Bill Pollucks Toy Store

Bill Pollock’s Toy Store
44 The Market
Covent Garden
www.pollocks-coventgarden.co.uk
Marks mum suggested we check this out and I am glad it is an enchanting little store hidden upstairs at Covent Garden… Lots of great and imaginative ways to entertain kids, puppet theatre, finger puppets amongst other old school toys… Will definitely be back again! Until then we bought some hand puppets, no surprises who got which one, I got the witch and Mark got the pirate aaaarh!

British Museum

British Museum
It’s a massively overwhelming building, just beautiful! We made our way through the old and very old European displays which was nice enough… Loved checking out the old helmets and swords, impressive, eventually onto the slave trade exhibition, which I knew would be a highlight… Unfortunately it was only a tiny tiny display but had enough in it to get you thinking about the times and heartache that went on back then… Eventually we found our way to the Ancient Egyptian display, from the first moment I was taken, I loved it, the old art and carvings, and as we kept walking we entered the mummies section! I was completely absorbed in this, just amazing, could have spent hours and hours there, have to go back, when it’s not packed with school kids… So many, and so interesting, Mark favoured the mummy cats…

Thursday March 27th 2008

Thursday 27th March 2008
This was our last chance to spend time with Marks parents… We both woke up with a cold (lovely!) and went straight to boots to sort ourselves out with a remedy… Met Marks parents at Waterloo and headed straight to the British Museum… Then around Covent Garden, China Town, Oxford St and all the way to Charing Cross… We had a lovely lunch – unfortunately can’t remember the name of the spot and an overall nice day… But at the end, again, my body was aching sooooo much! Came home and had a quick snooze, woke in time to meet Cricket and Amy at the pub for dinner and drinks… Early night, back to bed, the best place to be with a cold…

MAC

MAC
28 Fouberts Place
Soho
www.maccosmetics.co.uk
The store was bare so it was the perfect time to check out the compact I wanted, and it was there! Bought it and now its mine! Not too pricey either, which was a shock, though the brushes were over $50 each, which seemed a bit much…

Play Lounge

Play Lounge
http://www.playlounge.co.uk/
19 Beak St
Soho
This spot has some excellent toys… Loads of Japanese characters… Very entertaining, especially loved the cat/road kill…

Nike Town

Nike Town
Oxford St
London
One of our favourite stores in London… t is having a bit of a refurb so it felt a lot smaller then usual, but the new ID store is open and gave us a taste of what to expect when we get to NYC… Some interesting pre made colour ways, but nothing for me… They had a sneakerfreaker vending machine too, it’s obviously pretty big here…

Wednesday 26th March

Wednesday
We spent the day with Cricket and Chloe, cruising the streets of London, shopping, walking, talking… A lovely day but after hours and hours of walking we were all a bit knackered and retired to our hotel room… Was super tired but managed to get ourselves to Pizza Express for dinner… And back to our hotel room for bed!

Size?...

Size?
http://www.size-online.co.uk/extras_competitions.asp?id=7
37a Neal St
Covent Garden
I used to check the Size? On Carnaby Street back in the day, but had never been to the Covent Garden branch, so was keen to have a browse as we walked past…
Much like other Size? Stores, the sneaker selection seems to lean toward the ‘trendy’ end of the scene, with a whole heap of crepes I wouldn’t be seen dead in – especially the repulsive one-piece Dunks (not a good look, Nike)…
The highlight though was the Sneaker Freaker Magazine vending machine – good stuff…

Rhythm Factory…

Rhythm Factory…
I used to be a monthly regular at the Rhythm Factory back when it hosted Hip Hop club night, Breakin’ Bread… In fact, I’ve even DJed there on a couple of occasions, so it was nice to drop by for a few drinks with some of our mates…
It’s not the swankiest joint in London, but it isn’t a super dive either…
Being served a pint of beer in a plastic cup isn’t a good look…

Jack The Ripper Tour...

Jack The Ripper Tour...
http://www.jack-the=ripper-tour.com/
Departs 7pm from Aldgate East Station
On an unusually cold March evening, we attended the Jack The Ripper walking tour – a 2 hour stroll around Whitechapel with a tour guide recounting the murders of prostitutes in the area, all accredited to Jack The Ripper…
The tour was enjoyable, if not a little gruesome, being taken to the exact spots of the horrific murders and mutilations and having the attacks explicitly outlined, complete with authentic photos…
Well recommended for those with a passing interest in true crime…

Tayyabs...

