Category Archives: London

A Festive Weekend in London

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At the end of November, The Bloke and I spent a weekend in London that doubled as a birthday trip. It was quite a last-minute decision, prompted by spotting that the weather on one particular day was forecast to be bright and sunny, amidst what had been weeks of grey and rain. 

We initially arrived with very little in the way of a fixed plan, beyond a general intention to seek out the Christmas decorations and enjoy being in the city at this time of year. We went to see the mini Diagon Alley shop at King’s Cross, saw the incredible frontage of Annabel’s, wandered around all of the main department stores, checking out the window displays (the Disney-themed windows at Selfridges were fabulous), treated ourselves to a Christmas decoration and some macarons from Fortnum & Mason, wandered through some of the Christmas markets (indulging in a Christmas Yorkshire pudding wrap along the way), and said hello to the new Bridget Jones statue that has just been unveiled in Leicester Square. 

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A Silent Disco at The Natural History Museum

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There are certain things that just seem too cool to be true, and the idea of a silent disco at The Natural History Museum was one of them. 

Until earlier this year, when my friend Helen mentioned it as something that she would like to do for her birthday. 

Amazing. 

A silent disco in the Great Hall at The Natural History Museum in London

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A Spontaneous Day Trip to London

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Yesterday morning – Saturday on the Easter Bank Holiday weekend – The Bloke and I were awake early. It was a rare day where both of us had the entire day to ourselves, so I suggested that we take advantage of the beautiful weather and go out somewhere.

The conversation about a day-trip to Solihull quickly turned into a trip to Worcester. We got ready and got on the bus…

… and ended up in London. 

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A Pre-40th Birthday Trip to London

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I turn 40 at the end of November. I’m not phased by the prospect of it, but instead of my usual birthday request of taking the day off and doing nothing except watching my favourite films and eating my favourite food I wanted to do something special to actually acknowledge it. 

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A Weekend in London Part 2

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Tutankhamun Exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery (3)

It was my birthday last week and my sister, her boyfriend and The Bloke took me to London for the weekend to celebrate. On the first day The Bloke and I explored Westminster Abbey and the Great Hall at the Natural History Museum, followed by a Wagamama.

The focus of the trip was the Tutankhamun Exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery – 150 artefacts from the tomb of Egypt’s most famous King are on display there until May as part of the final World Tour – which could potentially be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see them. Our tickets were booked for 10.00am, and so we joined the queue in the rain a few minutes before.

I’ve always been interested in Egyptian ancient history and culture, so this collection of items was a real privilege to be able to see in person, 100 years after their discovery by Howard Carter. Continue reading →

A Birthday Weekend in London: Part 1

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It’s my birthday soon and my sister, her boyfriend and The Bloke took me to London for the weekend to celebrate. 

The focus of the trip was initially the Tutankhamun Exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery – 150 artefacts from the tomb of Egypt’s most famous King are on display there until May as part of the final World Tour – which could potentially be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see them. We ended up planning a long weekend around it, arriving on Friday and leaving on Sunday, with the plan to find other interesting things to do while we were there. 

We were booked into a Premier Inn Hub hotel near Westminster Abbey, which is something that we haven’t tried before. We’ve always been fans of Premier Inn hotels, but after an unpleasant stay in the Tower Hill branch earlier in the year (mouldy bathroom, no TV signal etc) and the ever-increasing prices that are now becoming out of our budget we opted for the much cheaper option of the Hub.  Continue reading →

An Incredible Street Art Tour of Shoreditch, London

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A Street Art Tour of Shoreditch

At the weekend I experienced a street art tour of Shoreditch with Tiffany, the creator of A Girl and Her Passport in London.

She was back in the UK for a little while, and it was the perfect opportunity to catch up as it’s been over a year since she was last here. I  still find it amazing that I get these sorts of opportunities – we connected via the blogging community a few years ago – and she is someone I would never have met otherwise as at the time she lived in Qatar and is from Texas.

She booked the tour through an Airbnb experience and it was something I had been really looking forward to – I’ve seen some of the street art in the Shoreditch area before when The Bloke and I had an inexpensive trip down to London – but I was really interested to find out a little more about the artists and see some of the things I had missed.  Continue reading →

An Egg Sandwich and Train Hell

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I’ve been lucky enough to have just spent another few days down in London, this time meeting up with several bloggy friends, experiencing a street art tour, Crystal Palace Park and slowly working my way round the awesome bakeries that the city has to offer (which of course, was breakfast). It was only a few days after The Bloke and I got back from his 50th birthday Wicked and Harry Potter extravaganza, and it felt like I had just about unpacked before I had to pack again so I could get a train back down south at ridiculous o’clock.  Continue reading →

London, Airbnb and Wicked

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It’s been a surprisingly beautiful day and The Bloke and I have just been on a train to London. We were really lucky with the seats, it was quiet and we had a really nice chat with a Ugandan-Canadian girl who is studying at uni here. It’s always interesting to meet new people – she told us about her education in Uganda and her plans to go into robotics, used words like ‘hella’ and ‘legit’ and told me I had a baby face. 

Bonus points for her then… Continue reading →

Blog Friends, the Cutty Sark and a New Obsession

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It’s been a busy few days that have involved blog meet-ups, a jaunt around London and my new favourite thing… WASHI TAPE.

My American blog friend, Tiffany from A Girl and Her Passport is currently in London after resigning from her job in Qatar so she can travel around Europe… as you do. After talking through our posts and online for years, it was the perfect opportunity to finally meet up, so I found myself on a train at 6.10am on Saturday morning (yes, I genuinely love travelling at that time as there is nobody else around). As I was going to be ‘in town’ as such, I also took the chance to meet another blogging friend, Donna from JottoJot for breakfast as she is in the second trimester of her pregnancy. Continue reading →