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making friends through social media

Posted in interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged meeting friends through social medai, round about london on August 2, 2011| 2 Comments »

I will say one thing for sure….social media or the tools of social media have certainly changed our social lives.
Today (Monday) I met up with a lass I met through twitter. When I started my @3days_in_london twitter account last year had no idea of some of the lovely people I would meet. Actually that stands true for my @notjustagranny twitter as well as my blog and facebook page.

But back to 3days….last year some time I made the acquaintance of Beth via twitter and we got to chatting through mentions and dm’s. She had visited London a number of times and loved the city. She enjoyed the tweets I posted and we kept in contact over the months and promised to meet up when she was next in London (she hails from the USA).

In due course we connected via facebook and last week on one of the rare days I had connection to the internet I noticed a post from her on my feed that indicated she was in London!!! whoo hoo! I sent a quick message and said “Let’s meet up” and yesterday we did! 🙂
What a lovely lass! We met at the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square and from there made our way to the Embankment Cafe in the Victoria Embankment Gardens. What a delight to meet someone who shares my passion for London.

We exchanged stories of our London adventures and like me she feels that this is where she is meant to be! Standing one day in front of the Royal Courts of Justice, she looked around her and realised that London was exactly where she was meant to live! Precisely how I feel about the city. Only my epiphany came back in 2001 as the train roared out from the underground near Harrow and I saw the chimney pots on the houses (I told this story before so won’t bore you again!)

Beth also loves to dig deep beneath the layers of history and discover enchanting and secretive places in the city. Our conversation went back and forth as we enjoyed a delicious slice of cake and a ‘cuppa’! 🙂 She was currently in London to do a TEFL course and plans to return next year to live in this marvellous city…..how could she not!
She is planning a return to London in October of this year as well which is great coz I will be on a break pretty much the same time as she is in London so we are planning a days walkabout! 🙂 yay! The idea will be to start early in the morning and just walk wherever our feet take us. Like me she loves to just meander and investigate the unknown.
How marvellous. And what is brilliant about this little story is that I would never have met Beth were it not for twitter and facebook.

So, like travel broadens the mind, and books broaden our knowledge, so it is that the internet opens up opportunities to meet people from across the globe; people we may never have had the good fortune to meet otherwise…..unless you believe in fate and that we would have met somewhere along the line anyway! Possible certainly, but I am not so sure we would meet as many marvellous people as what we do. I have made the acquaintance of folks from across the globe, some of whom I have met in person, some of whom I correspond with on a regular basis via the net (when I have connection).

So there we are, I have met a lovely young woman with whom I hope to keep in touch and perhaps become friends in time.
As for the cake….hmmmmhmmm I can certainly recommend a visit to the Embankment Cafe. I had the carrot cake and it was delicious. For £3.50 you get a large cup of tea (not in a pot mind) and a fairly decent sized slice of cake. A real deal in my opinion. They have chairs and table set up outside and it was wonderful to sit in the cooling shade of the bountiful green trees, the hum of traffic dulled by the hedgerows, the sounds of a table tennis game going on nearby, and twitter of birds going about their business….sublime. I will definitely be going back there next week during my break. the only downside were the pigeons, a real pest, landing on the table as we were eating.
And as of yesterday we have just 361 days to the 2012 Olympics! Hooray!! I am so excited.

2012 olympic clock in trafalgar square, 3 days in london

the 2012 Olympic Clock in Trafalgar Square.....only 361 days to go as of 01.08.2011

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a fox, a magpie and a self-installed alarm system

Posted in interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged animals in the garden, foxes, magpies, squirrels on May 26, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I have the greatest luck to live in a house that has a fabulous, secluded garden for my pleasure and entertainment.

the garden

The entertainment is provided by the creatures that call the garden; home! We have pretty birds, pesky squirrels and a shy fox (or 2).

the fox on the verandah

The birds family is made up of blue tits, coal tits, robins, sparrows, chaffinches, nuthatches, the very occassional wren, lots of very annoying pigeons, a woodpecker that’s eating us put of house and home and a magpie.

the woodpecker - eating us out of house and home

There are squirrels galore, one of whom is named Sue! 🙂

a squirrel named Sue 🙂

and we have a fox. Now the fox population changes and I have seen a dog fox which is rather large, 2 cubs (last year) a mangy bedraggled fox last autumn and a very pretty, petite dusty red fox this spring 🙂

This lovely creature has taken to strolling through the garden in the early mornings, and I have a sneaky suspicion s/he is using the air-raid bunker as a den. Not sure about that except for the fact that every time I see it, it’s walking up the stairs leading from the bunker.

