London! Being a Tourist in my Hometown

My bf's sister and her fiance came to stay with us this weekend and encouraged us to venture outside of our usual London experiences (er, walks in either Regent's Park, Hampstead Heath or Camden Town, which, although lovely, can get a bit samey) which was wonderful! I still get so excited when I catch sight of the majestic Big Ben or lofty Tower Bridge. It makes me feel like a little girl/tourist and I just want to take pictures of everything! I think I was more excited than some of the actual tourists....

We started off with going for a spot of lunch at the INSANELY busy Borough market. Said place is a food market, with lots of little speciality stalls selling things such as cheese, yummy looking cakes and pies at the aptly named 'pieminister'- yup, the best of the best pies, haha.

It's just a really lovely, rustic market. I would definitely recommend a visit, just for the free samples on offer ;)

This goes part way in showing just how busy it was. We ate our lunch near in the beautiful church yard in the background of this photo. Even though I am not religious, I appreciate the architecture of churches-this one is just stunning.

I ordered a halloumi burger for lunch, though it didn't actually contain much halloumi, so I will rename it the gigantic salad burger. It was still yummy though.

As you may know from my previous posts, I am rather a fan of pigeons. They remind me of London, home, and look funny when they do human things, like walking through the zoo, popping off a tube train...er eating cigarette butts. There were a few in the churchyard that we ate our lunch in, also dining along with us

Come on, you know you think they're cute really ;)

After lunch we pottered along the Thames path, past Tower Bridge (where I got OHSOEXCITED) and took a few photos. Want to see? Oh, ok then.

Me and the bf next to Tower Bridge.

As we walked along, we came across a giant anchor, marvelled over it and then posed next to it. As you do.

Ooh an 'arty' shot ;)

Looking like something from a horror film here, hah.

After the excitement of Tower Bridge and the giant anchor, we went to the design museum, where we saw the 'designs of the year' exhibition, which comprised of things like a crate chair, a packaway living room chair made for those who have to move home at short notice, the new design for the interior of  emergency ambulances (which enables 360 degree access to the patient- would've thought they'd done that ages ago! It's also very clean looking) and an inflatible helmet. Kate's wedding dress was also up for the accolade (though we only got to see a bit of the material used). Photos were strictly prohibited though, so you'll have to make do with my poor descriptions-sorry!

They also had an exhibition on about Terence Conran, who was a designer, eductor, all round bloomin amazing man. In fact, he founded the now almost defunct Habitat, the ever trendy (but expensive) homeware store. I don't think enough was made of it's history when the media reported that it had gone into administration like they did with Woolworths.

We were allowed to take photos here though, so I'll stop waffling and show you some pics:

Habitat items in from the 60s. Loving the cactus.

Old habitat catalogues.

Conran wanted to make simple designs that perhaps wouldn't win any prizes but wouldn't go out of fashion either. I think he succeeded in that one- look at his stylishly simple teapots:

Still 'in fashion' now, no?

I feel a lot more 'sympathetic' towards Habitat's state now than I did before. We have one at the end of our road (one of the last 3 left) and I've bought a few things from there, but mainly consider it to be too expensive. Nice to know its history, though sadly I don't think it can compete with the giant IKEA who have taken over the market for home goods.

Anyway, I have waffled on too much and thank you if you have read this far. I will be your tour guide around London if you ever come! ;) I like showing the love for my hometown.

I will be around here more often over the next few weeks as I have some time off of work. YAY :)