A Mid-Week Multi-Part Photo Bonanza!

Hi Everyone!

Today is a multi-part mid-week photoblog post!

PART ZERO: First things first; a postcard

As we mentioned last time, we had a bit of a rushed time getting all our presents off last saturday. one of the things that we didn't write on and send was a postcard with piccadilly circus on it. it's quite cool, so I took a photo of it to show you:

yes, I could have just posted it here taken credit for the shot but I'm an honest guy. and yes, everything is black and white over here except the busses.

blogger doesn't let me post photos larger on the screen, but if you right click on the photo that you want to see and click "view image" it will display it at it's proper resolution. this goes for any photo on our blog by the way. try it with a couple of the following ones.

PART ONE: A beautiful park for lunch

First of all, I've just finished a three-day training course in the city: Implementing Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services. riviting stuff.... no, really, it is.

so anyway, I had to take a trip into the city each day. that's the city proper, not west end. lots of business people wearing suits on the tube and here's me wearing jeans and a t-shirt.... oh well :-)

here's the google map link to the approximate area:
Click
you can see St Paul's down the bottom right. and chancery lane top left (I was here). zoom out a bit to see where it is in relationship to everything else.


It's really different from the suburbs that we live in and the west end that debbie works in and we go to every now and then for dinner etc. the buildings are different, it's hard to discribe, but they seem older or less organised or something, more stately even, dispite the fact that this was the poorer end of town a hundred years ago or so.

I caught the train to bank station and then changed lines but the central line had a broken down train, so after waiting arround for 15 mins I decided to hike it. the only reason I waited that long was because I only had a vague Idea of which direction to go. I knew it was north westish, that was it. in hindsight all I needed to do was to walk down the one street from Bank to chancery lane and that was fine, but I didn't know this so I ended up going arround quite a few back streets. still, now I know the area fairly well. and the cool thing was I got to walk past part of the old London wall that was built progressivly by the Normon monarchs shortly after wiliam the conquerer.

anyway, without boring you about the course, on tuesday I bought a lentil and bacon soup from the corner cafe and went for a bit of a walk, thinking that there must be a park nearby. and there was, and it was very cool. so today (wednesday) I took the camera, bought another soup and went for another walk.... here's the result:

map:
Click








This is a marble statue that says:
"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties. Men must persue things which are just in present and leave the future to devine providence." don't know who put it there or why, and I thought it was a bit deep for a lunchtime stroll in the park but I took a photo anyway ;-).



PART TWO: Never pay full price.

So after eating my soup I strolled on down to the leather lane markets. these markets have been setting up here nearly every day since about a hundred years before Australia was discovered. I really like these - they're smallish, the stall owners aren't pushy and the goods are a great price and good quality.

here's a small comparison of the exact same product in different locations:
Mens Cotton Scarff:
High street: £15-£50 depending on if you want brand name or not. if you want brand name cashmere then we've seen prices over £200.
discount store: £5
Leather lane market: £2.50

High quality wool Beanie:
High street: £15
Army disposals: £4
Leather lane market £3.50

Mens Long johns and thermal top:
High street: £12 per part
Leather lane market: £4 each or £7 for matching top and bottom

Leather Gloves:
High street: £30 - £70 (bought a £30 pair with low quality leather, have seen good quality but thin hugo boss ones for £50 out in croydon and £69 on oxford street)
Fur stall with non-english speaking dude from sweden: £15 for thick high quality leather and reindeer fur lining!!!!

same guy was also selling £50 reindeer fur rugs with fur so thick you can literally bury your fingers in it. it's glorious, I'd buy one but we just don't have anywhere to put a reindeer fur rug at the moment.... and in any case, I'd rather hang it up than walk on it......

so here it is:
£31.50 for two scarves, good quality benie, set of thermal underware and reindeer fur lined leather gloves.


PART THREE: yet another stroll in Hyde park

So being the last day of my course and having crammed in a bit extra on tuesday, we were able to finish at about 2:30. I could have gone straight home for a nap but decided to take another trip to hyde park and get some good photos during the day. it's such a lovely place. we've been there a couple of times without having a chance to get good daytime photos.
Click for map

so here is a collection of photos that I took today from the south east end of the serpentine:

looking south east from serpentine road right on the corner of the lake:








from the sluce gate at the very end of the lake, looking towards exhibition road bridge




went walked about a hundred meters north allong the paths you can see there:










from behind the sluce gate:





In some of the photos I tried to capture the sun glinting off the tops of the trees, but it just didn't turn out. and yes I know in some of them the ground looks all muddy and gross, that's because it is (it rained earlier in the day). but the place is so majestic with the sun going down and the crisp air and the nice breeze. I like watching the people go past, the families, the old couples out for a stroll...

anyway, due to the fact this was about 3:30 on a wednesday afternoon, there was no line at the german sausage or dutch pancake places so I took advantage of it and had a mid afternoon snack. also bought some cool german marshmallows and rumballs:


in hindsight I should have taken a photo of the guy selling the reindeer skins... they were amazing.

so my conclusion after 5 days of winter is: When you come over, if you want to see london changing from just a cool, large city with lots of stuff to do into a place of magic, stay at least for the first part of winter :-D