It was a good plan. 'A' and I drive down to London early Sunday morning, collect H and then take her Christmas shopping. H and I both really wanted to visit Greenwich Market and A was happy to accommodate us. I've never been before but it sounds amazing. They sell art and craft and vintage and it's meant to be fun with a cool kind of hippy vibe, stopping off first in Camden as H had seen a lovely hand made leather belt she wanted to get.


We drove down through thick fog which cleared to reveal bright blue sky....good start. Picked up H, bright and breezy and looking gorgeous as ever, like a princess from a Russian Fairytale with her big blue eyes enhanced by her grey Russian hat. Fun catching up on the drive into town when suddenly there was a strange smell of candles burning in the car!! Then we spotted smoke coming from the bonnet!! Fortunately we've done enough travelling by car, not to be phased. The belt had gone so driving anywhere else was out of the question. 'A' just about managed to park the car....the steering had gone...and then we set off for the tube to Camden.


It was a fun day and great to see H. We managed to get lots of presents but going on to Greenwich was a bit out of the question. I think we'll have to leave that for another day. The positive thing is that we broke down in a really nice part of London, South Kensington just outside the Ralph Lauren shop, so it was no great chore to wait there till the recovery guy took us back to Oxford. We did lots of evening window shopping and went for tea and cakes.....and then made friends with the nice mechanic who told us all about his camper van project whilst we drove back to Oxford in his pick-up and then came in for more tea and cakes with us before heading off back to London. An eventful day.