Category: London

Humor, London September 11, 2013September 11, 2013

To Market To Market

“The earth laughs in flowers.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

London is absolutely crammed full of markets, and they are one of the major reasons the city retains so much of its history and character so well. Anyone can go to the store and by cheap bread in a plastic bag. But how much better is it (both in personal experience and to keep the arts involved alive) is it to go to the local market and for the same price – and often cheaper! – buy a loaf of freshly baked bread made from someone’s family recipe at a market that has been operating on that site since the Middle Ages?

And it isn’t just for food, there are markets for vintage goods, antiques, textiles, homeopathic creations, confections, odds and ends, baubles, homemade or craft items, and just about anything else under the sun. The city is a smorgasbord of Really Cool Stuff!

One of its market gems is the Columbia Road Flower Market, open only on Sundays. The name is a bit of a misnomer because you can also buy stationary, antiques, and artisan goods along the shops that line the road, but the street itself is utterly taken over by vegetation on Sundays and it’s worth the visit. Europeans have a love of fresh flowers that I don’t see a lot of Americans sharing. A once or twice weekly purchase of some blooms to brighten one’s house is simply built into most people’s shopping lists.

The word “flower” is also slightly misleading. Yes you can get cut flowers here, by the absolute barrel full, but you can also get potted plants, ferns, succulents, shrubs, and whole trees as well. We admired a palm tree with a trunk the width of a tire, but moved along. I’m currently flirting shamelessly with the idea of bringing a small lemon tree indoors to shrink our already small flat (inspiration here), but on Sunday I settled for a pretty orchid to bring something living into the place. Our flat, in true British fashion, was painted before we moved in – absolutely every surface was whitewashed to a blinding degree and I’m trying to think up ways to make it feel less like a hospital!

There is every species of flower imaginable there, and it’s giving me grand ideas for a balcony garden, but in the meantime we just admired the sights, sounds, and glorious smells.

Back in the 19th century, the area of the market had turned into a rather bad slum and a philanthropist bought the area and established a market that didn’t last too long, but trading in the area persisted and today Columbia Road is a popular and well-beloved stop for weekend shopping. You can always tell who has been by the streams of people wandering towards the Overground station with arms full of brown-paper wrapped blooms.

Humor, Husband, London August 31, 2013September 1, 2013

Four Years (Officially)

“The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they’re right if you love to be with them all the time.”
– Julia Child

Our anniversary is the first of July, but for the last couple of years we’ve delayed doing anything about it to celebrate it in London. My godparents started shuffling holidays around a few years ago to accommodate work schedules and coordinate the commitments of multiple families. At first it struck me as a bit strange to celebrate major holidays on random days, but I think there’s a lot of value to this method. As long as your celebrating what you want to celebrate with the people you want to celebrate with, I think wiggle room is a pretty good idea.

Don’t take this philosophy too far, though. People who put up Christmas decorations around Halloween still aggravate me to no end.

To celebrate went to the British Museum and took in their exhibition on Pompeii and Herculaneum. Most of the collection has never been outside of Italy before and it was stunning. It was set up in the dimensions and shape of a typical Roman household, showcasing the artifacts found in each of the type of rooms presented. The exhibition included many of the most famous mosaic fragments and frescoes from the site, as well as some of the plaster casts of Mount Vesuvius’ victims. Alas that photography wasn’t allowed! That sound you hear is my mother’s teeth grinding in jealousy!

After the museum we headed to Kopapa, our favorite fusion restaurant, and indulged!

The windows were thrown open, the weather has been absolutely wonderful for the past fortnight, and we people watched outside the Cambridge Theatre (currently showing Matilda).

May I recommend the elderflower presse for a gorgeous summer drink? Soda and cordial, absolutely loaded with crushed lime and mint.

Delightful menu with just the correct degree of weirdness.

And then we wandered around Covent Garden and introduced Jeff to Ben’s Cookies – since due to some shocking oversight he had failed to make their acquaintance when he was previously in London.

