Twelve Nights (actually more really...)

With our first night back from Paris being Australia Day, it was time to head out once again. This time meeting Row, Marty n Karyn, Zara n Jarrett and Mike Waringa to celebrate the day. Whilst the actual day in Australia was over, it was still the 26th of Jan in London, so at pub in Fulham we kicked on with those things Australian - music, Tooheys (unfortunately not Coopers) and Tim Tams! Not having seen Mike since the skydiving days at Murray Bridge, it turned into a good catch up as well as a top night with everyone.

Friday night saw Sheryl and myself out with the Royal Shakespeare Company to see their current production of Twelfth Night. Sheryl is a bit of a Shakespeare fan, and you may recall my last Shakespearean experience several years back at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. This time was no different.
A slightly modernised version of Twelfth Night, but none-the-less an excellently done production. Like “Much Ado About Nothing” last time, I had no idea of the story so, again, the whole production was new to me. Whilst the ending gained in predictability (like most Shakespeare), it was still very enjoyable and the characters were brought alive by the excellent cast. I still find it hard to believe that what was once a bad experience in English classes back at school is now something quite enjoyable!
After the show, we headed down to Gordon’s Wine Bar near Embankment for a few evening wines, and then snuck in a very late dinner in Leicester Square before just missing the last tube home. There’s always the night buses...

Lamb shanks - something that you’d think would be easy to find in such a large place as London. Just not this particular Saturday as we were soon to discover after several hours of traipsing around North London’s supermarkets and butchers. In the end, we settled for a simple leg of lamb for dinner, as Marty n Karyn came over for the evening in what turned into a very enjoyable night.

Sunday afternoon saw us at the National Portrait Gallery for a few hours before venturing to the restaurant on the roof of this gallery. The view across Westminster and London in general were amazing as we dined while the sun set across west London, as you can see...
Later, after a stroll through Leicester square and the surrounding area, we ended up having dinner and a nightcap in Brown’s bar and restaurant.

During the following week, we spent an evening at the house of Sheryl’s friends, Bec and Sanj. A relaxed and fun evening meeting them and their mutual friend from Sydney, Christian. The following evening was spent with Row and Mark for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Covent Garden. The next evening was spent at Ping Pong restaurant with Marty n Karyn just near Oxford Circus.
This brought us to Friday night were I met Sheryl after work before we met Zara n Jarret in a small pub under London Bridge itself. After several drinks there, we moved further along South Bank to the Anchor to round out the evening there.

Sunday afternoon had us in Notting Hill for an afternoon in the Prince Albert pub with Shar and Rachel for a cruisey afternoon and evening. The pub was warm, the food excellent and the time well spent in the relaxed atmosphere of this excellent pub.

Early in the week, I met Sheryl at Piccadilly Circus. She had booked us into the Criterion restaurant for dinner. As you can see it turned out to be quite a prestigious and old restaurant (left). It has been here since the 1800's and has featured in the original Sherlock Holmes stories, as well as having a very long and interesting history. The pianist at the top of this post is another fixture of this restaurant. The food was excellent, and the atmosphere a lot more relaxed that it would appear to have been. A lovely night out together.

Another night during the week saw us at Karyn n Marty’s for dinner that finished up with a bit of craziness on both Guitar Hero and Resort Games on their Wii. Oh, and as such, we missed the last tube that night by a couple of minutes - as mentioned before, there are always the night buses...

Most of the other week nights have been spent traipsing all over west London viewing houses, apartments and flats for a new place to live. Finally, we can now relax a bit as we’ve now found one, which we will hopefully be moving into in a few weeks time.