Isn't it great when you find somewhere new to go that you never knew existed and that place is just behind your house LOL.
I think i must have been walking around with my eyes closed since living here. The other day i was out and about and there not far from my house was a country park. It has 5 different walking trails, a wildlife feeding station and the lowest lake of its kind in the UK. Basically the lake is a natural lake which you usually only find on high ground like in the lake and peak districts. The lake is 19,000 years old which they calculated from soil samples taken from deep in the ground. Its a beautiful place, peaceful, secluded and freezing bloody cold even with the sun shining. I can imagine in the summer time it would a nightmare there with kids, dogs, horses and rubbish but at the moment it was great. I walked around the lake with my headphones on singing at the top of my voice "Last of the Famous" by Morrissey (happy chap i know LOL) as i was the only one there apart from frogs, birds and grass snakes. Oh i almost forgot, there was also a pony all alone, it looked very sad so i went and talked to it. Didn't say much be but the pony told me to tell you that she was a happy pony, she said it was better than being a donkey as she didn't like sand or a pony owned by a unemployed mum of 11 who lives on benefit and is having a house built especially for her with tax payers money while other people who have lost their jobs are being made homeless.
Map of the lakes walking trails.
Hello, is there anybody out there?
I guess not.
My little pony, awww!
This weekend myself and Helen went to London for 3 nights, guess what, it was even colder up in London. Got there on the Friday afternoon about 4.30pm and went straight to our hotel which was next to Liverpool Street Station near Whitechapel, home to Jack the Ripper, home to the Blind Beggar Pub, home to Petticoat Lane, home to Spitalfield Market, home to Ripper Street TV show and home to Whitechapel TV show. So as you can see home to allot of interesting things. The first night was just a quiet affair with drinks and food.
For our food we went to a bar called "Woodin Shades" the bar was packed but they had a restaurant upstairs which was nice and warm. I ordered crispy pork belly with root veg and creamy fresh mash with a mustard cream sauce, mmmmmmm. Helen had shepherds pie with horse meat LOL.
Now i like my food and was disappointed when a small plate of food arrived, oh well the taste may make up for it, NOPE! The crisp pork belly wasn't crisp at all, i've had crisper boiled spinach leaves, the fresh creamy mash was instant mash YUK, and the root veg altogether must have amounted the size of a half a small potatoe. Not happy. We paid and headed off to hotel as it had been a long day.
Don't be fooled by the pic, it was a small portion.
Saturday. This is usually the day of shopping but due to all the markets we wanted to visit this was put off till Sunday when they were all open. First we went to visit the pub where it was the beginning of the end for Ronnie & Reggie Kray, The Blind Beggar Pub, Unfortunately because it was 9.30am it was closed but if I'm being honest it was a bit of a let down. I wanted it to be a tiny corner pub on a back street with a gloss tiled front but instead i found a large building with a beer garden on a main road and advertising sky TV shown here . My dreams were shattered LOL.
I'm the Guvnor now, get out of my manor you slaagggg!
From here we went on to Regent Street and Oxford Circus where i was looking for the Cafe Royal as i was invited for lunch there whenever i was in London but i couldn't find it and me being the stubborn me i didn't want to ask someone so we ended up shopping LOL. Well, Helen ended up shopping i went to the pub that i usually go to while Helen shops in Selfridges or wherever. Talking of Selfridges, where were all the ladies wearing hats that i see on the TV show about the store.
The pub is called Marlborough Head, i really like the real ale here but there was one problem, French! Not so much the French themselves just there was lots of them in there due to England playing France at Twikers.
While we're on the subject of rugby why is it that the "national" press praises England so much but makes the other teams sound lucky that they've won. England have been far from impressive but the "National" press said Leigh Halfpenny bailed out Wales against Italy with his boot. Hang on, Didn't we score 2 tries? I can remember a time that if it wasn't for Johnny Wilkinson England wouldn't have won half the matches they did. Already in this 6 nations England beat Ireland only through the boot of Farrell in a game where Ireland were the better team, stats don't lie. How quickly the "national" press forget. So to stop the game becoming boring a penalty should be 2 points, a try 4 points and a try conversion 2 points, that way it would encourage more open running play. Anyway, rant over, back to London LOL.
After a few drinks and couple of shopping bags later we headed back to the room to drop off the shopping and go to Covent Garden to watch the Wales v Italy game, and what a great game it was, i was very proud of the welsh boys who were playing in horrid weather conditions. After the welsh game finished we went to O'Neills in Chinatown to watch the English game. It was so cold outside we decided to start with a coffee but only to be told we couldn't have one even though the coffee machine was on and the bar sold coffee. We were told we couldn't have a coffee cause if someone else saw us with a coffee others would want one. EH? isn't that the point, to make sales? and lets be honest we all know coffee and tea have high profit margins. Jesus, if i rejected to make half the drinks I've been asked for that aren't on my menu I'd only be 1/2 a millionaire LOL.
I turned my nose up, tutted and we left and made our way closer to the hotel as the wind was making the temp -2. Went for a meal at the White Hart Vault, much better here, then after a quick drink off to the hotel as we had a long day on Sunday.
Sunday morning and coffee was calling. Costa's to be exact and in there was Celia Imrie. Whenever in London Helen always wants to spot famous people, when i told here "Celia Imrie is over there" and explained what she had been in, Helen replied "No, i want to see someone really famous", Women! you can't win LOL.
