My new best friends in London are the bakers at the Pavilion bread shop in Hackney and the Sainsbury mini store on Mare Street. First of all the bread, here’s what it looks like. Now we are talking pricey bread here but it really is worth it.

£3-50 for a loaf of bread?

They do coffee too and if the bread’s anything to go by then that will be good too. There are also a range of eyewateringly priced cakes that make the bread seem cheap by comparison. I’ve yet to try them, I’ll need a win on the horses before I can afford them. You can find them on Broadway Market. Take a look at them ever though their website is still in the oven being baked…The cafe bit where they do the baking is here

Seek it out and try it for yourself.

I was there to help look after my twin grandchildren, and have persuaded my daughter to write about it on her own blog. Take a look sometime, it’s worth reading. She’s a witty one! daughterblog  She manages to keep her sense of humour despite spending many hours awake and very few asleep.

Take a look at this too, this is close to her place and is an area that many years ago was just falling to bits. The street was populated by artists and these days it’s coming up in the world, but it seems to have kept it’s character.That’s a busy overground railway on the bridge. The area buzzes with life and activity.

One place that really is never quiet is the little Sainsbury store on Mare Street. It stocks the usual stuff that Sainsbury’s do, but the difference is the staff. They make you feel like an old friend and nothing seems to dull their day. Always smiling and helpful. Give them a big star, they must be the friendliest mini store I’ve ever been into. I don’t often give a link to a corporate being but in this case the Mare Street Store deserve recognition, they show how a shop should run. #Sainsbury Find them here

Back to drawings for the next blog and please don’t call them sketches, it’s like talking to a Chinese athlete and calling table tennis ping pong. Just not done.

Thanks for listening.