About Bloody Time

We finally had our official "welcome to London" event today. We were supposed to picnic in Kensignton Gardens, but it was raining so we wound up at a pub in Notting Hill Gate called The Champion. In attendance were: Kevin (a friend of Tim Schreck from SF); Philip, Peter and their pal Luke (Kath & Philip became friends when they both worked at Wunderman); Tim Warmath (Tim & Ned - who was in bed - are friends of Max from SF, and also friends of Kevin somehow); Rachel, Suzette's sister; and Kath (Craig is in SF). We had bloodies. We had nibbles. We had beer. We had Sunday Roast. Then we walked through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park (the weather had cleared) to The Blue Bar, where we were joined by Eric and David (Steven & I met Eric in Istanbul) for cocktails and more nibbles. After that, Kath accompanied Steven and me to Automat for dinner. Here is the only evidence of the day's proceedings:
Espresso Martinis, etc.

South Bank Saturday

Steven & I had one of those amazing "only in London" days. After the best coffee in town, we took our time wandering in all the Portobello Market arcades. It's just astonishing what's for sale there. Then we walked up Golborne Road to Harrow Road (where they thought some of the suicide bombers were on Friday) and along the Grand Central Canal to Paddington. We had lunch at Beiruit Express on Edgware Road, followed by a stoll through Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens. We met up again after Steven's workout and hopped in a taxi to the Tate Modern for the Herzog & de Meuron and Frida Kahlo exhibits. We then made our way along South Bank and across the Hungerford Pedestrian Bridge to Soho, where we did a bit of a bar crawl, had a David Schwimmer sighting, and ate our supper at Boheme. BTW, David's kinda short.
Jubilee Bridge & St. Paul's
Book stalls
Hungerford Bridge
Big Ben
The Eye & Parliament

Sunday stroll

Through Kensington Palace Gardens:

The Orangery
Where's Waldo (Steven)?
Chicks & their mamas

Then through Hyde Park to Piccadilly and the Wolseley, where Suzette, Sophia and Jeff took us to lunch for Steven's birthday (remember it's a season):

Cookie plate