So where does the self-installed alarm come into this tale? Well over the weeks I have noticed, kinda subconciously that every now and then the magpie makes a hell of a din in the garden, shrieking and squawking like mad! Initially I thought it was just the magpie doing what magpies do!

Then a few days ago I happened to look out the window and there in the rose garden was this beautiful little fox and right behind it, jumping up and down and flapping it’s wings, darting at the fox and jumping back and making the most awful din you could imagine was the magpie!

and suddenly it dawned on me….the magpie was trying to chase of the fox. And it succeeded!

just a tail visible as it heads off into the underbrush

so now when I hear the din outside, I know that we have a fox in the garden! 🙂

fox in the garden

I am also way impressed at the magpie….it seemed to have no fear of the fox and was quite willing to give it a good blasting and eventually chasing it down to the end of the garden and then silence.

So I decided that a magpie that is prepared to take on a fox without fear of becoming breakfast, deserves a name!

so we now have a squirrel named Sue and a magpie named…..Chubb!

a magpie named Chubb

27.05.11 update!!! update!! 🙂 brilliant luck today….saw the vixen AND her cub in the garden today. managed to get some great photos albeit far away, these are the best

mommy and baby on the pathway

a grooming session on the pathway 🙂

on the lawn heading off to explore....

how lucky I am!!!

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my first Meetup at #LBM and learning more about #Blog4Girls

Posted in interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, Travel, tagged #blog4girls, learn about seo, meetup london, plan-uk, travel blogging on May 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Hooray! Finally after I do not know how many years I was able to attend my very first MeetUp!! 🙂

Thanks to my good friend Andrew who invited me to the latest MeetUp in London, the theme of which, as he mentioned, was to be TRAVEL!! So how could I not go? And it was great. Somewhat different to what I was expecting. I had the idea that it would be quite formal and that there would be quite a structure to the evening, but as it turned out it was very informal and very noisy and very busy with a real buzz of excitement! and I loved it. Now I would like to go every week! 🙂

So we met up at Leicester Square station and had a pizza slice on the way and arrived pretty much just after 7pm as instructed and already the room was buzzing. I got to speak to a lass by the name of Sarah who as it turns out was from a London PR company and she had already visited my 3 Days in London website!!! and not only that but thought it was great!! Awesome. That alone has spurred me on to work even harder at what I am already doing.

Then when the meeting finally got started (by which stage I was beginning to panic a little as I had to leave at 9pm!) we got to hear from Paul of TravMonkey, Emma of TripAdvisor (only the most visited travel site on the internet) and Fulvia of Hotwire, who were hosting the evening.

I got to learn some tips about SEO and how important the first 100 words of the blog post are, as well as which to use the same words of the heading in the first 100 words! I implemented that immediately yesterday when I did a blog on our ‘Boris Bikes’! I also learned that contrary to what some of the Internet marketing *Guru’s* teach you, you should keep your heading simplistic and relevant to what the blog is about e.g. Barclays Bicycles – use that in the heading instead of some ‘fancy obscure *hopefully* drive traffic to the blog with a fancy worded heading’! Duh!

Now you may wonder why I am somewhat sarcastic about that….well this guy has one of the top travel websites and I have been following the ‘guru’s’ advice so the bounce rate on my website is quite high! Seems I am more likely to trust his advice than theirs! Especially from now on!

But on the whole all is good. He also recommended that as a travel blogger we should endeavour to make our site a resource for travellers rather than just a great blog, which is terrific coz that is exactly what the New Media Angel genius and I were talking about last week and how we are (read: she is) 🙂 going to restructure the website now.

I also got to meet and chat to Jorgen of Link Humans.com who are promoting the Plan-UK campaign #Blog4Girls. I would urge you to click thru on this link and find out more. It is a tremendoulsy important issue they are tackling and certainly one that needs to be addressed if progress is to be made. I am partial to these smaller charities rather than the big super size organisations, mostly coz they get to really make a difference and the money goes where it’s needed rather than through the Government coffers and into a Swiss Bank account somewhere or other!

In all a great evening. I look forward to the day when I can be free to attend these evenings more frequently.

