Market Fresh Foods and Fine Dining

With a visitor from Adelaide in town and our imminent trip to Edinburgh, this weekend saw a quieter pace than many previous weekends. Milos arrived on Thursday night and then came and visited us in the office on Friday afternoon. Friday night work drinks soon moved to a local pub to show some of London to the new arrival.

Saturday morning saw our regular trip to the Borough markets to stock up on fresh food, before a trip to Tesco's to buy the rest of our weekly food needs. We used the self serve kiosk to great effect, making TP proud, I'm sure. No photos of the self serve kiosk, it's not quite that exciting... Saturday afternoon we caught up once more with Milos for a coffee at one of the two places we've found here that have decent coffee. Not surprisingly, it's run by Aussies and Kiwis! Making the most of the afternoon, we walked through Hyde Park to the Royal Albert Hall to pick up our weekend Promming passes. With the Proms having started a fortnight a go, we decided that we should really make the effort to get to them, and found that you can buy passes that give you entry to every prom at the Royal Albert Hall for an entire weekend! With time against use, we left Milos to explore the insanity of Harrods and Harvey Nicholls on a Saturday and headed home to get ready for the main event... dinner.

Dinner on Saturday night was booked at Hakkasan, a Michelin starred chinese restaurant just near work. Housed in a basement that used to be a car park, Hakkasan has an incredible interior, dark and inviting. With staff dressed better than some of the customers in Hussein Chalayan designed uniforms. After being greeted by the doorwoman at the simple door at the end of a nondescript laneway, we descended into the lavish luxury, being escorted to the bar to order some phenomenal cocktails. Being seated soon after, we met our waiter and soon began to try and understand the hierarchy of purple shirts, white shirts and black shirts. We soon also met the sommelier for the evening who recommended a merlot from Tuscany. Soon our delicious meals arrived and we got to sample what a michelin star really means. It means food of incredible quality served impeccable by staff who know that condensation on a water bottle must be wiped up! Needless to say, it was an amazing evening, not dampened at all by the sheer surprise that it was still light when we arrived at the top of the stairs at the end of our two hour reservation!

The Descent into Hakkasan.

The Luxurious Interior.

Sunday was a rest day, spent pottering around the house taking it easy, with a brief two hour stint at work for me as my project team has just been moved into new accomodation across Oxford St.

That's it for this week, next week's blog will be a bumper one, covering our trip to Edinburgh which should be great. Hope everyone's well.

Finally, but some might say most importantly, here's the link to my updated map!

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&ll=50.957972,-2.409745&spn=2.598522,7.305908&z=8&om=1

Boats, Frogs, Fishes and Tea.

Following a comparatively quiet week, we again found ourselves set upon by activities. These began early in the week, with Pork Night being moved to a temporary timeslot on Tuesday night. Trying out the garish orange HK Cafe (yes, that's hK not hJ's...), we found the first serious contender to the BBQ City crown. The bbq pork was incredibly close, the dumplings were succulent, the only thing letting them down was the roast pork, it was only very good, not quite the excellence of that venerable Gouger St force.

Pork Night was moved due to a work function on Wednesday night, with the end of the financial year Woods Bagot held a dinner on a boat on the Thames. Leaving promptly just after 8, we made our way down the Thames past Putney and the many rowing clubs that surround the start of The Boat Race, the race between Oxford and Cambridge which runs 6.8km from Putney to Mortlake. Eventually we turned around headed back to the heart of London, past the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and making our final turn at Tower Bridge.

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from a boat.

The Tower of London from the Thames.

Moving on to the weekend, Saturday morning saw us travel to Notting Hill for breakfast with Brendan, Allison, Henry and Poppy at Carluccio's. It was great to catch up with them, and breakfast was great. It gave us the solid start to the day we needed before heading to The Charles Lamb for Bastille Day celebrations. Having visited The Charles Lamb for my birthday just days after my arrival here, it was nice to return to the pleasant pub, whose atmosphere was now supplemented with two petanque pitches on the street, french fare on the menu and an artist, painting the whole scene from across the street. Later the mood was further enhanced with the arrival of an accordian player! With wam sunny weather (a rare thing here, even in summer!) it was amazingly pleasant to sit and watch the petanque competition, with a beer (we didn't dare to try the Ricard on offer!) in one hand and some tasty french snack in the other.

