Towards the end of my PGCE year I started to make fairly regular trips to London. Initially there were job interviews, and then there were visits to friends. Over the past 6 years I have made many visits. For the first few visits I found myself captivated with the same popular sights - Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and so on. I dont know quite when it dawned on me, but on one visit I realised that it isnt necessary to visit Westminster every trip.
So I said to Emma on last weekend's visit - "Take me to new places!" And she did.
The Markets
We visited two different markets. The Borough Market on the South Bank was fab - every kind of every food for sale - cheeses, coffees, fruit, turkish delight - you name it, it was there. We had coffee and some apparently famous brownie. It was good! And good value too. I'm not usually that good at noticing the price of food. Sure I can tell the difference when I'm in the supermarket comparing two choices of a thing, but I never remember what the normal price is when confronted with a 'good deal' at a market or such like. But I did notice at this market. There were punnets of berries for £1. Thats half the price at Tesco when its half price! On the second day we went to the market on Brick Lane. It was a totally different experience. It was jam packed with traders and individuals selling stuff from suitcases, and it went on for what felt like miles. It was a real loud, brash, East End experience. I almost expected to see Stacey peddling her glitzy garments. A hop skip and a jump from Brick Lane was the famous Spitalfields Market - altogether a more upmarket venture.
The TV Experience
Emma lives in the sort of block of flats that you see in the Bill - the kind where your front door opens onto a long balcony walkway along the front that takes you to the communal staircase. As if to enhance the TV experience, the Old Bill turned up to round up some errant teens on Saturday evening. Just out of shot in the picture below are three police vans and about 10 officers, all milling around questionning youths, taking notes and searching bags and pockets. High drama indeed!
Coming up in part 2 - new tastes and pickled body parts...
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