Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Not the news

Kath and I have spent the last few days down in London. The main purpose of the trip was to visit the US embassy so that Kath could obtain a visa in order to travel to New York with me in November.

We travelled to London Sunday morning leaving behind torrential rain in Manchester. Arriving around midday into Euston then a quick hop to Victoria finally on to the Pestana London Bridge. We had stayed here previously and found it to be a rather fantastic hotel. Nice and quite and also well placed for the US embassy in Nine Elms. After checking in we went for a little walk to the Dutches Belle for Sunday lunch. I had to complete a 10km treadmill run so Kath had a little snooze.

Sunday evening we headed to the Criterion theatre in the West end to watch a “a play about a bank robbery”. Kath really enjoyed it and while I had a few laughs it was a little slapstick for my tastes. Running late before the theatre we ended up grabbing dinner at 5 Guys. The burger was great but top tip don’t order more than one fries because we did it was death by chips!

Monday we headed to Nine Elms for the Embassy. It s a super smart new building surrounded by a raft of new buildings and the grandly title embassy square. Kath had to go in alone is I waited in a local coffee shop. When she didn’t emerge after an hour I headed back to the hotel and went for a swim.
American embassy in London
American Embassy
She finally found her way back around 12:30 and we jumped straight onto the tube out to Putney Bridge to meet Paul and Saskia. They arranged a picnic in the local park. It was rather lovely sat in the Sunshine with Prosecco and some nibbles. After the Prosecco ran out we moved the party to a local of theirs. I even managed to help fill out a form first real use of my professional membership in a while must get to those CPD courses soon.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

You and me (but mostly me)

I’m currently sat on a train heading to London so that Kath can get a US visa so that we are able to travel to New York later this year. Managed to get cheap Virgin First Class tickets cheaply so enjoying a larger seat and a free coffee.

We had an excellent day out yesterday starting out with drinks in the lovely Winter Garden at the Refuge. We sat and enjoyed an old fashioned pre show.

The main event of the day was a trip to see the Book of Mormon at the Manchester Palace Theatre. It was the most funny show I’ve ever seen and I would highly recommend it!




Ivy gin and tonic
Post show Kath had made a dinner reservation at the Ivy in Spinningfields. Neither of us had been before and you have to book weeks if not months in advance. I wasn’t sure if the food would live up to the hype, fortunately it did. I had a tuna carpaccio starter. Followed by blackened cod served on a banana leaf. We started with a Ivy special gin and tonic at the bar, then had a bottle of Cava with the meal. The food was exquisite so many flavours, and the service was pretty special too. I mentioned to the waitress that it is Kath’s birthday next week and she brought out a little cake
Happy birthday Kath