London O2 (Oct 24)

I met Emma at Bedales after she finished work, Bedales is a nice little wine bar we’ve been to before.

Borough Market was buzzing with tourists and people who had knocked off from work early. It’s a great place to sit and people watch. We had planned to go out for a meal at a Portuguese restaurant a few hundred yards away, but decided we’ve actually have our “starter” here seeing their portions for bar snacks are notoriously small, but also very good quality. So we settled down with a glass of wine and polished off a scummy “starter”.

Good choice…

Before we got to our destination, Emma insisted we tried out a local cocktail bar that was on her list of places to visit. It is called Swift, and it’s a place that she/we haven’t been to. So as were passing….. Oh and pretty affordable too, at £7 a drink before 6pm.

So…. after catching up on the day we avoided a second drink (thankfully) and headed off in search of our destination.

I love London, there is always something new to discover, for example, today…. I can’t count the amount of times that I have been within 50 yards of a place called Cross Bones Graveyard without seeing it. It is an unconsecrated burial ground that was the final destination for thousands of paupers, prostitutes (known as Winchester Geese) and vagabonds. With Bear baiting and Bull fighting permitted in London in the Middle Ages, there was no shortage of “takers” for this site. There are up to 15,000 people buried here. I had no idea it was here until now.

This place is fiercely guarded by the locals, and with the Shard in the background, it dramatically demonstrates just how much London has changed over the past few hundred years. Of course when I got home I did a bit of research on the place – fascinating!

So, we eventually found our Portuguese restaurant, a place called Casa do Frango.

Wow – incredibly good quality food, which I must admit we always find when a place does not have a huge menu. What they do, they do well. As usual, we shared our food. We ordered two main courses, chicken and pork, and shared a plate of rice which came with the most delicious chicken skin, potato and chorizo. I can taste it now!

Fed and watered, we headed for the Thames and hopped on a clipper to the O2. This is a great way to get to the venue, whilst also taking in some iconic sights from the water. And at £10 is a great alternative way to see the city.

We finally made it to the O2 and headed for the Amex Lounge (we have a card but never use it), before setting down to watch Crowded House in a nice seat!

We only booked this last minute, and if I am honest a couple of Crowded House songs have always been on my playlist, but I’ve never fancied seeing them live…. BUT they were fabulous and put on a great performance, trotting out all of their hits as well as their new stuff which I must admit was rather good!

So all in all a great night out, we were back home within the hour, the advantage of living in London.