This One's For You Stephen!!!

So….. playing a little bit of catch up with my blog and this is one I just couldn't resist! After one of my previous blogs , All's Well That End's Well, I received a comment from YOU, Stephen, about using Polyfilla to fill in all the wrinkles. The Canadian equivalent to Polyfilla is spackle I think. So…… on my second trip to London earlier this month….( and now I know she isn't hinting), I received these goodies from my sis to sample:

Wait, there's even more:

I won't even tell you the price of this, it's obscene. Think in terms of the Koh-i-Noor diamond!

Actually this stuff is imported from Canada. the ingredients on the back read like a high school

chemistry lab:

I can just imagine all the chemical reactions going on both intra and extra-cellularly!

So, Stephen…. I went from this:

To this:

And ended up looking like this:

Bottom line is: if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

But I did have lots of fun trying this stuff out:-)

Talk soon

Zoe

A Walk on the Wild Side - or not!!

I was still in London last Sunday so I decided to take a walk around Catford and maybe drop in to church on my travels -well someone has to pray for all the heathens out there!

I set off from Blythe Hill, it was a dull and overcast day:

                             

I finally came to St.William of York Church. He was an English saint canonized in the 12th century!

I got there way too early:

That was OK. The church had a beautiful stained glass window.

I lit some candles, there's one for you there Jackie!!

When I came out, it had rained and the sun was out shining. It's amazing what the power of prayer can do! I always say the older one gets, the closer one grows to God. I think it's called hedging one's bets!

I passed terraces of Victorian -or maybe Edwardian- homes. No matter they're all at least 100 years old:

Lovely homes with beautiful architectural details :

The Victorians were definitely an industrious lot:

Two things I really don't like about London is the traffic and this:

It's called fly-tipping here and is the dumping of waste on empty sites, totally illegal and, apart from being a public health hazard, it really is an eyesore and happens way too frequently.

But look what else I found, isn't he gorgeous?

The Tin Man - now all I have to find is the Yellow Brick Road!!!!!

Talk soon

Zoe

A Magical Mystery Tour!

So, did anyone guess where I was off to last Friday??
This was something I had on my bucket list of MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO.
So, after 4 hours sleep (I don't know if it was the coffee I had the day before or just plain excitement) I headed down Blythe Hill to catch the train to London Bridge:

                                At London Bridge I had to connect to
                                          the Tube:
                                       

So down… down…. into the bowels of the earth:

I'm going to this station:

Here's my train: Mind the Gap!!

And of course, if you go down, there's only one way up:

I'm sure these people thought I was totally nuts!

Then one more overland train:

to:

Nearly there! If it sounds complicated it's not! London Transport is brilliant and easy, you just have to do it once to get the feel of it and then it totally makes sense. I don't know why anyone would bother with a car, the roads are totally congested with traffic.

Finally, a double decker bus to my final destination:

After a two hour trip I was here:

                                               

                                       
As I've mentioned before, I am a great Harry Potter fan. My daughter started reading these books when in Grade 3, I wasn't interested at all at the time but a few years later, when I was desperate for a good read and had nothing else on hand, I picked up Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and was totally hooked from that moment on. I've read every book, have every movie and when I saw Warner Studios opened the studio where all the movies were filmed, I just knew I had to visit and it didn't disappoint! I think this explains it all:

So follow me into the Great Hall on a Magical Mystery tour:

                                           
                                                           

Everything was decorated for Christmas:

I can just imagine Hogwart's students feasting on all this great food:

The attention to detail was superb:

All this food was making me VERY hungry:

Professor Dumbledore, McGonigal and Snape were waiting to greet us at the podium:

I was able to go in the Gryffindor Common Room:

and even into the Gryffindor Boy's Dorm!

I went into Professor Dumbledore's Study:

I stopped off at the Leaky Cauldron

For a glass of Butterbeer:

  

Oops, wrong photo, it really was Butter Beer and tasted delish!!

I did some shopping at Diagon Alley. No, I DIDN"T buy a wand (or a broomstick for that matter!)

But I did look at the latest witchy fashions. Faux fur is hot in London this winter and this kitty collar is just smokin' hot:

I wasn't able to try on the Cloak of Invisibilty. Damn, I could do with one of those, especially working in Triage ;-)

I sneaked a peek into the Lotions and Potions lab:

Fortunately Professor Snape wasn't there!

Finally it was time to say goodbye to Hogwart's, I could have stayed there forever, sob sob:

When I got home, guess what was on TV? A re-run of Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets!!

A lovely ending to a most perfect day!

Talk soon

Zoe

New friends are like silver,old friends are like gold….

So I'm off again to London, but, before I get on the coach, I'm meeting up with an old friend that I haven't seen yet on this visit. We've talked up a storm on the phone but had no face- to- face time as we've both been busy with one thing or another. I've known Krystyna ever since we were teenagers growing up in Nottingham. Like me she was born here, of Polish parentage and ever since we met, we just "clicked" together. We did loads of stuff together:  meeting up every weekend, working at the same store as "Saturday Girls", going to Poland to Polish Camp and even double dating on several occasions!! It's OK Krys, I'm not giving any secrets away!

