London Life, Summer 2012 - Part 2

Another entry about London's summer a year ago was filled with news dominated by the riots. This year we are being showered by the glory of Team GB and the unrelenting rain.
The short stint of almost 30 degree weather a fortnight ago is probably the best we are going to get this year.
And to our Aussie friends and family back home, perhaps the glum cloudy skyline has not been noticed during the Olympic Games coverage because either everyone has been too sleepy to notice; or Australia's performance in these Games has been far more depressing.
Our London Olympic adventures are detailed in a separate blog post. This post sums up the rest of the activities we got up to over Summer 2012.




Enjoying London in 'buzz' mode
We have no regrets on our decision to cut off all travelling for a short period so that we can enjoy the 'buzz' and 'excitement' of the Games in London town. And after a slow start (directly correlated to Team GB's gold medal success), London has gone from an almost ghost town (most locals on Work From Home rosters in case of public transport chaos) on Monday morning, to a general party atmosphere filled with tourists and locals getting into the spirit.

A bit of sunshine on the "beach" area of the Thames

Rosy red sunset at Millenium Bridge

Cultural Exchange
Around central London, various country hospitality houses were set up, celebrating their national culture in various ways. We visited Denmark at St Katherine's dock with a Lego model of the Olympic stadium and Switzerland near Borough Market with free cheese and Lindt chocolate.

Danish toys - Lego Olympic stadium

Swiss horn blowing competition in the background

Free Swiss chocolate - love Lindt

Also dotted around London town are the themed statues of the Olympic mascots - Wenlock and Mandeville that are located at prominent sites in the city - including Leadenhall Market and Bankside.

Londinium Wenlock

Opening Ceremony Concert
Our London Olympic experience kicked off with the Opening Ceremony concert held at the BT Live site of Hyde Park. Airport style security delayed our entry into the venue by 30 minutes, but the crowd was good natured and the main performance acts didn't kick off until past 8pm. Duran Duran were one of the big name draw-cards, playing a few songs that we barely recognised even though we are children of the '80's.

When the TV screens crossed to the Opening Ceremony theatrics, the crowd cheered the loudest for the Queen and Mr Bean. We had brought our picnic blankets along and everyone standing in front of the large side screens, acted in consideration of others and sat down on the grass so that everyone behind could see.

Dancing to Duran Duran

Airport like queues at the security gate

Red Arrow planes cross over Hyde Park

Sitting down to watch the Games begin

When the athletes came into the stadium, the TV screens crossed back to the main stage where the bands: Stereophonics and Snow Patrol played recent hits, with the noise level exceeding the normal Westminster city limit when Team GB's walked their lap. The lighting of the Olympic flame in the beautiful petal ringed torch was a highlight before we joined the masses to walk back to the night bus stop off Oxford Street, as the publicity around the Tube extending to past 2am in the morning was oblivious to us.

Madonna Concert
The week previous to the Opening Ceremony, we had taken the exact same route home on the way back from Madonna's MDNA concert, that had adhered to the 10:30pm curfew by 2minutes. Her performance was simply amazing, although she played a lot of songs from her new album, a lot of the old classics like Vogue were still performed.

MDNA concert at Hyde Park

British Grand Prix
In addition to all the Olympic action that has been happening around town, we have kept up with our revived interest in Formula 1, that kicked in after Monaco and the dedication of battling the mud at Silverstone. Olie braved the soggy campsite, a bogged car and constant rain during the qualifying session; whereas Mei bought wellies and sloshed around in the rivers of mud on the Sunday after taking the early bus from Victoria coach station just for the race.

Partying it up in the Summer Rain

Camping chair community - Silverstone

London Eating
We have also been hanging out with fellow Formula 1 fans - Nara and Gav; whom invited us over to their house for a Formula 1 watching session for the Hockenheim race after a big traditional English breakfast in their local area of Dulwich (Blue Mountain Cafe - recommended by Mei's colleague, James). Later that day, we headed back into central london and enjoyed the sunshine in the Southbank around, catching up with May and Tony from Sydney, taking them around the Real Food market at the back of Festival Hall, chilling out with Pimms at Covent Garden and then enjoying an amazing Sunday roast at Simpson's in the Strand.

Carving out the roast beef

Beef Wellington

Group photo with our meaty meals

Our trip to Simpsons was based on a recommendation by Gav, and a week later another recommendation came through for another great place - Corner Room, at the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green for 3 courses for £21.

Onglet steak

Salmon stew

Sea bass with grapefruit

Pigs head salad

Other gastronomic highlights in London this Summer included:
* Raelene's leaving dinner at Burger and Lobster in Soho where you can get either a burger, a whole grilled lobster or a lobster roll (all with salad and fries) for £20:

Group photo with our lobsters

Lobster, garlic butter, salad and fries for £20

* Feast @ London Bridge festival where local restaurants such as Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen and Jamie Oliver's Barbecoa produced small street food style dishes that could be bought with a fiver. We ate quite a few dishes and the green areas of the Guy's Hospital Quadrangle provided a nice area to relax and digest - including this couple that were enjoying the sunshine.

Afternoon siesta

Olie fell in love with Patty and Bun's burger and Mei loved the South American favourite: ceviche - raw fish(sea bass) soaked in lime juice, chilli and herbs.

Ceviche

Patty and Bun burger

Terrine and sausage

Italian toasted meat sandwich

* Mei caught up with a visiting friend, May in Camden for a tapas fix at Jamon Jamon; a ramen recommendation from Tonkotsu in Soho, finishing up with dessert at Princi.

Chocolate brownie and passionfruit cheesecake

Brazilian Street Art
We also indulged in a bit of modern art recently, with a few of us heading to the Biscuit Factory in for a Brazilian inspired street art exhibition that was a bit too exotic for us, but served really tasty beer and caipirinhas. After about 30 minutes, we opted for the normality and simplicity of the local kebab shop where the lamb shish is a tried and tested favourite.

Roopa doing her best impression of Brazilian modern sculpture

Mei's Birthday

Mei was lucky to celebrate her birthday with a surprise, romantic brunch at Roka in Canary Wharf where we watched Mexico surprise Brazil with a victory in the football. 

Strawberry Bellini and sashimi

Roast Duck

Lamb with Korean spices

Dessert - passion-fruit snowball and chocolate mango cake

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