Week 82 in London

Week 82: 24 – 30 October 2016

We arrived back in London on Tuesday, Roslyn at Heathrow and Brendan at Gatwick. Roslyn was fortunate enough to be able to head home and enjoy some time at home after more than a week away. Brendan, on the other hand arrived in Gatwick and had to then head to the bathrooms to ready himself for a half day at work (wet towelette wash included).

The flight back from New York had been several hours shorter than the flight to New York, and he therefore hadn’t gotten much sleep. Onwards and upwards, he went on the train from the airport straight to work to struggle through the second half of the day.

On Friday, Roslyn's work celebrated Halloween in the office with a fun Friday full of tricks and treats. One of the partners, The Brewery, also invited the team to attend a ghoulish dinner where each guest got to take home a confectionary severed finger.

On Saturday we headed into glamorous Chelsea for Roslyn to buy some make up and then set off towards revered Belgravia, to the recently opened Dominique Ansel Bakery. New York-based Ansel is hailed as the inventor of the cronut (half croissant, half donut) and this recent opening had people lining up outside the store for hours. By the time we got there, late in the day, they had sold out of the signature cronuts (noooooo!) but we still enjoyed a DKA pastry and cookie shot – a shot of Tahitian vanilla milk served in a shot glass shaped cookie.

Roslyn caught up with an old school friend, Jess, on Sunday. Jess had only been in the UK for a week, on a two month university placement at the University of Cambridge. Like a true local, Roslyn showed her the major sights and after Jess had headed back off towards the countryside, we met up for a late lunch in Russell Square.

Sunday also marked the end of British Summer Time (aka Daylight Saving Time), meaning the nights ahead would be darker and colder, earlier.

Highlights for the week:

- Returned from New York on Tuesday

- Halloween party and confectionary finger

- Dominique Ansel bakery

- Roslyn caught up with Jess
- Late lunch at Russell Square
- End of British Summer Time

New York, USA

Friday 21st October 2016:

Flights from London to New York aren’t exactly cheap or quick. Facing eight hours in the air, Brendan was slightly nervous about his journey with budget carrier, Norwegian.

Worried that the seats would be small, with no leg room and with no entertainment to pass the time, he was pleasantly surprised to board an ultra-modern Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The Dreamliner is equipped with extra large windows and instead of an annoying plastic sun shade has a button to electronically black out the windows. It also has an automatic light dimming system that adjusts according to the lighting outside of the plane, and each seat has a monitor screen with plenty of movies and TV shows.

Arriving at New York JFK Airport, Brendan somehow managed to keep getting diverted by airport staff to lines with the longest possible waiting times. Eventually he made it through to the other side and met up with Roslyn who by this stage had been waiting quite a while.

Out of the airport and we were straight onto using the New York subway for the first time. Although she’d been to New York previously, Roslyn had never before ventured below ground onto the trains.

Our accommodation in the esteemed Upper West Side of Manhattan was at Jazz on The Park Hostel, and was easily the most expensive hostel we’ve ever stayed at. It would also be a major contender for most basic. Not the grubbiest or worst. Just basic. For the full New York experience, the hostel is just moments from the huge Central Park on a very New Yorky numbered street, West 106th Street.

On Saturday morning we boarded the subway again and headed downtown. A side note about the subway. We managed to get around without major incident over the weekend, but overall found the system harder to figure out than the London tube or even the Paris metro.

The first stop was to see the bright flashing lights and billboards of Times Square.

Next we headed across to the Staten Island Ferry, probably one of New York’s best attractions and yet also free! The ferry sails from the main commercial hub of Manhattan across to Staten Island, past the Statue of Liberty. At Staten Island we disembarked the ship, walked through the terminal and boarded another ship for the return to Manhattan.

At the site of the 2001 terror attacks, the former World Trade Centre complex is now largely an open plaza with copses of trees, known as the 9/11 Memorial. Two huge recessed fountains sit within the building footprints of the Twin Towers, with the names of the almost 3,000 victims inscribed into bronze plates. The 9/11 Museum is also here, mostly underground beneath the plaza, however due to the lengthy admittance line we elected to keep that as an activity for later.

