Canada Day & Concerts

July 1st brought about some good old Canadian celebrating for Canada Day. The day began with a lovely Saturday morning breakfast with Tori and Jin at The Terrace Restaurant by Megan's in Clapham Common. It is an adorable little Mediterranean terrace in the park. Upon arriving, you walk through a magical archway of plants and fairy lights. It is decorated with olive trees, potted plants, and wicker decor. Tori and I shared Shakshuka and the most delicious pancakes.

After breakfast, we got ready for our park day. Our whole Canadian group headed to Regent's Park for the afternoon. We combined our group with Luzey's Birthday and we had a few friends bring their boyfriends to be met for the first time. It was fun having a different mix of people, it was really random but it worked; everyone got along really well. We had some drinks (I drank a Caesar of course) and Jell-O shots and snacks. We played beer darts, sociables, had three legged and wheelbarrow races and had lots of good conversations. We even sang Oh Canada. It was a great afternoon. After some people left to attend the rest of Luzey's Birthday shenanigans and others went off to Pride events, our core group headed to Nando's for dinner. We had a lovely group dinner and then hung out at Wetherspoons chatting until it closed. 

Kristina and I went to the George & Vulture for one last Sunday roast and said our goodbyes for now. I think this is on the list for one of my top pubs in London. The roast was really good, though not the best I've ever had but the vibes are so good and they have all of the dogs. Also, I will never get over how good their 2-4-1 pizza is on Monday's. 

Ireland stayed with me for a few nights before heading back to Canada. We went for a lovely dinner at The Real Greek. I had a chicken souvlaki wrap, we shared some Greek salad and I ended with some delicious baklava. Everything was so delicious, though I still believe Opa is better!

Tara and I went for drinks one last time at the Faltering Fullback - which is 100% on my top pubs in London list. It is the coolest pub I've ever been too and I feel very comfortable there. After a few drinks, we went to a restaurant/bar called Someday for half priced tacos for taco Tuesday. It cost £5 for three delicious tacos. It was a great evening.

For Ireland's last night in London, we headed to Tufnell Park where we ate dinner at the Bull & Gate. It had a traditional pub vibe in the front and a cute dining room in the back. We had some mac and cheese and fries. I also had one of the most delicious espresso martinis I have ever tasted! After dinner, we walked over to the O2 Forum Kentish Town for a concert. When we were lining up to go inside, we saw Sam Palladio from the show Nashville (I used to be obsessed with it), we were a few feet away from him and working up the nerve to say 'Hi' when he went backstage. We went inside and found somewhere to stand in the upper balcony. It is a really cool venue, very intimate with a capacity of 2300. Sam Palladio came on with his band. He was pretty decent and I was super excited when he played the song 'Fade into You' from the show. A little while later Maren Morris came on! I was supposed to see her at the Saddledome before Covid and I was really excited to see her at such a small venue. She was fantastic! It surprised me how short she it (5 ft 1) but her voice is so powerful. I really enjoyed watching her, she is a great performer. She chatted to the audience like we were all best friends, she was funny and engaging and she looked like she was having the best time of her life. She even brought her husband Ryan Hurd (who's music I really like too) on stage for a bit. Ireland and I got our picture taken with Sam Palladio after the show; it was a really fun night!

Jin and I went to Shakespeare's Globe to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is by far my favourite Shakespeare play. We got £10 standing tickets so though our legs were tired by the end, we had a fantastic, close up view. It was such a fun play to watch, the acting was phenomenal and very entertaining! I love the way the actors played on the audience and got them involved, it was so funny! The theatre is also stunning, and it was a beautiful, warm night. Such an enjoyable evening of fun in the open air theatre. 

I recently learned something at work recently that I thought was really interesting. We were learning about shapes in Maths and I was talking to my co-worker and said something about a trapezoid. She said "A what?!" So we ended up learning that Americans and Canadians called that shape a trapezoid and British people call it a trapezium. I thought that was really cool, especially considering I nearly taught all of the Year 3's the wrong name for the shape.