London night life....Wandsworth, waterloo and more

This past week has been exceptionally lovely.  It's been a mash-up of exploring, sleeping in, music, markets, back yard BBQ's and nights out.  I feel like I have done so much but still been super relaxed, not rushed and enjoyed everything. I guess I will just start at the beginning and see where this one takes us.
The week began with the discovery of our new favorite local pub....The Cats back.  It was discovered via a random set up and was the best little treasure.  Helly and I had a great evening there just discussing life.  It was one of those nights that began being one thing and ended another even better thing.  So we loved the place so much we decided we needed to go back the next night and listen to the live Irish music.  Our friend Lauren joined us which was so great!  I had not seen her yet since she had been on

Sunset walk along the river in Wandsworth 

 
 holiday when I arrived so it was great to see her and catch up.  At about dusk we wandered our way along the river towards our pub.  The walk turned out to be something absolutely gorgeous.  The sky was beautiful and lit up the river in the most spectacular way.  I kept taking photo after photo to capture all the different moments of color and light.  It was absolutely stunning.  Once the sun sank behind the clouds we arrived at the evenings location.  We walked in and there in the corner around the table was a group of musicians just playing music and hanging out.  It was so great.  So informal and

A little blurry but beautiful....just like the night!

intimate.  It got me really excited about going to Ireland soon and having this experience there.
The bottles of wine flowed, the music played and our night continued along a course of conversation, laughter and randomness.  We ended up hanging out with one of the musicians after they finished and I had chat with the man behind the bar....always a good idea to get to know the bartenders in your local spot.  As the night drew to a close some people hopped into taxis while Helly and I opted for the nice evening walk accompanied part way by the bartender and his bike.  Safety in numbers for the night

My favorite Palace...Hampton.

walks right?
So I have done some stuff during the day too.  On a gorgeous sunny day here I hopped the train down to Hampton Court which is my favorite palace.  It is right on the river so I just spent the morning walking along it then headed into the palace for the afternoon.  They had a cool exhibit about the secrets of the bedroom which was great.  I don't think I realized how much stuff went on in the Palace bedroom....now don't get the wrong idea here...I am talking about political and life stuff.  It was where many important meetings and decisions were made.  It wasn't really about sleeping in there so

Yep...we are that cool.

much as it was a place where major life events took place.  I do love that even though I have been to this palace many times I still manage to find something new about it.  The next outdoor during the day event that took place was Old Spitalfield's Market.  Helly and I dove into the hip Brick Lane / Shoreditch area with expectations of vintage, antiques and street art.  We ended up with bits of all our expectaions filled and also a few treasures along the way like a photo exhibit where they had dug up old negatives...brought them

Concert at Half Moon in Putney

back to life and made up a story about each photo.  It was fantastic.  As you can see from the sweet photo of Helly just like any market there is the amazing bits along with the ridiculous.  I will let you decide which category these glasses fall into.  The best thing about being in the market that day was returning to a store that I had found last time I was here and haven't been able to stop thinking about.  I decided this trip I would go back and make a purchase.  I bought the most beautiful shirt and jacket that are all made from mens suits

Waterloo Bridge....Night out on the South Bank

and ties.  The designer was in that day too so I got to chat a bit with her which was also really cool.  You will get to see the purchases in future photos to come.
The day worked it's way towards night as Helly and I headed home for a quick dinner and meet up with Will to head to a concert at the Half Moon in Putney.  The music was wonderful and so was the company.  Lauren joined us there and we all had a great time.  After the concert we all spilled into the main part of the pub and continued the fun with the best dance party I have had in a long time.  The kind where your drenched in sweat and you don't even care.  Such a great

Absolute beauty....I love this town!

night.  The week ended and we moved into lazy weekend mode.  There was a lot of lounging and just lazing around.  Saturday afternoon did have a little surprise for me when Helly's roommate Sel invited me to come to a food market on the south bank with her and her friend.  I had duck for the first time on brioche with goat cheese, truffle honey and onion chutney.  Words can't describe how good it was.  The girls also introduced me to some fantastic cider that you can buy in 2 liter milk jugs....tasty and fun.  With our milk jugs of cider in hand the girls humored me with a night walk around the south bank and across waterloo bridge.  I don't think any of us realized the gorgeous night sky we were about to stumble into.  It took us hours to get across the bridges because we kept stopping to take more and more photos.  The night ended as well as it began in a bar on the south bank.
It has been such an amazing second week.  I absolutely love living my life here.  I suppose I do have a bit of an unreal life here...no work, amazing friends and gorgeous weather but when you create the world you want to live in and dare to dream big sometime life surprises you a gives you exactly what you dream for!