London - Day 7

We first discovered Canary Wharf and Canada Square on our last trip and decided to head back to take a look. Basically, it is one of East London's financial districts - banking, media, business hotels and other corporate firms and contains UK's three tallest bulidings.

Apparently, 100,000 people work here and trust me, you will find the majority of them at the Jubliee Shopping Center located underneath the district during lunch. This place is packed with people in suits. Every one of them carrying a lunch bag and a take away sandwich. We didn't last long, before we had to get out for some air!


Built by a Canadian real estate developer, you can see how it reminds me of downtown Vancouver.


The wharf consists of a series of dry docks and canals. When we were first here in 2004, you could see a bunch of boats that parked in these waters that acted as floating office space.


Yo Sushi is definitely not the best sushi or the cheapest in town, but one of those things that we do when in town. Trust me, we are completely spoiled in Vancouver! It is conveyor belt sushi where each plate is price / colour coded. You pay for what you eat and you can also order hot items off of a menu. The Yo Sushi at Finchley Place has a robot that drove around on a track offering beverages.




Just off of Piccadilly, we stumbled upon a small market outside of the church. The church was open and had a set up selling holiday cards. It was amazing to see a beautiful, old church with an outdoor market. Too bad, most of the stuff was quite touristy and tacky.


Fortnum and Mason - best known for their afternoon tea, biscuits, tea & coffee selection and their jam and jellies. It's like a smaller version (less crowded) version of the Harrod's food halls. Way better window displays as well!


Further down the road was the Royal Academy of Arts. Work by internationally acclaimed artist and 1991 Turner Prize winner Anish Kapoor.


Us playing around with the camera and our reflection.

Happy Birthday!

It's my birthday and I am the big 3-0. Holy! I'm scared. Hold me. Just kidding - hehe... I think??

A part of the reason why we are in London is for my birthday. We haven't been back to London in 5 years and I knew that I didn't want to spend such a milestone at home. Funny how when I was a kid, I couldn't wait for the big day and would count down the days to my birthday.

Back in elementary school, each year, my aunt would plan a birthday party for me. I was allowed to invite 6 to 8 friends and on the big day, my grandma and my aunt would pick all of us up after school and drive us to party central. One year, we had a pinata, but us weak girls couldn't break it. It took somebody's older brother and my uncle to spill the candy guts before we all went crazy. Another year, I was in love with Tiger Lily after winning 10 tickets to see a live stage performance of Peter Pan through a Vancouver Courier colouring contest.

My aunt would go all out too. We had make your own pizza stations, decorate your own cookies shaped like each of ours hands and the best part? We had fake money that we had to use / earn / trade to buy our fixings! Then, there was the year where I ate to much crap and had to run to the bathroom while everybody sang "happy birthday". Oh, memories!

Now that I am older, birthdays just seem like another day and a good excuse to eat cake. By the way, if you are ever near London Bridge, you need to eat cake at Konditor and Cook. *whisper* Choose the carrot cake (pictured above with the dark chocolate ganache) *whisper*

So, what's next? I have a few things brewing up my sleeve and a lot of roads seem to be opening. For somebody that is quite indecisive, it has given me lots to think about. I'm not ready to reveal quite yet, but please stay tuned.

Thank you everybody for their birthday wishes!

London - Day 6

I am born in Vancouver and have lived there all my life. My Grandma is from Shanghai and my mom was born in Hong Kong, but the whole family came to Vancouver when she was still young (before high school). We all speak English and are completely westernized, but every now and then, I just want to be with Asians and have rice and noodle. :D


It's easier to walk from the Piccadilly tube station to Leicester Square and Covent Garden then it is to take the tube. Although, you may want to rethink it if it's pouring rain out. Chinatown is just around the block from Leicester Square and then if you walk further, you will enter SOHO.


(Rob looking at tasty Asian treats)

Leicester Square is surrounded by cinemas and is also the place where all of the London premieres take place. Over the years, we have seen Ali G, Jude Law and Britney Spears. No, we don't camp out there like some do, we just happen to have good timing! If you follow me on Twitter (lotusevents) or Facebook, I wrote a post about missing George Clooney, here for the premiere of Fantastic Mr. Fox.


