Sub zero and other matters

So, I can officially start moaning about the bloody awful English weather - we have now entered sub zero temperatures (not all day - but the overnight low)! It is horrid. My nose actually hurt this morning - it was that cold! I had to buy mittens today too... they are lovely though!

Anyway, enough moaning about the weather, and on to more interesting matters. I spent the last weekend in London - with the in-laws(!!) and had a wonderful time. I caught the train (the Cambridge Express!) down on Saturday morning and then the tube to their flat in Clapham North. After seeing their flat, I understand why people choose to live in London... the flat is a lovely two-bedroom apartment in a big old victorian building and is literally a 3 minute walk from the tube station (and therefore Westminster, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus etc are only about 10 - 15 minutes away)... their local pub is 1 minute down the road and they are 5 minutes from the high street which is chocker with interesting shops, cafes, restaurants and bars.

The highlights of my weekend, apart from catching up with the family, were climbing the Monument Tower (311 steps!); visiting Harrods which is all set up for Christmas; star spotting along the River Thames; and passing through Speakers Corner in Hyde Park.

Monument Tower
My friend Hayley advised Monument Tower as a much cheaper answer to the London Eye. It cost £2 per person and took 311 steps up a spiral staircase to get to the top. The tower is 202 feet high and was built to commemorate the Great (!?) fire of 1666... which started in a bakery on Pudding Lane. The spiral staircase was narrow and steep... and just a little scary, but once we got to the top it was fantastic... London goes on as far as the eye can see in every direction... and it really gives you some perspective as to how big that city really is! An added bonus was that once we got to the bottom again we got a certificate to say that we had climbed the tower - so it really must have been hard work!

Christmas Harrods
This visit was my second to Harrods, but it seemed slightly more magical this time - with all the Christmas decorations out... and that 'Christmas rush'-feeling going on (yes - it was still October and the Christmas rush had started already! - I don't actually think I could handle the real Christmas rush when we get into December!).

When you think about it, if you had enough money in the bank you could buy everything you ever needed from Harrods... it is like the ultimate department store, but for the uber-rich... they have everything from golf equipment to handkerchiefs; candles to ice cream...

Both times I have been to Harrods I have been drawn to the food halls... which are like a fantasy-land, they have every type of food you can imagine - a whole hall devoted to chocolates and other sweets, counters that serve all types of ready-to-go-food - pizzas, tapas, ice-cream sundaes... even an oyster bar (with a dozen oysters for 28 pounds)!! In my dreams I imagine walking through and actually buying everything that takes my fancy. It all looks so good. Mind you, if I had enough money to indulge that fantasy, I wouldn't be walking, I'd be waddling, so maybe being poor is good for something!

Star Spotting
On Sunday morning I caught the tube to Waterloo (no Abba please!) to meet my friend Lisa for brunch. We went to a place called Giraffe, right alongside the Thames, and I had delicious blueberry and banana pancakes that I highly recommend!

As we were leaving, I had my first real experience of super celebrity star spotting... I was waiting for Lisa outside the cafe, and admiring a dog that was sitting at one of the tables outside th cafe... then decided to check out the people that owned such a cute dog (as you do)... and who should it be, but Kevin Spacey... how totally surreal! At home, I would get excited if I got to see the Briscoes lady in public - but Kevin Spacey - wow! That's the thing about this place, the people you see in the tabloids actually live here... back in New Zealand I had thought they were from a different planet. Yes they are, and that planet is called London!

Speakers Corner, Hyde Park
We passed through Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon, on our way to the Marble Arch tube station [there are so many cool tube station names - Angel, Marble Arch... my favourite is one called Elephant & Castle - I will have to take a photo when I eventually go there!]. Hyde Park is just a lovely place to wander through, there always seem to be people there lazing about, and it is really an enormous green (although pretty much brown and organge at the moment) space, right smack-bang in the middle of London. On our way through, we went past an area called Speakers Corner... and while the Diana Memorial was my favourite spot in Hyde Park (due to it being a very relaxing place to cool off in the sweltering English summer (yes, yes, somewhat of an oxymoron!)), now that summer is over, Speakers Corner is officially my favourite Hyde Park destination... where else can you go and listen and watch a bunch of crazies on their soap boxes interact with the general public!? - I tell you what, I thought the Cambridge bus system provided some good entertainment - but this, this is truly oscar worthy!