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

A Quiet Week....finally!

After the almost constant excitement of the previous weeks here in the UK, this week hailed a welcome reduction in the frequency of planned activities.

Having now spent some time in our new accommodation, we began to explore the area a little, which includes Chinatown. We hurriedly created a new institution, Pork Night. Wednesday night dinner has now become a journey of discovery, an exploration for barbecue pork (which seems to be described here as roast pork, with roast pork being called crispy pork!) that can compare to the wonder that is... BBQ City on Gouger St. Working our way through the alleyways and poorly furnished Asian restaurants that abound, we hope to find such a holy grail of cuisine. Our first venture was reasonably successful, with Canton providing us with tasty pork, both roast and crispy of high quality, and the dumplings were good too! The pork did not, however, match BBQ City's, the champion retains its title.

This Friday night also saw the restitution of a tradition I have missed since I moved to Dubai, after work drinks! Having a couple on the boss before meeting Sally at a local pub meant a pleasant end to a long working week and apparently made me quite..."chatty" on the walk home... Sorry Sal.

Saturday morning saw a trip to Borough Markets to stock up on some essentials, cheese, fruit and veg, some lamb and some sausages! We also purchased a lovely Anthurium to brighten up the apartment.

Our anthurium. Lovely.

Following our market trip, we rested at home before catching a bus over to hob nob at the department stores, Harvey Nicholls and Harrods. On arrival, we decided to use the side door for Harvey Nicholls, and a very pleasant man held the door open for Sally. David Walliams (of Little Britain fame) is a very pleasant man, one who held the door open for Sally. At Harrods we fought our way through the crowds to make it to Ladurée (the Harrods patisserie) for a drink.


Despite our recent venture to fancy department stores, our appetite for shopping was not satiated, so on Sunday we walked to nearby St Christopher's Walk for breakfast at one of Antonio Carluccio's cafés before shopping on Oxford and Carnaby Streets. It was a successful shopping session, I added to my collection of Ben Sherman gear a shirt and a jumper. Sunday afternoon saw us trek across town to Blackfriars, which became not such a good choice of location due to two of the tube lines being out of operation. Meeting Ali and Ash, Justin and Jane there for a beer, made for a pleasant afternoon. I had hot chips with cheese on them. Enough said.

The Blackfriar... at Blackfriars.

The amazing interior of The Blackfriar. It used to be a monastery.

So with our weekend complete, we now faced the horror that is... Monday. Back to work now, we await Pork Night with baited breath.... will BBQ City have a worthy adversary? We shall see, but having the bout in the middle of the week sure makes the week easier to survive.


Here's the link to my updated map. Check it out.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&ll=50.958427,-2.416992&spn=2.602079,7.305908&t=h&z=8&om=1


So that's it for this week, make sure you join us next week, we're going to Bath this weekend!

No Rest for the Wicked...

Yet another marginally late post here, due in part to exhaustion, but mostly in an attempt to hang on to as much of the afterglow of another action packed week of excitement!

With another mundane week at work to get through, the first activity on Wednesday evening was to visit the shop that was used as the location for Black Books, just a few blocks from Sally's work. After a short walk through Bloomsbury, we arrived across the street from the shop.

Black Books.

The following evening saw Sally and I leaving work a touch early to go to the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. A four day festival with a line up the Big Day Out would kill for (as most of the 829 festivals over here have), we had tickets for the first day, predominantly for me to see Queens of the Stone Age and The White Stripes. We managed to get there in time to also see The Thrills, with time for dinner before QOTSA started. Unfortunately QOTSA were a little disappointing, I think this was mainly due to their music requiring quite refined sound levels that a festival just can't provide. Thankfully the rain held off for the redeemers. The White Stripes came on and played a blinding set, showing just how comfortable they are on stage. It was an awesome gig, and as I write this I am excited to have their new album, Icky Thump, playing in the background.

The White Stripes playing at O2.

Friday saw an early start to get me to Paddington train station to meet my work mates. Today was an office trip to the Eden Project in Cornwall. The Eden Project is basically a 'biodome' set up to educate people about plants and stuff. I'm still reasonably vague about the point of it, but it is a pretty amazing thing. Built in a dead china clay quarry, it contains thousands of plants, a big amphiteatre, a visitor centre and the biomes. Yes biomes, not biodomes, I think Pauly Shore must still own the copyright to the word "biodome"...

Anyway, it was very interesting to see, but the tropical biome that we had a tour around, was essentially the same as the conservatory in Adelaide next to the botanic gardens. Also, it was a four and a half hour train ride in each direction to get there, so it was full day of travelling for 3 hours at the place.

Saturday brought much busyness and excitement, firstly packing in the morning, then rushing across town to arrive at our new home! Work is providing accomodation for me here, and they've done very well for me. Sally and I are staying in a one bedroom semi-serviced apartment just off of Piccadilly Circus. So basically we're living in the absolute heart of London. As we were walking to check the place out, we wandered through Leicester Square and saw that it was the Shrek 3 premiere, there was a crowd who started screaming, and then we heard over the loudspeaker "Mr Antonio Banderas"! Of course with us moving into Piccadilly, the question you're all asking is "But what about Sally's place in Paddington?" Fortuitously, one of Sally's friends needs somewhere to stay for a few months before moving to Shanghai, so Lisa is looking after Sally's place while we make the most of all that Piccadilly has to offer.