Tayyabs
83 – 89 Fieldgate St
London E1 1JU
http://www.tayyabs.co.uk/
With my best mate, Chris living a spit from Brick Lane, having a curry was always going to be on the cards... Being a local, Chris claims to know all the best spots for a good feed and took us out to his favourite curry house, Tayyabs…
We left it to Chris to order, knowing he eats there once a week, and we were served a steaming mixed grill of meat (for everyone except me) and a bunch of veggie sides… For mains, again Chris handled the ordering, and we had a selection of meat and vegetable dishes with rice and naan bread…
For the most part it was great – at 42 quid for 4 people, I was pleasantly surprised by the value… Bringing your own drinks helped the cost also… Service was fantastic, and the staff were more than happy to bag up our leftovers for us to take away…
The only downsides for me were the lack of vegetable biriyani (my preferred dish) and the poor lighting – I know Corrie was struggling to see with the low lights…

Crocs Store

Crocs store
www.crocs.eu48 Neal StreetCovent Garden, London, WC2H 9PA, UK
We didn’t enter this store but I had to put up a picture as it seem crazy that these awful shoes can sustain rent in Covent Garden…

MAC

MAC
http://www.maccosmetics.co.uk/countrychoice.tmpl?ngextredir=1
38 Neal St
Covent Garden
After hearing about the MAC Fafi collab months ago I was pleasantly surprised to see the MAC window, enough to actually go in… Saw a cute compact but could not find staff to purchase from or a price list, this store was crammed with people making for a poor shopping experience, so again I made the decision to wait for NYC…

Forbidden Planet

Forbidden Planet
http://www.forbiddenplanet.com/fp
179 Shaftesbury Ave
London
This is THE geek Mecca… Being a slight geek myself, and Mark being a super geek we have always enjoyed this store… My main reason is a fiendish addiction to Buffy and Angel, unfortunately Dr Who has taken over this complex and everything else is dwindling, especially the Buffy and Angel section… Being a bit anti Dr Who I struggled with this… And with lack of new Buffy and Angel items all that there was for me was the new Angel comic, but I decided to wait until we get to NYC in hope that there is more for me to buy…

Camden

Yesterday we went to Camden; this is my favourite place in London… I had prepared myself for the worst after the fire and it was indeed pretty bad… My donut man has gone which was sad to see, maybe his cart was smoked out in the fire, who knows, but it’s awful! Went to my favourite little shop whose name evades me, its right near the lock markets and has some dope kitschy type stuff, got some pics of our favourite items… Want those gum boots badly, but where would I wear them?!?
Couldn't believe the lack of homeless people and drugs, where are all my old clients at???
I finally got a Prêt A Manger hot chocolate which was fab!!! And especially good considering the cool weather…

And on to London town... Crowne Plaza Hotel...

Trip to London was 45 mins longer then expected with signal, carriage and engineering issues... by the time I arrived I was seriously stressed as I knew cricket was waiting and I HATE being late! Cricket had this flu when I arrived, so we headed straight to the hotel for some chill time…

Hotel
Crowne Plaza
http://www.london.crowneplaza.com/
Originally we had booked into a one star shoebox room in Covent Garden for 80 pounds a night, last minute I thought I should check http://www.priceline.com/ to see if I could get a deal, last time this worked out especially well for us… We got our room for 70 pounds a night in a 4 star hotel near Victoria… I was just happy to have a room that would fit us and our luggage… So once booked thy tell you which hotel you get, and once I knew I started to read reviews… they were a bit bad, but the rooms go for around 200 a night so keeping that in mind, sure I can see why you wouldn’t be stoked, but for our purposes it is great… we were given a king bed, good sized room, proper bathroom, with desk, 3 chairs as well as all the usual stuff…

We made our way to Oxford St to check the shops and meet up with Kim, but cricket was really ill so we changed the spot to the hotel and came back where she continued to deteriorate, so I sent her home… and waited for Kim… She arrived and it was just like old times! Went for a pub meal and talked shit for hours! Was absolutely knackered afterwards and jumped into bed with some tv and temazes and away I went…

Photos will come soon, Mark will be joining me in London this arvo, so we will work them out then :)

love and light...