Weekday walk #10

It seems as though we are drawn back to the river each time we walk.  We've walked so much of it this year, and yet it is still our default destination for any walk we plan.  This week we've done two shorter walks - both through the centre of town, where it is busier, and we can spend time being distracted by oddities - and both along the river.
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On Wednesday evening we met at the 5th Floor bar in Waterstones on Piccadilly for bloody marys and a good time.  We chatted so much that we didn't notice the time, and suddenly they were closing up and we were standing on Piccadilly clutching the remains of our half drunk bottle of wine and wondering what to do next.
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We admired the exciting window displays in Fortnum and Mason, and then weaved our way across to Trafalgar Square and then down towards the river at embankment.  If in doubt, head for the river.
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The genie with the absinthe in Fortnum and Masons

We stopped on one of the benches along the Victoria Embankment to drink the rest of the wine and admire the twinkling lights along the river.
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We walked along the embankment to the City, stopping to take an assortment of photos whenever we saw something funny or interesting.  I was drawn to the empty offices and empty riverside gyms - bleak and impersonal so late at night, but still blazing with artificial light.

After a day's rest yesterday, to get over our hangovers let our legs recover, we met up again for a daytime walk along another part of the river in central London - this time the short and very pretty stretch from Bermondsey to Southwark.

This part of the river gives you fantastic views of Tower Bridge, and leads you through really good modern architecture - towers, office blocks, converted warehouses and museums.  This part of London has embraced its history and modernity in equal measure and done both rather well.  I love the old warehouses, and I love Tower Bridge and the Globe Theatre, but I also love the squashed City Hall building, the new Shard tower going up, and the shiny glass offices with interesting curves next to the river.
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We ended up at Borough Market, about an hour before the craziness of Friday lunchtime began, and made the most of being able to wander around discussing cheese, sausage, cake and bread with the stallholders.
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With heavy shopping bags we headed wearily towards Southwark tube station and home, for a weekend of eating delicious cheeses with our families.

A festival in numbers

To remind myself that I am sometimes an accountant, after a weekend of behaving more like a blissed out, love-and-peace child from the 1960s, here is my tale of the festival in numbers.

• people other than me, seen wearing aprons as fashion items: 6
• feather boas purchased: 2
• conversations with my sister-in-law bemoaning the disgusting state of our fingernails: 5
• pirate ships danced on: 1
• visits to portaloos: 20ish
• visits to the eco-friendly composting toilets: 1
• books packed: 5
• books read: 2
• nights I stayed up until 2am: 3
• glasses of mead drunk: 4
• days of unbroken sunshine: 5
• conversations with people dressed as zebras: 4
• glasses of Pimms drunk: 5
• photos taken: 192
• glasses of kir Breton cocktails drunk: 4ish
• cold pints of cider drunk: 4
• minutes spent fretting about everyday concerns: 0
• cups of tea drunk: 8
• cups of coffee drunk: 7
• minutes spent fantasising about a nice hot bath: approx. 50
• minutes spent in the bath when I returned home: 42
• and many, many more hours spent lying in tents, lying outside on the grass, listening to music, dancing, chatting, people watching and grinning.

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If you want to see even more photos, head over to my flickr set.

Organisation

People often say that I am organised. I think it comes with being such a fan of lists and planning.

Last week I went to St Pancras to buy tickets for the Paris Metro, because in a week's time we will be crossing Paris in a great hurry to make a very tight train connection, and I don't want to waste precious minutes at the Gare Du Nord queuing to buy Metro tickets. The woman at the Eurostar ticket office commented on how organised I was to plan in advance in this way. I thanked her and felt more than a little bit smug.

But this week, a couple of things have thankfully wiped away that smugness. The first is my Cupboard Of Shame. Here is a picture to show you how the cupboard earned that name:


It is a cupboard in our bedroom that bulges and threatens to spontaneously burst open each time somebody walks past. It is STUFFED with suitcases, old clothes of the children's and all the files and textbooks from when G and I were studying for our accountancy exams.

I qualified nine years ago and G qualified five years ago. We have not looked at these books or files once since then. I think it may be time to throw them out. And all those children's clothes that are too small? Well I have plenty of friends with younger children or babies who could make good use of them, and there are several skirts and dresses of O's that I could cut up to start a collection of fabric for a quilt for her.

And we will need the suitcases next week when we go to France - with the Metro tickets that I was organised enough to buy in advance. Ha! As soon as I have written this, I am off to clear out the cupboard. I feel the shame.

The other thing that has made me reconsider the benefits of being organised, happened last night. After a really tough week at work I decided I needed an evening out. I've never been to the Waterstones at Piccadilly and after discovering that they have a cocktail bar on the top floor I thought that it might be a good destination for a bit of after work relaxation.

When I got there I discovered that the sewing books were next to the cocktail bar - how about that for good planning? And once up on the 5th floor, who should I find browsing through the Kaffe Fassett quilt books but my good friend Miss Moss Stitch! She was killing some time before meeting her chap for a night out at Gordon's, so I got her evening off to an unexpected start by whisking her off to the bar. We had a wonderfully spontaneous time poring through quilt books, chatting and drinking sublime cocktails. Not bad for a Wednesday night!

One of the things we chatted about was my new Pleated Beauty Bag that I received from Kathryn through the Bend The Rules Sewing swap. You can read Kathryn's blog about making my bag here.

I love that Kathryn picked fabrics based on the lush greens in my photographs - so thoughtful - so to honour her choice, I took some photos of the bag hanging in our lilac bush.


Isn't is a beautiful bag? Thank you, Kathryn, I love it!

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Thank you all for your very kind comments about my quilt. I am ridiculously proud of myself, and have already planned about four more I want to make! What is it about quilts that does that?

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The pattern for the quilt is from Amy Butler's In Stitches. The pieces were all sewn onto muslin, which is an unusual way of making a quilt; I think it would be easier to piece in the traditional way. The next one I do will be a BIG log cabin one that I started fifteen years ago - yes really - see earlier comments on being 'organised'.