Day 6 of my FFE - Gems, Gents, and Ginormous Shopping Centre

We were up and out of the house, down the hill, up the stairs and on to the platform to await the 10:04am train leaving Berrylands.  Today's escorts were sponsored by North Face as you can see from their coordinated outfits.

We journeyed into Waterloo where disembarked and ventured off to the Waterloo City Line to Bank Station.  From there we travelled on foot, taking in the sights on our way to the Tower of London. 

We arrived just in time to join the Yeoman Warder's tour.  He was a jovial fellow who filled us in on all the hot spots and need to know info at the Tower. 

Afterwards, we ventured off on our own, saw the crown jewels and ventured up to the top of the stairs to take in the sights from the elevated perimeter.  The clouds were looming but the rain managed to hold off.

This is a dog who works as a Yeoman at the Tower which means he needs to have had at least 22years of military service.  Nice that the pup can live out his sunset years in such a stately place.



We left the Tower and had a quick look in the gift shops were I found a stuffed Maltass! Just like my Tiggy back home in Canada.  I had to have him and promptly named him Tiggah, which is basically the British pronunciation of Tigger. 

and then he did a wee on a statue..oops.

We stopped for a latte at the world's largest Starbucks. 

Then we proceeded to meander along the river to the London Bridge which we strolled across en route to Borough Market passing Southwark Church. 

Although not an 'official' open day at Borough Market there were still many vendors and interesting shops/stalls to look in.  There were many great photo ops as you can see.

From there we walked down to the corner to experience lunch at an authentic British pub.  Southwark Tavern fit the bill, and we enjoyed a nice meal, I had the six minute steak with chips, Grace (North Face 1) had Gloucester bangers and pea mash, and Martyn (North Face 2) had a burger and chips. 



After lunch we headed off, with Tiggah riding in Grace's purse, to our next destination which I was eagerly anticipating.  We were going to see an authentic Olympic venue!



 We got on the subway and headed out on the Jubilee Line, a short time later we arrived at our destination, Stratford.  As we departed the train we saw many large red and white signs pointing towards the Olympic Park.  I was so excited!  Having recently experienced the Vancouver 2010 Olympics I was very eager to see what majestic structures had been put in place for London 2012, after all, the world was coming and they'd best be ready!



 We left the station, and well, the signs stopped.  There were NO more signs, none at all...We persevered, wandering up the road look lost and a tad bit fore lorn.  We happened upon a man in a hardhat and safety vest and he sensed our confusion.  We asked where the Olympic Park was and he explained that the area we were heading towards was the unfinished athlete's village (don't know why he was so bloody relaxed, they have only 72 days to get things finished!).  He directed us back to where we'd come from, told us to enter the shopping mall and from there we could find a viewing platform to look at the somewhat unfinished Olympic Park.

Fortunately our disappointment was short lived as we realized that the 'shopping centre' was not just any old shopping centre, but instead was the LARGEST shopping mecca in all of Europe, and it in itself was the 'official shopping centre of the London 2012 Olympic Games'!  We headed in and up to the 3rd floor of the John Lewis department store where we walked through all things Olympic to get to a small viewing area, not a platform, not outdoors, but simply a room with some windows looking out on the site.  Somewhat anti-climactic if you ask me. 



I did manage to buy a souvenir in the shop and then we managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping time, with a stop at the luscious heavenly place that is Pinkberry.



After some success in the shops, we were nearing the nine hour mark of our day so we decided to head home, and hopped back on the train, back to Waterloo, and then finally back to our beloved Berrylands.

Day 5 - FFE - Cakes, Colleagues and Curry

Another overcast day hinting at sunshine greeted me this morning in Surbiton.  Piccola also greeted me, she is in charge of sleep monitoring and was very very busy last night.

My first order of the day was to ice my chocolate fudge cupcakes that I'd baked last night after our rain-soaked day in Brighton.  After the previous cupcake challenge I knew I had to step up my game a bit in the actual icing and decorating phase of the competition. 

I opted to do both a chocolate buttercream and an almond butter cream, piped in a delicate alp style and adorned with white chocolate accents, chocolate cake star cut outs, mini gold stars and gold cereal balls.  I wasn't going to receive lesser marks in the decorating department, not this time Mister!  After a few mishaps in the kitchen, really who says icing inside the toaster is a bad thing?, I managed to complete the process.  Meanwhile my competitor was cursing and swearing and wringing her hands in dismay.  She was peering through the oven door as her cupcakes both overflowed, and then sank in defeat.

Leaving her worries behind, we headed off to meet a few friends for lunch at Dish, a quaint eatery in Hampton Court Village. 



I had the traditional blt sandwich on lush seldom-seen white bread, my competitor had a salad, obviously still too upset about the cupcake fiasco to eat a proper meal.

After our meal, we went down the block to visit a place called Beanos.  If you have a dog, or a cat, or if you are the Aunt of a dog or a cat, or if you are the friend of a dog or a cat, or if you aspire to have or be had by a dog or a cat, you must visit this store.  The proprietor's name is Beano (obviously) and she is a regal beagle.  She rules the shop with a calm, refined demeanour and has hired excellent staff to do the heavy lifting and dexterous tasks. 



There were many many items to see, and we were short on time so we had to rush a bit.  The fortunate part is that this shop is located very close to Tiggy and Holly's Auntie's place of employment so she can easily pop back and pick up anything that we may need in the future.  In my quick visit I managed to find an adorable black muscle tshirt for Tiggy with a union jack flag in the shape of a dog bone, a fancy man style tie in a retro type striped pattern, and a sought-after pink polka dot knapsack/purse for Holly that came with a matching leash.  Shopping success!



We then hurried back to Hampton Court Palace so that Grace (my competitor and Tig's and Holly's Auntie) could attend a meeting.  Judging by Cathy's messy desk, this must have been a VERY important meeting.  Note, she has an industrial Henry vacuum cleaner on the corner of her desk.



Unfortunately by this time it was raining, so my photo walk was cancelled and instead I came in to update my blog.  I did manage to take a few pictures indoors while I was waiting to meet with some royal staff regarding Tiggy's application to be the 'Breed of Britain and the Look of London 2012'.

After the Queen, I managed to get an audience with King Henry VIII and a friend of his:

And as the rain had stopped I managed to have a look around.

I even saw one of the Queen's corgis at work:



Next on our agenda, was cupcake distribution, and then we left to head off to a garden store and a grocery.  My driver missed the turn off for the garden store, so instead we detoured to check out Pets At Home.

And then we went to the grocery store to pick up provisions for this evening's cooking challenge, Red Thai Curry ala Sarah.

Then we stopped in for tea at Liz's place, had a short visit, then had to leave to go home to cook dinner.  Poor Liz.

And that was our busy day.