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

Friday Links (London Return Edition)

“I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me. Who but a coward would pass his whole life in hamlets; and for ever abandon his faculties to the eating rust of obscurity?”
― Charlotte Brontë

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, but we’re pretty sure we’ve taken care of all that can possibly be preplanned. Now it’s just time to roll with the punches a bit. Jeff starts work on Monday, I’ve got to wait around a few more days until our internet gets set up to get back to freelancing but I’ve already started looking for a new job. It’s equal parts exciting and scary. Here are your links, kittens, thanks for sticking around while we’ve hopped about getting settled!

Now that summer is winding to a close and people are desperate to get their last hurrahs in…

Huh! I admit, a bit of a paradigm shift.

Anyone hungry?

You make the call.

I find this picture of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Anne quite cute.

Excellent gallery! Also is it just me, or do retro photos always show our not too distant ancestors had really good skin? What gives?

In case you missed it the other week. Well done, Sister Suffragette!

You may have my undivided loyalty, but a wedding romper? J. Crew, you are drunk.

Do you know your Hitchcock? By the by, if you’re in London in the near future, see the stage production of The 39 Steps – hysterically funny and very vaudeville-esque, in the best way possible.

I think the fashion and modeling industries are oddly interesting, and Coco Rocha a particularly interesting figure in them.

I now have a lovely park a mere two minutes from my new building, well lit, plenty of highly visible and safe jogging paths, an Edwardian bandstand, lot of dogs, and gorgeous old trees. Excuses to not work out = effectively nill.

Though most accounts (and not a few ancient travel guides) have his corpse lovingly displayed in Alexandria, good luck to the team searching this site anyway. Though frankly my money’s on a carpark in Leicester – tons of long lost interesting people of history are turning up in those!

Need some Notting Hill Carnival in your life? Bon appetit!

An answer to this summer’s top question…

An excellent post.

30, not bad!

Tumblr find of the week.

Seriously, this made me snort laughing such that I nearly choked on a Cadbury’s nibble – a charming new take on my well beloved chocolate that is delicious, but also dangerous in moments of comedy. “How’s a brother gonna keep it real on the street with all these ethical and metaphysical uncertainties, my man?”

Humor, London August 29, 2013August 29, 2013

Notting Hill 2013

“I live in Notting Hill, you live in Beverly Hills.”
– Notting Hill, 1999

Notting Hill, one of the poshest bits of London, goes totally Caribbean for the August Bank Holiday. Since all the shops and businesses close down for the day (not a few actually board their doors and windows to keep some carnival goers at bay), Jeff and I couldn’t make any progress on our (lengthy) To Do list, so we threw up our metaphoric hands and decided to enjoy the last big hurrah of the summer.

This…

…turns into this. It’s glorious!

It’s one of the largest street festivals in the world, a celebration of London’s West Indian immigrant community. Groups dress in South American/Caribbean carnival costumes (emphasis on scandal), whole streets are dedicated to grilling goats and chickens bathed in spices, and the day drinking is out of control. And for all that, it’s usually fairly mild and brings thousands and thousands of people into the community to squeeze every drop of fun out of the holiday.

Monday was bright and gorgeous. British weather is notorious for a number of reasons, but I’ve always found that they can really get summers, brief as they tend to be, done right.

Nothing’s on fire, it’s just some some very serious barbeque. Also, that lovely lady in white looked a lot more put together than I could manage. In my defense I’m still living out of my carry-on.

The results of said barbeque, by the way, I heartily recommend! After stuffing ourselves with jerk chicken we decided to take in the costumes in all their glory.

Feathers, beads, and massive headdresses very much required!

Jeff is also living out of his carry-on, but he was much more photogenic. Watermelon and coconuts to end the day and steel us for the battle ahead of getting our utilities set up the next day. Wrangling the local Councils definitely requires a bit of reinforcement.