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the day before…………

Posted in Fun Stuff, Historical, Holidays, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged camping on the mall, royal wedding on May 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

What a fabulous event! Kate; or Catherine as she is now to be known, the Duchess of Cambridge looked absolutely radiant, just as every bride should!
I feel as if I have truly fallen through the rabbit hole, it was surreal! The Pomp! The Pagentry! The Ceremony! The Horses! The Traditions! The Colours! The Music! The Troops! The Flags! – only the British can do Pomp and Ceremony like the British! 🙂

Pomp and Pagentry on The Mall

Who would have thought when I sat in front of my TV that day back in South Africa in 1981, and watched the wedding of Prince Charles and the soon to be Princess Diana, that in just under 30 years time I would be in London and at the wedding of her eldest son; Prince William!
To say that I am thrilled and exhuberant to have been part of the fantastic event would be a total understatement. I could probably use every descriptive word in the dictionary and it still wouldn’t describe the fun, the excitement and the sheer unadulterated amazement I felt at being there.

royal wedding on the mall processional route

two very excited people, on The Mall waiting for the fun to begin

Earlier in the month, in a moment of what can clearly be described as madness, I had decided to join the hundreds of other people who would be camping out on the Mall for the Royal Wedding.

my place for the Royal Wedding

You may recall, (or not), that I went along to mark this ‘spot’ a few days before which was great fun. Of course when I did arrive at The Mall on Thursday evening, the whole area was already filled with people camping out – note to self: take leave from duty when these events occur! In other words, there are other people just as mad who get there early too!!

royal wedding, crowds camping on the mall

you gotta get there early

So, there I was, rucksack strapped on, the pop-up 2woman tent that I had purchased the day before in another ‘moment of madness’, (I am not safe with a credit card when I get excited about something!!) in one hand, a bag of food in my other hand and my stomach churning with excitement, wandering about looking for a spot to camp out! I was delighted that my daughter had decided to join me for the night and she was to arrive a wee bit later.

our 2-woman pop-up tent prior to being popped-up

The Mall was a sea of tents, and camping chairs, plastic ground sheets, and thousands of people either already set up or just milling about. And dust!!! Without further ado, I set off to find a reasonable spot and chanced upon a row of ladies who had already set up their chairs right against the barrier. There was a space behind them with a clear view of The Mall in front, a good view of Buckingham Palace and most importantly a good view of the balcony where the couple would appear after the ceremony! And hopefully for a kiss!! In the event we got two, and in the event I missed both coz by the time it happened we had crowds of people in front and many were up on shoulders and that was that.

The Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace - a sea of heads below

The souvenir vendors were out n force and we had people selling flags, badges, buttons, hats, scarves and two enterprisng young ladies on Barclays Bikes selling t-shirts

: enterprising vendors selling t-shirts; getting around on Barclays bikes

One thing is for sure, the Barclays Cycle Hire were making a roaring trade, I saw dozens of bikes being used that afternoon and night! I set myself up behind the ladies who were from Somerset, got to chatting to folks around me and leaving my bags with the ladies in front I went walkabout for a bit. Not too far mind, I had a spot to keep! If you moved away for more than a few minutes, your spot was gone! My question about where to go to the loo was answered as soon as I arrived.

portaloos for a party

There were people from all over the world, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, America, Japan, Germany, Poland and UK citizens from all corners of the country. I saw Piers Morgan being interviewed, I watched reporters reporting, I got to see David Cameron go walkabout,

David Cameron on The Mall, being interviewed by Tim Wilcox

but I missed William and Harry’s walkabout near Clarence House. In terms of distance it is a 5 minute walk, in terms of the night I could just as well have been on the moon….it was impossible to get anywhere near the place.
Soon my daughter arrived and we put the tent up! Now here is the thing, there is something I learned over this episode; a pop-up tent ‘pops’ up a lot easier than it ‘pops’ down again! After numerous fruitless attempts on Friday morning to get it back in the bag, we gave up, strapped it together and that was that!

a fruitless attempt to pop-down the pop-up...........

I was almost happy to see the back of it, however, since it did cost £60, I didn’t just toss it! But it was a great little to tent to sleep in (probably what saved it’s skin), and in due course, at about 10pm we snuggled in, sleeping mats rolled out, sleeping bags spread out and hallelujah my daughter brough a couple of pillows along! All the comforts of a 5-star hotel and we had a view like none! 🙂

settling in for the night.

By this stage we were covered in dust, The Mall sidewalks are after all sand and grit, and despite repeated washing of my hair when I got home the next day, I can still feel grit in my hair. My pores, despite a real scrubbing under the shower still feel clogged. The sand got in everywhere, and by the time I got home Friday night my clothes, the tent, the sleeping bags, my rucksack and my trainers collectively contained at least 90% of the Mall’s gritty sidewalk!

dusty tents on The Mall

The excitement on the night was palpable. It never ceases to amaze me how at these events people who are total strangers get chatting and laughing together, the normal British reserve is no-where to be seen. Reporters from different countries and TV Stations were roving around, looking for interesting people to interview. And by interesting I mean the people that were dressed for the occassion. There were Brides, a Queen Victoria, ladies in hats fit for a Queen, Union Jacks disguised in all manner of items; painted on faces, hats and t-shirts. We had scattered sing-songs, hundreds of flags waving about and the atmosphere was electric.

royal wedding, on the mall for the royal wedding

do not press my button.........

