Life Goes On for All The Daytrippers.

Pre and post-Shard visit, Moon and I had a bit of a jaunt around London town, something we haven't done in a while - though since then, we were in London almost every weekend in July. Ridiculous.

Even though it's basic tourist stuff, walking up/down Southbank in the sunshine truly is one of the nicest things to do in London. Starting at Borough Market in the morning, we walked right along the Thames (via Wahaca St Pauls) before ending up back at Waterloo to head over to Southfields to take a peek at our friends, Dan and Kirstin's new home. Not a bad day out, big LDN isn't so bad to visit every now and then.




I can't help myself when it comes to Borough Market, there's just too much good visual merchandising everywhere.



How offensively good-looking are these donuts?










Seeing the Shard from a distance, even after being at the top is still quite amazing. It's not even the tallest building I've seen and the scale, I guess when compared to the rest of the London skyline, is awesome.






Sampling my first ever Wahaca, I'm a believer. ♥





I thought these were matches, but how cute is it that they give you your own chilli seeds with your bill?


Everything about the dining experience at Wahaca St Pauls was on-point. It's probably not a great sign for them that it was a Saturday lunchtime in London and we just sat right down but the quality of service and food were nothing short of brilliant. I'd happily have there as my Wahaca of choice, I'm not a fan of waiting lists, seats at the bar or pagers.




The OXO tower looks as though it's attempting to become London's answer to Hong Kong's PMQ, it would certainly be welcome.






What are some of your favourite daytripper things to do in London?

Organised Family Fun

Currently writing this with paint splattered in my hair while I get back to feeling anxious about visitors.

We must have started decorating again!

Seriously, if anyone ever tells you to paint that awkward (super-tall) bit of wall above your stairs, just get a man in. I know it's defeatist and lazy but that's where DIY painting gets really hard, even with a tall boyfriend tiptoeing on a too short ladder, I'll tell you though, for our landing, one-coat paint has been our SAVIOUR! - even if a lot of it is my hair right now.


So, I'll be taking you back to a slightly less stressful time a couple of weekends ago, when I felt happy to have guests and actually pretty dang house-proud for the first time since we moved here.

My family on both sides is pretty big, and, particularly on my Dad's side, we're a lot closer than most. I think having my Gran as such a strong matriarch really helps this. My cousins and I used to go on holidays together but as we've grown up this is an aspect that's fallen by the wayside a bit. As a bonding exercise, I thought a girly weekend would be fun, and a nice way to show them my new home.











We had a nice afternoon of fruit picking at Millets Farm, defiantly sat in the less than sunny garden to enjoy Pimm's and a tasty dinner of vegetarian chilli before putting on facemasks and watching 10 Things I Hate About You. We rounded up the evening with The Babadook (which in hindsight should really have been Bend It Like Beckham but there's always next time).



[Because it didn't go on Facebook... ;)]

It was so nice to host guests after such a long time and not have to think about decorating or cardboard, plus, have you seen my main guest bedroom? It's the coolest.

I hope this is the first of many weekends we have like this, family is so, so important and I think it's especially important to take advantage of those bonds if you've got them, there's always time for a catch up. I'm already looking forward to seeing the girls again for my family housewarming at the end of next month, better get down to more painting, right?