Visits and Things

London has apparently jumped with both feet into the season that is a hybrid of autumn and winter. Something like autunter. There are piles of leaves outside my door, perfect for running through, and yet it's freezing cold, and I'm still wearing winter gloves whilst on the tube. Funnily enough, I'm actually kind of loving it.

This weekend saw friends visiting from all over the place. The beauties I went to school with were about, and considering I've not seen one of them since June, it was a mighty good chance to catch up. This essentially meant doing what we do best; eating and chatting. Friday night we made a Moroccan concoction, and spent the night discussing the past few months. We might also have watched a lot of David Attenborough on youtube. I feel his voice helped us sleep, despite our excitement at being reunited.

Saturday we visited the coolest exhibition, by someone called Mr Brainwash. Kinda bold, slightly garish, and very, very uplifting. Oh, and it's free. Yes, that's why I love the city. We got to go and have our photos taken with a gorilla made of tyres, and then got free posters. It was a pretty sweet afternoon, made even more so by the wonders of the Fleet River Bakery. This cafe has to be one of my favourite spots in the city. It serves Monmouth coffee and is hidden down an alley not far from Covent Garden. I might have been there twice in the last three days.

And then this morning, some of my closest friends from Citygate in Bournemouth, who've been in London for some things, had a spare couple of hours to catch up. Again, friends I love seeing nearly every day when at home, I've not seen in months, so there was lots to talk about.

My day was completed with Church activities. It was a little bit of a special afternoon, with some training time and another epic Sunday at Christchurch. It seems to be a real time for challenge and change and growth and I'm really loving being surprised by what God does each time.

For the sake of the world burn like a fire in me. Light a flame in my soul for every eye to see. 

Rules

The past few days a friend's been staying, which, amongst lectures, Uni stuff and the usual habits of my week, has led to a fairly busy couple of days. We've been out most nights and with someone crashing in your flat there's not much time to be alone, or to chill.

Saying that, it was totally worth it. We had a fantastic last day together yesterday, going to Rules Restaurant and then shopping in Covent Garden. It was one of those days that you'll be telling stories about for years to come. Probably because I don't think I could ever afford to eat in that place again. It was incredible. I found myself at midday drinking a cocktail made of green tea liquor, and eating a starter of crab, followed by the best beef I have ever had the pleasure to look at let alone put in my mouth. 

The restaurant had that old school English charm. I'm talking red velvet chairs, dark wood, whisky cabinets and a fireplace. There were antlers on the walls and hundreds of paintings and satirical cartoons filling any available space. I felt I needed to be in possession of a top hat, or at least a pair of shoes that didn't come from Primark.

Amongst a restaurant packed with rich businessman, it was hard not to feel like an outsider but the whole thing was such a treat, with the most incredible food and service. It was fun to pretend to be sophisticated. The fact we took photos of our cocktails though somewhat proved we weren't really meant for the world of high-class dining.

 

Following dinner we wandered about Covent Garden market, poking in the shops, enjoying the beauties of some classical music and soaking up the sunshine. We discovered a few fantastic little shops full of decorative hearts and roses, bird cages and cupcake tins...all in all very...me? I could've happily spent more time wandering about but a trip to Sainsburys to prepare for the Alpha course I'm running was in order.

After my monstrous lunch I wasn't so in need of dinner but the rest of the Alpha course guests needed to be fed and watered. The benefit of this was visiting Whitechapel market and picking up some tulips for a £1! I've put them in a mug that we collected from a bar on Monday night. I think they look pretty cool.

Anyway, enough rambling. I've had just four hours sleep and need to read The Tempest today. I've got cravings for Trafalgar Square so I'm thinking I'm going to take my Shakespeare beast of a book and hit Central London.

Happy Sunshiney Day Amigos!

xxxxx