Bye bye borough

As part of our farewell tour we wanted to visit Borough Markets one more time. And so we did...

We caught the train to London Bridge, which is now home to the shard, the tallest building in London by quite some margin.

A new modern entry to the markets actually works really well

Busy as ever

We picked up a falafel wrap to keep us going while we queued for the cheese toasted sandwich. It was worth the wait.

They also do raclette.

This sandwich is huge, one of us should have stood next to it to give perspective. Turns out they cut slices an serve as smaller slices which is probably for the best. 

Generally acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of the London coffee scene, Monmouth would  generally have a queue about this long on the weekend. The coffee is good although there are other options in and around borough which are just as good without the queues, they just don't have the reputation of Monmouth. 

The traders take care in merchandising their produce, which is important because there are so many traders selling the same thing. 

We had Theo in the Ergo front pack, which seems very comfortable, this was just before he fell asleep. You can't really see it here but they're standing next to some big wheels of cheese.

One of the fishmongers.

Theo fell asleep so we went for a drink. We 'accidentally' bought the high strength beers, I think Jackie's was 11%

The pub was the Rake, an iconic tiny pub in the corner of Borough Market, no children allowed inside so we loitered around in the outdoor area until someone insisted we sit down. 

We walked back towards Waterloo station, crossing the Thames at one point to get a different view, including looking up to St Pauls which is just around the corner from where we spent our first night in London. 

Crossing back across the Thames on the millennium bridge towards Tate Modern.

Happy chappy having a run around the South Bank

We will really miss places like Borough markets, so much variety and interesting things to look at and eat (I know, we ate a cheese toasted sandwich but they are very special and there is more to it than that). 

Kew Gardens

I hadn't been to Kew Gardens before, Jackie had once, but it was somewhere we wanted to go together before moving back to NZ.

Last weekend we made the decision to go. The weather was nice so we packed a lunch an headed to the train station.

Streatham Common - Clapham Junction - Kew Bridge Station and then a short walk.

It cost £16 per adult to get in which is very steep for a park but we knew that before we went and planned on getting our moneys worth by spending a good portion of the day there.

They have an exhibition on at the moment called IncrEdible - all about edible plants.

These mushrooms aren't real

They're made of wicker

Theo loved the fungi

As a fancy park no ball games are allowed, we broke the rules! Here's Jackie hoofing the ball, Theo chased it around the park, it was great fun to do this without any dogs around (not allowed).

This was Jackie's favourite, it was a huge table set for tea with plants growing in pots and out of plates. All the plates were screwed in to place. The plants were ingredients for things, we sat next to a cherry tree and almond tree, both which were labelled for a bakewell tart. 

One of the staircases in the famous glasshouse. We had the buggy so didn't go up, although Jackie has confessed she wouldn't have gone up any way.

The glasshouse with vege garden planted out front, on the right towards the back you can see the corn. 

Hydrangeas, one of Jackie's favourites. 

Not only were we mean enough to dress Theo in a pink polo, when he was sleeping we took a photo of him with matching flowers. 

Not sure it really comes through but this tree is one of the original trees planted in the garden, it grew horizontally an had brick reinforcing to stop it falling over. 

Another shot of the glasshouse with the lake. You could hire boats on the lake, lots of people did, many of them ha no idea how to row a boat so it was good fun to watch. 

After the gardens we went to Kew Gardens station, where we stopped to get a coffee before getting the train home.

At Streatham Common station we stopped at the Railway pub, which is fast becoming a favourite, they're very child friendly.

Here's Jackie and Theo taking a break. The little girl on the right was Theo's girlfriend, although she thought Theo was a girl (he'll never forgive us for putting him in the pink shirt). The girl's mother and friends, had a couple of other kids with them and told us not to worry about Theo if he was with them, we kept an eye on the kids from our position and managed to stop them escaping on a few occasions. While Theo was off playing with the other kids we managed to get an extra pint in. 

All in all a great day.

The next day we went for a walk to Streatham Common park, we'd not really explored it before and thought we'd give it a go. The main bit isn't very appealing and we weren't sure if there was more to it. Just as we were about to give up we found the Rookery, a really peaceful manicured garden. By this time we were getting pooped and ready for food, we saw there was more to explore so might try and get back there before we go. Theo had a big run around and we thought he'd fall asleep in time for us to have a sit down lunch somewhere, no such luck. But we did have a nice coffee and pick up some fresh bread for sandwiches.

