The Cookes are here! I trolleyed out to Heathrow on Sunday morning to pick them up after their red-eye from Florida. They looked surprisingly chirpy given that that’d averaged about 13 minutes of sleep between them!

We took them for a hearty breakfast/lunch feast (they really had no idea what time of day it was) at our favourite dim sum restaurant in Chinatown, and then tried to keep them in the sunshine as much as possible for the rest of the afternoon, since that’s apparently one of the best things to combat jetlag. We walked around Chinatown, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, and Pall Mall, finally finishing up at Westminster to see Big Ben and the London Eye.

We also had some ice-cream at Freggo before walking down Regent Street to Piccadilly Circus, before heading home – thoroughly exhausted!

Yesterday they spent all day visiting the Tower of London, which must be a new record, since we were in and out of there in around 2 hours! After such an awesome dinner at Tayyabs with Jacob and Daniella, we repeated the same last night and once again had an amazing feast that rang in very cheaply on the wallet!

Two more days of touring for them (which equates to two more days of working for us), then we head to Ireland for some tripping around the West coast – to be sure, to be sure, to be sure!

Backing up from a weekend full of visitors, Jacob and Daniella landed in London to polish off what sounded like a fairly amazing honeymoon, only one week later! We arranged to meet up with them for dinner last Thursday (1st July), and I figured that for something fairly iconically London, we’d head down to Brick Lane for a curry. When I mentioned this to young Amjad (who I work with), he strongly recommended we go to Tayyabs instead. I’m always happy to take a recommendation, and given that it was only a touch further to walk, we booked ourselves in, and along we popped.

And holy moly, am I glad that we did! Easily, this was the best curry that I’ve had in London. Amjad was nice enough to print off their menu beforehand, and then highlight the dishes that he recommended we order. I’m not sure if he meant for us to take his advice literally, but the dude at the restaurant was well impressed when I handed him our pre-selected list of meals! “Oh, this makes my job very easy!” he said (or at least I think he said; his accent was well strong).

I think Jacob and Daniella thought we were a little crazy, given the quantity of food that came out (and seemed to just keep on coming); but no-one was arguing with the taste. And even though there was more than we could eat, including a jug of mango lassi, plus other drinks – the whole bill rang in cheaper than £60, for all four of us! That’s unbelievable. Take that, Brick Lane!

Back in June, when my favourite visitors of all – Pearl Jam – were in town, many of our other favourite visitors were in town as well! And yes, I would say that about pretty much anyone that comes to visit – everyone is my favourite!

Anyway – Stacey and Wes came down for the concert and stayed with us for four nights. Stacey also stayed an extra night either side of that as well, as she had to be in London for her job. She’s down here quite often now in her new role, which is great because we get to see her all the time! (Note: I was going to link to the story on her blog here which talks about her new job, but I can’t seem to find it right now…)

Also in town that weekend was none other than John and his girlfriend Tina. We hadn’t seen John since our trip to Dusseldorf for Kirsty’s 30th, and a lot has changed in the meantime – like him moving countries! He’s now living in Texas, and enjoying all the benefits that come from being only a few doors down from Chipotle.

We spent a chunk of Saturday wandering around Covent Garden and SoHo with everyone, including a quick visit to The National Portrait gallery (total snooze-fest – good thing it was free!), and The British Museum (way better!). We also stumbled upon one of those face-in-hole scenes that Julian and Shelley are so fond of, so we all stepped up and had a turn.

Last (but certainly not least!), Uncle Martyn and Jenni were in town to polish off the end of a multi-week trip to Europe! They’d been to Morocco, Portugal, Ireland, and possibly other places before arriving in sunny London. We enjoyed an amazing dinner with them at Benares in Mayfair, followed by ice-cream at Freggo.

I also joined the two of them for lunch one day at Selfridges. My uncle’s favourite thing to eat in all of London is a salt-beef sandwich from the Brass Rail. I was happy to indulge with him, and I won’t lie – it was delicious!

Now we’re frantically tidying the house for some more visitors – the Cookes are coming over for two weeks! Better get back to it!

Believe it or not, the last thing on Lauren’s “to-do” list for London was to visit Ripley’s. Though I’ve never had a desire to go there myself, I’d be lying if I said that I’d never been a little bit curious. And, as Kristy so rightly pointed out, this may have been my only opportunity ever to go along with someone that actually wanted to be there. As such, I seized the moment, and tagged along.

(Un)fortunately(?) for you, I didn’t have lovely camera with me, and although I did have little camera, I had it on all of the wrong settings. So, we came away with barely any photos to show for ourselves – this rather grainy shot of me sitting in a unbelievably large rocking chair is about the best that you can hope for here.