Humor, London August 25, 2013August 25, 2013

This Past Week

“Before you open the door to a potential flat, expect the worst. Envision seventeenth-century plumbing and eighteenth-century electricity. Picture a bedroom three times smaller than your college dorm room but with ten times less storage space. Any London flat that exceeds this expectation even slightly is worth considering. If your only problem with the flat is that the washing machine is in the kitchen, that the fridge is smaller than the TV, that there is no dryer for your clothes, that there is moldy carpet in the bathroom, that the bathtub has no shower attachment, or that the sinks have separate hot and cold water taps— then put down an offer immediately.”
– Jerramy, Fine The Regal Rules for Girls (a partially silly but mostly hilarious and occasionally useful book I read once)

Monday – flew in, practically had to beg for a cab because none of the cabbies wanted to go so far out of their way as we required, got to the house we’d rented (from the landlord Jeff had as a student) in the mid-afternoon. We hopped onto the housing sites we had found, narrowed down the flats we were interested in looking at and made a couple of inquiries.

Tuesday – Sent an email about a particularly promising flat only to have the estate agent call us seconds later and arrange a viewing for just an hour and a half after that. As advertised we find a one bedroom flat about 20 minutes walking from Jeff’s office with a great view, lovely lighting, and all the major appliances we were looking for. Also recently painted and wonderfully easy to clean. We made a rent offer. Two hours later it had been accepted. We said we’d be able to move in any time the following week if that wasn’t inconvenient. Landlady responded by asking if we could move in this weekend. Uh…’k.

Wednesday – Hurry up and wait. Spent our nervous energy wandering around the West End, completed our full Londoner assimilation by watching Channel 4 and eating takeaway in the evening in celebration when everything came through.

Thursday – Signed the contract and scoped out our new neighborhood a bit more.

Friday – Picked up the keys, made sundry lists of necessary house-setting-up-stuff, and bought a couple of cheap but necessary items to start. Made contact with the landlady who was completely lovely – praise Odin! Treated ourselves to The Woman in Black in the West End and gelatto to toast the occasion.

Never say the Small Dog team doesn’t get **** done. Fly in to flat in four days time. We’ve spent the last two days transferring things over and slowly building up the small but necessary household arsenal of things Responsible Grownup Types need to keep a place going – like shower curtains and wastepaper baskets. I’m now starting to tentatively comb through websites on the next great search: a new job.

Tomorrow though, since it’s the Summer Bank Holiday, we’re spending it being tourists for the last time and heading off to the Notting Hill Carnival for a bit before getting straight back to the work of settling in. Huzzah for a (mildly hectic but) kick ass week!

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend October 19, 2012October 23, 2012

Friday Links XXXVIII ( Oh To Be In England Edition – Mostly)

“London is a roost for every bird.”
Benjamin Disraeli

218143175671520072_xZUTXTn6_c — Never has the phrase, “Lie back and think of England,” been invoked less perversely and with more fervor.

Jupiter Ammon, kittens, this week! They either need to replace our missing officer or pay me more because this is getting ridiculous. I have about three dozen things to do in the next couple of hours, so here are your links and let’s all pretend we’re already in London – it’s seriously the only thing that’s gotten me through the last few days!

I love the London transit system. Sure the buses are hit and miss, and the chances of being shoved up in a stranger’s unwashed armpit during busy hours are fairly high, but you can get anywhere on it. I can’t wait. In the meantime, here’s a bit of humor to get me through.

Sad.

The National Trust is a wonderful organization, maintaining properties and houses, estates, lands, gardens, and parks. Their website also occasionally contains treats like this to get us through until we can hike the trails.

It’s so true, and it’s occasionally deeply funny. You can spot the tourists trying to put on a British accent from a mile away in London, but apparently it’s happening on this side of the Atlantic as well.

Telling the truth when no one wants to hear it. (Dad, and the anatomically squeamish, skip this one.)

The Daily Mail being “helpful:” look nice, but not too nice. Thanks for that.

For such a delicious pastry, it does look pretty forlorn.

Interesting project!

Nothing is new, and the Egyptians always got there first.

I enjoy following politics, I consider myself a political person and highly opinionated, but even I am getting exhausted with this election cycle. Let’s liven things up a bit, shall we? People can be silly.