So a great weekend exploring some new places that we can tick off our list.

Coffee etcetera

For my birthday (all those months ago) Jackie bought me a voucher to go on a barista course, to learn how to make proper coffee.

Yesterday I finally got around to using the voucher, I signed up for the 3-4 hour basic barista course. The course was held in the East End of London and started at 10am so I needed to make a pretty early start.

I was out the door by around 8.20 and got to the station in time for a train to London Bridge so was going to have plenty of time to get to the course. I walked from London Bridge so saw lots of great London sights along the way, a few photos of my travels below:

It was the day of RideLondon, a major 100mile cycle ride following much of the Olympic road race route. Roads were closed and there was over 70,000 people taking part in events of varying distances over two days. 

The London Monument to the Great Fire of 1666, shading the sun.

An old style pub in amongst many new buildings

It's a sculpture, not someone's house

The only photo from inside the course

The coffee course was held in a small room at the top of a pretty rough building. The room had the coffee demonstration area and a little office area. There was lots of coffee paraphenalia around the place.

The trainer was really good, she'd tell you when you weren't getting it right but was friendly and supportive. We had a mix of people in the room from those that had never touched a coffee machine but wanted to work in a cafe to those that are home coffee geeks.  We had a mix of nationalities, South Korean, Japanese, Australian, English and me. The trainer was also Australian.

The trainer thought because I was from NZ that I would know everything about coffee, she was wrong about that. Oddly enough when it came to being the first to try all the techniques, I was the bravest one there, always jumping up to give the new thing a go.

We talked through machines, beans and roasting first. I learnt plenty and took a few notes, hopefully I don't forget.

Next topic was a big one - cleanliness. And this was very well done to, the trainer really got the point across about the importance of cleaning the machine and the impact a dirty machine can have on the taste of the coffee.

We were then on to grinding, another important element of the whole process. Burr grinders, a must. Getting the grind to the right courseness is tricky but pays off in the long run. Tamping, looks easy but can so easily be the downfall, we had lots of practice at that.

Then on to the espresso, perhaps the relatively easy bit. Push the button, watch carefully as the espresso comes out at this tells you a lot about whether your grind is right and you of course need to know when to stop so you don't burn the coffee.

Next step was the milk and this was pretty tough but perhaps the most rewarding bit. I was told I was a natural, although managed to prove the trainer wrong on a couple of subsequent attempts. I did make a cappuccino which looked pretty tasty and my other drinks were alright too.

I think that was about it. The funny thing about the course is that I didn't get to drink a coffee the whole 3 hours! That was the only disappointing thing about the course though. It's also a shame I don't have a coffee machine that I can try my new skills on.

After finishing the course it was time for lunch. As I was in the East End I had decided I would go to Brick Lane and get a beigel from one of the famous London beigel shops.

And here it is £1.60 for a salmon and cream cheese beigel from Beigel Bake on Brick Lane. I was in the shop for less than 20 seconds, they have a huge number of beigels ready to go and are constantly selling them. They were probably selling about 10 beigels a minute, an incredible operation.

Here's the shop, you can see the crowd out the door. If you want friendly service it's not the right place for you, if you want a yummy cheap beigel quickly then this is it.

It was then on to get coffee, I went to All Press which was just around the corner. All Press is a NZ company roasting coffee beans in London. I had a very nice macchiato from their take away stand.

Inside All Press

The East End has lots of trendy shops, it's one of the edgy, arty, creative parts of London.

Pubs in the UK are closing at an incredible rate. This one has been converted to a designer homewares shop

Lots of street are around this area

Back on Brick Lane and I felt I could go another beigel and I was keen to try the other beigel place, just two doors down from Beigel Bake, was the imaginatively named Beigel Shop, claiming to be the oldest beigel shop in London. Despite being the original it didn't seem to pull the crowds of its nearest competitor.

I thought I'd give it a go...

Something I noticed here, and was able to get a photo of is this little set up. You get this in greasy spoon cafes as well. Basically the nozzle dispenses boiling water. The tin has instant coffee with spoon at the ready and the tongs for the sugar cubes is chained in to place. If I was to order a cappuccino they would have kicked me out. If I ordered a coffee they would have made me an instant coffee in seconds with all the strategically placed equipment.

This time I had the hot salt beef beigel, which is the expensive option. They make this one fresh, cutting and heating (in the microwave) beef, and cutting the beigel, slathering mustard on before adding the beef. 