Petanque, an accordian player and drinking in the street. Must be Bastille Day at the Charles Lamb!

The artist paints the Bastille Day celebrations at the Charles Lamb.

Sunday saw a visit which excited Sally somewhat, a trip to the London Aquarium. Housed in the basement of the London County Hall next to the London Eye, it is right in the middle of tourist central, the walk across Westminster Bridge being an obstacle course of baby pushers, photographers and sightseers. Arriving at the County Hall we found it even busier than usual, with the Star Wars 30th Anniversary Celebration also being held in the hall. You can even sign up for the Jedi Academy (Burkey, you better book your ticket, I'm sure the academy won't be here forever!)! With little to compare it to, the London Aquarium ticked a lot of boxes, but even I could see it was a tired facility, in serious need of modernisation. Despite this, it was enjoyable to see some amazing fish up close, and get to fondle a sting ray!

A Happy Pufferfish!

Me touching a Sting Ray. They're slimey and spikey at the same time!

Having missed our regular markets trip we made our way to The Brunswick, a development that until recently was a rain-stained concrete council estate. Architecturally designed, it recently received refurbishment, new shops were built in the central mall and now there's a waiting list move in! Our reason for the visit, beyond the professional interest, was Waitrose, a supermarket with organic and locally grown produce. It is the closest replacement to market produce we've found.

The Brunswick.

Having filled the fridge, we prepared for our monthly outing, the ubiquitous afternoon tea. This time we decided on The Orangery at Kensington Palace. Lining up briefly in the continually changing weather, we were finally shown to our table. Looking out into the impeccable gardens as we enjoyed our tea, scones with jam and cream, cucumber sandwiches and Orangery Cake, it was a glorious way to spend an afternoon, and by the time we had finished, we had warm sun yet again to temper our walk home.

Sally and Simon in The Orangery.

Afternoon Tea at The Orangery.

On our walk home through Kensington Gardens and then Hyde Park, we found a Zaha Hadid temporary shelter, built for one of the Serpentine Gallery's fundraisers. It's three identical "parasols" rotated around a central point, unfortunately the finish and detailed design of the shelter left a lot to be desired... but still, where else will you see a famous architect designed temporary shelter by mistake?!

Zaha Hadid's Temporary Shelter in Hybe Park.

And so that's it! Another busy week finished as the spectre of work again rears it's ugly head. I hope that everyone who reads this is well. Thanks to those who've made comments recently, and keep the emails coming!

And just to silence the many many requests I have received for photos of Sally and myself, another one of us at Kensington Gardens.

Last, but not least, here's the link to my updated map!

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&ll=51.503934,-0.135956&spn=0.080246,0.22831&t=h&z=13&om=1

Just a Little Sport.

This week saw London succumb to an incredible volume of sport. Between Wimbledon finals, the British Grand Prix they managed to wedge in the start of the Tour De France! To honour this commitment, we trundled ourselves to Lord's for a county 20/20 match after work on Tuesday night. Despite the inconsistent weather which at one moment was pelting us with chilling rain and the next bathing us in the warmth of summer afternoon sun, and finally pelting us with chilling rain while bathing us in the warmth of summer afternoon sun at the same time, we bravely forged on to watch the entire match. The reasonably random weather did at least give us a chance to see the awesome hovercraft covers, and get some food, although there weren't any hotdogs, so it wasn't quite the quintessential cricket experience for me. In the end, Middlesex (the home team) defeated the Surrey browncaps with 7 overs to spare.

The Lord's Hovercraft.

Surrey bowling to Middlesex. At Lord's.

The rest of the week was reasonably quiet, with both Sally and myself being swamped at work, we did however find time on Friday night to have a drink and to try Hummus Bros, a chain of restaurants serving dishes exclusively of hummus. It was surprisingly delicious!

Saturday morning saw our regular trip to the Borough Markets to collect supplies for the coming week. After a brief rest at home, we made our way to the Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A). The V&A contains all manner artifacts from the ancient world and holds many exhibitions a year. We managed to make a quick survey of the museum and then find a spot in the luxurious tea rooms, which now hold the newly refurbished cafeteria, for some scones with jam and cream.

The V&A Museum Tea Rooms.


