Week 21 in London

Week 21: 24 - 30 August 2015

On our final full week of summer the warm weather was fading fast. Soon our shirts, shorts and skirts will be retired indefinitely. 

In Australia places like Grill'd are reinventing the humble hamburger, although the Brits are a little more advanced. In recent years, gourmet burger shops have been popping up on nearly every suburban street across London. Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Byron are now two of the biggest burger chains in London, but in addition to them pretty much every cafe, restaurant and pub sells their version of the glamorised burger. Brits love burgers so much they've even dedicated a day to it - 27th August is National Burger Day. 

Coincidentally we didn't have anything out or planned for dinner on this night, and so ventured down to Northcote Road for a burger at a cafe we hadn't yet tried, called Brew. As it turns out the Brew chain of cafes are owned by Australian Jason Wells, who was recently also dubbed Britain's Angriest Driver (http://bit.ly/1Nccy02), and Vegemite is featured both on the menu and as decorative jars on the wall. 

On Friday night we attended Kiwis in London drinks at The Chatsworth aka "The Chatty" at Acton. Although we've heard rumours of rodents in London, until this night we'd still never seen one. Whilst on the walk from the station to the pub we saw a dirty fat rat sitting on the side of the footpath, hoeing into some fresh garbage. The rat was completely unfazed by us walking near it, which as ridiculous as it sounds, was a bit unsettling and we crossed the street to avoid it. 

On Saturday, we went across to Hyde Park for a picnic with Gabby and Jarrod, friends we'd met at Aussies in London a few months earlier, and their friend Georgia. We sat around for a few hours until it started raining, after which time we made a move for Covent Garden.

The Market Building at Covent Garden had been filled with 100,000 glowing white balloons as part of a pop up art installation titled Heartbeat. The French artist Charles Pétillon's installation stretches 50 metres across the ceiling. It does stink of latex a bit (but hey, what can you expect from 100,000 balloons) but the sight is amazing.

Highlights for the week:

- National Burger Day

- Kiwis in London drinks at The Chatsworth "The Chatty", Acton

- Saw a freaky, territorial rat

- Picnic in Hyde Park

- Covent Garden balloons