After a brief couple of hours setting the place up, we had to start getting ready for one of the best birthday presents I've ever received. Sally had gotten tickets for us to go and see Muse play the newly completed Wembley Stadium. It was sold out. 90 000 people. Huge. With enough support acts to make it a mini festival (Rodriguez Y Gabriella, Dirty Pretty Things and The Streets), it was the first concert to sell out the stadium. And they were doing it all again the following night, the second concert to sell out the stadium... Needless to say, it was absoutely amazing. Muse are possibly the best live band in the world, and this was easily the best concert I've ever been to. From the incredible lighting, the pyrotechnics, the acrobats hanging from balloons to the undeniable talent of the band, this was a show for the ages. We took something like 100 photos and I videoed two full songs, unfortunately the vids are quite large, so I don't know how I can show you them! Anyway, here are some pics;

You know it's a good show when there's a beer tanker!

Obviously with 90 000 people packed into a stadium, a concert finishing at 11 and the last tubes running at midnight, getting home was a bit of an effort. Eventually though, we squeezed onto the last tube to the city and made it home safe and sound.


Sunday was slightly more sedate, although no less good. After a relaxed morning, collecting some remaining items from Paddington, we made our way to The Wolseley to take part in the great English tradtion of afternoon tea. The Wolseley is a beautiful restaurant in a restored Wolseley car showroom just by the Ritz. Scones with jam and clotted cream, little sandwiches and wonderful pastries made our afternoon an absolute delight, a wonderful sojourn on a Sunday.

The Wolseley.

So that rounds up another week here in London. All that is left to do is to give you the link to my wonderful map of things.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&z=13&om=1

So that's it! Hope everyone's well and enjoying themselves, I know I am!!

London!

Hello all! Sorry for the slightly belated post, but since my last one from Dubai, I've been a little busy!

I arrived on time a week ago now, at about 9pm on Tuesday the 5th at Heathrow, and following a quick customs/passport control wait, I was joyously reunited with Sally. The following day I diligently got up and went to work, which ended up almost being wasted time, as most of the people who I am working with, were either away or otherwise occupied when I arrived. Eventually though I was taken to the site, so the day wasn't a complete waste. I'm currently working on the Grosvenor House Apartments, renovating and constructing new apartments in an existing building. Grosvenour House is actually two buildings on Park Lane, facing Hyde Park. Following work that day, Sally took me out for dinner for my birthday to the Oxo Brasserie on level 8 of Oxo Tower on the southbank of the Thames, it has a spectacular view of the city, and the food was fantastic! After dinner we wandered over to St Paul's Cathedral and I rediscovered a pub I remember having a beer at when I was last in London in 2002.

Thursday brought yet another work day, followed by a quick tube ride home to get ready for that night's treat, Caberet Casbah at the Cafe de Paris. Caberet Casbah is a burlesque show produced by a group called the Flash Monkey and the Cafe de Paris is a beautiful venue set just off of Piccadilly Circus. The night was amazing, with an incredible atmosphere and a great show, despite being beset by wardrobe malfunctions! I suggest you check out http://www.theflashmonkey.biz/ and http://www.cafedeparis.com/ to see just what sort of place and show it was! Unfortunately, the tiredness set in and Sally and I left to catch the last tube before the show ended.

The final day of the working week had finally arrived, and the exciting London plans continued unabated. Sally had been able to procure tickets to see a Stephen Fry TV Show being filmed, QI. So, rushing from work (ever so slightly early) to the London Studios we joined the end of the rather long looking queue. After a short wait we were disappointingly informed that the queue contained more people than the studio could. So the risky plan of the 561 people in front of us to skip out on work just that little bit earlier had paid dividends, and we began to make our way back home.

With the weekend upon us, I finally had a day with no specific plans! After a leisurely breakfast at Borough Markets and a pleasant perusal and purchase of choice cheeses, Sal and I headed into Oxford St to look for shoes for me. We battled the crowds valiantly up and down half of Oxford St, but to no avail, the holy grail of footwear that I searched for could not be found. So we hopped on a big, red, double decker London bus to Portobello Rd. Following a short walk through a picturesque London neighbourhood, we arrived at the top of Portobello Rd, the markets in full swing. Wandering along the busy street, ducking into shops, it was easy to relish the vibrant amosphere all around us.

Having had my birthday just before leaving Dubai, I decided that Sunday was the perfect opporuntity to both catch up with the handful of people I know in London and have a beer in a real London pub for my birthday. So with the help of my trusty and beautiful assistant, a location was picked that turned out to be just perfect. The Charles Lamb Pub is "everything the Queen's Head wishes it could be" (S. Hart, 2007). It was a wonderful little pub with amazing food and a relaxed, local feel. I couldn't have asked for a better place to spend an afternoon. That evening Sally and I headed to the Open Air Theatre at Regents Park to see Daniel Kitson perform. The incredibly picturesque location, pleasant weather and picnic dinner was an amazing setting to see a brilliant performance of both stand up comedy and poignant story-telling.

So basically that's my first week in London. For both my records and for your viewing pleasure, I've begun a map of London with all sorts of exciting things on it, mainly the places I've been, things I've seen and any other pertinent points I feel warrant inclusion.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&om=1&ll=51.517396,-0.151062&spn=0.039524,0.114155&z=14

I'll continue to add things to this map and relink it as I go, so I hope you like it!

Now that my first week has successfully been completed, I've got my second week to look forward to! With plans such as seeing The White Stripes and Queens of the Stone Age play at the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park on Thursday to visiting the Eden Project with work on Friday to (along with 90 000 other people) seeing Muse play at Wembley Stadium on Saturday to having afternoon tea at The Wolseley on Sunday, I'm sure the coming week will live up to the high standards set by the previous. This coming weekend should also see the move into my work provided accomodation, but I shall wax lyrical about that next week, with photos!

So, there you go, a bumper blog post to round up my first week in London!