Sleeping Over Russia

Business class is the " new cattle class " well at least some of the food on this BA flight was  ... Bit harsh... Hmmmm

Peter Moore your such a food snob !!!  No I'm not ... but my memories of 10 year ago when the little salt and pepper were in little containers, now it is in a paper tear apart just like you would get at CFC ... and where have the flowers 

gone from the in flight toilets ! and that beautiful little scented hand creams.

It just won't do Mr BA !!! 

Our seats over we're fantastic, really fantastic, remember the little pair in the middle isle and that folded down and into our own little double bed apartment. Well this time we have a window seat, well Sandy does and they are separate, well together, side by side but facing each other with the little wall to separate us so it will be two little single beds apartments for tonight, sad ...

Dinner arrives and I go for the Japanese platter and it was amazing i love Japanese food and I can taste a food memory that I had some 10 years ago when I was last in Japan but have not had since. They are in the pickles and were a Shiso leaves that have a pungent flavour, I love them and to date I have not been able to get or taste them in Aus.  

We get two chocolate bars ! each ! well mini mini ones, about 25 mm x 60 mm and " oh so Japanese " great 2 bars of chocolate with so few calories better not eat them to fast then ... 

As we got on the plane in London at 1 pm and are arriving into Japan at 7 am their time tomorrow ... so with someone,s day turning into someone's night on the plane we settle down to sleep after lunch / dinner as we fly over Russia and get into the new time zone and drift off into sleep.

Out Of London

So it's a goodby to London and the heat wave but bound for Japan into there heat wave ! can't wait for that one... and so onto our last leg of this amazing Food Tour.

Mind you and shsh " keep it quiet " it was nice to have some plain English pub grub after Italy and before the pallet get a real workout in Japan.

So out to the air port and we have managed to get all back into to the suitcases once again, mind you a very large create will be leaving Italy soon, just some Italian dinnerware that Sandy can possible live with out !!!

So give me a break what do you mean you are going to have to throw out some of our lotions and potions that we have carried around the world and through every other security screens, now you say that you would like them in little 

100 ml container in little ziplock bags so that you can scan them " really " it's an out rage bla bla bla ... shut up Pete ... do you want us lockup ... go to the little airport chemist and buy the little plastic container that the girl wants us to have so we can get through security...  Well it observe ...  she must has a invested share in that chemist as the containers we £ 2.00 each ...Pete deal with it... You do love to carry on ... Who me Nhoooo  

So after we invest in the chemist store and buy the little clear plastic bottles that they buy by the 1000's for people just like us and probley only pay 2 cents for....just to put in some creams that Sandy needs for her face and some special sun cream that she has to have. We decanter them down and with a big smile on the lady face and now she lets us take them through in our hand luggage.

Yep yep it is for security reasons but it was already in a bottle that was 120 ml but they have to be in 100ml, but you can't tell these day who is a terrorist or a tourist.

Note to self next time get some 100 ml containers and clear ziplock bags.

So it's off to the BC lounge for a drink to settle my nerves, I did have to throw out my body butter, poop, poop, it was my nice cream, the one that I use on my bald head, laugh if you may, but this head takes a lot of maintenance to keep looking this good, I'm not just naturally this beautiful you know  ... I have to work at it !!!

I should have just stood there and applied it all over my body just out of principle, settle pettle we can get more of that somewhere ... I know I can ...

but I want that one !!!! Really ... it like having a 2 year old .... Yep I know !!!

Royal Afternoon

Well what a nice way to spend the afternoon in London, after the Bus ride no. 86 in and a movie " Internment " followed by some Ben & Jerry ice-cream we then have to get from Leister Square to the Appollo Victoria Theatre . Some times getting direction from locals is not such a good idea as they all want to catch a bus or the tube as it is so far from one theatre to the other... Not.... But as a tourist we want to walk, so getting from Leister Square to the Appollo Victoria Theatre behind Buck Palace according to the locals one would think that you needed to take a packed lunch!!

So with a trusty map that we picked up we head off with a few hours to kill before tonight showing of Wicked.

It was like walking on the monopoly board. From memory the dark purple of Whitehall, Northumberland Avenue, Yellow of The Strand, Piccadilly, and my fave the  dark green of Oxford, Bond and Regent St I used to love how the little red hotels looked on them, past Pall Mall what a walk and a blast from the monopoly past ...

We then made our way up the royal mile heading to the Buckingham Palace   with the flags waving all along the street towards the Palace was a amazing sire to see and thing to do.