Celia Imrie just in case you don't know her.
Petticoat Lane was our first market of the day, move along, nothing to see here, just tat!
Camden Market next where i was looking for a retro leather jacket. The place was heaving, absolutely crazy and colder than the day before. We had a quick walk around every stall and market shop but due to it being so cold neither of us were happy and just wanted to get warm.
Just a few of the shop fronts in Camden, great place in the sun and warm, miserable in the cold.
I remember reading of a shopping centre called Westfield so i suggested we go there.
Much better, warm, indoors, not as crowded and i could have a sit down with a coffee and read the Sunday paper. It was like the Trafford Centre in Manchester only bigger but without the restaurant & fast food area. Really enjoyed the day here which is amazing for me as i hate shopping.
There was a Dorothy Perkins shop that was decked out outside with just the Kardashians (Who?) These are a family who aren't famous for anything apart from being on a reality show. How sad has society become that people who have done nothing in their life apart from being thick get a show about themselves LOL.
It seems they are also famous for leopard print.
Go back 30 years and you'll find its nothing new folks, i give you Julie Goodyear.
OK maybe not the last two programmes and definately not the last one.
We were so shattered at the end of Sunday evening. We had been up and out from 9am every morning since Friday and walked miles in the freezing cold and i do mean miles. I can walk and walk but by 7pm Sunday night after walking round London for 10 hours every day my calf muscles were solid and on fire. We had planned to take in a show which we try to do on each visit but it just wasn't happening. We were to cold, to tired and just wanted some comfort food and warmth. KFC it is then. Not just any normal KFC, oh no, 12 chicken fillets, 4 fries, box of chicken popcorn, 2 corn on cob, 1 coleslaw and 8 dips MMMMmmmmm! That was a great finish to another wonderful weekend away Helen.
We did allot more than what I've written but i don't want to bore you all so that was just a quick highlight. So here are a few more pics for you to take a look at of our weekend away.
Most expensive round of the weekend was here at The Merchant of Bishopsgate Pub in Liverpool Street Station, 1 pint of Green Kings IPA (Cheapest bitter) and 1 bottle of Kopperberg, guess how much? £9.20, OMG! Let me see one complaint on the websites about prices on Zakynthos LOL
The most expensive fish and chips i found in London was next to Liverpool Street Tube Station can't remember the restaurants name. Fish and Chips here £17, fresh battered fish and chips from the chippy across the road from our house in West Wales £4.90, no competition really.
This was the view from the doorway of our hotel, as you can see we were in the heart of the financial district, now which window do you reckon is Lord Sugars LOL.
And this is the view from our hotel room, nice to see a bit of greenery amongst all this concrete.
Before i go i promised you a new member of the Oceanic Family and here it is. I have built all by myself an APP for android phones. Its still a work in progress as its quite complicated but you can watch it grow. At the moment it's downloadable on certain tablets and iphones. I have to pay for it to be live on each platform of phone, so at the moment its not available on iphones, sorry.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.AppInstitute.oceanicc&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5BcHBJbnN0aXR1dGUub2NlYW5pY2MiXQ..
I have seen it working on a Samsung Galaxy 3 so have a go and let me know if it works on your phone and what phone you have. Cheers for that.
And here for you is the last in the designs of the Rock Legend T-shirts. So this is the 4th design. This is the "Live" collection, just a few to look over.
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Happy St. Davids Day everybody or in welsh "Hapus St Davids Day", Oh, not much difference really LOL.
Question:- Was the Brits award for Global Success made up this year just so One Direction could win something? Come on, Coldplay have had more global success than them but did they get this award, NOOooooo! Queen had global success did they get this award, NOOooooo! Mumford & Sons have had global success they won a grammy, did they get this award NOOooooo! Adele has had massive global success, did she get this award, NOOooooo! (you get my drift) So why the hell make up this award now? I'll tell you why, Simon Cowell lining someones pocket at the Brits LOL.
Now then its video time again. Firstly a TV show from the 70's i was about 5 years old, think it was on in afternoon or early evening when i first saw it, Fred Truemans Indoor League on ITV. It was a sports show for people that weren't that energetic and didn't want to leave the pub. Here are just 2 of the highly skilled sports these olympian athletes competed in. Listen out for Fred going on about "bashing the misses", couldn't say that nowah days lad LOL
Now then its blast from the past time. My music tastes reach high and wide. Its not all rock and punk you have to be very open minded (apart from bubblegum pop and R n B) when it comes to music and i love one hit wonders. Here is the song that got me in to break dancing (many many years ago) me and friends used to take a large square of lino in to Cardiff town centre on a Saturday and dance all day to entertain the shoppers. Some people would drop a few coins for us but we were doing it cause we loved to dance not for money but the odd 50p was also good. The song is by the Rock Steady Crew, now they actually started dancing as a crew in 1977 but this song brought break dancing and the crew to everyones attention. The back flip that Kuriaki does out of the guys hands became my signature move. Enjoy.
Ahhh, don't you just love looking back at music videos. More next week folks. Till then, eat like its your last horse burger, laugh like you've heard X factor and Towie have been axed, sing like you think no one can hear you and love as though the other person is the only one on earth.
Love all. Serve all, Peace all. Kevlar out.
