Life in London: Week 84 in London

Week 84: 7 – 13 November 2016

Early in the week we ordered a present for Adam’s 18^th birthday and posted off his card. Would it make it in time? Based on previous experiences when sending mail internationally, it seems to be a matter of luck.

On Thursday morning Roslyn headed out early to Sheraton Grand Park Lane, who were hosting her and her work colleagues for a showing of rooms followed by a breakfast. She based herself at the Sheraton for the morning before heading down the road to Smith & Wollensky steak house for a farewell lunch for a colleague going on maternity leave.

Friday morning for Brendan was the Quarterly Lettings Meeting at head office, where he was unexpectedly announced as a contender for “Best performance from a non-fee earning staff member” (i.e. those who aren’t an agent/negotiator). Unfortunately it was not his time to take the prize, but the kind words submitted by his colleagues and said in the nomination were most appreciated.

On Saturday we headed out to the far east, Stratford, to the red steel ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. In all its glory, the tower is visually striking in the skyline of the Olympic Park but up on the second floor viewing platform the scale model looks more like a shisha pipe. Little bit weird.

The skies today were grey, cloudy and drizzly therefore we weren’t able to see much of the skyline. Although we have been fortunate enough to ascend a number of other tall buildings around the Capital so had a rough idea of what lay beyond the mist.

At 3:15pm we headed down to the first floor where the recently opened 178 metre long slide is. Roslyn came a few months earlier with work. We watched a number of other visitors take to the slide, they didn’t look to be going that fast however being in the tunnel feels very different. The slide is well designed for its 40 seconds of fun, with sections of both light and dark, with unexpected twists and turns, and varying gradients so some parts are quicker than others.

A complete coincidence but we were back out to Stratford and the Olympic Park again on Sunday, with tickets in hand to the England vs Australia Four Nations Rugby League.