Thursday 21 March 2019

Up Early,

and off, 



 on the Beckenham Junction to London Bridge train,

 and here we were at London Bridge, a quick stop at Oliver Tobias,

and then we were outside,


looking up at the Shard,

 and the building work next to it,

 towering up into the sky, 
 and this is where we were going,


 as soon as we were inside,

 we spotted some street art in progress,

 as this artist painted a flat wall to give it a 3D effect,

 time to start looking around,

 so many things to choose from,

like these sweets,

 and cakes,

lots of cakes,


 we made our way to the ready to eat hot food section,

 we were both a tad hungry,

 but what to eat?

 the choice was almost endless,

 I think I had made my mind up,

 as had Diana, 

who choose shredded lamb,

 for myself,

 I went back for one of these,

 expertly prepared,

 with just gherkins and beef,

 lots of beef,

 delicious! 

 we ate at the rear of the stalls with the Shard overlooking us,


then making our way past the stall that sells pottery,

 and crossed the street,

 that leads to the fresh food section,

 past the arches,

 and into the larger part of the sales area,

 mushrooms, 

 lots of mushrooms raw,

 and cooked for sale,

 dried fruit,

 and yummy, fresh lobsters,

 I just had to stop,

 and buy a £3.00 pot,

 of whelks, 

 just add vinegar and eat,

 the other part of the stall is butchery, it was just like in the 1950s when I used to go shopping with my grandmother, a real butchers shop, watching a deer being skinned and butchered,

 I had another look at the seafood on offer,

 and these caught my eye,

 langoustines, known as Dublin Bay prawns, (Nephrops norvegicus), I was tempted to buy a few for this evening,

 but I was drawn to the truffle stall,

 yes you read that correctly, £190 for just 100 grams!

 moving on, 

 we noticed these wheels of cheese,

 which as Diana sampled them thought was nice, so we bought a slice,

 and decided against the blue brain, it most probably tasted nice, but there was something about the look of it that put us off,

 we left the brain cheese shop behind us,


and continued our walk,

 to the flower stall,

 that had orchids like these,

 and others that I had never seen before,

 there are many speciality shops here, like this one that sells just tea,

 or here just olives,

 we were chatting about what to have for our evening meal,

 we had bought some cheese,

 but we both fancied something hot,

 and here was the answer, Argentinian chimichurri chicken,

 and who could resist Lebanese 7 spiced chicken?

 so one of each for tonight please,

 shopping over,

 we made tracks for home,

 a last look at the market, 

 and we were off to the station, 

 by the bridge,

 walking to the station,


we noticed this building,

 with a blue plaque

 mentioning poet & apothecary John Keats, & his friend, the poet, apothecary, surgeon & chemist Henry Stephens,

 and this is a place we must look around one day,

 Kings College,

 as we neared the station,

 a mobile coffee stall, 

 we had some time to wait for the train,

 and I noticed we were on platform 13, I had just followed Diana, the number did not register until I looked at the time for the train, the strange thing is every airport I have been to never has a check-in aisle number 13, many lifts do not have a number 13 as well, but it appears that railways are not so superstitious,

 our train arrived,


and we settled in for the journey,

 as we passed Millwall Football Club,

 we popped into O'Neil's for a refreshing drink, all of this travelling was thirsty work,

 after watching a few quiz shows, it was time for our evening meal, the chickens were small so cutting them in half we had two different halves each, Diana had hers with chips,

 'Cheers!',

 I had boiled potatoes, they were both delicious, two of the most tasty chicken halves I can remember eating as it happens, Diana thought the same, 

 next the slices of cake we had bought at the market, cherry for Diana,

and apple for myself, with custard, after our meal we listened to music and watched one from the Poirot box, we are only making one post today as I have an early doctors appointment, good news I hope! so at the end of Poirot we were off to bed.


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