Eggs aplenty

“LOUISE?” Shouted the girl behind me, making everyone in the DLR carriage look at her. “I KNOW I’M LATE. I LEFT HOME AT TEN PASSED NINE FOR A MEETING AT TEN. YES, I’VE BEEN TRAVELLING FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF. I’M NEARLY THERE.”

Overhearing other people’s phone calls is bad enough but when they are yelling it’s just plain rude. When everyone in the carriage looked at her, the girl looked annoyed that we were all eavesdropping. Well, she was plain wrong. We all wanted to know what the emergency was.

Her voice had a sort of desperate urgency in it (clearly because she was frustrated by her journey so far) and, coupled with the excessive volume, this only prompted everyone within hearing distance (about 5 miles) to turn and make sure the danger was minimal.

The reason I was on the DLR was because the good old Jubilee line was a mess again. Problems at both ends meant everything in the middle was delayed if running at all. Fortunately I heard an announcement at Waterloo so knew not to head to Canary Wharf via the Tube.

The reason I was in town was because it’s a Wednesday and lunch with Mirinda was beckoning. Actually, this week was going to be spent at home but some secret work meant she had to remain in town last night so I popped up to give her a break.

But before lunch, I wandered up to Covent Garden to see all the Fabergé Eggs. They have finished their stint, hidden around London and have all congregated around the market in a wonderful display of eccentricity. And I wasn’t alone! Lots of people were out, snapping away or just wandering between them, gazing with a mixture of confusion and bewilderment.

Say cheese, please, Mr Egg.

I noticed a few that I’d already spotted over the last month or so but also some quite funky new ones (for me). I quite liked this one, which seems to be a bit wildlife friendly.

I think this would look nice in our garden

There was even an Australian looking one.

Platypus fighting

But most of all, I loved the serried rows of eggs. It would all have looked fantastic from overhead but, sadly, the only height I could get was the two inch concrete step around the market. Here’s, probably, my best group shot.

Ranks of pre-scrambled artworks

Anyway, having gorged myself on as many eggs as I could, I hopped on a Tube to Bank where I switched to the DLR and was privy to the very loud conversation related earlier.

After Mirinda finished drafting a top secret document, we wandered over to South Quay and had a lovely lunch in the oddly named Pepper Saint Ontiod. Apart from the very warm welcome and the delicious food, they also serve an excellent beer. I had the Wild Mule from the Roosters Brewery. It’s a small brewery which opened in 1993 and, if the Wild Mule is anything to go by, they are delivering one hell of a beer. if you’d like to know more about them, they have a website with their history here. Very highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a good ale.

After lunch we meandered back to the flat where I left Mirinda to a phone meeting with her boss before heading down to the ferry back to Waterloo.

The Waterloo ferry stop is at the London Eye and, because the kids aren’t currently at school over here it was absolutely teeming with family groups, teenage groups and tourists. I grant you that it was a lovely day to see London from the top of the big wheel but the queue was horrendous. I’m not sure if the view would quite make up for the length of the wait to see it.

A highlight I did spot was the discovery that the London Eye people have put up a whole load of eggs of their own. They sit on little plinths with coloured stickers, giving people (mostly kids I assume) the opportunity to express their own artistic endeavours by sticking them all over the eggs. It’s a cute idea and well in tune with the whole Easter egg theme.

A dotty egg