Kelandjon.com

It was London Pride today and Kel had booked a stall to display and promote the Perky Piglet T-shirts www.perkypiglet.co.uk.

After an exhausting day of travel yesterday we were up again this morning and off in a Taxi to Soho Square to set up the stall. We booked a Taxi as the Jubilee line was closed yet again. I cleverly managed to leave my train tickets and house keys at home. So once we found the stall I had to hop on the Tube/DLR to get home and pick up the stuff.

After a quiet start for everyone, the Pride march ended and people soon started flooding into the area. Kat, Strad, Davey, Rich, Susie, Christian, Grant and Danielle all came along to give us a hand, which we were really grateful for.

There was heaps of interest in the T-shirts and the stall was several people deep at many times.

Between all of us we managed to hand out between 2,000 and 2,500 flyers too, which should help get the Perky Piglet name out there.

Father decided to start fiddling with his camera and downloaded some software to help him create panoramic images by stitching together pictures taken from our balcony. They’ve come out really well.

The first is a basic shot out towards the Isle of Dogs in the afternoon.

Then a sunset.

Then my favourite, London and Canary Wharf at night.

The best laid plans eh?

The aim today was to travel down the Eltham Palace in Eltham (surprisingly), a small ‘Village’ just south of Greenwich. There is an art deco palace there that is meant to be pretty funky.

We can certainly agree on that, but only from the outside. It turned out to be closed today.

Looking at the Palace from the exterior shots below it was a bit of a disappointment that we couldn’t get in.

So we set off home (after mum took a tour of Marks and Spencer of course), and decided to go to Greenwich.

After a swift coffee break in Costa, we ventured over to the Market. We spotted some unique pictures perfect for our apartment. With a sprinkling of indecision and haggling (not) we decided on the ones we wanted.

Mum and Dad kindly bought them for us but the artist told us it would take and hour or so to frame them. Pondering what to do next we wandered over to the Maritime Museum which has undergone something of a transformation.

Mum and dad arrived today for a quick Bank Holiday visit.

Kel arrived home early and we mulled over what to do, so we ended up on the farm! Mudchute Farm to be exact, a small plot slapped right in the middle of the Isle of Dogs.

A bizarre place as you can’t hear traffic, just birds, pigs, goats, sheep and Llamas.

Although there was one point where we felt the Crow Pen was a little over the top.

I made friends with a Squirrel (seems to be happening a lot lately). It got a bit arsey when I had nothing for it to eat though.

Afterwards we wandered over to The Gun, a gorgeous pub on the Thames.

The biggest urban shopping mall in Europe opened in Shepherds Bush this week, and being the nosey types, we decided to go and check it out.

Initial impressions weren’t the best to be honest. The nearby tube station has been closed for a while to be refurbished so it could cope with the new mall, but we were horrified to find that there are only 2 escalators and both of those were out of operation. So all the many, many shoppers had to go up (and down) 1 single winding staircase to exit or enter the tube network. Absolutely ridiculous, not sure which idiots planned that one.

The mall itself is nice, big and has load of shops. One at the entrance caught my eye straight away. :o)

We got lost straight away, but it is a bit of a maze.

Then the first thing we wanted to do was grab lunch. This is where we came to another sticking point. There isn’t a central food court, just 2 or 3 separate areas to eat in. Plus, all of them but one (Eat) are the sit down meal places. There is no where to grab a quick bite and run. As a result there were huge queues for food.

In the end we gave up and went to Waitrose. We munched on a nice baguette each and a couple of cakes. Standing up of course.

After that we returned to the madness of the mall and noticed crowds of people around the stage area.

A full orchestra was performing some very rousing music, then on came some gospel singers who sang ‘Proud’ the UK Olympics song.

Very good it was too. If a little like watching The X Factor.

So will we go again? Probably, but most likely not on a weekend, and certainly not for lunch.

We woke up to a calm and sunny (but cold) morning today. Perfect for our plans to sail down the Thames to Embankment.

The journey on the boat was smooth and easy. After a short walk we reached Big Ben.

Afterwards we took a quick detour to Tophams for mum and dad to take a look at the place, then it was on to Knightsbridge for lunch and a visit to Harrods.

A nice, if tiring day was had by us all, you can see a few more images of the day by clicking here.

Woke up this Easter Sunday morning to another beautiful day with temperatures forecast in the low 20’s again. Quite unbelievable for this time of year.

We took the opportunity to take some photographs from the roof terrace (see the picture, of the Thames from the Terrace) and of the Oriental Garden. The views of the city are great from up there but unfortunately don’t come out well on camera. Tsk.

It’s also lovely in the apartment with the balcony doors wide open and the breeze coming through. We had a nice chat with our new neighbour on the balcony this morning. The poor love was horrified as she was a little hung over.

After a few weeks being lazy, (well trying to recover from this ruddy bug), I looked out of the window at the semi-sunny sky and decided today was the day to get back on my bike and cycle to work.

It looked so nice outside, but once I’d traveled all of 10 yards I regretted my decision. There was a bugger of a headwind - 20 mph to be exact. That doesn’t sound like much, but on a 10 mile cycle ride with the nagging feeling you’ve left your brakes on for most of it, it soon gets a little boring.

The whole journey took about 45 minutes and I felt every second of it.

Of course rather than admit I’ve got a bit rusty in the last few weeks, I put it down to the weight of a bottle of shampoo I had in my backpack.