I managed to sleep for about 3 hours between the hours of 1am and 4am through the noise, the shouting, the tramping feet that constantly kicked and knocked our tent, the lights, the shouting, the singing and the occassional Porta-Potty truck! We had Police milling about keeping an eye on the crowds and may I say that I was totally impressed; no aggression, no fighting, no bad behaviour and everyone was in a very jolly mood.
We woke really early the next day, and my very clever daughter went off to find us some tea and breakfast. Lesson #1 dont bother to bring food next time….just buy when you are there! Never has a cup of tea tasted so good! And the croissants even better. We also had red-velvet cupcakes for elevenses!!

very early the next morning

By 7am the crowds had swelled to enormous proportions, we had unsuccessfully packed up our tent, packed away our accoutrements and got ready for a party. The air was electric and in no time at all the party got under way. Wills and Kate went walkabout, The Queen walked by and waved

the 'Queen' goes walkabout

and The Mall looked like something out of Glastonbury.

the crowds at 7am the next day

We had Pomp and Pageantry like you cannot believe. The Police were out in force, armed Police, yer man Plod and the Metropolitan Mounted Police, in regiments and groups all there to Protect and Serve!

royal wedding, metropolitan mounted police

The Metropolitan Mounted Police

They also took no truck with disturbances and if you didn’t obey instantly when they told not to climb into the trees……… !!!!!
As the hours went by, the excitement rose, cheering and clapping, flag waving and music, helicopters, marching soldiers, mounted police, armed police, people pushing and shoving allwanting the best vantage point they could get…. and then the Procession began…….

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Katie, Katie give me your answer true……

Posted in family and relationships, Historical, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, Travel, tagged catherine and william, duke and duchess of cambridge, prince william and kate middleton, Queen Elizabeth II, royal wedding, rw2011 on May 2, 2011| 9 Comments »

Katie, Katie give me your answer true, I’m half crazy just for the love of you.
It was a stylish marriage, We used my granny’s carriage,
and you looked sweet, good enought to eat,
so glad you said I do!

william and catherine royal wedding 29 april 2011

the newly married couple; Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - William and Catherine

The big day had finally arrived, one of the most anticipated events in the last 30 years!!! At first light the campers started to wake, spectators began to arrive and the dust rose into the air in swathes!!! and we kept an anxious eye on the weather!!
As the morning progressed the excitement mounted and the crowds swelled. They had been expecting an estimated crowd of 600,000 on the Processional route, in the event it swelled to over 1million!
I do believe that the reality of the importance of the occassion had started to sink in as the day wore on and as the excitement set in……this was our future King who was getting married! Diana’s eldest son and 2nd in line to the throne! How could you not be there!!!
The Mall was closed off, the Metropolitan Police, lunch packs in hand, started spreading out into their marked positions. Armed-Police marched by, some heading for the roof of Buckingham Palace, snipers and marksmen all positioned on the corners of the Palace roof. Suddenly we noticed that the Royal Standardwas aloft!

royal wedding william and catherine royal standard

The Royal Standard

Reporters reported; interviewing anyone they thought looked suitably attired or somewhat crazily quirky- and there were many to choose from!! Street sweepers went by to roudy applause, the crowd cheering anyone who walked by. We had Mexican waves, we had cheering, we had more and more people trying to squeeze into tiny spaces, the flag waving increased in intensity and the volume of sound swelled to deafening proportions. And you did not dare to leave your place to go to the loo!!!
Suddenly the music from the Abbey burst forth from the speakers lining route and we cheered! And then the procession began………
When the first of the Mounted Police rode by the sound swelled, when the Marching bands went by, the cheers escalated, and when the first of the Royal Family; Princes William and Harry left Clarence House the crowd roared!
With frequent glances at watches or phones, we impatiently awaited the girl whose day this was! Our Kate! Our Queen in waiting!! The excitement built by the second and we watched anxiously for the flags at the top end of the circle to start waving and for the crowds to start cheering. The Mall was filled with Marching Bands, Mounted Police, Regiments of the Crown, cars and coaches; Ambassadors, Minor Royals, and then Tah Dah!!! the Queen and Prince Philip went by and the crowd cheered,

royal wedding, queen elizabeth II, processional route to westminster abbey

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on their way to Westminster Abbey

flags waving energetically. Suddenly time had marched on and there was the car with the Maid of Honour; Pippa Middleton and the bridesmaids, and now we knew for sure that within seconds the girl we had been waiting to see with bated breath and rising anticipation was on her way. The excitement rippled like electricity through the crowd!!
And suddenly the level of sound rose with an enormous roar!!!! Kate was on her way! And finally there she was, looking radiant and exquisite, every inch a Royal Regal lady; born for this position.. smiling beautifully behind her veil she elegantly waved with evident happiness! Her father beaming proudly at her side. The crowd cheered and cheered, tears flowed and we all had one thought on our minds; her future. There she was, one of us, and within the next hour she would be one of them! Our future Queen-in-waiting, and she looked it!