We were feeling the cold and so after a quick stop off to buy an additional layer of clothes (thermal shirts as it turned out these were the most practical), we set off to walk over one of the world's most iconic bridges, Brooklyn Bridge. Measuring just over 1.8 kilometres in length, the bridge connects Manhattan to Brooklyn and we walked the full length. The views of the city were amazing, but the icy wind made us wish we were in a car below.

Once we'd reached Brooklyn we headed into another of America's burger institutions, Shake Shack. Shake Shack did actually open a store here in London last year that we went to, but Brendan was unimpressed by the relatively plain and overly greasy flavour and poor value for money. The experience in New York was much better though!

Now dark we ventured back out into the cold night air and set off across the bridge once more, heading towards Broadway and Times Square. We passed by the street where Taylor Swift lives, although she was out of town that weekend anyway. The square becomes even more alive at night, illuminated by the colours of the countless huge moving billboards, with street performers and tourists everywhere.

We eventually made it back to our accommodation, exhausted from having walked more than 11 kilometres today.

The next morning started with a cycle tour of Central Park. The size of the 341 hectare park really is hard to grasp until you are there and see it in person. There were plenty of sights familiar from movies and TV shows, including the Bethesda Terrace that overlooks the lake and the nearby Boathouse, in addition to The Mall. With its wide paved walkway, unique fencing and canopy of trees, The Mall is the epitome of Central Park sights.

Around two hours of cycling later we headed to Ess-a-Bagel, which is regarded as one of the best bagel shops in New York and came highly recommended by Roslyn's New York-based colleague, Josh. We'd been told to prepare for a wait, although queueing for almost an hour for what is basically a sandwich with a hole in it was borderline insanity. The bagels were really good, but if we were to return it wouldn't be on a weekend when all the other tourists are there as well.

Next we were off to the Rockefeller Centre to ascend 70 floors to the Top of the Rock Observation Deck. From up here we had sweeping views across the city, looking out at the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Times Square, over Central Park and across the Hudson and East Rivers.

Later on we caught up with one of Brendan's long lost friends from high school, Sam Daley. Hailing from humble Burrawang, she's now living and working in New York as a nanny! We wandered around for a while and then went to Junior's for cheesecake (also on the suggestions from Josh).

For Top of the Rock we'd booked a Sun and Stars package, enabling us to visit both in the daytime and at night. After showing us around for a few hours, Sam headed off and we returned to the Rockefeller Centre to watch the city sparkle as our night drew to a close. But this is the city that never sleeps so even if we mere two individuals were sleeping, the city was surely still alive.

On our final day in the Big Apple we headed back over to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, to pay a visit to the Museum itself. The layout and displays are all very well put together, documenting the lead up to 11 September 2001 and the impact of that fateful day, whilst honouring the victims. The museum is set underground beneath the Memorial plaza, with parts of the original Twin Towers building foundations integrated into the displays.

Other items on show include emergency services vehicles that arrived at the scene and were later damaged by debris, news broadcasts from the day, as well as various versions of footage from the attacks. Amongst the more harrowing parts of the collection are actual recordings of radio conversations between the cabin crew and air traffic control, and answering machine messages left by and for the victims.

We returned to the Theatre District for lunch then doughnuts from Dough Doughnuts (one more ticked off Josh's list). A final stop in Times Square, in front of a web cam that Brad was watching at home, and then it was back to our hostel to collect our belongings and head to the airport.

Since Roslyn had initially flown over to Las Vegas for work, she was entitled to a work-paid return journey. We farewelled each other on the airport shuttle and then boarded our separate planes. A wonderful and whirlwind time in New York, and somewhere we look forward to visiting again.

