Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Part Time Monster There is a link up: Link Up Linky. Do click on the this link to see all the wonderful coffee share posts and perhaps join in too.
If we were having coffee I’d say that my favourite has to be a Cappucino with lots of chocolate on top, perhaps shaped in a frothy heart. What’s yours? Do come and sit by me on this comfy sofa – I’ve got quite a story to tell you.. There are lots of photos of London that I want to show you – Camden, and Covent Garden too, so don’t gulp down your coffee and disappear, or you’ll miss out on all the fun. Oh, and there’s also a little something about NCS Live in London- my daughter won a couple of tickets.
So first things first, guess what, Diana’s Weekend Coffee Share post is now so popular it has been featured on The Daily Post. Wow, isn’t that fantastic! Well done to her. Here’s the link to her blog to see her post about that:
What have I been up to? I’ve made a decision this week – decision? Really? Whoa….. Yes, I did. I knocked that old procrastination into submission and put up my prologue and the first few chapters of my novel, The Curse of Time on Wattpad, so here’s the link to that if you’d like a nose.
So a big thank you to all that have been so kind as to do a shout out for me: the twitter response has been fantastic. I’m really thankful to have so many blogging buddies. And a big thank you in particular to Graeme, (who I met last year at the Blogger’s Bash,) who has so kindly given me oodles of feedback on my Prologue. Apparently he’s a bit of a fan of prologues. So do pop over to Graeme’s blog and say hi. He’s a keen sailor and his blog theme at the moment is water based posts, which I’m a big fan off – : http://graemecumming.net/
Enough of my waffleitis, I promised you some photos and a commentary about my recent trip to London so here goes:
Take a look at these Camden shop fronts, aren’t they amazing?
When you get a bit hungry, and thirsty but money is a bit tight where better than Wetherspoons for a drink and a meal?
This beauty caught my eye, obscuring just about everything else!
A lovely view greeted us.:
So eye catching:
The International Food Market in Camden was something else but very crowded, and my eldest daughter isn’t too keen on crowds, though she did manage to get a quick mouthful of some free grub! Here’s a quick snap as we’re leaving….
Travel in style in Covent Garden, perhaps a horse and cart?
This is when things got a bit silvery…. watch in awe…
Silver man’s tipping his cap.
And….
I don’t know how Silver man did that! He must have so much upper body strength to support himself on a spade. Maybe he’s magical.. But what amuses me is the reaction of the bystanders to the left of him – those two young men, their reactions particularly the one wearing the stripy top. His reaction when the silver man tips his cap before doing his twirl is classic – he does a whoa…. and backs off in shock! Did you see it in the previous photo?
It’s been such an exciting week. No kidding…. My youngest daughter won a ticket to NCS YES Live & the NCS Awards 2016, “a show that celebrates the NCS social action stars of today and the future! It’s time to honour the 58,000 inspiring NCS grads of 2015 who dedicated more than 1.8m hours towards social action, raising more than £1.3m for good causes across England and Northern Ireland. Bring on the music and the fun!”
She was so excited!! Boy did it show! She was buzzing…
My eldest daughter also did NCS but it was a fairly low key event then compared to now. It has become so much more of a big deal. Nevertheless she loved it too, and perhaps that encouraged my youngest to join in with the NCS program too.
If you’re 15 – 17 and would like to find out more about taking part in NCS. Here’s the link to this great opportunity: http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/
“National Citizen Service (NCS) is an experience you really don’t want to miss. If you’re 15 to 17 years-old, this is your chance to embark on exhilarating challenges, make your mark and build skills for work and life. More than 200,000 young people have already said YES to NCS. Don’t. Miss. Out.”
Isn’t my daughter such a lucky girl? Perhaps I should get her to choose some lottery numbers this week….. Who knows, could be an idea… She brought along her friend to NCS Live, and the two of them absolutely loved it. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend as I’m not sixteen! Instead I had the opportunity to go with my eldest daughter, (who is on holiday from Uni,) and have a fun packed day in London – It’s my holiday time too as I’m working term time at the moment. Lucky old me!
We had a fantastic time hopping on and off the tube to Camden, Covent Garden, Oxford Circus and rounded off the night with an Italian dinner at Prezzo’s. It was such a fun packed but exhausting day. We didn’t get home until nearly midnight!! The funniest part of our day out had to be after we met up with the two NCS ‘ers at you guessed it at Top Shop. We took the Tottenham Court Road to our intended restaurant, near the London Palladium. My eldest daughter was heading up the stairs in the tube and then screeched. We all stopped in our tracks wondering what had made her scream. When we saw the tiny culprit we all joined in screaming… it was a tiny rat, or was it a mouse? Who knows….. anyway this poor creature was running down the stairs to greet my daughter as she was going up. Perhaps the response it got in return made this creature more scared of us than we were of it!! So I reckon I could claim that rat or mouse was our headliner!!! Boy did we scream….We have all the luck! Tinie Tempah eat your heart out.
That was a lovely cuppa. Sorry for being such a chatterbox, that last Tinie Tempah joke was a bit crazy you know me… Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing coffee with me.
Hope you enjoyed my Weekend Coffee Share.
Do pop over and join in the fun at Part Time Monster:
Do feel free to comment. Have you been to Camden? Or Covent Garden? Do you often visit London? What is your favourite coffee, tea, beverage, or coffee shop?
Bye for now.
You know when the barista asks you if you want a small, medium or large tea or coffee… I think I need a large one today! I’ve forgotten to have breakfast again!