the bride; radiant and beautiful - Kate Middleton

Within seconds the car was gone, enroute to Westminster Abbey and the moment her life would change irrevocably! She would soon become one of the most photographed and talked about women in the world, on a par with our Diana and we all loved her! Loved her because she had brought a sparkle to William’s eyes, a lovely girl who loved him, and it showed!
As the music flowed from the speakers the crowd fell silent and you could almost hear a pin drop as the crowds waited for the ceremony to begin.
Next we heard the voice of the Archbishop of Canterbury; and as William said ‘I will’ the crowds cheered, but that was nothing compared to the roar of the crowd as the soft trembling of Kate’s response came through the loudspeakers. Deafening! She said ‘I will’ and the country roared! What a brilliant moment; a historical moment, a moment that set the seal on a future that we can only imagine, and never truly comprehend! And I was there!! I will never in all my life forget the feelings and the emotions I felt in that moment, and as she said ‘I will’ the sun shone out from behind the clouds, just a short burst and I knew that Diana was there!!!

The rest of the service passed in a flash as we sang the National Anthem and then the words of ‘God Save the Queen’ rang out, voices raised in lusty jubilation, patriosim at it’s very best. Soon the formalities were over and as they left the Abbey, once again the sun shone out, the rays no match for the smiles on the faces of these two young people, happily in love and happy together!! William proud, and Catherine, as he had said at the altar; “beautiful”.
The exhuberation as the carriage procession made it’s way along the Mall to Buckingham Palace, along the Processional Route was electrifying, powerful and emotional. I got so excited by the magnificence of the horses, barely controlled at galloping-trot or whatever style of motion it is called; overwhelming! You could feel the energy of the moment, the sheer power as the carriage swept by, preceded by these magnificent creatures that looked as if they would break loose at any second!

royal wedding, the queens guards, the mall

all the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men...........

The smiles, the radiance of the bride, regal and royal, the elegant wave of a dainty hand and the pride on William’s face!
All too soon they were gone, followed closely by the rest of the wedding party; Pippa and the bridesmaids, Prince Harry and the page-boys, the Queen and Prince Philip in their glass coach, then Charles and Camilla with Mr & Mrs Middleton, and then the coaches with other members of the Royal Family.
Once they were all safely tucked up inside, a wave of humanity surged along The Mall, controlled, yet eager, thousands of people preceded by Her Majesty’s forces heading for the Palace. It’s is a sight so surreal, it’s hard to imagine. The crowds moved inexorably forward and the crush became almost too much to bear as people surged forward in their desire to stand below the balcony where the newly-married couple would soon appear.

a mass of humanity along The Mall; heading for the Palace for the balcony scene

I so remember the moment Diana and Charles stepped out onto that balcony almost 30 years ago and the feeling that came with it, and now here I was just metres away about to watch her son step onto that same spot his parents had stood all those years ago.
And of course the main reason for the excitement………..the kiss!!!!! Would they? Or would they not? But they did, and the crowd went wild, kiss her again they cried and he did, to a roar of approval and jubilation like no other!

royal wedding, catherine and william, duke and duchess of cambridge

the newly weds - William and Catherine; the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

The heavy drone of the fly-past competing with the roar from the crowds; and then it was all over. The Royal Family, preceded by the Queen left the balcony to continue their celebrations in private. I loved the moment, as seen on TV, when Catherine walked out onto the balcony; her gasp of surprise was delightful.

And I cannot begin to tell you how fantastic it was to be standing there, part of this celebration of such momentous importance and joy. It is something I will never, ever forget! A day to be remembered and celebrated, I hope, for decades to come!

all photos in this blog are the copyright of Cémanthe Harries of Stop and Think Photography

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making the news!!!!

Posted in Fun Stuff, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged 2012 Olympics, hootsuite, royal wedding on April 27, 2011| 4 Comments »

OK, so next time I say that I won’t be blogging for X number of days or till after whatever…..don’t believe me!!! 🙂

If I had thought my day could get any better since my daughter told me she had uploaded my 3 Days in London itinerary yesterday morning….I had no idea just how!!!