Highlights:

- Long time waiting in immigration

- First time using the New York subway

- Stayed in the esteemed Upper West Side of Manhattan

- Times Square

- Staten Island Ferry, past Statue of Liberty

- 9/11 Memorial

- Walked over Brooklyn Bridge

- Shake Shack

- Times Square at night

- Walked over 11 kilometres on Saturday

- Central Park cycle tour

- Bethesda Terrace

- The Mall

- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

- Lunch at Ess-a-Bagel

- Rockefeller Centre, Top of the Rock – Sun and Stars package

- Caught up with Sam Daley
- Grand Central Station

- Junior's for cheesecake

- 9/11 Museum

- Dough Doughnuts

Week 81 in London

Week 81: 17 – 23 October 2016

On Monday it was back to work as usual for Brendan whilst Roslyn commenced her week of work in Las Vegas.

Following a morning practise jog, she helped in the setup of the London & Partners stand on Monday prior to the the opening day of IMEX America on Tuesday. She fitted in one last practise run on Tuesday morning, and then it was onto the first day of the show. The first day of IMEX concluded with the eVent at Intrigue Nightclub.

Meanwhile on his jog home on Tuesday night, Brendan witnessed a sunset unlike any other he’d seen before in London. An amazing golden glow, with strong red and orange hues, further highlighted the already illuminated Albert Bridge. We can’t recall having seen any other sunsets like this in London, usually the sun is shrouded by cloud so you don’t even notice that it’s gone…

On Wednesday morning and after months of training, Roslyn rose early to complete the 5 kilometre IMEXrun run. With a great sense of accomplishment, it was onto the second day of the show and, in the evening, the MPI Rendezvous at Drai’s Nightclub, a rooftop bar overlooking The Strip.

Thursday was the final day of IMEX, wrapping up with a team dinner at the amazing Mexican restaurant, El Segundo Sol. Roslyn had fish tacos and gave them rave reviews.

Brendan worked a half day on Friday and just after lunch headed out to Gatwick Airport, bound for New York. Roslyn farewelled Las Vegas, also heading to New York, so our adventure of the fifth continent together could begin.

Highlights for the week:

- Roslyn working in Vegas at IMEX America

- Final practise runs before IMEXrun

- Sunset over Albert Bridge

- eVent at Intrigue Nightclub

- Roslyn completed the 5 kilometre IMEXrun run

- MPI Rendezvous at Drai’s Nightclub

- Fish tacos at El Segundo Sol Mexican restaurant

- Half day Friday for Brendan

- Both departed our respective cities bound for New York

Week 80 in London - Roslyn heads to Sin City

Week 80: 10 – 16 October 2016

A few months earlier Roslyn had received confirmation that she would be going to Las Vegas for the IMEX America exhibition. Once she’d found out that there was an optional 5 kilometre run for the exhibitors, Roslyn set herself the goal that she was going to complete this (hence our recent interest in jogging).

Working from home on Tuesday, she got in some final London practise at lunchtime.

On Saturday morning, it was time for Roslyn to fly out with her near 40 kilograms of luggage. Roslyn would be spending the week working in Las Vegas and we’d arranged to then both meet up in New York on Friday night. Her luggage therefore comprised partly work gear, partly her clothing, and partly Brendan’s clothing (his flight didn’t include sufficient luggage). Heading back from the drop off, Brendan’s infrequent use of the trains and skimming over of the signboards resulted in him ending up on the wrong train.

Whilst Roslyn was in the air, Brendan headed over to the tourist mecca of Covent Garden to visit the London Transport Museum. The museum is housed in a Grade II heritage listed former flower market hall and explores the story of London’s transport network over history.

There he learnt that the Thames Tunnel, which today forms part of the London Overground network, was the world’s first tunnel to be built beneath a river. London’s very first railway, a steam railway, commenced operation in 1836. By 1900 there were significantly more trains running and more than 100,000 people had lost their homes to demolition for the railways. Staggeringly, these people were not provided with any alternative options nor rehomed because the railway companies had no legal obligation to do so.