During our brief walk through, they were setting up the barriers for the London Film Festival.


One more thing! Leicester Square is also the place to get half price theatre tickets!

London - Day 5

I have been feeling pretty tired the past two days, so we decided to take it easy. It's not jet leg as I am sleeping through the night, but I seem so tired when I wake up even though it's close to 11am by the time I get out of bed which is a lot later than I normally do. I don't even notice when Rob gets up. Hopefully it will pass and it's not me subconsciously thinking about my birthday on Thursday :)

So day 5 in London started off with us wandering around Putney looking for the bus to South Kensington. The whole bus thing is such a mystery that we are working our way through. Every now and then, it's nice to take a bus route and see the city from the top of a double decker rather than ride the underground. After stopping at 3 bus stops looking for bus 414, we ended up taking bus 14 and made our way to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I had two things on my to do list here.


(not actual keys, but signage used outside locksmith shops)

Skeleton key exhibit...



My favourite - the cast gallery... (Only half of the exhibit was open. The other one was closed, so that they can finish an exhibit for 2010.)



Rob's head pictured on the bottom left shows you how big these casts actually are.



Check out these biscuit tins that were used to hold samples to be handed out.



Day 6 is starting off to a slow start. It's just past 1pm and we are having a quick lunch at the flat. Will be heading off to Leicester Square soon to pick up some theatre tickets. It's getting cold here at night. Thinking I should have packed a winter jacket? BBC is calling for heavy rain (knock on wood), but so far, it has been a perfect weather trip - cool, crisp with a touch of sun.

London - Day 4

We headed to Liverpool Station to attempt visit #2 to Shelf and I am happy to say that it was quite successful! We started the day at Spitalfields Market. Plenty of food, cupcakes, clothing, jewelery, artwork and accessories by local vendors as well as some items made from abroad. The market is situated in two outdoors, but covered, courts which are surrounded by local cafes, restaurants and antique shops. Unlike Portobello West, there were a lot less tourists and nobody trying to roll their luggage through the crowds! If you do visit Spitalfields, some vendors only accept cash, so come prepared. The queue for the bank machine was staggering!


Check out these amazing letterpress letters from one vendor.


London wool and fruit exchange next to Spitalfields.


So back to our main mission, which was to head over to Shelf... we stumbled across a new market with tons of people! Girls in pin up curls, vintage clothes galore and even British hipsters! We were at Brick Lane at London's Sunday Up Market. If you liked Portobello, this was 10x better! Plenty of cheap eats and handmade goodies. There is even a vintage pop up market in the Old Truman Brewery that opened up earlier this year.


This was just the beginning of the crowds. You can see further how the crowds thicken down the road. We were walking shoulder to shoulder at one point. It was insane. I can't say I missed the crowds in London. Street vendors lined both sides selling handmade wares, garage sale items and some with counterfeit items. Once the police showed up, you could see some of them packing up and waiting for the all clear.

1.5 mini samosas each and a fresh juice later, we made it to Cheshire Street where Shelf is located along with a few other independent shops such as Mar Mar Co and Labour and Wait.


Thanks to Poppytalk for the suggestion! Shelf was definitely worth the wait. Filled with crafty and kitchy items that are both handmade locally, by the shop owners and abroad, there is plenty for people of all ages. Here's a full write up on the store on the Wee Birdy website.


We wrapped the evening by taking a ride on the London Eye.


Thanks to MK for the recommendation!

Banking in London

We just finished day 4 in London and I am completely exhausted. We headed out around 11am this morning and didn't stop walking until almost 8pm tonight! I will post all of the details tomorrow including my new favourite market that we accidentally found!

In place of my London - day 4 post, I have a random story about banking in London to tell you. When we first decided to attempt to move to London in 2001, we opened up off shore bank accounts with Barclays. Thinking that I was all set, I emptied and closed my bank account with Royal Bank and arrived in London with a cheque in Canadian funds. Shortly after we arrived, I took the cheque to the local Barclays which processed it with no problems.

