In our quest to visit new and interesting parts of London, last weekend we took the train from Balham, 15 minutes down the line to Crystal Palace. We actually got out at Gipsy Hill and walked up the hill to the Crystal Palace town.
Crystal Palace town is based around the triangle, made up of Westow Hill, Westow Road and Church Road.
Hollybush pub on corner of Westow Hill and Westow Road
Crystal Palace is an interesting place to go in London for a number of reasons. The first that struck us was that there were proper hills which mean views over London
London town in the distance
The hills also make it a good place for aerials, such as the one below, there's a couple of these around Crytsal Palace, they're hideous but kind of landmarks of the area.
It is also interesting as it has several antiques shops and Haynes Lane Market which as a freind from work commented "the only thing weirder than the stuff for sale is the people selling it". It really was a jumble sale of the highest order with some interesting stuff and some junk. Jackie picked up a couple of items for her glass collection here.
Jackie venturing in to Haynes Lane Market
Some of the merchandise.
Jackie in her enjoying checking out the antique and second hand shops.
Crystal Palace is also known to us as we had some friends that used to visit for a specific restaurant which is known to serve casu marzu, commonly referred to as maggot cheese in reference to the live maggots in the cheese (which you eat). We didn't go to sample the cheese but we did see the restaurant. Perhaps next time we'll go, but I don't think we'll be eating the cheese.
Most of all though, I'd say Crystal Palace is most famous for the Crystal Palace. We went to the Crystal Palace museum to find out more about it and it was really interesting. If you want the full low down check out the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace. It was originally built in Hyde Park for The Great Exhibition of 1851 - essentially a trade fair. After the trade fair it was moved to a park in Sydenham Hill where it stayed for over 80 years before it burnt down. Walking around the park where the Crystal Palace was you get a sense of the scale of the building, it was massive.
Aerial view of Crystal Palace
View of Crystal Palace in all its glory, a shame it's not still around.
Remains at the cite of the Crystal Palace
There was a whole lot of these, unfortunately named, Routemaster buses parked up in Crystal Palace park, some red and some green.
We had a great time in Crystal Palace and will definitely go back, they had lots of interesting restaurants and pubs and in summer I think the park will be a nice place to be as it is on a hill and should get a nice breeze.
About a year and a half ago I decided I wanted to start collecting ceramics (primarily functional domestic tableware). Simon wasn't too happy about my new found hobby but I managed to convince him that shipping all my purchases back to NZ when we eventually head home wouldn't cost a fortune. Ceramics have always interested me from my days at Masterworks Gallery. So I started scouting in charity shops for pieces to add to my collection. Charity shops in the UK are of a very high standard clean, tidy and with really good quality merchandise (I buy quite a lot of 2nd hand clothes and books but that's a whole other blog) and they are everywhere. Just in Balham alone there is six and they are all pretty good. I assume they must get some sort of subsidised rents as they occupy prime shopping locations on all high streets. I wanted to collect tableware so that we would actually get to use it not just have it on a shelf collecting dust.
Ceramics so far.......
Poole England
This set is a recent purchase. I spotted the cups and saucers in one shop but wasn't 100% sure I wanted them so carried on to another charity shop and found the teapot then had to race back to get the matching pieces
Windmill logo made in England
I found these in York again from two different shops.
Left: WAKBRZYCH Made in Poland (Purchased Rye)
Centre: Windmill logo made in England (Purchased York)
Right: Staffordshire Potteries Ltd, UK (Purchased York)
Made in England
These are great soup bowls with a green and fine gold rim.
Myott Son & Co Made in England
Very pretty oval platters
Jug: Melbaware England
We use this jug all the time it's a favourite!
Brought this plate today at Oxfam in Tooting £1.49 I couldn't resist the botanical print.
My collection has started slowly with very few ceramic pieces catching my eye so I have decided to collect glass as well after picking up some pretty pink dishes will post photos of glass separately.
Jackie has had a lot of dental work but on Saturday she had a wisdom tooth extracted. This is the first time I have seen Jackie really nervous about going to the dentist. I was even enlisted to come and sit in the waiting room while the tooth was extracted.
She has had the appointment booked in since before Christmas which meant plenty of time to gather up lots of horror stories from friends and colleagues about their wisdom teeth disasters. Fortunately Jackie had a 9am Saturday appointment which meant there wasn't much time to dwell on it before going to the dentist. I was brave too as I had to get up early on a Saturday morning and sit in the waiting room, feeling guilty that I haven't been to the dentist for a number of years.
Quite promptly around 9am a little man popped his head into the waiting room to fetch Jackie, now I was alone with all the literature telling me how important it is to go to the dentist regularly and what horrible things might happen if I don't.
I did start to get a little worried when after 20 minutes the power tools started up and I expected to hear screaming but there were just muffled voices and lots of power tool noises. It turns out the power tool was a surgical saw used to cut the bone to allow them to extract the tooth.
However not long after the power tools started up Jackie appeared with a grin on her face, she looked a bit like a vampire with traces of blood around her mouth but she put her hand over her mouth and laughed and we scurried out so as not to scare the other patients.
A surgical saw, possibly similar to the one used on Jackie (she doesn't know cause she kept her eyes shut)
The anaesthetic hadn't warn off so Jackie couldn't talk properly but it was fun to watch her try. We walked home and got her set up on the couch. We put together a shopping list:
Custard
Yoghurts
Fruit smoothies
Chocolate mouse
Bananas
Soup
Straws
And that made up Jackie's diet for the day. I also had to pick up the antibiotics and pain killers.
All in all it seems to have gone as well as could have been hoped, Jackie has been in a bit of pain but hasn't had to have much pain relief. So far no signs of excessive swelling or infection.
