London - Lots of Photos!

We are still working away on the downstairs rooms, well Mark is, I'm mainly keeping the refreshments supplied.  We have both had this last week off work, and to be honest he has worked like a trooper!  We are finally approaching the point where the nice stuff will be happening, the fireplaces are in, the flooring is down in one room, by next weekend we might just be ready to paper.

We took a short break last weekend to London, the weather was kind to us and we had a great time, walked our little legs off, but it was fun.  I ticked another couple of places to see off my list, Carnaby Street and Liberty's of London.

Liberty have floor upon floor of wonderful things, most of it without a price tag!

I bought a couple Christmas decorations, lol

We visited Brick Lane again.  

If you have never been to Brick Lane, apart from the atmosphere and the vintage shops and stalls, you are also missing out on some of the most amazing street food!

I couldn't resist trying one of these fruit kebabs and they were delicious  :-)

When the halls get busy and the seating is full people just take it outside and sit wherever

There is a little alleyway that is full of Street Art, some of it is really good.

Caught in the act

We did a fair bit of walking, I just find all the buildings amazing, 

and you get such a different feel at night

The Shard

The firm I work for has installed the sprinkler system on this building and the majority of the various offices / suites within it.

The Walkie Talkie building

Admiralty Arch, which you can read more about the history of here

We also visited the Monument, (to the Great Fire of London) and climbed all 311 steps!!  You can read about it here

I had a certificate to prove my climb but unfortunately I managed to leave it in a pub.....gutted!

The view from the top was amazing, although I don't like heights so I stayed with my back firmly to the building, lol

The Gherkin 

I love this photo with all the cranes around

I can never get enough of London and we are planning to go again around Christmas time, can't wait.

I'll have to update my list of  'things to see in London' for then :-)

-X-

A Local Attraction

Today was a day for me to have Oliver while his mum was at work,

as we are still living more or less in a building site at the moment having

him at mine was not an option, so we went to the Zoo.

We are very lucky as Dudley Zoo is only a few miles away, there has been a zoo on this site since 1937 and I have very fond memories of visiting there when I was a child.  It has declined over the years, although they are trying to smarten it up now, it is nothing compared to how it was in it's heyday.  

When I was little there were polar bears, brown bears, zebras and elephants at the zoo, now they no longer have these animals, but there is still quite a lot to see and they really are trying to smarten up the more neglected parts.

I think the best attraction is the fact that we not only have a zoo, we have a zoo in  the grounds of Dudley Castle, which has been there since 1070, it was the seat of the Dudley's, as in John Dudley advisor to Henry VII who's son Robert Dudley was famously associated with Elizabeth I.  You can read a little about the zoo (here) and the castle (here)   

Of course most of it is in ruins now, but it still makes a wonderful setting.

I always like to look at the big cats, the lions were now very cooperative today but we got to see the two tigers.

This is the female, she is 5 years old

The male was being difficult and not coming out, this was the best I could do though the glass

We enjoyed seeing the various monkeys

A tiny little Marmaset

Excuse the flash on this one, I had to share it because he looks a bit menacing, don't you think?

He he is a bit closer

Those teeth look as though they could do some damage!

The orang-outang...she has a baby but it was hiding.

and Oliver's favourite, the giraffes

And a very vocal cockerel  in the petting zoo

The meerkats are funny to see, they seem to almost pose for a picture!

Wonder what he's thinking, lol

Tomorrow is another day for entertaining this little dude, or is it him entertaining me? either way it beats going to work any day :-)

-X-