When a week or two went by and I still didn't see the money in the account, I followed up to realize that my cheque was mailed back to Canada where Royal Bank had to re-issue another cheque in British pounds and then mail it back to the local Barclays. Of course, nobody made us aware of this and there we were, just waiting. Thank goodness for credit cards! By the time, I finally received my money, approx. 2 months later, we had made the decision to go home. Since we could only take a certain amount of money out each day, we would visit different branches and stick all of the cash under the mattress. lol!

I also met with Nat West which helped me fill in my paperwork. Again, they had to mail the paperwork back to Vancouver to make sure that I was in good standing. Nobody back home responded and when they did, they claim that they didn't have any information on me. It was so infurating!

I am happy to announce that we have now successfully opened up a bank account with Lloyds TSB that has just opened up a branch in Toronto. With their new location, this will hopefully make it easier for Canadians to open up a bank account. We still had to gather all of the paperwork and pay to have it notorized, but it was worth it. I know that it just wasn't us. Various forums online also show all the problems others have had.

For those interested in setting up an account with Lloyds, read about the entire process here. An 'apply now' button can be found on the top right hand side.

Jet lag update: I have adjusted! I slept through the evening and didn't wake up once until just after 10am!

London - Day 3

I woke up at 3am this morning wide awake. I hate time zone changes. By the time Rob woke up at 8am, I had packed lunch, thrown out the garbage and recycle, watched 2 episodes of Super Nanny and who knows what else! At least, we were up and ready early for Portobello Market. The website suggested being here no later than 11:30am. They also did not provide any directions except for the fact that when you got off at Notting Hill Station, just follow the crowd and they were right.

Loving the scrabble image above from our walk to the market.




The beautiful flats in Notting Hill.

Yes, that was the crowd below that winded it's way down Portobello Road and amazingly, it was actually quieter than when I was last here. Some cool things, but mostly it's just one of those things that you have to do when in London. I did have to pry myself away from a letterpress drawer from one of the vendors.



Street entertainment dotted the path. Bands were good, but poor people that live close by and have to listen to them every weekend bright and early.





.... and then there it was! The Cath Kidston store!



Oh, let me tell you, I was drooling over everything especially the oil cloth fabrics! I even took a photo for you to enjoy (wasn't sure if I was allowed).



The route that we always take down the road starts off with clothing / cafes, then winds it's way through antiques and ends with some fantastic smelling food stalls, an area with produce and fresh baked breads and lastly flowers.





After the market, we had a bummed attempt to make it over to Broadway Market and Shelf over in Bethnal Green. Bummed as in lost because all of the buses were being diverted and we had no idea where to go. It also didn't help that I had to use the bathroom in a location without a Starbucks, hotel, department store or McDonalds in sight! We are thinking of trying attempt #2 tomorrow, but nothing is set in stone.

Somehow, we decided to go to Oxford Circus and let me tell you, Oxford Circus on a Saturday afternoon is a 'no go' even for me. I left Rob over at Urban Outfitters (he entertains himself in the book section) and headed over to Top Shop. It was absolute insanity! Imagine the mall on Boxing Day x 100. The 3 floors of clothing, shoes and accessories was plain insanity and you know what? Top Shop was nothing compared to Primark. I don't remember this shop, just off of Marble Arch, but let me try to explain the pure craziness inside.

A) Line up at the till was from the middle of the store to almost the door leading outside even though there were 3 cash areas with over 10 tills at each station.
B) So many people were trying clothing all over the store and dropping this everywhere, that they use a huge broom to collect all of the merchandise on the floor as it is just too much to bend over and pick up.
C) Need a good pick through, but there are some awesome deals here. For example, 3 pairs of tights for just over 2£, nice panties for 1£, belts for 1£, winter jackets for 20£.

By the time I made it to New Look, I was too exhausted. We headed down Bond Street and picked up some dinner fixins at M&S and then went home.

Tomorrow's schedule? Thinking of doing something touristy, like the London Eye and maybe the V&A Museum. The Jolly Gardener, a local pub, is kitty corner to us (right across from the house next to ours) and they have quite reasonably priced meals. Sunday is 'Roastalicious' which includes bloody mary's, board games and sock monkey making all day!

London - Day 2

So day in London started off with my visa being declined at the tube station and then spending 10+ minutes on hold with Visa. I guess it didn't like being used overseas and since they had to charge each tube pass separately, it also didn't like being charged twice for the same amount.