As we get to the large roundabout out the front of the Palace with the gold statue sitting regally high and the whole area was swarming with people, they have closed it to traffic even though the royal baby is some weeks away from arriving. The press and the press tents are all there ready to catch the first glimpse of some new royal moment.

It's hard not to get involved with the whole party affect but as we will be long gone prior to the birth I can just tell that it is going to be a right royal party for Londoners...

The Breakfast Club

A bit more breakfast R & D is needed !! so lets do breakfast, cool....

And what a great place and on the High Street at Clapham Junction. We walked past everday and there was always a que but today was our lucky day as there was tables waiting. The place is just heaving with young hipsters day in day out and I can see why... It offers a big breakfast and " wifi " . So many other restaurants around them seam to be empty but don't want to offer the wifi and standing on their digs as they say it only attract people to sit at tables and no money. But as the cash register rang at The Breakfast Club and the customer turned over these guys are doing a great business, why would they que otherwise. It was so great to see how a well run place is going.

The place was a 1950's fit out and with some modern quirkily touches open fronted to take in the morning winter sun.

At the entrance there was a old sink and metal cabinet with painted overheads that look like the came from a demolition site or old council flat. These were setup with menus and water bottles. As the rest of the area it was set up with laminex tables and chrome vinyl 1950's chairs and a big English porcelain bull dog on the 

As for breakfast yes you could do the typical big breaky that pulls the crowds but we opted for the more interesting tit bits off the menu.

Had the birchlier muesli  to share which was served in a old enamel campfire bowl and looking like true food critic we dissected it to work out what they had used to make such a great muesli. Following this I had a bean dish  wich was Ham Hocks and a tomato and bean stew with a egg on top with so sourdough toast, I loved it...  and Sandy did have a poached eggs with paper thin English smoked bacon with a lime, avacardo and harrisa sauce, also so realy Yumo.

 

All in all another great breakfast and the atmosphere of the 1950's and the young people filling the space was fun and very active to watch. 

But will we change the breakfast menu at The Retreat ... well that's a biggish NO ... it was good ... real good in fact ... but Sandy to me is the " Queen " of the breakfast dishes that we have tried over the past 3 months.

But I'm proberly a bit bias.

Do Ya Think !!!!

Bus No. 86

I have loved the bus to and from the city into the West End as the train are so hot with this current heat wave.

We walk down the hill about 5 mins to get a No .86 into the city proper. 

The buses are great big red ones and double deckers so we head upstair and on a few occasion have jagged the front top seats with a big picture window and what a great view. It was like being on a tour bus as we made our way in over the Thames river right onto the road that takes us past the Westminster Catheridal and Big Ben, past Dowling Street which is now close by beautiful huge big black gates with armed security men at ever entrance.

Up to Trafalgar Square with a view off to the left of the Royal Palace at the end of the royal mile with the flags waving all along the street. 

Carful Where You Park The Car

Woken to the sounds of a car alarm going off big time and as I get to the window to see want is happing just in time to see a interesting sight, a huge car carrier truck is blocking the small one way street below our London pad and I think it is not going to make someone's day that for sure.

The parking is so limited that unless you really need a car why bother and today is an example of this and it has happen on several time during our stay here. Cars are hoisted onto the back of these big truck and drive away and impounded. Talking to a cabbie he tells us that they don't clamp the wheel anymore as parking is so limited that the cars owner may not claim the car for several days so that the space is then unavailable for other people that have the proper paid up permits to park there, so just take them away.

The fines are something like $500  + $30 a day that it is in the impound ouch.

Take a bus or train and sell the car ...

Missing Our Big Blue Sky

As we walk the small streets around our little suburb of Clapham Junction I can't get over the amount of trimmed and untamed privet hedges everywhere and they are giving my hay fever a real work out, but it is mid summer here and it just goes to show the difference in our two climates. Back home the privet is dun and dusted by mid spring but here as the temperature are some what milder they flower much much longer, so can't see me living in London the hay fever would do me in big time.

But the other thing that is so different to Aussie is the greyish-blue summer skies, as we sit one day the only clouds that can be seen in the sky are made up from the jet streams that crisscross the sky. I suppose living under a busy flight path what would you expect.

The days are english hot at 26 to 30 deg and back home that would be mid spring temperatures and our sky's at that temperature would be a beaming blue with big white fluffy clouds. I'm sure that it is also a heat and pollution haze but living under the big London sky's is so different to our clean clear sky's that we so enjoy in regional NSW.