The Sabbaticus Line: London Calling

We arrived in London on Saturday 4^th July 2015. We travelled from Vancouver by Air Canada, an experience that was nowhere near as good as travelling with Air New Zealand – which makes us feel proud of being a Kiwi.

Even though Julie and I have been to London before, we decided to join a bus tour of the city that included a boat ride on the Thames. While this took a full day, it took us to places that we had not visited before and provided information that we did not know

We've now visited Buckingham Place three times. While you may say that this is a little excessive, we were hoping to be invited to join the Queen for one of her many garden parties. While this has not happened yet, we remain hopeful.

We’ve visited some wonderful restaurants and meet some interesting people. It’s amazing how quickly you develop an ear for listening for accents in the hope of finding another kiwi soul—surprisingly, even an Australian soul is well received.

On Sunday evening we had a meal in an Italian restaurant, a place called Liveli, in Coventry garden. Julie had cod in tomatoes with anchovies and olives. She said, "oh so nice, so tasty". This was followed by a beautiful delicate panna cotta with plums. Monday evening, we went to the Ping Pong restaurant in James Street. This turned out to be one of the best authentic dim sim we’ve had—scrumptious. We also enjoyed lunch at the Casa Brindisa served Tapas—small dishes; cheese, breads, olive oil for dipping, mackerel pate and a wine of course! This is located in an area called ‘little France’.

You can’t help but get caught up in the positive atmosphere during the long summer nights. The pubs are full of people following the excitement at Wimbledon—particularly the English play Andrew Murray.

Last night we visited Brown Hart Gardens near Oxford Street. It is an unusual building. Built in 1905 and partly buried below ground, the building is of a Baroque style featuring a roof garden together with a type of pavilion, and a set of steps, at each end. Being such an unusual structure, Julie and I tried to guess what it was used for. I though it may be part of the underground. Julie thought that it must be for municipal use – like a pump station. It turns out that Julie got it right, it is the home of the Duke Street Electricity Substation. The reason for the visit was that a colleague, who worked with us on the ARP in Christchurch—Martin Savage from BDP, won a prestigious award for his landscape design of the Brown Hart Gardens.

At the end of each day we feel the quiet satisfaction of another day in this fascinating city of shops, restaurants, historic buildings and multiple nationalities.