I couldn’t resist this picture of the London skyline taken one early November evening from the flat.
It looked like the Great Fire of London II had kicked off.
November of course means fireworks on Guy Fawkes night! errr… what day is it?
Hard to imagine that this little tinker tried to assassinate King James I by blowing up the Houses of Parliament with gun powder back in 1605. He was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered but actually fell from the scaffolding of the gallows and expired from breaking his neck… a lucky escape from errr being drawn and quartered!😏. Still, any excuse for a party so off we went to the Battersea Park display.
We had a lovely walk down to Battersea, stopping en route in a Chelsea pub to watch an England Rugby Autumn International.
We had a look around the power station development (impressive with all the cranes lit up) before strolling down to the park.
The fire was huge and the fireworks really stunning, but note to selves, take cash next time (we will be back) as the bars and food concessions are all cash only…. wonder why?😜
On actual firework night we walked up to the top of Primrose Hill to get a view of the fireworks across London. Sadly the weather wasn’t up to much and neither was the view. Nice walk though.
Now Christmas light switch on season was upon us and we headed firstly to Oxford Circus.
Expecting a pop or TV ‘star’ to turn on the lights it was disappointing that (due to the delayed opening of Cross Rail) they had reused the lights from 2017 and a random bloke leant out of an office window to turn the lights on – early. Hilarious!
And an elegantly decorated bus passed by…. ‘nough said about the lights LOL!
Tom Chaplin of Keane fame was recording a live concert celebrating Queens’ Music for Radio 2 at the London Paladium. Naturally we popped along.
It was the first time at The LP for us; what a beautiful theatre.
Tom and the band played two x 45min sets and although Freddie he is not, what a great voice.
The following Saturday it was down to Kent for a friend’s firework party.
On the Sunday we visited Gravesend and sought out a Remembrance Service.
Gravesend gets a lot of bad press but its definitely worth a visit with plenty of maritime and cultural history. Gravesend has a significant Sikh population and one of the largest Sikh Temples in the UK. It’s enormous and although we didn’t know it at the time, they welcome anyone in for food, prayer or simply solace at any time. Pocahontas died in the town after falling ill on a boat bound for the Commonwealth of Virginia. It has one of England’s oldest surviving markets that was chartered in 1268 and an 18th Century fort protecting the entrance to the Thames; both are worth visiting.
The following weekend we rented a cottage down Symonds Yat near Ross-on-Wye as I had been working down that way for a few days. Ginny and Chris (sister and brother-in-law) joined us for some walking and a bit of fun in the great little local pubs.
We had a really lovely and fun weekend culminating in a slow roast lamb Sunday dinner after our 6-7 mile walk along the Wye river bank and across the Welsh border to Monmouth. The birth place of Henry V is just a glimpse at some of the amazing history in Monmouth. It’s is a real ‘go back to’ place for us.
We had intended to walk back but the pub beckoned and so after a few pints and a bit of a laugh it was late so we got a taxi :-). As we walked back into the cottage from the taxi our noses were all twitching at the lovely smells from the slow roasted lamb. LOL one by one we realised that there weren’t actually any smells, it was all wishful imagination; we’d forgotten to turn on the cooker before the walk. It all turned out fine… cooking it (slightly quicker than planned) gave us plenty of time for a few (more) drinks and everyone likes their lamb pink right?
The very beautiful old church on the bank of the River Wye (which sadly I can’t remember the name of) is very popular for weddings where the bride arrives by boat from Monmouth.
The following weekend we were actually back in London. Phew!
Saturday we hosted some friends at the flat for a Spanish Tapas night. Really great fun and rather a lot of wine was consumed meaning the early start to get to Mondo Scripto, the Bob Dylan exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery was a bit of a rude awakening.
There was an amazing display of all his albums and all the associated press coverage from the early 60’s to date. Mind blowing.
The exhibition was brilliant and displayed some of his life works (to date) as a song writer, artist and sculptor.
Every day is a learning day as the saying goes and we had no idea that he’d written half the lyrics that he has.
Hi art, whether drawing or painting gave atmosphere to the lyrics but being philistines we didn’t ‘get’ some of the context.
His sculptures, as depicted in the picture frame, are mostly implements, cogs and tools welded together. Some of the gates on the display were amazing.
On the way home we took in a few Xmas lights.
Annabel’s the dead posh club on Berkley Square had really gone for it! and the other pic was only taken because the tree is taller than the BT Tower 🙂
To bring November to a close Hamish my cousin from Canada came to stay whilst in London on business. He was due to fly back to Canada the following day. Having a Cornish mother and being born in Cornwall, Hamish loves the Cornish ways. Home made pasty was therefore the obvious dinner – yum!
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Love the pics! Keep up the great content. Greetings from London (although you may well still be here!)
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