Tracking South

Early start to get the train to London. Mr B was mainly monosyllabic until part way through the journey - even a strong coffee and fry up not being enough to counteract a night on the whisky with Dad (who was up bright and breezy at 7am).

I took the kids to Aunty R's house while Mr B went to be scalped at the hairdressers. Aunty R lives in an apartment overlooking the Thames, so the kids had much fun leaning over the balcony waving at all the boats going by (only the Police waved back....)

We had booked a babysitter, with the wonderfully appropriate name of Patience Obey (not correct spelling) who coped admirably with the kids while we four (Uncle M having arrived back some time during the second bottle of champagne) headed out for a rare and lovely evening out. First up, a very exclusive bar on top of a skyscraper. I could tell you where, but then I'd have to kill you. Exclusive actually mainly seemed to mean expensive and very quiet, perhaps it would liven up later on. However, the drinks were delicious, the views extraordinary and the company very entertaining. My only problem with the place was it's very advantage: its height. There was a metre wide balcony all the way around, with walls around it around 1.2 metres tall. Unfortunately it was very windy, and the walls were mostly made of glass - so I inched my way around, pressed up hard against the wall of the building. In other words making a right arse of myself. And despite leaning the camera on the parapet, the photos are all a bit wobbly.

Ground level came as quite a relief and we headed off to a new Spanish restaurant for copious amounts of very delicious meat, potatoes, etc. The most interesting dish was probably the squid ink risotto (I know, that's Italian, but that's what it was like.)

Having slightly wimped out of the rooftop photos, instead here's a photo from a pub we went to after dinner. I'm told it's where Dickens danced on tables as a child, which seemed entirely plausible while I was there, but now looks rather unlikely. Ah well, you had to be there, I suppose.