I went into hootsuite last night to do some #TravelTuesday tweets and saw this: from @abcnews – We’ve featured you in our #royalwedding #storify. Have a look here – http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/storify.htm?id=uk-gears-up-for-royal-wedding

I nearly fell right off my chair with excitement when I saw one of my photos on their page!!!! 5th photo down! how exciting is that!

and then just while I was jumping up and down with sheer excitement my phone rang!! and it was my brother and sister-in-law to tell me that I am an Aunty 2 times over since mid-March; they’ve adopted 2 little kiddies, and on top of that they are expecting a new arrival at the end of August!!!

Then later on my daughter suddenly decides we should buy a tent for our camp out on Thursday night to secure our place for the wedding on Friday…..so I guess I will be collecting that Wednesday afternoon!

And then to finish off a marvellous day…. at exactly 23:48 and with 11 minutes to spare I placed my order for my 2012 Olympic ticket selection!!!! hooray!!!!!!!!!!!

How absolutely fabulous, Tuesday 26th April 2011 will go down in history as one of my best days!!!

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an auspicious day……

Posted in Fun Stuff, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged london itineraries, london mint office, royal wedding on April 26, 2011| 1 Comment »

: not just a granny……

thank goodness I am a woman!!!! I can change my mind 🙂

Ok, so yesterday I said I wouldn’t be blogging again till after the Royal Wedding…..but hey!!! guess what? heehee, here I am again!

And the reason for this is coz two very exciting things happened today that I simply have to share:

1) My first London Itinerary went live!!! whoo hoo! Thanks to the herculean efforts of my wonderful daughter, who is a genius, the 6 Hours in London Itinerary was uploaded and went live this morning. A special edition for the wedding.

2) I received my ‘Prince William and Catherine Wedding Coin’ – Royal Wedding Crown in the mail this morning!! A commemorative coin to mark the occassion of their 29 April 2011 wedding!!!

Royal Mint edition of the Royal Wedding coin

The itineraries have taken a year to get up and online. Firstly coz I was paralysed by fear; fear of it not being perfect, fear of it not being good enough and the fear that no-one would like it or find it useful!!! But, thankfully my daughter gave me a good metaphorical kick in the ‘you know what’ and hurry scurry I edited the itinerary that had been waiting for the last 12 months to get completed and downloaded! Nothing like the excitement of a British occassion to get me going. 🙂

and the thrill of receiving my coin was the cherry on top!!! I applied for one a few weeks ago never expecting to actually get it, since they are only printing 50,000 and I though for sure that they would already be sold out. Also you had to apply with no guarantee of getting one, so when I open the bulky envelope this morning and realised what it was…..I nearly went ballistic.

So that’s my tale for today………..see you maybe before the wedding, maybe not!!! depends on what other exciting things happen in my life. In the meantime – Bye for now.

Bearing in mind that I had said when the wedding was announced that I was NOT going to buy any paraphenalia or memorabilia, I now have the coin and the hat!!! what’s next I wonder? Thankfully the wedding is only 3 days away now and there is not much time left for me to go mad and break the bank!!!

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with only 4 sleeps to go…….

Posted in Fun Stuff, Historical, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged barclays cycle hire, london gets ready for the royal wedding, royal wedding of prince william and kate middleton on April 25, 2011| 4 Comments »

: this spot has been reserved for Cindy Eve who is @notjustagranny 🙂

whoo hoo!!!!! 🙂 with only 4 sleeps to go I am way beyond excited now!! I keep jolting out of sleep in the middling hours of the night, when it is still dark outside – my heart racing with excitement and the Royal Wedding on my mind!!!

I have finally persuaded my chica to join me at Buckingham Palace for the Royal Wedding celebrations, and against her better judgement….. to sleep over on The Mall with me the night before. 🙂

Today I went walkabout along the Royal Wedding route to revisit favourite places and to reserve my place on The Mall. A large part of The Mall has been pedestrianised and the barriers are already lining the sidewalks. There is a real sense of anticipation in the air and one of my favourite celebrities was seen at the Palace interviewing a Royal Correspondent! And finally I know for sure….he is a real person!!!

Piers Morgan at Buckingham Palace

London is bustling with excitement, the bunting is up, the sun was shining and love is in the air. In preparation for the Royal Wedding, London has donned her finery with Regent Street lined with marvellous flags,

Regent Street all dressed in finery

Admiralty Arch is dressed in her finery, and high above the west tower of Westminster Abbey can be seen the Sovereign’s flag.

the Queen's flag above the West Tower of Westminster Abbey

the ‘Boris’ bikes aka Barclays Cycle Hire bikes are everywhere to be seen as visitors to London make the most of the fabulous weather and cycle about town. The fountains at Trafalgar Square have been emptied…. ? and the 2012 Olympic Clock ticks on!

the 2012 Olympic Clock ticks on

I bought a hat for the occassion….do you think it is suitable?

my hat for the Royal Wedding....

and now with only 4 sleeps to go to till wedding of the century; the much anticipated wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on 29 April 2011……this is your London correspondent signing out till after the 29th. 🙂

I will be tweeting on the 28th and 29th (or for as long as my battery lasts). Look out for the updates on @3days_in_london and the hashtag #RoyalWedding and #3dil – hope to see you there!!!