Construction began on London's first tube, the Metropolitan Railway, in 1854 and passenger transportation commenced in 1863. This heralded the opening of the world’s first underground railway. The routes of the former Metropolitan Railway now make up various lines of the current London Underground system.

With all of the escalators in some of the stations now, it is easy to forget just how deep underground you actually are. Apparently the tube lines throughout London are anywhere from 6 to 58 meters beneath the ground.

Roslyn arrived in Las Vegas on Saturday, where the temperature was a steamy 32°C and the time was eight hours behind London. On Sunday, she enjoyed a day to relax and explore. Walking up The Strip, she visited the Fashion Show Mall and for lunch went to In-N-Out Burger and ordered from the ironically famous secret menu. There was a team gathering for dinner at Smith & Wollensky steak house, to give everyone a chance to get together prior to running the trade stall in the coming days.

On Sunday Brendan headed over to Maltby Street Markets in East London, to try out doughnuts that rate number 21 on Time Out’s ‘101 things to do in London’. The Maltby Street Markets are in a bit of a strange spot, down a narrow alley way between council housing estates, and are brimming with an array of stalls serving street food.

Next he headed across to Greenwich to the land-mounted Cutty Sark ship, via the automated DLR (Docklands Light Railway). The novelty of travelling on this driverless service was an added bonus, given that because of where this train line is located Brendan had only been on it once before. Back in February this year, Roslyn had a breakfast event on board the impressive ship, a former sea hauler of tea.

Having seen and heard the advertising for “London’s largest car dealership” (appropriately named Cargiant) and with few other plans for the afternoon, Brendan headed over to the other side of the city. Cargiant is like an IKEA for second hand vehicles with thousands of cars parked row upon row either in large warehouses or out on the forecourt. There are no salespeople wandering around, instead it seems that you note down the stock number of the car you’re interested in and then go to the sales office where you join a line of countless other people. Eventually you'd be given the keys so that you can unlock the car, sit in it and start the engine. Appearances suggest that should you wish to actually take it for a drive, that’s a whole other process.

His journey back home was again plagued by a misinterpretation of train schedules, for the second time this weekend ending up on the wrong branch of the line.

Highlights for the week:

- Roslyn’s final London-based practise jog before the IMEX run

- Roslyn departed for Las Vegas

- Brendan got lost on the trains

- London Transport Museum
- Roslyn explored The Strip
- Fashion Show Mall
- In-N-Out Burger

- Maltby Street Markets

- Doughnuts from St John Bakery

- Journeyed on the driverless DLR

- Cutty Sark

- Cargiant

- Brendan got lost on the trains again

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Saturday 8th October 2016:

On Saturday morning we set off for the weekend in Belfast, Northern Ireland. On advice from Brendan’s manager, Georgie, we had already pre booked a rental car to make the most of our time in this relatively small country.

The reservation instructions, with their offer of a complimentary shuttle bus, had made it sound as if the rental office was some distance from the terminal. On arriving at Belfast International Airport, we called for the shuttle bus from within the terminal and headed outside to wait in the designated zone. Once we’d stepped out of the terminal it turned out, the Sixt headquarters were within eyesight - literally only across the car park, a few hundred metres away. We waited, feeling bad to just vanish, and yet somehow it still took 20 minutes for the bus to arrive.

The bus journey lasted all of roughly a minute and a half, and soon enough we were cruising off in a red Kia Rio (Brendan had been hoping for a more European car but anyway…). Instead of heading into the city we’d made the decision to zoom out through the rolling green hills of the countryside to spend the day on the north coast and the Causeway Coastal Route.

About an hour from the airport, we reached the seaside town of Portrush. The road into the town passes by Royal Portrush Golf Club. The course has been beautifully designed to embrace the contours of its undulating terrain and on one side borders the North Atlantic ocean. We drove through town, past the harbour, and set out to find lunch. Even though it was only a Saturday, there wasn’t much open. After lunch we drove through the main street and up to the top of the peninsula, where we were perplexed to see several abandoned and boarded up terrace homes. Just about anywhere else these homes would be worth in the millions with their amazing unobstructed ocean views, but here they have just been left to decay.

