London, England. Thursday/Monday 27-November/01-December-2025.
A hectic weekend in London triggered by our friend Bill's 70th year celebration on the Sunday! We decided to make a long weekend of it and took full advantage of our time down south.
Thursday 27-November-2025
Thursday night we travelled to Romford, staying at Spark by Hilton right next to Romford Station. Spark by Hilton is their entry into the premium economy market. Although the facilities were fine the room was a shoebox with a maximum of 15" (40cm) on all sides round the bed - I literally had to walk sideways to get round the foot of the bed and when you opened the bathroom door you could not get to the wardrobe nor to the room door. On the upside, that evening we ate at a very good Turkish restaurant just across the road.
Friday 28-November-2025
Friday was fun: a visit to Mary's hairdresser of more than 30 years followed by a lovely Japanese lunch (not available in Penrith) at Shoryu in Covent Garden. Followed by an afternoon of culture: an exhibition by choreographer Wayne McGregor exploring the use of AI in dance and music plus our annual visit to the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery to marvel at how they managed to capture so much of the character of the subject.
That was followed by a lovely evening of eating, drinking and catching up with old friends from my time working on a massive, and ultimately failed, IT project based in Drury Lane (NPfIT, 2004-2008). We met at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, an extraordinarily historic pub with labyrinthine cellars pre-dating the Great Fire of London (1666).
As we walked to the pub this was the view down Fleet Street to St Pauls' where Mary and I were married!
Then back to Romford and our shoebox.
Saturday 29-November-2025
Saturday was #parkrunday, of course, at Ingrebourne Hill in Rainham and the reason we had based ourselves in Romford - we needed an "I" for our second alphabet.
That evening we went over to Witham for an overnight stay with friend Andrea and a meal at another excellent local Turkish restaurant "Astare" with friends Elaine and husband Mark.
Sunday 30-November-2025
Sunday morning was back into London and the primary reason behind the trip - a celebration of friend Bill's 70th year with a meal at the Ivy at Tower Bridge. Gorgeous food, wine and service in a fabulous room with an equally fabulous view.
Many of those present were friends I met back in 1979 after I moved to London and revelled in the bright lights, big city. Those were heady days or as Bill likes to say, "Our salad days, when we were green in judgment" [Wikipedia].
Mary, Allan, Bron.
Conversations with old friends.
The birthday boy!
The obligatory team photo.
The Thames night sky looking atmospehric.
After a fantastic celebration it was down to earth with a bump: an overnight stay in the Premier Inn in Wandsworth.
Monday 01-December-2025
First thing Monday morning we did a check over and some deep cleaning of our rented flat before a new tenant moves in. Then back on the train to Penrith in the afternoon feeling tired and happy (and about a stone heavier).
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