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Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s – FREE ice-cream :)

Posted in Fun Stuff, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged 2012 olympic clock at trafalgar square, ben and jerrys free cone day, royal wedding, Westminster Abbey on April 12, 2011| 2 Comments »

ben & jerry's ice-cream leicester square free cone day april 12

my chocloate extravaganza at Ben & Jerry's free cone day

How many ice-cream cones could you eat in one hour? Today I got the opportunity to test this out…..and my score = 4!!! Yup! That’s right, 4 ice-cream cones at Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day.
“The Ben & Jerry’s tradition of saying thank you to loyal customers with free ice-cream is as old as Ben & Jerry’s itself. Back in 1979, after 1 year in business, they decided to give away free ice-cream to the loyal customers that made it all possible, and have been doing it ever since.”
Never in my life have I heard of anything more sensible than giving away free ice-cream. My good friend Andrew brought this event to my attention on Sunday, thinking that I could tweet about it for 3DaysInLondon, which I duly did. I was disappointed that this give-away was to be on Tuesday, which is not a day I am normally free (excuse the pun). 🙂

Andrew & Vanessa eating Ben & Jerry's ice-cream

However, the Universe works in strange ways and due to an administrative error by someone else I was able to swop my Monday afternoon off to Tuesday!!! Hooray!! So with no further ado, I set off to kill two birds with one stone. I had been wanting to traipse around London again to take photos of the 2012 Olympic Clock and the April 29th Royal Wedding preparations for my 3days blog, and today proved to be the perfect time for it.
We woke to a fabulous day, bright sunshine, puffy white clouds and with a hint of chilly breeze….just perfect for my escapade.

a fabulous spring day in London 🙂

I set off at 2.45pm and headed straight for Charing Cross. First stop to take another photo of the 2012 Olympic Clock in Trafalgar Square

the 2012 Olympic Clock in Trafalgar square

and then at a fast pace I headed off across the city to Westminster Abbey….the venue for the Royal Wedding of the decade.
Along the way I stopped off at Westminster Gardens to take a few photos and ended up on my back like a beetle with my legs and arms akimbo. Lesson 1 when taking photos: look behind you when walking backwards in case there is an obstacle that you could fall over!!! hahaha. Fortunately this is something I do fairly frequently so it is no longer an embarressment!

royal wedding of william and kate westminster abbey

the north side of Westminster Abbey, the wedding venue for Prince William and Catherine (Kate) Middleton

At the Abbey I made the most of the crowd-free grounds and took some more intimate photos of the decorative carvings, gargoyles and sculptures that adorn this magnificent building. Across the road the organisers of the wedding are busy setting up stands for the press corps…..damn, I wish I was a Press person!

setting up the stands for the Press Photographers

Then at a quick pace I made my way to Buckingham Palace via St James’s Park which is looking just fabulous with the spring flowers now in full bloom in the gardens laid out by John Nash. The Swire Fountain was in working order and the waters splashed with joyful abandon. London in spring is exhuberant with all colours of the rainbow and more, light breezes, summery sunshine, April showers, and hundreds of people very sensibly making the most of it.

st james park swire fountain royal wedding

the Swire Fountain in St James's Park

Besides that, London was strangely empty of traffic this afternoon, not sure why, but it was great being able to just cross over the roads at will. It got a bit busier as the afternoon wore on. At Buckingham Palace the signs of a Royal event were evident: the flags are being raised along the Mall, Green park has a huge area closed off, the Queen Victoria Memorial Fountain is closed off, and parts of the Memorial Gardens are also closed off.

