Weekend off...

Where to even begin with this one....I had planned to have a fun "local" style weekend with Lauren and it exceeded my expectations.  I guess we will start at her apartment.  She lives in St. Margarets which isn't too far from where I am living.  Friday night after work we headed over to her place to drop of my stuff.  Her place is the top level of a really cool victorian home.  Such a neat little place with a shared kitchen on the bottom floor, Central staircase then little rooms that are directly off the landing of each level of stairs so not really any hallways.  Very vintage place. Once we have changed into clothing that doesn't have the remnants of a day spent with children on it the weekend begins.
First stop is an old pub in St Margarets where we sat outside under and umbrella in the rain and had a pint of ale...I love that rain doesn't scare people here and you can still sit outside and no one thinks your crazy.  We next shared a great dinner and had a lovely conversation at a little pizza place.

Lauren and I at "The Fox"

 Next and final stop of the night was a local pub in Twickenham (don't you just love the name of places here) she had taken me to once before called The Fox.  We met up with her boyfriend Toby and enjoyed the evening there listening to live music and having a great pint  (or 2) of ale.  Side note this place had a pretty good taxidermied fox in it in a glass case displayed proudly.  You know I love a good taxidermy piece in a bar!
Saturday was a lot of relaxing after having an amazing breakfast at a local cafe.  Seriously the muffins were to die for....even better then then my favorite muffin place in Coronado.  Once evening rolled around we headed into Soho to check out some historic pubs and newer cocktail bars.  Soho is such an interesting mix.  From one street to the next it changes from old school london to super posh,with Hilcrest (best reference I could think of)  stuck in the middle.  There was also a really random Casino along the way too.  We really were just wandering with no real plan which was great. The first pub where we had dinner was a beautiful old victorian pub with amazing raised paneling on the ceiling and walls.  the best part about it was these really cool little glassed in booths that are unique to this time period and have rarely been saved through remodels.  Lauren told me she had walked by this place but never stopped in...sometimes you just need a tourist to show you something cool in your own town.  I plan to try and keep my tourist eyes open when I return to San Diego.  I'm sure there is so much I have missed there!  Next stop was an Oyster bar.  We didn't get to eat because they were closing but ended up chatting with the waiters and Kitchen staff for a bit and hopefully will get back for dinner since we both Love oysters!  One of the waiters led us to our  next stop which was a bit more posh and had good cocktails.  England's dark and stormy isn't the same as the one in the states but it's still good.  We also ran into a Stag Party (Bachelor party in the states) at this bar and they were hilarious.  Best part about it was everyone in the party was from all over Germany, Ireland, Norway and England.  Accent overload!  So funny!  Mr Germany was the best with his purple pants...he was like a quirky character out of a Tim Burtan movie.  They all thought my accent (yes I am the one with the accent over here) was pretty good.  They even had to ask me to repeat things because the couldn't understand because of my accent...never had that happen before.  I also made my first american statement that doesn't mean the same thing in England...it was pretty bad.  Sorry kids, it's not being revealed in this post.
My local weekend here was so much fun.  The scene is quite a bit different then I am used to but still great.  I love the diversity everywhere you go here.  Almost everyplace I have gone I have met someone from another country.
I suppose from now on wherever I am at I will try and live a bit more like a tourist...even in my one town...to get the most out of it.