The weekly sheep. Awww…

Humor, Life, London, Work October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

More of the Same

“Even boredom has its crises.”
– Mason Cooley

There’s been more than the usual amount of radio silence here at Small Dog Enterprises. We’ve had a few shifts around at work which has meant short (if any) lunch breaks and coming in early/staying late. And as lunch is when I do a good portion of my writing, you can see how this leads to a general problem. Never fear, this is (supposedly) a limited issue and hopefully a replacement will be found for the cad who’s departure left us in the lurch – looking at you, Off. Lampost!

The long and short of it is that I’ve taken on all police front desk area work so my workload has at least doubled. The irony of it. I’ve been asking for more things to do since about the time I started here four years ago (Sidenote- gack! Four years! Time to go) and I’m sure there are any number of quotes to the effect that Providence punishes people by giving them exactly what they ask for.

But also, as per usual for this time of year, I’m feeling stuck again. I think Autumn is so wrapped up in my head with new changes, projects and challenges that when it rolls around and nothing changes significantly, I start to get antsy.

I am ready to move on. I’ve come to appreciate this job, as much as I like to grouse about it, because it has taught me to work. I thought I knew what work was when I graduated university – four years later I look back on my younger self with a headshake and a, “Oh, honey, just you wait.” But now that I have some applicable skills under my belt, I want to do something with them besides just answering phones and puncturing helicopter parents when they start to swell up because their beloved child got in trouble. I’m nervous to look for work again, but oddly excited too.

I am ready to live somewhere new. I grew up moving so much that staying in one place for too long makes me claustrophobic, and I’ve now been in this corner of the world for longer than I’ve lived anywhere. It would be going too far to say that I hate it here, but it’s not an exaggeration that I could never set foot here again and be perfectly happy. I stayed for J., and I’ve never regretted it for one moment, but that doesn’t mean I won’t gleefully drive away and never look back.

I am so ready for us to be a two income family (apparently the term for that is DINK – dual income, no kids. I’m not sure I’ll categorize myself as such, though) and not stuck in this quasi-student exsistence.

I cannot wait to be back in London, where you can’t be bored or stiffled if you tried. The weather may be terrible, the rent may be high, the practicalities of life might weigh, but there is always somewhere to go, something to do, places to just be. You’ll never run into the same person twice (as opposed to where we are now where the vast majority of the population seem to be clones of one another, albeit in a more futile than frigtening way). And there is always something to explore.

I am ready for change, ducklings, and so these days, with their oppresive Sameness are just a bit more smothering than usual.

So! How do you get through the boring bits? Clearly this isn’t a life skill I’ve properly developed, which is why it’s such a handy thing to have lovely minions to interrogate. Share your thoughts and recommendations, Aunty C. needs them.

same20old20same20old — Jupiter Ammon! My worst fear incarnated!

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Travel, Weekend July 27, 2012September 25, 2014

Friday Links XXVI: Olympics Editions (sort of)

“Go where we may, rest where we will,
Eternal London haunts us still.”
― Thomas Moore

I never got around to telling you about our last two days in London, kittens, partly because one of those days was spent cleaning the house J. lived in and the other (which was a fantastic morning at the Portobello Road Market) I failed utterly to take pictures of. Between the vintage shops, the paper goods, and the ancient Roman and Egyptian antiquities, I did a lot of fantasy shopping in my head. J. indulged me with a swing by a favorite bookshop, before we hopped on some buses (certain tube stations being closed for maintenance) and rode around the city for a while. We had one last swing through Covent Garden to check out the markets and street performers, indulge in J. in a pair of Paul Smith shoes to replace two pairs that took a beating this winter, and grab me a truly fantastic blazer from Zara (I love sale season in Europe!).

The Olympics kick off officially today, so I can at least catch a few glimpses of London skyline here and there on the telly. In the meantime, here are your links, minions and let me know what fun things you’re doing for the weekend.

Tumblr find of the week: remember those “choose your own adventure” novels? Well, it wasn’t inevitable that you’d always make wise decisions.

Made any mistakes lately? I have. Nothing major, but I tend to beat myself up over them just the same – but it could always be worse.

Oh good grief. Can’t we all just agree you’ve gone mainstream and violated your own ideals already?

What? You’re in the Louvre too?!

The real Olympics are kicking off today and I’m missing London so here’s a bit of Brit love for your home. A phone, a mat, something a bit more personal.