Memorial Gardens in front of Buckingham Palace - closed off in preparation for the Royal Wedding

Then at a fast march I charged along The Mall and on to Leicester Square where I met up with Andrew and Vanessa and joined the queue at Ben & Jerry’s.

the queue at Ben & Jerry's free cone day in Leicester Square

My first choice: Chocolate Fudge Brownie, a burst of flavour that set my taste-buds a tingle; hard to describe the sensation as the overload of chocolate exploded in my mouth. We strolled around the perimeter of Leicester Square chatting and slurping the fast melting ice-cream and re-joined the queue on the other side of the square where I had the Cherry Garcia: cherry ice-cream with cherries and dark chocolatey chunks, (heaven on a cone). Once again we set off round the perimeter till the cones were depleted and re-joined the queue. This cone I chose: Phish Food; a delectable mix of chocolate ice-cream with marshmallow, caramel & chocolatey shaped fish. I never found any fish but the ice-cream was delicious. We set off once again, and by the time we arrived back we were ready for what would be the last for the day (this dear reader, is only coz I had run out of time). My next choice was the Strawberry Cheesecake: a tantalising mix of strawberry cheesecake ice-cream with strawberries and cookie swirls. Delectable. And that was me; replete. I was totally ice-creamed out, and now I will need size 18 trousers!!! 🙂 heehee.

By now it was time to head on down into the underground to face the crush of the homeward-bound commuters. As it turned out, it wasn’t that busy and I manged to secure a seat till my destination and thence to home.
What a great afternoon; right up my alley: a walk round London, sunshine and ice-cream. What more could a girl want?
Footnote: alongside the free ice-cream give-away B&J’s have partnered with a few charities and there were people with buckets collecting for Great Ormond Street Hospital and NSPCC (those are the two that I donated to). I surely hope that people were generous and contributed to these worthy charities.
p.s.I am now a dedicated fan of Ben & Jerry’s Ice-Cream.
p.s.s. B&J’s are committed to being 100% FAIRTRADE by end 2011. Excellent.

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On the ‘other’ side of the bucket…..

Posted in Fun Stuff, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged London goes yellow in support of Marie Curie Cancer Care, Marie Curie UK Great Daffodil Appeal on March 11, 2011| 4 Comments »

daffodils for Marie Curie

Today dawned bright and early and I heaved a sigh of relief. I was scheduled to do an hour’s stint for Marie Curie UK in Hampstead in the afternoon as part of the Great Daffodil Appeal, and I was thankful it wasn’t raining. I have never done something like this before and felt quite excited.

At 12noon I headed off for the bus and in due course arrived at my destination in Belsize Park. I had intended walking across the Heath to Hampstead and make my way from there, but for some reason I misread the map and thought I would not be able to get there in time. So used the bus instead. Of course once I was on the bus, I had a proper look at the map and realised I could easily have done it. Ah well.

I arrived full of the joys of spring and bounced into the fund-raising office where I made the acquaintance of the lovely Emma with whom I had previously corresponded. The ladies in the office are lovely. Then it was time to kit up and before I knew it I looked like a very poor imitation of old Mother Hubbard.

heeheehee!!! dont I look just marvellous!!! not! certainly not going to influence fashion in any way

Hahahaha! what a scream. The hat was way too big for my head and kept slipping down over my face, eventually I had to fold my ears over at the top to hold the rim!!! Before I even left the offices I had tipped all my daffodils onto the floor. Amidst gusts of laughter at my clumsiness we picked them up and then I started off; looking scary enough to make babies cry!

In no time at all I was in Hampstead and proceeded to tempt passersby with my wares. What a great exercise in human observation.

First off I would like to say that people are really generous and lovely and I had some great interactions with folks who came over just to put money into my bucket with no expectation of return. I was surprised by two young lads of about 13 years or so, who came over and contributed. I got to chat to young and old alike, making many of them laugh with my exhortations of “can I interest you in a daffodil” or “step on over folks for the latest in spring fashion accessories….buy a daffodil” 🙂

It was great fun. It was interesting being on the ‘other’ side of the bucket for a change, and I made many observations. It pleased me greatly that many people came over, sometimes making a journey across the road just so that they could contribute and get their daffodil. I would say about 70% of people were more than happy to contribute. Some people just wanted to donate without wanting anything in return. Others were more than generous. Some people just laughed at me and commented that they were sitting ducks, yet more than happy to make a contribution. One elderly gentleman looking very dapper with a bow-tie and waistcoat came over to chat, and another bloke stopped to show me the scar on his head from a brain op to remove a tumour. One lady stopped to buy a daffodil and told me how they were fund raising for a friend who had cancer.

On the other side of the coin, so to speak, many people avoided eye contact at any cost. Many just looked right through me as if I had not even spoken, and others brushed me off with annoyance. Lots of folk went by with a ‘I’ll get one on my way back’ and never appeared again. Perhaps they went by after I had gone. Others did indeed come back with change to buy their daffodil. On the whole I would say it was a very positive experience and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Definitely something to add to my list of ‘things to do’ for the future.

If you would like to find out more about the Marie Curie Cancer Care organisation click here They do a brilliant job and I recall in 2003 they cared for one of my clients when she was dying. Not only do they support the patient but they support the families too.

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