Is actually an incredibly lovely bridge, spanning the Thames, inland from Waterloo. The views are pretty spectacular, and it's a train only bridge, meaning no ducking and weaving amongst cars and buses.



It also leads to an interesting short cut through Charing Cross station so you can avoid all the tourist pedestrian traffic on the Stand, which I suspect is one of those secret things only Londoners know.



But one of the best things about it I've recently discovered is that there is a Quizno's underneath the bridge on the northern side of the river, a lunch spot from the states that I've sorely missed. It's dreadfully expensive and I'm actually thankful for that, or else I'd spend nearly every nice day noshing my fresh sandwich standing in the sun on Hungerford Bridge, soaking up the view.

Just some more lovely fall photos from Regent's Park. This park and Hyde Park are the two closest to my new flat, and I do love that, even though sometimes I find them too large to manage and end up getting lost walking around. In SE1 there were no large royal parks that I could walk to in a few minutes, so I didn't spend much time in parks until now. Before this, I would spend warm afternoons dozing in the Bernie Spain Gardens, which are cute but don't have quite the same effect. Regent's is so big it contains the London Zoo!

No one loves Christmas more than I, and I'm slowly coming around to the fact that it comes earlier every year. Why, I've already been blindsided by the Marks & Sparks window displays (which my flat window looks out on) and their interesting product placement of mince pies next to the Halloween candy. I get that in probably less than 10 years, Christmas shopping will be a year round thing, where we are encouraged constantly to "buy spend buy spend buy spend!!!" I'm fine with it, I really am.

But last night it was all ruined for me, the moment when Christmas in the UK becomes unbearable. I saw my first Kerry Katona Iceland Christmas party advert. I'm shuddering just thinking about it.

I don't know how to explain, but there is something about these ads that drive me mental. If you're not from the UK then you don't know who she is (she's one of 'those' celebrities: famous for being in a band where she didn't sing, famous for a marriage that didn't work, now just tabloid fodder, etc). Her voice and personality are so grating. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I can't find an example of the Christmas commercial on the web for all of you non-Brits. But I did locate a regular non-Christmas one just so you can get the gist of what I'm complaining about. Iceland is a crap grocery store, but I actually think they can do much better than her.



See what I mean?