Southbank by Night and Snogging on the Tube

Sunday afternoon, fit to burst after a roast dinner (chicken roasted with garlic and lemon, with asparagus, honey & mustard drizzled carrots and some nice greens), and contemplating the evening before.

No'rn I'ron and I decided to head to the Southbank for a meal and a trip on the London Eye. Touristy yes, but I think it's important to indulge in these things even when you live in a place - just for the sense of having done it, and to give you an excuse to get out of touristy stuff when you have people visit. Also as a photographer, the opportunity to take aerial shots of the city at night was too tempting.

We ate at Ping Pong in the Southbank Centre, I'd recommend if you like Dim Sum and fine cocktails. It bills itself as a "21st Century Teahouse" so naturally I was excited, but ironically, after enjoying a couple of cocktails (I'd suggest the Melon & Sage Martini; and the Ginger & Limoncello Caipirinha), the warm drink of choice on the blustery Southbank was Sake rather than the exquisite flowering teas they do there. It gives me an excuse to go back again to sample the teas.

Satisfied, we went to investigate the London Eye. Full of stories about the horrific queues, we expected the worst but actually it seems going at 9pm pays off - paying the pretty steep fee of £17.50, we headed straight towards the boarding gate. The structure itself is really impressive. The Eye is a landmark you can see from so many vantage points in London, but when you're underneath it next to the Thames, you realise how incredible it is.

No'rn I'ron is famed for her hatred of small children, so I feared the worst as we got herded with a bunch of tourist strangers into one of the futuristic pods, in case she went postal and drop kicked a tot from hundreds of feet above the Thames; but we escaped with a couple of older kids in our party. She looked tetchy but I reminded her,

"You can reason with the older ones. That, or it's more acceptable to smack them. Can't bribe babies right?"

This seemed to placate her and we began to ascend slowly over the twinkling, bustling Southbank. The view of Westminster, Millenium Bridge and the surrounding city truly is astounding. We kept grinning at each other and squealing quietly, "we live here!"

The Eye as an experience is really enjoyable. I was worried that being in such close proximity with random strangers could be claustrophobic and ruin the experience, but it was fine to walk around and stretch myself into funny positions for shooting, or lean in certain places to steady my camera for the necessary long shutter speed shots.

One thing that did mildly mar the experience was couples. I don't mean to be anti-love or anything, and it certainly is an incredibly romantic thing to look over this iconic skyline at night with your loved one (FYI, anyone who fancies taking me on a date would gain major brownie points for booking a private pod) - BUT - I do not need to see or hear you sucking each others' faces off. (This also goes for the Tube - who thinks snogging when you're literally inches from other people on the Central Line is acceptable?!)

Sorry, single rant over, and back to the London Eye. It has to be one of my favourite London experiences so far, just because cities lit up against nuclear skies look so magical, and the skyline of London has to be one of the best. We hopped off after the half hour and took shots of County Hall along the Southbank, and the Dali sculptures then went to Las Iguanas to pay over the odds to rude barmen for Prosecco.

Here, the mystical nature of the night was brought back down to earth by the festival hall steps, as Essex boys hollering at each other echoed through the evening, and my personal favourite, a girl in trackies with a pitbull, clutching a bottle of wine.

Gotta love London.

PS

Whilst I've been sat here writing this blog, No'rn I'ron caught site of one of our resident mice from where they scamper out from under the sink. (I've christened one of them InDanger Mouse, if I ever catch the little blighter.) I'd told her about how bold they were getting, coming out during the day when were padding about. Now she could see it for herself. I normally watch them quietly with fascination, whereas No'rn I'ron yelled "FECK OFF!" and watched the mouse inevitably squeeze itself into the gap from whence it came.

She turns to me. "They might be getting bold but they understand 'Feck off!'"