London & the UK

In a semi-spontaneous moment on a very grey and gloomy Good Friday, Bloke and I found ourselves in Waterloo - ideal for a walk along the South Bank of the Thames. You may have already seen that we stumbled on this piece of street art along the way, plus if you've read my 5 fun things to do in London this Easter, you'll also know the Shaun in the City Art Trail has temporarily taken up residence in the city too. I didn't have a map of the locations of all the Shaun statues on me (doh!), but I knew there were some in the area so we decided to try and spot them as we wandered. The South Bank of the Thames - time we explored! I was expecting the South Bank to be a lot busier as it was a Bank Holiday but I guess the ominous looking weather put people off. Whenever I've been to Gabriel's...

Street art in London is a familiar sight, so much so that living here you can take it for granted. My blog has been a real eye-opener to me in that sense, because when you consciously look for subjects to write about you start to appreciate the every day things so much more. A classic example of this is when I wrote about the Dalston Peace Mural - a 4 storey building sized mural that I've passed countless times on my work commute. Yet, it wasn't until I actually wrote about it that I realised that it's 30 years old this year. Last week, Bloke and I decided to go for a walk from Waterloo along the South Bank to, and across Tower Bridge (which opened as we approached, bonus!). It was as we wandered that we found this on the side wall of Wagamama's and opposite Vinopolis on Clink Street...

Spring has sprung and the sun is shining (sometimes), but you know what that means...chocolate! No wait, that's not what I meant to say. It means Easter! Psst, and chocolate. Anyhow, what better way to celebrate the end of our collective winter hibernation than to hunt down something fun to do - so that's exactly what I did! Check out these upcoming events I've stumbled upon that are all taking place around London this Easter. Shaun in the City Art Trail "You will never guess what I saw today going past London Bridge". Yes, Bloke rather smugly told me he'd seen the travelling flock of Shaun's when they trundled past, pulled by a tractor. And yes, I was predictably jealous! From Saturday 28th of March to Monday 25th of May 2015 you'll be able to spot these awesome (not so little...

Last summer I found myself in the vicinity of the O2 Arena (known in ye olde days as The Millennium Dome) and as riding the Emirate Air Line had been in the back of my mind since it opened for the London 2012 Olympics, it seemed the perfect opportunity to finally get myself on board this River Thames cable car.   The Emirates Air Line - aka London's only Cable Car Taking approximately 10 minutes to 'fly' between the Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks the Emirates Air Line it is London's only cable car and gives impressive bird eye views of the 02 Arena, Canary Wharf, the River Thames and the Thames Barrier from your gondola. Now, let me share a couple of tips with you before I go any further. Firstly, do yourself a massive favour and bring a decent camera with you ...

There are many artists who display their work on buildings and walls throughout my home city - sometimes their art is prominent and sometimes it's small or tucked away in a quiet street. The Dalston Peace Mural is anything but small and tucked away. I prefer to travel by bus as it's more interesting to look out of a window rather than take the Tube in darkness, so I've seen this view many times as I've passed by during my daily work commute. It dominates the entire side wall of a 4 story end of terrace building. Illustrating the Hackney Peace Carnival of 1983 the painting contains strong suggestions of social tolerance along with anti-nuclear, anti-war and ecological messages. This was part of a 'Year of Peace' initiative happening at the time - but there's more it's story than t...

Ok, so I'll just go ahead and own up, shall I? When I saw this Tweet below from Lies at Non Stop Destination on Monday night about a Pop Up Owl bar coming to London I had no clue what she was talking about. However I was instantly intrigued, I mean, how can any sentence that has the words owl, bar and London in, not be worth further investigation? After checking out Annietheowl.com, I let out a little 'squee!' and got just a teensy bit excited at what I found - obviously I then just had to get in touch with them straight away to find out more information! So what exactly is happening? UPDATE: This event has now passed. Well, for one week only on the 19th-25th of March 2015 there will be a Pop Up Bar in Soho, London. Annie the Owl and her friends will be in attendance, g...