The highlight of the visit – for me at least – was the gigantic mirror maze. We should have packed a meal before entering, because we got lost so many times inside that we almost had to camp overnight. Had we have had to turn to cannibalism to survive, I reckon I could have overpowered Lauren and at least had me some tea. Then again, she’s small and nimble, and being a university student, she’s probably quite crafty too; I’ve no doubt she has some tricks up her sleeve. Not that it mattered in the end, as we eventually found the exit; though it was only after we were foiled at least five times by re-finding the entrance – including once using my “guaranteed, fail-safe way of navigating out of a maze” (i.e. keep your right hand on the wall). Maybe it’s the left hand that’s guaranteed…

There was also one of those suspension-bridge-through-a-tunnel-surrounded-by-spinning-lights jobbies for the punters’ pleasure. Oh my goodness, it was so disorienting! I couldn’t believe how off balance it made us! It was only about five metres long, but that was more than enough – I was happy to emerge from the other side (albeit feeling a little sea-sick!).

I had expected that there’d be more displays that erred on the “not” end of the “believe it or not” scale – like more optical illusions, and things of that nature. But overall, the walk through was very entertaining, and there were a number of exhibits that extracted an “oohhhh!!” type of reaction from me. But, at the rather outlandish price of £20 to go in, it’s probably not something that I’d recommend to anyone who didn’t have it on their “to-do” list to begin with.

One of the things that Weezy insisted Lauren try while she was here is the very English dish of a baked potato. Yes, we have them in Australia, and yes, you can get them pretty much anywhere in the world. But, do they look like this?

(Yeah, they probably do, don’t they?)

Oh my, that was one filling meal, and I didn’t even get through it all. At least I ate all of the side-salad, which Weezy and Lauren both just ignored! Still, you can’t blame them; look how shocked Lauren was at the prospect of eating so many carbs!

Mmm…. beans….

Coincidentally, my first week off work overlapped with cousin Lauren’s second week of her visit to London! And so, we arranged to meet up on Wednesday and Thursday in order to tour around London together.

It wasn’t the greatest weather on Wednesday – cold, and light rain – but that’s almost every day at the moment! We met up at Harrods, and then headed out to Canary Wharf, where we had lunch with Nick, Fitim, and Andrew. Lauren was particularly impressed with Fitim’s Russain Albanian accent, even though I’m sure she had no idea what he was saying most of the time.

Next we headed over to Greenwich, and the origin of time itself – the Greenwich Conservatory. I figured that being there on a week day it would be empty, but unfortunately it was packed with school kids! We still managed to find a quiet corner to get some photos of the view, looking back over the Maritime Museum, and back towards Canary Wharf.

By this point the weather had turned truly awful, so we rounded off the day in Covent Garden, where I took Lauren to my favourite coffee shop, and then to my favourite pub. We split a bottle of Bulmers, and then one of Magners, and we both agreed that Bulmers tastes better.

We met up outside St Paul’s cathedral on Thursday morning, and walked across the Millennium Bridge to Tate Modern. The current exhibit is a giant shipping container (note its size compared to the people on the left), completely closed in at one end, with a ramp leading up and inside at the other end. The further you go inside, the darker it gets, to the point where you can’t see anything. Thankfully, the wall at the end is padded, so you don’t get a headache when you inevitably run straight into it.

We also did a tour of the Globe Theatre, which Lauren was disappointed to find out wasn’t the original Globe Theatre, but instead, the third globe theatre, built in the style of the original, as a tribute to Shakespeare. One of the schemes that they came up with in order to raise funds for construction was to engrave some of the pavers outside the theaters with the names of big contributors.

Apparently, John Cleese paid for both his and Michael Palin‘s pavers, on the condition that Michael Palin’s name was spelt incorrectly. However, as it turned out, Michael Palin didn’t care – he ended up with a bigger paver, and he didn’t have to pay anything for it! Joke’s on you, Cleese!

After an extremely filling lunch at Tortilla, we did a quick lap around Borough Market, where I did the Durham-like duty of introducing Lauren to coffee! She managed to down her single-shot-latte, commenting that it “wasn’t terrible”. A few more shots of espresso before she leaves and we’ll have another addict!

Being a medical student, Lauren was very keen to see the Old Operating Theatre Museum; however since we were their only customers, I suspect they were more keen to see us! I tell ya, things were brutal back in the olden days – imagine having your tonsils removed by this, without anaesthetic!

Ouch!

The final outing for the day was a trip to The London Dungeons. I honestly had no idea what to expect from this, and was quite surprised at how scary it actually is! Most of the time it’s extremely dark, and there’s lots of creepy noises and things brushing past your face, to keep you guessing what’s coming next. I wasn’t sorry to walk into the gift shop at the end of our tour!

It was great checking out London with a newbie, as it’s always so refreshing to see things from a new perspective. Lauren’s in town until Wednesday so hopefully we’ll have a chance to see a few more sites this week before she jets back to Australia!

Check out more photos from our travels in the Touring with Lauren album.

And in true London fashion, the weather here has turned decidedly Londony – overcast skies, and always with the threat of rain but not usually carrying through. Such a shame, since last week it was so beautiful and blue! Oh, and to top things off, I’ve come down with the worst cold I’ve had for years. What a sucker-punch!

Still, can’t let a little gray sky and sickness get in the way of a good time! And if visitors from Australia isn’t a good enough excuse to go to Borough Market, then surely being low on coffee is! By the time we got out there it was coming up to lunch time, so the market was its usual heaving mass of clueless dweebs.