When we finally got going, we headed over to Bond Street. Above is a picture of us approaching Oxford Circus from the top of a double decker. This is normally how busy it is at anytime of the day. Crazy eh?



The British Museum is one of my favourite attractions and is a must stop everytime I am here. I was so happy to see that one of my favourite exhibits has become a permanent installation.



Cradle to Grave created by Susie Freeman, a textile artist, David Critchley, a video artist, and Dr. Liz Lee, a general practitioner shows two lengths of fabric that illustrate the medical stories of a man and a woman. Each piece contains over 14,000 drugs, the estimated average prescribed to every person in Britain in their lifetime which is then embedded into knitted nylon filament.



After the museum, we decided to make our way to Piccadilly Circus so that we could catch a bus back home. We walked past Liberty and had to make a mandatory stop. Liberty is absolutely gorgeous and has an amazing history that you can read here. The 4th floor houses Liberty's collection of luxurious fabrics and notions. I snapped some quick photos while nobody was looking. Shhhh ... (exterior pictured above)





My biggest pet peeve when traveling is sticking out like a sore thumb. Nothing screams tourist like matching plastic rain ponchos or a honking video camera hanging around your neck. I am proud to say that we have been blending in well as we had two separate people stop and ask us for directional help. Amazingly, I actually knew what they were looking for!



We ended the day with an obligatory picture of Picadilly Circus. We actually went around the area a few times looking for bus #22 back to Putney. We finally found where it stopped, but gave up trying to figure out where to board it!

Jet lag update: I am so proud that I am still awake at 6:41pm and have not had a nap today! I did wake up around 4am this morning and forced myself to close my eyes and ended up falling asleep until 8am.

I think tomorrow may be a market day. I have my eyes on Portobello Market and the Broadway Market.

London - Day 1

(right view from Putney Bridge station)

I can't believe it has been 5 years since I last visited! It feels really good to be back. I'm actually quite amazed at how nice it is. It also helps that the sun is shining and it is super warm over here!


(left view from Putney Bridge station)

My first trip was in elementary school when my uncle rented a flat over at Hammersmith and I traveled over with my aunt and grandma. It was love at first sight. I returned shortly on a trip across Europe with family and for my high school graduation, my uncle actually gave me a ticket to meet him in London. It was my first trip traveling alone (he met me in Heathrow). I was 16 and my mom didn't want me to go, of course, that made me want to go even more! In 2001, Rob and I quit our jobs and tried moving here. We didn't last very long. 4 months later, me with strep throat, which then passed to him, huge bank account issues and a case of home sickness, made us pack it in and head home. In 2004, we spent 3 weeks in London during our honeymoon and another 2 weeks in Eastern Europe. We didn't have a "regular" wedding. We signed papers a week prior, had a small party and then spent our budget on 5 weeks in Europe!


The people that we rented the flat from, left us a welcome package. So nice!

Usually, I suck with jet lag. Last trip to Europe, it took me a week to recover. Let me tell you, there were many 5am mornings spent staring at the BBC tower's lights change colour and then falling asleep at 4pm. Today, I did pretty well. We landed around noon, boarded the tube and headed over to our rented flat in Putney Bridge. First of all, I love the tube. Best transit system ever. It's wierd, but I would not consider using anything else but public transit over here. Putney sits between Parsons Green and Wimbledon and it is completely off the tourist path. When we first attempted to move here, we stayed in Willesden Green (I know! I know!), but discovered this area when somebody in the event industry asked to meet at the Whitehorse pub in this area. It's outside downtown, so it's less hustle and bustle, has beautiful green spaces, close to the tube station and has all of the amenities.


Lunch! One thing we have learned here, is that if you go to the supermarket after 12noon, it is ravaged. Last time I was here, the egg salad sandwiches were 99p over at M&S.

If you have any suggestions on where to go or where to eat, please pass them on to info(at)lotusevents(dot)ca. Will post pictures of the flat soon including the private garden at the back. There is also a sewing shop just down the street that I want to pop into. Not sure what is on the schedule for tomorrow, but please check back soon.