It’s been a big weekend. I’ve been running myself ragged trying to finish this book, so just needed a few days of fun to reset my jumbled brain. We started on friday with some beers in the park with Banjo. Well, I started 30 minutes earlier when the village kids had come to hang out and decided that I was a human canvas for their masterpieces.
Then we head over to the slightly run down travelling carnival for some cheap rides before we head out to our favourite bar, Passing Clouds.
Saturday was jam packed, largely by the Taste of London festival. We head to London Fields in the evening, which was still packed with the days revellers soaking up the Saturday sun.
Today, our village was one of the main thoroughfares for the Run Hackney Marathon, so our friends hung out the windows of their stores or their houses above the stores – more of us congregated around the Deli outdoor tables to watch the race and cheer on our friends.
We all yelled at each other across the street, and everyone we knew was out and about – watching the kids races or just hanging about in the village.
I met up with Allie and we jumped on our bikes and head over to Brick Lane. We started with tea at Hawkhurst Vault, our favourite new little tea house.
We were heading to Spitalfields and Brick Lane markets for some vintage shopping, but ended up just eating, as we always seem to do.
We rode on up to Shoreditch Town Hall to visit a friend who had a market stall in the design market up there, and ran into this cute little picnic that was happening at one of the parks in the middle of a big roundabout.
We rode back towards the village after a long day of exploring, and found out that Victoria Park had transformed into a Bangladeshi festival while we had been away. There’s something magical about the way seemingly the rest of London comes out to our park on the weekends, brunches at the Deli and along the street and buys picnics in the store to have along the canal. There is always something on, and there are always people here.
Ater the cafe closed I met up with some of my friends after their shift, and we head into the park for some sun and beer.
I know, I am an Aussie in England – but I am getting a tan here! While we spend a lot of the time avoiding the heat and harsh sun in Australia, as soon as there is a hint of sun here in London we flock to the nearest green space to soak it up.