Blogs from Marylebone, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

We finally arrived at Gatwick, and zipped over to Durrants Hotel on George Street. It is a lovely old London hotel, with a lot of character…but less than good service. The hotel still uses what look to be original keys, which you turn into them every time you leave the hotel. We freshened up and headed out into the afternoon to do a bit of shopping and have a bite of dinner – the next two days would be very full with meetings, so it was really the only free time we had. I picked up some doggy mugs at a great kitchen shop along the Marylebone High Street, which match the dog mug I got there last year (now I’ll have four!), and picked up the matching forks and knives for the two spoons I ... read more

There has been more variety of walks added recently. We were interested in the walk of Old Marylebone yesterday from Bond Street starting from Bond Street. After leaving the bustling Oxford Street, we were taken to the little lane lined with charming individual shops and stylish restaurants, which is one of the features of Marylebone village. Before arriving at the Wallace Collection, we saw the very distinctive mustard coloured building, i.e. the very famous Methodist Church on Hinde Street. The walk included the guided tours of Wallace Collection’s highlight paintings. We were given the interpretation of the famous paintings, French furniture, etc. Afterwards, we walked northwards and were shown the back and face of St James Roman Catholic Church, the design of façade looked similar to one I visited in southern France several years ago. Marylebone ... read more

Normally, I would write these posts as I am traveling, but this time, I felt like I was more in need of the rest whenever I had a down moment, than I was in need of recording exactly how I felt at the time. So instead, I’m putting pen to paper, as it were, while flying home at the end of a week away. *** We left on a Saturday evening for London, planning to spend three days there to prepare for our conference in 2013. I had big plans to watch some of the television shows and movies offered on our Virgin Atlantic flight, but I was just so darned tired, so instead, I mostly slept. Arriving on Sunday morning, I was keeping my fingers crossed that our hotel rooms would be ready for us ... read more

so here i am, sitting in my office, in the very last week before i commence my long awaited sebbatical and take a break away from my cosy comfortable life to take a giant stride outside my comfort zone and embark on a solo adventure. all i can say is that right now it feels totally surreal, unreal, incredible and f*@k*ng scary!!!! i'm starting up this blog in an attempt to avoid bombarding all my lovely friends and family with email after email detailing every bit of this journey, so instead you can all decide when you want to check in and share with me in some high's, low's and no doubt some crazy moments along the way. hopefully i can make this thing at least a little entertaining, not just for you guys but for ... read more

Back to travelling again! This time, I'm on a long business trip, starting first with London. I haven't been here since my visit in between the two bombings in the summer of 2007 and we arrived right on the heels of the url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7798513/Cumbria-shootings-gunman-Derrick-Bird-kills-12-then-shoots-himself.htmlterrible shootings in Cumbria. After London, we're headed off to Singapore for our Annual Meeting. I was a bit worried about having to leave the office so close to a big conference, particularly since we had to move the conference from Bangkok just about four weeks ago. But it turns out that I was more than able to handle the email details remotely and it gave me a mandatory break from work today, which was nice! We took the day flight from New Jersey, which left at 8am - I've never done that before, ... read more