Great to be back....

Despite really enjoying a wonderful couple of weeks in USA, it's great to be back in London. I survived a long weekend in New York which was a blur of activity and excitement. We were there for World Cup weekend (doesn't that seem a long time ago now?) and I can confirm that NYC has footy fever in a big loud way. We crammed in 4 shows, many meals, a walking tour of Harlem and a trip out on the Statten Island ferry and it was hot and sticky especially on the subway where trains have air-con but not the platforms. Then it was off to New Mexico to visit super arty Santa Fe, Native American pueblos in Taos, white sand dunes and massive caves in the south. A few photos at the end for those who like a bit of vicarious travelling.

My first weekend back in London was fun with the English summer continuing to delight us sun lovers. Our restaurant trip was to Vanilla where the food was good (on our usual Toptable special offer) but the place was a little unsure whether to be a bar or a restaurant so fell a bit between the two. Saturday saw a walk through Hyde Park to visit the new pavillion by Jean Nouvel at the Serpentine Gallery. It's big, red and wonderful - an installation and a cafe all in one! The exhibition of photographs in the gallery by Wolfgang Tillmans was not my thing - he may have a Turner prize but we missed the special-ness of his work.

Saturday evening was spent catching up with friends and having fun in the centre of town from the Old Shades pub off Trafalgar Square, to an outdoor cafe in Covent Garden (complete with busker who sounded amazingly like Cat Stevens as was), to the Rock and Sole Plaice who were out of plaice but the cod was good and finally to Cafe Boheme in Soho - phew! No one told me the tubes finished just after 12.30 as I thought it was later - thanks goodness for buses...

Sunday was a quieter shopping day with a good amount of time in Selfridges,which is very smart and trendy and then on to St Christopher's Place for coffee out in the sunshine. Jet lag has finally hit or is it just tiredness....

I'm looking forward to a full week back in London and here are a few photos from the USA, including the one from Roswell which I couldn't resist! They are: New York Statue of Liberty, Pueblo, Taos, Chimayo north New Mexico, White Sands and Roswell's great advertising...

Bye for now,

Sue

http://www.itsyourlondon.co.uk/

Elephants and tennis and more sunshine....

The London heatwave continues much to everyone's surprise and there was not a single rain stoppage at Wimbledon - must be that centre court roof acting as a anti rain device! This week's blog focuses on the elephants and the tennis, with a street party and some Pride thrown in.

All the elephants that have been scattered around London for several weeks now were gathered together for a final parade before being auctioned off for the Indian elephant charity. I went down, as did so many other Londoners, as they were an irresistible sight. I've limited myself to just a few new photos but there were 250 to delight the snappers! The location was the old Chelsea Hospital which is famous for being the home of the annual Chelsea Flower Show but more famous for being the home of the Chelsea Pensioners. The hospital which was more a place of refuge for servicemen, was founded in 1682 by Charles 11 for veterans. It still does the same work for about 400 residents tho' has accepted a servicewoman (!) and the average age is 83 for these famous red coats that we can see out and about and on special occasions. It's a very large and grand site that you can wander round with a museum and shop so I've included one photo of one particularly impressive section.

Then it was off to Wimbledon as I'd been lucky enough to win 2 tickets in the public ballot for court 1 on the final day of the tournament. This meant we could get in early without joining the huge queue and spend time on Henman Hill as well as in our alloted seats. Being the last day the main event was on centre court but the Hill was great fun and absolutely packed and is a fun way to watch on the big screen - see photo. We then went onto court 1 to rest our weary bottoms (!) and saw the wonderful Martina Navratilova in the invitation doubles, and then Pat Cash in the invitation mens doubles - always good to see old champions at play. I love wandering around Wimbledon, Pimms in hand and we even caught sight of Nadal in the flesh as he waved to the crowds after his match.

Nearly forgot to mention Pride - a massive gay event which took over the centre of London with streets closed, amazing get up and huge fun being had - have a look at Trafalgar Square to see what I mean!

Just one more thing to mention is our annual street party. Where I live in Notting Hill we are in a cul de sac which has a little garden in the middle so each year the neighbours gather in it to catch up and have a few glasses of wine together. It's always great fun and makes London feel like it's a neighbourly place to live rather than the big beast it can seem like sometimes...

I'm off to USA for a couple of weeks so don't think there'll be any blogging until I'm back on 23rd so have a great time!

Bye for now, Sue http://www.itsyourlondon.co.uk/