At £3.40 it seems expensive compared to the salmon and cream cheese but this was great value - loads of beef. Yum

More street art. 

Inspired by 'Where the wild things are'

That evening we went in to town to catch up with a friend and his children. We had lunch at a family friendly restaurant on the South Bank. Theo threw stones from the garden at other diners, it was great.

The South Bank always has an exhibition of some sort going on, street performers and views of lots of iconic London sights.

Theo and his mates playing with the doorbell exhibition, how great is this, doorbells at Theo's height that he can press till his heart's content without annoying anyone. 

Best buds

Big ben and parliament buildings in the background

We finished off with ice creams. What a great, action packed day.

The next day we were all pooped, after a slow start to the day we headed to one of our favourite spots for lunch, Brixton Village.

We didn't realise that 'Brixton Splash' was happening so there were crowds and really loud music.

It was difficult to find a place that we would be able to get a seat at however we eventually found an Italian place that looked good and had seats available.

We went for the 2 course set menu:

Entree:
Antipasti
Scrambled eggs on spinach muffin

Main:
Lasagne
Fish

It was all delicious and the staff were really friendly too with the chef coming out for a chat with Theo.

Another great London weekend.

Commute #1 Tooting to Kingston

Long commutes to work have been part of my whole working life. That will probably change when we move to Hamilton.

In Sydney I commuted through Darling Harbour when living in Glebe and when living in Neutral Bay I commuted over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with a view of the Sydney Opera House.

Those were two pretty great commutes. I've been fortunate in London that both the jobs I've had have required me to travel away from the centre of London, therefore I'm going in the more quiet direction of travel and I've not had to use the Underground.

My commute to Kingston is pretty decent. The other day I took some photos along the way.

From Moyser Road I walk down Ribblesdale

As I walk down Ribblesdale I quite often see the milkman delivering from his electric powered truck

Looking down Southcroft Rd

Sometimes if I'm running late or it's raining I'll catch a bus on Southcroft Road

Walking down Deal St. Sometimes I take Deal, sometimes I take Eastbourne all the way

Links Road, sometimes I have to run down here if I think I'm going to miss my train

At Tooting Rail Station

Today I caught the 0756 train to Wimbeldon, which was on time. They usually are on time or just a couple of minutes delayed, which is fine. 

Enough time to grab one of the free papers

Oooh, train is here...

You might think this is a lot of people. It's not. I usually get a seat.

Good seat today, settle down to the paper

Royals on the front page

A Wayne Rooney story, accompanied by a picture or Rory McIlroy on the back pages

Plenty of space 

This is where it gets a bit busy, off the train at Wimbledon, onto the overpass.

Looking down from the overpass

I've not once been tempted by the food available on the overpass

Starbucks on the platform at Wimbledon where I get my Kingston train.

I see this guy from time to time, doing his morning streches on the platform, this is one of the many not normal things you see in London. There is so much weird stuff in London people don't bat an eyelid when someone starts limbering up on Platform 6.

Waiting for the train

Don't know if these people knew I was taking their photo

Off the train at Kingston, it's usually busier than this

Exiting the station

Crossing at Kingston station

Another Starbucks

The French Connection banner changes often enough to be interesting

Kingston town centre is heaving with foot traffic in the middle of the day, it's quite peaceful first thing though

This is All Saints Church where the first King of England was crowned. Kingston has some pretty impressive history but I'm not sure if it has the profile it should

Big project on at the moment to restore the church

Restoration work underway

My Local Hero. A great flat white and friendly service, I'm in here most mornings. 

One of Jackie's favourite shops, she'll miss Cath Kidston when we're in NZ

Kingston Market Place. Fruit, vege, fish, meat, fresh bread and food stalls. I don't visit as much as I should and I'm sure I'll miss the access to cheap, fresh, quality food so close to work. 

Where could this alley way lead?

Evidence of more starbucks

My morning coffee

Hello River Thames

A great walk along the riverside to work

Woody's bar is a great, quirky, independent bar

Narrow boats with character, permanently moored at Kingston

All the swans were snoozing

Steins - for German beer, schnitzel and sausage

Who's that in the reflection?

My office

View Commute - Kingston in a larger map

I start with a 1.5km walk and finish with a 1.2 km walk so get a fair bit of exercise everyday even if I don't go for a jog. It's definitely longer than I'd like for a commute but I do enjoy the walk along the river, whatever the weather it's a very relaxing and refreshing start to the day.