Back on the road and we set off along the Causeway Coastal Route, presumably the Northern Ireland equivalent of the Great Ocean Road, bound for the Giant's Causeway. The Giant’s Causeway is the result of more than 40,000 interlocking basalt columns formed by intense volcanic and geological activity 60 million years ago. The legend behind the formation has it that a giant called Finn McCool built the Giant’s Causeway as a path across the sea to reach Scotland. On reaching Scotland an even larger giant Benandonner is awaiting ready to fight Finn. When Finn realises just how big Benandonner is, he runs back home to his wife, Oona, meanwhile Benandonner has followed Finn over. Oona dresses Finn up as a baby and when Benandonner reaches Finn’s home and sees the size of the "baby", he is scared off by the thought of how big his father must be. Benandonner runs back across to Scotland and smashes the Giant’s Causeway so that Finn cannot follow.

Throughout the site are several clues of Finn’s existence, including the Giant’s Boot, the Camel and the Giant’s Granny. We were told that there are similar columnar basalt formations on the Isle of Staffa in Scotland, providing further proof of the existence of giants.

Back on the road we headed on to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, around 15 minutes from the Giant’s Causeway. The rope bridge was traditionally hoisted up and down by fisherman to link to a small island off the mainland during salmon season, and back then only had one handrail rope. The current bridge provides a sturdier journey, having been upgraded by the National Trust to include two handrails, while still retaining bounce and sway to incite just the right amount of scariness. Although after our recent trip to Go Ape, we barely batted an eyelid at the thought of the rope bridge. We were amazed at the transparency and radiant colour of the sea water.

Returning to the red rocket Rio we cruised on back towards Belfast, detouring via the natural attraction known as the Dark Hedges. On a quiet country lane, the intertwined branches of these beech trees is quite a remarkable sight to behold. At our arrival, while the sun was setting, the trees were surrounded by the aurora aura of a golden glow. The photos look even more dramatic in black and white.

The Dark Hedges have been used in filming, most notably Game of Thrones, and so there are tour operators that roll down these narrow country roads with bus loads of tourists. We were fortunate enough that only a few other people were around, so we could best enjoy the atmosphere.

It was dark by the time we arrived at our hostel. It was lucky we were already tired because our room, located directly opposite a rowdy pub, was far from sound proof.

The next morning we went on a walking tour organised by the hostel, however since none of the other guests joined up, it was just the two of us and the guide.

We started wandering the street up towards Queens University, past King William Park, where we started noticing a lot of abandoned buildings. Our guide made comment that Belfast has low property rents but high vacancy rates. He also said that each year Northern Ireland loses a third of all 18 year olds who move out of the country to escape from the religious/political drama.

We continued on through the Botanic Gardens and then down through a commercial district, all the while still passing abandoned shops and houses. Many of those that have been boarded up have had large stickers depicting windows and doors put on in an attempt by the council to conceal their derelict state. Our guide continued telling us about the trouble between the Catholics and Protestants. In a nutshell, the extremist outfits of the Catholics desire a united, independent republic of Ireland while the Protestant loyalists are devoted to the British monarchy.

Our guide explained that, oddly, the extremist Protestants generally hate England but are attached to the idea of remaining a part of Great Britain because of the links and close proximity to Scotland. Indeed from certain parts of Northern Ireland, you can see across to Scotland. From the stories we were told, the ongoing warring between the two groups has resulted in Northern Ireland being a bit of an unwanted child. Apparently when surveyed in recent years, most citizens in the Republic of Ireland said they did not want to unify with their northern neighbours. Our guide speculated that considering the tumultuous past, Great Britain would probably also like to rid themselves of Northern Ireland.

