Ride the Santa Borough

No sooner had I dismounted my bike from dropping some paperwork off at AXA, than I find I have 2 missed calls from them! I rang back immediately to find out that I am included in this thursday night's xmas show. My first duty at this company is to have a free night out on the plonk! Okay, so it's also a great way to meet the people I'll be working with, but you get the jist...

Apparantly it can get better than last week's sunrise (as you can see above). Early morning English countryside, your thoughts and your music in your ears, and almost NO cars around - Brilliant!
This saturday I chose a different set of roads to ride, although whilst I spent some time on the A10, I left it long before it became a busy highway! Instead I headed up to Potters Bar, which is a smallish township where I'm told many cyclists gather before heading off into the surrounding countryside. During the week I picked up some extra gear to keep my feet and ears warm, and at 1-4C I was very happy to have it!!
A far more challenging ride with some of the hills both on the way to and beyond Potters Bar, and one to definately do again! At 6.30am, there weren't too many others around (in fact, I only saw 4). One of which rode with me for the 20mins I spent travelling north of Potters Bar. A fountain of information to do with the local area he was! The idea that by the end of February I'll be seeing deer and other wildlife in this area is quite appealling. We were both out early to avoid the day's rain, and this I did for the near 2hrs I spent out on the bike.

Borough Market
A little later, I joined Charity when we met Karen n Martin at London Bridge station in the pouring rain - yep, it was in full swing by 10am. Thankfully, nearly all of Borough Market is sheltered.
A fantastic market too. Very much like I recall the Adelaide Central Market, although I don't recall being able to get an osterich burger in Adelaide! And yes, we both tried one. Pretty good too, and not as gamey as Emu.
Every stall had samples to try, ranging from anchovy or garlic filled olives to chocolate brownies (which you can see in the pic of their stack - the bowl to the left contained the samples) to cheeses, chutneys, mustards n meats of all styles.
Unfortunately, the beer stall didn't allow any samples of their 650+ beer varieties on offer!! But I'll give them credit for having four of the Coopers range (Sparkles, Dark, Stout & Vintage).
While Karen n Martin proceeded to do some of their weekly shopping, we managed to try many of the samples on offer (including those two olive options), but just had to have one of the large fresh oysters sold by one stall (see pic). Nice stuff! Along with the previously mentioned osterich burger, we can highly recommend the coffee available as well as the banana cake. These were happily consumed while the salvation army band played (they were in another section of the market by the giant xmas tree).
This will be one place that we will definately be returning to - most likely after a payday!

Ho Ho Ho!
4.30pm and we again caught up with Karen n Martin, but this time with Row as well, and at Victoria station, not London Bridge. In the entrance to the station, we then changed out of our secret identities to become Santas! (right)

Once in full Santa outfits, we headed off to the Jugged Hare, where we became immersed in Santas. Santa Crawl 2007 was on!
Several hundred Santas, raising money for the Red Cross, then proceeded to enjoy ourselves as we went on a pub crawl throughout London. A great night out with all the variations of Santas, including a "Chopper Reed" Santa, a "Bah Humbug Black" Santa, some "sumo" (inflatable) Santas, as well as a few other sorts.
The numbers may not have been as many as the last one I did in Melbourne, but it was still very well attended as we basically filled each pub comfortably. And our 3 santa suits held up very well as they survived the night. Running into a mate from back in Melbourne was a surprise too, and after a brief chat continued with our respective groups.
Speaking of "our" group, we strayed briefly between the 3rd and 4th pub by dropping into a Pizza Express for some much needed food. Quite a sight for those already there as 5 Santas stroll in and take up a table...
Charity and myself also had our fair share of looks when we rode the tube home later on, still in full santa costume. A top night out all round really. Bring on 2008's!

Martin, Row, Charity & Karen