A few photos...
Before the surgery, looking happy, feeling nervous.
Jackie soon after having her tooth removed. Not sure where she picked up the specs from.
After the surgery, looking bad (Jackie's words not mine), feeling relieved.
Jackie says I may risk losing our blog audience with my following blog but I'm going ahead anyway.
Last week I treated myself to a new pair of running shoes, they arrived on my birthday as it happened.
I had decided to buy the same model of running shoes as my last pair as they'd served me well. I could have gone for the more recent model but decided to save the extra £20.
So on my birthday my new Mizuno Wave Creation 11 running shoes arrived. The only difference from my previous pair being my new ones are red, my old ones are yellow. Presumably I'll be able to run faster with red running shoes.
Another difference between the two pairs of shoes is the more than 1,700 kilometres I've run in the old ones, which gives an interesting opportunity for comparison.
My old shoes weigh 6grams less than the new ones. We figure that is from the tread which has warn off, which is probably greater than the moisture (sweat) and dirt they've accumulated. It's also interesting (for me at least) to see how much the old shoes have been squashed, the cushioning parts of the shoe are noticably lower in the old shoes than the new ones.
Despite the old pair having less tread, more dirt and moisture and less cushioning, the one thing they do have is that they are moulded to my feet and my running style. My new ones still feel foreign and will take a while to wear in.
So a few photos for comparison...
New shoes on the left in case you couldn't tell
More white spungy stuff in the new shoe, also the gap between the sole and shoe on the left is smaller than the new shoe
Tread on the old shoe has started to disappear. Notice the large amount of dirt on the old shoe sole which is an indication of how much tread must have been taken off for it to still weigh less than the new clean shoes.
More tread comparisons, at the front this time. The even wearing of the tread is a good sign that the shoe works for me in having an even strike and stride, which hasn't always been the case with my shoes.
Shoe kiss.
So hopefully we don't lose our audience, next blog coming up on Jackie's wisdom tooth being removed, hopefully will post that tomorrow.
Last Sunday Jackie and I decided to walk to Brixton. It's a suburb not too far from us but we don't go there very often. Brixton is probably best known for the Brixton Riots from 1981.
Image from the Brixton Riots
One of the main market streets in Brixton is Electric Avenue, some of you may recognise the name from the Eddy Grant song from 1982...
Jackie used to go to Brixton sometimes on her commute to her last job. This sometimes meant she was walking through the streets of Brixton early in the dark winter mornings, not a particularly enjoyable experience for her.
Anyway, last Sunday we had a different experience in Brixton by following a recommendation I'd had at work to visit the Brixton Village market, which is very close to Electric Avenue. Specifically I'd been told about Federation Coffee, one of the growing number of New Zealand cafes turning up in London. We were well rewarded as there were several interesting independent cafes, shops, bakeries and restaurants.
Jackie bought a 'jammy dodger' (similar to the Shrewsbury in NZ) from the Wheat and Gluten (WAG) free bakery.
Below are a few photos of Brixton Village:
One of the Avenues with cool lampshades
I'm not quite sure what they specialize in now, but they used to specialize in Jamaican and Caribbean groceries, it's a very Afro-Caribbean community with lots of butchers, fishmongers and greengrocers.
One of the restaurants will cool signage, all the shops/cafes etc had interesting hand painted signs
We decided to eat at a cafe which I decided to call Toastmasters. It didn't have a name that we could see but it was a very specific experience. Basically you order a platter of bread, you have your own toaster and you get to pick from a range of spreads. You can order eggs, bacon, sausages etc to go with the bread at an additional charge but we just stuck to the spreads. So basically toast and spreads. Only £2.50 for a platter of yummy breads or £3.50 for the non wheat breads. We had one of each and a cup of tea.
Jackie tucking into the rye bread platter
Our toaster, I was in charge of the toasting.
A great idea and cheap too, less than £10 for the two of us and we were quite full by the end of it. The Aussie couple (we figured from Melbourne) that ran the cafe were both really nice too.
I picked up a coffee from Federation Coffee, it was good. I've had better but good by London standards.
I think we'll be back to Brixton Village again soon to try out some of the other cafes.
The 5th of January a couple of weeks ago now was our first wedding anniversary. We decided to treat ourselves to a 2 night stay in a hotel in central London. We chose the Sherlock Holmes Plaza Hotel on Baker St. I arrived after work on Tuesday the 4th and we went to the hotel restaurant for dinner, after dinner we opened our presents. 1st anniversary is paper so I got Jackie a book, The Newlyweds Guide to Setting Up Home (I also got Jackie a Depression Glass buyers guidebook but it didn't arrive till well after our anniversary. Jackie got me a lovely print of Leeds Castle which is where I proposed, a very thoughtful gift.
Baker St Tube Station
On the morning of our anniversary I popped out and picked us up a coffee and some breakfast to have in bed before getting ready for the day. We headed for a walk around Regent's park and then headed in to town, we popped into a few shops, including several nice shops on Marleybone High Street, we were in good company with Emma Thompson buying something for her daughter while we were in the Designers Guild shop.
Lunch at a cafe off Carnaby St before heading to the Queens Theatre for the matinee Les Miserables. The show was great.
After the show it was back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We'd picked a nice Turkish restaurant, we ordered the set menu with a nice bottle of Chilean red to accompany.
That was our first anniversary in a nut shell.
Coincidentally while we were staying on Baker St we found out that Gerry Rafferty, who sung Baker St had died.
Also, in the past couple of weeks we've watched the relatively recent Sherlock Holmes movie and also watched the 3 episodes of a new BBC Sherlock Holmes series, all based around Baker St.
