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Published: June 15th 2006
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Oh the bliss of the three seconds of sun that is the London summer. It is truly a fantastic place to be when the sun is out and briefly makes you forget about the dismal rest of the year.
Summer Weekend #1 was truly a magnificent one: the first weekend in my new house in Greenwich, hanging out with Manuela who is visiting from Melbourne, sun, barbecues, and food, food and food. All I seemed to do all weekend was sit and eat.
The weekend of gluttony began with Food Event #1 on Friday night at one of my fave pubs, The Gypsy Moth in downtown Greenwich. Shane joined Mans and I for a bangers and mash dinner and beer consumption in the big beer garden out the back.
Food Event #2 closely followed when we traipsed up the road to
Bar du Musee, my hands down favourite place to go out in Greenwich. A lovely wine bar with a nice outdoor garden at the back, we settled one a small table near the bar and ordered one of life’s gastronomical pleasures, the Bar du Musee cheese platter. Full of wine and cheese, we trundled home to digest.
*
happy sigh *
Waking the next morning, the sun streaming into my new room (courtesy of no curtains just yet) helped Mans and I got up early and started the tour of downtown Greenwich before the tourist hoards began to arrive. Greenwich is a fantastic place to live; there is a huge amount of history, lots of nice bars and restaurants, the lovely Greenwich Park and good public transport links. It’s not an Aussie enclave either which rates highly on my scorecard. Many of the old buildings were designed by Christopher Wren (of St Paul’s Cathedral fame) including the Royal Observatory where Astronomers Royal lived for many years and from which, in its position on top of the hill in Greenwich Park, you can get a fantastic view of the London skyline. Unsurprisingly, the area is on the
UNESCO World Heritage List.
Walking down to the Cutty Sark, an old transport ship and the centre of “tourist Greenwich” we found that there was a French market on for the day. Arriving before the crowds allowed to quickly hoe into a tasty crepe to keep us going on an untinterrupted first lap of the stalls. Once done we did another one, this
time purchasing the cheeses, salamis, grapes and bread that we picked out on Lap 1. We bought the papers, a bottle of water, some plastic knives and settled in for a day in the park and Food Event #3.
* another happy sigh *
Hauling ourselves up from the grass we then moseyed onto Food Event #4, a barbie at my friend Sara’s place for her birthday. Sara is one of the Morocco crew and it was great to catch up with her as well as Lou and Nadia who were also there.
After that it was Food Event #5, another barbie, this time at the hockey club to say goodbye to my friends Rob and Vicky who are off on an Australian adventure for a couple of years. After feasting on the true Aussie style dinner, Mannie and I rolled home to allow the mountains of food we’d consumed to digest overnight.
I woke on Sunday morning to a text message from my friend Zoe from hockey who was looking for companions for a pub lunch in the sun. No consideration necessary. Mans and I, after a quick detour to Argos to pick up some
Greenwich
The Gypsy Moth is on the corner curtains, headed off to Food Event #6 - lunch with Zoe, Shane and Mans at the
Cutty Sark Tavern, an old pub (1695!!!) on the banks of the Thames. We hustled for a table and spent the rest of the afternoon feasting on a Sunday roast and drinking cider and Pimms - our first for the summer.
Rolling home at about 10pm, Mans and I somehow managed to finish the weekend off with Food Event #7, a tasty curry from the shop across the road. Bliss.
One day my metabolism is going to slow down and I’m going to be a fat, fat lady.
Sometimes in life you stop and realise that everything is really good and you are truly happy. This weekend was one of those times. My life is pretty wonderful: the chance to live in London, a good job, great friends here, great friends at home, a loving healthy family, the chance to travel to fantastic places in Europe…. and summer is here in London! Life does not get much better.
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