Also, the real Olympics aren’t always glamorous.

And as for Brit labels, we’ve been dropping some serious coin on J. these days, getting his work wardrobe finished up and making sure he’s ready to look the part of a City man. So, it’s absolutely my turn, right, minions?

Creepy, Victorians. Just creepy.

It really does take a village. It shocks me how quickly people forget (or fail to actually learn) that they are usually the product of a lot of other people’s goodwill, success, or work.

Clean energy technology development: pretty nifty!

The weekly sheep returns in smug, cute glory.

Books, Family, Humor, London, Shopping July 26, 2012July 26, 2012

Treasure: Silly Old Bear

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

J. and I have been married for three years now and according to an increasing number of people, we’re supposed to start having kids. Preferably we’re supposed to already have one and be ready to pop out another.

This casual attitude towards our personal choices, from a few close friends and relations but mostly perfect strangers, gives me more angst and headaches than I can successfully convey, but that’s another post entirely. Needless to say, it gets me riled up. These talks, whether instigated by friends, family, or total strangers, leave me feeling very misunderstood, very talked-down-to, and very angry. J.’s aware of this and luckily he and I are on the same page when it come to the timing of such things.

So you can imagine the heights reached by my left eyebrow when glancing through all the treasure to be found in Cecil Court, J. suddenly froze, pointed to a shop’s (Marchpane) displayed wares and declared, “We need that for Stormageddon’s room.”

Stormaggedon being the nickname we use when discussing our future child.*

“Did I miss a very critical conversation?” I demanded.
“Look,” he insisted excitedly.
I looked, and beheld some original, hand colored prints from the 1926 first edition of Winnie-the-Pooh.

This tale only makes sense if you understand that J. loves Winnie-the-Pooh. It was his favorite character as a child, his favorite movies, you name it. My six foot, broad shouldered, grown man, all-American husband loves Pooh. And here were original prints from £15 a piece.

We bought three.

Stormageddon may be years off yet, but he is going to have a fabulous nursery when he shows up. Courtesy of his father.

*Fellow Whovians know why. And how he’ll look at the world.

Humor, London, Shopping, Travel July 25, 2012

London Gems: Cecil Court

“Thank God! Cecil Court remains Cecil Court…”
– Graham Greene

Literally just around the corner from the Leicester Square tube station is a short street connecting St. Martin’s Lane and Charing Cross Road that’s devoid of traffic and lined on either side with shops that haven’t had a facelift in over a hundred years. This is Cecil Court and it’s a print lover’s paradise.

Banknotes, antique books, maps, prints from books and magazines, movie and theatre posters, and even a couple of specialty collectors’ shops for models or antiques. You can find massive Early Modern folios or tiny penny post stamps and all well priced.

The shops themselves, while mostly Victorian in the front, have been around for several centuries. One owner talked with us a bit about her space – apparently Mozart lived (and had his hair cut) in it as a boy while lodging with a barber who sold tickets for the young prodigy’s concerts out of his shop. The Foyles brothers had their first book shop here before moving to their current and most recent location in the early 20th century. T.S. Elliot lived in a flat above the shops in the Court at one point, and William Hogarth’s mother died in one of them as well.

J. originally caught sight of the Court while wandering around and knew that I’d love it, and so insisted we visit when I was in town. Naturally enough we went back a couple of times looking for treasure, especially antique maps because I love them and plan on having a wall in our someday house decorated with one from every place we have lived. Maybe another one with every place we visit. We didn’t find any that we loved in our price range, but we did come away with treasure, which I’ll tell you about tomorrow.

If you want a small slice of London intelligentsia, unique history, that’s crammed to bursting with interesting things, and a quiet place to rest from the bustle of Leicester Square, stop by Cecil Court. There are plenty of places to eat around it, it’s incredibly easy to get to, and you may just come away with something priceless.

Cecil Court in a cloud burst. I had a minor heart attack thinking of all those magnificent paper wares in the wet, but clearly the shop keepers are savvy about their work because anything on display outside is wrapped in plastic and perfectly safe. Whew!

* Photo mine.

Small Dog Syndrome