Nothing spreads the Christmas joy (or the backside) like Krispy Kreme snowmen and holly berries

Visited the Saatchi Gallery by accident in Sloan Square

It is hidden behind the Duke of York Shopping square (which incidentally is also where the London Taschen bookshop is).

The New Chinese art exhibition that is on at the moment took me by surprise.

My favorite is the entire City sculpted of rawhide by Zhang Dali.

For some reason, finding one of the eight cabbie huts that still exist always puts a smile on my face.

Perhaps the inspiration for Carraba’s rooftop gardens?

Winter on the square

Double decker Christmas

Loved this one

and the neighbor

Portobello Market was a crush of people this past Saturday with everyone searching for the perfect Christmas present.

Also amusing was an article from the Seattle Times that highlights so many of the things I have been enjoying (Winter Festivals excepted).

The St. Martin’s Hotel had a small gallery full of the best images from Wallpaper Magazine.

Sadly, I missed it by a few days.

Leicester Square opened up to an amazing winter festival.

My favorite was the swings which look like they are about to crash into the theatre and could potentially drop shoes all over the crowds below.

“As for Rosmarine, I lett it runne all over my garden walls, not onlie because my bees love it, but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance, and, therefore, to friendship; whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language that maketh it the chosen emblem of our funeral wakes and in our buriall grounds.” — Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

Rosemary signifies remembering the dead and the tradition of placing rosemary sprigs in tombs or on burial sites dates back to ancient Egypt.

This was quite cool to see in the Southwark Cathedral.

Huh?

The new Routemaster design is a little bubbly like the Cars movie. Can’t wait to see these running around the streets bumping into trees! Would be smart to talk to the drivers rather than the star architects on this idea too.

Tonight I went along to hear a concert called Haydn in London: The Revolutionary Drawing Room at Gresham College.

Thomas Gresham conceived fo the idea of a building an Exchange modeled on the Bourse in Antwerp in 1537. It worked other than the Queen Elizabeth demanding that the name be changed to the Royal Exchange. In his will, Gresham left funds for free public lectures to be given in the City of London. 400 years later, these lectures are still going.

Gresham bought lots of land and property in London with his funds that today sustains one of the largest charities in London. Gresham’s symbol, the grasshopper, is found on buildings in London. I liked the symbol so much that I took it’s picture several weeks ago at the Bond Street winter wonderland.

The Hall:

List of Headmasters from the Mercer School (and symbol of the Mercer)

Monday afternoon the lobby of the building was transformed into a Christmas festival.

The porter’s floral arrangement:

The Christmas tree and nativity

Postbox for mailing letters to Santa

Dancing Santa

Kerry and I sadly will miss this celebration for Twelfth Night but it looks like a lot of fun!

Go SE1 for keeping us up to date on community events!

Sunday, Kerry and I hopped on the 47 and headed up to Liverpool Street. Hopping off at the station and wandering through the throngs of people destine for Spitalfields or Petticoat Lane markets, we stuck to the small alleys so Kerry could find the interesting graffiti.

One of my favorite things that people down around here is make plaster cast molds of things, be it baby dolls, little ghandis, or in today’s case, harliquine masks that they have painted. These 3-d graffiti are then bolted to the walls of various alleys and buildings.

We made it to the market which was packed. You could barely move between stalls but this only added to the fun of trying to shop while trying to keep an eye on each other. Kerry found a letter press guy with some interesting press pieces that were rather pricey.

There were lots of people selling zipper bags, photos mounted to foam core or wooden blocks–the most interesting of these had taken the 2×2 squares of photos mounted on foam core and framed them in colour blocks.

We then wandered out of the market and around past the Ten Bells Church and Pub (of Jack the Ripper fame) before decending into the Sunday Up Market. This reminds me of the Spitalfields of old, so it is nice to see all the artisans who are making their way in London.

The rear stalls were filled with ethnic foods from Mauritius, Ethiopia, and to Kerry’s surprise and delight Japanase Okinamyaki. This cabbage and “special sauce” pancake kind of tasted like a Big Mac without the meat and bun to me but is a highly prized food in Japan served during a festival in March.

We wandered out into the streets of Brick Lane and I went on a search for Jilebi. Here is a recipe in case you want to try this at home.

Jilebi on display in the window in the first sweet shop:

Other sweets:

After all the shopping and snacking, we decided to walk home down Gracechurch Street. Passing the Leadenhall Markets that we had searched for last week:

Walking through the Tower of London to the river, we spied a Beefeater’s Christmas Tree in the window

Skaters were circling in the moat below.

Saturday at noon, Ann asked us to join here and 10 of her closest friends to get Dim Sum at Laureate.
We let Ann order which was quite an adventure. After a few minutes there was a pile of dim sum on the table in all sorts of varieties.

Dim Sum feast

EM, Kerry, Ann feeling full

Participants

Dim Sum Dinner from emilykp on Vimeo.

Final Plate: (did we really eat all of that??)

Joyce, Ann, & EM (four years on)