It Was Diana's Last Day Off,

and despite the warning of rain, 

we were off, 

to look at the Christmas stalls,

by London Bridge,

wrapped up warm for the day,

we soon arrived at the Hayes Galleria,

which was decked out for Christmas,

a pose, 

or two, 

by the tree,

well I just had too!

the empty stalls we had seen on out last visit here, now open and filled with goods,

time for another pose,

or two, 

and with all of those empty booths,

just one more!

the entrance,

to the bar,

with the booths,

out into the open,

past the Horniman at the Hayes, the pub not the museum!

it was busy along the embankment,

as we passed HMS Belfast, which we visited way back in September 2010, 

we started looking at stalls, 

and the goods on offer, 

and these looked nice, with Christmas just around the corner, what better than a selection of theses cheese's to round Boxing day off?

three bought and in the bag,

if you have a sweet tooth,

this is the stall for you!

but for us a no sale, 

we had to stop here,

the aroma in the air was so intense, 

think of all the aromas of Christmas, pine needles, citrus fruits, it was all here in the pot pourri's that were here,

all of the stalls displayed this sign,

these looked similar to the scarf Steve bought in Bath a few days ago, 

the stalls seemed almost endless,

all of the ones so far Christmas based, 

with bubbles and other decorations,

although it looked wet, the rain had held off,

this stall selling crystals and bracelets and pendants,

we were walking nearer to the bridge,

as we passed more decorations,

for your Christmas tree,

and for yourself, 

lots with a Christmas flavour about them,

we were a tad hungry, 

and these smelled delicious, but at £9.50 for a sausage roll we declined,

macaroons aplenty,

and plenty of other cakes,

mini Cornish pasties, in so many flavours,

some of these looked nice,

 but plain noodles at £8.00 or with chicken £12.00 seemed almost like restaurant prices, except here there was nowhere to sit, 

in the next row of stalls back to Christmas, it must have taken an age to light all of these!

opposite us, looking in the distance,

it was not much of a view if you had paid for breakfast in one of the roof top restaurants!

mobile Christmas decorations on this stall,

and sweets on this one,

we walked to the top of one of the boardwalks, 

and looked back to the low mist,

we were nearing Tower Bridge, looking through it,

a few more tall buildings enveloped in mist,

we looked for any more food stalls,

these had rather neat plastic or similar displays of the foods on offer,

looking towards the bridge, on one of the mooring buoys,

a cormorant was stretching is wings,

next a couple of poses,

for the family album,

and I just had too,

looking back the way we had walked,

the boardwalk here was not so crowded as it was so much wider,

we looked at a candle shop,

I have just read literally today, that the powers to be state we should stock up on them!

as has happened a few times before,

a couple asked Diana to take a photograph on their mobile telephone,

and here they are, I wish I had their address to send them a copy out of my camera,

and here is a bit of fun,

a huge sculpture that you can have your photograph taken on,

as you might expect the queue to do this was a tad long, 

here is the legend about the sculpture, 

we turned to retrace our steps, 

one more for the album,

into the galleria, where the Navigators had just switched on,

and a last look at the Christmas tree,

as we had not eaten we decided to walk to Borough Market, the pub, The Barrow Boy and Banker now with its Christmas lights on,

looking down from street level, 

we passed the church,

and made our way inside the market, which this year had these huge red ribbons around it,

I took a few photographs,

of stalls that we passed,

this one caught Diana's eye,

the agony of choice!

3 cakes to go £10.00, 

as you might expect the market was packed,

we called into this fruit and vegetable stall,

in the hope that some chestnuts were here,

but no luck, I guess they are finished for this year,

on one of the fish stalls, this fearsome chap,

he is a monkfish, (Lophius piscatorius),

time for another pose,

I had a look here, but no cockles for breakfast,

but they had a nice line up of langoustines, 

we carried on our walk,

well I just had to!

this one a tad out of our price range, 

these were more like it, if you moved the decimal point a few places!

lots of cheese stalls here,

play your cards right you could almost eat here for free trying the different chesses!

a last look at the tree here,

and we were off, 

on our way to the station,

in no time we were home, 

after our evening meal it was feet up for Uncharted, we had in fact watched it before, this what I wrote then, "totally implausible and improbable, once you get over that it was a all action film with great special effects thrown in, just suspend belief!" but still great fun to watch again, 

next Les trois mousquetaires: D'Artagnan, or as it is known over here, The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan (2023), great costumes and locations, it was really enjoyable, we rounded off the evening with a Have I Got News For You, after which we were off to bed.