A week in London Town

Bonjour

We have just returned from a week in London. We were kept busy with some family stuff and also I went to a 3 day genealogy conference held at ExCel, a large convention centre in the eastern London. (Comic Con was held at the same venue, some people there to find out about family history had their eyes popping over some of the costumes).

We caught the ferry across to Portsmouth and this coincided with the quarter final France vs Wales World Cup match. Here is a bit of context about the photo below.

There was a sizable group of English and French people (nearly all men) sitting watching the match and if you saw it, then you would know it was a bit of a nail biter. The photo was taken a few minutes before full time. Wales had just scored and put them in front for the first time in the match. The score was Wales 20, France 19. Could go either way. The crowd roared – nope, not a bit. Apart from a baby making noises and the commentary on the TV, it was so quiet. Nobody yelling at the players or complaining about the refereeing or cheering on their team. Nobody was making a sound. Put Australians in this scenario and you would have heard them all over the ferry.

We stayed at The Victory Services club near Marble Arch which was lovely. This is for members and former serving members of the Armed Forces in Commonwealth countries. It was a fantastic location, and included 50% discount to park Clio at the car park under Hyde Park. She was in very exclusive company. We decided that most of the cars were for short term lease for the well heeled visitors to London and probably come with a chauffeur as an optional extra

We went for a stroll down Oxford Street and along Regent Street. So many of the shops are chains that you will find in any major cities and towns, but we couldn’t leave without popping in to Selfridges, Hamleys and Liberty London. You expect prices to be high in these places, but Liberty really outdid themselves. £85 for a scented candle, £350 for a cushion. There must be people who pay these prices, otherwise they wouldn’t charge that much. We resisted.

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In between the downpours we walked through Hyde Park and checked out the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. Apparently it was designed to “express Diana’s spirit and love of children“. It was made from 545 pieces of Cornwall granite, ” each shaped by the latest computer-controlled machinery and pieced together using traditional skills“. It probably cost an eye-watering amount but to us it just looked very much like an open drain.

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No visit to Hyde Park is complete without seeing squirrels. They are very friendly and obviously used to being hand fed. We had a few come up looking for a feed and, when they realised there was nothing on offer, they scurried away.

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Hyde Park is also the home of the Animals in War Memorial. It was unveiled 14 years ago by Princess Ann and commemorates animals that died in war and conflicts. It is not huge and sits between two fairly busy roads, but well worth stopping by to have a look.

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And in keeping with the animal sculptures, a few metres away is this horse statue. Usually horse statues are the base for showing off military or royal figures, but this one, created by Nic Fiddian-Green is called Still Water. The artist is well known for his horse sculptures and he has a number of these dotted around, but this is the biggest. This was installed in 2011 and the pigeons loved it so much that Fiddian-Green hired a cherry picker one Sunday morning in 2012 and cleaned it himself.

That’s the highlights of the week. We stocked up at Sainsburys in Portsmouth on things that are hard to find here – S.R flour, water crackers, breakfast cereal without added sugar and chocolate, curry paste. Then we Brexited out of there (ha ha).

L & M.