London

During my stay at Hatfield, Laura and I went for a day out to London! And I fell in love…

…With Camden Town. I’ve never been before, and it really captivated me. It’s weird and different. All the shop fronts are decorated with eccentric models/art displaying the things they sell. It looks like a very scruffy alternative Disneyland! The place has got a real buzz to it. I’d love to be cool and bohemian enough to live there, although I couldn’t be doing with the crowds. It was a Saturday, and nice weather too and the streets were heaving. Just walking down the street you couldn’t go at normal pace because there were so many people, it was like one giant queue. As for the World Famous Camden Market I must admit it wasn’t what I expected, I was expecting cool unique hippy stalls, when in actual fact a lot of it was just standard clothes and jewellery you could find more or less anywhere. Although there was the odd stall that caught my eye, such as the guy selling clocks made out of old alcohol bottles.

There’s a canal that goes right through the middle of the town, with bars and grass on either side and there were people sat chilling in the sun.

And there were real punks hanging out on street corners. Proper punks in ripped tartan and leather, not your moody-fourteen-year-old that passes as a punk these days.

We also went to Oxford Street, had our budget picnic lunch under the Marble Arch and went in one of the most prestigious shops in London… Primark!!! Now I love shopping, but Primark, in London, on a Saturday afternoon is my idea of hell. It was chaos, as if a bomb had gone off and scattered all the clothes and shoes all other the place in no particular order. As Laura battled through the blood thirsty crowds of immigrant families fighting for the last size 12, I took refuge with the 15 desolate abandoned husbands at the top of the escalator. I hugged my knees to my chest and held tight waiting for my friend, all the while praying that no one would come and try and rip the clothes off my back mistaking me for an unloved shop mannequin!

We survived the ordeal and rewarded ourselves with happy hour cocktails back in Camden in a fantastic bar called Bar 55. It was packed (2-4-1 cocktails obviously being popular) – full of a young crowd, chosing from the 150 cocktails on the menu. We ordered some berry smoothy type drinks with gin and vodka in and squeezed on to the edge of a seat, intruding ever so slightly on a group of youngsters on a night out. Great bar, the music was rock and indie and the bar staff were entirely male ;) Me and Laura amused ourselves by playing “Who’s got the best bum in the bar” (girls first, then guys) and by staring lovingly at the barman with curly hair and good wrist action (for shaking the cocktail mixers, obviously).

3 cocktails later we caught the train back to Hatfield, then collapsed into bed!