London Days 7, 8 & 9

On Thursday, the 28th: Harrods was a lot of fun. The store is a feast for the eyes. It is so beautifully decorated with different themes in each room. I split off from the guys. I wandered through the jewelry section where they had some beautiful and inspiring jewelry. I also visited their homewares section. It is so vast, room after room, it is easy to get lost in there. I wanted to look at clothing too but by that time the guys were feeling overwhelmed so we left and had lunch at the Bunch of Grapes Pub which is right down stairs from the flat. We walked down to the Victoria and Albert Museum afterward but were too tired to really explore it. We tried a tour with a docent but she was super boring so we ducked out of the tour.

On Friday, the 30th: James and I got up super early in the morning to go to the Bermondsey flea market. I was surprised that James wanted to come with me. I thought I would be doing it on my own. It was nice to have him along. It was dark when we got lattes and headed for the tube station. I enjoyed seeing the early morning commuters reading their papers. The streets were pretty in the sunrise. The flea market was a lot smaller than I thought it would be but I managed to find some great deals – some old buttons for rings, Siam silver pendants, gifts for friends, beads, old silver coins. We spoke to one vendor who told us she’d been coming to the market for 40 years. She had a great selection of vintage jewelry. She had a beautiful Victorian Souvenir Brooch of the Eiffel Tower. James bought it for me.

Afterward we came back to flat to pick up Forest and head over to the Science Museum where they had a cool exhibit on computer games. Before we went to the exhibit we saw the ocean movie in 3D on their Imax screen. It was so great! James and Forest had fun at the games exhibit. They had actual copies of games from 1952 (I think) up to the present game box that had people lining up around the block a couple of months ago. The guys played a lot of games but I only played the Ms. Pacman game. I kind of rock at it.

Saturday, the 30th: James accompanied me to Portobello Road. Forest stayed home to rest for the day. We had so much fun. There were booths on the street and many stores that had booths inside them. I found quite a lot of old jewelry to use in my work and talked to a lot of interesting characters. It is amazing how knowledgeable the vendors are about their product. It was starting to look stormy so we ducked into a Thai place for a yummy meal and a few glasses of wine. Afterward we walked through the rest of Portobello road which changes from antiques to stalls that sell very hip clothing and jewelry. The street is so different from one end to the other.

On the tube we decided to get off at Sloane Square stop and walk a different way home to see some other areas of London. We had read a funny article in the newspaper that morning about Sloane Rangers so we were curious to see the area. It was very posh with tidy little brick lanes and emaculate doorsteps. There were private gardens which you had to have a key to enter. It started pouring rain on us. We were running through the streets. Looking into the private gardens, through the gates, in the rain, they seemed really magical. The rain was crazy. I couldn’t stop laughing.

The winds have been very strong the past two nights. They rattle the windows which make noises like chickens clucking. They howl! They wake me up and make me worry!