We picked up what we needed to, as well as a spot of food to keep us going. I opted for the roast pork on a baguette, and – needless to say – absolutely smothered it in apple sauce. This must have amused a number of patrons, as I saw a few people look at my food and then laugh, but none more so than the guy who Jason overhead saying, “heh, that guy over there’s gotta sandwich covered in glue!”. It helps if you imagine him as Cletus.

Climbing up the Monument is apparently the thing to do when you’re flatmates are away so we dutifully complied. It’s 311 spiral steps of towering goodness that affords you some decent views over ye old London town. Standing at 202 feet tall, it was built as a memorial to the Great Fire of London which, ironically, started exactly 202 feet west of the monument – even more ironically, at a bakery on “Pudding lane”!

Monumental!

We had enough energy for one more destination, so we headed to Covent Garden. Jason had a spot of shopping to do, plus it’s always worth a visit to The Porterhouse for a spot of ale. Clumsy Joe on the table next to us almost soaked me with his beer, but my swift reflexes saw me dodge the fallout faster than Neo dodges bullets.

We went home via Leicester square and Chinatown, where we grabbed some wantons to make wonton soup for dinner. Mmmm…. little balls of miscellaneous meat in pastry….

So what’s been happening in London since we got back? Well, a heap of things actually, far too many to count!

Continue reading →

We hired a car for the weekend so we could take Jason and Louise to the Cotswolds – specifically, we wanted to go back to Bourton on the Water, so they could have a play in the hedge maze there. They too figured out where the golden dragonfly was, but like us, their time fell slightly outside the “genius” 20 minute mark.

Of course, the real reason to go back to the Cotswolds is the clotted cream. Oh man, that stuff is the goods. I even managed to control myself long enough to get a photo of it this time. Warning: if you’re feeling snackish, this will be enough to top you over the edge!

We meandered around a number of the other towns to pass our afternoon, eventually settling in for a very late lunch in The Swan hotel in Broadway. It was delightful! Jason reckons they served one of the best burgers that he has ever eaten!

We were a bit undecided on where Sunday’s destination should be, but eventually we agreed on Stonehenge. I was a little in two minds about this one, as I’d heard many people give it very average reviews, with comments such as, “it’s a lot smaller than I thought it would be”. However, when I drove over the final hill and saw the rather famous stones in a field in front of me, I was absolutely blown away! I thought it was amazing!

I must have taken about 200 photos of the stones, from just about every possible angle. I really, really loved it. So much so, that Kristy and I even joined up to the heritage/historic/whatever it is society (bonus: free entry to over 400 sites in England!). 15 months for the price of 12! And I really don’t know why people had said it was “smaller than they had thought”; not only does each stone way up to 45 tonnes, but look how huge they are compared to the people next to them!

The only “bad” thing about stonehenge was the fools who decided the rope barrier didn’t apply to them, and hence felt no shame in jumping over it to take some photos a bit closer to the “action”.

Well, as a member of the society whose name I can’t remember, I was offended! So I pulled out my extra loud whistle – the one I usually save for encores at concerts – and let rip at them, followed closely by me yelling, “get out of there!”. The fools had a bit of a panic – which no doubt came from the sudden realisation that there was about 1,200 people who had noticed they had jumped the barrier – and scurried back behind the rope. Not before they polished off their photo-shoot though! Still, I feel I did my part to help preserve the site; I was just disappointed that security didn’t hear my whistle, and come running up with their batons.

As mentioned previously, our last visitors at E 52nd Street are John and Kirsty, who have trekked here all the way from London for a four-day weekend. Truth be told, we had never met J&K before they got here, but since they were friends of Ben and Michelle we figured they’d probably be fairly safe! Plus, we’ll be holidaying with them (amongst others) in February and March this year – but that’s a story for another time.

Anyway, one of their self proclaimed goals for this trip is to eat pretty much anything they can get their hands on. Wifey and I figure that the USA has two cuisines in particular that may be tricky to get in London – BBQ, and Mexican. So last night, along with Karl, we trolleyed up to Dallas BBQ to grab some ginormous portions of ribs, chicken, steak and wings. We’d never eaten there before, but reviews all raved about portion size, so we figured it was probably on the right track.

Turns out they’re also known for their “Texas sized” frozen drinks – and who are we to turn down the house special? Kirstin bravely headed up to the bar to order something for us all, and I stood behind her for translation support. First order was a peach margarita for Kristy. The bar girl said to Kirstin, “salt?”, and I quickly realised it was lucky I was there too, because Kirstin replied with, “Texas size for all, please”.

Anyway, the rest of the drinks went smoothly, as did our meals. Portion sizes certainly didn’t disappoint, yet we all managed to get through almost everything. Probably not a very friendly place for the vegetarians out there, but if you’ve got a meat craving then it’s not a bad place to stop. Prices are very reasonable (especially when J&K sneakily conspire to distract us while they fix up the bill! Thanks guys!), and I’d be shocked if anyone ever left hungry.

I think we can successfully cross BBQ off John and Kirsty’s list. I also think I’ll be at the gym for three hours today burning off the excess calories!