Frans and Sarah take London: Weekend fun in the sun

The sun came out and London went crazy this last weekend. Up until now we have had some really sunny days and the lovely light late evenings have been amazing, particularly for my post-work morale, but this weekend it got HOT. Well, not hot by South African summer standards, but hot enough for everyone to scuttle outside and try and catch some rays. And that included us of course!

On Friday after school, I was whisked off to Soho square for drinks in the park with school friends. At first, I thought it was an odd choice of place to go because it is a tiny little grassy square right in the center of London, and there are some perfectly good parks here in the west that we could have visited. However, I trusted the judgement of Sophie and Lisa-Joy and I'm so glad I did. The park was buzzing with loads of people just having a casual drink on the grass. A neighbouring couple gave us half a bottle of prosecco that they weren't going to finish and a friendly Hare-Krishna representative gave us a pamphlet and sang us a song!

Soph and L-J are just two of the awesome people who have desks in the workroom I am based in at school. We don't have our own classrooms, but rather all teachers are based at desks and give their lessons in different venues depending on the timetable. Our workroom is super fun and we have a really good time. There's Elyse and Sofija who are Chemistry teachers, Sophie teaches Geography and Lisa-Joy is the head of English. Will teaches IT, Economics and does some other career guidance things too I think. Daniel Podibinski is a physics teacher and is mostly called Pods (although after the skiing accident he was known as Podabin-ski-accident, and because he had to use a crutch was sometimes called Poda-stick-ski). Ellie and Anna are part-time teachers and so, although they aren't in often, it's always nice to see them. There's also Pete and Ian who grudgingly put up with the antics in the workroom (but secretly love the fun). I'm so grateful to be able to hang out with such super people at work, and after work a lot of the time. It does make the day much more fun!

On Saturday after Parkrun in Gunnersbury Park, Frans and I headed off to Richmond Park to meet up with Kyle and Kelly for a picnic. We were running a little late and not a hundred percent sure where we were going so it took us ages to get there. Then we realised there wasn't anywhere nearby to buy picnic food (and, due to bad planning, we hadn't already bought any) so we had to walk miles to find a little Tesco and buy some snacks. Once we finally met up with Kyle and Kelly we had a lovely relaxing picnic near to the Isabella Plantation gardens. They were filled with beautiful flowers and lovely little streams. After that, when we had had our fill of the sights inside the Park, we took the scenic route back to the station walking through Richmond town center. Richmond is beautiful, I was amazed at the spectacular views over the Thames and the masses and masses of green space.

The warm weather has waned somewhat and we've had a few wet days this week, but it stays light late and we can keep the windows and doors open well into the evening. This afternoon it was raining hard but it cleared up beautifully at about 8pm - so off I went for a run in the park. It feels like there is so much more time in the day when it's lighter for longer. Oh no! I really am living in the UK, all my chatter is revolving around the weather! I'll leave it at that for now. Below are some pics of the weekend, enjoy!