Way back in March, I made a post about Covent Garden and the fun to be had there (Titled ‘Belated interesting weekend update’) and I included a picture of some very lonely Wall-E toys that had been reduced in price. Well the last Disney Store I went past, they had been reduced once again to the measly sum of £10. That was it. Wall-E had to come home with me. So now I have 1 Wall-E ready to go to my nephew and one Wall-E remote controlled box of cuteness here, at home, with a Super Mario mushroom on his head.
I do love bank holiday weekends. They always seem to involve more good times than other weekends. This bank holiday weekend appears to be no exception thus far.
A friend who lives and works in Dubai was over in the UK so I trotted on over to catch up with him. We nearly always do this via the medium of having a natter whilst indulging in some retail therapy. We again opted for Kingston as it is such a beautiful place and the shopping there is very good. It was an absolutely glorious day. The sun did us proud and never stopped shining. Our very first stop was the Bentall’s Departement store to gaze longing at this.
That is a Krispy Kreme Donut glazing machine. It looked so tasty! We bought a donut each but the man at the counter had obviously been amused by us taking photo’s of and videoing his glazing machine so he gave us two complimentary donuts! Bless his cottons. Anyone who has ever eaten Krispy Kreme donuts though will know that one is quite enough for a sugar overload so we took one of the free donuts home as a gift for our host with the hot tub in his garden.
The main shopping objectives were attained (which was basically face cream for me but unfortunately not the right sort of luggage for the expat) and the browsing began. We went in every technology shop there was under the premise that my expat companion required a new compact camera. We saw the rather lovely Sony Cyber-Shot W210 in the Sony Centre which we were rather fond of in green. I also saw this which made me laugh.
That is what it looks like. It’s a cassette Walkman! I thought these had been relegated to eBay only but no no, Sony still makes them new! I can’t think they sell much volume but I sure had a little chuckle to myself at the utter outdated newness of it.
Anyway, once we had seen the Cyber-Shot W210 we hunted around for a better price. We found it £10 cheaper at John Lewis but they only had it in the silver so it was back off to the Sony Centre to request a price match and more discount for it being a display model. Well we got the price match and a half price discount on a memory card so all in all, a good bargain I thought. Once outside the shop, I was presented with the bag and told’ Happy Birthday’. I had been fooled! Hoodwinked! Deceived! But oh what a lovely fib. My expat friend and the friend with the hot tub in his back garden had clubbed together for it. Long have I complained that my camera (which used to be a four year old basic point and press) was huge, ate batteries, took a bad photo and was not any good for blogging. I used my phone for blog pictures my old camera was so utterly useless. Both my friends read my blog so have to suffer the poor picture quality and enough was enough! How incredibly pleased I am to have such wonderful, thoughtful and every so slightly devious friends! Needless to say I cried a little and then we went for lunch by the river. It was here that I powered up the new toy and took some shots from where we were sitting. So, I present to you, the first of many good quality pictures that will no doubt be gracing my blog from now on!
We were literally sat beside the river at the Ha Ha Bar and Grill where the service was to the table so we didn’t have to leave the sunshine even for drinks! Bloody marvellous!!
I have recently been dipping my toes into more of the London life and thought that last weekend would be a good time to attend a big event. I missed the Camden Crawl so we went along to the London marathon.
There was a small cheering team from my workplace who went along under the invitation of a charity called Mind. We were provided with T-shirts and ‘bang sticks’. The bang sticks were a curious contraption that when hit together, in a similar fashion to a clap, produced a sound that I can only liken to a steel drum. So, we were armed to make a lot of noise for the runners. We took up a cheering spot at the 18.5 mile marker near Canary Wharf at about 11:00 after the elite women and wheelchairs racers had just gone past. Mind had some pretty fast people running on their behalf as we spotted our first one at about 11:50 and duly cheered our heads off. The runners definitely seemed to appreciate the boost. The following photographs really capture the moment when the runners saw/ heard the cheers and realised it was for them. All credit for photography goes to the lovely folk at Mad Images who supplied me with this little selection.
I think you’ll agree that all the folk above are doing exceptionally well after already running eighteen and a half miles. We did break out a megaphone after a while to create even more noise and support for any and all runners who looked like they needed a boost. I think the most impressive costumes to go past were the rhino’s. They were running for, logically enough, Save the Rhino but for being in a big suit, those runners were still pretty blooming speedy!
I really enjoyed the marathon. It was a very inspirational way to spend the day. We saw the odd celeb run past but they’re the ones who can afford personal trainers and such like things to help them along the way. I applaud the average Joe who does it for the love of something be that a family member, a charity or just as a personal achievement. My hat goes off to all of you for having the strength and commitment to get through it.
I hope our cheering did the trick for you guys and I’ll see you next year!
Lincs to London 