Good autumn-London morning!

The sky is grey, the pavements are wet, but I walked past this park on my way to coffee this morning, and now I'm sitting watching lots of twinkling lights around the concrete grey shops, which I can absolutely forgive in November in big cities that could do with some non-grey happy. *g* Plus, pretty.

Yesterday afternoon looked pretty good too, involving, as it did, meeting heliophile_oxon for a drink and putting-the-world-to-rights at a Pros location - The Great Northern Railway Tavern, from Stopover. We sat in this corner, actually... I think the lads sat at the next bench along, but it was taken when I got there. Plus a bit rearranged anyway after... oh my, forty years and just over six months. *g*

Although to be honest I was relying on old memories from being there years ago, and I wasn't at all prepared. I took a couple of pics, but none the right way (again, people... *g*)

Still the same glass in those windows though! *g*

I was in bed so early for me last night - before 10.30pm (!!), so up at a decent time today, which was good. Slightly ironic, since I'm on holiday for a couple of days, but good for getting up early for the meeting on Sunday. Today... is about first of all finding some comfortable shoes, after a realise-my-boots-leak catastrophe minutes before I had to leave to catch my train yesterday, and swapping them for more waterproof boots that are on the other hand, not great for walking lots, which I definitely want to do today! Not actually sure what I'm going to do after that though - too much to choose from! Christmas market on Southbank at some point, I think, and perhaps back via Leicester Square for similar reasons (well, it might be November, but since I'm here...) Or - through the parks and nip into the Scarsdale, just for the sake of it? Um... I'll see where I end up and what the weather's like, I guess. And being me, what I'd really like to do is some writing... *g*

...and eventually good night, autumn London.

Today's wanderings saw me spending an awful lot more on buying a pair of comfy shoe/boots than I mean to (although it was then bliss to be able to walk around again, instead of hobbling!) And I do need them really, since my favourite Croc boots are properly leaking now... *sighs sadly* In the end I didn't do any more locationing after all - I didn't even get to the Embankment, cos although I'd planned to, I accidentally started walking the wrong way... *headdesk* But it meant I got to see some cool bits of London that I venture towards less often - thanks too, to my new shoe/boots... *g*

Street art...

...and arty streets (well, St Pancras tunnel thingie)

( More pics under here... )

And then the nighttime park to match this morning's park!


I wonder if the lads would ever have looked at London like this - well, lots of it wasn't there, of course - no Shard or Walkie-Talkie building (though the Mithraeum actually was there as a display, though it was above ground (they reconstructed it away from its original site so they could build something, and it's recently been moved back and incorporated into the building by the new owner). I know it's partly the film stock, but London always looked so grey and brown and sort of grim in Pros - it seems to have perked up alot these days. Maybe it's just clearing away the last of the WWII bomb damage, and a penchant for more sparkly lights everywhere, but... I dunno. Does it seem to be differently coloured, you-people-who-live-in-London, or is that just an artefact of our old (beloved) tv series?!