Over the years with both of us having our own families and myself moving to another country, apart from the occasional Christmas card, we sort of lost touch until I started visiting England more frequently and we reconnected again. We both say that even if we haven't seen each other for months on end, when we do meet, we just pick up where we left off and it's as if we've never been apart. And that, I think, is the sign of a true and great friendship! There are some people that we meet in our lives that make a lasting impression with us and Krys is no exception.

So, as we've done every time since we were teenagers, we decided to meet up "at the Lions" in the Marketplace in Nottingham. These are two stone Lions that stand on either side of the entrance to the Council House and this is where all the glitterati meet and have met over the years! The Lions are now a symbol of the City of Nottingham. If only they could talk!

We decided to go for coffee at one of my favourite stores: Marks and Spencer. The place was buzzing with Christmas shoppers, we did have a quick peek:

        Everything was in Christmas colours lol.  Krys was too shy to model but then so was I!!

After 2 hours off non- stop talk and two large Cafe Americano's each, it was time to say goodbye until next time and for me to head to the coach station. Which was when I realized my mistake……..
Never, ever, drink lots of fluids before heading off on a non stop bus trip. This is what I had to face:

 

Not good, especially travelling at 60mph and with no interior light. It strangely reminded me of this:

The Iron Maiden, a medieval torture device! It's a good thing I have a sense of humour!

So , off to bed early because tomorrow I have to be up early and travel across London to a very special place. I'll give you a clue:

 

4 Privet Drive

The cupboard under the stairs

Talk soon

Zoe

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I felt a bit of guilt after slagging off poor Sir Henry and his four wives in my last post - bad Karma and all that. We've come a long way since those days when average life expectancy was probably in one's 30's, if that. So Sir Henry, may you rest in peace alongside your wives.

I've been getting really spoiled recently and Tuesday was no exception. I was given an early Christmas prezzie by my cousin, Lucy, who knows me well and invited me to the theatre with her to watch a Christmas pantomime, Sleeping Beauty. Before the panto we wandered around the Old Market Square to see all the sights of the Winter Wonderland.

This is the view at the centre of Nottingham. The domed building is the Council house where the Sheriff of Nottingham has his office together with his merry band of Councillors! This is also where most of the City Departments are located together with reception and banqueting rooms for visiting dignitaries. The annual Christmas tree has been there ever since I can remember, but what has been added in recent years is a seasonal ice rink and lots of little cabin and chalets, selling everything from hot chocolate to whisky!

       I had to stop at the roasted chestnut stand, I haven't had these in years, they are sooooo good!

OMG when I saw this cabin, I couldn't believe my eyes!!! Only in England you say!

After coming from Canada, I couldn't believe they were selling make-your-own-snow!

Eco-friendly, always cold to the touch, makes a great gift!! I was tempted to buy some for gifts to

send to Canada but white powder, in the mail, nah…... I don't think so! The girls were Polish so we ended up having a good natter in Polish!

We weren't tempted by the chocolate cabin, well maybe a bit!

There were lots of people out skating even though it was freezing - I guess it's all relative!

We finally headed off to the theatre:

Nottingham Playhouse

This is where my love of live theatre was born following a school field trip to see The Merchant of Venice. William Shakespeare, every school kids favourite…... or not!!! The beauty of theatre in England is that it is affordable to most, with different price ranges for students, under 16's, seniors and the unwaged. School field trips to the theatre are very common and if you go to a matinee performance there are often bus loads of school kids there. While a student nurse in London, we were often given freebie tickets to West End productions and I was able to see first class actors including Liz Taylor,

Diana Rigg, Peter Ustinov and others. Judi Dench, the current M in the James Bond movies started off her acting career in Nottingham.

This is a view of the sculpture Sky Mirror, a big silver dish overlooking the patio area at the theatre.It

cost 1.2 mill. GBP when it was installed in 2001. Across from the patio is this cathedral:

St Barnabas RC Cathedral.

This is where I was baptized and the church I attended when I was living in Nottingham. I'll have to take some photos of the interior as it's really quite a majestic building. The architect was Augustus Pugin who also designed the interior of The Houses of Parliament.

Ooooh and now it's time for the performance. The theatre was full of people, lots of excited kids and adults.

 Pantomime or panto is an English Christmas tradition that has been around in some form or other since the Middle Ages and maybe even earlier. It's hard to explain it's attraction to non-Brits, you have to see it to appreciate it but it's great fun for ALL ages. It's a kind of musical comedy, loosely based on a fairy tale and designed for family entertainment. It includes songs, slapstick comedy and dancing, has men dressing up as women and usually has a villain or villainess. It is designed to be participatory and the audience often joins in with the singing and the booing and hissing of the villain.

Sounds weird but it isn't!

So what did I go and see:

And it was totally brilliant!! Lots of fun and lots of laughs and TOO much snow - what is it with the Brits and snow, I'm trying to get away from it!!

A really great evening, thanks Lucy!!