It seems the more we wander around Ealing & experience the neighborhood, the more we feel at home. You hear a mix of city sounds paired with country sounds that are surprisingly peaceful considering our previous home was about as quiet as it gets (with the exception of the yapping dog we had next door for a few years). We find ourselves sleeping through the night extremely well even with sirens or cars in the background....so is the way of city life I suppose :-)
Saturday we started our day at the Ealing Farmer's Market and were very impressed with the excellent options contained within the market which itself was not that large. We were like two kids in a candy shoppe while selecting which goat's cheese, bacon, lamb, fresh artisan bread & croissants, yogurt, honey, vegetables, fruit, etc that we wanted to try this time (all of the farmers present must grow & raise their own wares locally).
Next on our agenda was IKEA to find a bed, wardrobe, entertainment stand, etc. All went well there and we met a delivery guy in the store who delivered our stuff immediately while giving us a ride home in his truck...very smooth & hassle free. As we finished unloading our stuff we were greeted by one of our new neighbors, Simon, who was very friendly & invited us to a barbecue they planned to have in the communal garden Sunday afternoon. We were very excited by this as we knew it would give us an opportunity to meet most of our immediate neighbors, learn more about the area, and maybe make some new friends.
After Olly built our bed (with a Swiss Army knife as a screwdriver) and I did some cleaning/unpacking, we headed out for dinner as neither one of us was in the mood to cook. Being in the mood for pizza we found a place online, Santa Maria's, which had been voted Best Pizza in London just a few months after opening. We went there excitedly ready to try this pizza only to find out there was a 45 minute wait (it was already 8:45pm) & were then asked to leave our name & number...well even though we bought a 'pay as you go' phone until we could get permanent ones we did not know what our number was & decided it was becoming too difficult. It was decided we would walk down and have dinner instead at The Grove where I enjoyed a delicious Crab Mezzaluna Ravioli and Olly a Chicken & Prosciutto dish stuffed with lots of yumminess. Although the dinner was delicious it was not completely filling & we couldn't get pizza off our mind so we decided to go back over to Santa Maria's in order to split a pizza for dessert :-) Happy to report that the pizza was in fact absolutely wonderful...we will definitely be back to enjoy it as a full dinner!
After that, we meandered around dropping in several different places to hear live music, do a little dancing, play some darts, and just enjoy the rest of our evening. It really is wonderful having so much to do & see and all within easy walking distance...Oh Ealing How I Like Thee!
(Picture is a glimpse of downtown Ealing and a guy who tried very hard to dash out of the way of my picture :-)
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