New town, new look

Bet you were wondering if I actually got to London did you? Yes, I did arrive safely and surprisingly not at all jet-lagged. I must attribute the lack of jet-lag to the many years of doing shift work, I've been able to throw my body clock out the window, and who needs one anyway it never did me any good.

Aside from wondering where this blogger has been for the last couple of weeks, you will probably be wondering why this blog has been left in a state of limbo. Well to be frank, I haven't felt like blogging since I got to London. Actually I haven't felt like doing a lot of the things I am normally in the habit of doing back in Sydney. Take one for example of my many vices- sleeping in, well I haven't had a sleep in since I got here and it's not because I have a job to go to, it's because I instinctively get up at around 8 am every morning. It's quite peculiar seeing as snoozing until just before midday was my thing, it was the thing I was known for and the thing that made me, me. So what's happened to me?

Cheery red vine tomatoes, gigantic wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano and lots of artisan breads

Being in this (northern) hemisphere must have turned things upside down as I also don't get my usual cravings for sugar. Now I'm all about savoury things, that's all I want to eat. Which isn't such a bad thing when there's always lots of beer to wash down the food, but when I walk by glass casements filled with beautiful pastries, my heart skips a beat but my stomach doesn't even jump.

In order to somewhat alleviate this effect from the change of hemisphere, we decided to head down to the famed Borough Markets just south east of London. The great thing about these markets is that it's open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and unlike the Grower's Market in Sydney, which is once a month and starts at the crack of dawn, the earliest it opens on a Saturday is 9 am, which in my opinion is a much more reasonable hour and goes on until 4pm. So there's plenty of time to sleep in on a Saturday and turn up around midday for some lunch.

I won't go into too much detail about the markets as I think the photographs tell a better story, but I will say one thing, I do love a market that has a stall with every type of beer imaginable. Mmmmmm, although didn't find any Duff Beer.

Richard Howard Oysters, gigantic oysters and clams with a splash of lemon juice and red wine vinaigrette for £1.70 each. GT gulped them down too quickly for me to take a photo but apparently were very delicious, although it took a while to get the fishy taste out of his mouth.


Had a slight chuckle at the sausages after I was told they were an acquired taste; buckets of olives and a stall selling an array of mushrooms.


I nearly fell over when we came across this stall displaying huge chunks of dark, milk and white chocolate, I tried to sneak in a bite but couldn't muster up the courage; more mushrooms the black ones are trumpettes, and quite the price.


Beautiful bunches of lavender; pumpkins; strawberries and gorgeous Spanish ham hanging from the rafters.


A little laneway to escape the crowds; a leg of pork; to my delight a tower of flourless chocolate cake- they were giving out free samples so I indulged in a couple; this is the stall that sold every kind of beer you can imagine, it's awesome.

So there you have it a little sneak peek into what I have been up to in London for the past two weeks. We did the tourist thing and visit all the attractions, I might post a few of those later on. Stay tuned for part 2 of pictures from Borough Markets, and don't worry I won't take as long as I did before.

And as you might have noticed M&C has a new and slightly improved banner. I thought, since I'm in a new place, the blog needs a new look. Granted the look hasn't changed much, but hey who would ever turn down a make-over? I know Ricki Lake guests that would be banging down doors to get one.

Borough Markets
8 Southwark St
London, SE1 1TL
PHONE: +44 (0) 20 7407 1002

OPENING TIMES
Thursday 11am - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 6pm
Saturday 9am - 4pm

Nearest Tube: London Bridge Station