Some of the Incredible Treasures of the V&A.

After some further exploration of the V&A we wandered to nearby Hyde Park to see some of the Tour De France prologue, an 8km time trial through some of the most scenic parts of London. The amazing weather and the excitement of the world's largest sporting event brought spectators out in force, and caused us no end of trouble in getting home. Finally making our way onto a soon absolutely full bus, we arrived home for a quiet evening.

One of the Credit Agricole Team Rides Past.

On Sunday we headed to Spitalfields to visit yet another market, but rather than a great produce market like Borough, Spitalfields is a trendy clothes, retro secondhand stalls kind of market. Spread across an entire suburb and split into various sections, there is plenty to see. Spending the morning wending our way through the stalls, we headed back to the stores on Oxford and Carnaby Sts before returning home for a quiet afternoon.

With another thankfully quiet week ahead, we look forward to our upcoming afternoon tea adventure on Sunday. So here's the link to my updated map!

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&ll=51.516007,-0.136299&spn=0.160664,0.456619&t=h&z=12&om=1

Just to finish off, Eros in Piccadilly Circus.

Trip One of Many.

Firstly, just to allay any fears for our safety, despite the recent terrorist car bomb threat happening just 20 short metres or so from our front door, we are both fine, the bomb didn't go off and we slept through the whole thing! When we stumbled from our apartment to go to work on Friday morning, we had to hail a nearby bobby to be let out of the streams of police tape, and answer "where did you two come from?" and then "how many other apartments are there?".

Despite all this, we were still excited as this weekend saw the first of our planned trips, a weekend in historic Bath! Sally and I snuck out of work a couple of hours early on Friday afternoon so we could collect our hire car, the beautiful Alfa Romeo Brera... or more accurately, the slightly more spacious Alfa 159. Despite the change in vehicles, we soon managed to negotiate London Friday afternoon traffic to find ourselves on the M4 towards Bath! Arriving around 8 on Friday evening, we quickly set about finding dinner and The Royal Oak just across the road from our B&B fit the bill wonderfully. A quick walk through town, and we were ready for bed!

Saturday saw us arise to a full english breakfast and an early start to our tourism. We soon walked into town and found ourselves at the Roman Baths. To wander through buildings built some 1800 years ago, and to experience the range of history on the one site was quite amazing.

The Roman Baths, with the Bath Abbey behind.

Wandering through Bath, we took in most of the important sights such as the Circus and the Royal Crescent, a pair of incredibly impressive locations.

The Circus.

Bath on the whole is an amazingly picturesque city, and it has a sluice!

The Bath sluice, awesome.

Sunday morning saw another early start to make sure we could fit in the world famous locations we had in store for our trip home to London. We headed South East towards that most pagan of all the world icons...Stonehenge. Stonehenge is one of those things that almost everyone who's seen it says "it's a little disapointing when you see it for real". To a certain extent this was true, it was smaller than it's portrayed, but it is still an amazing example of the ingenuity of the ancients. The main disappointment was the poxy audio guide, here's a few classic excerpts - "The stone nearest you is the key stone, we think there were four of them, and that they formed a perfect rectangle!", "The heel stone behind you shows the processional avenue. You can't see the avenue any more, but it may have gone down the hill, turned right and gone over that next hill to the river Avon. It may have been how participants arrived at Stonehenge for the rites that may have been held here.". That's right, a lot of mays, and very few definites. It would have been a lot quicker to just say "It's here, it's amazing and we have NO IDEA what they hell its here for".

Stonehenge.

Regardless, we pressed on to Salisbury to visit the cathedral and one of four surviving copies of the Magna Carta contained within. Salisbury Cathedral is the only cathedral to be completed within one century, and as such maintain a single architectural style. It is one of the most amazing exponents of gothic architecture. We were lucky enough to be there just as one of the services was starting, so we enjoyed the majesty of the organ and the choir filling the massive space.

Salisbury Cathedral.

Inside Salisbury Cathedral.

Having had our fill of history, we turned the Alfa homewards and headed back to London. It was an excellent weekend and very very successful. We now await our next planned weekender...Edinburgh!

And for those of you who appreciate my long suffering cartographical works, here's the link to my updated super map!

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&ll=51.024121,-2.092896&spn=2.594847,7.305908&t=h&z=8&om=1