Londinium

As part of my day job (the one that currently pays!) I get to travel into London once a week. Whilst I cant claim to be a Londoner, I lived there for about 6 years and am still very 'London' when it comes to needing to get everywhere in a hurry, working late etc.

Of all the things I love about London, these are my top two today:

1. Its coffee...

 (All Press Coffee on Redchurch Street. My favourite is 'Giddy Up' Coffee by Old Street)

Yum - seriously yum! The number of independant roasters and coffee places seems to grow every time I'm there. One of my favourite things to do as soon as I'm off the train from the sticks is to go to one of my favourite little places. One day this bloke was complaining at my favourite independant coffee place about the prices and about how he could get a latte cheaper at Costa. The clipped (and quite hilarious) reply was 'well sir, I'm afraid, that if you cant tell the difference between this and Costa, then you may as well just GO to Costa!'.  Told!

2. Its randomness...

 (A love link fence outside of Shoreditch station)

If you've never been to London, its like a series of little villages all strung together. Maybe villages is the wrong word as you will be hard pressed to find anything that looks much like a quintessential English country village, but each little pocket of london has its own unique character, style and dress code. Go two streets in a different direction and you could be in a different world.

I'm lucky enough to work in the East End of London near brick lane. Theres a real mixture of cultures, markets everywhere, fantastic places to eat and small little quirks (like this one) are everywhere.

Love it!