London IV

It was a long time coming, but had to happen at some point; a triumphant return to my adopted home-nation capital, armed with the wisdom of my cornucopia of experiences accumulated since I last cast myself on the mercy of Olde London Townne.

A most fortuitous and only very briefly anticipated intersection of spatio-temporal loci with Dad meant we could trade anecdotes over a few pints of London Pride and some Nouveau Zealish cuisine for dinner near Marble Arch before he continued on to the logical next stop in a 4-day world tour, Utah.

Twas thence upon the tube I jump'd, to Clapham Common and the venerable Meehans, another brief re-'cquainting before my itchy feet drove me further south, past the autumning Common,

into the hands of MJ, of "MJ Does Cambridge" Calendar 2007 fame, from whence I was delivered to the Borough Markets.

Mmmm yum a feast of gourmet food to try, Caerphilly cheese, salsiccia, Celtic sea salt, stuffed olives, oregano and rye sourdough, fresh crustaceans, marinated artichokes, fudge endorsed by the Hoff, chocolate brownies, and chorizo rolls (bah: sold out, when we'd already spent 15 minutes in the queue), but a worthy substitute presented itself: hot roast pork rolls with apple sauce... and gravy...

After ingesting this boa constrictor style to the view of the majestic Southwark Cathedral,

we decided to save the remainder of our spoils for dinner and trained it out to Greenwich to experience some of Britain's proud maritime heritage.

On top of the hill is the Greenwich Observatory, the site of demarcation of the meridian of the same name.

MJ wasn't very gracious about being allowed to keep the souvenir ticket.

From the hill, one is afforded an excellent view north over Canary Wharf, the Docklands and Britain's greatest public-spending whipping-post, the Millenium Dome.

Back down the hill, we went to the Maritime Museum and learnt more of Britain's naval and mercantile past, then down to the river to see Cutty Sark:

Here is the bread we scored at the markets earlier in the day (note whole spears of oregano wedged in it... mmmm):

and I'll tell you what, torn up and soaked in chorizo fat, it made a very fine meal indeed, yes sirree, no doubt about that. MJ, flagging after the days excitement or perhaps as a result of the chorizo-fat-dipping exercise, declined to join me for the evening's entertainment, so I tubed to Pimlico alone, to meet my Cambridge co-researcher, Ignacio, of earlier spoonwaving reknown on this blog, and his Spanish and American colleagues for a night of scholarly contemplation.

A rock club near Piccadilly circus turned out to be an inappropriate venue for such highminded intercourse, so we were obliged to assimilate.

The night concluded with a mandatory kebab:

a quick admire of the Christmas lights and a final group shot,

and the trusty night bus home.

Matching Saturday's achievements on Sunday would have been a tall order so a more subdued day was had by all, making it to Camden in the late afternoon,

before returning to Cambridge to farewell the newly minted Dr Thanassis Zisis, who returns to Athens to commence postdoctoral research work there. No doubt he was as sad to be leaving us as we are to see him go, but he put on a brave face.