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London, United Kingdom

Having just met Catia and Adrian the day before, it was my great pleasure to be able to spend the following day in their company as well. Today’s group excursion (and excuse for Pete to drive) was a trip to the Columbia Street Flower Markets in East London.

Pete parked perfectly nearby and we moseyed up to the markets. On any other day of the week, Columbia Street is just a funky little street lined with cool craft shops and vintage homewares but on Sundays, it bursts into life with bloomin’ bargains from tip to tail and on a beautiful day like today, it doesn’t get much better… or more crowded.

Vic and Catia were women on a mission making plant carriers of we remaining three. In fairness, they made quick work of it and there are far worse ways to spend your Sunday afternoon than frolicking amongst the flowers. If you’re thinking you’d rather be in a pub, then you’re only one step ahead of us. We dumped the flowers in the car and headed back to The Royal Oak which was teaming with Hoxton Hipsters including Trixie Geldoff and her model friend. Given the effort of the night before, we only stayed for one before moving on to matters of more substance.

We piled back into the car which now looked more like a mobile jungle in which we were hiding and made tracks for nearby Brick Lane. Pete pulled over and a small contingency were sent running to the 24 hour Beigel place to liberate hangover-absorbing salt beef bagels and one heavily mustarded egg bagel which sustained us all for the trip back south. We stopped briefly in Brixton only to ascertain that everyone in Brixton Village had already shut up shop.

The decision was made to round out the weekend with a casual and impromptu pizza and movie night back at Adrian and Catia’s whose warm and easy hospitality made me feel completely at home amongst old friends and new.

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