Comedy, Camden and a Limo

Saturday, 7 February

Travelling back to just after the days of extreme cold, we went to the 99 Club in Leicester Square. The 99 Club is a comedy club and we managed to pick up cheap tickets from lastminute.com. Laughs aplenty were had, although don't ask me to recall who we actually saw comedian wise - all we remember was that we had fun and relished the opportunity to laugh away the winter blues. One moment of hilarity was seeing a woman being told off and duly made fun of for talking through a performance (I think she had consumed most of the bar). By the time we got to the third comic she was escorted off the premises and it was made very clear she wasn't welcome back. It's fine to heckle - just don't talk! We spotted her outside after the show was over and she was still moaning about losing her cellphone - maybe she drank it? Silly lady.

The following day we went to the Camden markets. I think I preferred these to the Portobello markets we had visited a week previously. With over 1000 stalls and shops spread out over multiple locations there was much to see and a pulsing, vibrant atmosphere pervaded.

Highlights included exploring the rabbit warren that were the stable markets, finding two old Doctor Who magazines from 1980 that I was missing, marvelling at a Doctor Who TARDIS tiny beer fridge, seeing the extensive range of food stalls from a billion different countries, sampling a chocolate filled doughnut (which wasn't that nice to be honest), eating yumo Cambodian food and doing a little bartering for a belt which we couldn't get in the size we wanted. Camden sits across a lock which adds a lot to the overall feel and there is a multitude of pubs as well as places to get pierced or tattoed. It is also very popular with trendies, hipsters and goth types so a brilliant place for people watching and working out what the new fashions are going to be. I was told that when the lock was being constructed, there were four pubs built - one for each of the nationalities doing the construction work (English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish) and you only drank from 'your' pub - a big change to the mash of cultures it is today.

As it gets really busy in Camden during the weekends, the main tube station becomes 'one way' for certain times of the day and only allows people to get off and not get on. This means when you have had enough and are ready to leave, you need to walk 10 minutes up the road to another tube station or take a bus.

The throng


Looking down Camden High Street


Looking up


The Camden Market

One of many market areas

After an afternoon of market fun, we decided to head back home and took the bus to facilitate our movement. Paddington really has the transport thing going for it - the number of times we have been able to get a bus back home with very little fuss is simply fantastic and makes life a lot easier. While slower than the tube it does let you get a lie of the land and it's cheaper too.

A couple of days later, we spied this outside our window:


We seem to get a lot of limos stopping opposite us as there is a large parking space for them. We are pretty certain a limo driver lives a few houses down and the changing of the guard seems to occur. Despite a worldwide recession, there are definitely still people who have money to throw around! We've seen about five different limos over the past three months.

Edit: I should say that we have seen five different limos outside our place...there are plenty more cruising the streets of London. There are quite a few Hum-vee limos too - the ultimate in gas guzzling excess (so manly too, especially when they are bright pink).

Next post: We get freaky with wax and visit Madame Tussauds!