The weekend

Hi all
A fabulous fun filled weekend!

Friday night I went to the ball for work - it was at the dorchester hotel in Mayfair, which says fabulous.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the men from work who I went with didn't utter a single word about my fabulous dress! This really only confirmed to me that I loved it though - so I was happy! The dress has a huge very long skirt, and I had to catch the tube to the ball, so was carrying most of the skirt in my lap to avoid being sucked into the escalator!

On Saturday morning I went to Stoke Newington high street, with a friend, Tash, for a look in the shops and some brunch.  It's about 10minutes north by car from where we live - it's becoming VERY "yummy mummy" but a cooler vibe than the Islington high street (upper street), when you've  been - more quirky independent shops and some great cafes.  Had lovely brunch of sourdough toast, runny yolky eggs, roast cherry tomatoes and mozzarella.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, so I walked through the back streets, first for a coffee stop and paper read at a really good cafe in the back streets of Dalston, and then to Broadway Market, then caught the tube to Somerset House - i met Y here and we went to an exhibit celebrating the life/work of Vidal Sassoon - for whom, apparently, we should be grateful for the "bob" hair cut (although I'm sure everyone had these in the 1920s?).

This is me outside Somerset house - cold but sunny!

Next we went to the science museum in Kensington for an exhibition on Alan Turing, a code breaker during WWII.  This was very interesting, although required concentration!

We grabbed an early dinner at a cheap japanese place.

Sunday was another lovely sunny day.  We walked along the canal, and then further east past Broadway Market, to lower Clapton.  I had read about a newish market here, Chatsworth Road market. I wasn't expecting much, but it was great.  There was a handful of cafes and people sitting outside.  Lots of the market stalls were from broadway market, but the market itself s much less crowded.  We had breakfast sitting in the sun at this place on the corner (with costs on, of course).  I also grabbed another coffee at a recommended place further down the road (with Climpsons coffee Soph!).  The market had some great food stalls and also vintage type furniture and homewares.

From here we caught the bus into town and went to the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square - there was a brilliant exhibition of Marilyn Munroe photos and old movie posters - celebrating 50 years since her death (although one of london's major art galleries may have got the date wrong according to two women next to me, who spent some considerable time debating whether it was actually 50 years and whether it was perhaps less than this as it just didn't seem right to them.  I decided to back the gallery).

Next I read the paper on the steps of Trafalgar square in the sun (with about 1000 others), whilst Y ran some errands and then we went home.  I cooked some of the mackerel for dinner which I bought from the fish markets a few weeks ago - with cavolo Nero and curly kale.  Delish! Although when I dashed out of the house at 5.45am to get my train to Birmingham, the house still smells of mackerel - still smells!