A friend of mine was moving house a few years ago and I offered to help stage the home for open houses. Their realtor had given them a book of ideas to easily improve the look of the home and one such suggestion was to use a ‘cloud of pillows’ on the beds. This has stuck with me over the years, not only because it was corny sounding bit also because it was a bit whimsical in it’s own way.
Without further ado, here is my very own cloud of pillows:
Yesterday as I sat on the couch wrapped up in yarn, hair wet after post shower and comfortable in my new pj pants, my phone rang. It was Meg, suggesting I meet up with some Tooting-dwellers at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese – a pub located in the City and famous for being one of the oldest pubs in London.
Located on Fleet Street (former glory ground of publishing houses and rumoured to sit above an underground river), this pub isn’t very far from my place in London terms, although it did take two buses. I was able to snap some pics along the way as the route is a bit remarkable, if you are in to architecture. Here are a few of those photographs.
London Is made up of 33 boroughs; I live in Southwark, spend most of my days in Greenwich, and having stayed overnight at Rachels, am currently in Richmond Upon Thames. The big touristy stuff is in Westminster, or Kensington and Chelsea, but City of London hosts a few good spots too.
As visitors enter this small borough, they may note that on weekends it is not very busy. This is because the city is primarily the haunting ground of business men and women who evacuate the area on Saturday and Sunday for greener pastures. This is reflected by the number of eating establishments and cares that are closed at unusual times over the weekend. You will know you are in the city because the guard rails are elaborately painted, as you can see in the photo above. Be careful you don’t walk into them as they are scattered frequently throughout the borough.
Further down Canon Street is St Paulson Cathedral. I don’t have much back story to it except thatthe White of the building looked stunning against the coloured sky (so glad the rain had finally stopped!)
Just before the church I was able to catch the 15 bus to the pub. I had a choice of regular city bus or fancy looking tourist bus, but the second option confused me a bit so I opted for the familiar. It took me right to YeOlde Cheshire Cheese, where I had a beer battered goat cheese dish and caught up with my teacher friends who had all come back from various trips over their half term break.
Works makes this girl so sleepy. I am off to noddy land but before I go, here is a photo of the neighbours house.
I couldn’t finagle myself into an induction session at my gym today, and didn’t feel like waiting around for the yoga class at four pm (besides, my arm is still injured) so instead I took inspiration from my fitness experience last year and went for a run.
I used an app to track my distance and other stats but I have discovered that the app is stupid and canonic hold details of one run, so I can’t trace my progress at this time. I did run to the big Tesco at Surrey Quays, and cut through Southwark Park on my way.
It was as I entered the park that Persephone first revealed herself… Crocuses and daffodils are starting to appear randomly throughout the green space and I can’t help but think of spring.
No one ever said it’s easy being a social worker. What with tight timescales and deadlines, lack of available resources for families, bad hair days, and a learning curve as big as ( insert large landmark here), I often find myself looking forward to the end of the day when I can do things like veg in front of the tv while tangling myself in yarn and sipping some Horlicks.
After months of searching for tea cups, i stumbled upon a sweet little birdie tea pot at a charity shop in Woolwich.
Ain’t it sweet?
Obviously vday is a day for lovers, and usually I get wrapped up in all the buzz around the day. This year I have a had surge of enlightenment and have decided that it’s better to be single on valentines day. Here’s why…
No need to spend money just because I should.
I don’t have to rush home from work to meet anyone anywhere.
I can wait till the next day to stock up on chocolate and get it on clearance. Mmmmmm chocolate.
No pretending to like ugly flowers (damn carnations)
And I can buy a single rose and carry it around forcing people to wonder ‘hmmm who is she and who is that rose for?’
Well maybe not that last one, but I did buy a rose to share with my flatmate as our own vday celebration.
Happy valentines day to my valentine!
An evening pause to admire my surroundings. Above: Tooley Street bu City Hall. Below: Tower Bridge
Instead of going into detail I will merely add that this was my view when leaving yoga tonight.
Fennel, mushrooms and butter. Fresh bread, cream cheese, and smoked salmon. Not your traditional Sunday dinner, nor typical fare for Super Bowl, but (and excuse the tooting of my own horn)it was a feast for the eyes.
To make the vegetable dish, i sautéed mushrooms and chopped fennel bulb with garlic in butter until the mushrooms had turned golden and the fennel soft. The salmon discs were made with toasted fresh bread, a layer of cream cheese and a slice of smoked salmon. Manger!
