Our birthdays are six days apart, which in effect means about three weeks of continuous sociableness and fun. We thought we’d share with you a little snippet, though, of each birthday – the bits that you might like to do for yourselves (rather than have a barbecue/camping/mini-festival with my friends, which you might enjoy less than I did, for example [oi, stay on topic – this week is my birthday]).
First, it was his birthday [better]. Given our (his) [definitely our] slightly geeky propensity for transport, I booked a canal boat trip along the Regent’s Canal, from Little Venice to Camden Lock. Simply called Jason’s (both the boat and the enterprise), it trundled up the river while the owner gave us a fascinating historical commentary.
We passed lovely boats, old factories, beautiful houses, and ended up at the love-it-or-hate-it Camden Lock.
However, that day we had other plans, and headed over to the Southbank Centre for their Festival of Love. I went last year and remembered it to be fantastic, but this year I was less than impressed. There was one exhibit we really liked, though – music hand-drawn by robot pen, based on what’s being talked about on the internet at that moment. Or something.
These huge flowers, too, reacted to your heartbeat, which you could see by light pulsing up and down the stems.
What we then moved on to was something of a secret. Not featured on any nearby signage, and spread by word of mouth… It’s called Cahoots, and it’s a new retro bar in Kingly Court (shh!) Underground station [not actually a real underground station though, but a detailed reconstruction]. Once you arrive you are ushered downstairs after answering the secretive questions at the door…
Cocktails are on the expensive side but it’s worth going for the overall experience, which is almost completely immersive (it’s that fondness for retro transport again). Book months in advance, though, as it’s pretty popular – guess their secret’s getting out…
Stay tuned to find out what happened for the next set of birthday celebrations!