Team Puzzling

[crystalcazzie]

Hello, and welcome to the second of my catch-up posts about things I've been doing recently.  If I were writing these entries in chronological order this one should be about my Festive Weekend with Paul.  But that's going to be a much longer entry, so instead I'm going to skip over that weekend and go straight to last Sunday when I went up to London for a teams puzzle event!

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I have no idea if this little guy has always been in the Costa at Hastings station, but this was the first time I noticed him!  So cute!

I got the train up to London Bridge, then back down to Lewisham, then braved a rail replacement bus with a driver who didn't seem to know where he was going.  But I made it to the board game cafe where Catherine and Ved were waiting.  The competition was online so we could have done it anywhere, but London made sense and a midway point for me and Catherine.  And the cafe had more space than Ved's flat.  It was a bit dark, but they gave us a lamp to help!

Long Island Iced Tea! Very good for jigsaw puzzling!   

We did some small puzzles to warm up, then it was time for the main event:

Oooh, what could it be?

I thought it might be a Cherry Pazzi cos they seem to often come up.  But no...

It was Match Box Design by Happily!  I did most of the writing parts and really enjoyed them.  I also did a few of the pictures too and felt good about the fact that I actually helped and wasn't a weak link this time!  

We stayed in the cafe and chatted for a while afterwards, which was lovely.  I had hoped this would be the case and had booked a hotel to stay in cos I didn't want to have to rush off immediately.  

Ved and I got the same bus cos it went past her flat and then continued on to the station that I needed to get the underground to London Bridge. I stayed in the London Bridge area for two reasons.  One, close to the station I needed.  Two, nearby Christmas market!

So pretty!

Tree!

I walked along the Winter by the River Christmas Market and looked at the stalls and the sights of London:

I got a hot honey mac & cheese from one of the stalls, then returned to the galleria to have a mulled wine in Hays on the River:

My hotel was very near the Shard and I could see it from my room, but trying to take pictures of it through glass kept failing.

So have one taken from outside!  

I wanted to find a cosy pub to have a final drink in.

This one had a lovely outdoor area, but the inside was a bit confusing and I allowed my anxiety to get the best of me.  I continued walking and came across an independent pub.

It wasn't exactly cosy, but it did have a Christmas tree!

The next morning I had a Tiramisu Latte beside the Golden Hinde.

I hung around long enough for Borough Market to open and had a look in there too.

It was all a bit overwhelming!  I wanted to bring something back but I avoided anything chilled cos I knew I would be in a heated station and train for the next two hours.  I ended up buying a couple of chestnut and bacon sausage rolls.  Amazingly they were still warm when I got home!