Puddles and Pandas, Day 6

I woke up this morning at seven am to see Ava hovering outside my bedroom door. When she realized I was awake, both her and little Maude and their entire stuffed animal collection moved into my bedroom for the next little while. After about a half hour of playing around (Maude quite fancies my jewellery basket and crystal ladybug) the girls brushed their teeth and Ava put on her school uniform (she looks absolutely wonderful).



We were all not impressed to see it pouring with rain as we ate our breakfast, and I was rather disappointed about not being able to go downtown. However, customary to English weather, it was sunny by the time Ava left for school. I decided to risk the weather and head out on my adventure (I’m beginning to realize that you never know what it’s going to be like outside because it changes so drastically in mere minutes, though puddles are guaranteed wherever you go). First I headed to Covent Garden which proved itself yet again to be my favourite place in London. I found it quite liberating to walk wherever I wanted, without any clue about where I was going or going to end up. I found the square I had been to in grade 11, where I took a photo of a street performer and the crowd flooding around him after his act. Though the performer wasn’t there, his unicycle was! It felt kind of weird to stand in the same place I had two years ago, and see that the street performer was still doing acts in the same place.


Little had I known back then that I’d be travelling the streets of London alone, returning back to one of my favourite places without any of my family.
I did get lost but (very surprisingly) I wasn’t anxious about it. I know it sounds cheesy, but I really was just too caught up in the beauty of the cobble stone streets, the double decker buses and all of the photos I was taking to worry.

After finding my way to the Underground, I had to look at the tube map (probably the most confusing thing of LIFE for someone like me who has absolutely no sense of direction) and figure out how to get to Oxford Circus. It was actually a piece of cake, and I was there in less than ten minutes. The first thing I did when I came up onto the street was gasp (I’m really not joking) at the massive TopShop across from me, shining in all its amazingness. Let me first say that I have never seen anything like Oxford Street before. It looked even bigger than I remember it being two years ago and it was SO busy. Samantha told me I was crazy to go on a Saturday and now I understand why. It was a MONDAY and there were tons of people everywhere. TopShop alone was too much for me to handle. I get easily overwhelmed and excited in big clothing stores, and this one was HUGE. Everywhere I turned there was just SO MANY amazing clothes, shoes, bags, wallets gloves, hats. It would definitely take more than two hours to see everything it’s just so huge; I mean they even had a beauty salon and a restaurant IN THE STORE. All I was thinking about was Olivia accompanying me in December for the biggest shopping trip of our lives.
The fashion here is amazing and really unique. I guess people have the time to spend hours upon hours in TopShop!

I’m getting so many e-mails from people saying they’ve been reading my blog so THANKS! I think it’s a great way to keep in touch with everyone and I hope you’re enjoying reading it!!

xxxxooooooxxx

PS. Just a random side note for no one in particular- British people seem to be obsessed with Pandas. They are everywhere I go-in the form of plush toys, plastered on sweaters and shirts, on the front of book covers and liquorice packages, on children’s television shows …it’s quite ridiculous.