Back down near the hostel, we wandered past some very smart public housing. These homes were charming, well presented terraces – you’d never guess that they were public housing. Apparently the cost to live in one of these starts from a mere £85 per week. Maybe we should have been living in Belfast all this time. On the opposite side of the street are former police headquarters. Sitting to the rear of the old police station is the abandoned and derelict former Social Security Office, bombed by mistake in the 1990s (our guide said the intended target was probably the police station). On the side walls of some of these council-owned homes are murals, acting as recruitment propaganda for the extremist gangs. Our guide said that they generally target teenage boys. Opposite most of these advertisements for violence are then artworks coordinated by the council, depicting how a mainstream life of education and employment is a better way.

We were lead north further towards the city centre stopping in briefly at St Malachy's Church, one of the oldest Catholic churches in Belfast, and past the grand City Hall.

After the tour we went for lunch in an Irish pub, up the glass viewing dome at Victoria Square and then, on advice from our guide, took the car and headed a short distance out of the city to the coastal suburb of Holywood (with one 'l').

After about an hour sitting in a park on lush green grass fronting the sandy beach, it was time to head back to the airport and return the car.

Overall our time spent in Belfast had been positive, but the discovery of a minor scratch on the car marred the weekend slightly. The full story of our rental car rigmarole is detailed at the bottom of this post.

Highlights:
- Hired a car
- Lunch at Portrush
- White Rocks beach
- Causeway Coastal Route
- Giant's Causeway
- The Camel
- Giant's Granny
- Giant's Boot
- Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
- Dark Hedges, scene of filming for Game of Thrones
- Walking tour of Belfast
- King William Park
- Queens University
- Belfast Botanic Gardens
- Propaganda murals by the religious extremist gangs
- St Malachy’s Church
- City Hall
- Victoria Square Dome
- Drove out to Holywood and sat by the beach

Our rent a car rigmarole:

With only a limited time in Belfast we had pre-booked a hire car online, having selected the exact type of vehicle and insurance that we wanted, with the understanding that on arrival all we would need to do is produce ID and pay for the hire. We had opted to upgrade the insurance cover so that the excess in case of an accident was set at £100. We had chosen Sixt, as they are a large and well known company throughout Europe, and their offering seemed like the best vale.

On arriving at the rental office, the staff member told us that the car booked had been upgraded to a brand new one and that since our booking was only for 2 days, he would downgrade the loss damage waiver insurance to save us approximately £10. This downgrade then meant that the insurance excess would be £350. In any of our previous experiences with rental car companies, they have always recommended upgrading to set the excess at the lowest possible amount so we did think it was strange that he was downgrading the level of cover, but trusted his recommendation.

We were given the keys and vague instructions to find the car around the rear of the building; however at no point did an employee from Sixt accompany us to the vehicle. We found our particular car, parked side-by-side and nose-to-tail with other vehicles. The weather at the time of our collection was very overcast and starting to drizzle. Brendan did a walk around of the vehicle to see if there was any obvious damage but with the overall positioning of the vehicle and overcast, cloudy weather his visibility was reduced. There was no damage to the car that was immediately obvious.

We returned the car the following day, Sunday, and completed the handover with a different member of staff. This employee observed a small chip in the paint work and scuff mark to the lower left side of the front bumper bar. We had not noticed this small mark at any point until the employee, almost down on his hands and knees, pointed it out to us. In the limited time we’d used the vehicle, we had not hit anything. The scuff mark was noted as a “scratch” measuring > 10 cm, requiring an accident report form to be completed. The mark was not a deep scratch into the paintwork and merely a surface scuff and Brendan made comment that it could be easily polished out and removed however the staff member was dismissive of this suggestion. We were then made to fill in an accident report form and the £350 excess was processed.

After having enjoyed our time in Northern Ireland, we were furious and felt as if the entire weekend had been ruined. We couldn’t shake this feeling that the entire rental had been set up to scam us. Why were we intentionally sold downgraded insurance despite the original reservation, and provided with a brand new car that they would of course be more pedantic about? On return of the vehicle to the different staff member, his identification of the “damage” and in addition his reluctance to even attempt to rub the mark off, was a further insult.

