What a treat!

Hi everyone!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to go to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London courtesy of my bestest friend Sue.  Our daughters came along, and DH was the chauffeur!  I was really looking forward to it as you can imagine.

Although I didn't get to take any photos inside the show (too busy looking around, and it was so crowded) I took these in the grounds of the Ally Pally (it's affectionate nickname).

Wonderful views of my beloved London skyline:

Here is the Alexandra Palace - it used to be BBC studios until the early 1980's, hence the transmitter mast:

Back inside, I actually had the chance to be the stall holder for a few minutes, great fun, whilst Sue had a quick break.  All too soon the it was closing time, and it was time to walk back to the car, which we had to park about a mile away as the Ally Pally car parks were full.  Sue was staying in a hotel nearer to London, so our plan was to drop her off there to save her having to take the tube.  However, DH was persuaded by Darling Daughter to take us into the city centre for an evening walk along the Thames!  It was really lovely, plenty of photo opportunities...

Well, we were starting to get a bit hungry so DH treated us to a meal at Pizza Hut - yummy!  What a star!  Sue and I realised we hadn't been to London together since we were both 18 - we had been on a trip together from Art College, so it was extra special. 

It was a fabulous day and night out with family and friends, and DH was an absolute star - men were in short supply at the K&SS and he is not really what you would call an arty person.

Sue reported that the show had been a great success, which I'm absolutely delighted about.  All in all, a great weekend!

Helenxx

Maybe its because I'm a Londoner...

...that I love London so...

Actually, I'm not a Londoner, I hail from the Midlands in the UK, but I absolutely LOVE London - whenever I get the chance to go, I am in the car and heading for the M1 in a heartbeat!!

So, as part of our mini-break, when DH casually mentioned "do you fancy a day out in London this Saturday?" I had the sandwiches packed and camera charged before he had barely finished speaking!

We arrived in the capital just after 12 noon, all ready for a grand day out.  And yes, I did get through 2 camera batteries!  This time I have made some themed photo collages, I hope you enjoy looking through them as much as I enjoyed making them. 

So, are you all sitting comfortably - then I will begin


Some of the traditional London sights you can enjoy on a visit to the city:  St Pauls, London Eye, County Hall, Tower of London, Victorian Postbox (spotted near London Bridge), BT Tower (and London Bus!), Tower Bridge



One of my sons is totally fascinated by skyscrapers, I have to admit that I do share his fascination.  Here we have a range of London's finest examples:  The Shard, The Shoehorn, The Midland Building and The Gherkin (great names I think!!)

Borough Market - I wish that I could somehow transmit the wonderful smells coming from all the food stalls we saw there!  Just look at all those handmade chocolates...love the old Potato merchants sign..

These are scenes that Charles Dickens would have been familiar with.  I have love his books since starting to read them when I was 7 years old.  The clock is mentioned specifically in "David Copperfield".



London by night - Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square, Mews on the Mall, Admiralty Arch, the Star Flyer ride on the South Bank, London Eye and Wellington Column.

And finally, some more unusual finds:

both spotted in shop windows!!

loved the name of this sculpture!

And who knew I was THIS famous ;) 

Thanks so much for taking the time to read through this post, I think, lovely readers, you all deserve this:

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Helenxx

Theres no place like London!

Hello everyone - at least the sun is shining and here we are in June!

As threatened promised last week, I'm back with some photos of my wonderful day out in London last week with my DH.  Some of the photos I wanted to share were taken in the incredibly expensive but oh so lovely Fortnum and Mason, but my phone (which I was using to take sneaky pics) has packed up :( got very wet on a sponsored walk with my students.  We did however raise over £150 for our chosen charity so that was very good.  And my students don't usually walk much further than the nearest corner shop to get ciggies and energy drinks so 15 mile walk, in torrential rain with no moaning was an incredible achievement.  We were very proud of them all.

You might want to grab a cuppa and even a cheeky biscuit as quite a lot of photos will follow....

Anyways, back to London!  Back in January I booked tickets for us to visit The View from the Shard as part of our Silver Wedding Anniversary celebrations.  I thought "if the Queen can have a year of celebrations so can we!!".  So last Saturday saw us staring up at this astonishing building

Currently the tallest building in western Europe

 

It takes seconds to get up to the 72nd floor

 

 



And once up there, wow what a view....

So here we go, some of the most famous sights in London, seen from a birds eye view....

Canary Wharf

The Tower of London

The BT Tower

Wembley Stadium, the Champions League final was happening the day we were there.  Both teams were from Germany, and the fans were so well behaved.  Great atmosphere!

St Pauls Cathedral

Southwark Cathedral.  The line of green marks Borough Market, which we visited when we got our feet back on the ground.  Yummy food - we had falafel sandwiches, always a great favourite of ours!

River Thames, rolling away towards Westminster

River Thames, rolling away towards the East End

The Olympic Stadium and the Orbit

Greenwich

Sun sparkling on the 30 St Mary Axe, more popularly known as the Gherkin

The Monument, marking the site where the Great Fire of London started in 1666.  We visited the Monument last August, when the Shard had just been finished.

The London Eye, with Buckingham Palace in the Background

Tower Bridge - I had to wait a while to get a red London Bus passing over the bridge, but I was happy with the result!

With our feet firmly back on the ground, we took a river cruise back to Westminster and then walked around to take in a few more of the sights

 

  The Houses of Parliament

 Horse Guards Parade, getting all ready for the Trooping of the Colour

London Eye

Buckingham Palace - and look, the flag is flying so Her Majesty was at home!

Guard at Buckingham Palace.

Then, after a slap up meal the sun started to set and we decided to go on a leisurely stroll along the Thames



An absolutely wonderful day out with my DH.  I love visiting London, I love the sights, the sounds, the smells, the sound of all the different languages from visitors from all over the world...I don't know if I could cope with the pace of actually living there...but I would love to be able to go down to visit every month - if only I could afford it!!

I think you deserve another cuppa (and possibly even another cheeky biscuit!) for sticking with me to the end of this quite lengthy post.  But I hope you enjoyed joining me looking back at my visit to "the Smoke".

Enjoy your weekend, hope the sun is shining wherever you are!

Helenxx

PS I don't know if any of you are Sweeney Todd fans, if so you will know which song the title of my post comes from :)

 

 

When the Moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie....

That's Amore!

Good afternoon everyone - hope you are all well and having a great weekend.

Last night I was absolutely Moonstruck - in London with my DH.  It was all part of our Silver Wedding Anniversary celebrations.  The actual day was in February, we were in Granada in Spain, all organised by the lovely DH.

My gift to him was a day in London yesterday - all organised back in January. 

I will share more photos soon, as I saw a view of London usually reserved for folks on route in or out of Heathrow on a plane....

But last night, standing on the Millenium Bridge over the Thames I was indeed Moonstruck

What a view!

Back soon hopefully with more photos of a wonderful day out with a wonderful man.

Helenxx