I go to carnival every year and still love it just as much – the music, the parade with mad costumes, the food, the noise, the people watching, the colours, did I say the noise? Some residents of Notting Hill head for the country while others, like myself, make the most of one of the world’s best street carnivals coming to their doorstep. Continue reading
We’ve been having a brilliant summer in London this year so we’ve been seeking out bars with outdoor space, preferably with stunning views and a breeze. I’ve been working very hard to find the best bars to tell you about and, although there are so many to chose from, here are my top three. Continue reading
We are celebrating 150 years of the London underground this year and all kinds of inventive approaches have been used to make this a fun year on the tube. My favourite is the wonderful Lego tube maps dotted around London! Continue reading
Every summer the Queen goes to Scotland for her holidays which means we can visit her London home, Buckingham Palace. Each year they host a special exhibition as part of the tour of the State Rooms and unsurprisingly this year it celebrates the coronation in 1953. I’ve been asked, by understandably confused visitors, wasn’t that last year? The answer is she became Queen in 1952 after the death of her father but the coronation wasn’t until the following year as I guess it takes rather a lot of organising! Continue reading
London dishes up some pretty amazing weekends but we are still recovering from the last one! We are in the middle of a heatwave with temperatures nudging 30 degrees (or 86 degrees) so all the outdoor events are thanking their lucky stars the rain has stopped – for now at least. Continue reading
A trip to Wimbledon to watch the tennis is a must for every summer in London, so I was very excited to have a day out on court 2 last week. The weather is such a crucial factor of any Wimbledon experience, unless you are lucky enough to have the golden ticket which gets you into the Centre Court where the roof ensures all day play. Otherwise you are at the mercy of the rain and court 2 is exposed to the elements so we were keeping our fingers crossed. Continue reading
I was luckily enough to go to the Oval last week, one of the two cricket grounds in London which hosts international matches, Lords being the other. England were playing South Africa in a tournament of one day matches and we were taking a visiting American friend who had no idea about this strange game but he was really relieved it wasn’t the five day version of the game! Continue reading
It was a rainy day on Sunday and the tennis at Queen’s tennis club was suffering with the covers over the grass of its centre court for several hours. We were waiting for Andy Murray to take centre stage and hopefully beat Marian Cilic as well as the weather. The good people of Marylebone Summer Fayre were waiting for a break in the rain to attract the crowds to enjoy their great annual event. Continue reading
London is so full of hidden treats that even those of us who live here don’t know about them all. One special annual event called Open Garden Squares Weekend is a brilliant way to get out and about and see some special places, many of which are closed to visitors the rest of the year. One ticket gives you access to over 200 venues all across London so the race is on to see as many as possible!
It was a very busy weekend so I’ll just bring you the highlights here: Continue reading
You can find street art all over London but if you head out to the east you can’t turn a corner without bumping into murals, stickers and street art that wasn’t even there the day before! Continue reading