Our entire weekend in Belfast had been relatively cheap hence the decision to pick up a hire car. The hire in itself was also pleasantly affordable, however once the £350 damage excess was processed our budget had truly blown out.

UPDATE: following an email to Sixt’s customer service explaining the experience we'd had, one of the directors phoned Brendan and was very apologetic and wanted to assure us that this is not how they conduct their business. He agreed to refund the full amount of the excess that had been charged. A win for us in the end!

Week 79 in London

Week 79: 3 - 9 October 2016

On Tuesday night Roslyn enjoyed a very rare dining experience, attending a dinner event in Westminster Abbey.

Meanwhile, Brendan went out into the cold night air on a mission to stock up on our favourite yogurt, skyr. As we discovered back in Week 64, skyr is only available at certain Waitrose supermarkets and the nearest one to us is 2.5 kilometres away at Balham.  Brendan had already walked/jogged home the 4 kilometres from work to home, and then onwards to Balham expecting to stock up on skyr for the week ahead.

Disaster struck when he arrived and found only one lonely tub. Deciding that this was a good time to campaign Waitrose to bring skyr to our nearest shop, he took to Facebook to plead his case.

Despite Waitrose’s fairly generic response and lack of engagement in any banter, we both returned the following day and cleared the shelf of all 12 tubs of skyr.

When Brendan’s colleagues found out about the ordeal, dubbed “yogurt-gate”, they all became curious as to why the skyr was so sought after by us. He had to take a tub in to share with them so they’d really understand.

We spent Friday night packing up our small travel cases for the weekend away in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Highlights for the week:

- Roslyn had a dinner event at Westminster Abbey

- Brendan attempted to convince Waitrose to expand the availability of skyr

- Returned the next day to buy every skyr on the shelf
- Prepared for our trip away to Belfast

Week 78 in London

Week 78: 26 September - 2 October 2016

Lots of people (mostly Brits) have asked us how we can afford to go away so much. You know how? It isn't all glamorous! By flying at crappy, inconvenient times with budget airlines (e.g. easyJet and Ryanair), often from and to inconvenient secondary airports (like Stansted and Luton) and then staying in hostels or budget hotels.

Roslyn's friend from back in Griffith, Hilary, was in town on Tuesday prior to her move to Hamburg, Germany and the three of us went for dinner at Southbank.

On Thursday Roslyn scoped out Windsor Castle, the Royal's main residence, on a site visit for an upcoming dinner.

We set out on Saturday in hunt of ideas for Christmas presents. On Oxford Street we elbowed our way through the standard slow paced and oblivious tourists. We refuelled with lunch at Selfridges, Roslyn picking up her first of the newly released plastic £5 notes.

Considering the number of times we have been down Oxford Street, it is amazing how little of the surrounding area we'd seen. Turning off of the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street, we took a short walk and discovered the charming almost village-like high street of Marylebone.

For the evening, we headed across to Wandsworth to see Bridget Jones's Baby but on arriving the tickets were all sold out! The next nearest cinema of the same chain had the exact same viewing times, and so we rushed in an Uber across to Chelsea to still make it in time.

There was a late lunch booked in for Sunday afternoon, at the well reputed Sushisamba. Sitting 38 floors above London, we were also lucky enough to be given a table seated on the window, to really take in the views. From one of the terraces multiple landmarks are visible in the one panorama, London Bridge, Tower of Lindon, The Shard, The Gherkin and The Cheesegrater. On the other terrace, a vibrant sculpture of a tree added some colourful Autumn fun to the experience.

Highlights for the week:
- Dinner with Hilary on Tuesday night

- Roslyn on a site visit at Windsor Castle
- Christmas shopping on Oxford Street
- First new plastic £5 note
- Discovered Marylebone High Street
- Watched Bridget Jones's Baby
- Lunch at Sushisamba