So, The Max and I went out exploring today. We’ve pretty much covered Portobello Road from where we live down to Notting Hill Gate (it’s so close that it’s just lovely — you can get almost anything there). Today we went along Golborne Road and over to Meanwhile Gardens, a nice little park / community garden alongside a canal. There’s even a drop in Play Hut for kids, but sadly, it isn’t open until 2 PM, which we didn’t know until we got there. Still, we enjoyed tramping around the gardens, feeding some handy ducks and geese, and generally exploring. Max especially loves stomping over bridges.

There were a number of great shops and restaurants along the way too. I’m going to start keeping track of stuff I find here so I can remember it (it might be a bit tedious for readers, but hey, it’s my blog and it’s for me too!)

London Street Art circa our 2006 trip

We stopped first at Graffik at 284 Portobello Road because there were some crazy ugly slightly evil looking little robot-y things in the window that Max wanted to get a closer look at (and I’ll take any excuse I can to get him into a shop since a lot of the time he doesn’t want to have anything to do with them). Very cool art and t-shirts. I wound up buying 4 coasters, mostly with Banksy art on them. If you hadn’t heard of him before, Banksy is a British street artist. On one of our earlier trips to London, before I had ever heard of him, I had actually taken some pictures of his street art. Cool stuff. Or, at least, I *think* it’s one of his or at least influenced by him or whatever.

Anyway, I thought it was cool. The shop was cool too and now I have four cool coasters. So there.

Can I use “cool” in a sentence one more time? Let’s see…

We also found an excellent fishmonger, which is good since the next closest one is down by Notting Hill Gate station and is a bit far away. But Goldborne Fisheries (why they add a “d” in their name when they’re on Golborne Rd is beyond me) is really just around the corner from us and totally awesome. They had everything. Even The Max was fascinated by the octopus and squid and whatnot. So now we know where we’re getting our fish from.

And lastly (okay, see, I lied, I’m not going to go into every single shop that we stopped at…just the ones that really strike my fancy), I found a shop called From Somewhere which I am now officially in love with. They upcycle. Meaning they take discards from the fashion industry and then turn them into really cool (look, I used it again) clothes. I found a dress that I want to get (oh heck, I found tons of stuff I’d love to get if my body cooperated…eh, not to mention my pocketbook). The people were lovely too and even The Max didn’t want to leave. Which was strange. Women’s clothing shops not generally being his favorite. I didn’t have enough cash on me and they couldn’t take our visa (we have a “swipe” card which is US-style, not the chip embedded ones they use here), so we’ll have to go back tomorrow or Thursday to get it. Sigh.

We also stopped by the Kensal Green branch of the library. It was small, but nice. I got a couple of DVDs for The Max and one for me (Scott Pilgrim, which I’ve been wanting to see for some time) and a book for me — The Bride’s Farewell by Meg Rosoff. I wasn’t planning on getting a book, but I picked it up and read a few pages and then…well, you know the drill. Had to get it then. I’ve read Meg Rosoff before and she’s got a lovely way of hooking you in and dragging you along for the ride. Will let you know how it is. I also need to stop by a bookshop soon and get Kaz Mahoney’s The Iron Witch (she lives over on this side of the pond).

One of the great things about the new flat is that it has tons of bookshelves which, right now, are tragically empty. All of my books are in Chicago. *sob*

Hopefully I’ll be able to take pictures soon as our camera has been officially repaired (got the email yesterday from Samsung). Of course, now it has to be mailed to my sister’s house and then she has to mail it to me, so it will still be a while.

Oh, and did I mention I talked to Larry, my agent, today? He’s got my Cat Girl book out on submission. Hopefully there will be news on that soon. Fingers crossed!