Happy monday bloggers, I hope you all had a lovely weekend :) I'm back in work after a whole two weeks of being away (sickness, and then holiday), and it feels a bit strange. I seem to have forgotten where everything is, and I just can't get back into the swing of things.

I had some holiday to use up before the end of the year, so I took three days off this week, as did my best friend, and we thought we'd do lots of things around London. It's funny, I've lived in greater London all my life, but it wasn't really until I went to uni 5/6 years ago that I really started exploring the city.

On Wednesday, we went to Windsor. There were a surprising number of ducks, geese and swans in the river - I don't know why, but I thought there'd be much fewer - don't geese and swans migrate? We took a stroll down the river and did some shopping. Windsor has an open air ice rink, and feeling adventurous, we took a skate. Froze our bums off, but it was fun :)

We thought we'd take in some history on Thursday, and visited the British museum. We spent a good four hours wondering about in there, barely even covering half of it. I was especially intrigued by the artifacts from Asia. Last time I was there, I was a bit too young to appreciate them. I was surprised to see that religious symbols/idols from India, China, Thailand, Indonesia and other south east asian countries are so similar, despite being from different religions.

When our feet started to ache, we went for a 3-course dinner at Auberge. I had calamars - squid in tomato, garlic and black olive sauce for starter, then moules Thailandaise (mussels in coconut, lemon grass and thai curry spices) for a main. Should have known better than to order a Thai-style dish in a French restaurant, really - it was too heavily spiced with lemongrass, and hence, a bit bitter. Dessert though - Mmm.. We ordered profiteroles in a dark chocolate sauce and creme brulee with amaretto to share between us, and though I was so full I almost couldn't manage it, it was fabulous!

We got up early on Friday morning to go to the Petticoat Lane markets. I guess the market stall holders wanted a lie in, because at 12 in the afternoon, they still hadn't all set up! Still, we got some pretty pashminas from there. Then we trundled down the road to the new and old Spitalfields markets, which was heaving with delightful little stalls full of quaint and quirky things. I bought lots of pretty earrings, and even some christmas presents. They have some fantastic food stalls there (a bit like the famous Borough Market, although not as busy) and we had a lovely inexpensive Thai lunch (yes, Thai again :p), and found a stall that does the BEST chocolate brownies in London - yum!

As the day was still relatively young, we hopped on the tube to Camden Town, and more markets. I wanted to buy a hat, and tried on several, but they all made my little head look huge (why is that?). I got some more christmas pressies here, but can't say what they are yet :P.

I was so exhausted after those three days that I slept 12 hours on Friday night, and spent all of Saturday vegging and recuperating. A girl needs her rest, y'know. A good thing I did, because last night, we went to see Joe in the Brixton Academy, standing for a good 5 or 6 hours. It was worth it though, he was amazing, even though he only played for less than an hour. The girls were going c-ra-zy! I got home rather late last night, and so a bit tired today.

All in all, it's been a fantastic few days, and I have enjoyed it. I love that you're never short of things to do in London. So that was my weekend. How was yours?

*BTW, I have pics, but I shall add them to this post later this evening!*